Smith was the first child of an upper-middle-class family in Glasgow; her father, James Smith was a wealthy architect, and her mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of leading neo-classical architect David Hamilton. The family lived at No 7, Blythswood Square, Glasgow, at the crown of the new developments by William Harley on Blythswood Hill, and also had a country property, "Rowaleyn", near Helensburgh. Smith broke the strict Victorian conventions of the time when, as a young woman in early 1855, she began a secret love affair with Pierre Emile L'Angelier, some ten years her senior, an apprentice nurseryman who originally came from the Channel Islands. He worked as a packing clerk in a warehouse at 10 Bothwell Street nearby. The pair would meet late at night, at Smith's bedroom window and also engaged in voluminous correspondence. During one of their infrequent meetings alone, she lost her virginity to L'Angelier. Smith's parents, unaware of the affair with L'Angelier found a suitable fiancé for her within the Glasgow upper-middle class, William Harper Minnoch. Smith attempted to break her connection with L'Angelier and, in February 1857, asked him to return the letters she had written to him. Instead, L'Angelier threatened to use the letters to expose her and force her to marry him. She was soon observed in a druggist's office, ordering arsenic, which she signed for as M.H. Smith. Early on the morning of23 March 1857, L'Angelier died from arsenic poisoning. He is buried in the Ramshorn Cemetery on Ingram Street in Glasgow. After his death, Madeleine Smith's numerous letters were found in the house where he lodged, and she was arrested and charged with his murder.
Trial
At trial, Smith was defended by advocate John Inglis. Toxicological evidence, confirming that the victim had died of arsenic poisoning, was given by Andrew Douglas Maclagan. Although the circumstantial evidence pointed towards her guilt the jury returned a verdict of "not proven", i.e. the jury was unconvinced that Smith was innocent, but the prosecution had produced insufficient evidence to the contrary. Crucial to the case was the chronology of certain letters from Smith to l'Angelier, and as the letters themselves were undated, the case hinged to some extent on the envelopes. One letter in particular depended on the correct interpretation of the date of the postmark which was unfortunately illegible, and attracted some caustic comments from the judge; but the vast majority of these postmarks were quite clearly struck. It transpired that when the police searched L'Angelier's room, many of Smith's letters were found without their envelopes and were then hurriedly collected and stuck into whichever envelopes came to hand.
Later life
On 4 July 1861, she married an artist named George Wardle, William Morris's business manager. They had one son and one daughter. For a time, she became involved with the Fabian Society in London, and sometimes made the coffee at meetings. As she was known by her new married name, not everyone knew who she was, but a few did. After many years of marriage, she and her husband separated in 1889 and Madeleine moved to New York City. Around 1916, she married a second time to William A. Sheehy and this marriage lasted until his death in 1926. She died in 1928 and was buried under the name of Lena Wardle Sheehy.
Later theories
As in the case of Lizzie Borden, scholars and amateur criminologists have spent decades going over the minutiae of the case. Most modern scholars believe that Smith committed the crime and the only thing that saved her from a guilty verdict and a death sentence was that no eyewitness could prove that Smith and l'Angellier had met in the weeks before his death. After the trial, The Scotsman ran a small article stating that a witness had come forward claiming that a young male and female were seen outside Smith's house on the night of l'Angellier's death. However, the trial was already in progress, and the witness could not be questioned during it.
Dramatisations
Smith's story was the basis for several plays and the David Lean film Madeleine. Jack House's book Square Mile of Murder, which contains a section on Smith, formed the basis for a BBC television version in 1980. A television play based upon the case, Killer in Close-Up: The Trial Of Madeleine Smith, written by George F. Kerr, was also produced by Sydney television station ABN-2, broadcast on 13 August 1958. The case was an inspiration for Wilkie Collins' novel The Law and the Lady, though the only main similar features were the problem of the Scottish "Not Proven" verdict and arsenic poisoning as a means for murder. In the early 1930s, MGM starred Joan Crawford, Nils Asther and Robert Montgomery in a film called "Letty Lynton", which was based on a 1931 novel of the same title by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes. This film closely follows Madeleine's story, except that Crawford's character is never charged and, in an example of pre-code Hollywood, gets away with murder. The film is not presently available due to a copyright suit filed shortly after the film's release in 1932. The case was again dramatized in 1952 for Mutual Radio in an episode of The Black Museum titled "The Small White Boxes". Other novels based on the case include The House in Queen Anne's Square by William Darling Lyell, Lovers All Untrue by Norah Lofts, and Alas, for Her That Met Me! by Mary Ann Ashe. From 1976 to 1989 Madeleine Smith was one of the figures in the Chamber of Horrors section in the Edinburgh Wax Museum on the Royal Mile.
