The Croydon Poisonings

[Mayerling]

I believe that Grace Duff murdered her mother and sister for monetary reasons, and have done so ever since reading 'The Riddle of Birdhurst Rise' about twenty five years ago. Surely though the premise that Tom Sidney took his wife and family off to live in the U.S. on the advice of Scotland Yard is rather flawed?

Unless the inheritance from Mrs Sidney, Tom's mother, was tied up in some way, surely there would be no pecuniary advantage in Grace killing her brother? If he died suddenly in some mysterious way the money he had would be left to his wife and family, you would think.

Maybe both Tom and Scotland Yard had the feeling that Grace was getting used to the poisoning process and was going to kill again, just for the hell of it!

Hi Rosella,

There is a circuitous way Grace would gain the inheritance from Mrs. Sidney. Instead of going straight at Tom, she goes after his wife and family - in a measured time sequence (over a long period - to TRY to quell suspicions), and when they are gone (unless Tom leaves his estate to the Royal Family or to some major charity that Grace can't touch) his death will lead to her getting the inheritance. Since the other killings may have been set up in any order like this (to hide the motive and actual target as much as possible) the killer would use the same method trying to get Tom.

Jeff

[sdreid]

That's really interesting Stan. What about motive?

Hi Belinda:

I actually think Grace is the most likely culprit but I just thought this scenario was slightly possible.

As for motive, she disliked Duff and thought he was bad for her daughter. Regarding Vera, that's very difficult but I can think of three rather nebulous ones. (1)She was just a homicidal maniac so she didn't need a reason. (2)There was some friction between her and Vera that we know nothing about. (3)She knew or feared that Vera knew she killed her son-in-law. In this last case, it would have to be feared otherwise Vera would have figured out what was going on and spilled the beans as soon as she became sick.

[belinda]

That's really interesting Stan. What about motive?

[Rosella]

What possible motive could she have, however, for murdering Vera? She certainly didn't care for her son in law but surely (unless she was completely insane) she would have guessed that Edmund's death may have been regarded as suspicious. (Even though it wasn't for some months, as we know.) In those circumstances Edmund's nearest and dearest, specifically his wife, would have been in the firing line. Anyway, I just can't see the elderly Violet creeping round the Duff cellars treating a bottle or two of beer to some arsenic.

As for Vera, mother and daughter were exceptionally close. Even if Vera suspected her mother of murder I don't believe she would ever have told anyone. Violet was apparently anti-suicide (regarded as a crime then) and quite religious. She became depressed after Vera's death and told her servant she didn't know how she could go on. She did, though. I do think she may have had an inkling it was Grace who had caused her husband's death.

[sdreid]

I was thinking about this case the other day and wound up sort of tranfering my theory to the Bravo Case but I'll go ahead and post it here as another very slight possibility.

There has always pretty much been a theory that Violet murdered the first two then killed herself. What if she killed the first two then poisoned herself to remove herself as a suspect and throw suspicion on someone else? That is, she poisoned herself with what she thought was less than a fatal dose but mistakenly took too much. Again, only a tiny possibility; mainly because Violet wasn't a suspect at the time, in fact, the deaths weren't even known to be murders at time.

[Rosella]

^ Yes, I agree. I often think in that series Fellowes just decided to point to a possible murderer, simply because he could!

[SPDDrew]

The Fellowes Program

While entertaining and interesting to watch I don't think it stands up to even the most cursory of scrutiny when it comes to factual accuracy.

[SPDDrew]

Tom's Book

I have a copy of Tom's book, some passages appear virtually unchanged in RWE's book if memory serves

[SPDDrew]

Edmund's Writing

RWE mentions that Edmund had a small income from writing stories....has anyone ever read any?

[sdreid]

As best I can tell, Tom's book was Echoes of the Past and it looks like it was published in 1977. Grace died in 1973 at age 87 - no libel worries.

[belinda]

After reading the foreword in the Whittington Egan book I believe Tom Sidney was the killer not Grace

[sdreid]

I too think Grace is the most likely culprit although I admit that Fellowes' theory is very intriguing and covers all the bases.

[caz]

Maybe both Tom and Scotland Yard had the feeling that Grace was getting used to the poisoning process and was going to kill again, just for the hell of it!

Exactly Rosella. Another person's motives are only guesswork after all, and sometimes any financial gain is secondary - or a bonus - as in the case of Harold Shipman.

If a relative of mine was strongly suspected of bumping off their nearest and not so dearest - for whatever reason - I think I would be well advised to put as much distance between us as possible!

Love,

Caz
X

[Rosella]

I believe that Grace Duff murdered her mother and sister for monetary reasons, and have done so ever since reading 'The Riddle of Birdhurst Rise' about twenty five years ago. Surely though the premise that Tom Sidney took his wife and family off to live in the U.S. on the advice of Scotland Yard is rather flawed?

Unless the inheritance from Mrs Sidney, Tom's mother, was tied up in some way, surely there would be no pecuniary advantage in Grace killing her brother? If he died suddenly in some mysterious way the money he had would be left to his wife and family, you would think.

Maybe both Tom and Scotland Yard had the feeling that Grace was getting used to the poisoning process and was going to kill again, just for the hell of it!

[sdreid]

I believe Tom Sidney wrote an autobiography but I think, that although published, it is quite rare. To date, I have not actually looked for it. I saw somewhere that he lived until about 1980. If he is the culprit, he has to be one of the most diabolical murderers of all time. Surprisingly, I don't think this case is in Wiki unless I was searching it wrong.