Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé

Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé

Murder of Gustave Fougnies

Alfred Julien Gabriel Gérard Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé (* 1818 ; † July 19, 1851 in Mons ) was a Belgian nobleman and convicted murderer . The poisoning he committed became known mainly because the chemist Jean Servais Stas first detected nicotine as a poison in a murder case during the toxicological examination of the victim Gustave Fougnies .

Life

Hippolyte Visart was the son of Count Julien Visart de Bocarmé (1787-1851) and Ida du Chasteler (1797-1873). He was born on the high seas in 1818 while his parents traveled to Java , where his father was to take over the post of governor. The birth certificate was not issued until 1819 in Weltevreden on Java. He spent his early years in Java before the family returned to Europe. After his father lost his job in 1830, he moved with him to Arkansas , where his father worked as a trapper. After returning to Belgium, Visart de Bocarmé settled in Bitremont Castle.

In 1843 he married the middle-class Lydia Fougnies, daughter of a wealthy trader. The marriage resulted in a total of four children: Rodolphe (1844–1844), Robert (1845–1907), Mathilde (1848–1914) and Rose-Eugénie (1849 – unknown).

Due to their pompous lifestyle, the couple was constantly in need of money, despite financial support from Lydia's father. After the death of Lydia's father, her brother Gustave Fougnies inherited the entire estate. Gustave Fougnies was chronically ill and also suffered from the consequences of a poorly healing foot amputation . Due to the poor health of his brother-in-law, Visart de Bocarmé expected the unmarried man to die soon. He hoped that with the expected inheritance he could finally pay off his immense debts.

However, when Fougnies announced his engagement in November 1850, Visart de Bocarmé saw his hopes for a quick inheritance disappointed. He invited Fougnies to his castle on November 20, so that he would look after the castle during the couple's supposed trip to Germany. Fougnies died, allegedly as a result of a stroke , during the joint meal, at which, in addition to the guest, only Visart de Bocarmé and his wife were present .

The following day, Judge Heughebaert arrived at the castle to investigate Fougnie's death. The castle servants told him of noises that indicated an argument between the two men. Since both Fougnie's face and Visart de Bocarmé's hands showed the marks of a fight and a burn was visible around the mouth of the deceased, doubts soon arose as to the couple's version. Heughebaert ordered the couple to be arrested and taken to Tournai Prison .

The chemist Jean Servais Stas was commissioned to examine samples from the corpse's stomach and intestines to determine the cause of death. After weeks of experiments, he discovered that alkaloids such as nicotine - unlike all components of a human body and stomach contents - are soluble in both water and alcohol. By washing and filtering, Stas managed to secure a lethal amount of nicotine. With this, Stas proved that fougnies were poisoned by the alkaloid.

Further investigations showed that the count had turned increasingly to chemistry and botany in his spare time and had read Mathieu Orfila's writings, among other things . He had extracted the nicotine from tobacco leaves and used it to kill some animals for experimental purposes. Based on what was known at the time, he assumed that the poison was undetectable.

On the basis of the numerous circumstantial evidence, Visart de Bocarmé and his wife came to court in Mons. The count always protested his innocence.

After a three-week trial, Visart de Bocarmé was sentenced to death, but his wife was acquitted. On 19 July 1851 Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé was on the Grand Place in Mons in front of numerous onlookers by the guillotine executed .

Post-history

Numerous publications on Belgian criminal history as well as on criminalistics and toxicology as case studies reported on the poisoning committed by Visart de Bocarmé and Stas' investigations .

In 1968 the case was dealt with in part of the Belgian television series Beschuldigde sta op . Actor Bob Van der Veken took on the role of Count Bocarmé .

In 1972, the WDR produced a radio play version of the case under the title Graf Bocarmé und die Chemie . Directed by Edward Rothe.

In the early 1990s, the Brussels Comédie Claude Volter showed the case-based play Nicotine et guillotine .

literature

• Julius Eduard Hitzig , Willibald Alexis : Count Bocarmé and his wife. In: The new Pitaval . Collection of the most interesting crime stories from all countries from older and more recent times. Vol. 19, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1852, pp. 78-309 ( digitized version ).
• Frédéric Thomas: Petites causes célèbres du jour. Vol. 12, 1855.
• Pierre Bouchardon: Le crime du chateau de Bitremont. A. Michel, 1925.
• Alfred Gallez: Le sire de Bitremont; affaire de Bocarmé. P. de Méyère, Brussels 1959.
• Henry Soumagne: Le seigneur de Bury. F. Larcier, Brussels 1946.
• Jürgen Thorwald : The century of the detectives. Paths and adventures of criminology. Droemer Knaur, Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-85886-092-1 .
• Robert Wennig: Back to the roots of modern analytical toxicology: Jean Servais Stas and the Bocarmé murder case. In: Drug Testing and Analysis . No. 1, 2009, pp. 153-155, PMID 20355192 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Georg Schwedt : Chemistry and literature: an unusual flirt. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-527-32481-1 , p. 226 ( online ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} L'affaire Visart de Bocarmé at visart.be, accessed on November 21, 2012
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Extraordinary trial for murder in Belgium in Leed's Mercury , June 7, 1851.
4. ↑ Hippolyte enfants at visart.be, accessed on November 23, 2012
5. ^ The Bocarmé Trial (continued). In The Collector - A Sheet for Entertainment and Instruction. No. 46, June 7, 1851, p. 185 ( digitized version ).
6. ↑ Accusing sta op at imdb.com, accessed on November 22, 2012
7. ↑ Graf Bocarmé und die Chemie at dlf.de, accessed on November 17, 2017
8. ↑ Nicotine et guillotine at bellone.be, accessed on November 21, 2012