| 1834 - Eugene Marie Chantrelle was born in Nantes, France the son of a shipowner 18?? - Eugene attended Nantes medical School 18?? - Eugene attended medical classes in Strasburg and Paris 1851 - Eugene developed communistic tendencies and opinions (aged 17) 1851 - Eugene sailed to America after the success of the opposing Napoleonic Party 1851 - Elizabeth Dyer born (18.07.1851) daughter to John James Dyer and Elizabeth 1862 - Eugene moved to England: Newcastle and Leicester 1866 - Eugene moved to Edinburgh 1866 - Started teaching at the Private School: Newington Academy, Edinburgh 1866 - Met Elizabeth Dyer as a 15yr old student at Newington Academy, Edinburgh 1868 - Married Elizabeth at St Giles Cathedral (11.08.1868) 18 months after they had first met 1868 - First son born 2 months later (22.10.1868) Eugene John Chantrelle 1870 - Male child born (18.04.1870) 1871 - Male child born (29.05.1871): Louis? (seven yrs when mother died) 1876 - James Ernest Chantrelle born (06.12.1876) 1877 - Financial hardship 1877 - October 18th Eugene took out £1000 life insurance with “Star Accident Insurance Co. Ltd” on Elizabeth; payable only in case of accident 1878 - January 1st Elizabeth complained of illness 1878 - January 2nd unconscious, taken to the Royal Infirmary, died 1878 - January 5th funeral, Eugene arrested immediately after and charged with murder 1878 - 3rd post-mortem because symptoms did not tally with supposed gas poisoning 1878 - Evidence of stains on nightdress found to be opium 1878 - January 22nd Chemical analysis first report 1878 - January 28th Inventory of bottles found at 81a George Street 1878 - March 4th Chemical analysis second report 1878 - Trial over four days May 7th – May 10th 1878 - Found guilty of murdering his wife 1878 - May 31st Executed in the confines of Calton Jail and buried in the grounds |
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Trayner Family Web Site web site born 12.02.2002, last updated 27.10.2004 by Tanya Vivienne Trayner |
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Chantrelle Murder Trial 1898 |
| Chantrelle married Elizabeth Cullen Dyer on 11th August 1868. He had, two years previously, moved to Edinburgh from his native France to teach languages. It was while working as a teacher at Newington Academy that he made the acquaintance of Miss Dyer. He was thirty-three years old and with a reputation as a womaniser; she was just fifteen years old. It would seem that French was not all that that Eugene was teaching because, just two months after the wedding, Elizabeth was delivered of a son. Over the next ten years she delivered a further three sons. All was not well in the marriage with Chantrelle frequently beating and abusing his wife and also, occasionally, his children. His foul temper was not tempered by a considerable passion for whisky. By 1877 Chantrelle’s excesses were causing him considerable financial hardship. In October he took out life insurance on his wife to the value of £1000, payable only in the case of an accident. He did not have to pay too many of the premiums. On New Years’ Day 1878 Elizabeth complained of feeling ill and retired to bed early. Early the following morning the maid found her unconscious. When Chantrelle was called he tried to make out that he could smell gas. Elizabeth was taken to the Royal Infirmary where she died later the same day. Stains on the bedding on and the dead woman’s nightgown proved to be of pure opium and on the following Saturday, after he returned from Elizabeth’s funeral where he had tried to throw himself into the open grave, Chantrelle was arrested and charged with murder. Chantrelle’s trial lasted for four days with the jury being easily convinced of his guilt. The execution, at Calton Jail on 31st May 1878, was notable as the first Scottish execution to be carried out in private. |
| The Reality of Sherlock HolmesIn 1878, the year Doyle met Bell and became his clerk, a notorious murderer called Eugene Chantrelle was hanged in Edinburgh for the murder of his wife. Bell’s crucial part in this case is recorded in several memoirs by Bell’s own pupils. And indeed as he stepped onto the gallows Chantrelle singled out Joseph Bell for his success in solving the crime. It seems inconceivable Doyle was unaware of this, for Bell’s work as a forensic expert and his assistance to the police was widely known. Other doctors and pupils of the man allude to this work in several places, as Bell even did himself (though with a certain reluctance) in public, always making it clear that the detail of his employment for the crown must remain confidential.Given these facts, and the letters Doyle wrote to Bell actually asking for material for the Holmes stories, it is quite extraordinary that Doyle studiously refrained from making any such connection in public, even while happily acknowledging Bell as his model for Holmes. The silence is suggestive, and I can see only two possible reasons for it.One is that Doyle wished to diminish the connection. But if this was the case why so easily and publicly acknowledge it? The other is that he knew of Bell’s criminal work but did not discuss it at all because, like so much else in these Victorian lives, he regarded it as confidential. Bell certainly appears to have wanted this to be the case.If this is true then Bell may have supplied Doyle with some of the actual details of criminal investigation he later put to such good use. There are even rumours that a manuscript exists in which the young Doyle wrote accounts of some of Bell’s work in criminal and forensic investigation. If such a book ever saw the light of day it would indeed be that holy grail, something that was once thought to be quite impossible: 'the true stories of Sherlock Holmes'. Main reference: Smith, Duncan A.“Trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle” – Church Green Books, Witney, Oxon |
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