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Gireaux, Rene

Creole aristocrat in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1877.[1] (December 1, 1841 – January 12, 1929)[2]

Son to Roul Gireaux, older brother to Victor Gireaux and heir to the House of Gireaux.[1]

In March of 1876, Gireaux returned home from a theatre party invite his brother, Victor, to a late supper. Instead, he found Steve Corbett escaping with a load of House of Gireaux silver and Victor shot dead through the heart.[1]

In June of 1877, Rene and his father, Roul Gireaux, learned their attempts to extradite Corbett from Mexico had failed and began looking for someone who could, for a price, persuade Corbett to return to the United States and face justice. Their friend, Monsieur Carpentier, recommended Bret Maverick to the Gireauxes as a man that met the qualifications to run their errand. Rene saw Bret lose his last dollar at a poker table the Casino de Nouvelle Orleans and slipped his father's note under his hotel room door that night to entice him to come to the House of Gireaux the next day and entertain their proposition. They offered Bret a total of $6,000 to travel to Corbett's La Cantina Americana in Tampico, Mexico, and convince Corbett to return.[1]

By July, Bret had met and begun working for Corbett and had come to believe his side of the story. Bret sent Roul Gireaux $1,000 to buy his way out of their agreement and stopped trying to bring Corbett back to America. But Amy Lawrence, Victor Gireaux's widow and a woman with whom Corbett had fallen in love, left Corbett in Tampico with a note not to follow her to Corpus Christi, Texas. Rene met Amy at the dock in Corpus Christi and together, they waited for Corbett to appear in the port after her.[1]

See: Escape to Tampico