Recent research by historians of the Paris Commune, such as Robert Tombs and Gay Gullickson, has revealed that there were in fact no proven incidents of deliberate arson, and that no women were actually convicted as pétroleuses. Of the thousands of suspected pro-Communard women tried in Versailles after the Commune ended, only a handful were convicted of any crimes, and their convictions were based on activity such as shooting at loyalist troops. Official trial records made by the Versaillais authorities, and kept classified until the twentieth century, reveal that no women were ever convicted of arson, and that accusations of the crime were quickly shown to have no basis whatsoever. The buildings destroyed at the end of the Commune were not burned down by pétroleuses. The Hôtel de Ville w