Speaker 1: Welcome to criminal a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Fry and I'm Maria trem Marquis. And this week we
Speaker 1: are going to look into the life of Marie Lafarge, who,
Speaker 1: at just twenty four years old, became the sensational central
Speaker 1: figure in one of France's most notorious murder cases. Her crime,
Speaker 1: Marie was convicted of murdering her husband by poisoning him
Speaker 1: with arsenic But what's most notable about that in doing so,
Speaker 1: she became the first person ever to be convicted based
Speaker 1: on direct forensic toxicological evidence like on dexter or c
Speaker 1: s I. She was born Marie Kapelle in France in
Speaker 1: January of eighteen sixteen, and she was the daughter of
Speaker 1: a colonel in Napoleon's Artillery of the Guard. Her mother's
Speaker 1: lineage could be traced to France's reigning royal family. Her
Speaker 1: grandmother was the daughter of King Louis the thirteenth, father
Speaker 1: Philippi Galte and his mistress, Comtess Stefanie Felic. Marie was
Speaker 1: an aristocrat. She was beautiful, cultured woman who played the
Speaker 1: piano and wrote poetry in her memoirs, which weren't published
Speaker 1: until after her trial. Though she described herself as having
Speaker 1: an unhappy childhood, she claimed her father had often lamented
Speaker 1: not having a boy, and her younger sister, who was
Speaker 1: five years younger, was at least Marie considered prettier and
Speaker 1: more charming than she was, and when her father died
Speaker 1: in a hunting accident in five Marie was just twelve
Speaker 1: and her mother remarried very quickly, But just seven years
Speaker 1: later her mother also died, and that meant that orphaned
Speaker 1: Marie was sent to live with her aunt that was
Speaker 1: her mother's sister. Her aunt was also the wife of
Speaker 1: the Secretary General of the Bank of France. Though had
Speaker 1: said she was treated well in her new home and
Speaker 1: sent to the best schools. As an orphan, Marie's status
Speaker 1: went from aristocrat to poor cousin. She had no dowry
Speaker 1: of significance, rumored at only about ninety francs, and in
Speaker 1: those days, that made her a marriage liability. Her wealthy
Speaker 1: upper class he started to marry wealthy nobleman, but because
Speaker 1: of her financial situation, Marie was still without a husband
Speaker 1: at age twenty three, and at this time. In France,
Speaker 1: marriage for aristocratic women was a serious business, and so
Speaker 1: her uncle went to a matchmaker for help. The matchmaker
Speaker 1: did manage to strike a deal for Marie. Her arranged
Speaker 1: marriage was to Charles Lafarge, who was a robust man
Speaker 1: often described his course um, and he was merely a
Speaker 1: matter of expedience for both. Charles needed money to repair
Speaker 1: his estate and reinvigorate his business, and Marie was in
Speaker 1: desperate need of a husband. Charles had really presented himself
Speaker 1: as a wealthy manufacturer and a property owner with an
Speaker 1: annual income of thirty thousand francs from his iron foundry,
Speaker 1: but the reality was a little bit different. He had
Speaker 1: lost almost all of his money and his property during
Speaker 1: the French Revolution, so if Charles had offered an honest
Speaker 1: matchmaking profile, it wouldn't have been very appealing. He was
Speaker 1: a bankrupt widower with nothing but a collapsed chateau the
Speaker 1: Atto his one asset, if we're being generous, also had
Speaker 1: a serious rap problem, and when Marie first met Charles
Speaker 1: during a date to the opera, it wasn't exactly love
Speaker 1: the first sight. She found him to be common and
Speaker 1: boorish and ugly, and she really didn't like him very much,
Speaker 1: but still a short few days later they were engaged,
Speaker 1: and just a few more weeks later, in the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty nine, Marie and Charles were married, and
Speaker 1: not surprisingly, when she arrived at her new home at Leglandier,
Speaker 1: not far from Bordeaux, it turned out to be set
Speaker 1: within the ruins of a former monastery, and Marie was
Speaker 1: disappointed and asked for her new in laws. Uh. They
Speaker 1: were not the aristocracy that she was accustomed to rubbing
Speaker 1: elbows with. They were peasants, and they disliked her. Immediately,
Speaker 1: unhappy and disappointed with her new reality, Marie made a
Speaker 1: determined effort to break loose from Charles. On her first
Speaker 1: night in their new home, she locked herself in her
Speaker 1: room and wrote a letter to her new husband, egging
Speaker 1: him to free her from their marriage, or else, she threatened,
Speaker 1: she'd poisoned herself. This was also the first time that
Speaker 1: she invoked this idea of murder by Arsenic, although of
Speaker 1: course she was threatening to take her own life and
Speaker 1: not his. Writing quote, spare me be the guardian angel
Speaker 1: of a poor orphan girl, or if you choose, slay
Speaker 1: me and say I have killed myself, But later that
Speaker 1: night she admitted to her ruse. Charles in return, agreed
Speaker 1: not to act on his marital privileges at him until
Speaker 1: he had both renovated the house and saved his failing
Speaker 1: iron works business. He kept his word, and account suggest
Speaker 1: that things did seem to improve between the two of
Speaker 1: them over the next few weeks, but that didn't last.
Speaker 1: Charles really did seem to be trying. Charles spent a
Speaker 1: significant amount of money on his bride during this time.
Speaker 1: He really seemed to be doing his very best to
Speaker 1: win her over, and he wanted her to be able
Speaker 1: to pursue her intellectual interests and find some happiness. So
Speaker 1: he had her piano ship from Paris, and he also
Speaker 1: bought her an Arabian horse that she could ride around
Speaker 1: on the grounds. Uh and he also subscribed her to
Speaker 1: magazines and newspapers, and he set her up with an
Speaker 1: account at the local library. It does seem to be
Speaker 1: trying really hard, right, He's like, he's like, here's this
Speaker 1: Arabian horse that I bought for you. Please don't poison yourself, honey.
Speaker 1: I know what you expected, but I want to make
Speaker 1: this palatable for you. Yet, accounts of their marriage suggests
Speaker 1: Marie remained uncomfortable, feeling that his attentions toward her were
Speaker 1: and we quote paid in a manner that shocked her refinement. Still,
Speaker 1: in return, I mean Marie was not blind to the
Speaker 1: fact that he was making an effort. She started to
Speaker 1: take on her responsibilities as the mistress of the house,
Speaker 1: and at the top of her list of things to
Speaker 1: do is to take care of that pesky rat infestation.
Speaker 1: Damn rats. We're gonna get into a little bit of chemistry,
Speaker 1: but first we're gonna take a quick sponsor break. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Criminalia. Let's get into a pinch of chemistry
Speaker 1: for a moment. Arsenic is an element of the periodic
Speaker 1: table and it's naturally occurring state. It's not particularly toxic.
Speaker 1: It's white arsenic, which is a byproduct of the smelting
Speaker 1: process of various metals. That's highly deadly poisonous um. And
Speaker 1: that's what was commonly used to get rid of rodents
Speaker 1: and weeds, and almost anybody could buy it. In the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, Marie got hurt from the local druggist and
Speaker 1: also just as a historical cultural level set during this
Speaker 1: time in France, arsenic could be founded way more household
Speaker 1: products than you would probably feel comfortable with today. By
Speaker 1: mixing copper, arsenic, hydrogen, and oxygen together um it produced
Speaker 1: a brilliant green, though highly toxic pigment that was used
Speaker 1: in everything from kids toys to soaps and candles and
Speaker 1: fabric eyes, even wallpaper. Pretty Much anything that was colored
Speaker 1: this this green um during this period would have been
Speaker 1: laced with arsenic. It could even be found in medications
Speaker 1: that were used to treat everything from asthma to malaria
Speaker 1: and cancer to enhancing a waning male libido. Archnic wasn't
Speaker 1: just used to kill rats and mice. During the mid
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, when life insurance had gained popularity as an industry,
Speaker 1: arsenic took on a new identity as people saw a
Speaker 1: new chance to supplement their income. It was nicknamed the
Speaker 1: inheritance powder because it was so frequently used to kill
Speaker 1: off uncles and other family members who might leave behind
Speaker 1: a chunk of cash or some other assets. And although
Speaker 1: men committed about spousal homicides, women were not above using
Speaker 1: it to kill husbands. So some of this arthnic talk
Speaker 1: maybe like a review for you um. And because it
Speaker 1: was cheap and odorless and had no flavor. Artnic, as
Speaker 1: we have mentioned before, could not be detected in food
Speaker 1: or beverages, and because those symptoms that it caused, like
Speaker 1: diarrhea and vomiting an abdominal pain, are all pretty common
Speaker 1: for many other conditions, including cholera, a medical examiner usually
Speaker 1: had no way to discern whether or not poison was
Speaker 1: involved in a person death. The first sign that you've
Speaker 1: ingested arsenic, keep this in mind, is a sharp, burning
Speaker 1: pain in your stomach and esophagus, a symptom that comes
Speaker 1: on any time between about thirty minutes to several hours
Speaker 1: after you've swallowed that poisoned tea, and then comes the
Speaker 1: nausea and the vomiting and diarrhea. Arsenic will go on
Speaker 1: to damage the heart eventually, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: poisoned with arsenic have lingered on in their deathbeds for weeks.
Speaker 1: In fact, until the twentieth century, doctors had no idea
Speaker 1: how to treat arsenic poisoning. Uh They fed patients milk, vinegar, linseed, sugar, water,
Speaker 1: egg whites, you name it in order to induce vomiting
Speaker 1: and find a cure. They would even go through the
Speaker 1: contents of a victim's stomach, and eventually it was realized
Speaker 1: that some of the reaction that happened in the human
Speaker 1: body when ingesting arsenic. While arsenic had no odor, that
Speaker 1: process could produce a garlic smell, so if they smelled that,
Speaker 1: then they would suspect that arsenic had been involved. They
Speaker 1: also used that old standby of the time bleeding, whether
Speaker 1: by incision or more often with leeches. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: just difficult to prove poison as a murder weapon, it
Speaker 1: was also difficult to place the murderer at the scene
Speaker 1: of the crime. Dying from arsenic poisoning, as we just mentioned,
Speaker 1: could take hours and far longer if the poison had
Speaker 1: been administered in small doses like in your daily meals.
Speaker 1: Through much of the nineteenth century, it's estimated that about
Speaker 1: one third of all criminal poisoning cases involved arsenic poison.
Speaker 1: And this brings us back to Marie and Charles. Shortly
Speaker 1: after they were married in December of eighteen thirty nine,
Speaker 1: Marie made a will bequeathing her inheritance to Charles, with
Speaker 1: the agreement that he was going to do the same
Speaker 1: thing for her, and Charles did make a will bequeathing
Speaker 1: everything of his to his new bride, But then he
Speaker 1: made another will, a secret will, and in that secret will,
Speaker 1: he instead left his entire estate to his mother. So
Speaker 1: then just a few months into the marriage as well,
Speaker 1: Charles began having recurring spells of vomiting diarrhea, and while
Speaker 1: he was in a business trip to Paris, he snacked
Speaker 1: on a cake sent from his wife and fell violently ill.
Speaker 1: I believe it was a Christmas cake, which makes it
Speaker 1: somehow more cruel. I believe it was Mary Christmas. Charles
Speaker 1: returned home and his condition continued to deteriorate, and his doctors,
Speaker 1: both in Paris and a home, had diagnosed him with
Speaker 1: what they believed was cholera. But his friends and relatives
Speaker 1: really started to suspect that Marie might be the problem
Speaker 1: and the reason for his poor health. It just said
Speaker 1: that she refused to leave his bedside um In fact,
Speaker 1: as his condition worse, in Marie's mother in law had
Speaker 1: the remains of a glass of eggnog analyzed by the
Speaker 1: local druggist, who reportedly did find traces of arsenic in
Speaker 1: the beverage. There's this part of me that loves eggnog,
Speaker 1: so much that I'm like, how poison is it? Because
Speaker 1: maybe I'll drink in anyway. He's like, this is gonna
Speaker 1: kill me. The damn it's a delicious way to go. Uh.
Speaker 1: Although we're being very jovial, but we get to the
Speaker 1: very grave section next, which is less than a year
Speaker 1: into their marriage. It was just January of eighteen forty
Speaker 1: Charles died, and although she maintained she was completely innocent,
Speaker 1: Marie was suspected of having poisoned him. The evidence against
Speaker 1: her centered around the food she had offered to Charles,
Speaker 1: including not only the cake that she'd sent to him
Speaker 1: on his business trip, but nuggets of venison and truffles
Speaker 1: were in there as well. Uh. Suspicion also swirled around
Speaker 1: a small, mysterious box, the powdery contents of which Marie
Speaker 1: had been seen stirring into her husband's food and drink.
Speaker 1: Enough evidence was collected that she was arrested on suspicion
Speaker 1: of his murder. I will mention if you want an
Speaker 1: entertaining read her memoirs talk about this whole box thing
Speaker 1: and like accidental switcheroo of powders and oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: gum arabic and she's like it's it's good for your stomach.
Speaker 1: So Marie LaFarge's trial, which was held during the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty, became a sensation in Europe, and the
Speaker 1: fascinated public quickly divide it into pro in anti Marie camps,
Speaker 1: and in salons plays recreated the events of the trial.
Speaker 1: No one could get enough of this story. Marie's aunt
Speaker 1: had secured the best lawyer in Paris, a man named
Speaker 1: Alfonse Pier, who, with his associates Charles le Shau and
Speaker 1: THEEO dol Bach, would be Marie's defense team. Because of
Speaker 1: daily newspaper reports, Marie's case was one of the first
Speaker 1: followed closely by the public. She became the object of
Speaker 1: adoration for some as much as suspicion for others, and
Speaker 1: received thousands of letters and gifts and even marriage proposals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she kind of becomes one of the earliest um criminals
Speaker 1: to gain that weird dual notoriety where people are just
Speaker 1: obsessed with her on both sides of the belief of
Speaker 1: her innocence or guilt. When she entered court for the
Speaker 1: first time on September three of eighteen forty, she was
Speaker 1: dressed completely in morning gear, and she carried a small
Speaker 1: bottle of smelling salts with her throughout her child Marie
Speaker 1: had a flair for the dramatic. Her lawyer played up
Speaker 1: quote the excellence of her piano playing, her delightful voice,
Speaker 1: her competence in more than one science, her fluency in
Speaker 1: several languages, and her ability to compose in Italian verse.
Speaker 1: It kind of goes back to that thing we've talked
Speaker 1: about before, like she is such a great person, and
Speaker 1: look how adorable she is. There's no way she's bad. Exactly.
Speaker 1: If you've seen Chicago, she's tap dancing right now. Now.
Speaker 1: There is a little bit of twist that comes into
Speaker 1: the story here because while we have been talking about
Speaker 1: her murder trial, uh, it turned out that she actually
Speaker 1: ended up with two indictments against her. So there is
Speaker 1: the one that charged her with the murder of her husband,
Speaker 1: but there was a whole second charge that came up
Speaker 1: regarding a jewel theft. So here's the story about the
Speaker 1: jewel theft. A former school friend of Marie's accused her
Speaker 1: of having stolen her diamonds while visiting one summer before
Speaker 1: she had met Charles Lafarge. Marie actually freely admitted that
Speaker 1: the diamonds were in fact at her home, but she
Speaker 1: refused is to admit that she'd stolen them. She claimed
Speaker 1: her friend had interested the diamond necklace to her. So
Speaker 1: people generally did start to just believe that she was
Speaker 1: a thief because she had these jewels. And while some
Speaker 1: people that were following this trial so closely because it
Speaker 1: was a huge sort of media event, thought that, yeah,
Speaker 1: she might be guilty of this thievery, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean she's a murderous but other people just saw these
Speaker 1: two charges as entwined in regards to her very immoral
Speaker 1: character and thought that if she was capable of lying
Speaker 1: about stealing diamonds, and of course she was also capable
Speaker 1: of carrying out the murder of her husband, that it
Speaker 1: wasn't popular opinion that she was convicted on Marie was
Speaker 1: the first person convicted of murder by the use of
Speaker 1: direct forensic evidence forensic sciences which applies science to the
Speaker 1: analysis of physical evidence during a criminal investigation, and it
Speaker 1: was brand new at this time. Yeah. Toxicology in particular
Speaker 1: is the scientific study of chemicals, including poisons, on humans
Speaker 1: and other living things. Forensic toxicologists D d detection and
Speaker 1: treatment of poisons, as well as the effects poisons have
Speaker 1: on the body. Again bleeding edge science at this point, Yes,
Speaker 1: brand new information. So Marie never concealed her possession of arsenic.
Speaker 1: She bought it openly to kill rats, she stated. And
Speaker 1: that suspicious white powder she was seen stirring into her
Speaker 1: husband's food and drink, she insisted that was just gum arabic,
Speaker 1: which at the time was commonly used relief stomach complaints. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he he doesn't feel well. I'm trying to fix it.
Speaker 1: Unlike today, when autopsies are fairly common anytime foul play
Speaker 1: is suspected, in the nineteenth century, that was not really
Speaker 1: a standard procedure to interfere with a dead body. Often
Speaker 1: there were religious reasons for that. So although a post
Speaker 1: mortem was made on her husband's corpse, that was not
Speaker 1: done until some time after the fact, when it was
Speaker 1: insisted upon as all of these suspicions came up. Now,
Speaker 1: before we jump into uh, sort of the development of
Speaker 1: the tests that really damned Marie, we're gonna have a
Speaker 1: little sponsor break. During the first half of the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: Parisian academics were debating which tests and practices for arsenic
Speaker 1: detection were authentic and which were just bunk. But before
Speaker 1: they settled on one they were, there were big disagreements
Speaker 1: over the test's conclusiveness, and the debates became known as
Speaker 1: the Arsenic wars. One of the ways to test for
Speaker 1: arsenic was a procedure called the Marsh test that was
Speaker 1: invented by chemist James Marsh in the early eighteen thirties. Marsh,
Speaker 1: who was British, had first used this test in his
Speaker 1: lab in eighteen thirty two in a court case that
Speaker 1: involved a grandson accused of poisoning his grandfather. And while
Speaker 1: Marsha's test of the evidence did produce precipitate of arsenic sulfide,
Speaker 1: that compound was unstable and it broke down before the
Speaker 1: trial so it couldn't be used. That propelled Marsh to
Speaker 1: develop a much more robust version of his test, which
Speaker 1: he successfully did in eighteen thirty six, that being just
Speaker 1: a few years before Marie's came. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to Marie's case, it was the first time the local
Speaker 1: doctors had performed, or you know, frankly even heard of
Speaker 1: the Marsh test, which was, as we mentioned, still really
Speaker 1: quite new to scientists UM, and even in its refined version,
Speaker 1: it was also notoriously finicky UM. Ultimately, the local doctors
Speaker 1: performed it incorrectly anyway, and found no evidence of arsenic
Speaker 1: in the corpse. Um. The food that had been served
Speaker 1: to Charles, however, did test positive for the poison, and
Speaker 1: when all of these results were revealed in court, Marie
Speaker 1: in response fainted dead away and had to be carried out,
Speaker 1: very dramatic, but not everyone believed there was no poison
Speaker 1: in that corpse. It wasn't until one of the most
Speaker 1: prominent scientists of the time was called in by the
Speaker 1: defense team to help out in the case that evidence
Speaker 1: was found that Charles had indeed been poisoned with arsenic
Speaker 1: through his meals. That prominent scientist with Matteo or Phila.
Speaker 1: And or Phila was the dean of the Paris Faculty
Speaker 1: of Medicine and the premier toxicologist of the time. He
Speaker 1: actually went on to be recognized as the founder of
Speaker 1: the science of toxicology, and because he was living in France,
Speaker 1: he was considered France's foremost expert on the Marsh tests.
Speaker 1: The Marsh test was capable of accurately detecting minute quantities
Speaker 1: of arsenic as little as one fifth, yet as little
Speaker 1: as one of a milligram, and he could be used
Speaker 1: on bodies that had been long dead. Orphela, asked to
Speaker 1: verify that there was no arsenic in the corps, was
Speaker 1: able to prove conclusively to the court that there indeed
Speaker 1: was arsenic in Charles's exhumed body, which was said to
Speaker 1: resemble a quote paste rather than flesh. Also, because soil
Speaker 1: can naturally contain arsenic, he wanted to be very thorough,
Speaker 1: so he also tested the soil around the burial site
Speaker 1: to make sure that the corpse had not been contaminated
Speaker 1: by that, and none of that soil that was adjacent
Speaker 1: to his burial tested positive for arsenic. Things aren't looking
Speaker 1: good for our hero. While this was one of the
Speaker 1: first is where the Marsh test was successfully used to
Speaker 1: identify poisoning by arsenic, it was far from the last.
Speaker 1: Marsh continued to refine his revolutionary detection process, and with
Speaker 1: modifications along the way, it was usual reliably for about
Speaker 1: d and fifty years so, along with the enactment of
Speaker 1: divorce laws that made domestic homicide less tempting, the Marsh
Speaker 1: test and its ability to trace the murder weapon directly
Speaker 1: contributed to arsenic poisoning falling out of fashion, and for
Speaker 1: a little science on this test, it worked a little
Speaker 1: bit like this. A sample containing arsenic would be combined
Speaker 1: with sulfuric acid and zinc in an apparatus that was
Speaker 1: made up of tubes and rods and stopcocks and nozzles,
Speaker 1: just to name a few of its components. It was
Speaker 1: complicated and reacting with the zinc, the arsenic would turn
Speaker 1: to gas, and then when the gas was heated to
Speaker 1: a certain temperature, it left behind a film of metallic arsenic.
Speaker 1: That arsenic would appear as a black streak after it
Speaker 1: was allowed to cool on a piece of glass or porcelain,
Speaker 1: and that presentation came to be known in the court
Speaker 1: as the arsenic mirror. To counter the test damning results
Speaker 1: in Marie LaFarge's case, the defense team tried to debunk
Speaker 1: or Fiela's findings with another expert witness. This was Francois Spy,
Speaker 1: who also happened to be or Fila's enemy in the
Speaker 1: Arsenic War. So there's a whole secondary drama playing out here.
Speaker 1: But Respy actually got to the whole event too, late,
Speaker 1: the verdict had already been given and he wasn't even
Speaker 1: wanted by the time he got in the end. Uh.
Speaker 1: The jerry deliberated for just an hour, and Marie was
Speaker 1: found guilty. She was sentenced to life in prison. She
Speaker 1: was also sentenced to two years imprisonment for the theft
Speaker 1: of that diamond necklace UH time, which was merged with
Speaker 1: her life sentence. Considered a murderous yet still a respectable
Speaker 1: female criminal, and that respectable refers to her background of
Speaker 1: aristocratic birth. Marie was not sentenced too hard labor or
Speaker 1: to public pillory. In fact, she actually made use of
Speaker 1: the downtime that came with her sentence. UM. While Marie
Speaker 1: was incarcerated, she wrote two volumes of her memoirs. In them,
Speaker 1: she describes her arrival at the prison by saying, my
Speaker 1: arrival was expected. The populace crowded around my carriage. Shouts, laughter,
Speaker 1: gross and insulting words fell on my ears. The prison
Speaker 1: door opened. At the sound of the bolts, I involuntarily recoiled.
Speaker 1: I made two steps backwards. Then, collecting all my strength,
Speaker 1: with desperate courage, I crossed the threshold of my tomb.
Speaker 1: She's so dramatic she's such a writer. She is. This
Speaker 1: is why you like her. She's been my favorite. So
Speaker 1: in June of eighteen fifty two, after twelve years in
Speaker 1: prison and reportedly suffering from tuberculosis, Marie was finally released
Speaker 1: by Napoleon the Third. She died just five months later.
Speaker 1: In seven Marie's memoirs were adapted into the novel The
Speaker 1: Lady and the Arsenic, and her story also got cinematic
Speaker 1: treatment a year later with the release of the film
Speaker 1: La Fair Lafarge. And in nineteen fifty three, more than
Speaker 1: one years after her trial, CBS radio series Crime Classics
Speaker 1: broadcast a version of the story of Marie called The
Speaker 1: Seven Layered Arsenic Cake of Madame Lafarge. So as we
Speaker 1: look at Marie LaFarge's case, it's worth noting that her
Speaker 1: crime seems born of a feeling on her part that
Speaker 1: she had no voice or no recourse in her own life.
Speaker 1: If you read her memoirs, one of the pieces of
Speaker 1: advice that she had received from a friend, incidentally the
Speaker 1: friend entangled in that whole Necklace drama not long before
Speaker 1: being introduced to Monsieur Lafarge, lays bare her fraught situation.
Speaker 1: She was told quote. You have no fortune and are
Speaker 1: almost twenty three. A good marriage can alone confer in
Speaker 1: society that liberty necessary to your character. Listen seriously while
Speaker 1: I remind you of certain disagreeable but wholesome truths. Your
Speaker 1: health is not good, and the nature of your complaint
Speaker 1: does not add to your beauty. You will soon be
Speaker 1: an old maid, as dissatisfied with yourself as you will
Speaker 1: be disagreeable to others. Avert this by becoming an amiable wife.
Speaker 1: You would not hear me last winter, and evaded the
Speaker 1: subject every time I attempted to speak on it. Now
Speaker 1: I have caught you, and I am determined to persuade
Speaker 1: you to make up your mind and to make you
Speaker 1: happy in spite of yourself. That's some harshness. That is, like,
Speaker 1: you know how people will say, like a friend will
Speaker 1: tell you the truth, that is that might be a
Speaker 1: little too much truth. I feel like she's like, I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna see her again. I can just tell her everything.
Speaker 1: I think. I think it's like it's a little cruel
Speaker 1: to just be the truth in some way. I know,
Speaker 1: it's like you're getting old, you're getting ugly. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: This this section where She's like, your health is not good,
Speaker 1: and the nature of complaint does not add to your beauty.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's some unkind, it's an unkind. Whammo, Holly,
Speaker 1: you would not hear me last winter. That rather sobering
Speaker 1: advice from the Vicomtess Delta and relayed in Marie's memoir
Speaker 1: makes very very clear that as a fallen daughter of
Speaker 1: the aristocracy, fallen simply because she was orphaned, who is
Speaker 1: gasp aging, She's just doomed unless she finds a husband asap.
Speaker 1: And remember she was like twenty three without a husband.
Speaker 1: She's right, I mean, so when is this She's like
Speaker 1: one or twenty two, and her friends like, you're getting
Speaker 1: old pretty much. It doesn't look good on you. Additionally,
Speaker 1: per her memoirs, she really really thought she was marrying
Speaker 1: into a much better situation than she ended up in.
Speaker 1: Marie recounts an evening where Charles showed her and her
Speaker 1: aunt beautifully colored illustrations of his iron works and his home,
Speaker 1: and how it was simply told to her that all
Speaker 1: of this was her future, as her marriage had been
Speaker 1: decided for her, and she describes the mo meant in
Speaker 1: the wedding ceremony when it was time to say yes
Speaker 1: to a life as Charles LaFarge's wife, by saying quote,
Speaker 1: I felt that I was giving away my life. This
Speaker 1: is all to say that while she was a killer,
Speaker 1: Marie was also at her core a woman who felt
Speaker 1: very trapped. Hey Maria, it's time for what's your poison?
Speaker 1: So what is your poison this week? Holly? So this
Speaker 1: week I have one that is invented by a French person. Allegedly.
Speaker 1: That inventor is Arid to Louse Lautrec you were recognize.
Speaker 1: And this drink is called an earthquake. It is composed
Speaker 1: of equal parts absinthe and Kogac delicious. Okay, let me
Speaker 1: set the scene at my house. So two things, I
Speaker 1: am a drinker. My husband is not. Um. I like
Speaker 1: Annis and my husband does not. Just set that up
Speaker 1: right there, right that I love Annis and drinking. Um,
Speaker 1: that's two things you love about me quite a bit.
Speaker 1: So I put together this little mixture, which is mercifully easy. Right,
Speaker 1: an equal part drink is super easy to put together. Um.
Speaker 1: And it was funny because my husband Brian had kind
Speaker 1: of said, like, I doubt this is going to be
Speaker 1: the drink for me, but I'll try it. And so
Speaker 1: I had some and I kind of made a surprised
Speaker 1: face because I honestly thought it was gonna be yucky.
Speaker 1: But in fact, there's something cool that happens um where
Speaker 1: the absinthe really is like the main player. That's where
Speaker 1: most of the flavor comes in, and the knyak doesn't
Speaker 1: undercut it. The absence kind of overwhelms it. So it
Speaker 1: just sends up tasting like a super kind of liquorice
Speaker 1: e minty thing that you know is going to get
Speaker 1: you super drunk. Like I know, I know it's called
Speaker 1: an earthquake because because I'm I'm pretty sure you lose
Speaker 1: sense of ground being solid if you drink a lot,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I said when I had it, like
Speaker 1: if I had two of these, I would be stumblina
Speaker 1: Rex even just after the second one. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: after like having a sip and a half. But so
Speaker 1: the funny thing is my husband took a sip and
Speaker 1: like looked slightly terrified for a minute and they're like wow,
Speaker 1: and then he was like this is not for me.
Speaker 1: So so it is pretty fun. And if you want
Speaker 1: to have a historical cocktail, it's an easy one to
Speaker 1: throw together once you have acquired the absinthe in the Koonak.
Speaker 1: But it seemed like a good fit because it kind
Speaker 1: of makes me think of the duality of Marie and
Speaker 1: Charles and they're doomed marriage. Um, so that is our
Speaker 1: what's your poison for today? The earthquake? The earthquake. We
Speaker 1: hope that you like us. You're here to the end,
Speaker 1: So thank you for listening to Criminalia, and if you
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Speaker 1: just think that's grand. You can do that on the
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