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have been entirely devoid of common sense,
pooh-poohed her concerns. On New Year’s Eve
1877, everything seemed normal in the
Chantrelle household. The jovial paterfamilias
had lately run into debt due to his extravagant
life, but still he drank wine and champagne like
water. When twelve o’clock was striking, the
family listened to the band of the Castle
garrison playing festive hymns, having invited
their servant Mary Byrne to join them.
On the morning of New Year’s Day,
Elizabeth felt a little unwell, complaining of a
slight headache. Eugène sent his eldest son out
to purchase a duck for dinner, but Elizabeth
vomited and did not eat anything. After she
had been put to bed, Eugène took all three
children into his own bedroom and left his
wife some lemonade, grapes and an orange to
eat. The following morning, the servant Mary
Byrne rose before seven to make a cup of tea
for her mistress. When she was lighting the
kitchen fire, she heard a moaning sound from
Elizabeth’s room. The door to the room was
open, whereas it was regularly kept shut; the
gas was turned off and there was no smell of
gas in the room.
Elizabeth was lying on the bed moaning
piteously, and the pillow and bedclothes were
stained with vomit. The tumbler of lemonade
was empty and only two small portions
remained of the orange. In the parlour was a
large, empty whisky bottle. When Eugène was
roused, he went to see his unconscious wife,
who did not stir. He asked Mary Byrne if she
could smell gas in the room, something she
denied. He then said that the baby was crying
and asked her to look after it, but when she
came into the other bedroom, she found all
three children sleeping peacefully. Returning to
the sick bed, she could see her master coming
from the window of the room. Summoned
by Eugène, Dr Carmichael, of 42
Northumberland Street, arrived at 8.30 am.
He could smell gas in the room and
suspected coal-gas poisoning. He brought
some brandy to inject as a stimulant, but the
thirsty Eugène drank much of the contents of
the bottle when the doctor was not looking.
FOUL PLAY
Dr Carmichael called in the police
surgeon Dr Littlejohn, and Mrs Dyer
brought her own family doctor along to
see Elizabeth, who was now deeply
unconscious. The doctors tried artificial
respiration but to little avail, and the
patient died at the Royal Infirmary soon
after. The histrionic Eugène exhibited
grief and rage, accusing the doctors of
murdering his wife. When the gas
company was called in, they found that a
gas pipe behind one of the shutters of
Elizabeth’s bedroom had been wrenched
loose by some person. But the doctors no
longer thought the symptoms were those
of coal-gas poisoning; Dr Gordon, who
had seen many poisoning cases before,
instead thought the patient had died from
the administration of some narcotic poison.
And indeed, the post-mortem examination
demonstrated the presence of opium in the
vomit on the patient’s nightdress. When
Elizabeth was buried, there were distressing
scenes when the frantic Eugène tried to fling
himself into the open grave. But after it had
been established that on November 25 1877, he
had purchased sixty grains of opium, he was
arrested for murdering his wife. A strange
matter was that her urine had an alcoholic
odour, suggesting that he might have
administered the poison in some of the whisky
from the empty bottle found in the parlour.
The loose gas pipe had just been a clumsy
attempt to make the death look like an
accident, so that he could cash in the life
insurance money without any demur.ON TRIAL
The trial of Eugène Chantrelle began on May 7
1878, before Lord Moncrieff. Mr William
Watson, the Lord Advocate, led for the
prosecution, and Mr John Traynor led
Chantrelle’s defence team. The maid Mary
Byrne gave her damning evidence clearly and
without contradiction: it suggested that after
poisoning his wife, Eugène had lured her out of
the sickroom to be able to sever the gas pipe
and simulate an accident. She described his
heavy drinking and angry outbursts, screaming
‘Go to hell!’ and ‘I will kick you out!’ at his wife
in the presence of the servant. There was a
painful interlude as the little boy Eugène John
described how his papa used to call mamma
bad names, swear at her, strike her, and make
her cry. Papa had also freely cuffed and kicked
the children when they made a noise, although
he had never administered a proper thrashing.
A former maid described how, in 1876, she had
rescued Madame Chantrelle from her abusive
husband; when they had reported the matter
to a police constable, the furious Frenchman
had screamed, prophetically as it turned out,
‘I will do for the bitch yet!’ Yet another maid
described how Eugène kissed her and tried to
take liberties with her, only desisting when she
threatened to tell her mistress. The amorous
Frenchman had just 17 shillings in the bank
and he owed £200 to various tradesmen.
The medical evidence pointed in favour
of opium poisoning, the very same poison
the prisoner had purchased a quantity of
just weeks before the murder. The defence
had a difficult task, concentrating on
finding witnesses that corroborated some
of the prisoner’s statements, and persons
who could testify that he was not always
violent and abusive to his wife. The jury
returned a verdict of guilty and Lord
Moncrieff sentenced the prisoner to
death. He asked for a glass of whisky per
day and a supply of tobacco and cigarette
paper. When asked, on the night before
the execution, whether there was anything
he wanted, the prisoner said ‘Send in
three bottles of champagne and a whore!’,
a request that was denied him.The post-mortem examination
demonstrated the presence of opium in
the vomit on the patient’s nightdress