Some Infamous Deeds of the Past - Crime & Punishment
Taken from "OUR FRENCH CANADIAN ANCESTRY IN HURON COUNTY" by T. W. Denomme
Research of our ancestors reveals many paths leading to events of some of our ancestors leaving a deep furrow for us to follow while others left an ugly scar. It would put our ancestors in an unrealistic halo if we exposed only the brilliant members of the family and forgot about the black sheep. Also, it would leave the members of the black sheep's family in limbo, which would be a grave injustice because some may have blazed a trail in history that would stop with the black sheep because of the scar they would have to expose of on of their ancestors before they arrived at an ancestor from France. Another reason for exposing the ugly scars as well as the brilliant characters is that it adds incentives to research to those who look for sensational happenings of their ancestors regardless of reason. It is with this in mind that I translate the following from the "Cahiers des dix".
The author of these pages would like to present an exhaustive study of the well being of "La Corriveau", This woman in effect, has so haunted the spirits for the past 200 years and still haunts them to our day that it is well to offer to the readers a concise page of the happenings with the most possible exactitude and to leave aside the stories as much harebrained as numerous that the popular imagination has engendered and that has entered in the folklore of Quebec literature.
Marie Joseph Corriveau was the daughter of Joseph Corriveau and Francois Bolduc, of Saint-Valier de Bellchase, the granddaughter of Pierre Corriveau and Anne Gaboury of the first generation of Corriveau's in Canada. This couple married at Saint Joachim de Montmorency, the home parish of the mother of "La Corriveau". This couple, at Saint-Valier, gave birth to nine children, one of which was Marie Joseph "La Corriveau" born October 29, 1729. Her first marriage was to Charles Bouchard, November 17, 1749 at Saint-Valier. Charles Bouchard was a farmer and was the son of Nicolas Bouchard and Anne Sylvain who had married at Chateau Richer. This marriage occupied five successive homesteads: Saint Anne de Beaupre, Berthier, Saint Thomas de Montgany, where one of their ten children, Charles lived when he married "La Corriveau" at Saint-Valler. They both were 16 years of age. The couple Bouchar-Corriveau gave birth to three Children during their eleven years of marriage. On April 25, Charles Bouchard died suddenly and was buried on April 27. After the usual disruption occasioned by sudden death, such as lamentations, heart rending tears, sincere compassion or not, there was at this time a mixture of curious remarks of the unexpected death. The rumor, short as it was, like a 'I of gun powder that "La Corriveau" got rid of her husband while he was asleep by pouring lead into his ear. The Justice Department in the meantime did not concern itself with stopping the spreading rumor which had enough weight to make it a good court case. It was not impossible that in truth Charles Bouchard was assassinated by his wife, unimportant as to by what means she employed to attain her goal. In 1761, fifteen months after the death of her first husband, Marie Joseph Corriveau was remarried to Louis Dodier, also a farmer from the same area. After three months of married life, on the night of January 26 or 27, "La Corriveau" assassinated her second husband. This was accomplished so say the neighbors, by hitting him on the head several times with the thunder mug (bed chamber) while he was sleeping. In order to hide her crime and obliterate the eventual trail of justice, she dragged her victim to the barn-stable of the farm. Here she laid him behind a horse hoping by this ruse to imply that the horse was the culprit of the massacre. The neighbors and parents of the couple Dodier-Corriveau found it improbable and beyond belief the camouflage of his death. For this reason judicial authorities took charge of the affair. "La Corriveau" and her father were therefore formally accused and brought before Martial Court. In effect, at this time the government had passed to the hands of the English and we were under strict military regime. "La Corriveau" was so treacherous she even went so far as to imply that her father was suspect in the death of Louis D"er. Following these suspicious aspects, Marie Joseph Corriveau and her father were formally condemned; Joseph Corriveau to be hanged and his daughter as an accomplice, to receive 60 lashes on her bare back, with a whip made or a new branch, at three different places in the streets of Quebec, and be branded with a red hot iron on her left hand with the letter "M" for murderess. These sentences were not executed. Joseph Corriveau, tortured by the voice of his conscience, before the arrival of the day of his execution made an appeal for the service of Father Augustin-Louis Glapion, Superior of the Jesuits of Quebec. After the interview, the presumed assassin denied to the authorities his part in the murder and placed his daughter as being solely responsible for the death of her husband, and would demonstrate to the attorney of the Crown, Hector-Theophile Cramahe, that he had made an error in his act of accusation and in the interpretation of the facts. The law, being consulted anew on April 15, to examine more deeply the cause, saw the recent developments as indicating that this time the murderess was declared guilty in having killed her husband with two strokes of an axe to his head while he slept. The same day, a new verdict was pronounced as follows: "The general court martial having gone through criminal proceedings of Marie Joseph Corriveau, accused of the murder of her husband Dodier, has found her guilty, the governor (Murray) ratified and confirms the following sentence: Marie Joseph Corriveau will be put to death for this crime, and her body shall be suspended in chains. We add that this judgement was in conformity with English law. General Murray, in early times, assembled his private military council in the left wing at ground level of the Ursuline Convent known as the wing of the Holy Family. It was in this hall that the Affair of "La Corriveau" was judged. The execution took place on the Buttes-a-Nepveu near the plains of Abraham, probably April 18, 1763. Her cadaver was put in an iron cage and hung on a post at Forks of Four Roads which crisscrossed in Pointe Levis. Later, a monument for temperance was placed about twelve arpents west of the church and one arpent from the road. the inhabitants of Pointe Levis were not impressed with the spectacle and asked authorities to remove this cage. Its appearance, the rumors and nocturnal apparitions tormented the women and children. It was at the end of May 1763, that by the order of James Murray, that men dispose of her in the cemetery, outside of the fence. These mysterious apparitions and the gossip of those that had heard in the night "The grinding of the iron grates of the cage and the clattering of the bones" naturally, were instrumental in putting "La Corriveau" in a legendary domain. After the enlargement of the cemetery, the grave digger in 1853 found the cage that only contained the bone of one leg. The cage was constructed of big hoop iron and was made in the form of a human body. After being exposed for some time, for the sake of curiosity at Quebec, it was sold to the f3oston f3amum Museum. (I 99 8 contact with Barnum Museum states that the Marie Corriveau Cage was sold to the American Museum, which was P.T. Barnum's original museum in New York City. Unfortunately, the Museum burned to the ground in 1865, so if this artifact was indeed there, it was most likely lost in this fire.)
LEGEND OF "LA CORRIVEAU" TO FILM IN QUEBEC Producer Richard Goudreau is planning to bring the legend of La Corriveau to the big screen. Marie-Josephte Corriveau, a woman of the village of Saint-Valier, Quebec, was notorious for murdering her husbands. Her rampages took place at the time of the Seven Years War. Caught, condemned, and executed, her body was suspended in a cage for passers-by. Filming is scheduled to commence late this summer or early in the fall at several historical settings in Canada. Yves Simoneau directs. A large-scale teleseries project with over 170 speaking roles, production has been in progress since 2000. Various titles have been put on the table, including "La Corriveau," "Nouvelle France," and "La Louve" ("The She-Wolf"). (Sources: cyberpresse.ca 17 Dec 2001 and 28 Feb 2002, Telefilm Canada)
