A MIDDLE-CLASS MURDER
he trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle was one of the biggest scandals of 1870s Scotland. Victorian society had not witnessed a case as gripping since the trial of Dr Pritchard in 1865 for poisoning and killing his wife and mother-in-law. In many ways Chantrelle’s trial mirrored Pritchard’s: the public were fascinated and horrified by the case of a middleclass gentleman in a respectable social position murdering his wife. A four-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh saw members of the public queuing to hear evidence surrounding the mysterious case, and to bear witness to the sentence of
