|
 Poison
seemed to be the first choice for many murderers in the Victorian
era - mainly by women.
One
of the most celebrated cases was that of Adelaide Bartlett. Adelaide
Bartlett's husband Edwin was one who succumbed to poison. In
his case, chloroform. Adelaide's trial has gone down in
history as one of the most baffling. Although poor Edwin's
post-mortem revealed a large amount of liquid chloroform in his
stomach, there was no trace in the mouth or throat. The central part
of Adelaide's defence at her trial was the mystery of how the
chloroform got into the stomach, as it is almost impossible to
swallow as the unpleasant taste causes vomiting and if it had been
poured down his throat while unconscious, some would have gone into
the lungs and there was none found. Adelaide
was acquitted at the trial, and afterwards Sir James Paget of St.
Bartholomew's Hospital remarked, "Now that it is all over, she
should tell us, in the interest of science, how she did it". Arsenic
was easily obtained in Victorian times in the form of
fly-papers. These could be soaked and the arsenic obtained.
Ladies of fashion used arsenic for cosmetic purposes as well as
killing husbands! Madeline
Smith, a beautiful 21 year old girl, lived in Glasgow in 1897.
She had been having a torrid affair with a clerk called Emile
L'Angelier, and she had written him some very passionate letters
during the course of the affair. Madeline's father pressured
Madeline to become engaged to a friend of his, and she therefore
tried to get the letters back from L'Angelier. He refused to give
them to her and threatened to show them to her fiance. She then
decided to poison him with arsenic in a cup of cocoa! He drank it
and died. At her trial Madeline made a very good impression on
all present, and the final verdict was Not Proven, a verdict only
possible in Scotland. Florence
Maybrick also decided arsenic would be just the thing for her
husband. In
1889 after a short illness, James Maybrick died. The Maybrick family
were suspicious, and after locking Florence in her room, they
searched the house. They found a packet labelled 'Arsenic.
Poison for rats'. The autopsy on Maybrick revealed traces of arsenic
in his stomach and Florence was accused of his murder. She was
sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment. She served
15 years and was released in 1904. Mary
Ann Cotton can be called Britain's Mass Murderess. She
poisoned four husbands and twice as many children, with
arsenic. She
was 20 when she married William Mowbray, a miner, and they had four
children. William went to sea as a stoker and died suddenly
while at home, as did the four children.
 Mary,
now a grieving widow, got a job as a nurse in Sunderland Infirmary
where she met George Wood. He married her but did not live
long. Mary collected the insurance money and met James Robinson, a
man with four children. They were married in 1867 and all of
his four children died, as well as the new baby that Mary had.
Once more Mary collected the insurance and married Frank
Cotton. He had two children by his first wife and a new baby
by Mary. Frederick died suddenly as did all his
children. Mary now had a new lover, a man called Natrass, but
he died too of Gastric Fever, according to Mary. The
local doctor, Dr. Kilburn, became suspicious and in 1873 Mary was
brought to Durham Assizes. She was found guilty and hanged at
Durham Jail.
Christiana
Edmunds was an ill-tempered, waspish spinster who fell madly in love
with her doctor. She was convinced that Doctor Beard was in
love with her and began to send him emotional, passionate
letters. Doctor Beard was embarrassed but powerless. In
1871 Christiana decided that Mrs. Beard would have to go, and sent
her a box of chocolates. They were full of strychnine.
Christiana was eventually caught after the small boy she had deputed
to buy the chocolates from the shop identified her. She
pleaded insanity at her trial but was sentenced to death. This was
later commuted to detention in Broadmoor for life. Dr.
Pritchard in 1864 purchased some antimony as his wife was standing
in his way - he wanted to marry one of his servant-girls. He
had a problem as this servant was pregnant. His wife suddenly became
very ill and his mother-in-law came to look after her. Quite
suddenly his mother-in-law died in his house, and her daughter, his
wife, a few weeks later. They were both found to have been
poisoned with antimony. Pritchard was hanged in 1865, the last
man to be executed in public in Scotland. A crowd of 100,000
watched the execution. ©
E.P.C |