March 2026
Science and Certainty in the Trial of France's Most Reviled Serial Killer
Theresa Levitt, Department of History, University of Mississippi.
Hélène Jégado was placed on trial in 1851, accused of murdering some 30 people by poisoning them with arsenic. Chemists and medical doctors were crucial to her conviction, using a newly developed apparatus that could detect the presence of arsenic in the bodies of some of her victims. She was executed by guillotine, and went on to be a legend of wickedness for generations. But studying her case, I have come to believe they got it wrong. While her trial was celebrated as a triumph of the certainty that science provides, further scientific advances undermined their claims, and point to tensions in the link between “science” and “certainty” that the courts tried to maintain.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
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