Mary Ann Cotton, Vict. Serial Killer: ITV Drama

[Archaic]

Hi everyone.

A new drama about infamous Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton is in production. Cotton is believed to have killed as many as 21 people, including her husbands and 11 of her 12 children by poisoning them with arsenic. She then collected their insurance. In 1873 Cotton was hung for her crimes.

Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey will star as Cotton. (She plays the ladies' maid Anna in Downton.)

I don't care for the title 'Dark Angel' but thankfully ITV is producing it, Froggatt is an excellent actress and what little I've seen of the period costumes looks authentic.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3210282/Joanne-Froggatt-leaves-quaint-Downton-Abbey-films-role-Victorian-child-killing-mass-murderer-Mary-Ann-Cotton-ITV-drama-Dark-Angel.html

Video: Lady Killers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG1ZzMHpP08

(Another link for same video in case it gets removed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRu5TH56Rp4 )

Best regards,
Archaic

[Rosella]

Interesting, thanks. At one time, before the charming Dr Shipman began production, Mary Ann was regarded as Britain's most prolific serial killer. She just slipped through the net dozens of times and escaped inquiries into her numerous losses because she never stayed long in one place.

[Pcdunn]

Sounds like an interesting drama. I hope it shows up over here sometime in the future, on pBS or BBC America.

[GUT]

I may be, distantly related to her last victim, anyone know any more about him.

[Rosella]

I thought Mary Ann's last victim (or at least her last known one) was her poor little 7 year old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. He died in July 1872 and soon after that she was arrested. Do you mean Joseph Nattrass, lodger and lover who had stupidly made a will out in Mary Ann's favour? He died on April 1st 1872.

Mary Ann and Joseph Nattrass had met years before, in the mid 1860's, when Mary Ann was living it up at Seaham Harbour on the Durham coast, on the proceeds of £35 insurance money after bumping off husband number one, William Mowbray. Nattrass and Mary Ann had a fling but he was engaged, married his fiancée and moved away.

In 1871 the Cottons moved to West Auckland, where Frederick Cotton, Mary Ann's 'husband', died unexpectedly. Nattrass was then a widower living locally, (which Mary Ann had probably known) and he moved in with Mrs Cotton. She soon had her eye on an excise officer called Quick-Manning, so the lodger had to go! I think Mr Quick-manning had a lucky escape, really!

[Mayerling]

I thought Mary Ann's last victim (or at least her last known one) was her poor little 7 year old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. He died in July 1872 and soon after that she was arrested. Do you mean Joseph Nattrass, lodger and lover who had stupidly made a will out in Mary Ann's favour? He died on April 1st 1872.

Mary Ann and Joseph Nattrass had met years before, in the mid 1860's, when Mary Ann was living it up at Seaham Harbour on the Durham coast, on the proceeds of £35 insurance money after bumping off husband number one, William Mowbray. Nattrass and Mary Ann had a fling but he was engaged, married his fiancée and moved away.

In 1871 the Cottons moved to West Auckland, where Frederick Cotton, Mary Ann's 'husband', died unexpectedly. Nattrass was then a widower living locally, (which Mary Ann had probably known) and he moved in with Mrs Cotton. She soon had her eye on an excise officer called Quick-Manning, so the lodger had to go! I think Mr Quick-manning had a lucky escape, really!

There was (so far) only one book I know of written on the "West Auckland" Polisonings Case - "Mary Ann Cotton, Her Story and Trial" by Arthur Appleton (London: Michael Joseph, c1973), ISBN 0 7181 1184 2. I have a copy and read it. Cotton was prosecuted by Charles Russell, the future Lord Chief Justice and Attorney General who would also prosecute Adelaide Bartlett (unsuccessfully in 1886), and defend Florence Maybrick (unsuccessfully in 1889). Her own barrister was Thomas Campbell Foster, who would be on the prosecution team against burglar de luxe - murderer Charlie Peace in 1879.

Jeff

[GUT]

I thought Mary Ann's last victim (or at least her last known one) was her poor little 7 year old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. He died in July 1872 and soon after that she was arrested. Do you mean Joseph Nattrass, lodger and lover who had stupidly made a will out in Mary Ann's favour? He died on April 1st 1872.

Mary Ann and Joseph Nattrass had met years before, in the mid 1860's, when Mary Ann was living it up at Seaham Harbour on the Durham coast, on the proceeds of £35 insurance money after bumping off husband number one, William Mowbray. Nattrass and Mary Ann had a fling but he was engaged, married his fiancée and moved away.

In 1871 the Cottons moved to West Auckland, where Frederick Cotton, Mary Ann's 'husband', died unexpectedly. Nattrass was then a widower living locally, (which Mary Ann had probably known) and he moved in with Mrs Cotton. She soon had her eye on an excise officer called Quick-Manning, so the lodger had to go! I think Mr Quick-manning had a lucky escape, really!

No I meant Fred and Zcharles Cotton.

In particular I'm trying to find a link to the Cotons and Bayes' of Kennilworth.

[Rosella]

Some famous and fascinating cases you've mentioned there, Mayerling, including the very fortunate Adelaide Bartlett. Nobody could figure out her M.O.! Of course Charlie Peace is virtually forgotten today but he was certainly notorious in Victorian England, and admired for his criminal career in some quarters, no doubt! He was very fond of pretending to have epileptic fits and tried to throw himself off the train following his final arrest, I believe, but nothing worked and he was eventually hanged for murder.

I've gained most of my information on Mary Ann and her victims from Paul Heslop's 'Murderous Women,' which goes through both obscure and famous cases of female murderers from 1843 to 1955.

In 1870 Mary Ann was introduced to miner Frederick Cotton by his sister Margaret who worked in service, as did Mary Ann intermittently. The Cotton family lived at the small mining village of North Walbottle near Newcastle. Frederick was a widower. His wife Adelaide and two of their four children had died, Adelaide of consumption, her daughters through typhus.

Margaret Cotton soon died, leaving her brother £60.Robert, Fred Cotton's son, was born in January 1871. His mother Mary Ann was bigamously married to Frederick in that September at St Andrew's Church, Newcastle. Soon after the marriage Frederick and Mary Ann completed insurance forms for the two stepsons.

They moved to West Auckland and as you know Gut, all the male Cottons, including Fred, Charles and Robert, subsequently died at the hands of Mary Ann. It would be fascinating to find a link. Was Adelaide from Kenilworth?