Almost Perfect Crimes: The Jégado Case

This series investigates the most notorious, infamous and terrifying crimes in French history. Cases that – in may cases – inspired films and novels. Join Danielle Thiéry, the first female chief superintendent, on a journey to the dark side of human nature.

At the very start of the Second Empire in 1852, a cook from Brittany, Hélène Jégado, was accused of poisoning many with arsenic; servants and teachers, men and women, even children and her own mother. She was executed on the Champ de Mars, near where the Eiffel tower now stands, in the same year. This is the story of the woman who is considered by some as the most notorious killer in criminal history.