Jan Coucke and Pieter Goethals

Jan Coucke (c. 1812 – 16 November 1860) and Pieter Goethals (c. 1826 – 16 November 1860) were two Flemings who were sentenced to death for murder in 1860 at a time Belgium was legally only French-speaking, though the majority of the citizens spoke Dutch, and only the official language was acknowledged by the Courts of Justice. They became an example as well as an exponent of how the French-speaking bourgeoisie (from Wallonia but also from Flanders) treated their Flemish fellow-citizens, of whom the language – if not its speakers – was considered inferior by the elite. Later on, the real perpetrators confessed to the murder, which in 1873 led to a debate in parliament that ended in the Coremans Act, one of the first laws to recognize Dutch as an official language in Belgium, allowing the Flemish to use their own language at Flemish courts, though not yet in Brussels.

On 23 March 1860, widow Dubois was the victim of an assault and robbery by night in Couillet near Charleroi. She was discovered in agony only the next day, and died of her injuries a few days later. To the village policeman, she had only been able to utter that her attackers spoke "Flemish". Consequently, the attention was drawn on two Flemings who had been making a living in the region, Jan Coucke, a forty-nine-year-old potato salesman born in Sint-Denijs near Kortrijk, and Pieter Goethals, a railroad worker originating from Lotenhulle and thirty-four years of age.

Their trial in French at the Assize Court of Hainaut in Mons started on 20 August 1860. Although both lived in Couillet, Wallonia, and spoke French for their work, they were assisted by a Dutch translator, Pierre Van Horenbeek.

Prosecutor Charles-Victor de Bavay obtained their death sentence five days later. They were beheaded on the Grand Market Place of Charleroi a few weeks later.

In 1861, a year after the execution, 14 members of the infamous Black Gang were to appear before the same assize court. The leader of the gang, Leopold Rabet, confessed that French-speaking gang members had killed the widow Dubois. Jean-Baptiste Boucher and Auguste Leclercq confessed to having committed the murder and were sentenced to death. They also confessed that although Coucke and Goethals did not kill the widow, they were their accomplices.

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