Year: 1869

An occurrence in the neighborhood of
Marseilles, France, shows that Sc cret
poisoning in that country is by no m cans
so rare as its horrible nature would lead
us to imagine. Seven persons, three of
them wives, were recently convicted OF
participation liz the murder of their hus-
bands and others. This fact by itself,
would not prove the practice to be com
mon in France, although the number
thus engaged and discovered is suffi-
ciently startling; but the most rcmarka-
Bile point is, that the prisoners belonged
to very different classes of society, fol-


lowed different callings and moved in
different spheres. Had all belonged to
one class, or formed parts of a peculis rly
corrupt and notorious clique; had they
even all been known in any degree to
each other, it would not have indicfIted
30 gross a state of public morals. The
seven guilty ones, taken together, see n to
have represented varied and tole ably
wide area in the social life of Marseiles,
a fact which gives additional and te .rible
significance to the belief in the preva-
lence of such atrocious crimes.


Another suggestive feature in tb is case
is the cool and matter offact way in
which the crime of husband-killing was
talked of, arranged and carried through
by the principal performers, who seemed
to regard it as filling the same sort of
place as any forbidden qualification.
When, for example, Madame Vile, a
woman who appears to have held very
fair and outwardly respectfully social
position, was discussing with some man
a proposal te murder his wife, she assured
him that such affairs are done every day,
quietly and with impunity, and pamed
two women who had, to her knowledge,
poisoned their husbands. Yet these
women do not seem to have had such an
intimacy with Madame Vile as would
account for the possession of so perilous
a secret in common. Except by name,
they were not known to one another; and
the only connecting link between them
was that in order to have their husbands
poisoned, they both employed the same
poisoner, who must have discussed the
matter with each, moi even concesiibg
the names, as if it we're but an ordinary
topic of scandal. Two physicians, who
attended one of the murdered men, seem
to have had their suspicious so aroused
that they consulted chemist, and sub.
mitted to him certain matter for analyti-
cal examination; yet the investigation
was abandoned, although their patient
died. A post niortem examination would
have brought the worst of these criminals
to justice, two years before he was
checked in his career, and might prob
ably have saved many lives.


Two of the criminals appear to have
made secret poisoning a regular profess
sion, and to have gained much Of their
livelihood by it. uniting it with fortune
telling, aud actually persuading the frail
and sinful who sought their aid, that
their only path TO bliss lay in the secret
murder of their husbands. One of the
convicted wives pleaded i'll treatment on
the part of her husband, but the other
had not even this excuse, as every wish
was gratifed, and her liberty of action
not interfered with. The hesrtlessness
and unrelenting cruelty exhibited by
these murders, one Of which was effected
BY process of slow torture for months,
can only be exceeded BY the guilt Of
those who instigated and superintended
these atrocities for psy, and can be ac-
counted for only by the supPosition thst
the moral atmosphere they breathed was
in itself corrupt. Indeed, the account of
it given by a Marseilles paper, without
comment, either Of indignation or sur
prise, shows that public sentiment against
crime is very weak.-Philadelphia Pub
iic Ledger.