Dr. Pierre Marie Bougrat

Murderer?

1known / alleged victims (1 ?)

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Case Facts

Gender: male
Country: France
Location: Marseille, France
Date of birth: November 27, 1889
Age at first offence: 36
Characteristics: drugs, escape, history of mental illness, robbery
Victim profile: Jacques Rumèbe
Method of murder: Poisoning (salvarsan)
Date(s) of murder: March 15, 1925
Years active: 1925
Date of arrest: Same day
Status: Died in custody
Sentenced to death; commuted to 25 years of hard labour on March 29, 1927; died in 1962

Case Summary

Background

Dr. Pierre Marie Bougrat was a doctor in France. He had been awarded the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour during WWI. After the war, Bougrat set up practice in Marseille, where he showed empathy for “the down and out,” including prostitutes, pimps and drug traffickers, and often provided his services without charge. He was described as a playboy who liked women and spent lavishly.

The offence

Jacques Rumèbe, a close friend of Dr. Pierre Marie Bougrat, was afflicted with syphilis and was being treated with salvarsan. Bougrat was involved with the treatment, and the preparation of the drug prior to injection required that he take great care.

Rumèbe returned a few hours after receiving his treatment in a panic from a drunken visit to a brothel. He claimed that he had lost his satchel, which was full of money. Feeling sick, he asked his friend to go back to where he had been and try to find the money. Bougrat did as asked, but when he returned empty-handed he found his friend dead.

Bougrat was convicted of murdering Jacques Rumèbe by injections of salvarsan.

Investigation

During the investigation, Bougrat declared that he panicked, thinking that he would be accused of stealing the satchel and killing his friend to cover the crime. He hid the body in a cupboard in order to give himself time to think.

By coincidence, that same day the police arrived to arrest Bougrat for passing rubber checks to cover his gambling debts. The police discovered the body of Rumèbe.

Trial

Dr. Pierre Marie Bougrat was charged and found guilty of murder. The verdict was reached by a vote of six to five.

Sentencing

Bougrat was condemned to death. The sentence was commuted to 25 years of hard labour because of his war service and because no one decorated with the Legion of Honour could go to the scaffold.

Outcome

Bougrat arrived at the remote French penal colony in the Bay of Cayenne at the end of 1926, and he was immediately appreciated for his medical skills. After six months’ incarceration he became one of the few to escape the institution and live to tell about it.

He eventually arrived in Iripa, Venezuela, in the middle of an epidemic, where he tended to the population with much skill and devotion. The authorities turned a blind eye to his situation, and he continued to practice there until his death in 1936.

Other details

The case summary used the phrasing: “Is arsenic an aphrodisiac?: the sociochemistry of an element, by William R. Cullen.”

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