Justine Python (1879- ?) was born in Villariaz in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland), where she also lived with her husband, a farmer, their two children, and her sister. Feeling persecuted and surrounded by enemies, the family barricaded themselves in their home. Following accusations Justine Python and her sister made against various people and paranoid behaviour, they were placed under observation at the Marsens hospice (today Marsens cantonal psychiatric hospital) in 1932. Once in the institution, Justine Python switched from mutism to making constant complaints. After a stay of six months and improvement in her condition, she returned home.

During her internment, Justine Python wrote several letters, for the most part to the attorney general. These, and others she had already sent before her confinement, reveal the extent of her delusions of persecution and list the injustices of which she believed herself a victim. Her compact and graphically intense script covers both sides of the paper with such density that it is barely legible. The unbroken stream of words written with either pen or pencil is relieved by no paragraphs, leaves no empty space, and frequently joins words together, suggesting a flood of censure.