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This Day In History

Crime

1949 The body of Leon Besnard is exhumed in Loudun, France, by authorities searching for evidence of poison. For years, local residents had suspected his wife Marie, as they watched nearly her entire family die untimely and mysterious deaths. Law enforcement officials finally began investigating Marie after the death of her mother earlier in the year. When Marie fell in love with another man in 1947, Leon fell victim to her poisoning as well. Traces of arsenic were found in his exhumed body, as well as in the rest of her family’s corpses. But Marie didn’t let a little bit of pesky evidence get in her way. She managed to get a mistrial twice after trace evidence was lost while conducting the tests for poison each time. By her third trial, there wasn’t much physical evidence left. On December 12, 1961, Marie Besnard was acquitted. The “Queen of Poisoners,” as the French called her, ended up getting away with 13 murders.

Espionage

2009 The Iranian government charged journalist Roxana Saberi with espionage, which she denied. She was later convicted and sentenced to an eight-year prison term. An appeals court reduced the charge against her from espionage to possessing classified information, which she also denied, and reduced her eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence. She was released on May 11, 2009.

Law

2000 Diana Bryant became Australia's first female Chief Federal Magistrate.

Politics

1068 Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London. She ruled Normandy as regent during his absences.