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Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare A hello, I'm your host Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends and welcome to this, my 76th episode and happy New Year. I made sure to record this on Wednesday before going out for New Year's because I expect my voice to sound like a haggard old witch by tomorrow. I intend to be doing a lot of screaming and laughing tonight. I actually love when my voice gets all grungy after a late night, but I Some of you folks listen to this show to fall asleep to, and I don't actually want anyone waking up in a panic thinking that they're being murdered by ogre from the Dark Crystal. Okay, before we get to the clove pierced pineapple, sliced covered New Year's Eve ham of the episode, let us have a tiny bit of Haunted Housekeeping. Thank you for rating the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. And thank you to Valerie, Susanna, Callie, Heather, Christa, Dana, Stephanie, Laura, Vicky and Mary for subscribing to the show this past week. Those of you who subscribe to the show through Patreon are the reason why the show can continue and I am so grateful for every single one of you. It means so much to me that people want to support my creepy, weird work. So again, thank you if you would like to receive the show ad free and a day early, as well as receive a whole audiobook that I created on starting an eclectic witchcraft practice, as well as weekly witchy content and creepy bloody true crime extras. Go to myvictorianightmare.com to find out how or simply click the link in the show notes okay, for you today, dear listener, I will be discussing not one, but two female poisoners of the 19th century, Adelaide Bartlett and Mary Ann Cotton. This episode will be positively dripping with chloroform and arsenic. But first let us have our first segment with their own eyes where I share with you the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians. This article comes to us from the Sydney journal from 1870, and it begins with what I'd consider an insult, but maybe it wouldn't have been considered one at the time. The article reads, this story is narrated by a lady who is vouched for as a very sensible and unimaginative person and who was herself in childhood, the witness of the apparition. It is as follows. A husband who had led his wife into skepticism of many other things beside ghosts, promised her when he was dying that if he had misguided her, he would return to show that the dead still have existence. Some time afterward, the widow went to visit at the house of a friend and requested that her little daughter, seven years years old, should sleep in her bed at night. The child awoke and saw the lady's husband, of whose death she had no knowledge, standing at the foot of the bed and looking intently at his wife. The child tried to waken the sleeping lady but failed to do so. And after a time, the specter passed into the adjoining dressing room. In the morning, when the child awoke, she found that her friend had already gone downstairs. So she ran alone into the dressing room to seek the gentleman, firmly persuading stated that she had seen him, expecting him, as usual, to have brought her a present. Of course, he was not there and going to find the widow. She asked her where her husband had gone. The poor lady wildly demanded an explanation, and when the child told her of the scene by the bedside, she was utterly overcome. The child's vision seemed to her more satisfactory than her own sight of the dead could have been seeing, that her excited imagination might have deceived her. Whereas the child, not even knowing her old friend was dead, had no fancies or expectations liable to produce illusion. End quote. Oh, that's horrifying, but so beautiful. Almost made me tear up, actually, a little bit. I've said before that one of the most terrifying things that a ghost can do is stare, Stand and stare. Ghosts or anybody. Living. People, too. Like, the most terrifying part of the paranormal activity movies was when, like, the chick would get up and stand and stare at her husband, and you'd see the digital time, like, zoom ahead, and she'd just have been standing there for hours. Oof. Okay, enough of those thoughts. Won't you follow me into the seance room where I discuss the goings on in the spiritualist society of the 1800s. Okay, this page of the spiritualist newspaper begins with, like, a very quick summary of everything to be discussed in the paragraphs ahead. And I want to stencil this on my Bedroom wall. It says, seeing Mediumship. Somnambulism. Disturbing influences at circles. Purgatory, Progression in the animal world, Spiritual communications and earthbound spirit. The formation of the spirit worlds. Audible spirit voices and depart friends like. That's it. That's like the headline for the page. I absolutely love that whole string of chilling descriptors. Okay, we will hear the first article relating to seeing mediumship. The article is essentially the minutes from a seance, which includes my very favorite thing, a description from a dead spirit about the hereafter. And it reads, on Friday evening, December 17, at 8 o', clock, the ordinary weekly seance was held at the spiritual library at 15 Southampton Row, High, Holborn, WC under the mediumship of Mr. J.J. morse. Rather more than 20 ladies and gentlemen were present. Mr. Morse, who at times is a seeing medium, suddenly became fixed and rigid and said that he saw a rough and angry sea with a steamer coming towards him, when all at once it tilted up and went down. No explanation of the circumstance was given, and the medium said that the sight had made him feel disturbed. Another spirit then obtained control of the medium, who with great gravity and deliberation, began rubbing his knees and legs with his hands. He said that when in earth life he was troubled with rheumatics and felt them very badly. When thus coming back through a medium, the pains would subside presently, and then he would speak. He said that he had been purified by suffering, and now he felt all his pains coming back again, because being in an earthly body brought back his old ideas. And the thought of the spirit acts upon the instrument that it uses. It is on entering and leaving the medium that the pains are always worse. He said he had been in attendance, like many other spirits at previous seances, anxious to come before the public, and this was the first opportunity that he had of doing so. He came for the purpose of doing good to those present. He said that when he first woke up after passing through the dying process, he found himself neither in heaven, hell, earth or anywhere else, but passing through space with great velocity with two spirit gentlemen, one on each side of him, supporting him by the arms. He was very much startled, but directly afterwards felt, oh, I am all right. It'll all be right presently. So he waited patiently to see what would be the end of it. Soon they came in sight of a very beautiful island with the ocean breaking against its rocks and taking him to a large house near the shore. They told him that he would have to to stop there till his mind became all right. Oh, Said he in reply, Then I don't care how long my mind takes to get right. But when left to himself, he began to think differently and to remember very clearly some awkward little acts in Earth life which he had committed. He found that these thoughts gave him great pain and made him very uncomfortable. Side note, sounds like me in bed every single night of my life. I continue. Then one of the gentlemen, his teacher and guardian spirit, asked him to come with him to revisit the earth once more. He replied that he would rather stop where he was. Besides, he said, you know, my mind's not right yet. His teacher told him that that was precisely why it was necessary for him to return to Earth, and added that he could bring his present residence with him. He laughed and said that he must be pretty strong to be able to do that. But strange to say, he found the the assertion true and that he brought his island residents with him. In his mind. However, he returned with a party of spirits and found that some of them began to work hard at influencing the minds of individuals upon Earth. And in this way they in time undid the evil they themselves had committed. But it is slow and tiresome work, very much against the grain. End quote. Wow, it sounds like he's describing some kind of purgatory maybe. I love the idea that if you were like not so skillful in life, maybe you didn't improve your spirit very much while you were here, but you weren't say, a monster. You'd be personally escorted to a beautiful island to think about what you did and work it out. And if you couldn't get your head straight, you'd have to go back to Earth to help other folks as a spirit guide before you'd be allowed into a more hospitable place. That's what it sounds like he was describing. I like to think of those escort as being like, alright dude, you can't get into the VIP lounge, but you can sit in the beautiful lobby for a bit, get your head straight, and when you clean up your act a bit, you might be allowed back in. I love that. Imagine if edibles just made you feel good instead of too high. Consistent, mellow and super delicious lumigummies are specifically designed to make you feel good, not stone. Whether you're looking for an end of day de stressor, a midday mood boost, or help getting the best sleep ever, Lume Gummies has a strain that's right for you. I have made their Plumberry Runts gummies a consistent part of my evening routine. I get to work around 10 o' clock. I dive into terrible stories from the 1800s for eight to nine hours pretty much straight. And when I'm done, my brain will not stop. Lumi Gummies have really helped to gently, gently force myself to calm the hell down. Just relax, quiet my mind, and then get the best sleep ever. I personally hate smoking weed. I hate even being around it. It makes my anxiety unbearable, so I don't go near it anymore. But Lumi Gummies are different. If I'm stressed, which I often am, the hybrid strawberry cookies gummies take me from like a 10 to a 5, which is monumental for me, by the way. But that's. That's the thing. I don't want to be zonked. I just want to feel okay. It's that simple. Lumi Gummies are available nationwide. Go to lumigummies.com, that's L U M I gummies.com and use code victorian for 30% off your order. Again, that's lumigummies.com, code victorian. Lumigummies.com, code victorian. Okay, let's now discuss two dastardly female poisoners of the 19th century. We will begin with the most mysterious of them all. Adelaide Bartlett, a woman accused of poisoning her husband in an impossible way. In fact, people still can't figure out how she did it, and some believe she may not have even done anything at all. By the way, she looks like every cool girl that I knew in Williamsburg in, like, the early 2000s. Her side profile, every single hipster girl had that same pixie haircut. I'll put a picture on the Instagram. She definitely has Franz Ferdinand on her ipod shuffle. We'll discuss her story, the murder, the trial, and the theories behind this baffling case. Adelaide was born in 1855 in Orleans, France, and it's believed that she may have been the illegitimate daughter of a French count. She spent her childhood in France, but by her teenage years, she was sent to live in England with her maternal aunt and uncle in Kingston upon Thames in 1875. And at age 19, she met her 30 year old husband to be a man named Edwin Bartlett. He was a fairly wealthy grocer, and he quickly became infatuated with Adelaide. He asked her aunt and uncle if he could marry her, and they said yes, as did she. By the end of the year, they were married. But things were weird. As soon as they were married, Edwin sent Adelaide away to a boarding school across the country. He said he wanted her to fill in the gaps of her education, believing that she had a Substandard education in France. The only times that they saw one another for a full year was when she had school holidays. After that year, he sent her to another school, a finishing school. And then in 1877, she finally came to live with him above one of his grocery stores in London. God, this sounds like what my nightmares are like. Like I get married to a guy and as soon as the wedding's over, I have to go back to school again. Just the idea of that makes me want to wake up in a cold sweat. Now, it's likely that Edwin was gay, or at least that's many theorize Adelaide herself said that the marriage was a platonic one. Regardless, they did consummate the marriage. And by the early 1880s, Adelaide gave birth to a stillborn child, which simply devastated her. Her husband insisted that a male doctor not be allowed to deliver the baby and allowed only a female midwife to do it because he didn't want the male doctor, quote unquote, interfering with her, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. She decided she never wanted to even to have children again after this. And it's likely she and Edwin had a celibate relationship going forward. But that didn't mean that Adelaide wasn't interested in romance entirely. Two years after the death of her husband's mother in 1878, his father moved into their home and accused Adelaide of having an affair with Edwin's brother, which she may have been having. It's also possible that the stillborn baby belonged to his brother and not Edwin. Edwin was a spiritualist, a very particular kind. He was in it for the mesmerism he believed in animal magnetism, that there was an invisible force of energy inside the body that could be manipulated by hypnosis and other psychic means to achieve healing powers. He was likely drawn to these beliefs because he had some seriously painful health issues. His teeth were virtually rotting out of his head. It sounds he'd had botched dental surgery before he met Adelaide, which caused his teeth to shift and cause terrible infections. And rather than have them removed and get dentures, a quack dentist filed his teeth down, which just caused them to rot and caused him tremendous amounts of pain. So maybe he wasn't gay and just didn't want to have sex with bad teeth like, I get it. Could you have sex with rotting gum disease? Ugh. No way. This difficult affliction led Edwin to make close friends with a Wesleyan minister named George Dyson, and he joined his congregation in Putney. This man became close with Adelaide as well and they all had a weird relationship together. He started hanging around their house a lot. And in fact, Edwin hired him to teach Adelaide Latin, history and geography. I wonder why he was so concerned with her learning all the time. Like, it doesn't sound like she wasn't into it per se, but again, it just sounds like she's living my worst nightmares. Things quickly became intimate between the minister and Adelaide, fairly publicly too, and Edwin didn't really seem to mind. A maid who worked in the house recalled a day when Dyson and Adelaide were in bed together and the curtains were, quote unquote, pinned shut. She also said that one of Adelaide's lessons included her resting her head on Dyson's knee. Totally normal student teacher behavior. They also would make out in public in front of Edwin. Several witnesses would later attest to seeing this behavior in public. Originally, Edwin made a will that said that his fortune would be left entirely to Adelaide, but as long as she did not marry after he was dead, which was bog standard in wills from husbands to wives in those days. But he specifically had the will changed after Adelaide and Dyson started getting close. It really appears as though he was fine with the idea of Adelaide one day marrying Dyson if he were to die. Just after doing this, he began to suffer a mysterious string of medical issues. He was diagnosed with painful gastritis in 1889, and his breath was getting too disgusting to sleep next to. Adelaide began sleeping on a cot at the end of the bed because she couldn't even sleep next to him while breathing. At this time, she made an offhand remark to a friend that her husband has been so sick that she was concerned people would soon start accusing her of poisoning him. But he recovered. Not the breath issue, but his excruciating stomach pains appeared to just about fully recover by Christmas. But around this time, Adelaide told Dyson to go ahead and pick up some chloroform for her. When he asked why, she said Edwin's doctor prescribed it, so he did. Now we're getting into territory of where these details were only given in confessions. So we don't really know what is really true. We only know that these were the testified details. Dyson brought home two small bottles of chloroform. At this time, you had to leave your name in a record if you bought a large bottle of Chlo Chloroform, but not if you bought tiny bottles. Dyson went to two different chemists and bought two tiny bottles. A few days later, Edwin had dental surgery. Adelaide went to collect him and brought him home. He fell asleep in the bed, she fell asleep on the cot and in the early morning she ran down the stairs to tell the landlord that she believed her husband was dead. The doctor was quickly called and she claimed to have tried to revive him with brandy. The doctor found him cold in be that he would have been dead for hours before Adelaide ran down the stairs to get help. Since the coroner couldn't officially say his cause of death, his body was removed and taken to a local hospital for an autopsy, which was a rare occurrence in this time. Usually in the 1880s, a cause of death would be initially given like a best guess, and then if they needed to amend it later after an autopsy, the cause would be amended. I see that far more often than a coroner simply saying, I've got no idea. We need to do more tests. Autopsy tests were expensive and usually only done when murder was presumed. This was probably done this way because the coroner did suspect murder. In fact, this is still common. I used to think that everybody got an autopsy when we died. I watch way too much true crime. It is a fresh new year and personally, my new Year's resolution is to be even kinder to my myself. And one of the best ways that I can think of to do that is by taking care of my mental health. And Rula is here to make Finding the Perfect therapist easy. This holiday season has been stressful, to say the least for all of us. I'm sure the anxiety, the burnout, the family interactions that aren't always easy. Therapy can really help clean up the background noise that makes getting through your days so difficult. And believe me, I'm I know. I have been in therapy joyfully for 20 years and without it I have no idea where I'd be today. Rula.com is a medical healthcare provider group that makes finding a quality therapist easy. They partner with more than 100 insurance plans too, so you won't be paying out of pocket. The average copay is only $15, and unlike similar platforms that match you with whichever therapist just happens to be next in the queue, RULA pairs you with therapists curated according to your goals, your background, and your preferences. Finding a therapist for me always felt like a crapshoot. I'd do so much work just to find one that was actually taking patience. And so many times when I'd finally meet them, they did nothing but sit there. No engagement, no challenging me. These were and continue to be my personal therapy goals. And Rula makes finding therapists that match yours so much easier than I ever had it in the past. This year make one change that you can actually stick with. Visit rula.comVictorian to get started. That's rula.comVictorian Mental Health Care. That's actually built to last. Edwin was given an autopsy and the cause of death was a bewildering one. Large amounts of liquid chloroform were found in his stomach. Now, this might seem cut and dry. Adelaide told Dyson to go get some chloroform. He did and less than a week later, Edwin was dead. Clearly, Adelaide poisoned him with chloroform, but the amount that was found in his stomach could not have been drank without burning his throat and lips. How did it get there? Despite the mystery, Adelaide was quickly arrested and Dyson was charged as an accessory in the murder of Edwin Bartlett. The trial was a zoo. The papers loved female poisoner trials. There had been a number of them in the previous two decades and the papers that ran those stories on the covers flew off the shelves or out of paperboy's hands. There were so many people interested in the murder of Edwin Bartlett that the Old Bailey was completely blocked by onlookers. Outside the trial folks desperately trying to catch a glance of the chloroform murderess, the balconies were heaving with spectators. Adelaide's lawyer was the Johnnie Cochran of 1800s Lawyers, one of the most expensive you could find. It was assumed that Adelaide's estranged, secretive, aristocratic father paid for her legal counsel. Before the trial, George Dyson agreed to act as a witness against her to be dismissed of all charges, which was very scandalous. Adelaide was put on the stand and her descriptions of their unconventional marriage shocked the public. According to her, she admitted to asking Dyson to bring her the chloroform because she wanted a way to knock her husband out in a non lethal manner if he tried to make sexual advances toward her. She said that after years of celibacy in the marriage, he developed a desire to sleep with her again, but she was so disgusted by his breath that she couldn't bear to do it. How exactly she intended to administer the chloroform to incapacitate him in a non lethal way is unclear. The prosecution took her testimony and turned it against her, saying that she likely used the chloroform to knock him out and then administered a lethal dose once he was incapacitated by pouring it down his throat. But then doctors were called as witnesses for the defense, saying that this was impossible. He would have had burns in his mouth, his lips and his larynx if it was poured down his throat. It was also claimed by a witness for the defense that Edwin was suicidal. He had gel pills that he would use for other medications. And it was posited that maybe he put chloroform in the pills himself and swallowed them. Something that Adelaide would not have been able to force him to do unless at gunpoint. But none of that was considered likely. Believe it or not, the jury could not find Adelaide guilty, even though they expressed that they did believe that she killed him. The evidence was simply not sound enough for them to convict her beyond a reasonable doubt. A surgeon, Sir James Paget, remarked in the papers. Now that Adelaide has been acquitted for murder and cannot be tried again, she should tell us, in the interest of science, how she did it. End quote. So folks did not believe that she was innocent, but strangely, the public didn't condemn her. They actually applauded in the courtroom when the not guilty verdict was read. It was almost as if they, like that surgeon, was respected. How cunningly she managed to kill him. So bizarre. Even still, it is not known how the amount of chloroform could have ended up in his stomach without burning him on the way down. There are theories, though, still debated. Here are a few. It's believed that she may have replaced gel pills that he was already taking for his tooth pain with pills filled with chloroform. And he unknowingly took them, resulting in the stomach being the only place that the chloroform was found. But here's the problem with this. Chloroform is a very powerful solvent. It would have dissolved the gelatin, like, almost instantly. There was also a large amount of chloroform found in his stomach. And he would have had to take a whole bunch of pills to deliver that much chloroform into his system. So that theory kind of falls apart. It also has been suggested that she may have done this over time, slowly, but he would have been showing signs of sickness even from small amounts of chloroform, his stomach before that night, and he hadn't. And it also wouldn't have stayed in his stomach in a large amount if he were poisoned over time. Another theory was that she waited for him to fall asleep, then covered his nose and mouth with like a chloroform, doused fabric, then poured it down his throat, and perhaps used a funnel or a tube to avoid burning his mouth and throat. But even unconscious patients show reflexive responses to caustic substances. And it's very unlikely that even if he was knocked out, that he wouldn't gag if a tube was put down his throat. So this theory falls apart pretty easily. Another theory was that the chloroform was delivered rectally, but the autopsy didn't show that this happened. The chloroform was in his stomach and if this was done, it could only have been absorbed through his colon. It wouldn't have shown up in his stomach. Also, nothing that she could have used to make this happen was found at the scene. This is just not considered a likely situation. The most likely theory held is that Adelaide poisoned a shot of brandy and had him gulp it down so quickly that it couldn't burn him. But even still, it's debated whether regardless of how fast he drank it, it would have left burns or not. Some believe that it would have. Sadly, it's not something we can really test on the living. After the trial, Adelaide falls off the map. Some say that she returned to France. Some believe that she immigrated to the United States States. Dyson was ejected from the Wesleyan Church after the trial and by all accounts it appears that he and Adelaide never saw each other again. Okay, let's now discuss one of the very worst known poison serial killers of all time, Ms. Mary Ann Cotton. I mentioned her briefly in episode 67, but now we're going to do a deep dive into her history and her likely murders. Mary was found guilty of killing only one person, but it is believed that she killed up to at least 21 people. After a long history of children, husbands and friends dying of gastric fever all around her, she was finally stopped and executed in 1873. Mary was born on Halloween, October 31, 1832. In 18 England. When she was eight years old, her father died falling down one hundred and fifty feet into a mine shaft in Merton Colliery. Her father's body was delivered to her mother in a sack bearing the stamp property of the South Hetton Coal Company. Which is simply horrifying. My God. Not only this, but their lodgings was tied to their father's job and so when he died they were were immediately evicted. I can only imagine how these events would traumatize an 8 year old child. Not making any excuses here, P.S. i'm just thinking of how family instability traumatized me when I was a little girl and nobody fell down any mineshafts. It is inconceivable. Her mother did though quickly remarry to another miner. In her teen years she worked as a dressmaker and a nurse. She was described as a girl. Girl of innocent disposition and average intelligence Sounds like another insult. Distinguished for her particularly clean and tidy appearance. End quote. And at age 20, she married her first of four husbands in 1852, a man named William Mowbray. The pair had at least four children, but it is believed that they likely had between five or nine. And a number of them died, possibly of natural causes, possibly not. But in this time, even that many deaths of children would not have been suspicious, which is always horrifying to mention. One of the four known children had a death record, and the cause of death was gastric fever. Gastric fever, otherwise known as the stomach flu, by the way, presents very similar symptoms to arsenic poisoning. Considering just how many children were dying in their family of the this contagious illness, gastric fever, Mary humbly suggested that William purchase a life insurance policy to cover not only himself, but the rest of their surviving children. To which he agreed, and barely before the ink had even dried on that policy, William died of gastric fever. Shortly after that, two more of her children died of the suspected same cause. She cashed in all of the policies, which amounted to about $4,000 in today's money. And she took her money, remaining child Jane, to her mother to take care of so she could find a new husband, which she did, a man named George Ward. Shortly after meeting and marrying Mary, George began experiencing symptoms that appeared to be paralysis and intestinal issues. Within one year of marrying George, after securing a life insurance policy, he died as well. This time his cause of death was listed as cholera or typhoid, also two diseases whose symptoms look very similar to arsenic poisoning. Within the same year that her previous husband died, in 1865, she met another man and married him, a widower named James Robinson, whose wife had very recently died after giving birth to a baby. It is so wild to think how quickly folks got married in these days. It almost seems like folks would be like, are you cool? You seem cool. Let's get married now. I think life was just so unbearable in those days that you really needed an extra pair of hands in life just to survive. Well, not in Mary's husband's cases. Yikes. James had hired Mary as a housekeeper, and very shortly after she began working for him, his newborn baby died of gastric fever. Devastated, he turned to Mary for comfort, and they were soon, soon married. She quickly became pregnant, and her mother contacted her to tell her that she had contracted hepatitis and was concerned that, at least for a while, she wouldn't be able to care for the daughter that Mary unceremoniously handed over to her. And if you would follow me down this cobblestone street here in Seaham Harbor, County Durham, in 1867. I want to show you something. Oh, it's much chillier than I thought it would be. Must be that misty sea air around these parts. Really gets into your bones. But never fear, I brought us some Mexican hot chocolate in this thermos. Just in case you didn't know, chili pepper, tequila and chocolate were simply made for each other. Here, help yourself. Sorry. The smell of the sewer system in the 1800s really hits you in the face when you least expect it, doesn't it? It's better than what they had before, though. In 1858, there was an event literally referred to as the Great Stink in London. Streets were just packed with human waste. They had to do something. So they did. About nine years ago. They created the sewer system there and then extended it here. Like I said, it's better. But on moist days like today, that sewer perfume sure does travel with ease. Okay, we are on our way to that lovely little cottage there. We're going to go around the side into the alley here, which isn't so stinky. Luckily, I didn't expect that. So we can peer through this window here. There, sitting at the table is Mary's 54 year old mother. Mary's now teenage daughter is not at home. She's working as a housemaid nearby. Okay, that was just a knock at the front door. It's Mary and it appears that she's brought a little basket of what looks like lovely little things for her mother. She's taking out what looks like bread, cheese, tea and a bottle of milk. Now she's making her way to the tea kettle, no doubt to make her mother a lovely cup of tea on this chilly afternoon. What poor Margaret doesn't know is that the bottle of milk is full of arsenic. Mary will add a little bit to her mother's tea and leave the bottle for her when she leaves. It is believed that this is how Mary poisoned her victims. She would add arsenic to milk and add it to food. And in only a few days after Mary's visit, although her symptoms of hepatitis had actually begun to improve, Mary's mother would die having complained of terrible stomach pains in the days leading up to her death. Marianne's daughter would then come to live with her again and very shortly afterward began to complain of terrible stomach pains and died along with two of her husband's younger children within the same week. All three of them were buried in the last week of April in 1867, and each of the children had life insurance policies. Seven months later, Mary gave birth to another little girl named after her daughter and her mother, Margaret Isabella, and within three months she died. One year later she had another child, a boy named George. And by this time, James had become suspicious of his wife when she insisted that he take out a life insurance policy. He had also discovered that she had been running up debts and not telling him. She had also kept 50 pounds that he told her to bring to the bank and deposit. He still had two living older children and discovered that Mary had been threatening them and forcing them to upon household valuables. When he discovered this, he threw her out of the house. They didn't get divorced, they were just estranged. But she was never to return again. Thank God. James Robinson retained custody of their second child, George, who lived to be 52 years old. God bless him. Mary was now living on the streets and a friend of hers introduced her to her brother, Frederick Cotton, another widower living in Walbottle, north of Umberland. This friend, Margaret, was living with her brother and caring for his two children since the death of his wife. And in not too much time after Mary met Frederick, her friend, the one who introduced them, died of gastric fever and Mary moved right on in and became pregnant with her 12th known child. She and Frederick were bigamously married. She was still legally married to James, and it's unclear if Frederick had any idea that she was already married. Now, a number of years earlier, Mary had a secret lover named Joseph Nattress. He moved, so they lost touch. But she found out that he was living about 30 miles away from her and her new husband. So she persuaded him to move closer to his town so she could rekindle her little love affair again. Little did Joseph know, he agreed. And guess what? As soon as they got to their new town, Joseph and his children all died in quick succession from gastric fever. Even if we are to assume only say half of these deaths were murders, even if we assumed only a third were, and all others were in fact caused by gastric fever, that is still at least seven people.
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Ugh.
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It looks like Mary Ann must have attended funerals every single year between 1866 and 1871, often for numerous people, people and children, it is just astounding how it took so long for her to be suspected. After the death of her previous husband, she invited Joseph Nattress to live in her home with the one remaining child that she had. It's believed that she also had another lover named Richard Quick Mann, and soon became pregnant with her 13th known child, which would quickly die along with Joseph Nattras. It is actually unclear what became of Richard, but by this point there was only one remaining human being in her life, a young boy. That was Frederick Cotton's son. And after being asked by a parish official if she would care for a woman with smallpox in the area, Mary made a rather telling offhand remark. She said to this man that she couldn't take care of this woman at the moment because she had this kid to look after, but he probably would be dead soon. Seriously, to quote her, I won't be troubled long. He'll go like all the rest of the the Cottons. And indeed the boy was dead within five days. The parish official, Thomas Riley, was very disturbed by this and by the grace of God went to the police who thought that he had a right to have been suspicious of the situation and they persuaded the coroner to delay the death certificate for the boy until his body could be tested. His body was examined, but an official autopsy was not performed. A coroner only took a look at him and determined and that he died of natural causes. But very quickly rumors began to spread and local reporters latched onto her story and discovered that everyone in her life had died. All of her children but the one she was currently carrying, virtually all of her husband's, her mother, etc. Etc. And a doctor who saw the last child just before he died. Dr. William Byers Kilburn had Charles body exhumed and his tests showed that the boy had been poisoned with arsenic. This is one of those rare cases where reporters reporting about the suspected guilt of a person actually led to that person being caught. She was finally arrested, charged with murder of Charles Cotton, and her trial was delayed until she gave birth to her 13th known child, who she again named after her mother, the mother that she very, very likely poisoned to death. The lawyer for the prosecution happened to be the same lawyer for Adelaide Bart, as well as Florence Maybrick, another famous poison killer. She was found guilty of murdering her husband. So this lawyer was a professional in dealing with these kinds of very high profile cases. Marianne's lawyer insisted that her son died not by ingesting arsenic, but that their home was wallpapered with arsenic green dyed paper and he simply inhaled too much of the pigment. This actually was how many people got sick in the mid-1800s. So was a somewhat plausible defense. There was also a defense that somehow the boy's doctor mistakenly filled a medication bottle with arsenic instead of bismuth. That's what's in Pepto Bismol. But that defense quickly fell flat. Within 90 minutes of the jury deliberating, Mary Ann Cotton was found guilty of the murder of Charles Cotton, a correspondent from the Times reported on March 20, 1873. After conviction, the wretched woman exhibited strong emotion, but this gave place in a few hours to her habitual, cold, reserved demeanor. And while she harbors a strong conviction that the royal clemency will be extended towards her, she staunchly asserts her innocence of the crime that she had been convicted of. At her execution, it is believed that her rope was made purposely short so as to cause a slow death. She didn't die by a broken neck, which is how it's supposed to work. She strangled slowly and maintained her innocence innocence till the very end. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Leave me comments because I love them so much and join the fan coven to directly support my show. Listen ad free and for even more creepy and witchy content. Until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.