Episode 12: The Case and Trial of Madeleine Smith

Authors: Hannah Rieger and Virginia Doherty

In mid-19th century Scotland, the trial of Madeleine Smith shocked and scandalized the upper echelons of society. Smith, coming from affluence, got involved in a secret affair with a poor warehouse clerk. This led to his untimely death when Smith allegedly poisoned his hot chocolate with arsenic. What led Smith to kill? How was it covered in the media? How did Victorian culture at the time influence the trial?

We hope you enjoy listening!

Sources:

Indiana University Press journal by Mary S. Hartman in 1973 titled “Murder for Respectability: The Case of Madeleine Smith”

A Glasgow Times article by Norman Silvester in 2022 titled “The Glasgow crime story of socialite Madeleine Smith and her French lover who was poisoned”

A 2011 book review in the Women’s History Review by Anne Logan titled, “Murder and Morality in Victorian Britain: The Story of Madeleine Smith”

Ellen Plante’s 1997 work “Women at Home in Victorian America: A Social History”