Marie LaFarge

Marie-Fortunée LaFarge, née Capelle (January 15, 1816 - November 7, 1852) was a Frenchwoman who was convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning in 1840. Her case became notable because it was one of the first trials to be followed by the public through daily newspaper reports as well as the first person convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological evidence. However, questions about her guilt had divided French society to the extent that it is often compared to the better-known Dreyfus affair.

Arrest and Trial

Despite this discovery, word on the Marsh test had not reached Brive. The doctors doing the autopsy on LaFarge only took the stomach before burial, and this they subjected using the old methods, which unknown to them, proved to be unreliable. But they finally asserted that arsenic was found in quantity in the body of Charles LaFarge.

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More surprising was the analysis of the rat-poison paste; it turned out to nothing more than a mixture of flour, water and soda. This led to the possibility that Marie used the real arsenic to murder her husband. Any remaining doubts that may have lingered vanished when Emma Pontiers turned over the small malachite box and Dr. Lespinasse found it to contain arsenic. Marie was arrested and held in jail in Brive. A young French avocat, Charles Lachaud, was appointed to her defence and assisted by three others, Maîtres Théodore Bac (who later became mayor of Limoges during the 1848 Revolution), Paillet, and Desmont. Before they began their work, there was another surprise in store. The newspaper stories regarding Marie LaFarge turned up something from her past.

Related Topics:
Charles Lachaud - Limoges - 1848 Revolution

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An Incidence of Theft

Before she met Charles LaFarge, Marie had gone to one of her schoolmates, the Vicomtesse de Léautaud, at her château. While she was there, her friend's jewels disappeared, and the Sûreté was called upon to investigate the matter. When it was suspected that Marie was the culprit, the vicomte thought it too improbable that the matter was not pursued any further.

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However, in the wake of the newspaper stories regarding the murder, the vicomte was reminded of the theft and demanded a search for the jewels in Marie's room in Le Glandier. When the jewels turned up during the police search, Marie admitted to their possession, but alleged that her friend gave her the jewels to sell since she was being blackmailed by a secret lover. Her allegation proved to be so convincing that some newspapers believed herand put all the blame on the vicomtesse. However, when she was put on trial for theft, the court was not persuaded. Marie was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the nearby town of Tulle.

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The Trial

By this time l'affaire LaFarge had generated so much interest that the curious arrived from all over Europe to watch her murder trial, elevating it to a cause célèbre. Thus when Marie entered the assize court of Tulle for the first time on September 3, 1840, dressed in mourning and carrying a bottle of smelling salts in her hand, projecting the image of a woman unjustly accused, the spectators were immediately divided into pro- and anti-Marie factions.

Related Topics:
Europe - Cause célèbre - Assize court - September 3 - Smelling salts

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Coincidentially, one of Marie's lawyers, Maître Paillet, was also the avocat of the renowned toxicologist Mathieu Orfila, who was the acknowledged expert of the Marsh test in France. He realized that as the case hinged largely on the tests made by the Brive doctors, Paillet wrote to Orfila and showed to him the test results. Orfila then submited an affidavit stating that the tests were conducted so ignorantly that they meant nothing. As soon as the Brive doctors testified that arsenic was present in LaFarge's body, Paillet read the affidavit aloud, told the court about the Marsh test, and demanded that Orfila be called.

Related Topics:
Toxicologist - Mathieu Orfila

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The prosecutor replied that he would consent to the test since he was confident of Marie's guilt, but he felt there was non need to call on Orfila to do it. The président of the court ruled in favor of the prosecutor's suggestion. Therefore, in lieu of Orfila, two well-known apothecaries from Tulle, M. Dubois and his son, and a chemist from Limoges named Dupuytren were assigned to conduct the tests. While they were performed it the trial proceeded at a snail's pace. When they finally entered the courtroom, everyone waited to see what they would say. The elder Dubois testified that despite using the Marsh test carefully, they failed to find any arsenic. Almost immediately the courtroom was in an uproar as Marie felt vindicated.

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But by then the prosecutor had read Orfila's book and knew that in some cases the arsenic left the stomach but had spread to other parts of the body. He arranged for the body of LaFarge to be exhumed. Again the three chemists performed the test on the samples taken ? and again no arsenic was found.

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But the prosecutor had one card left to play. He had not forgotten the food items that Marie gave to Charles and were set aside. He requested that the test be performed on those as well. The defence, by then in a magnanimous mood, agreed.

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This time, when the chemists arrived, they declared that they tested positive for arsenic, with the eggnog conatining enough "to poison ten persons". The prosecutor took this as a chance to recoup his earlier setbacks. He declared that in view of the contradictory results, it was apparent that the court should call upon Orfila to settle the issue once and for all. Since it was the defence who originally asked for Orfila, they could not object to this request. The defence agreed, already confident of Marie's acquittal.

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Enter Mathieu Orfila

When Orfila arrived, he insisted that the local chemists witness his experiments that night. He used the same test materials and chemical reagents that they used in the earliest tests and performed the Marsh test in an anteroom of the courthouse, behind locked and guarded doors. At last, on the afternoon of the next day, Orfila entered tha courtroom, followed by the three chemists with bowed heads. He declared that he had indeed found arsenic on the samples taken from the body of LaFarge, to the exclusion of all other extraneous sources, such as arsenic naturally occurring in the body, or from the reagents, or from the arsenic from the earth surrounding the coffin.

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The courtroom was stunned, especially Maître Paillet, as he listened to Orfila, his client and defence witness, explain the misleading results obtained by the local experts with the Marsh test. It was not the test that gave the erroneous results, but rather the test was performed incorrectly.

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Knowing that Orfila's testimony had tipped the balance against them, the defence team sought to call a known opponent of Orfila, François Vincent Raspail, to refute his testimony. While Raspail had agreed as he had done in previous courtroom clashes with Orfila, he arrived four hours too late: the jury had decided on Marie's case.

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