
At 2am on March 23, 1857, Emile L'Angelier came back to his boarding house in a terrible state, complaining of stomach pain. His landlady helped him inside and to bed. She was worried about him because he had had these symptoms off and on for the past few months. Later that morning he died, and letters from a wealthy young socialite were found in his room. Was this murder?
Sources and resources:
Wikipedia
The Elements of Murder by John Emsley
The Madeleine Smith Story, by Douglas MacGowan, The Crime Library, http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/women/madeleine/1.html
Arsenic poisoning symptoms: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24727-arsenic-poisoning
Trial of Miss Madeleine H. Smith, before the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of M. Pierre Emile L’Angelier, at Glasgow: special verbatim report, with portraits and plans, by Anonymous, Edinburgh: D. Mathers, 1857.
Hunt, Peter. The Madeleine Smith Affair. London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1950.
Costume Cocktail website: https://www.costumecocktail.com/2016/10/27/madeleine-hamilton-smith-1850s/
Jesse, F. Tennyson. Trial of Madeleine Smith. Edinburgh and London: W. Hodge & Company Ltd., 1927.
Morland, Nigel. That Nice Miss Smith. London: F. Muller, 1957.
MacGowan, Douglas. Murder in Victorian Scotland. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.
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