Test of Napoleon’s Hair by the FBI Inconclusive

The results of three test of Napoleon’s hair by the FBI Crime Lab in Washington were reported to be inconclusive last Sunday in Chicago. The announcement was made by Bob Snibbe, President of the Napoleonic Society of America, at their 10th Annual Conference following a three hour debate by two teams of toxicologists, forensic experts and historians on whether Napoleon was poisoned or died of cancer on the island of St. Helena.

The first test was a microscopic analysis of hairs from two different sources which indicated they were similar in colour and texture. But DNA testing would be required to know for sure if they came from the same head.

The second test was an atomic absorption test to determine if arsenic was present and to what extent. The arsenic level in the hair provided by Dr. Ben Weider of Montreal, author of the book, “The Murder of Napoleon”, who headed up the team which is con-vinced that the emperor was poisoned, varied from 2.4 to 6.5 parts per million and average 4.96 ppm.

The arsenic level in the hair supplied by Jean Fichou of Rennes, France, varied from 1.0 parts per million to 2.8 ppm and averaged 1.93 ppm. But neither of these levels, according to the FBI, were high enough to indicate that the death of the emperor was caused by arsenic poisoning.

However, as Dr. Weider pointed out in his book, the British doctors attending the patient ordered a purgative of 10 grains of calomel or tartar emetic flavoured with orgeat, a barley - based drink containing sweet and bitter almonds. Napoleon’s Italian pathologist, Dr. Antommarchi, strongly objected because a normal prescription would have been two grains spread among several doses. (Calomel, which contains inert mercury, was a universal panacea at that time for constipation.) Like orgeat, it was harmless by itself, but when mixed with the hydrocyanic acid in bitter almonds, it formed lethal mercurous cyanide which was the “death warrant”. So, contrary to the widely held view that Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning that only weakened him, actually he died of cyanide poison, according to Dr. Weider and his team.

The opposing team, headed by Dr. Philip Corso of Conneticut, and three experts in pathology and forensic medicine, insisted Na-poleon died from cancer and an ulcer of the stomach and cited the findings of many experts to support their position.

The third test to be done by the Crime Lab was to be a DNA test, but according to Roger Matz, Chief of the FBI's Chemistry/Toxicology Unit, their DNA testing machine was “down” so these results will not be available for some time. However, when the results are available they will be announced immediately.

In order to determine that both of the hairs tested actually came from the head of Napoleon, it will be necessary to compare the FBI’s DNA results with a sample of bone from a known descendant of Napoleon on his mothers side. It just happens that Napoleon’s sister, Achille Murat who fled Italy in 1815 after his father was captured and executed. He landed in Jacksonville, Florida, then went to Tallahassee in 1825 where he married the great grandniece of President Washington, established several plantations and became a director of a bank and a county judge. He died in 1847 and the Society, which has its headquarters in Clearwater, FL, will attempt to obtain a court order to exhume his body to obtain a DNA sample which will then be compared by the FBI to the DNA tests of the two hairs.

Regarding the identity of the murderer, Dr. Weider in his book blames it on Comte de Montholon who was a Royalist, who did it for political reasons as Louis XVIII did not want Napoleon to escape or be released by his British captors for fear of losing his throne. A new book published in September 1994, by Professor Rene Maury of Montpellier University, France, claims that he knows that Montholon was the murderer, not for political reasons, but for revenge as Napoleon had taken his wife as his mistress and he claims he has a “written confession” to prove it.

He points out that Albine, Montholon’s young and attractive wife, who supposedly had a daughter by Napoleon named Josephine, had a book describing how the author had murdered her father, her two brothers and numerous hospital patients which was known at the time as the “Inheritance Powder”. In addition, Napoleon had left Montholon over 2,000,000 francs in his will and Montholon didn’t want to spend perhaps twenty years on St. Helena waiting for Napoleon to die of old age.

So history’s most famous murder case is still unsolved and the controversy and the controversy over whether he was poisoned or died of natural causes will continue for years. Even if the DNA samples of Archille Murat match the DNA tests of one or both sources of Napoleon’s hair, historians will probably never agree as to what or who caused the death of Napoleon, whose body lies in the magnificent tomb in Les Invalides in Paris.

The Napoleonic Society wishes to thank the FBI for its help and cooperation, especially Roger Martz, Doug Dietrich, Paul Bresson and James Kearney, chief of the Scientific Analysis Section, Laboratory Division.

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