A Poisonous Heart

Money, romance, success…but what would Marie Becker stop at to get it?

There was nothing remarkable about the death report. An old woman had died of acute indigestion.

Everything was in order. A doctor and a nurse had been present when she’d died in Liege, Belgium.

There were no suspicious circumstances. But, as soon as police commissioner Honore Lebrun saw the report on the morning of 3 October 1935, he knew something was wrong.

He’d seen the name of the nurse– Marie Becker – before, on another death report, filed just a month earlier… When another old woman had died of acute indigestion.

And, just a week before that, he’d seen her name on yet another death report.

Three old women dead, all from acute indigestion. Could it be a coincidence?

The police commissioner asked his top detectives to look into it.

What they learned about the nurse alarmed him…

Marie Alexandrine Becker had been born into a family of poor farm workers in Wamont, east Belgium, in 1877. Life had been hard, and, from a young age, Marie was expected to help out with the farm work.

But she’d been looking for more out of life. So, whenever she had time, she’d beg the local priest to teach her to read and write, how to add and subtract. And, by the time she was 16, Marie was ready to break free.

Excitement

Marie had left her family, moving to the city of Liege, where she’d started an apprenticeship in dressmaking.

Soon, she was married to Charles Becker, the owner of a sawmill. And, after a few years together, the couple had invested in a furniture factory.