Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé

Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé (Weltevreden, Java 14 June 1818 – Mons, Belgium 19 July 1851) was a Belgian nobleman and convicted murderer.

He poisoned his brother-in-law in order to acquire some urgently needed money. In 1851, the chemist Jean Servais Stas proved that Visart de Bocarmé had used nicotine extracted from tobacco leaves as poison. This was the first exact proof of alkaloids in forensic medicine.

Life Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé descended from the Belgian noble family Visart de Bocarmé. His father was Julien Visart de Bocarmé (1787–1851) and his mother Ida du Chasteler (1797–1873). His father was a nephew of Johann-Gabriel, Marquess of Chasteler and Courcelles.

Visart de Bocarmé was born aboard a ship heading to Java, where his father had signed to serve as vice-governor. His birth certificate was issued in 1819 in Malaysia. He spent his early years in Java, before his family returned to Europe. They had four children: Rodolphe (1844–1844), Robert (1845–1907), whose son was Henry de Bury (1872–1958), Mathilde (1848–1914), and, Rose-Eugénie (1849-unknown). The couple permanently was short of money. After Fougnies's father died, the count's brother-in-law Gustave Fougnies inherited the property. The role of Count Bocarmé was played by actor Bob Van der Veken.

In the early 1990s, the Brussels Comédie Claude Volter showed the play Nicotine et guillotine, which was also based on Count Bocarmé case.

The case is referred to in some detail in John Rhode's 1936 detective novel Death at Breakfast.

Literature Louis LABARRE, Le Drame du château de Bury, Mons, 1851 Procès du comte et de la comtesse de Bocarmé devant la Cour d'assises du Hainaut (1851), Mons, Leroux, 1851. Frédéric THOMAS, Petites causes célèbres du jour. Tome 12, 1855 Pierre BOUCHARDON, Le crime du château de Bitremont, Paris, A. Michel, 1925, Henry SOUMAGNE, Le Seigneur de Bury, Brussels, Larcier, 1946. Alfred GALLEZ, Le sire de Bitremont, affaire de Bocarmé, Brussels, P. de Méyère, 1959. Oscar COOMANS DE BRACHÈNE, État présent de la noblesse belge, Annuaire 2000, Brussels, 2000 Robert WENNIG, Back to the roots of modern analytical toxicology: Jean Servais Stas and the Bocarmé murder case, in: Drug Test Anal, John Wiley & Sons, April 2009. Douglas DE CONINCK, Visart de Bocarmé, in: De Morgen, 14 januari 2012.