Belgium’s deadliest serial killer is undoubtedly Marie Alexandrine Becker. She was born Marie Alexandrine Petitjean on July 14, 1879, in Landen, where she grew up on a farm. At the age of 16, Marie moved to the art city of Liège, where she worked in her aunt’s textile shop. When Marie was 26, she met her future husband Charles Becker at the World’s Fair in Liège, whom she married in 1910. Together they took over a butcher’s shop, but soon had to close it down because it was not very profitable. Shortly thereafter, Charles’ father died, leaving his son a fortune, which Marie used to open a fashion boutique that flourished until the Great Depression in 1929. They had a picture-perfect marriage for twenty years until Marie, at the age of 53, met and fell in love with the young Lambert Beyer in 1932. A stormy affair ensued, with her husband Charles now standing in her way, which is why she mixed a lethal dose of cardiac glycosides into his tea in the fall of that same year. Cardiac glycosides are a group of active substances that increase the heart’s pumping power and lower the heart rate. After Charles’ death, Marie reopened a fashion store, where she regularly invited wealthy older ladies to tea parties. She had previously asked them for money. Unfortunately, the elderly ladies died shortly afterwards. Between March 1935 and September 1936, a total of 10 women lost their lives. This financed Marie’s luxurious lifestyle, which included expensive nightclub visits and wild affairs with other men, which is why Marie soon had no further use for James, whom she promptly killed. No one had the slightest suspicion that Marie could have had anything to do with the numerous deaths. It was only when a friend confided in Marie that she wanted to get rid of her husband and Marie gave her the tip about cardiac glycosides, which she had also given to the widow Lange-Damoutte, that she went to the police. The police searched Marie’s apartment in 1936, where they found 18 empty bottles of cardiac glycosides and numerous missing items from various estates. The court then decided to exhume some of the deceased. A lethal dose of cardiac glycosides was indeed found in their bodies. Throughout the trial, Marie denied all charges. In 1938, Marie Alexandrine Becker was sentenced to death for killing at least 11 people and attempting to kill at least 5 people with cardiac glycosides. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, which Marie had to serve in the women’s prison in Brussels, where she died of natural causes at the age of 61 after 2 years in prison.
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Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
