The Unsolved 200-Year Mystery: Was Napoleon Poisoned?

The 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death (1769-1821), this controversially detailed life and death of the Corsica-born man into an Italian aristocratic family, full of controversial details, is being check.
Everyone knows Ben Weider (1923-2008), founder of the International Bodybuilding Federation, born in Montreal and the man who discovered the muscular hero, movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, but perhaps few who became aware of Weider’s legacy as co-author with New York Times editor David Hapgood of “The Murder of Napoleon,” a 1982 bestseller, translated into 15 languages, including Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian and Russian.

The Hebrew edition, published in 1988 with a run of 5,000 copies, quickly sold out and has not yet been reprinted. Jack Joseph Nicholson owns the cinematic rights to the book – which reads like one is mesmerized by the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milo Forman, based on the 1975 film. novel of the same name by the late writer Ken Kesey. While the book was a bestseller, academia still mocked the “poisoned” theory. Historians believe that Napoleon Bonaparte died on 5/5/1821 of stomach cancer, hepatitis or syphilis. However, Swedish dentist and amateur toxicologist Sten Forshufvud came up with his theory in 1961 – two years before US President John Kennedy was assassinated and four decades before 9/11. 2001 – by which time mythical conspiracy theories became the norm. French Emperor Napoleon dominated most of Europe for more than a decade, leading France against a series of alliances; Source: wikipedia.org. The Weider-Hapgood-Forshufvud conjecture is based on Forshufvud’s analysis of Napoleon’s five hairs. The results of the laboratory analysis showed that the toxic level of arsenic (a chemical element with symbol As and atomic number33) ranged from normal to 38 times the average level. This clearly demonstrates that Napoleon was administered small amounts of Arsenic in different concentrations at different times during the 5 years before his death. It was Napoleon who raised suspicions, when he wrote in his will just three weeks before his death at the age of 51, “I was stillborn, murdered by the English butcher and assassinated”. The murder theory has gained traction over time, supported by advances in forensic science. Weider – a supporter of Napoleon’s thinking – in 1995, published after the first book with an extensive study on the same topic “The assassination of St. Helena rad review” (“Assassination at St. Helena Revisited”), which he and Forshufvud co-authored. While the two books have many fascinating details about Napoleon’s tragic final years, the central question remains – was the old Emperor murdered? The 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death (1769-1821) – aka assassination – on May 5, the life and death of the puzzling man born on the island of Corsica into an Italian family of aristocratic descent This controversial detail is being reviewed. In contrast to history, in October 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote British island of Saint Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean 1,776 km off the coast of West Africa, and died there in 1821. Napoleon had previously been imprisoned. deported to a place of youth exile on the Italian island of Elba, but escaped from prison, regrouped the Great Army la Grande Armée, and attempted to conquer Europe once more, but in the end, defeated by British and Prussian forces at Waterloo in 1812. Napoleon was, Weider argued, incapacitated on the outskirts of Brussels by his trusted aide General Charles Tristan, Marquis de Montholon (1783-1853). While ostensibly a loyal officer who followed Napoleon into exile in St. Helena, believed to be actually a spy who served as a bartender and manager of Napoleon’s liquor, put small amounts of arsenic in his favorite drink. The poison made Napoleon very sick, comatose and unable to think clearly. Over the years, little by little, poison accumulated and destroyed Napoleon’s stomach and digestive system. While the syrup, a standard ingredient in Mai Tai and many cocktails today, is made from sweet almonds, the fruit from bitter almonds can be toxic. While the wine Napoleon drank was produced in Domaine de Groot Constantia, present-day South Africa, Vader and his associates suspected that the marquis had forged antique wine before serving the former Emperor. Forshufvud and Weider observed that Napoleon tried to quench his unusual thirst by drinking large amounts of orgeat syrup containing cyanide compounds in almonds used for flavoring. They asserted that the potassium tartrate used during Napoleon’s treatment prevented his stomach from expelling these compounds, and that thirst was a symptom of intoxication. Their theory was that the calomel given to Napoleon became a drug overdose, killing him and causing extensive tissue damage. They had good reason to suspect the nobleman in the murder. While the Marquis de Montholon’s military service provided cover for him to follow Napoleon in the Emperor’s final exile, a thorough examination of his military record revealed some deception. Montholon claims to have been presented with an honorary sword from Napoleon during his victory at the Battle of Hohenlinden, 33 km east of Munich on December 3, 1800. In fact, the marquis did not participate in the campaign, as at the time, was facing expulsion from the army for corruption. Montholon was re-enlisted thanks to influential friends and family. Napoleon Bonaparte’s career and private life are still controversial; Source: wikipedia.org. Nine years later, at the Battle of Jena, Montholon claimed to be wounded. But his commanding officer insisted in a later affidavit that the incident did not happen. And then during Napoleon’s first exile in 1814, Montholon lost his mission to the Royalists after only seven days, after being accused of pocketing money to pay the army in Clermont-Ferrand. Although Montholon was an immoral character and while the arsenic in Napoleon’s hair may seem questionable, it should be noted that the poison was in common use in the 19th century for a variety of purposes. With France and Britain unable to agree on a procedure for burying Napoleon in France, his body was initially interred in St. Helena, after an inconclusive autopsy. In 1840, the British government authorized the return of Napoleon’s remains to France for burial at the newly built Dome des Invalides. His coffin was opened to confirm that it still contained the former emperor. Although nearly two decades dead, Napoleon’s body is still very well preserved and has not decomposed. There may also be a scientific explanation for Napoleon’s well-preserved body condition that may have supported the poisoning hypothesis. Arsenic is famous for keeping a corpse in good condition. However, Napoleon was buried in four sealed coffins. Another explanation is that saponification (whereby meat is converted to fat) is caused by the absence of oxygen. In a 1993 interview with The Jerusalem Report, Weider dismissed the story that Napoleon suffered one last humiliation apart from losing the battle at Waterloo. According to some documents, shortly after his death, an autopsy was carried out and Francesco Antommarchi, the doctor who conducted the autopsy, removed several parts of Napoleon’s body, including his penis. Weider denied that Napoleon had lost his “weapon”, explaining that the autopsy was carried out under military protection. No one reported that any body parts were missing. However, Dr. John K. Lattimer – a urologist – purchased the purpose amputation appendage from a collector in 1977 for $3,000. It is now owned by his daughter, who has been offered to sell for more than 30 times the original purchase price. The cause of Napoleon’s death is not known with certainty. And unless the DNA is compared between Dr. Lattimer’s gruesome souvenir and the body at Les Invalides, the question will remain unanswered as to whether Napoleon’s “legacy” was “pure gold” or “wood”.