La Corriveau has been described as a murderer, witch, serial husband-killer and wandering supernatural terror. Only part of that belongs to documented history.
The real woman was Marie-Josephte Corriveau, executed in 1763 for murdering her second husband. The iron cage used to display her body turned a grim criminal case into one of Quebec’s most durable legends.
Who was Marie-Josephte Corriveau?
Corriveau was born in Saint-Vallier in 1733. She married farmer Charles Bouchard in 1749 and had three children. Bouchard died in 1760, and she married Louis-Étienne Dodier the following year.
The later legend would accuse her of killing multiple husbands. Historical evidence supports her conviction for Dodier’s death, not the growing collection of murders assigned to her by storytellers.
The death of Louis-Étienne Dodier
Dodier was found dead in January 1763. His injuries were initially blamed on a horse, but suspicion shifted toward murder.
The case unfolded shortly after Britain had taken control of New France. A British military court tried Corriveau’s father, Joseph, for the killing and treated Marie-Josephte as an accomplice. Joseph was convicted, but he later accused his daughter of committing the murder.
A second trial followed. Marie-Josephte was convicted of killing Dodier and sentenced to death.
Her execution in Quebec
Corriveau was hanged in Quebec on April 18, 1763. Execution alone would have made the case memorable. What happened afterward ensured that people would continue retelling it for centuries.
Her body was placed in an iron gibbet—a cage shaped to hold the corpse—and publicly displayed at Pointe-Lévy across the river from Quebec City.
Why was her body displayed in a cage?
Gibbeting was intended as punishment after death and as a warning to the public. The sight of a body enclosed in iron was designed to be unforgettable, and in Corriveau’s case it succeeded far beyond the authorities’ probable expectations.
Governor James Murray authorized the body’s removal in May 1763. Corriveau was then buried, but the image of the cage remained attached to her story.
How history turned into legend
Over generations, storytellers transformed Corriveau into something much larger than a convicted murderer. She became a witch who traveled at night, sought help crossing the St. Lawrence and attacked or frightened unlucky travelers.
The number of husbands she supposedly murdered increased. Supernatural powers appeared. The cage stopped being a historical punishment and became part of a ghost story.
That is how folklore works. A disturbing real event supplies the skeleton. Every retelling adds a little flesh—usually the unpleasant kind.
Was La Corriveau really a witch?
There is no historical evidence that she practiced witchcraft or possessed supernatural powers. Those claims belong to folklore and later literature.
Separating the two versions does not weaken the story. The historical reality is already remarkable: a murder trial under a new military regime, an execution and the public display of a woman’s body in an iron cage.
What happened to the iron cage?
The cage associated with Corriveau eventually left Quebec and became part of collections in the United States. Researchers later authenticated it, and it returned to Quebec.
The Musée de la civilisation now holds the cage and uses it to connect the criminal case, colonial justice and the folklore that followed. The National Battlefields Commission history of Marie-Josephte Corriveau provides a useful authoritative chronology separating the documented woman from the later legend.
Why does the legend endure?
La Corriveau sits at the intersection of history and horror. She was a real person, but most people encountered her through stories that made her less human and more monstrous.
The legend also reflects changing attitudes toward women, crime, religion and authority. Each generation has interpreted Corriveau differently: villain, witch, victim, folk monster or symbol.
For another Quebec tradition where oral stories changed across communities, explore French-Canadian loup-garou folklore.
The honest version
Marie-Josephte Corriveau was convicted of murdering Louis-Étienne Dodier and executed in 1763. Her body was displayed in an iron cage. The later stories about witchcraft, numerous murdered husbands and supernatural travel are folklore.
Frankly, the documented cage is disturbing enough. The legend never needed to add six more husbands.
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