- 2 days ago
The 18th-century case that saw a poor village girl go from a small French village to the highest court in Paris.
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“Cicada” by Kevin MacLeod
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Please remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon as well as leave a like and a comment for more videos every week!
Brief Case is a True Crime Channel focusing on old or lost cases that have been forgotten to history. If you have any recommendations for future cases that you would like to bring to light, feel free to reach out to me to: briefcaseuk@gmail.com
Music Credits
Music by Myuu
https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji
Music by CO.AG Music
https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic
“Cicada” by Kevin MacLeod
https://incompetech.com/ Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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NewsTranscript
00:07Today we will be looking at a case from the second part of the 18th century.
00:13So sit back as we go to France.
00:17Marie-Francoise Victoire Salmond was born in 1760 in the small French village of Mietti in Normandy in France.
00:26Her father was a farm labourer and Marie grew up in a rural family, a third of seven children.
00:32In France in the 1760s most people still lived in villages and small communities
00:37and the village of Mietti which is in Lower Normandy was a largely agricultural region
00:43where most families depended on farm work and domestic service for their livelihoods.
00:48Marie's childhood however was marked by misfortune.
00:50When she was young she was attacked by a pig, an accident that left her with permanent damage to her
00:56left hand
00:57and severely restricted its use.
00:59Not long afterwards her mother died, her father later remarried
01:03and although Marie remained in the family home for a few more years,
01:07at the age of 15 she left her father's house and began working as a domestic servant.
01:13In 1780, when she was twenty years old, she entered the service of Monsieur and Madame de Musnil in the
01:20parish of Formigny.
01:21While working there she met Mr Revelle, the King's prosecutor in the city of Cannes.
01:26Marie was a young woman with a pleasant appearance and Mr Revelle treated her kindly.
01:31He told her that she should leave the countryside and go to the city where she would be able to
01:36find better opportunities for work.
01:39Marie did not immediately follow his advice.
01:41Instead, she went to the town of Bayer and tried to find employment as a seamstress.
01:46However, with limited movement in her left hand, she was unable to establish herself in the trade,
01:51so took Mr Revelle's advice and went to Caen to look for another position in domestic service.
01:57She arrived there on the 1st of August in the year 1781.
02:01She was told of a position in the home of Madame Dupar,
02:04who after speaking with Marie and being favourably impressed with her manners and appearance,
02:09agreed to take her into service and told her to begin that afternoon.
02:12The household consisted of seven people, Monsieur and Madame Dupar, their two sons,
02:18one aged twenty-one and the other eleven, their seventeen-year-old daughter,
02:22and Monsieur and Madame Boulier, who were Madame Dupar's parents,
02:26both of whom were more than eighty years old.
02:28Madame Dupar told Marie what was expected of her.
02:32She was to prepare porridge for Monsieur Boulier, which had to be ready at exactly seven o'clock.
02:37She was then to accompany Madame Boulier to church.
02:40After that, she would have to run errands, go to the shops, and complete other domestic duties.
02:46But Madame Dupar assured her that she and her daughter would help with most of these tasks.
02:53Madame Dupar showed Marie how to prepare her father's porridge,
02:57and specifically told her that no salt was to be added.
03:00Over the next few days, Marie carried out her duties well,
03:04and her mistress seemed to be satisfied with her work.
03:07Marie had been told that on Sundays she would have to put on her best dress,
03:11as Sunday was an occasion when even servants and working people were expected to put on their better attire.
03:16In France during the 1780s, appearance was very important,
03:21and people paid close attention to the way others were dressed.
03:24The 5th of August was the first Sunday since Marie had started work,
03:28so she placed her working dress, which was blue with white and yellow stripes,
03:32on the back of a chair in the small ground floor room where she slept,
03:36and put on her newer blue and white striped dress.
03:38The following morning, Monday the 6th of August,
03:42Marie went to fetch milk, but could not find the milkman.
03:45A little worried she returned to the house,
03:47and saw Madame Dupar,
03:49who told her that she would arrange for the milk to be brought to the house.
03:52After cleaning the small pot, Madame Dupar gave Marie a container of oats,
03:57to which she added water and milk, and then heated it over the fire.
04:01However, as she was stirring the pot, Madame Dupar suddenly asked whether she had added any salt.
04:06Marie replied that she had not, and reminded her mistress that she had instructed her never to do so.
04:12Madame Dupar then took the pot from the fire, went to the sideboard,
04:16and sprinkled something over the porridge.
04:18When the porridge was ready, Marie poured it onto a plate,
04:22and took it to the elderly Monsieur Boulier.
04:24She then accompanied Madame Boulier to church.
04:27Afterwards Madame Dupar gave her several errands,
04:30which kept her away from the house for part of the morning,
04:33and she did not return until 11.30.
04:35However, as soon as she walked through the door,
04:38she was told that soon after eating the porridge,
04:40Monsieur Boulier had become ill, and had started to vomit.
04:44Madame Dupar seemed angry, and told Marie to nurse him and attend to his needs.
04:48But throughout the day, his condition only got worse.
04:51An apocrythry's apprentice was summoned,
04:54and he applied blisters to the elderly man,
04:56a treatment commonly used in the 18th century.
04:59Doctors believed that deliberately raising blisters on the skin
05:02could draw out illness from the body,
05:04and the blisters could then be opened to release the fluid.
05:07However, the treatment did nothing to stop his condition,
05:10and he seemed to be getting weaker.
05:13Madame Dupar's husband was working away,
05:15so she instructed her eldest son to take the horse,
05:18and ride out to tell his father what had happened.
05:21However, the young man did not immediately return.
05:23At about 5.30 that afternoon, Monsieur Boulier died.
05:30After her father's death, Madame Dupar brought in a nurse
05:33to prepare and watch over the body,
05:35and Marie was then instructed to accompany the nurse through the night.
05:39The following morning, at around 7 o'clock,
05:42Marie was preparing to begin her household duties,
05:44when her mistress complained that she was still wearing her Sunday clothes,
05:48and told her to change into her working dress.
05:50Marie went to her room and changed, and then resumed her tasks.
05:55She was tired, as she had not slept very much,
05:58as she had spent the night sitting on a chair,
06:01next to the body of her mistress's deceased father,
06:04as Marie had not had any sleep.
06:06Madame Dupar and her daughter took over the preparations for dinner.
06:09They put a pot on the fire, added salt and vegetables, and prepared a soup.
06:14That morning, Monsieur Dupar returned to the house.
06:17At 1 o'clock, the family sat down to eat.
06:20They were joined by Madame Dupar's sister and nephew,
06:23but the atmosphere at the table was very subdued,
06:26and both Madame Dupar and her sister looked visibly affected by the death of their father.
06:31When Marie came to collect the soup plates,
06:33Madame Dupar and her son both said they felt something had been caught in their teeth.
06:37The meal, however, continued, and everyone remained at the table until 2.30,
06:42when Madame Dupar's son and nephew started to complain that they were suffering from stomach pains.
06:47Other members of the family then said that they too felt bad,
06:51and the mistress screamed that she could smell arsenic being burnt,
06:54and that they had all been poisoned.
06:55The apoca-3 named Mr Thierry was sent for,
06:59and when he arrived he began to treat everyone who he believed had been poisoned.
07:03It was a little strange, because although everyone present had finished the meal,
07:07they had not all experienced the immediate effects expected from arsenic poisoning.
07:12Marie was questioned by the local criminal magistrates under the customary laws of Normandy.
07:17However, she maintained that she knew nothing about an alleged poisoning.
07:21The story quickly spread through the city.
07:24People were told that seven members of the Dupar household had been poisoned by their servant,
07:29who had also been accused of having put arsenic in the porridge of the elderly Monsieur Bellieux the previous day,
07:35which had resulted in his death.
07:37Before long a crowd had gathered outside the house, eager to learn what had happened.
07:42Madame Dupar did nothing to discourage the rumours,
07:44and the alleged poisoning continued to spread.
07:47Eventually a group of local women were allowed inside the property,
07:51and they all promptly surrounded Marie,
07:53and began shouting questions and accusations at her.
07:56For Marie this was quite frightening.
07:58Not only were there women surrounding and shouting at her,
08:01but there was also a growing crowd outside the house.
08:04More and more people had now gathered in the streets,
08:07drawn by the rumours of poisoning,
08:09and Marie could hear all the commotion.
08:11It seemed that she was now at the centre of a disturbing allegation,
08:15with strangers outside demanding to know what had happened.
08:20The local surgeon, a man named Monsieur Herbert,
08:24who was a friend of the Dupar family,
08:26soon arrived to the house,
08:27and said that Marie's pocket should be searched.
08:30Marie thought nothing of this,
08:32as she did not believe a search would cause her any trouble.
08:35However, she was very much mistaken.
08:36Monsieur Herbert discovered some breadcrumbs,
08:40which were mixed with pieces of a white shiny substance in her left pocket.
08:44Although he seemed to be quite surprised by the discovery,
08:47he showed it to several people,
08:49before eventually being presented to the authorities.
08:51Following this revelation,
08:53a man named Monsieur Frile then came to the house,
08:56and stated that he had been sent by the magistrates.
08:59After speaking to Madame Dupar,
09:01and hearing her account of what had taken place,
09:03he informed the King's prosecutor,
09:06a man named Monsieur Revelle,
09:08the same man who had known Marie a few years earlier,
09:11and who had encouraged her to leave the countryside,
09:13and find work in the city,
09:15that the young servants,
09:16had poisoned members of the household,
09:18and that the poisoning had resulted in the death of an elderly gentleman.
09:22Monsieur Revelle wanted to know exactly how Madame Dupar's father had died,
09:27so he ordered an autopsy to be carried out.
09:29Following this, the doctors concluded that he had been poisoned,
09:33and that the poison had caused his death.
09:35Now a more thorough investigation began.
09:39Statements were taken from everyone who was in the house on the 5th and 6th of August,
09:43and considerable importance was given to the white shiny substance
09:46that was said to have been found in Marie's pockets.
09:49From the beginning, however,
09:51there was reason to question the case against her.
09:54One obvious question was the motive.
09:56Marie had been in the household for only a few days.
09:59Why would a 21-year-old servant suddenly decide to poison the people she worked for,
10:04apparently gaining nothing from doing so?
10:06There were also other circumstances that attracted attention.
10:09A rumour had started to circulate
10:12that someone connected to the Dupar family
10:14had purchased arsenic several days earlier.
10:17The disappearance of the eldest son after his grandfather's death
10:21also remained unexplained.
10:22Instead of pursuing these matters,
10:25the investigation turned towards another claim that had been made against Marie by her mistress,
10:29that she had stolen items from the house.
10:32When Marie was asked about the allegations,
10:34she denied that she had poisoned anyone,
10:36or stolen any items.
10:38Nevertheless,
10:39she was charged with poisoning Monsieur Boulier,
10:41which had resulted in his death.
10:45The case against Marie was first heard on the 18th of April, 1782,
10:50in the lower court in Caen,
10:51and proceedings were presided over by Monsieur Réveille.
10:54At this court,
10:56Marie was unanimously found guilty,
10:57and sentenced to be burnt alive.
11:00As part of this sentence,
11:02she was ordered to undergo questioning under torture,
11:04in an attempt to make her reveal the names of any supposed accomplices.
11:08She was also required to make a public appearance barefoot,
11:12carrying a torch,
11:13and asking for forgiveness,
11:15before eventually being executed.
11:17Marie continued to plead her innocence.
11:19She appealed the verdict,
11:21but on the 17th of May, 1782,
11:24the court in Normandy's capital city, Rouen,
11:26upheld the sentence,
11:28and ordered that the execution should take place.
11:31With the sentence now confirmed,
11:33and the date of her execution approaching,
11:35Marie remained in prison.
11:36During this time,
11:38several priests visited her,
11:40and they were all so moved by her distress,
11:42that they became convinced that she was innocent.
11:45One of the priests,
11:46Father Francois Lambert,
11:48was so sure that she was innocent,
11:50that he advised her to claim that she was pregnant,
11:52which would at least delay the execution.
11:55Marie did this,
11:56and two midwives were then sent to examine her.
11:59However, the two women could not agree on her condition,
12:01which left the authorities unable to establish whether she was telling the truth,
12:05with the question unresolved.
12:07The execution was postponed.
12:11When the authorities realized that Marie was not in fact pregnant,
12:15the execution date was set for the 29th of July.
12:18Before this could happen however,
12:20news of her case reached Versailles,
12:22as those who supported her claim of innocence,
12:24brought the matter to the attention of the king,
12:27and he ordered that the execution be stopped.
12:29The king's order reached Rouen on the 26th of July,
12:32and then was sent on to Caen,
12:34arriving on Sunday July the 28th.
12:36Once again,
12:38Marie-Francoise Victoire Salmon had escaped the executioner.
12:42Her legal representative was a man named Monsieur Le Cachois,
12:46and he very much believed that she had been wrongly convicted.
12:49He examined the original proceedings,
12:51and found serious problems with the way the case had been investigated and tried.
12:55His argument eventually led to another review of the case,
12:59and on May the 18th, 1784,
13:02the royal authorities examined the proceedings,
13:04and concluded that there were grounds for a retrial.
13:07The case was then referred to the court of Rouen.
13:11Monsieur Le Cachois argued that too much weight had been placed on the accusations made by Madame Dupas,
13:16and not enough on actual evidence.
13:19He stressed that important witnesses had not been properly questioned,
13:22and all evidence that might have helped Marie had been overlooked.
13:25He also challenged the accusations that Marie had poisoned the household.
13:30Among the points he raised,
13:32was a discovery of the suspicious white substance in one of Marie's pockets.
13:36He pointed out that the pocket was one she rarely used,
13:39because her left hand had been badly injured since childhood,
13:42after she had been attacked by a pig.
13:45He also questioned the prosecution's claim that Marie had a motive for poisoning the family.
13:49She had only recently entered the household,
13:52and before the old man's death,
13:54had apparently spoken favourably of her new position.
13:56He also suggested that the evidence surrounding the poisoning,
14:00had been very much weighted against her from the beginning.
14:02When the case ended,
14:04the court in Rouen annulled the original judgment.
14:07However, Marie was not released from prison.
14:09Instead, a further investigation into the alleged crime was ordered.
14:13Marie appealed to the king,
14:15and proceedings were eventually transferred to the highest court in Paris.
14:18By this stage, Le Cachois had spent years working on Marie's defence.
14:23He had produced detailed legal briefs setting out the weakness of the prosecution case,
14:28while another leading lawyer, named Jean-Francois Fornel,
14:32had joined the defence, and prepared his own arguments.
14:35But instead of just trying to convince judges in a court,
14:38the two men published their opinion,
14:40which allowed the public to follow the story,
14:42and examined the evidence for themselves.
14:45The publications circulated widely in Paris,
14:48and engravings portraying Marie began to appear alongside pamphlets about the case.
14:53These pamphlets portrayed Marie as a young woman who had left a small village,
14:57after being attacked by a pig,
14:59and the death of her mother,
15:00to work in domestic service in a large city,
15:03and how she had been accused of poisoning a family,
15:06and spent years in prison under the sentence of death.
15:08The story was presented as an example of the dangers of the criminal justice system,
15:14in which an accused person could be condemned on inadequate evidence.
15:18Finally, in May 1786, the case came before the court in Paris,
15:22and the proceedings lasted for three days.
15:25When the court made their final judgement,
15:28they declared that Marie-Francoise Victoire Salmon
15:31was innocent of all the charges and accusations against her.
15:35After five years in prison, she was released,
15:38and given permission to take civil action against those who had accused her,
15:42although she chose not to do so.
15:44The reaction in Paris was extraordinary.
15:47A large crowd gathered outside the court waiting for Marie to emerge,
15:50and when she finally appeared,
15:52everyone started to applaud,
15:54and many were moved to tears.
15:56As news of the acquittal spread,
15:58Marie became one of the most talked about women in Paris.
16:00She and her lawyer were received by members of the aristocracy,
16:04and King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette
16:07granted them both a private audience.
16:10Marie was given financial assistance,
16:13which included gold coins,
16:14and also a pension.
16:16She was invited to public performances,
16:18and when she attended the theatre with Monsieur Le Cachoir,
16:22they were both applauded by the actors and the audience.
16:25Engravings celebrating her innocence were circulated throughout France,
16:29often bearing the words,
16:31innocence recognized,
16:32and her story was turned into songs and other popular works.
16:36It seemed that Marie was the centre of public attention.
16:39On the 26th of August 1786,
16:43just three months after her acquittal,
16:45she married Jean-Louis Savaret,
16:47a 28-year-old former soldier,
16:49and the wedding took place in the church of Saint-Severin in Paris.
16:52The wedding attracted such a crowd,
16:55that soldiers were called to control those who had gathered at the ceremony.
16:59After the excitement surrounding the case eventually faded,
17:02Marie and her husband settled into a much quieter life.
17:05Together they had a daughter,
17:07but fortune was once again not favorable to Marie,
17:10as both her husband and her daughter died before she did.
17:13Later in life she adopted her young niece,
17:15following the death of one of her brothers.
17:17Marie died in Paris on the 2nd of May 1827,
17:21at the age of 67.
17:23In her eventful life,
17:24she had spent nearly five years in prison,
17:27for a crime she was ultimately declared innocent of committing,
17:30and had twice been within days of being taken to the stake,
17:33and burnt alive.
17:37Hello everyone,
17:38and thank you so much for listening.
17:40As usual,
17:41please leave any comments or feedback you may have,
17:44and I hope to see you all again,
17:46in the next,
17:47brief,
17:48case.
17:49Jesus.