A QUEER CASE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10753, 26 November 1928, Page 7

A QUEER CASE.

THE MARIE LEFARGE TRIAL.

TWELVE YEARS' GAOL

One of history’s strangest murder cases was that in which the lovely and beautiful French woman Marie Lafarge was accused of causing the death of her husband. She was the daughter of one of Napoleon’s favorite officers, Colonel Capellc, of the Old Guard, and the granddaughter of the famous Duke of Orleans. When very young she was forced into a marriage of convenience with Charles Lafarge, a young ironmaster, who lived with his mother in a great country place known as Les Glandiers.

The day following her honeymoon she begged her husband to free her from her vows on the ground that she loved another. He was furious over this, but eventually they became reconciled and seemingly lived happily. But her grim mother-in-law disliked her from the fir'st and her existence in the gloomy country place was far from ideal. Presently, as an evidence of her affection for her husband, the young woman made a will, leaving him all her fortune. He wr.s so touched by this that he made a similar will in her favor. Soon after this Lafarge had to go to Paris to raise money for his business and he took with him one of'his foremen named Denis. The wife was ill at the time, . but during all of the four weeks in his absence, they exchanged letters constantly. With one of these letters, she sent a minatnre of herself and a few small cakes, requesting that he eat one of them at midnight, at which time she, according to an ancientcustom, would eat a. similar cake as a pledge •of their mutual love. It is claimed that when this box arrived at the hotel it was opened not by himself, but by a servant. According to the testimony at the trial when this box reached Lafarge it contained not the several small cakes, but a larger one. VIOLENTLY ILL. He ate of it and was taken violently* ill. He returned home and during his illness Marie was constantly by ins side. The old house contained' rats, and he ordered arsenic from the chemist to get lid at them. The man Denis procured the stuff. _

In the meantime Lafarge continued to grow worse and Marie begget 1 . that a noted specialist be called in. But the mother refused his request and employed a young and inexperienced doctor. Lafarge died ana Marie was seemingly so stricken with grief that she became ill herself. Then, to the amazement of everybody, Marie Lafarge was arrested on the charge of having poisoned her husband. The accusation was made Hy her mother-in-law and the foreman Denis.

That was not all of it. AA’hile the bride of less than a year was awaiting trial for murder she was accused of having stolen the diamonds be longing to the Marquise de' Liautaurd. They were found in Marie’s dressing case. She confessed to her attorney that the Marquise had selected her as a go-between in order to sell the gems, so that she might have the money to meet the demands of a, former lover who had blackmailed her. She was not believed by the jury and was convicted of the theft, and soon after found guilty of murdering her husband. She was sentenced xe death by the guillotine, protesting her innocence all the time. The flood of nrotests that went up all over the country caused the Government to commute the sentence to life imprisonment. It developed later that the Marquise de Liantaurd was really Being hlackrniailed and that a French officer,, bearing the same name as the blackmailer, had received a bc«c of diamonds, expressed by someone named Liautaurd. to whom it had. been returned unopened. The prisoner was not given a new trial, Hut after twelve years in prison she was pardoned. " . ’ To this day it is believed in France that she was guiltless of the crime for which she was convicted. But if she was innocent who was the person responsible for the- death of Charles Lefarge ?