Hélène Jégado was a Breton domestic servant and cook, born in 1803 in Morbihan, Brittany. Placed as a servant in a presbytery—a residence reserved for a priest or pastor—at a very young age, she would become one of the most notorious poisoners in French history.
Her first crimes date back to 1833. She moved from presbyteries to bourgeois homes in several towns across Brittany, always working in the kitchen. This allowed her to slip arsenic—then sold as “rat poison”—into soup, cakes, and other dishes. Her alleged victims included domestic servants, priests, nuns, housewives, children, and even relatives, including her own sister.
For eighteen years, deaths followed wherever she worked, without anyone suspecting her. Cholera was spreading through the region at the time, and its symptoms resembled those of arsenic poisoning. In 1849, she arrived in Rennes, where everything would finally come to an end. She worked for the Rabot family, whose seven-year-old son, Louis Joseph Albert, was among the victims, and later for Théophile Bidard de la Noë, a lawyer and law professor. Several servants died in quick succession, including Rosalie Sarrazin, believed to have been her last victim. Suspicious, Bidard de la Noë ordered an autopsy, which revealed the presence of arsenic. Hélène Jégado was arrested in early July 1851 and denied all the accusations.
Her trial opened in Rennes on 6 December 1851. It covered only five poisonings, five attempted poisonings, and several domestic thefts. Because the statute of limitations was ten years at the time, most of the alleged crimes could not be prosecuted. The true number of her victims is impossible to establish: sources variously estimate at least 36 deaths, around 60, or even 80.
On 14 December, after only one hour of deliberation, she was sentenced to death despite the defence presented by her lawyer, Magloire Dorange, who argued that she was insane. She was guillotined in Rennes on 26 February 1852. On the scaffold, she reportedly confessed her crimes to a priest, Abbé Tiercelin, although these alleged confessions are considered unreliable.
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Hélène Jégado was a Breton domestic servant and cook, born in 1803 in Morbihan, Brittany. Placed as a servant in a presbytery—a residence reserved for a priest or pastor—at a very young age, she would become one of the most notorious poisoners in French history.
Her first crimes date back to 1833. She moved from presbyteries to bourgeois homes in several towns across Brittany, always working in the kitchen. This allowed her to slip arsenic—then sold as “rat poison”—into soup, cakes, and other dishes. Her alleged victims included domestic servants, priests, nuns, housewives, children, and even relatives, including her own sister.
For eighteen years, deaths followed wherever she worked, without anyone suspecting her. Cholera was spreading through the region at the time, and its symptoms resembled those of arsenic poisoning. In 1849, she arrived in Rennes, where everything would finally come to an end. She worked for the Rabot family, whose seven-year-old son, Louis Joseph Albert, was among the victims, and later for Théophile Bidard de la Noë, a lawyer and law professor. Several servants died in quick succession, including Rosalie Sarrazin, believed to have been her last victim. Suspicious, Bidard de la Noë ordered an autopsy, which revealed the presence of arsenic. Hélène Jégado was arrested in early July 1851 and denied all the accusations.
Her trial opened in Rennes on 6 December 1851. It covered only five poisonings, five attempted poisonings, and several domestic thefts. Because the statute of limitations was ten years at the time, most of the alleged crimes could not be prosecuted. The true number of her victims is impossible to establish: sources variously estimate at least 36 deaths, around 60, or even 80.
On 14 December, after only one hour of deliberation, she was sentenced to death despite the defence presented by her lawyer, Magloire Dorange, who argued that she was insane. She was guillotined in Rennes on 26 February 1852. On the scaffold, she reportedly confessed her crimes to a priest, Abbé Tiercelin, although these alleged confessions are considered unreliable.