The secret love of Madeleine Smith
A clandestine affair with a fatal outcome
One case that I’ve always been interested in is that of Madeleine Smith, who was tried for the murder of her lover, Émile L’Angelier, by arsenic poisoning in Glasgow in 1857. It is a fascinating tale of social class, forbidden love and shocking secrets, with an unexpected twist.
A violent death
The drama began on the evening of 23 March 1857, when the doorbell rang at a lodging house in Glasgow. The door was opened by the landlady, Ann Jenkins, who was shocked to find one of her tenants, Émile L’Angelier, doubled over in pain and clutching his stomach. Mrs Jenkins helped the sick man to his room and called for the doctor, who told her to give the patient some hot water with some drops of laudanum and to put a mustand poultice on his stomach. If he did not improve during the night, then she should call him again in the morning.
By 7 am the next day, Émile had taken a turn for the worse, and so the landlady fetched the doctor. He administered another poultice, before leaving again with a promise to come back. Two hours later, he returned to the lodging house and went into the bedroom to check on his patient. He felt the his pulse and said, ‘Draw the rest of these curtains, the man is dead.’
Pierre Émile L’Angelier was born on 30 April 1823 in St Helier, Jersey. His father, Pierre Jean Langelier, who was an outspoken anti-monarchist during the time of Louis XVIII, had left France to avoid persecution. He and his brother had settled in Jersey, where they established a business as seed merchants. Pierre married Victoire de la Croix, and Émile was their first child. Along with his three younger siblings, he had a healthy childhood and later became an apprentice to a large nursery, which grew fruit and vegetables. After his father’s death, Émile travelled to Scotland to work for a landowner, in the hope that he could improve his prospects further.
After Émile’s death in 1857, a search of his room yielded a stack of love letters, which revealed that he had been having an affair with Madeleine Smith.
Born in 1835, Madeleine Hamilton Smith was the eldest daughter of wealthy Glaswegian architect James Smith and his wife Elizabeth. Like Émile, she was the oldest of five children, and the family lived in one of the most prosperous quarters of the city. Educated in etiquette and cultural pursuits, Madeleine moved in the highest strata of Glasgow society. She regularly attended social gatherings with her parents and spent the summers at their country house. In the mid-1850s, Madeleine was back in the city after graduating from a finishing school in London, and Émile was working as a warehouse clerk, in a less salubrious part of Glasgow. However, he started to make contacts within business circles and was ready to move up in the world.
It is not known where Madeleine and Émile met. It’s possible that the couple first caught sight of each other in the botanical gardens or on the crowded streets of the city’s commercial district. Anyway, regardless of where they met, he was instantly attracted to her and he pursued her relentlessly through his connections, even though her social status was far more elevated than his.
A love story?
After they were introduced, the couple met in bookstores and other public places, and occasionally took walks through the streets. This was a risky venture for Madeleine as, at that time, young, respectable, and single women were not allowed to go out unchaperoned with men. When Madeleine left the city for the family’s summer home, they began a correspondence, the contents of which would later be discovered in Émile’s bedroom.
When Madeleine returned from the countryside, the couple began to meet in secret at night to plan a clandestine marriage, as Madeleine knew that her father would diapprove of the match. Their secret meetings continued until James Smith decided to marry his daughter to import merchant William Minnoch. Despite Madeleine’s continuing declarations of love to Émile, it is obvious from the letters that her opinion of him had started to slip and in January 1857, she accepted Minnoch’s marriage proposal.
The letters found in Émile L’Angelier’s room revealed that the correspondence between him and Madeleine continued until February 1857, in which she stated clearly that, despite her feelings for him, she could not marry him as she feared her father’s wrath if she reneged on her promise to William Minnoch.
Soon after Madeleine had sent this missive to Emile, she sent the family houseboy to a local chemist with a note requesting a small vial of prussic acid, which is also known as cyanide. The request was refused. The letters show that the couple met a couple of times after this incident, and in mid-February, Émile began to experience stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting. On 21 February, Madeleine went herself to an apothecary’s and this time, she managed to procure some arsenic which, she said, was for killing rats. It is not kwown whether she met with her former lover that night, but the next morning Emile came down with another bout of sickness. Their meetings continued and, on 12 March, Madeleine set a date for her wedding to William for June. Eleven days later, Émile was dead.
After his death, Émile’s employer, William Stevenson, went to his lodgings and searched his room, where he found the letters and a notebook. He also paid for a private post-mortem examination for his late employee. When the doctors who performed the examination became suspicious that his organs showed signs for poisoning, they reported it to the procurator-fiscal who, in Scotland, is the public prosecutor. Stevenson also handed over the letters. Émile’s stomach and organs were sent to a professor of chemistry for analysis. Four days later, Madeleine Smith was arrested and admitted to prison. Émile L’Angelier’s body was exhumed and arsenic was found in his intestines, rectum, liver and brain. Preparations for the trial began immediately.
Madeleine stands trial
The sheriff gathered all the medecine bottles from Émile’s rooms and all the letters were read and labelled as evidence. The poison books at various chemists throughout Glasgow were checked for entries of purchases by Madeleine or members of the Smith household. In mid-June, she was charged formally with two counts of attempted of murder by arsenic and one count of murder. She was then transferred to Edinburgh to face justice.
Madeleine Smith’s trial opened on 30 June 1857 at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh. The room was packed and noisy, but as the trapdoor opened and the prisoner entered, the crowds quietened down. Madeleine was wearing a brown silk gown, lavender gloves and a white bonnet with a veil. She was carring a small bottle of smelling salts. When asked about her plea, she said, ‘Not guilty.’
Over the next five and a half days, the prosecution presented the circumstantial evidence against her, which included the results of the post-mortem and chemical analysis, Madeleine’s purchases of arsenic and, perhaps most importantly, the letters. Also, the notebook which was found in his room, was presented in court, as it contained details of his clandestine meetings with Madeleine and the symptoms of his subsequent illness. The defence countered that the entries were not of actual meetings and the notebook was dismissed as evidence.
The defence’s main line of argument was that Émile L’Angelier had taken his own life, following his rejection by Madeleine. Witnesses testified to his being despondent and to have been seen reading newspaper accounts of suicide. Apparently, he wrote to a friend saying, ‘I never was so unhappy in my life. I wish I had the courage to blow my brains out.’
The proceedings ended on the 9 July and, after the closing statements, the jury retired to make their decision. As this was a Scottish court of law, the jury had three possible options: guilty, not guilty and not proven, the latter meaning that there was insufficient evidence to convict. They returned to the courtroom less than half an hour later and declared Madeleine Smith not guilty on the first count of attempted murder, and not proven on the other two. The spectators cheered and Madeleine was allowed to leave. She lived for over 70 years, and died in America at the age of 93.