Full report, extracted from the "Times", of the extraordinary and interesting trial of Miss Madeleine Smith, of Glasgow, on the charge of poisoning by arsenic of her late lover, Emile L'Angelier, including the correspondence.

Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Full report, extracted from the "Times", of the extraordinary and interesting trial of Miss Madeleine Smith, of Glasgow, on the charge of poisoning by arsenic of her late lover, Emile L'Angelier, including the correspondence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    same as before.” I tliink I recollect his complaining of his throat when the doctor was there. The doctor gave him water, which he complained was like to choke him. He was stretching out his arms all the morning, but I do not remember his hands being clinched. The right hand was clinched when he died. Miss Perry, I think, came in the forenoon. When she came, I asked, “Are you the intended ? ” She said, “ Oh, no; I5m only her friend.” I had supposed, on her being sent for, that she was his intended. I told her he was dead. She was much overwhelmed, and cried a great deal. I was quite sur¬ prised at her grief. I took her in to see the body, which was then laid out. When she told me she was not the intended, I said how sorry the lady would be. Miss Perry kissed the forehead several times. Miss Perry said how sorry she was for his mother. M. L’Angelier told me he had had an illness about the end of August. He said his bowels had been very bad, and he had not been in bed all night. I was from home for six weeks in August and Sep¬ tember. In re-examination the witness was shown the clothes of the deceased, which she identified, also his portmanteau. When I said to Miss Perry, “ How sorry the lady will be,” she told me not to say much about it, or anything about it. By the Court.—When I asked whether he had taken anything at the Bridge of Allan to disagree with him, I had no idea of his having taken anything that would do him ill after he had got back to Glasgow. He said, “No; I took nothing to make me ill. I never felt better than when I was at the coast.” I did not ask him where he had been, thinking he had been visiting his intended. My husband was from home during all the time deceased stayed with us. He only saw him once, at the New Year time. The witness was complimented by the Lord Justice Clerk for having given her evidence in a very clear and distinct manner. She had been nearly three hours under examination. James Heggie, salesman to Mr. Chalmers, baker, and John Stewart, butcher, were called to prove the dates of the entries made in M. L’Angelier’s pass books on the two occasions referred to by Mrs. Jenkins. Other witnesses were ex¬ amined to prove his having stayed in Edinburgh from the 10th to the 17th of March, and his again hurriedly visiting it on the 19th, lest any letter should have been sent to the post-office there for him. Mrs. Bain spoke to deceased arriving at Bridge of Allan on the evening of the 19th (Thursday), and staying there till Sunday afternoon, when he unexpectedly went away. Charles Rutherford, late postmaster of Bridge of Allan, proved the stamp on a letter which M. L’Angelier had received on the Sunday morning, as re¬ addressed to him by M. Thuot. William Fairfoul, guard of the railway train that left Perth at 2 26 for the south, deposed to deceased coming in at Stirling at 3 30 (there being no stoppage at Bridge of Allan), and going as far as Coatbridge, the nearest station to Glas¬ gow, and eight miles distant therefrom (the railway communicating to Glasgow with the Scottish Central and Caledonian lines merely, the Edinburgh and Glas¬ gow having no Sunday trains). Thomas Ross, auctioneer, Glasgow, who was also proceeding from Stirling to Glasgow that Sunday, deposed to having walked in with deceased from Coat¬ bridge, the latter being in good health and spirits, their walk in occupying little more than two hours -namely, from a quarter past 5 to half-past 7- The last witness in cross-examination said,—He told me he had come from Alloa that morning, and that he had walked thence to Stirling, a distance of eight miles. He said nothing about having been at the Bridge of Allan, that I remember. On our way we spoke of the scenery and other indifferent matters. He told me he had been in Stirling, that he had presented a check at the bank, which they would not cash, he being a stranger. We went into no house on our way. lie did not tell me who he was.