Madeleine Mouton

Madeleine Mouton (née Madeleine Maxence Le Veller; April 15, 1910 – April 10, 1948), known as The Berthelot Poisoner was a French serial killer who poisoned eleven people in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, in 1943, seven of which were fatal. Convicted, sentenced to death and later executed for these crimes, she became the second-to-last French woman to be guillotined, and the only one to be executed in French Algeria.

Early life and youth in France Madeleine Maxence Le Veller was born on April 15, 1910, in Évreux, Normandy, the second of two daughters born to day laborer Jean Le Veller and factory worker Louise Gabrielle Latouche. Her parents separated when she was ten years old, due to her father's alcoholism, after which her mother took the children to live in Charleville-Mézières.

Le Veller attended school until the age of 14, when she obtained her certificat d'études primaires. At the time, people reported that she was a moody, vain child who was prone to lying, often claiming that she was of noble heritage. According to her sister Solange, Madeleine would walk around with an empty violin case so that people would believe that she was a musician.

Move to Algeria In 1940, Clément asked to be transferred to the city of Constantine in Algeria, with Madeleine accompanying him. She would later claim that the climate had derailed and "disturbed" her life, causing her to frequently have affairs, go on drinking binges and prioritize her sex life above everything else. Around October 1943, Mouton's third child, aged ten months, died. In late 1943 or early 1944, the Mobile Gendarmerie was called in to investigate. Her sister mentioned that she received a letter from her brother-in-law Clément, in which he said that he had suspicions about Madeleine's activities. Eventually, Madeleine was arrested in April 1944, and not long after, she confessed to poisoning 4 people, but vehemently denied responsibility for the rest.

The first poisonings occurred in January 1943, when Madame Leroux fell ill, followed only ten days later by her husband - the former succumbed, while the latter survived. At the time, Mouton was not a suspect, and even allowed M. Leroux and his daughter Micheline to stay with her.

Judgment and sentence Madeleine Mouton was ultimately charged with eleven poisonings, amounting to seven murders and four attempted murders. Her lawyer, Maître Allégret, entered an insanity plea, claiming that his client had "lost her mind" and was a "lunatic entitled to internment." In the absence of sufficient evidence, most of the charges were dropped, excluding the four fatal poisonings to which she had confessed. As such, the trial began on November 15, 1947.

Only two days later, Mouton was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death via jury verdict. The prosecutor, M. Coquilhat, stated that the severity of the verdict was due to the premeditated nature of the murders and the lack of remorse on Mouton's part. She would later petition President Vincent Auriol for a pardon, but was denied.

When the executioners, this time additionally accompanied by Meyssonnier's 17-year-old son Fernand, arrived at dawn, Mouton - who up until then believed that her sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment - was informed of her imminent execution. Upon hearing this, she fainted, and a doctor had to be called in to wake her up. She then sought religious counsel, and after being led to the scaffold, she exclaimed "Farewell mom, I deserve it."

Her skirt had been pinned to her crotch, her hair pulled up and her blouse indented so as not to interfere with the stroke of the cleaver. When she was tilted over the guillotine, her breasts protruded and she started screaming "My children, my children!". Shortly afterwards, she was beheaded. Dr. Ayach drew up the death certificate, and the body was buried in the Sidi Bel Abbès cemetery.