THE ASSASSINATION OF NAPOLEON by Ben Weider

As recently as September 1967, Mrs. Esther Castellani died in Vancouver, Canada, after having been sick for nine months. Several months after her burial, a lady contacted the Crown Attorney and said she knew how Mrs. Castellani was killed; if she got the protection of the court, she would reveal who did it.

The Crown Attorney did not believe her, because the autopsy report showed that Mrs, Castellani had died from "a viral infection and heart attack."

When the caller persisted, she was granted pro-tection from prosecution, and she then explained that she and René Castellani, the husband of the victim, had poisoned her with arsenic. Apparently René Castellani had promised to marry his accomplice after collecting the insurance money, but when he got the money he changed his mind.

The government authorities exhumed the body and made the same tests on her hair as we did on the hair of Napoleon, The result showed that the arsenic levels ill her body were high enough to kill her. Mr. Castellani was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

During the trial, which took place on 26 September 1967, Dr. Moscovitch, who treated the victim, said he had never considered arsenic poisoning, and neither had several medical experts he called in to examine her at the Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Moscovitch said: "The possibility of arsenic never occurred to us at all." In the course of Mrs, Castellani's illness, over 125 clinical tests had been performed, all without identifying arsenic.

Dr, Moscovitch said that arsenic poisoning has many guises, and the symptoms are very misleading. That is exactly what led Dr, O'Meara to believe that Napoleon was suffering from dysentery, scurvy, gout, ulcers, and other ailments. If a doctor took two or three of the arsenic symptoms separately, he could be misled as to the identity of the illness. To diagnose arsenic poisoning, a doctor must identify all of the victim's symptoms together, and compare them specifically with those of arsenical intoxication. Unless the doctor is informed in advance, there would be no reason to suspect arsenic, because the symptoms themselves, taken individually, resemble those of many other diseases. It is only when they are all considered together that the fatal pattern is clear.

Let me give you an example of the symptoms described by one of the eyewitnesses: Doctor Francesco Antommarchi was Napoleon's personal physician. In his diary entry dated 26 February 1821 he writes: "The Emperor had a sudden relapse, dry cough, vomiting, sensation of heat in the intestines, generally disturbed, discomfort, burning feeling that is almost unbearable, accompanied by burning thirst." On 27 February he writes: "The Emperor is worse yet than yesterday. The cough has become more violent and the painful nausea did not stop till 7 :00 this morning. "

This eyewitness report was confirmed by the nuclear analysis of Napoleon's hair which showed another peak of arsenic content at this particular period, thereby proving that he was being poisoned.

It's important that you be aware that Napoleon did not die from arsenic poisoning, but instead was poisoned to death in two phases, by a method used by professional poisoners of the period. The "classical method "of killing somebody without making it appear to be a criminal act consisted of a cosmetic phase followed by a lethal phase.

The "cosmetic phase" of Napoleon's poisoning started in mid-1816, and this was done through the use of arsenical intoxication. There is, however, evidence that the intoxication by arsenic was used during the Waterloo campaign, several months before Napoleon's exile. Arsenic is an essentially colourless, odourless and tasteless substance which is easily administered in food or wine, and the total quantity needed to carry out a planned assassination would have fitted into a small envelope.

Napoleon was poisoned slowly and chronically with arsenic in order to break down his health and make it appear that he was deteriorating in a normal and natural way from disease. To kill him outright would have meant a revolution in France, because the French army was still loyal to Napoleon, as were the majority of the French people.

To be successful in this phase of the process, the assassin would have to have access to the food or wine that the Emperor was to consume, but at the same time he would have to ensure that he did not poison anyone else. The food eaten at Longwood House was shared by all of those living there, but Napoleon had his own wine supply, which was the vin de Constance, a wine brought in from Capetown especially for him. This wine was drunk only by the Emperor; the others used whatever wine was available at the time.

In their diaries and notes, the eyewitnesses record very carefully more than 30 symptoms that indicate chronic arsenical intoxication. When you list these symptoms and compare them to the arsenical intoxication symptoms described in any modern book on toxicology, you will find that they are identical.

TO IGNORE WHAT THESE EYEWITNESSES TELL US IS TO IGNORE HISTORY.

If Napoleon was not being fed arsenic during the cosmetic phase of the poisoning, then why did these eight eyewitnesses, independently of each other, record typical arsenical intoxication symptoms? If Napoleon died of cancer, then why did he die fat and not show any symptoms of cancer? It's simply because he didn't die of cancer.

THE LETHAL PHASE OF THE ASSASSINATION STARTED IN MARCH 1821 and, had it not been for modern forensic medicine and our dedicated investigation, it would have been a perfect crime. This phase was done through the introduction of toxic medications such as tartar emetic, followed by orgeat and calomel.

Dr. Antommarchi writes that on March 22, 1821, Napoleon was given a lemonade drink with an emetic. In the following days, Napoleon was given additional emetic drinks. Tartar emetic is antimony potassium tartrate; it is highly toxic and induces vomiting. Its symptoms resemble those of arsenic, and it is no longer used because of its high toxicity.

Given the limitations of medical knowledge at the time, it was quite common for doctors to prescribe a tartar emetic in the hope that, by vomiting, the body would rid itself of the ills for which the doctors had no other treatment. Antimony potassium tartrate corrodes the mucous lining of the stomach. This eventually inhibits the normal vomiting reflex by which the stomach protects itself, and the patient becomes unable to expel poisons.

This is exactly what the poisoner wanted, and what happened, because giving Napoleon the tartar emetic over a period of time ensured that mercury cyanide would not be vomited and would remain in his body in order to complete the poisoning method of the period. The mercury cyanide resulted from the combination of orgeat and calomel, and now I'll explain how it worked to kill the Emperor.

On April 22, a new drink appeared for the first time which was served to Napoleon. It was orgeat. This is an orange-flavoured drink which includes the oil of bitter almonds. It was served to Napoleon to help quench his thirst. Thirst, incidentally, is one of the symptoms of chronic arsenical intoxication.

In the Grand Marshall Bertrand's diaries, page 165, he states very clearly that on April 25, 1821, a case of bitter almonds arrived at Longwood House. Bitter almonds are the ingredient in orgeat that contains hydro-cyanic acid, or Prussic acid.

Before that date, there were no bitter almonds available on the island. Apparently the poisoner was starting to be concerned that bitter almonds would not arrive on time, because the Grand Marshall Bertrand states clearly in his diary on page 166 that someone (although he does not mention his name) asked his four-year-old son, Arthur, to go out and collect some peach stones and leave them in the pantry.

Peach stones can serve the same purpose as bitter almonds, since they both contain hydro-cyanic acid. You will soon learn how this helped kill Napoleon without any tell-tale signs of criminal activity.

It is interesting to note that during the Holocaust, in the Second World War, the Concentration Camp commanders were ordered to use hydrocyanic acid (prussic acid) to murder the countless millions of inmates. The Concentration Camp guards that were obligated to remove the dead bodies, reported that they "smelled a type of peach aroma in the air and sometimes the smell of almonds."

The ingredient in orgeat is "bitter almonds" and if they are unavailable, the stones from peaches would act in the same manner. Therefore, when the guards detected that they smelled almonds or peaches, as they removed the dead bodies, they were "right on the truth."

For references, see "Death Dealer's", page 155, under the heading of "Gassings". This book was written by the "commandant" of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp., Mr. Rudolph Hoss. After the war, Hoss was convicted and hung for his crimes.

In a new book entitled Clinical Toxicology it states on page 105: "Oil of Bitter Almonds. The oil is rapidly poisonous when ingested and death occurs promptly when an adult drinks 7.5cc." Although Napoleon was not given such a large dose, the amount he got is considered a chronic amount.

The Grand Marshall tells us in his book that a few days before Napoleon's death, on the night of May 2-3, 1821, and all the following day, he was extremely thirsty and drank a lot of orgeat. Remember, thirst is a symptom of arsenical intoxication.

Antommarchi's diary reports that he was concerned about Napoleon being heavily constipated. Constipation is also a symptom of chronic arsenical intoxication. The favourite medication of the day for this purpose was called calomel. In a book entitled Clinical Toxicology of Commercial products on page 91, it states that calomel contains mercury chloride.

Now, this is important. Louis Marchand, who was Napoleon's first valet, in his diary on pages 323 and 324 writes that at 5:30 p.m. on May 3, 1821, without his knowledge or approval, Napoleon was given 10 grains of calomel, a very heroic dose indeed.