Joseph Marie Fieschi, a French conspirator, born in Corsica in 1790, executed in Paris, Feb. 19, 1836. He served in the Russian campaign, and left the army in 1814 with the grade of sergeant. Subsequently joining Murat's fatal expedition to Calabria, he was spared by the Neapolitans as a Frenchman. From 1816 to 1826 he served a term in the penitentiary at Embrun for cattle stealing and forgery. He afterward went to Paris, obtained employment in a manufactory near the Gobelins, and also served as a policeman and a spy. Convicted of having misappropriated funds intrusted to him as foreman, and of other misdemeanors, he led a miserable life till 18:35, when he devised an infernal machine, with 25 gun barrels and many projectiles, for the assassination of Louis Philippe. His accomplices were Morey, a saddler, and Pepin, a grocer, the latter supplying him with money. They hired the third floor of a house in the boulevard du Temple, where Fieschi took up his quarters to await the passing of the king; a fourth accomplice, Boireau, a lamp maker, undertaking to act as watcher.

The king, while holding a great military review on July 28, 1835, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the revolution of 1830, passed the house, in the midst of an immense crowd, accompanied by three of his sons, when the explosion took place, which killed Marshal Mortier, duke of Treviso, chief of the royal staff, Gen. Lachasse de Verigny, and Lieut. Col. Rieussec. Altogether 11 persons were killed on the spot, 7 more died soon afterward, and 22 were wounded. The king and the princes escaped with some slight contusions caused by the rearing of the horses. Fieschi, wounded and covered with blood, escaped upon the roof of the house, and thence into a neighboring courtyard; but here he was arrested, and was long under medical treatment. On his recovery he attempted to make light of the affair and to deny his crime, but finally confessed and named as his accomplices Morey, Pepin, Boireau, and one Bescher. The last was acquitted. Boireau was condemned to 20 years' transportation; Fieschi, Morey, and Pepin were sentenced to death.

During the trial Fieschi bore himself like a stage brigand, continually waving kisses to his mistress; and after the execution of Pepin and Morey, he continued to trifle and attitudinize at the foot of the scaffold.-See Proces de Fieschi (3 vols., Paris, 183G).