As a child Hippolyte De Bocarme was very undisciplined and troublesome. By the time he reached adulthood he had become a crook and a womaniser, his behaviour gradually growing worse. In1843 he took possession of the family chateau. De Bocarme met a woman called Lydie Fougnies, and he later married her believing her father was a wealthy man. However it came as a bitter disappointment to him that the old man was in fact not wealthy at all, and was actually quite poorly off. The little money the man did have was left to his son, Gustave, not De Bocarme’s wife.

But this did not deter De Bocarme, he believed something was better than nothing. He waited until the old man died, and the money was passed onto Gustave. He then invited Gustave over to his chateau.Gustave was later found sprawled out on the floor of the chateau dead. De Bocarme insisted the man had died of apoplexy, but the police suspected poisoning, acting on the words of the servant who had found the body. In De Bocarme’s lab they found a bottle of pure nicotine and the apparatus with which it had been distilled. An internal examination of Gustave Fougnies revealed a lethal dosage of nicotine. De Bocarme stood trial at the Palace of Justice in 1851. De Bocarme was beheaded, before his execution he spent time complaining that the blade had better be sharp enough…