Discover the true story of Victorian Scotland's trial of the century. It was a case that rocked Victorian society. Emile L'Angelier was a working-class immigrant from the Channel Islands who began a clandestine affair with prominent Glasgow socialite Madeleine Smith. Six weeks after Emile threatened to show Madeleine's father their passionate letters, on 23 March 1857, he was found dead from arsenic poisoning. The evidence against Madeleine seemed overwhelming as she went to trial for murdering her lover. Douglas MacGowan's vivid account reads by turns like a thriller, a love story and a courtroom drama. He quotes extensively from contemporary sources, notably the pathology reports, the trial testimony and the infamous correspondence between Madeleine and Emile, whose explicit content so shocked Victorian sensibilities. Ultimately it is up to the reader to judge Madeleine's guilt or innocence.

A scandalous secret affair in 19th Scotland between an upper class woman and a gentleman of lower standing ends in his murder by poison...

Madeleine Smith's murder trial was made famous by the shocking nature of her letters to the lover she was supposed to have poisoned. She has always been thought guilty of the crime, dispite the lack of enough evidence to convict her, but now, 150 years later, Campbells foresic discoveries turns the case on it's head.

This book explores the life of Madeleine Smith, who in 1857 was tried for poisoning her secret lover. As well as charting the course of this illicit relationship and Madeleine’s subsequent trial, the authors draw on a wide range of sources to pursue themes such as the nature of gender relations and the extent of women’s social and commercial activities, and to bring vividly to life the world of the mid-Victorian middle class.The book contains new discoveries about Madeleine’s long and colorful life after the trial which confirm the view that it is only in fiction that the bad end unhappily. The book will be of interest to academic social historians, but the fascination of its subject matter and the way in which much rich material is used to evoke a vivid sense of time and place, will also promote a wider interest among a more general readership.

Examinining the life and 1857 trial of Madeleine Smith accused of poisoning an undesired suitor, this book uses analyses of her correspondence with the victim. Her trial testimony reveals much about Victorian society, Scottish law and the woman.