July 17

Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, made her mark due chiefly to her mastery of the fine art of poisoning. Every charity event she attended ended up providing her with the use of a fresh batch of the hideous poor people who went to those things just so they could be used by Marie as guinea pigs whenever she came up with a new batch of poison. She paid many visits to hospitals so that she could test run her stock of poisons on the yucky poor and downtrodden that hung out in those places. She managed to conceal her crimes for quite a while. All good things must come to an end however, and one fine, sunny day she turned her gaze towards her father and siblings. Apparently, de Brinvilliers felt that there was a rift in the fabric of her family’s lives. Most members of a family have ‘issues’ with the other members. Marie-Madeleine however, must have had some really serious issues with her family because she, together with her lover, Godin de Sainte-Croix took out her father, brother, and two sisters. She wanted them out of the way so that she would be in position to assume control of the family’s business and inherit all of their property; One day, reality showed up on her doorstep and knocked her on the back of her head to get her attention. Reality then, on the 17th in 1676, proceeded to extract payment for all of de Brinville’s crimes. At the time, French had a very odd view of just what the procedure for properly executing someone should be. They had to have paid a lot of attention to that because executions were public affairs, sort of like an Oregon county fair today. The first thing the dear girl had to do was drink 16 pints of water (To be frank, I really doubt that the dear girl could have been that thirsty.). Once that bit was out of the way, Marie was taken to a guillotine. Once at the place of execution, she had her clothes taken off. I imagine that was a big hit with the spectators, though I rather think that it must have been embarrassing for poor Marie. The spectators also missed the best part, seeing her head stuck on a pike, because she was immediately burned at the stake.

American serial killer, Edmund Kemper killed 10 people. One of his signature acts was to decapitate his female victims and put their head on a stick. Today he remains in Vacaville State Prison where he has been sine 1974. Recently, when asked what he thought when he saw a pretty woman, Ed said, “I wonder how her head would look on a stick.”