Year: 1879

Paris Aug. ~ Cor. London Standard


One of the most remarkable cases
of wholesale poisoning since the days
of Brinvilliers and Palmer was con-
cluded to-day at AK. The prisoner,
middle-aged woman named Baptis-
tine Philip, was accused of having
poisoned her mistress, her uncle, and
then her husband. In 1871 she was
in the service Of an old widow named
Martin, who was known to possess a
round sum of money. The prisoner
had not been there more than a
month before the aged lady was taken
i'll and died in commissions. The
house was searched by her relatives,
but nothing save a few stray francs
were found. In spite of these sus-
plclous circumstances no proceedings
were taken against the servant. The
prisoner then returned to the house
Of her husband, who lived with his
uncle, an elderly widower in posses


sion Of small fortune. In a short
time the prisoner, according to the
Indictment, became the uucles mis-
tress, and ultimately induced him to
make will in favor of her husband.
A few weeks after this, in June, 1876,
the uncle died suddenly, and.
although the neighbors suspected foul
play, still nothing was said to the
police. The prisoner now got her
husband to make a will in her favor.
She then formed the acquaintance of
young man in the neighborhood, a
clerk to the mayor of Lambesc, and
was afterward heard to express her
regret that she was not widow, Sc
that she might get married to him.


Eventually, on the Both of November,
1873, her husband was taken i'll. and
died suddenly in terrible agony. The
neighbors were atlast aroused to action,


The police were informed of the pre-.
yailing suspicious, and the prisoner
was arrested. The body of her
husband was examined and the doc
tors found a quantity of arsenic in it.
This led to the exhuming of the bodies
Of the old widow and the uncle. and
the same poison was discovered in


both. The trial occupied several DAYS.
On the first day the judge questioned
the prisoner, and found he had met


his match. The judge began thus:
You knew where to look when your
designs necessitated the use of the
substances of which you have made
such criminal use?" The prisoner
replied, Il never even knew where
those substances were to be found.
and even if | had known -. The
judge interrupted her, and went on to
state that she had poisoned the widow
Martin. To this the prisoner retorted
that the village doctor had deposed
that she died of choleraic diarrhea


whereupon the judge said he had since
retracted that statement. Coming to
the second case Of alleged poisoning.
the judge having stated that a doctor
was called in to see the victim, and
stopped the vomiting, the prisoner
quickly interrupted and said, "Then
it was not poison" So the unequal
struggle went on till at the end of the
interrogatoire, the judge having made
the usual observation to the prisoner,
That is your system of defense ?"
the prisoner exclaimed, All /! God in
heavenl you do not need a system
when you have done nothing" The
hearing of the witnesses then began.


Several exciting incidents took place
during the examination with regard
to the death of the old lady, Martin.
The prisoner, on being asked what
had become of the money the deceased
was known to have on the premises,
replied that her mistress a few DAYS
before her death paid large sum to
the washerwoman. The person was
forthwith called, and she denied the
statement, on which the accused
called her all sorts of ugly names, and
the judge had to reprmand her. Re
specting the death of her uncle, she
also stoutly denied the evidence of
witnesses to the effect that she had
become his mistress and was Jealous
when he talked of getting married.
The evidence concerning the prison
er's husband showed him to have been
a weak-minded man, passionately fond
of his wife. Here the accused ex-
claimed Il was the happiest of wo-
men; why should | have destroyed
that happiness by killing him, as you
pretend7'


NJ. Isidore Blanc, secretary to the
mayor of Lambesc, said he made the
acquaintance of the prisoner shortly
after her husbands death. The ac
cused denied it, and ridiculed the
idea Of her falling In love with a man
old enough to be her father. Another
important witness was chemist
named Girard, in whose service the
prisoner had been before she became
the servant OF the old widow lady,
Martin. He said the key of her
trunk opened the cupboard where he
kept his poisons. A woman named
Honorat declared that the prisoner.
when her husband was taken i'll, said
she would go to the chemist and pre-
pare the medicine herself if the
chemist was not at homo. The medi-
cal evidence was then taken. Both
the doctors who attended the three
deceased persons, and the experts, de-
clared that they had mover come
across such conclusive proofs of
poisoning as those they had discovered
in their post mortem examination.
The experts had, by means of the
Marsh apparatus, detected in all the
bodies a large quantity of arsenic.
which was shown to the jury in glass
tubes Here the Judge reminded the
prisoner that she was the only person
who attended the deceased in their