Lacoste, Euphémie (1819–)

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Lacoste, Euphémie (1819–)

French murderer (accused). Name variations: Euphemie Lacoste. Born Euphémie Vergès, 1819; m. Henri Lacoste, May 1841 (died 1843); lived near village of Riguepeu in Chateau Philibert.

Born into family of small landowners, was wed at 22 to 68 year-old great-uncle Henri Lacoste, a marriage arranged by parents (1841); husband died suddenly under suspicious circumstances and his body was found to contain arsenic (1843); was arrested and tried for his murder with 70-year-old schoolmaster Joseph Meilhan, to whom she had given a minor pension; acquitted because of insufficient evidence (some reports suggested traces of arsenic in Lacoste's blood were due to treatment for syphilis and not poisoning).

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