Reddit reviews The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV

I've been doing historical research for journal publication on late medieval/early modern Europe French crime. One of the biggest crimes was the Affair of the Poisons, a period of a couple years in the 1670s where a vast conspiracy was uncovered of diviners selling poisons to citizens that were then used to murder people. It included some of the higher-ups of the French court, including those closest to King Louis XIV. Ultimately 450 people were implicated, 200 arrested, 36 were executed, 23 were exiled, 5 were sent to the galleys, and 55 were imprisoned directly from the king for life. Others died under torture or suicide. Problem was that it unraveled as witnesses became unreliable (they were executing witnesses too quickly and couldn't corroborate statements made with other witnesses).

​

Anyways, I was fascinated enough by the whole thing that I threw it together into a 2-part podcast! I highly recommend reading The Affair of the Poisons by Anne Somerset if you're interested in the time period and case.