9. At a Time When it Was Nearly Impossible for an Aristocrat to Get Locked Up for Mistreating a Commoner, This Pervert Did Multiple Jail Stints for Deviant Mistreatment of Commoners
The Marquis de Sade was addicted to prostitutes from early on. He was even more addicted to mistreating them. He first appears in the record in the early 1760s, when numerous Paris prostitutes complained of his mistreatment. That led to several short stints behind bars, before he was exiled from Paris to his rural residence. The details of the abuse are murky, but the fact a French aristocrat ended up in jail during the Ancien Regime, based on his treatment of prostitutes, indicates seriousness.
His first big scandal occurred in 1768, when he lured a street beggar to his home with an offer of a housekeeping job. Once he got her in his home, de Sade tore off her clothes, tied her to a sofa, and alternated between flogging and pouring hot wax on her. His victim finally escaped out a second floor window and pressed charges. However, his family made the ensuing investigation go away with a royal decree that removed the case from the jurisdiction of the courts.
