[1][3][5] In 1937 Fontanges was found guilty of shooting Count Charles de Chambrun, then the French Ambassador to Rome, at the Gare du Nord on March 17.

[4][6] Reports explain that M. de Chambrun was wounded as he alighted a train in a revenge attack; Fontanges accused him of ruining her "love affair" with Mussolini.

[1][6] She told the magistrate at the trial: Fontanges accused the Comte De Chambrun of compromising her situation by revealing the details of her love affair with Mussolini to the then-secretary of the French Embassy in Rome, M.

[4] She was known as "Helena Agent 8608" and was reported to have agreed to be an informant for Germany from the beginning of the occupation, an act which is credited to have facilitated an extensive espionage network.

[3][7] In 1947 Fontanges, at 37 years of age, she was brought to face a military tribunal in Bordeaux on a charge of "intelligence with the enemy"[2] or betraying the French Underground to the Nazis.