Serial poisoner Hélène Jégado is arrested in Rennes, France, on July 1, 1851.

Later inquiries link her to twenty-three suspected deaths by poisoning between 1833 and 1841, but none of these are thoroughly investigated since they are outside the ten-year limit for prosecution and there is no scientific evidence.

Local folklore has attributed to her many unexplained deaths, some of which were almost certainly due to natural causes.

The most reliable estimate is that she probably committed about thirty-six murders.

Although there is not much information stating why she committed these crimes, it can generally be linked to psychological issues.

Jégado once stated that murdering people gave her a sense of power, which she enjoyed.

Jégado's trial begins on December 6, 1851 but, due to French laws of permissible evidence and statute of limitations, she is accused only of three murders, three attempted murders and eleven thefts.

At least one later case appears to have been dropped since it involved a child and police are reluctant to upset the parents by an exhumation.

Jégado's behavior in court is erratic, changing from humble mutterings to loud pious shouting and occasional violent outbursts against her accusers

She consistently deniea she even knows what arsenic is, despite 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 overwhelming evidence of arsenic and possibly antimony.

The defense lawyer, Magloire Dorange, makesa remarkable closing speech, arguing that she needs more time than most to repent and can be spared the death penalty since she is dying of cancer anyway.

The case attracts little attention at the time, pushed off the front pages by the coup d'état in Paris.

Jégado is sentenced to death by guillotine and will be executed in front of a large crowd of onlookers on the Champ-de-Mars in Rennes on February 26, 1852.