“Marie Becker was known to attend the funerals of her victims and to gesticulate wildly her grief over their passing. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.” [Jay Robert Nash, Look For the Woman, M. Evans Company, and Inc. 1981.] Most of her eleven victims were wealthy widows. She was arrested October 16, 1936.
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FULL TEXT (article 1 of 2): SHADES were drawn some time ago in the parlor of the Ramacle home, in Liege, Belgium, and a wreath on the door told others outside to hush in the presence of death as did those friends and relatives who came in bareheaded to pay their respects. Mrs. Maria Ramacle had died suddenly after a violent attack of vomiting. What had she died of? Well, the nurse was a little vague about that, the family had to admit on thinking it over. The subdued whispering in the parlor swelled into gossip, and the upshot was, at the last moment and on a wild hunch, that a post-mortem was performed and an inquest ordered. It was found that the woman had died of poisoning by digitalis – a drug extracted from foxgloves, used to strengthen the heart in small doses but deadly in large amounts.
Nobody
was accused because it was not known whom to accuse. The police, if
they had only put two and two together, might have had a suspicion, for
the nurse was Mrs. Maria Alexandrine Petitjean Becker. Only the year
before she had been warned by a judge not to treat patients any more
with her “witch’s broths” made from herbs and minerals. The warning had
been made after the suspiciously sudden death of Mrs. Lambert, a widow
67 years old.
But
the authorities at last woke up when they received an anonymous letter
soon after the Ramacle death, naming Mrs. Becker’s connection with the
deaths of two other patients she treated — Francois Lange, 85, and Marie
Weiss, 62.
Arrested, the prosperous nurse was found with a handbag containing digitalis.
One
clue led to another, and one by one the bodies of her former patients
were exhumed, and all of them showed traces of digitalis present.
After
19 months in prison she was tried and accused of nothing less than the
wholesale murder of ten women, one man, and the attempted murder of five
other persons. Pounded by a battery of ten skilled lawyers and 294
witnesses, and faced by 1,800 pieces of evidence, she couldn’t avoid
paying the penalty for her crimes and was sentenced to life
imprisonment. Modern debunkers of history declare that Lucrezia Borgia,
the Italian byword for intrigue and murder, was really a good-natured
woman who has been a victim of unsupported calumny. And as Mrs. Becker,
since her trial began at the Palace of Justice in Liege, has been named
the “Belgian Borgia,” sentimentalists point out that she, like Borgia,
is being sacrificed to prejudice.
The
unemotional defendant contested all the statements of witnesses. Judge
Fettweis was finally moved to ask: “Everyone in the case is lying except
you?” To this she said “Yes,” and nodded vigorously. Becker’s attitude
throughout the proceedings has been that of a deeply wronged woman – and
if she is innocent she has indeed been wronged. She kept asking for the
case to be hurried up as she had other matters to attend to. It was
then pointed out to her that she still hadn’t cleared herself.
For
example, the digitalis found in her purse. “I suffered from heart
trouble,” she explained in court, “and I had to take it. I did not want
my lover to know.”
The
trouble is that doctors can find nothing wrong with her heart. As the
judge put it, “in spite of your heart trouble you were known to go to
dance halls and behave like a strong and flirtatious young woman. The
druggist and chemist you name are dead, but the police have found no
entries of your case in their registers.” Confronted with such evidence
as this she croaked, “There is a hole in my memory.” The nurse who is 59
years old was up to ten years ago the wife of a respectable
cabinetmaker, and was herself a milliner by occupation.
Then,
something happened to change her life, and in 1932 she branched out
into the – for her – more lucrative livelihood of being a nurse. She
found patients hard to get at first.
It is asserted that she walked the parks, looking for prospects among the old women with whom she would get into conversation.
Usually
there would be something the matter with the women, and Mrs. Becker
would offer to cure it, the prosecution holds. About 20 accepted her
services, gave her money and some left her large sums in their wills, it
is alleged.
The
motive for Mrs. Becker’s fantastic array of murders, as outlined by the
Belgian authorities, was to get money to satisfy her extravagant whims
and her lover, named Hody, 13 years younger than herself. In 1933, Mrs.
Becker was secretly engaged to rich Lamber Beyer. He died in her arms
November 2, 1934, and most of his fortune was found to be spent. Julia
Bossy, who knew the truth, was killed four months later, the prosecution
says. The list of those who allegedly died of “Becker indigestion”
reads like a telephone directory.
In
reply to all this evidence and her conviction, Mrs. Becker insists that
everybody is against her and that there is really no case against her
at all.
[“The
‘Belgian Borgia’ Tries To Explain How Eleven Trusting Patients Died,”
The American Weekly (San Antonio, Tx.), Sep. 11, 1938, Magazine section
of the San Antonio Express, p. 2]
***
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Eleven murders
Marie Becker was accused of
Mar. 23, 1933 – Marie Doupagne, wife of Castaldot;
poisoned tea; 1200 fr. had been lent to MB.
Nov. 2, 1934 – Lambert Beyer died after making a will
in favor of MB. (from 13100 francs)
Mar. 20, 1935 – Julie Bossy, the landlady of Marie,
victim of indigestion shortly after ingesting tea.
May 1, 1935 – Catherine Beeken-Pairot, poisoned after
drinking wine offered.
May 19, 1935 – Aline Damoutte, (for a loan of 1200
francs).
Sep. 15, 1935 – Marie Remacle, who made a will in
favor of Marie B.
Nov. 11, 1935 – Marie Evrard-Crulle.
May 7, 1936 – Marie Stevart. She had lent money to
Marie B.
Sep. 20, 1936 – Marie Willems-Bulté whose jewels disappeared.
Sep. 26, 1936 – Florence Van Cauwelaert-Lange, 83 years
old, tenant of Marie B.
Oct. 2, 1936 – Marie Luxem-Weiss, 62 years old.
Five survivors of
Marie Becker:
1934 – Hugo Guichner, buyer of Marie's store.
May 1935 – Marie Bouille.
Jun. 1935 – Marie Flohr.
1936 – Mrs. Dalhem.
1936 – Mrs. Lejeune-Blumein.
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Foxglove is a humble weed that grows profusely all over Europe where the
ground is dry and rocky. It’s bell-shaped flower contains five .red stamens
that look like fingers – “bloody fingers” the Scotchman calls it. From this
wild flower the pharmacist gets digitalis – a drug which, administered in
proper doses, evenly regulates the heartbeats of those suffering from cardiac
ailments. An overdose produces a violent gastric condition, contraction of the
heart muscles – and death.
On the morning of October 3d, 1935, Police Commissioner
Honore Le Brun, of the industrial city of Liege, Belgium, scanned through the
death reports of the previous day. It was routine, but there was something
vaguely familiar in a name that appeared on one that gave notice of the death
of Theresa Weiss, 62, of Rue Saint-Gilles. The attending physician had noted as
was customary that the deceased had been nursed by Marie Becker, and this name
the commissioner was sure he had seen before.
The officer called for the file of death certificates and
went back through it chronologically until he came to September 26th, when it
was reported that Yvonne Lange, 86, on the same street, had died of the same ailment
as the Weiss woman: acute indigestion, and moreover had been attended by the
same nurse, Marie Becker.
The
commissioner buzzed for his aide, Detective Edouard Schmidt.
“Here
is something of interest,” greeted Le Brun.
The
ferret-like Schmidt studied the papers and looked up with a twinkle in his
eyes.
“The
nurse Becker is most unfortunate in her choice of patients.”
“It
is so. However, do you note the coincidences?”
“But
yes,” answered the detective. “There are three: the same street, the same sickness
and the same nurse. “Two of these might be accidents. Three? No!”
“I
agree; therefore you will in all secrecy investigate the past of this nurse and
learn of the other unfortunates who have been cared for by her. There might be
others.”
The
detective left to begin an inquiry whose developments astonished even that
case-hardened veteran.
~
Originally a Seamstress ~
Marie
Becker, nee Pettijohn, Schmidt learned, was born in 1880, at Warmont, coming
from a respectable family of hardworking people who raised her in the fitting
decorum of a small town family. As a young girl she journeyed to the big city
of Liege where her skill with needle and threat brought her employment in the
town’s biggest dress house. There she was known for ten years as a shy, chaste,
capable seamstress.
In
1906, according to the church records, she married a fairly prosperous
wood-worker, Charles Becker, who owned a saw-mill. Marie kept her job, however,
until she and her husband had enough money to build a furniture factory which
prospered from the beginning.
In
1930, after twenty-four years of happiness, the fifty-year-old, dignified
matron suddenly began to powder and paint, dress like a twenty-one-year-old
demi-mondaine and took to going out at night with youths young enough to be her
sons. Her husband seemed resigned in his beloved wife’s vagaries.
Like
most flighty, middle-aged women, Marie had a favorite young man named Paul
Castadot, a gendarme in the Liege Police Department, who with his wife occupied
an upper apartment in the house where the Beckers lived and which they owned.
Marie and the young childless couple became such intimate friends that she made
a will in their favor.
~ A
Strangely Swift Death ~
Then,
Detective Schmidt learned, the hapless and worried Charles Becker, though in
the best of physical health, was suddenly stricken in 1932 and died. From the
city files the investigator learned the cause of Becker’s strangely swift
death; acute indigestion!
If
Marie Becker had ambitions to become the second Mrs. Castadot, she was doomed
to disappointment. Shortly after she found her lover entertaining a young lady
in his apartment, so Marie changed her will and removed the many pictures of
the handsome officer that decorated her bedroom, though she still remained
friendly with him.
At
this point, it seemed to Schmidt, Castadot must have become quite concerned
about his own good health because he reported the strange sequence of similar
deaths to his superiors. The latter ordered a local investigation with Castadot
in charge; but nothing came of it.
Detective
Schmidt wondered how many more friends of Marie Becker had died suddenly from
the deadly malady, so he took the next logical step of scrutinizing every death
certificate filed during the years 1933 and 1934. sure enough, one Lambert
Beyer, 43, had succumbed to acute indigestion on October 29th, 1934.
Schmidt traced the man’s activities prior to his death through his family and
learned that the deceased had been a prosperous landlord, the owner of four
apartment houses and of a bank account that totaled 40,000 francs.
Beyer,
who attended the cathedral every Sunday morning, had noticed that for three
Sundays in succession a devout little lady in black occupied the seat beside
him, and in time he spoke to her as they left the church. It was thus that he
became acquainted with Marie Becker, and soon proposed marriage.
But
like the prudent Latin, Beyer, as a matter of course, investigated his
prospective bride’s financial condition and found that it didn’t check with her
statements. In fact Marie had dissipated her husband’s money.
Though
Beyer called off the marriage he continued the romance. Then, on October 19th,
he was stricken with an intestinal illness. Marie Becker nursed him. A few
days later he was dead.
Beyer
had been canny about his business possessions; his relatives informed Schmidt
that the dead man had a cash box in hiss bachelor apartment that contained
10,000 franc. But the box had disappeared and no trace of it was ever found.
Schmidt submitted a voluminous report on the case to his
superior who studied the dossier carefully and concluded that he would take the
matter up with a magistrate; in most countries of Europe that official has the
sole authority to bring an illness for questioning.
~ Suspicions Are Aroused ~
The necessary papers were quickly obtained from the
magistrate and Schmidt set out for the nurse.
Magistrate Oscar Destreshe read to Marie Becker the list of
her patients with special emphasis after each name on the cause of death,
“acute indigestion,” and when he concluded he commented: “it seems that those
who entrust themselves to your care have an undeviating tendency to die
suddenly.”
“But they are old, what would you have? Is it not that
everyone dies so, sooner or later?”
“That is true,” replied the judge: “but also it is possible
for the old to die before their time. I understand that you invariably served
your patients tea, and justice demands that you inform me what you inform me
what you put into the tea that you inform me what you put into the tea that you
[make].”
“Herbs,” she cried, “only herbs of the most beneficent
kinds. Herbs that would have healed them if it was that they were to live.”
“Well, we will certainly learn more about your healing herbs
by examining the bodies of Mrs. Weiss, Mrs. Lange, Mrs. Castadot and Mr.
Beyer,” the magistrate concluded, “and you will remain prison until that
information is disclosed.”
But how cleverly Mr. Becker had contrived to do away with
her victims was not appreciated by magistrate, commissioner or detective until
a staff of examining physicians reported that they were unable to find any
traces of poison in the exhumed bodies.
To Magistrate Destresche fell the exasperating duty of
formality releasing the prisoner whom the public, police and courts were
convinced was a mass murderess. And Marie Becker strode out of court.
Death took a ten-month holiday.
In August, 1936, while seated on a park bench, the Becker
woman made the acquaintance of aged Widow Martin who lived on Rue Pont
D’Avrory. The old lady soon became very intimate with her new found friend, and
because she was so solicitous and charming she invited her to live in her home
as a companion. Finally she became so contented that a will was made in favor
of Marie Becker – and this was the kindly old woman’s death warrant. She died
suddenly a month later, on September 15.
Both Commissioner Le Brun and Detective Schmidt pleaded with
the courts to reopen the case, but the presiding magistrates were wary of the
treatment they had received at the hands of the press when the deadly widow was
released previously.
Though Schmidt no longer had any authority to pursue the
case against Mrs. Becker he followed her career as closely as his other duties
permitted because he was convinced that overconfidence would lead her to some
error – and when that happened he wanted to be prepared to strike.
In February of the following year of the following year the
widow struck up another park acquaintanceship, an old maid named Julia Bossy,
who died within ten days from the deadly ministrations of her new friend.
This was followed by Widow Jeanne Perot, 68, and
Aline-Louise Dammotte, the youngest of her victims, both of them whom were
buried as a result of the increasingly common malady called “acute
indigestion.”
~ “Indigestion” Strikes Again ~
But in April, Marie Becker made [missing text in original]
which Schmidt had been waiting so long and so patiently. Mrs. Becker, like a
cobra approaching a bird, fascinated 42-yeart-old Anne Stevart, her
neighborhood grocer, with the usual results – the grocer woman became ill. But
Detective Schmidt had a few hours to spare at the time so he watched the house
and kept himself informed of what was going inside.
A constant visitor to the house was a man who, the detective
learned, was the sick woman’s brother. Schmidt accosted the man as he was
leaving one day and, after identifying himself, learned that she was being
poisoned by the tea served her by Mrs. Becker.
“You have poisoned me,” he heard his sister shout to her
friend. “Get out of my sight – get out!”
But the Becker woman seemed to exert some diabolical
influence that calmed the sick woman, for when her brother threatened to throw
the nurse out his sister remonstrated with him and told him to mind his own
business.
The detective pledged the man to secrecy because he wanted
to be sure that the suspect had no inkling that he was watching. Marie Becker,
he was convinced, was too shrewd to leave her insidious poison around the house
– therefore when she went on an errand she must have it on her person. So the
next time she left the house Schmidt arrested her.
Hidden in the bosom of her dress a matron found a green
flask containing twenty grains of digitaline, a drug which administered in
small quantities alleviates the pain of what is considered the most
excruciating malady known to medicine. Administered in larger doses it produces
the symptoms of nausea and acute indigestion which eventually result in death.
“I break no law in carrying this drug,” was her glib, ready
response when asked why she had it on her person. “I am suffering from heart
trouble, therefore why should I not carry it?”
The
detective expected this reply and was ready for it: “If you are
suffering from heart trouble kindly tell me what pharmacist Dr.
Mettray filled it.”
Schmidt knew from readiness of her responses that the woman
had prepared for such a contingency as this; he guessed that the information
could not be checked for some reason – probably because the two doctors had
died. And so it proved when he made inquiries.
But now that the magistrates know that the examining
physicians had something specific to look for they held the woman and ordered
the bodies of her many suspected victims exhumed.
~ Dressed Like a Flapper ~
The staff of surgeons who performed the autopsies agreed
unanimously that each and every body contained traces of digitaline, and they
so testified at Martie Becker’s trial which began June 7, 1938.
The 58-year-old defendant, made up gaudily and dressed like
a sixteen-year-old flapper, defended herself vigorously and accused the police
of conspiring against her.
But after a round dozen of former teen age lovers testified
that she had lavished money and presents on them, she was forced to admit that
she was practically almost always in need of money.
In spite of this amazing revelation the cold-eyed woman
remained adamant in her continued denials that she had lavished nothing more
than love and affection on her alleged victims. She referred constantly to
herself as a sort of kindhearted “Angel of Mercy” who had a natural affinity
for old people and young people as well.
“As for my going out with young people,” she declared, “my
theory has always been that one is as young as one thinks oneself to be. As for
what little money I spent on my friends from time to time, well, somehow
Providence always saw to it that I was well cared for in worldly things. I
seldom worried.”
Then, after the doctors had completed their testimony, Mrs.
Becker for the first time lost her poise and wept into her handkerchief.
The jury found her guilty of eleven murders in all and
imposed the death sentence. But in Belgium this is automatically commuted to
life imprisonment, ever since 1863 when a witness went insane as he saw the
head of a criminal roll way from the guillotine.
The beady-eyed poisoner was transferred from Liege to the
penitentiary in Brussels where she died four years later, on June 19th, 1942.
And in death, as in life, there was the macabre tough – Marie Becker died of
acute indigestion!
[Terry McShane, “The Strange Case of the Borgia of Belgium,”
The Albuquerque Journal (N.M.), Aug. 23, 1942]
***
Marie
Becker’s trial began on June 7, 1938. The jury found her guilty of
eleven murders and imposed the death sentence. But in Belgium capital
punishment is automatically commuted to life imprisonment. She died in
the Brussels prison of acute indigestion on June 19, 1942.
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Links to more cases: Female Serial Killers Who Like to Murder Women
***
For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
***
Links to more cases: Female Serial Killers Who Like to Murder Women
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[3691-1/14/21]
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