Hélène Jegado
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Hélène Jegado (1803-1852) was a French domestic servant and serial killer. She murdered at least 23 people with arsenic between 1833 and 1841 and in 1851.
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[edit] Early life and crimes
Hélène Jegado was born on a small farm near Lorient, Brittany. She lost her mother at the age of seven and was sent to work with two aunts who were servants at the presbytery of Bubry. Little is known of her early life until she became a cook in the nearby village of Guern.
She committed her first known poisoning in 1833 when she was working for a priest, Le Drogo, in Guern. In the three months between June 28 and October 3 she poisoned seven members of the household, including the priest, and her own visiting sister. Her apparent sorrow and pious behaviour was so convincing she was not suspected.
Jegado went to replace her sister in Bubry and poisoned three people, including her other aunt. She continued to Locmine, where she boarded with a needlewoman, Marie-Jeanne Leboucher - both her and her daughter died and a son fell ill. He survived (maybe because he did not accept her ministrations). When a widow in the same town offered her a room, she died after eating a soup Jegado had prepared.
In 1835 Jegado was employed as a servant in a convent in Auray - but rapidly dismissed after several incidents of vandalism and sacrilege.
Jegado worked as a cook in many households and was employed only briefly in each. Often someone fell ill or died. Apparently the poisonings were retaliation for what Jegado considered ill treatment; if somebody admonished her, she answered with poison. Most victims died showing symptoms of arsenic poisoning, though she was never caught with arsenic in her possession. If she tended the "sick", she in effect ensured that they died. There is no record of suspected deaths from 1841 to 1849 but a number of her contemporary employees later reported a number of thefts; she was apparently a kleptomaniac and was caught stealing several times.
Her career took a new turn in 1849 when she moved to Rennes.
[edit] Arrest
In 1850 Jegado joined the household staff of Théophile Bidard, a law professor at the University of Rennes.
One of his servants, Rose Tessier, fell ill and died when Jegado tended her. In 1851, one of the other maids, Rosalie Sarrazin, fell ill as well and died. Two doctors had tried to save Sarrazin and because the symptoms were similar to those of Tessier they convinced the relatives to permit an autopsy. Jegado aroused suspicion when she announced her innocence before she was even asked anything, and she was arrested July 1, 1851.
Later inquiries traced 23 cases of poisoning between 1833-1841 to her, but none of these was thoroughly investigated since they were outside the limit for prosecution. Local folklore has attributed to her many unexplained deaths - some of which were almost certainly due to natural causes. The most reliable estimate is probably about 36.
[edit] Trial
Jegado's trial began December 6, 1851 but, due to local laws of permissible evidence and statute of limitations, she was accused only of three murders, three attempted murders and 11 thefts. Jegado's behaviour was erratic, changing from humble mutterings to loud pious shouting. She consistently denied she even knew what arsenic was, against all evidence to the contrary. Doctors who had examined her victims had not usually noticed anything suspicious, but when the most recent victims were exhumed, they showed signs of arsenic.
The defence lawyer, Magloire Dorange, made a remarkable closing speech - arguing that she needed more time than most to repent and could be spared the death penalty since she was dying of cancer anyway.
The case attracted little attention at the time, pushed off the front pages by the coup d'état in Paris.
Jegado was sentenced to death by guillotine and executed on February 26, 1852.
[edit] References
- J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, The New Murderer's Who's Who, 1996, Harrap Books, London
- Arthur Griffiths, Mysteries of Police and Crime, 1898, London
- French Crime in the Romantic Age, 1970, London
- Lascelles Wraxall, Criminal Celebrities, 1863, London
In French :
- Pierre Bouchardon, "Hélène Jégado", 1937, Albin Michel, Paris
- Peter Meazey, "La Jégado", 1999, La Plomée, Guingamp 22, paperback 2006, Astoure, Plurien 22.