CANADA – april 10, 1734
On the Saturday evening of April 10, 1734 a fire alarm sounded off in the quiet streets of Montreal. The fire started on the South side of Rue Saint-Paul and in minutes it was spreading East Rue Saint-Joseph. The fire was so intense law-enforcement could not get close enough to extinguish the flame. As a result of the fire at least 46 buildings, mainly homes and the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal (a hospital) was all destroyed in less than three hours. Rumors started circulating accusing Angelique of setting the fire. Locals went and confronted Angelique on the rumors but she denied all rumors. On April 12, 1734 an warrant was issued for Angelique. She was arrested and brought before the judge for the jurisdiction of Montreal named Pierre Raimbault, with Raimbault was chief attorney & prosecutor Francois Foucher, and began one of the most spectacular trials to come out of the 18th-century of Canada..(…) On the morning of June 21, 1734 Angelique was tortured in her jail cell with a medieval torture instrument that crushed her legs. The judge and prosecutor of the Montreal courts wanted Angelique to confess to setting the fire under torture. Angelique broke down and confessed but refused to name her lover Claude Thibault as Co-conspirator and Co-arsonist. After the torture Angelique was dressed in a white Chemise and holding the burning torch in her hand she was placed into an garage cart and taken through the streets of Montreal facing ruins of the building destroyed by the fire. Angelique then was hanged, her hangman and torture was Mathieu Leveille, an enslaved black ma employed as royal executioner. After she was strangled until dead, her body was displayed on a gibbet for two hours for all to see…(read more from source below).
