UNPARALLILID CARIER OF CRIME.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 367, 20 June 1884, Page 5

UNPARALLILID CARIER OF CRIME.

, There died a short time ago, in the Tjiison of St.. Aritoine de Geneva, a i/romaij ' qi' the .name of Marie Jeanneret, one: ,o£ the most remarkable criminals of the age and probably the no»t extensive prisoner of the time. Her case' is all the more remarkable i;i that it presents some curious psychological problems, and that strangely iftinough, she waa the cause of the abolition of the death penalty in the canton of Geneva. The following sketch of tjie woman's career and crimes wag contributed to the • Daily News ' by a correspondent in Switzerland. ; j Marie Jeanneret (says the bio-, gjraphef) belonged to one of • the most hpnoraWe families in the canton of Keuchatel, where she was born in 183^. ' She inherited £rom her parents, both of whom died when she was an infant, a modest competency. Marie remained at school until she reached hfer ' nineteenth jear, and was oareful.ly, and religiously brought up ,by hf r "uncle, who was also her guardian. Her character,. as observed by those a^out her, was peculiar. She had a 'defective judgment a strong will, incqnscant tastes and a restless disposition, a tendency to falsehood and a pission for intrigue. She was vain, tdo, and likeel to attract attention and be talked about. On the other hand, she was regular in her attendance at i cljurch, and assiduous in her religious duties. She did not enjoy very good health, but was suspected of.exaggerating her maladies. By dint of read-; ing medical books and consulting many doctors ■ she obtained sotu© knowledge of medicine, of which she wus very proud, and often expressed a desire to become a sick nuree. She complained much of her eyes, pretejnded at one time to be blind, and in| 186oj consulted Dr Dor, of Vevey, who ascertained by a decisive experiment that the affection was imaginary. Hie did not' prescribe for her, .but it is I probable that she took the oppcjrtutiity, while his back was turned, ofiappropriating a bottle of atropine. Another doctor whom she consulted prescribed belladonna, and as she kept the prescription by her she was enabled to procure a supply of that drug at! pleasure. In the spring of 1860 Miirie Jeanneret, while staying at the Pension Beroud at Vevey, made the acquaintance of a Mademoiselle Berthet, of Nyon, whose aymathy was won by her sufferings — real or supposed, her insinuating manners, and her religious professions. They became fast friends, were nearly always together, and used each other's rooms as if they belonged to both. One day . after dinner, Madamoiselle Berthet asked for a glass of water, but the day being warm', Jeanneret suggested that a mixture of wine and eau sucree would be the safer beverage. The mixture was made accordingly and drunjr, and shortly afterwards the two friends started for Clarens. On the way thither Mademoiselle Berthet became very ill. She was «ick, the pupils of her eyes seemed to be paralysed, her eyes felt as heavy as lead. Jeanneret showed much sympathy, lifted the lids o£ her friend's eyes to examine them more closely, and suggested remedies. After a short rest at Clarens Mademoiselle Berthet recovered sufficiently to r«turn tp Vevey, whither she was accompanied by Jeanneret. ( Come into my room," said the latter, on their arrival at the Pension Beroud, ' and } will give you an effervescing drink," ...'■-.• The invitation was accepted, and Jeanneret prepared the mixture, ..uaing. for the purpose some drugs contained in the small 1 arsenal of bottles which she always carried about with her.

' Drink quickly,' she said, ' while tha effervescence lasts.' Mademoiselle Berthet did drink quickly, Jeatineret eyed her curiously, and while in the vrry act of returning her -• the'- gtass hei friend fell back on a sofa in a state of utter nervous pross tration. All the night and the whole of the next day she was delirious, and her friends, being informed by tele* graph of her illness, fetched her homo, and by so doing undoubtedly saved her life. Three days passed before Bhe could sufficiently command herself to explain to her medical attendant, Dr Larobassy, of Njon, how she bad been taken ill. After hearing her statement, and asking her some questions, Dr Lambassy said that it looked very much as if she had been poisoned by belladonna. The pupils of her eyes were extremely dilated, hpr very ft -a tt res were altered, and months >-l.\>s c before her sight was fully re-ifo-'-'). Mademoiselle Berthet also believed (hat she had been poisoned, but by mistake, her idea being that Jeanneret had got the bottles mixed and given her the wrong stuff inadvertently, and this opinion she retained until subsequei t rKvelafion?! showed how terrible had been her danger and how narrow her escape. This was probably Jeanneret's fir.sf essay at murder^ and it will be observed, as a curiouß feature of the case, that she had nothing to gain by her friend's death. On the face of it the crime was absolutely motiveless. From Yevey Jeanneret went to Loo-le, her native place, and in the following October she entered the nursing school oi Lausanne, in order to qualify herself for the calling for which she had so often expressed a predilection. After a stay of two months she left the school without completing her course, on the ground that the state of her eyes rendered her unfit for work, M. Reymond, the manager of the establishment was struck by something strange and undefinable in the new neophyte's character. She was restless, emotional and talkative; peculiarities the reverse of desirable in a sick chamber. Whether she tried any experiments on the patients in the hospital is unknown, but she was occasionally sent out to nurse patients at their own houses, and to one of them, Madame Chabloz, she almost certainly gave belladonna. One night Jeannerefc called on Madame Chabloz's married daughter, Madame Eichenberg, and said her mother was very ill. Madame Eichenberg found the latter with wide open eyes, a face expressive of intense terror, and talking wildly and laughing deliriously. The doctor was sent for and came, but suspected nothing. Another time she wont into the dining room while the Eichenbergs were at supper, and gave the children some bonbons, which she called " princesses." All who ate of them were very sick and vomited much. Still nobody suspected that Jeanneret was a secret poiponer.

The scene now shifts to Geneva, where, at the time in question, there lived a certain Madame Juvet, wife of a tradesman, who, together with two friends — Madame Vaucher and Maienloiselle Farsat — had formed the design of establishing a maison de sante, or private hospital, for convalescents. The better to fit themselves for this undertaking they spent a few days in the nursing school at Lausanne. While there thej- made the acquaintance of Marie Jeanneret, who, when informed of their project, applied for the situation of nurse in the new hospital. She asked no palary, only board, lodging, and washing. She nursed for the pleasure of nursing, not for money. Her offer was accepted, and after a yisit to Locle she went to Geneva, and quickly became absolute mistress of the maison de sante. Madame Juvet seems i to have submitted to her influence from the first, and before Jeanneret had been in the house many days she contrived, to scfc her ancl Madame "^Vac/ier and Madaiaoiselle Farsatby the ears. They quarreled, and the two latter refused to have anything further to do with the affair. When they were out of the way Jranneret took little Julie Juvet, who, she said, was in delicate health, to consult a doctor atLausanne. Shortly after their return "the poor child fell ill, after eating some of the nurse's bonbons, and took to her bed, never to rise from it again. The doctor thought she was suffering from meningitis. One day, as M. Juvet subsequently re* lated, his wife heard her daughter cry* ing in the next room. On going in she found Jeanneret whipping her,and the child begged her mother piteously not to. let the nurse come near her any more. But so great was her infatua-> tion, so implicit her confidence, that even this incident does not seem to have shaken Madame Juvet's faith in Jenneret. People remembered afterwards that it was about this time that the nurse told the servants and several others that Madame Juvet was a doomed woman, and that her son Emile was threatened with a serious illness: A few days later Madame Juvet did in effect fall ill, and one morning Emile, after drinking a cup of coffee, felt violent pain ancl vomited profusely. Fortunately for him, he left the maison de sante on the following morning, and thenceforward experienced no further unpleasantness either from drinking cocoa or anything else. Meanwhile, Madame Juvet suffered from continued relapses, and whenever Lr Benet, who attended her suggested that she was better, Jeanneret always answered that she did did not think the improvemont would last. And it did not. Poor little Julie died on December 27, 1867, and a month later hnr mother was laid in the same grave. When Julie's body wa^ afterwards exumed it was too rmich decomposed to be analysed, but in Madame Juvet's body were found great quantities of morphine, antimony, and some copper. l^Tor were these two the only victi4s. . Before they died .the lives of three other inmatfts of the hospital, all of whom were nursed by Jeanneret

had bpon quenched by the snmc means. One was an old woman of the name of Hahn j another, .'.* an aged- demoiselle," was called Gay ; and the third, also a demoiselle, bore the name of Junod. She died after three days illness and delirium, in great agony. Thus finished th maison de sante. Two servants, M. Juvet, and Jeanneret were the only survivors of the household. Still the doctors suspected nothing, or, if they did, they kept their suspicions to themselves. Jeanneret, whose occupation was for the moment gone, went into lod gings, pretended to be ill and took to her bed ; but, more fortunate than her patients, she got better. When she recovered Bhe bagan to look out for another situation, and in company with a friend, paid a visit 1o the hydropathic establishment known as the Bains de Divonne, a beautiful place at the foot of the Jura, and some eight miles from Geneva. She was received by Madame Yidart— who herself told me the story — the wife of the late Dr Paul Yidart, the then proprietor and physician of the establishment. In the course of conversation the fri.-nd mentioned that Mademoiselle. Jianneret had be«n garde malade to th« Maison dft Sante Junet, where five persons had died in three months. " How sad V exclaimed Madame Vidart. " Yes it is very said when so many die," returned Jeanneret, mats il y a des beaux moments dans la mort. (There are some beautiful moments in death.) Then she spoke about a place as garde malade. One of the patient 8 happened to be wanting a nurse, and Madame Yidart told Jeanneret she would communicate with her in the course of a few days. After the two women were gone she wrote to a physician in Geneva, asking him to make some enquiries concerning Jeanneret's character and qualifications. * Don't have anything to do with her,' was the answer ; ' all her patients die.' ' I can never think of that woman without a shudder,' said Madame Yidart to me one day ; * she would have poisoned us all.' However, Jeanneret was shortly afterwards engaged to nurse a Madame Lenoir, an old lady who was suffering from inflammation of the lungs. She, too, died, and then Jeanneret leased a furnished room from M. Gros, a retired schoolmaster, with whom lived Madame Bouvier, his widowed daughter j Again Marie obtained an engagement, I this time to nurse Madame Bourcart, a lady who lived at La Boissiere, a country house near Geneva. Four days after she entered on her duties Madame Bourcart had a 'crisis' accompanied by delirium and vomitings, and Jeanneret told the servants that their mistress would die young, like her brother. When Madame Bourcart became a little better she showed a strong repugnance to Jeanneret, and would not have the nurse near her, and as Monsieur Bourcart had begun to suspect that she was playing some tricks with the medicines, she was sent away. He remarked one evening that a certain bottle of medicine, of which he knew his wife had several doses during the day, had not diminished in volume. He put the bottle aside, but took no further steps, : for, though he distrusted Jeanneret, it had not then occurred to him that she wag a poisoner. She went back to her lodgings, and M. Gros and Madame Bouvier, whose confidence she had already gained invited her to live with ' them en pension. Three days later Madame Bovier fell ill, and so rapidly ' grew worse that it was deemed necessary to call in two physicians, T)rs Lombard and Goudet. They took it to be a case :of congestion of the brain, albeit Dr Lombard several times observed that it presented symptoms the like of . which he had never seen before. She died on May 22, 1869. Her father j after nursing her a few days, had- also been taken ill; his illness followed precisely the same course as hers, and, like hers, ended THev -^ere killed as was afterwards abundantly proved, by atropine, mqrph ine. and antimony During then* sickness one of their relations, a Madame Legeret, after drink ing a glass of eau sucree given to her by Jeanneret, became so seriously indisposed that she had to be taken home in a cab. The doctor who wa called in recognised symptoms of bella donna poisoning, but, thinking that Madame Legeret had swallowed by mistake some atropine intended for external use, he did not suspect foul play. Proper remedies were administered, and after a severe struggle she recovered. Jeanneret next took up her abode at the Pension Desarzens, and made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle Frizges, who one day after drinking a glass of le.^onadiO, given by the garde malade, became delirious and terribly ill. The doctor was called in, recognising symp toms of poisoning by belladonna and suspecting foul play, ordered her immediate, removal to the cantonal hosprs tal. Dr Kapin, of the hospital, male a similar diagnosis. He had heard of Jeanneret before. He communicated his suspicions, together with a sketch o£ Jeanneret's career, to the Procureur General, who forthwith had her arrested. A long inquiry followed ; the bodies of her supposed victims were exhumed. Marie was examined au secret, and after a prolonged inquiry she was placed on her trial Tho charge against her was that in 1867 and 1868 she had attempted in the Canton of Geneva, the lives of (1), Louise Junod j (2), Jeanne Gay; (3), Jenny Julie Juvet; (<±) Louise Henriette; (5), Madame Bourl c\rt ; (6), Jacques Gros ; (7), Joulie Bou^ier ; (8), Madame Legeret ; (9), Demoiselle l ? ritzges. There were several other charges that might have been brought against her, but as the relatives of the persons whom she may have poisoned did not suspect foul play the bodies were not exhumed, and the attempts she made in the Canton Yaud did not fall within the jurisdiction of the tribunals of Geneya'.. Before the' trial began the Judge d'lnstructiop. ordered the accused to

be examined by three experts in men--1 tal disease, for it was hardly conceivable that any Bane person could be < guilty of the series of purposeless and '•diabolical crimes imputed to Marie 1 Jeanneret. After a long investigation the experts came unanimously to the conclusion that there was discernible in her no sign of feeble mindedness or mental alienation. She labored under no hallucination, and during her long preventive imprisonment and her frequent examinations she had shown more than usual intelligence and presence of mind. Of the nine persons whom she was accused of poisoning j seven had died, and in the bodies of all of them that were not too much decom- ' posed to be analysed was found enough of atropine, morphine, and antimony to account for their deaths. Large quantities of these drugs were found in Jeanneret'a possession, and in the bottle seized by Mr Bourcart when she was nursing his wife atropine was also detected. Jeanneret herself was constrained to admit that she had given people poison but pleaded that she had given it in ignorance and in the hope that it would do them good. To this the Judge replied that, inasmuch as she had given poision to people in robust health, and her patients invariably died, her excuse aggravated rather than extenuated her offence. In the end Marie Jeanneret was found guilty of murdering six persons and attempting to murder two others by administering to them poisonous drugs. But as the jury gave her the bfnefit <f '* extenuating circumstances," the Court could pronounce no heavier sentence than twenty years' imprisonment. At that time death was the penalty of unqualified murder in the Canton of Geneva, and if Marie Jenneret had been a man she would most assuredly hare lost her head. But the jury could not bring their minds to decree the death of a woman, and so the worst and most dan* gerous poisoner of the age escaped the rightful penalty of her crimes. After letting off Marie Jeannoret with a term of imprisonment it was clearly impossible to punish any other murderer more severely, and a law abolishing capital punishment was shortly afterwards adopted by the local Legislature. The singularity of Marie Jeanneret's case lies in the apparently motiveless character of her crimes. The people . she poisoned had done her no harm, and she gained nothing by their death. At the maison de sante she had free quarters;in her other places she had free quarters and good wages. She deliberately killed the geese that had laid her golden eggs. Why t Her remark to Madame Vidart gives us one clue to the riddle. She had a morbid pleasure in suffering and death. She wrote letters to her friends, whiob were read on her trial, describing " with a species of exultation " the last, moments of her patients. She loved power, too, and had an eggregious vanity. What power can be greater than the power of life and death ? What could be more gratifying to a diabolically vain creature like Jeanneret than to feel that, albeit those about you know it not, their fate, tfiei^Tery lives, are in your hands % " The doctor says ' that — — will get better, 5 ' she would say,, speaking of one of her victims. " Well, I — l tell you she will not get better." You will soon see who is right. These doctors are fools." Then, to fulfil her predictions, she took a life. A weaker, though in intention an equally evil nature, migh have been deterred from committing murder by fear of the consequences ; but Marie, who had a strong will and no scruples, never let " I dare not " wait on " I would." : She positively revelled in the- idea that by means of the tiny bottle or the pinch of powder she carried in her pocket she could control the destinies of families and alter all the conditions of human life ; and in the end her passion for poisoning, growing by what it fed on, took entire possession of her mind. She liked it just as some people like ; slaughtering pheasants or shooting tigers. That she escaped detection so long was due in a great measure to the absence of apparent motive. Next to I a doctor, a sick nurse is the very last i person likely to be suspected of secret poisoning. Either by accident or design, moreover, she generally gave atrophine and morphine together ; and as the active principles or opium and belladonna are in some respects antagonistic the one to a certain extent neutralised the effects of the other, and thereby rendered it more difficult to disguise the pialadies of her victims. Yet even allowing for this difficulty, it is hard to resist the conclusion that the doctors with whom she came in contact justified by their blindness the low esteem in which she held them.

After her condemnation Marie Jeanneret was incarcerated in the prison of St. Antoine, where, as 1 have said, I saw her a short time ago, and where she remained until her death. She was a little woman with black hair, dark eyes, a very pale face, and square, resolute-looking jaws. It was impossible to contemplate that face without a shudder, and I thought I saw in it something indefinably strange, threatening, and sinister; but this impression oaay have been due in part to the consciousness that I was in the presence of a criminal who had probably poisoned more people than any person then living. I did not, of course, speak to her about her crimes. The subjects mooted were her occupation — lace-making, at which she was a great adept — and the state of her health. It was clear that s^ e still liked to talk about herself, to think that she was a sort- of celebrity, and had made some noise in the world. After her conviction as the director of the gaol informed me she fully admitted having poisoned all the persons whose deaths she had been accused of compassing, but she would never admit that she had committed crimes : she culled them' /antes — mistakes. The prison discipline of Geneva it> extremely mild. The prisoners are

not punished — they are merely detained — and the work they are given to do is regarded rather as a recreation than an infliction. ~No difference is made between the treatment of murderers and any other convicts. Marie Jeanneret's cell was a comfortable room, warm and well lighted : and, as far as was possible to judge, she did ! not seem unhappy. Many a better person was a great deal worse off. Whether such a system would answer in a larger community than that of Greneva may be questioned, but there can be no doubt that it is quite in accord with the prevailing opinion of the Suisse Romanole (French and Italian speaking Switzerland) that responsibility for crime rests in a great measure with society itself, and that criminals, being the victims of circumstances and the creatures of iheir antecedents, are more to be pitied than blamed.