Barrister

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And a few men of the era that haven't been mentioned yet

Dr Henry Lamson
Frederick Henry Seddon
John Tawell
Dr Robert Buchanan
Thomas Wainewright

I'll search out some book titles later.

But a google search should bring up some books and info.

[GUT]

A few women come to mind, Cotton comes to mind

and then

Adelaide Bartlett her husband
Madeline Smith her ex lover
Christiana Edmunds the wife her fancy

and of Course possibly Florrie Maybrick

[Mayerling]

There are several others who have not been mentioned.

1) Dr. Thomas Smethurst: tried in 1859 and convicted of the murder of the wealthy woman who was his second wife. Problem was he was still married. However, the testimony about arsenic poisoning at his trial by the forensic specialist of that age, Alfred Swain Taylor, was done by an error filled test he used. This became public knowledge and led to Smethurst being pardoned for the murder because of the error. Whether he did poison his bigamously married second wife or not is still argued. He was sentence after a second trial for bigamy and got two years. However, while in prison Smethurst profited by his second wife's death. She had filed a will naming him her beneficiary to the estate, and since his conviction was quashed the rule against perpetrators benefitting from the wills of their victims was not applicable. He collected the estate. After leaving prison, he rejoined wife number one again!

2) Dr. Alfred Warder: A case hidden in the shadows of the trio of biggie medical poisoners of the 1850s to 1860s (with Palmer, Smethurst, and Pritchard - see below) was good old Dr. Warder. He was frequently used as an expert on poisons in criminal cases, and had been one of the experts for Palmer in 1856. In 1865 his wife died and there were suspicions about the speed with which Warder wrote out a death certificate for her. Mrs. Warder's relatives requested an autopsy, and traces of arsenic were found. Before Warder was arrested he killed himself in a hansom cab in Brighton (by poison). Subsequently it was discovered that Warder had been married twice before and both ladies had died suddenly - but nobody questioned it. The case is really very little known because it did not end in a trial, but it resembles the 1940s case of the multiply married Dr. Robert Clements who was suspected of three wife murders and committed suicide before he was arrested.

3) Dr. Edward William Pritchard, a.k.a. "the human crocodile": If one had to spend some time with a poisoner, except maybe for Chapman and Dr. Thomas Neill Cream - see later - Pritchard is the one to try to avoid. At least as long as you did not eat with them or take medication from them Palmer and Lamson were fairly safe. But Pritchard was a masterpiece of self-loving egomania. A man with an immense beard he loved to boast he was a friend of the Italian hero Garibaldi (he wasn't), that he had adventures around the globe (he had served in the Royal Navy and did visit the Fiji Islands), and that he was a mason (a Master Mason). He had dozens of spurious and questionable medical degrees (he bought a few from German universities - a practice of that time. If he fancied you he'd give you his calling card - what they called a carte de visit, which had a special small photo of the person whose card it was. His conversation was sparked by frequent pious attitudes and implications of devotion to the Deity. Even when arrested he would pray loudly in public to God to forgive those who maligned him. I am glad to think that for all the evil he did William Palmer would never have done this.

Pritchard is definitely associated with three deaths. In 1863 he possibly poisoned his maid and set fire to her rooms so that she would be out of the way (it's believed he may have gotten her pregnant and she threatened to tell his wife). The police and fire department came quickly to his address in Glasgow at 3 A.M., and he opened quickly - fully dressed. Later he would attempt to make an insurance claim for his losses in the fire, but dropped it after the insurance company sent him a note about their investigator's suspicions. He also had to move his home and dispensary. The two murders he committed associated with him occurred on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. Over a period of five months until April 1865 he slowly poisoned his wife, and the mother of his five children, making it look like a long lingering disease. Her mother showed up and seemed to find things not to her liking. Then she was suddenly struck down by a disease too and died within hours. The wife followed shortly. Pritchard was disliked by most of the Scottish medical faculty of Glasgow, but he found a new doctor named Patterson to look into the matter of the cause of death. Patterson took an instant sense of distrust to the polite and overly solicitous Pritchard. He refused to sign the haphazard diagnosis that the good doctor gave to both fatalities, so Pritchard signed the two death certificates. When his wife's body was being taken out to the cemetery, Pritchard made a big scene kissing the corpse on the face.

A letter that was anonymous apparently got the authorities to look into the two deaths. They exhumed the two bodies and found in their systems a pharmacopeia of drugs. Pritchard's defense was denial, a weird claim that his mother-in-law had doctored herself with poisons, and had drunk too much, and that his new maid was responsible. They did not buy it. One writer on the case pointed out that it was one of the few murder cases where no large outpouring of anti-death penalty advocates produced a huge petition for the pardoning or reduction of sentence of a convicted poisoner - Pritchard just turned everyone off. He was executed (the last public execution in Scotland) in July 1865.

4) Dr. Philip Cross - the "Coachford Poisoning Affair" of 1887. If Dr. Warder was hidden by the antics of Palmer, Smethurst, and Pritchard, Dr. Cross is only slightly better recalled today because of his social standing (a military doctor who was friendly with the local gentry) and his physical location (the murder was at Shandy Hall, near Coachford, Ireland). Otherwise this case of 1887 would be in the shadows of the Whitechapel Murders of the following year.

Palmer killed for money to pay or feed his gambling habits. Smethurst may have killed his second wife for an inheritance (if he was guilty he was the only one here who actually benefitted by his crime). Pritchard had a small insurance policy on his wife, and had recently scurried to cover a bad check, but he was not in real difficulties in 1865. Warder's motives remain in the air. Dr. Cross was in his late 50s, with a military fitness from campaigning, and a roving eye for Miss Effie Skinner, the new nanny for his children. She was in her twenties. Soon Mrs. Cross took "ill" and in the fall of 1887 died. Dr. Cross filled out the death certificate and Mrs. Cross was buried. Actually, so far so good - had he been patient a bit, say waiting a year or so, Cross might have gotten away with it. Instead three months after Mrs. Cross died Phil married Effie in London and went on his honeymoon. This struck the locals in Coachford as rather shockingly fast behavior. Mrs Cross was dug up, and the Doctor arrested. He was found guilty of killing her, and in January 1888 hanged by the famous executioner James Berry, who later complained that Cross kept turning around on the scaffold after Berry placed him in his proper spot over the trap door (Cross was still on the trap door, but some of his aristocratic friends came to say good bye, and he wanted to face them to show his thanks for their support). The warden of the prison, realizing why Cross was doing this, angrily ordered Berry to stop playing games with the Doctor and just pull the lever while Cross faced his friends.

5) Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (a.k.a. "Neill Cream", and he was tried as "Thomas Neill" in 1892). Like Chapman an occasional suspect in the Ripper Case, he was probably in Joliet Prison in 1888 serving a life sentence for a poisoning. Cream was a pretty bad fellow, and most of his earlier murders were linked to abortion killings (though he may have poisoned his wife by mailing something to take as medication). Born in Scotland, he and his family moved to Canada and settled in Toronto. He attended M'Gill University and then went back to Scotland for his medical degree. He actually had the intellectual abilities that might have made him a reasonably good doctor. But Cream was avaricious, and did not think highly of human life. So soon there were corpses of dead women all over - as I said most apparently by abortion related killings. He soon went to the Midwest and settled in Chicago, where he was involved in the treatment of a well-to-do farmer named Thomas Stott. Stott died under Cream's care, and was buried without any questions, but then Cream sent letters to the authorities suggesting Stott was murdered. It was the first time he did this odd thing with writing letters, and it caused a reconsideration of Stott's death. An exhumation led to discovery of poison and Cream and Mrs. Stott were both arrested. Only Cream was convicted, but his sentence was not death but life imprisonment (many felt that Cream was lured into the murder scheme by Mrs. Stott, so they suspected she had gotten away with poisoning her husband for his estate - so they felt Cream did not deserve more than life imprisonment.

In 1891 Cream was given a pardon by the then governor of Illinois, one Joseph Fifer, who felt that Cream was not as guilty as to merit life imprisonment. His father had died leaving Cream a legacy. Cream collected half and went to London. Beginning in October 1891 through December he committed three poisoning attacks we know of in the Lambeth and Stepney areas of London on prostitutes. He also sent threatening notes demanding money to several prominent people. Then in January 1892 he left London, returned to Canada and collected the rest of his inheritance. He headed back to London and in April 1892 killed two other prostitutes with poison (strychnine). In all his attacks Cream stayed with the victims long enough to see them take his "medicine" but left immediately afterwards. So he did not witness the convulsions and deaths of his four murdered victims. Only one named Loo Harvey actually survived (she did not trust Cream and only pretended to swallow his pills). His odd behavior towards a hotel he used and to two fellow borders in a boarding house led to the police gradually connecting him to the earlier cases, and he was arrested in June 1892. Tried in November 1892 he was found guilty and hanged.

Jeff

[Rosella]

^ Also take a look at 'The Poisoner' by Stephen Bates. Dr Palmer of 1850's Rugeley was a notorious gambler deeply in debt. He was suspected of several deaths, (using strychnine/ Prussic acid,) including his wife as well as racing cronies. His behaviour during the postmortem of his last victim is pretty incredible. I really enjoyed this book.

[DJA]

Thomas Stevenson was the toxicologist in the Klosowski case and other well known crimes.

Quite close to Jack the Ripper.They actually worked together for a long time.

Makes you wonder.

[Rosella]

Ref above. Forgot, but Mary Ann Cotton's murderous career is also detailed in Heslop's 'Murderous Women' as well.

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Helena's book on Chapman is worth a read.

[Rosella]

I would definitely take a look at 'Murder by Poison: A Casebook of Historic British Murders' by Nicola Sly. (It's on Kindle, Amazon) Dozens of poisoning cases including many more obscure ones.

George Chapman, barber, pub landlord, JTR suspect, poisoned three of the four mistresses who posed as his wife with tartar emetic (rich in antimony.) He pretended great medical knowledge and nursed and dosed these poor women who suffered lingering deaths. These murders were right at the end of the 19th century, very early 20th century.
(Recommend Helen Wojtczak 'Jack the Ripper at Last? The Mysterious Murders of George Chapman.' (Also on Kindle)

American George Lamson was a brilliant doctor who'd become a drug addict. He killed his crippled young brother in law Percy in the 1880's, after visiting him at his school and serving him Dundee cake with phosphorous. He needed Percy's share of the family fortune.
'Some Famous Medical Trials' Parry: Wright.

Young Madeleine Smith of 1850's Glasgow, got off on a Scottish 'Not Proven' verdict after probably slipping her estranged lover Emile L' Angelier a cup of hot cocoa laced with arsenic one cold evening. (He was attempting to blackmail her into marrying him.)
'Square Mile of Murder' by Jack House has an excellent account of this affair.

Arsenic murders in the 19th century were often carried out by women on their nearest and dearest. Mary Ann Cotton was an extremely prolific murderer for profit (insurance payouts) in the 1870's. Arsenic was her choice in food and drink. Husbands, lovers, children, anyone else who got in her way.
I don't have a book for Mary Anne but she bobs up in many murder anthologies.

Mary Ann Ansell killed her sister, who was in an asylum, with a dose of phosphorous in a cake she sent her after taking out insurance on her life in 1899. She wrote anonymous letters to put investigators off the scent.
'Murderous Women' Paul Heslop. Quite a few early 19th century poisonings in this book.

[Barrister]

19th Century poisoners
Colleagues,
I am looking for books about 19th century poisoners, both the killers, their methods and how they were caught. All suggestions will be greatly appreciated.