The Real Life Assassin Behind ‘Killing Eve’ and Other Fascinating Historical Criminal Tidbits

1.     A Lethal Love Affair That Shocked Victorian Britain

In 1855, Madeleine Smith, the twenty-year-old daughter of a prosperous Glasgow family, fell in love with Pierre Emile L’Angelier, a warehouse clerk. Smith’s parents forbade the relationship on grounds of L’Angelier’s humble social background and poor financial prospects. Love – or lust – won over, however, and the duo commenced a torrid affair that scandalized Victorian Glasgow. By early 1857, things had run their course far as Smith was concerned, and she agreed to marry a more suitable man introduced by her parents. L’Angelier was not ready to let go. When Smith asked him to return hundreds of steamy love letters in which she had promised to marry him, he refused. Instead, he threatened to publish them unless she agreed to marry him. He never got to carry out his threat.

On March 23^rd, 1857, L’Angelier died of arsenic poisoning. Police investigation revealed that Smith had recently bought arsenic. They also found L’Angelier’s diary, in which he expressed his suspicion that he had been poisoned by Smith. So she was arrested and charged with murder. The trial became a sensation. Between Smith’s beauty, and the steamy love letters whose contents were read in court, Victorian Britons were captivated. Smith’s poise swayed spectators, and she testified that she had bought arsenic not to poison her ex-lover, but as a facial cleanser. She swayed the jury, who returned a verdict of “not proven”, and she was set free. After the scandal, Smith’s family was forced to leave Glasgow. She married twice, and ended her days in obscurity in New York, in 1928.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Adventures in History – The Saga of Anesia Cauacu (Portuguese)

Annals of Crime – The Real Father of Organized Crime in America

Capeci, Jerry – The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Mafia (2005)

Casual Criminalist – The Nun’s Tale: Sister Virginia Maria

Central European History Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2003) – The ‘Captain of Kopenick’ and the Transformation of German Criminal Justice 1891-1914

Courier Evening Telegraph, November 15^th, 2021 – Love and Arsenic: The Strange Affair of Madeleine Smith

Daily Mail – Real Life Killing Eve is Now Working for the Red Cross

Guardian, the, November 15^th, 2003 – The Dead Poet’s Tale

History Collection – Grudge Matches, Beefs, and Rivalries Petty and Small of Famous Historic Figures

Honolulu Star Advertiser, March 18^th, 2018 – Hawaii Ponzi Schemer and Professed Secret Agent Dies at 76

Jones, Terry – Who Murdered Chaucer? A Medieval Mystery (2003)

Legends of America – Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen

Mazzucchelli, Mario – The Nun of Monza (1963)

Miranda, Marcos Paulo de Souza – Jurisdiction of the Captains: A History of Januario Garcia Leal, Seven Ears (2001 – Portuguese)

National, The, May 15^th, 2020 – The Real Villanelle … and How She Killed Her Victims

New York Post, February 5^th, 2021 – Real ‘Killing Eve’ Villanelle Screwed Up a Hit While Admiring Herself

New York Times, September 3^rd, 1985 – CIA Officers Testify at Hawaii Fraud Trial

Owlcation – 10 Famous Female Outlaws of the Wild West

Owlcation – Did Adelaide Bartlett Get Away With Murder?

Raab, Selwyn – Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (2005)

Shirley, Glenn – Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and the Legends (1982)

Undiscovered Scotland – Madeeline Smith

University of Leicester Academic and Staff Blogs – Dismemberment in Victorian London: The Thames Torso Murders

Washington Post, May 5^th, 2017 – Five Myths About the Mafia