In the early 19th century, arsenic was most widely used to kill rats and insufferable husbands alike.
Marie Lafarge, lithograph by Gabriel Decker.
Marie Lafarge was the 23-year-old wife of a brutish ironworker named Charles Lafarge.
Marie had found Charles to be repulsive, but had agreed to the marriage because of his presumed wealth.
Even her new home in Le Glandier was in a state of disrepair and full of rats.
Later, Marie was cajoled by her mother-in-law into giving the marriage a chance.
Charles kept his word and arranged to have the mansion renovated.
He also bought Marie, at great cost, a piano and an Arabian horse for her to ride.
During this time, Marie wrote letters to her school friends telling them how happy she was.
Less than a year after marriage, Charles went to Paris to raise money for his ironworks.
As Charless condition deteriorated, the family appointed a young woman named Anna Brun to look after Charles.
Anna noticed that Marie used to mix a white powder into the eggnog before serving it to Charles.
On questioning, Marie replied that the powder was orange-blossom sugar, but Anna was suspicious.
But the doctor dismissed it saying it might be flakes of plaster that had fallen from the ceiling.
Anna was not convinced.
Another day, she saw Marie stir more white powder into some soup for her husband.
Photo: Leemage / Prisma Archive
Ann disclosed her suspicions to the family.
Meanwhile, Charless condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on January 14, 1840.
The police collected the rat poison as well and sent it away to be analyzed.
While Maries lawyers were preparing her defense, Marie was accused of another crime from her past.
A search was conducted and the missing jewels were recovered.
A court subsequently sentenced her to two years imprisonment.
In view of these contradictory results, the judge ordered a third test.
Charless body was exhumed and new samples were collected from the partially rotten corpse.
Again no traces of arsenic was found.
She had to be carried out of the court.
Marie Lafarge at the trial.
Photo: AKG / Album
The defense demanded that Marie be released, but the prosecutors pressed on.
This time the chemists declared that the eggnog contained enough arsenic to poison ten persons.
The French citizens became divided on the case.
Some believed Marie was a murderer, while others expressed support.
Many wealthy gentlemen offered her marriage proposals, or at the very least, financial assistance with her defense.
Even young women sent her sympathetic notes.
Orfila conducted Marsh tests on samples taken from Charles’s body and found definitive traces of arsenic.
Orfila explained that the preceding tests gave misleading results because the tests were performed incorrectly.
After Orfila presented his findings, Marie Lafarge was convicted and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
She became the first person to be convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological evidence.
She died five months later.
