It is not clear in the accounts available to me just what particular
murders by poison, what attempts at poisoning, and what thefts Helene
was charged with in the indictment at Rennes. Twenty-three poisonings,
six attempts, and a number of thefts had been washed out, it may be
as well to repeat, by the prescription legale. But from her arrival in
Rennes, leaving the thefts out of account, her activities had accounted
for the following: In the Rabot household one death (Albert, the son)
and three illnesses (Rabot, Mme Rabot, the mother-in-law); in the Ozanne
establishment one death (that of the little son), in the hotel of the
Roussells one death (that of Perrotte Mace) and one illness (that of
the Veuve Roussell); at the Bidards two deaths (Rose Tessier and Rosalie
Sarrazin). In this last establishment there was also one attempt at
poisoning which I have not yet mentioned, that of a young servant, named
Francoise Huriaux, who for a short time had taken the place of Rose
Tessier. We thus have five deaths and five attempts in Rennes, all
of which could be indictable. But, as already stated, the indictment
covered three deaths and three attempts.
It is hard to say, from verbatim reports of the trial, where the matter
of the indictment begins to be handled. It would seem from the evidence
produced that proof was sought of all five deaths and all five attempts
that Helene was supposed to be guilty of in Rennes. The father of the
boy Ozanne was called before the Rabot witnesses, though the Rabot death
and illnesses occurred before the death of the Ozanne child. We may,
however, take the order of affairs as dealt with in the court. We
may see something of motive on Helene's part suggested in M. Ozanne's
evidence, and an indication of her method of covering her crime.
M. Ozanne said that Helene, in his house, drank eau de vie in secret,
and, to conceal her thefts, filled the bottle up with cider. He
discovered the trick, and reproached Helene for it. She denied the
accusation with vigour, and angrily announced her intention of leaving.
Mme Ozanne took pity on Helene, and told her she might remain several
days longer. On the Tuesday following the young child became ill. The
illness seemed to be a fleeting one, and the father and mother thought
he had recovered. On the Saturday, however, the boy was seized by
vomiting, and the parents wondered if they should send for the doctor.
"If the word was mine," said Helene, who had the boy on her knees, "and
the child as ill as he looks, I should not hesitate." The doctor was
sent for about noon on Sunday. He thought it only a slight illness.
Towards evening the child began to complain of pain all over his body.
His hands and feet were icy cold. His body grew taut. About six o'clock
the doctor came back. "My God!" he exclaimed. "It's the croup!" He tried
to apply leeches, but the boy died within a few minutes. Helene hastened
the little body into its shroud.
Helene, said Ozanne, always talked of poison if anyone left their food.
"Do you think I'm poisoning you?" she would ask.
A girl named Cambrai gave evidence that Helene, coming away from the
cemetery after the burial of the child, said to her, "I am not so sorry
about the child. Its parents have treated me shabbily." The witness
thought Helene too insensitive and reproached her.
"That's a lie!" the accused shouted. "I loved the child!"
The doctor, M. Brute, gave evidence next. He still believed the child
had died of a croup affection, the most violent he had ever seen. The
President questioned him closely on the symptoms he had seen in the
child, but the doctor stuck to his idea. He had seen nothing to make him
suspect poisoning.
The President: "It is strange that in all the cases we have under review
the doctors saw nothing at first that was serious. They admit illness
and prescribe mild remedies, and then, suddenly, the patients get worse
and die."
M. Victor Rabot was called next. To begin with, he said, Helene's
services were satisfactory. He had given her notice because he found her
stealing his wine. Upon this Helene showed the greatest discontent, and
it was then that Mme Rabot fell ill. A nurse was put in charge of her,
but Helene found a way to get rid of her. Helene had no love for his
child. The child had a horror of the servant, because she was dirty and
took snuff. In consequence Helene had a spite against the boy. Helene
had never been seen eating any of the dishes prepared for the family,
and even insisted on keeping certain of the kitchen dishes for her own
use.
At the request of his father-in-law Helene had gone to get a bottle
of violet syrup from the pharmacist. The bottle was not capped. His
father-in-law thought the syrup had gone bad, because it was as red as
mulberry syrup, and refused to give it to his daughter (Mme Rabot). The
bottle was returned to the pharmacist, who remarked that the colour of
the syrup had changed, and that he did not recognize it as his own.
Mme Rabot having corroborated her husband's evidence, and told of
Helene's bad temper, thieving, and disorderliness, Dr Vincent Guyot, of
Rennes, was called.
Dr Guyot described the illness of the boy Albert and its result. He then
went on to describe the illness of Mme Rabot. He and his confreres had
attributed her sickness to the fact that she was enceinte, and to
the effect of her child's death upon her while in that condition. A
miscarriage of a distressing nature confirmed the first prognosis. But
later he and his confreres saw reason to change their minds. He believed
the boy had been poisoned, though he could not be certain. The mother,
he was convinced, had been the victim of an attempt at poisoning, an
opinion which found certainty in the case of Mme Briere. If Mme Rabot's
pregnancy went some way in explaining her illness there was nothing of
this in the illness of her mother. The explanation of everything was in
repeated dosing of an arsenical substance.
The witness had also attended Mme Roussell, of the Bout-du-Monde hotel.
It was remarkable that the violent sickness to which this lady was
subject for twenty days did not answer to treatment, but stopped only
when she gave up taking food prepared for her by Helene Jegado.
He had also looked after Perrotte Mace. Here also he had had doubts
of the nature of the malady; at one time he had suspected pregnancy, a
suspicion for which there were good grounds. But the symptoms that later
developed were not consistent with the first diagnosis. When Perrotte
died he and M. Revault, his confrere, thought the cause of death would
be seen as poison in an autopsy. But the post-mortem was rejected by the
parents. His feeling to-day was that Mme Roussell's paralysis was due
to arsenical dosage, and that Perrotte had died of poisoning. Helene,
speaking to him of Perrotte, had said, "She's a chest subject. She'll
never get better!" And she had used the same phrase, "never get better,"
with regard to little Rabot.
M. Morio, the pharmacist of Rennes from whom the violet syrup was
bought, said that Helene had often complained to him about Mme Roussell.
During the illness of the Rabot boy she had said that the child was
worse than anyone imagined, and that he would never recover. In the
matter of the violet syrup he agreed it had come back to him looking
red. The bottle had been put to one side, but its contents had been
thrown away, and he had therefore been unable to experiment with it.
He had found since, however, that arsenic in powder form did not turn
violet syrup red, though possibly arsenic in solution with boiling water
might produce the effect. The change seen in the syrup brought back from
M. Rabot's was not to be accounted for by such fermentation as the mere
warmth of the hand could bring about.
Several witnesses, interrupted by denials and explanations from the
accused, testified to having heard Helene say that neither the Rabot boy
nor his mother would recover.
The evidence of M. Roussell, of the Bout-du-Monde hotel, touched on
the illnesses of his mother and Perrotte. He knew nothing of the food
prepared by Helene; nor had the idea of poison occurred to him until her
arrest. Helene's detestable character, her quarrels with other servants,
and, above all, the thefts of wine he had found her out in were the sole
causes of her dismissal. He had noticed that Helene never ate with the
other domestics. She always found an excuse for not doing so. She said
she had stomach trouble and could not hold down her food.
The Veuve Roussell had to be helped into court by her son. She dealt
with her own illness and with the death of Perrotte. Her illness did not
come on until she had scolded Helene for her bad ways.
Dr Revault, confrere of Guyot, regretted the failure to perform a
post-mortem on the body of Perrotte. He had said to Roussell that if
Perrotte's illness was analogous to cholera it was, nevertheless, not
that disease. He believed it was due to a poison.
The President: "Chemical analysis has proved the presence of arsenic in
the viscera of Perrotte. Who administered that arsenic, the existence of
which was so shrewdly foreseen by the witness? Who gave her the arsenic?
[To Helene] Do you know? Was it not you that gave it her, Helene?"
At this Helene murmured something unintelligible, but, gathering her
voice, she protested, "I have never had arsenic in my hands, Monsieur le
President--never!"
Something of light relief was provided by Jean Andre, the cabinet-making
ostler of Saint-Gilles, he for whose attention Helene had been a rival
with Perrotte Mace.
"The service Helene gave was excellent. So was mine. She nursed Perrotte
perfectly, but said it was in vain, because the doctors were mishandling
the disease. She told me one day that she was tired of service, and that
her one wish was to retire."
"Did you attach a certain idea to the confidence about retiring?"
"No!" Andre replied energetically.
"You were in hospital. When you came back, did Helene take good care of
you?"
"She gave me bouillon every morning to build me up."
"The bouillon she gave you did you no harm?"
"On the contrary, it did me a lot of good."
"Wasn't the accused jealous of Perrotte--that good-looking girl who gave
you so much of her favour?"
"In her life Perrotte was a good girl. She never was out of sorts for a
moment--never rubbed one the wrong way."
"Didn't Helene say to you that Perrotte would never recover?"
"Yes, she said that. 'She's a lost woman,' she said; 'the doctors are
going the wrong way with the disease.'
"All the same," Andre went on, "Helene never ate with us. She worked
night and day, but ate in secret, I believe. Anyhow, a friend of mine
told me he'd once seen her eating a crust of bread, and chewing some
other sort of food at the same time. As for me--I don't know; but I
don't think you can live without eating."
"I couldn't keep down what I ate," Helene interposed. "I took some
bouillon here and there; sometimes a mouthful of bread--nothing in
secret. I never thought of Andre in marriage--not him more than another.
That was all a joke."
A number of witnesses, friends of Perrotte, who had seen her during her
illness, spoke of the extreme dislike the girl had shown for Helene
and for the liquids the latter prepared for her. Perrotte would say to
Helene, "But you're dirty, you ugly Bretonne!" Perrotte had a horror of
bouillon: "Ah--these vegetable soups! I've had enough of them! It was
what Helene gave me that night that made me ill!" The witnesses did not
understand all this, because the accused seemed to be very good to her
fellow-servant. At the bedside Helene cried, "Ah! What can I do that
will save you, my poor Perrotte?" When Perrotte was dying she wanted to
ask Helene's pardon. Embracing the dying girl, the accused replied,
"Ah! There's no need for that, my poor Perrotte. I know you didn't mean
anything."
A witness telling of soup Helene had made for Perrotte, which the
girl declared to have been poisoned, it was asked what happened to the
remainder of it. The President passed the question to Helene, who said
she had thrown it into the hearth.