 |
|
     |
|
|
Mary Ann Cotton |
VICTIMS: 17 |
Mary Ann Robson was born in 1822, in the pit village of East Rainton, near Durham. At the age of twenty, she became Mrs William Mowbray; after a couple of years in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, they moved south to Cornwall, where Mowbray worked as a nanny and Mary Ann devoted herself to producing five children. Of these, the four sons died in infancy, victims of 'gastric fever' so it was said. The surviving Mowbrays returned to Durham, where the fifth child, a girl, succumbed to the same 'gastric fever'. Then William Mowbray died unexpectedly of diarrhoea, not long after taking out a sizeable insurance. Mary Ann made a fresh start at Seaham with a new husband, George Ward. Was it just bad luck that George died fourteen months later of 'gastric fever'? Within weeks, the widow Ward had taken up new responsibilities as housekeeper to John Robinson, a shipwright, and his five children. The scope of Mary's duties was obviously broad, for she quickly became pregnant and even more quickly became Mrs Mary Ann Robinson. Tragedy, it seemed, still pursued this unfortunate woman. Already one of the Robinson children had contracted a fatal dose of 'gastric fever' and in 1867 three more children died. John Robinson, it must be recorded, was lucky. Like his predecessors, he too might have lost his life; as it was, Mary Ann simply helped herself to his savings and fled. The next stop was Walbottle, where Mary met Mr Frederick Cotton and his sister Margaret. When, some months later, Mary was once again expecting a child she married Cotton (bigamously, for John Robinson was still alive) at St Andrew's church, Newcastle. She now bore the name which was to become notorious - Mary Ann Cotton. Margaret Cotton, the sister, went down with 'gastric fever' and died shortly before her brother's wedding. She had thoughtfully left her savings to Frederick and Mary. Now a significant number of pigs belonging to Mary Ann's neighbours mysteriously began to die, and those uncharitable farmers began to point an accusing finger in Mary's direction; indeed, such was the acrimony over the deceased pigs that the Cottons - Frederick, Mary Ann, two offspring of Cotton's earlier marriage and Mary's baby - found it wise to remove to West Auckland. Once settled, the family rapidly decreased in number; Frederick was the first loss, on 19 September 1871. He was followed into the grave by Mary's ten-year-old stepson Frederick and her fourteen-month-old baby Robert. Joseph Nattrass, a lodger who had been imprudent enough to become Mrs Cotton's lover, and unwise enough to make a will in her favour, became the fourth victim of 'gastric fever', not inappropriately on April the First. This left only little Charles Edward, a stepson, who had managed to survive the 'illnesses' to attain his seventh birthday. He would never see his eighth; on 12 July 1872 he died. Mary Ann was arrested when a post-mortem on the body of this latest victim of 'gastric fever' revealed abnormal traces of arsenic. Exhumation was ordered for the four previous victims, and examination by Dr Thomas Scattergood, lecturer in forensic medicine and toxicology at Leeds Medical School, proved that they too had met their end through arsenical poisoning. It was for Charles Edward's murder only that Mary Ann Cotton was tried at the Durham Assizes in March 1873. Her defence, advanced on her behalf by Mr Thomas Campbell Foster, was that her stepson had been accidentally poisoned by some wallpaper in his bedroom, the green pigment of which was derived from arsenic. And it is a defence that stood at least a chance of succeeding had not evidence of the four previous poisonings been deemed admissible in order to refute the proposition of accidental death. On the third day of the trial, the jury retired to consider their verdict. It was barely an hour before that decision had been reached and the judge, from beneath the black cap, had intoned the sentence of death. Mary Ann Cotton died on the scaffold at Durham County Gaol at 8 a.m. on Monday 24 March 1873. Already her infamy was assured; already the children in the streets had immortalised her name in rhyme: Mary Ann
Cotton |
|
MY OPINION I love a woman that kills, and there aren't too many that reach double figures, so when one does it is a pretty big feat. That's why Mary Ann will always have a place in my heart, even though she chose a method that I don't really approve of. There is nothing else I can add really, the numbers just speak for themselves on this one. |
|