On March 7, 1905, a doctor was summoned to the home of a poor woman in the village of Voulon, in southeastern France. There, he found the body of a young boy named Marcel, the son of a woman known as Madame Weber. The boy had been in perfect health, but when the doctor arrived, he found red marks on the child’s neck. Despite the suspicious appearance of the marks, the doctor attributed the death to convulsions, and no further action was taken.
Just a few days later, on March 11, Madame Weber was again caring for a child, this time her sister-in-law’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Suzanne. When the girl’s mother returned, she found her daughter dead, and Madame Weber crying by the bed. The doctor again ruled the death as natural, attributing it to unexplained convulsions. However, by this point, the young girl had been found with red marks on her neck, just like Marcel.
Despite the alarming pattern, the authorities did not investigate further, and the deaths were recorded as natural causes. The story begins years earlier, in the 1870s, when a woman named Jeanne Weber was born into a poor family in a small coastal village. The village was home to only a few hundred people, and everyone knew everyone else’s business. The 1870s had been a difficult time for farmers, as a global agricultural depression had caused prices to stagnate, though this did little to affect the daily lives of the wealthy landowners who employed the local people.
Jeanne received only a basic education, and by the time she was a young woman, she had moved to Paris, where she found work in domestic service. The city was still recovering from an economic crisis that had begun in the 1870s, and many industries had relocated to the outskirts, where rents were cheaper and there was better access to transport. The type of work available was changing, and new industries required a more skilled workforce, such as mechanical and electrical engineers. While working in domestic service, Jeanne met a man named Marcel Weber.
He was a hard worker, but he was known to drink heavily. They married, and the couple moved into a rundown tenement in a working-class neighborhood. The area was not a good part of the city, and it was frequented by vagabonds and drunks. Over the next few years, Jeanne gave birth to three children: two girls and a boy.
The family’s living conditions were appalling, and Marcel’s drinking continued. Jeanne soon took to the bottle herself, and the marriage deteriorated. Tragedy struck the family when an outbreak of bronchitis swept through the city. Both of Jeanne’s daughters died within a short time of each other.
The doctors noted red marks on the children’s necks but did not consider them suspicious, and no autopsies were performed. The deaths were attributed to natural causes, but the loss of her children devastated Jeanne. She began drinking even more heavily and withdrew from those around her. Her neighbors noticed that she had fallen into a deep depression.
On March 2, 1905, Jeanne was caring for her sister-in-law’s 18-month-old baby boy. The child died suddenly while in her care. A few days later, on March 11, she was looking after the other child, Suzanne, who also died. It was only then that the suspicions of those around her began to grow.
People whispered that Jeanne was either cursed or somehow responsible for the deaths of so many children. However, the doctors who had examined the children concluded that there had been nothing she could have done to prevent their deaths. Despite the rumors, Jeanne’s life continued to spiral. She and Marcel lived in a damp, overcrowded tenement, and their situation was made even more difficult by the loss of their children.
On April 5, 1905, two of Jeanne’s sisters-in-law came to her home. They had some sympathy for her plight, as no one wanted to live in such unfortunate circumstances. One of them asked Jeanne to look after her young son, Maurice, while she went shopping. When the women returned prematurely, they found Maurice choking and gasping for breath, with red marks on his neck.
Jeanne was standing over him with what they described as a crazed expression on her face. The police were called, and Jeanne was arrested. She was later charged with murder. Her trial began on January 29, 1906, in Paris.
Jeanne denied any involvement in the children’s deaths, and she was defended by the acclaimed lawyer Honoré Robert. He had become well known across France for his successful defense of a woman named Mademoiselle Weber. The trial drew significant public attention, and people would point and whisper as Jeanne appeared in court, with children calling out, “There goes Madame Weber. ” Realizing that life in Paris would be difficult, and with her husband filing for divorce, Jeanne left the city.
There was no news of her until April 7, 1907, when a doctor in the small town of Voulon was called to the home of a poor woman named Madame Baubon. The doctor found her young son, Marcel, dead. The boy had died of convulsions, but the doctor noted red marks on his neck. The doctor was suspicious but concluded that the child had died of natural causes.
However, when the doctor examined the body more closely, he found that the child had been strangled. The police were called, and Madame Weber was arrested. When they searched her belongings, they found a letter from the renowned attorney Honoré Robert. They realized that the woman they had arrested was the infamous Jeanne Weber.
Madame Weber stood trial for murder once again, and again she was defended by Honoré Robert. The doctor who had examined the child in Voulon testified that the child had died of strangulation, not convulsions. The defense argued that the child had died of a natural disease, and that the red marks on the neck were simply a result of the death throes. Despite the evidence, the jury found her not guilty, and she was released.
However, the authorities were not convinced of her innocence. They continued to investigate, and it was soon discovered that Madame Weber had a history of harming children. In 1908, she was arrested again, this time for the murder of a young boy. She was found guilty and sentenced to death.
She was executed by guillotine on June 5, 1908, in the town of Voulon. Jeanne Weber, known as the “ogre of the tenements,” was responsible for the deaths of at least four children, and possibly more. Her story remains a dark chapter in French criminal history, a tale of a woman whose mental instability and descent into alcoholism led her to commit unspeakable acts.
The case also exposed the failures of the medical and legal systems of the time, which repeatedly failed to notice the signs of murder, allowing her to continue her killing spree for years.