Eugene Marie Chantrelle

Eugene was a French born school teacher from Edinburgh who poisoned his wife Elizabeth by inserting opium into her food. He had taken out an insurance policy the previous year for one thousand pounds which included a clause for accidental death. He tried to disguise the poisoning by making the death look as if it was the result of a broken gas main in the bedroom. Traces of opium were found in vomit stains on his wife's night gown and Chantrelle was arrested and charged. Found guilty he was hanged at Calton Prison by William Marwood on the 31st May 1878.  He was forty four when he died.