FULL TEXT: A woman named Jeanne Gilbert is under arrest in
the village of St. Amand Montrond on suspicion of a series of murders of
relatives by poisoning. If the charges be proved against her they will form one
of the most terrible crimes in history.
In the village, and in the town of Bourges near it, the
belief in the guilt of Jeanne Gilbert is unanimous, and several efforts were
made to lynch her as she was taken to prison.
Jeanne Gilbert is a married woman with a fortune of £4000 of
her own. Her husband, a man in a good position, absolutely refuses to believe
in her guilt. He has closed all the shutters of his house and shut himself up
with his little daughter, refusing to see anyone. Jeanne Gilbert is thirty, and
has been married for ten years.
She is a good-looking woman, dark-haired and dark-eyed, a
good housewife, and until the deaths of many of her friends and relatives from
arsenical poisoning threw suspicion on her she was popular in the village. One
evening about two years ago M. Gilbert’s father, after eating some chicken
prepared by his daughter-in-law, was taken violently ill and died. A few days
later his wife was taken ill in the same way, and died within an hour.
In September, 1906, Jeanne Gilbert’s father, M. Girault,
received a present from his daughter of a plum tart made by her own hands. That
evening he died in terrible pain. Mme. Girault, Jeanne Gilbert’s mother, who
had also tasted the tart, was very ill, but recovered. Less than two months
afterwards she died, suffering from exactly the same symptoms as before, after
eating some grapes which her daughter had sent her. And a servant of the
Gilberts died in the same way a few weeks later.
In every one of these cases the symptoms were the same –
violent burning pains, uncontrollable sickness, and death.
On March 21, at about ten o’clock in the morning, Jeanne
Gilbert went to see her cousin, M. Pailot, whose house is some fifty yards from
her own. M. Pailot and his wife were at work in their vineyard. Jeanne Gilbert
passed through the empty house and joined them there, leaving them soon
afterwards.
When M. and Mme. Pailot and their “son and daughter-in-law
returned to the house they found a large white cheese on the window-sill.
Thinking that it was a present from one of their relations, who had probably
left it. there on finding no one at home, the whole family partook of it at
dinner. But soon after they were taken violently ill, and on Monday Mme. Pailot
expired, in spite of the care bestowed on her by her cousin Jeanne, who had
hastened to her bedside to nurse her on hearing of the occurrence.
The remainder of the cheese was examined and found to
contain arsenic, whereupon M. Pailot openly accused Jeanne of having done the
work.
In spite of her vehement protestations at innocence her
house was searched, and the discovery of a piece of brown paper, which proved
to be the other half of that in which . the cheese was wrapped, led to her
immediate arrest.
Since her arrest Mme. Gilbert his maintained a calm
demeanour, and she declares that it is a pity, “such silly tales get about.”
Before going to prison she sent a wreath of flowers to “my beloved cousin,” but
it was returned by M. Pailot.
[“Rival of the Borgias. – Woman Accused of Poisoning Her
Relatives.” The Auckland Star (New Zealand), May 30, 1908, p. 15]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Jeanne Gilbert, the wife of a
farmer living near Bourges (France), was recently sentenced to penal servitude
for life for having murdered four relatives and tried to murder four other
persons by poisoning them with arsenic. The deliberations with which the crimes
were committed, and the callous attitude of the murderess, caused intense
public interest in the case, and Bourges was thronged with spectators during
the trial. Jeanne Gilbert was discontented with her life in the country, and
she deliberately poisoned her mother, her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, and
a cousin, in order to obtain small amounts of property in each case, with the
ultimate intention of leaving the district. She purchased quantities of arsenic
from a local chemist at regular intervals, and administered it to her victims
in home-made cakes and pastries. The four murders extended over a period of
more than two years, and when, the bodies were exhumed and arsenic found in
large quantities the woman merely expressed surprise that traces of the poison
were discovered after so long a time. Before beginning her series of murders
the poisoner made a number of experiments on animals, and even killed her own
dog in order to observe the effect of arsenic.
[“Wholesale Poisoning.” The Colonist (Nelson, New Zealand),
Mar. 29, 1909, p. 1]
***
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