Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1878-05-18 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

WIFE POISONING.  After a trial extending over several days, Eugene Marie Chaptrelle, a fashionable French tutor at Edinburgh, has been sentenced to death by the High Court of Justiciary for the murder of his wife. The :evidence revealed • pitiful story of suffering womanhood linked to fiendish manhood. M. Chantrelle, though a graduate in medicine, of the 'University of Paris, settled in Edinburgh some years ago as e professor of French, in which capacity he achieved considerable success. The unhappy woman for whose murder he has been condemned to death by a unanimous jury was a pupil at cne of the schools which he visited. Though himself old enough to be her father, he obtained undue influence over her and seduced her. She was than but 16 years of age. To hide her shame she induced him to marry her, and shortly after the marriage he commenced to lead her a life of the cruellest wretchedness and misery. He, moreover, became unfaithful to her, took to drink, lost most of his practice, and involved himself in financial difficulties. In October last he took out a policy of ' insurance upon his wife's life for £lOOO, and a few months after poisoned her. The holm before the jury turned upon the question whether or not the poisoning was by the wilful administration of Ike prisoner, or by accident or suicide. An unbroken chain of evidence, however, proved the first assumption to be correct. The motive for the murder ! was apparent, and there was no evidenoe in favour of the theory of suicide. The real defence, ! therefore, was that the deceased had died from gas poisoning, caused by an escape of gas in her bedroom, and not by opium administered in an orange, as the prosecution alleged. The general appearances of poisoning by gai and by opium are similar, but the medical evidence showed that the particular • appearatces of the former were all absent, while the particular appearances of the latter were all present. Moreover, there were opium stains upon the deoeiteed's nightdress. It was proved also that the prisoner had frequently threatened to take his wife's life, and that when he had effected a policy of it she had I told her mother that her life would not last long after that. In Scotland a majority of the jury can convict, and the fact that their opinion Wail unanimous goes tar to reassure those who may entertain any doubt as to the prisoner's guilt. Side by side with Chantrelle'e case, there has been ! a trial in course of p-ocedure at Faris for a crime lof the same character. Danval, a chemist, who r was excused of having murdered his wife Iby repeated small dosm of arsenic, has just ! been found guilty, but with extenuating circumstances. The finding of the jury is a very singular I one. If Danval was guilty of the thing imputed to him, his case was about as bad as could be imagined. The death Chantrelle inflicted was speedy and comparatively painless. Slow poisoning oy arsenic is a prolonged torture, and involves a degree of cruelty as well as of malice for which no punishment can be held excessive. That a man whe has been convicted of it should, nevertheless, be recommended to mercy, and about i escape with his life in consequence, can be explained only in a way not very creditable to the jury who have brought IR the verdict. Their finding probably represents either a sentimental horror of the punishment of death, or a vague doubt whether the prisoner was really guilty at all. There was some difference of opinion, it appears, among the medical witnesses at Denvers trial, and he may have had the benefit of it in a side-way. The act of which he wan accused has been brought home to him sufficiently to justify a conviction. The doubt with wt ich te case was surrounded has, so to say, taken off the edge of the sentence. He han been pronounced guilty of a murder the most horrible and the moat fiendish, but the &wow has been substituted for the guillotine.  F