“The Murder of Napoleon”, by Ben Weider & David Hapgood

 

266 pages, Book Sales, ISBN-13: 978-0312925482

Back when I first became interested in history and All Things Napoleon I snatched up every book I could find on the Corsican Ogre, even this one, The Murder of Napoleon by Ben Weider & David Hapgood. The premise is simple: that Napoleon’s death at only 51 was not the result of natural causes (probably stomach cancer like his father) but rather through nefarious means, more than likely arsenic poisoning. This is a shocking assertion to make, of course, but the authors wrote a well-thought out thesis that, utilizing patience and the scientific method, managed to make its case rationally while remaining free of any political nonsense or nationalistic prejudice.

This whole theory was launched when David Hapgood, a dentist by trade, came across the memoirs of one Louis-Joseph-Narcisse Marchand, Napoleon’s valet, and became convinced that Napoleon not only died from arsenic poisoning, but that he was murdered by one of the faithful entourage who had followed him into exile. Reaching out to Ben Weider (of bodybuilding fame), the two men conducted their research across the length and breadth of Napoleon’s many travels; their main piece of evidence being a locket of his hair that proved to have more than natural levels of arsenic, even for the 19^th Century when it was much more prevalent (supposedly).

Napoleon would have agreed with their claims, having stated in his last will and testament of April 1821 that “My death is premature. I have been assassinated by the English oligopoly and their hired murderer”. After he died on May 5^th, 1821, sixteen witnesses (including seven doctors) attended the autopsy where it was unanimously declared that Napoleon had, in fact, died of stomach cancer. Well, naturally, some would say; if the Brits had just done away with Old Boney through poisoning, then of course they would cover up their crime through a kangaroo court in which their theory was validated and their crime covered up.

And what of their evidence? There are 31 possible symptoms of arsenic poisoning discovered by scientists since 1821, and Napoleon presented 28 of them. The authors took samples of Napoleon’s hair dating from 1816, 1817 and 1818 to a Scottish university to conduct a Neutron activation analysis on them, a newly-invented (for 1987) arsenic-detection test. The results revealed fatally high levels of arsenic in his system, meaning that Napoleon had been murdered…right? I mean, the science can’t be wrong and the proof appeared to be pretty incontrovertible. The Brits had done him in, wot, and there was no mistaking the facts and what they presented.

Well…not necessarily, for even if arsenic in fact killed Napoleon, this did not mean someone had killed Napoleon with arsenic. You follow? Here, it’s like this: Napoleon could simply have absorbed enough arsenic from his environment to kill him off, as a 19^th Century house was saturated in the stuff: cosmetics, hair tonic, cigarettes, sealing wax, cooking pots, insect-repellent powders, rat poison, cake icing – the stuff was everywhere. Even the wallpaper at Longwood, Napoleon’s house/prison on St. Helena, contained poisonous gases exhaled by a mold growing behind it. Suddenly, the picture opened up and the potential poisoners multiplied.

Adding to all of that, in 2007 researchers from Canada, Switzerland and the United States applied modern pathological and tumor-staging methods to historical accounts and found that Napoleon in fact died of a very advanced case of gastric cancer that stemmed from an ulcer-causing bacterial infection in his stomach, rather than a heretofore belief of a hereditary disposition to cancer; it also points to gastrointestinal bleeding as the likely immediate cause of death. Those believing the murder theory will no doubt disbelieve this assertion as much as those who disbelieved the poisoning theory discounted all of those other “facts”.

So which is it? The Murder of Napoleon was published almost 40 years ago, and many of the facts it was based on had solid scientific backing – but this was not the only plausible claim, as the original theory that Napoleon had died of stomach cancer also fit the symptoms that he complained about. The study from 2007 also would appear to cast doubt on the poisoning theory. At the time, I was hooked and thought that Napoleon was, in fact, murdered; of course, I was young and naïve and willing to believe anything. Now that I’m older and cynical and believe nothing, I have to say that this book is wrong, and that Napoleon’s life was cut short through natural means.

Perhaps Julia Blackburn in her book The Emperor’s Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena (reviewed on July 12^th, 2024) had it best when she noted simply that, after having ruled most of Europe for even a brief amount of time, thence to be reduced to the circumstances of being made prisoner on a rock in the middle of nowhere and subjected to heartfelt despair, societal absurdity, abject boredom and personal loneliness – and then, agonizing physical pain – would in and of itself be enough to kill anyone without the need of arsenic. This, combined with his very real and natural physical ailments, is what truly killed Napoleon.