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<td width="494"><b><font color="#990000"><font size=+2> </font><font color="#990000"><font size="5"><b><font size="+2">Analysis
of the case</font></b></font></font></font></b></td>
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<td width="494"><a href="index.htm"><img src="jpgs/blylite.JPG" border=0 height=302 width=491 usemap="#MapMap"></a><a href="index.htm"><map name="MapMap"><area shape="rect" coords="105,181,165,262" alt="The Smith's front door" title="The Smith's front door"><area shape="rect" coords="166,261,335,279" href="#" alt="kitchen windows (front area)" title="kitchen windows (front area)"><area shape="rect" coords="415,218,435,278" alt="Minnoch's Door" title="Minnoch's Door"><area shape="poly" coords="179,245" href="#"><area shape="poly" coords="471,241" href="#"><area shape="rect" coords="104,121,468,178" alt="Minnoch's apartments" title="Minnoch's apartments"><area shape="rect" coords="457,200,471,245" alt="Bessie's bedroom" title="Bessie's bedroom"><area shape="rect" coords="369,260,409,283" alt="Madeleine's bedroom windows" title="Madeleine's bedroom windows"><area shape="rect" coords="437,200,452,244" alt="John's bedroom window" title="John's bedroom window"><area shape="rect" coords="178,183,356,247" alt="Smiths' drawing room" title="Smiths' drawing room"><area shape="rect" coords="366,186,409,244" alt="Smiths' dining room" title="Smiths' dining room"></map></a></td>
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<div align="left"><a name="TheRiddle"></a>To a great extent, the story has survived
in popular mythology because of "the riddle" - certain curious facts which have
intrigued students of the case since 1857. The assumption that Madeleine was
guilty, leaves the following facts without any satisfactory explanation: </div>
<ul>
<li><b>L'Angelier's first "illness"</b> (19th February) <i>preceded</i>
Madeleine's first purchase of arsenic (21st February).
<li><b>The quantity of arsenic</b> which remained in his stomach, after his
death, indicated that he'd taken at least half an ounce of arsenic. Arsenic
is a white crystalline powder. It's taste is at first indiscernible, then
bitter and nauseous. It has a gritty consistency, and is only partially soluble
in water above 13ºC at a ratio of less than 4%. An uncertain proportion (depending
upon the viscosity of the liquid) would be held in suspension in the cocoa
or coffee. The rest would settle as a gritty precipitate in the bottom of
the cup. It follows that for L'Angelier to have ingested half an ounce of
arsenic, there would necessarily have been greater than half an ounce of arsenic
in the cup - and half an ounce is greater than the amount which might escape
detection. There has never been a case, other than suicide, involving such
a quantity of arsenic. It was one of the first questions we asked of an eminent
Scottish toxicologist and his opinion, without reservation, was that L'Angelier
knew exactly what, and how much, he was swallowing.
<li><b>The colour of the arsenic</b> - The arsenic which Madeleine had purchased
at the chemists was stained, some with indigo some with soot, as required
by law. During the post-mortem, the arsenic which was found in L'Angelier's
stomach was white. Dr Penny was <a href="Prosecution.htm#Penny_recalled">recalled</a>
after having given arsenic stained with the same colorants to dogs and testified
that the colorant was easily detected in the stomach and organs.</li>
<li><b>The well of suspicion</b> - In the weeks leading up to his death, L'Angelier
had been hinting to all and sundry that Madeleine was trying to poison him
yet he continued to take cocoa from her. The prosecution attempted to get
round this by suggesting that, at some point, his "suspicions were lulled"
but that completely fails to address the even more remarkable fact that, as
he lay dying, he now mentioned nothing of these "suspicions" to
the doctor.</li>
<li><b>The question of motive</b> - The motive for murder might seem apparent
to someone who has not really considered Madeleine’s position but, in reality,
she had absolutely nothing to gain from L’Angelier’s death and everything
to lose. It was the existence of the <i>letters</i> which occupied her
mind day and night. Removing L’Angelier by poisoning could only guarantee
that the letters would fall into the hands of the authorities and make certain
of the exposure and public humiliation she hoped to avoid at all costs. She
had every motive to keep him alive and well.</li>
</ul>
<p>
<font color="#990000">
<h3>So what really happened?</h3>
</font>
<p>The whole case turns on a few days over a period of a fortnight:
<table border=0 rules=NONE cellpadding=5 valign=TOP>
<tr>
<td valign=top><font size=-1>Wed 28 Jan</font></td>
<td><font size=-1>Madeleine accepts William Minnoch's offer of marriage.
She writes to L'Angelier. He just returns the letter to her.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign=top><font size=-1>Mon 02 Feb</font></td>
<td><font size=-1>The return of the letter gives Madeleine the excuse she
needs to write to L'Angelier and end the affair.</font></td>
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<td valign=top height="10">
<p><font size="-1">Tue 03 Feb</font></p>
</td>
<td height="10"><font size=-1> <a name="kennedy"></a>L'Angelier receives Madeleine's
letter - doesn't reply immediately - tells Thomas Kennedy, with tears in
his eyes, that he would <font color="#000000">"<a href="Prosecution.htm#ThomasKennedy">never
allow her to marry another man as long as he lived</a>."</font></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign=top><font size=-1>Mon 09 Feb </font></td>
<td><font size=-1>
<p>Madeleine, still having had no reply from L'Angelier, and still unaware
of the danger she is in, sends him an abrupt note (<i>deliverable Tuesday</i>).
After she has posted it, L'Angelier's blackmail letter arrives (threatening
to show her letters to her father). She writes again, this time pleading
with him not to carry out his threat and telling him that she will be
<b>disowned</b>.
</font></td>
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<td valign=top bgcolor="#CC0000"><font size="-1" color="#CCCCCC"><b><font color="#FFFFFF">Tue
10 Feb</font></b></font></td>
<td>
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<td valign=top>
<td valign="top"><font size=-1>L'Angelier receives <i>both of</i>
Madeleine's letters. He knows, <font color="#CC0000"><b><font color="#000000">today</font></b></font>,
for the first time, that he has no hope of marrying into the Smith
family (marriage to a <i>disowned</i> Madeleine was not what he had
in mind).
<p>The last time he was jilted by a wealthy girl (the "Lady in Fife")
he had all but lost his mind. He later resolved and avowed that
if the same thing should ever happen again, he would not be the
one to suffer - he said he would take <i>revenge</i>. To his mind,
Madeleine had robbed him of his future - and she would now pay the
price.
</font></td>
<td><img src="jpgs/1857feb.JPG" width=294 height=202></td>
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<tr bgcolor="#E4E4E4">
<td valign=top bgcolor="#CC0000"><b><font color="#CC0000"><font size="-1" color="#FFFFFF">Wed
11th</font></font></b></td>
<td><font size=-1>L'Angelier now wasted no time putting his plan for revenge
into action. He made the first entry in a diary. The entry gives no indication
of the crisis that he was living through on this, the very day after learning
that everything he had worked for, for the past two years, had been lost.
All it says is, "<i>Dined at Mr Mitchell's; Saw M. at 12pm in
CH Room</i>." The casual tone of his notes contrasts sharply
with the turmoil of his life at that very moment.
<p>That, in itself, should have been enough to draw the attention of Madeleine's
defence team but the most striking feature of this diary is that this
entry - <font color="#000000">Wednesday 11th February</font> - was the
very <i>first</i> entry in the diary. <i>There are no previous
entries. </i> From the first moment of putting pen to paper, this
diary had only one purpose: to put a noose around the neck of Madeleine
Smith.
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<p>
<font color="#990000">
<h3>The unsuspecting victim</h3>
</font>
<p>His scheme was so transparent - the diary is such an obvious fabrication -
that it is hard to believe anyone could be taken in by it but, in the minds
of all involved in the case - both prosecution and defence - his arsenic ridden
corpse established the plain, obvious, and seemingly indisputable fact that
<i>he</i> was the victim. How could it possibly be otherwise? As with all the
best riddles, we are tricked by our own assumptions.
<p>From that day on, firstly by making it known that he was suffering from unaccountable
illnesses after visiting Madeleine and by priming his friends with heavy hints
of poisoning, he set about creating a well of suspicion against her, and the
diary, he believed, would put her guilt beyond doubt.
<ol>
<li><b><a name="19th"></a>Thu 19th </b>February (Diary) - "<i>Saw Mimi
a few moments was very ill during the night.</i>"</li>
<li><b>Fri 20th Feb</b> (Diary) - "<i>Passed two pleasant hour with
M. in the Drawing Room.</i>" <b>Sat 21st Feb</b> (Diary) - "<i>Don't
feel well.</i>"</li>
<li><b>Sun 22nd Feb</b> (Diary) - "<i>Saw Mimi in Drawing Room
- Promised me French Bible. Taken very ill.</i>"</li>
<li><b>Mon 23rd Feb</b> Emile tells Thomas Kennedy, "<i>I am very
ill,</i>" and gets sent home. ..Emile calls on Dr Thomson. Thuau visits Emile.</li>
<li><b>Mon 2nd Mar</b> Emile tells Mary Perry he had been
very ill, after his last meeting with Madeleine - "<i>Well, I never expected
to see you again.</i>" </li>
<li><b>Mon 9th Mar</b> - The most telling evidence of all - Emile gets
leave of absence... takes tea with Mary Perry and informs her about a cup
of chocolate which had made him ill... "<i>I can't think why I was so unwell
after getting that coffee and chocolate from her.</i>" Evidently, however,
Miss Perry is not quite catching on so he tells her, "<i>it is a perfect fascination
I have for (Madeleine) - if she were to <b>poison</b> me I would forgive her.</i>"</li>
<li><b>Mon 16th Mar</b> L'Angelier visits Mr and Mrs Towers in Portobello
- he talks "almost the whole time about his health" - he talks about being
very ill and he then declares that he believes he may have been <b><i>poisoned</i></b>.</li>
</ol>
<p><b><a name="psychopaths"></a>Mon 23rd Mar</b> As he is attended by the doctor
in his final hours, he now makes absolutely no mention of that which has been
such a favourite topic of conversation for the past few weeks - coffee, chocolate,
poison and Madeleine Smith. Obviously, he now has no choice but to feign ignorance.
Had he made any mention to the doctor of his "suspicions," the question would
immediately have arisen, "but why, if you thought you were being poisoned, did
you take more?" In fact, the role of accuser has been assigned to Miss Perry.
She, by now, was well primed for the task and, <i>had she arrived earlier</i>
that morning, she could have informed the doctor that the possibility of poison
must be considered, and his life might have been saved. He waited until daylight
before sending for Miss Perry but, for whatever reason, Miss Perry did not come
immediately. The best laid schemes of mice and <a href="strengthandweakness.htm">psychopaths</a>
gang aft aglee. Under the combined influence of arsenical poisoning and the
morphia which the doctor had prescribed to alleviate the pain, he fell asleep,
never to wake.</p>
<p>And now, one more bizarre fact which had emerged in testimony falls in to place:
L'Angelier, who was brought up in the gardening business in Jersey, was unusually
familiar with arsenic. He not only knew it as a weedkiller and insecticide -
he used it as a <i>drug</i>. He had boasted about <i>how much arsenic he could
hold without any ill effect</i>. The cholera-like symptoms, indicative of arsenical
poisoning, which he reported in the weeks prior to his death were exactly the
same as had been witnessed by acquaintances long before he even met Madeleine
Smith. He was well aware of the effect of taking more than a small dose of arsenic.
He had also spoken about how it could improve the complexion (even the Lord
Justice-Clerk observed that there is no doubt he had previously mentioned to
Madeleine it's use as a cosmetic).
<p>Reading through Madeline's letters to L'Angelier, one of the most prominent
features to mark their unusual correspondence is her almost slavish response
to his harping and advice on all matters, particularly regarding her behaviour
and appearance. If there was an enduring and defining theme of their relationship,
it was Madeleine's expected obedience to L'Angelier's wishes and advice. Now,
with the threat of making her letters public, he had her more completely in
his power than ever before; if he merely suggested she should use arsenic for
her complexion, she was in no position to ignore his advice. Right on cue, she
writes to L'Angelier, "<font color="#990000">My head aches and I'm looking so
bad… but I'm taking some stuff to bring back the colour</font>."
<p>On the 18th of February, Madeleine tells L'Angelier that she has tried the
arsenic, as he advised. On the 19th, believing that she is now in possession
of the poison, L'Angelier reports his first "illness" but in fact it was two
days later, on the 21st, when Madeleine made her first purchase.
<p><a name="6thMarch"></a>On the 6th of March, Madeleine again bought stained
arsenic from the chemists. On the same day, L'Angelier visited the Botanic Gardens
where he used to lodge and where, at that time, - we have now (140 years after
the event) established - <i>white arsenic was then being used as a weedkiller</i>.
The Prosecution's agents made enquiries of Glasgow chemists to ascertain if
anyone by the name of L'Angelier had signed his name on any of the poison's
registers! Unbelievably, no attempt was made by Madeleine's defence team to
put L'Angelier with a source of white arsenic. They knew he was at the Botanic
Gardens on the 6th of March but <i>they never made the connection</i>.
<p>John Inglis' defence of Madeleine Smith has gone down in legal history. His
skilful and eloquent address to the jury has commanded the respect of generations
of young lawyers. It is impossible to read that address without being impressed
by the man's eloquence and by his force of argument. Madeleine Smith had, possibly,
as good a defence as a murderess ever had but that was the problem - John Inglis
believed that he had succeeded in getting a guilty woman her freedom. In actual
fact, he condemned an innocent woman and her family to the stigma of suspicion
which has persisted to this day.
<p><a href="Story.htm#Miller">[back to story]</a>
<center>
There remains one mystery and it was pointed out to me a few years ago, by
a Scottish journalist:
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<h4><font color="#990000">
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<p>"why has it taken us all this time to see through the twisted little bastard?"<br />
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<h4><font color="#990000">
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<font face="ARIAL"><font color="#666666"><font size="+1" color="#999999">S
I T E D I R E C T O R Y</font></font></font>
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