Marie Lafarge - Celebrated French Poison Trial

From Visible Proofs

In France, in 1840, a notorious murder trial put the young science of toxicology to a dramatic test. Rumored to be unhappy in her marriage, Marie Lafarge, age 24, was charged with poisoning her husband Charles. Witnesses had seen her buying arsenic—to exterminate rats, she claimed—and testified that she had stirred a white powder into her husband's food. The prosecution sought to build on this by introducing the findings of local doctors who performed chemical tests on Charles Lafarge's stomach and on the white powders that had been gathered as evidence.

The New Yorker - Murder By Poison

At the resulting trial, the raven-haired Marie at first excited great sympathy. Her lawyer, Hempel says, made sure that the jury knew of “the excellence of her piano-playing, her delightful voice, her competence in more than one science, her reading and translation of Goethe, her fluency in several languages and composing of Italian verse.” She also had a flair for drama. When it was reported in court that a group of doctors had found no evidence of arsenic in the corpse, Marie responded, Hempel writes, by “clasping her hands, raising her eyes to heaven, and then fainting and having to be carried out of the court, while her lawyer sat weeping.” Other experts, however, believed that arsenic was present. About a year into the trial, the renowned toxicologist Mathieu Orfila was called upon to examine Lafarge’s remains.

read more here

• The Memoirs of Madame Lafarge
• The Vintage News
• Geri Walton's Unique Histories
• The Art of Forensic Toxicology
• Wikipedia - Marie Lafarge
• The France of Victor Hugo - Arsenic & Lace
• Atlas Obscura - Marsh Arsenic Test
• Kirkus Review - The Mystery of Marie Lafarge

Silenced Women–Modern Lessons from an Ancient Murder

Silenced Women–Modern Lessons from an Ancient Murder

In the second century A.D., the pregnant wife of a prosperous Greek politician died from a vicious assault.

Appia Annia Regilla Atilia Caudicia Tertulla, or Regilla, was born into an affluent Roman family in 125 A.D.; she married the Greek politician Herodes Atticus, also from an affluent family, around 140 (when she was 15); and 20 years later, when she was 8-months pregnant with their 6th child, she died from a brutal beating which included a fatal kick to her stomach.

This is a case of domestic abuse that resulted in murder. A wife was beaten to death by the order of her husband. An unborn child, just weeks from birth, was killed by a father’s command.

Read More: Silenced Women–Modern Lessons from an Ancient Murder

See Also: The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity

Six Century Old Murder Hunt Begins In Fife

From Deadline News:

THE hunt is on to find the body of an heir to the Scottish throne who is believed to have been murdered and dumped in an unmarked grave more than six centuries ago.

David Stewart was the first Duke of Rothesay, the same title now used by Prince Charles when he is in Scotland.

The tragic Duke was just 24 when he was arrested by his ambitious uncle, imprisoned and – it is widely suspected – murdered.

The body was buried in an unmarked grave 1402 somewhere in the grounds of  Lindores Abbey, Fife, and has lain there for the past 611 years.

Now a team of historians and archaeologists plans to pinpoint the grave, exhume the body, and settle once and for all the mystery of how Prince Charles’ predecessor met his end.

Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio

From Ohio.com:

There are wicked women everywhere. Though Northeast Ohio hasn't hosted the likes of Bonnie Parker or Lizzie Borden, we have had our fair share of notorious ladies, and in Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio, journalist Jane Ann Turzillo delves into the past of 10 murderesses and other female malefactors, most not covered in other books of this nature.

Turzillo looks into a series of deaths in Ashtabula, speculating that a woman named Jeanette McAdams was responsible for the deaths of her mother and five siblings between 1848 and 1851. She tells of ''Akron Mary,'' a thrice-married good-time girl who was a key witness in a Depression-era murder trial, and the owner of a '20s Cleveland vice club.

There are pictures of some of the wicked women; unfortunately, we don't get to see ''Black Adonis'' Walter McNair, whom ''Dusky Belle of Smokey Hollow'' Sarah Robinson shot in a lovers' quarrel in 1902. (We don't get to see her, either.) ''I oughta give him a second shot,'' she told a Massillon reporter. ''I oughta plugged him once more.''

Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio is part of a ''Wicked'' series offered by the History Press (there's also Wicked Albany and Wicked Indianapolis). The 110-page softcover costs $19.99 from History Press.

Ancient Romano-British Homicide

From UPI:

The body of a girl believed to have been killed by Roman soldiers almost 2,000 years ago has been discovered in north Kent in Britain, researchers say.

Archaeologists working on the site of a Roman settlement built on the route between Canterbury and St. Albans uncovered the remains, the BBC reported Thursday.

"She was killed by a Roman sword stabbing her in the back of the head," Paul Wilkinson, director of the excavation, said. "By the position of the entry wound she would have been kneeling at the time."

She had been between 16 and 20 years old when she was killed, and her bones suggested she had been in good health, Wilkinson said.

Fragments of Iron Age pottery found in the shallow grave date it to about A.D. 50 and suggest she was part of the indigenous population, he said.

That view was reinforced by the orientation of the body. Romans buried their dead lying east-west, whereas

this body was buried north-south as was the custom for pagan graves, Wilkinson said.

France: Rise In Infanticide

From Time:

The question is as horrifying as it is important to ask: Why are a rising number of French women killing their newborn babies? Finding the answer has become a matter of urgency following the discovery on Wednesday of eight infants allegedly smothered to death and buried by their mother in northern France. And with that case marking at least the fifth instance of multiple infanticide reported in France since 2003, it has become vital for the nation to confront the phenomenon that appears to be behind it all: a mental condition known as pregnancy denial.

 

Experts explained those cases as resulting from pregnancy denial, an often misunderstood and minimized condition. According to Michel Delcroix, a former gynecologist who served as a court expert in the Courjault trial and others involving pregnancy issues, pregnancy denial is a quasi-schizophrenic condition in which women either don't realize or cannot accept that they are with child — not even enough to have an abortion. Whether these women are afflicted with the condition before they deliver or as they're suddenly giving birth, Delcroix explains, the psychological denial is so strong that they refuse to believe they're pregnant even when the reality confronts them.

The Mysterious Death of Cleopatra

Yes, tonight, ABC TV (Australia) is featuring a one hour special on this enigmatic Egyptian Queen:

Criminal profiler Pat Brown and a team of experts r-examine the suicide of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, uncovering what they believe is evidence that she was murdered. They look at how this ancient crime could have taken place, and expose who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to commit it.

Stay tuned - I'll post again tomorrow!

Articles of Interest

Couple of articles that I found interesting - hope you do too:

• Medieval Forensics @ Type M for Murder
• Mongolian Women @ Global Fund for Women
• Kate Warne by Eric Niderost @ Suite 101

Enjoy!