Dr Morphium

Morphium, now known as morphine, was invented in 1804 by the pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner, who succeeded in extracting the substance from opium, the milky sap of the opium poppy. As this was an effective painkiller that calmed the wounded, he named his discovery ‘Morphium’, derived from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. It is thought to have been used as a murder weapon for the first time by Dr Edme Samuel Castaing. He was a French doctor, born in Alençon in 1789 during the French Revolution as the youngest of three sons of a General Inspector in the Forestry Department. Edme grew up in a comfortable middle-class household and, during his school years in Angers, won several prizes for his outstanding academic achievements. He then began studying medicine in Paris, where he devoted himself entirely to experimenting with plant toxins, which he tested in numerous animal experiments. Edme was a handsome young man with blond hair and a high forehead, who was regarded as a kind-hearted person and even treated the sick free of charge. When his close friend fell on hard times in 1818, he stood as guarantor for a loan of 600 francs. However, when the sum became due for repayment in 1820, his friend was unable to raise the money, so Edme was asked to foot the bill. He had been in a relationship for some time with a Parisian widow who already had three children and with whom he had fathered two more, for whom he now had to provide. The guarantee plunged Edme into serious financial difficulties; he graduated as a doctor from the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1821. Edme lived at 31 Rue de l’Enfer in Paris. The wealthy Ballet family also lived on this street. Edme became friends with the family’s two sons, Hippolyte and Auguste. After their parents and their uncle had died in succession, the estate passed to the two brothers, who were lawyers, and their married sister, Madame Martignon. As Hippolyte was suffering from consumption, he sought treatment from Edme, in whose arms he died on 5 October 1822. The post-mortem examination, which Edme carried out with another doctor, revealed that he had died of tuberculous pleurisy. Just 17 days earlier, Edme had purchased 10 grains of morphine acetate. Shortly before his death, Hippolyte had told several people that he intended to disinherit his spendthrift brother. Following his death, his estate was divided between Auguste and his sister, as no will had been found. Two days after Hippolyte’s death, Auguste sold shares worth 100,000 francs. He gave the money to Edme. This money was intended as a bribe for the lawyer Lebret, who was to destroy his brother’s will, which favoured his sister. Instead, however, on 10 October, Edme took 66,000 francs to his banker, who was to invest the money. On 11 October, he sent 30,000 francs to his mother, and on 14 October, he gave 4,000 francs to his mistress. A year passed before Auguste drew up a will on 1 December 1822, in which he named Edme as his sole heir. His sister was to receive nothing. This will was deposited on 29 May 1823 with Edme’s cousin, who was a notary. That very same day, Edme and Auguste set off on a trip to Saint-Cloud, where they rented a room with two beds at the Auberge de la Tête Noire to spend the night. In the evening, Edme served his friend mulled wine, which he had flavoured with sugar and lemon. That very night, Auguste was struck by severe colic and was unable to get out of bed. Edme seized the opportunity. He pretended to be going for a morning walk in the park, but instead drove to Paris to buy 12 grains of morphine acetate from a chemist. He then returned to Auguste, to whom he gave cold milk to drink. Auguste subsequently vomited violently. Edme summoned two doctors, who confirmed his diagnosis of cholera. That very evening, Edme used a prescription from one of the two doctors to administer a spoonful of bitter syrup to Auguste. Shortly afterwards, Auguste died around midday on 1 June. The two doctors informed the gendarmerie of Auguste’s sudden death, following which an autopsy was carried out on Auguste’s body. The post-mortem revealed that Auguste’s death could have been due to natural causes. However, it could also have been the result of poisoning with morphine acetate. Edme was arrested as early as 2 June and taken to prison in Paris, where he feigned insanity for three days. When he stopped pretending, he was transferred to the prison in Versailles. On 10 November 1823, his trial began before the Paris Assize Court for the murders of the brothers Hippolyte and Auguste Ballet, as well as the destruction of Hippolyte’s will, in front of countless onlookers. Edme had engaged two defence lawyers. One was his former school friend, Roussel; the other was the legendary criminal defence lawyer Pierre-Antoine Berryer, who stated right at the start of the trial that it was impossible to mask the bitter taste of morphine. He himself had put 2 milligrams into a tablespoon of milk and spat it out immediately because the taste was so bitter. Edme, who vehemently protested his innocence, claimed that the reason he had bought the poison was that it was intended for the dogs and cats in the street, whose noises were simply unbearable. However, he claimed he had not used it, but had disposed of it in the latrine. After two hours’ deliberation by the 12-member jury, Edme was sentenced to death after eight days. Following a failed appeal to the Court of Cassation and a suicide attempt, 27-year-old Dr Edme Samuel Castaing was executed by guillotine on 6 December 1823 in Paris at the Place de la Grève. As Dr Edme Samuel Castaing had used morphine – a substance only discovered 18 years earlier – as a murder weapon, he thus secured his place in criminal history for all time.