THE CASE OF DR. PRITCHARD
THE remarkable case of Dr. E. W. Pritchard of Glasgow, who was arrested
and charged with murdering his wife and mother-in-law in that city in
the year 1865, excited great interest at the time. The respectable
position occupied by the accused man in society in Glasgow, and the
practice as a physician which he had been enabled to attain in the
course of his six years' residence there, awakened an unusual degree
of attention in the public mind when the fact of his apprehension
became known. The excitement was strengthened by the mystery invariably
attached to the prosecution of all criminal inquiries in Scotland.
It appears that for some time previous to her decease, Mrs. Pritchard
had been in a delicate state of heath, and her mother, Mrs. Taylor,
wife of Mr. Taylor, a silk weaver of Edinburgh, had gone to Glasgow
to nurse her during her illness. Mrs. Taylor took up her abode in the
house of Dr. Pritchard, and ministered to her daughter's comfort; but
while so engaged she became ill, and died suddenly, about three weeks
previous to the day on which the accused man was apprehended. The
cause of death was assigned to apoplexy, and as Mrs. Taylor was about
seventy years of age no public attention was awakened, and the body was
conveyed to Edinburgh and buried in the Grange Cemetery.
Circumstances closely following on this, however, awakened grave
suspicions. Mrs. Pritchard died shortly after her mother, and a
report was circulated that she had succumbed to gastric fever. The
family grave at the Grange was fixed on as the place of interment,
and arrangements were made for the funeral without delay. The body
was taken to Edinburgh by rail, and Dr. Pritchard accompanied it to
the house of his father-in-law, where it was to await interment. The
deaths of the two ladies occurring within so short an interval of each
other, coupled with certain hints which they had received, set the
police on the alert, and while Dr. Pritchard was absent in Edinburgh
they instituted inquiries, which led to a warrant being issued for his
apprehension. On his return to Glasgow, previous to the day fixed for
the funeral, he was arrested at the railway station in Queen Street and
conveyed to the police offices.
Meanwhile the authorities had transmitted to Edinburgh information
of what had been done, and at the same time had issued a warrant for
a post-mortem examination of the body of Mrs. Pritchard. This was
entrusted to Professor Douglas Maclagan, assisted by Drs. Arthur Gamgee
and Littlejohn. The result of the post-mortem proved that death had not
resulted from natural causes, and a subsequent examination disclosed
the presence of minute particles of antimony in the liver.
The case now assumed a grave and mysterious aspect, and the authorities
resolved to carry the investigations further. The next step was to
order the exhumation of the body of Mrs. Taylor. This having been
effected, the internal organs were submitted to analysis by Professor
Maclagan, Dr. Littlejohn, and Professor Penny of Glasgow, who, after a
protracted examination, reported that the death of Mrs. Taylor, like
that of her daughter, was due to poisoning by antimony. On these facts
being elicited, Dr. Pritchard was fully committed on the charge of
murdering Jane Taylor his mother-in-law and Mary Jane Pritchard his
wife.
The trial opened on July 3, 1865, at the High Court of Justiciary,
Edinburgh, before the Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Ardmillan, and Lord
Jervis-woode, the Solicitor-General prosecuting for the Crown, while
the prisoner was defended by Messrs. A. R. Clark, Watson, and Brand.
Evidence was given that Mrs. Pritchard was first taken ill in the
October of 1864, with constant vomiting, often accompanied by severe
cramp.
After being treated by her husband for some time, and getting no
better, at her own request a Dr. Gairdner was called in, and her
mother, Mrs. Taylor, came from Edinburgh to nurse her.
While on this visit to her daughter, Mrs. Taylor, on February 24,
complained of feeling unwell. The next day she was found insensible,
sitting on her chair in her daughter's room, and died the same night.
From this time Mrs. Pritchard got gradually worse, and died within
three weeks afterwards.
Mary McLeod, a girl who had been in the service of the prisoner,
admitted that he had familiar relations with her, and that this fact
was known to Mrs. Pritchard.
The doctor had also made her presents, and told her he would marry her
if his wife died.
Dr. Paterson, a medical practitioner of Glasgow, who was called in to
see Mrs. Taylor, stated Pritchard told him the old lady was in the
habit of taking Batley's solution of opium, and a few days before her
death, she had purchased a half-pound bottle. When he saw her, he was
convinced her symptoms betokened that she was under the depressing
influence of antimony, and not opium. He therefore refused to give a
certificate of her death.
Pritchard eventually signed the certificate himself, stating the
primary cause of death had been paralysis and the secondary cause
apoplexy. He further certified Mrs. Pritchard's death as due to gastric
fever.
It was proved on the evidence of two chemists, that Pritchard was in
the habit of purchasing tartarated antimony in large quantities, and
also Fleming's tincture of aconite.
Dr. Maclagan, professor of medical jurisprudence in the University
of Edinburgh, was then called to give the result of the chemical
examination of the various organs of the body of Mrs. Pritchard, which
had been retained for analysis. Antimony, corresponding to one-fourth
of a grain of tartar emetic, was found in the urine, in small
quantities in the bile and blood, and as much as four grains in the
whole liver. Evidence of the presence of antimony was also found in the
spleen, kidney, muscular substance of the heart, coats of the stomach
and rectum, the brain and uterus.
Antimony was also detected in various stains on linen and articles of
clothing, which had been worn by Mrs. Pritchard during her illness.
From these results Dr. Maclagan concluded that Mrs. Pritchard had taken
a large quantity of antimony in the form of tartar emetic, which caused
her death, and that from the extent to which the whole organs and
fluids of the body were impregnated with the drug, it must have been
given in repeated doses up to within a few hours of her decease.
The result of the chemical examination of the various organs of the
body of Mrs. Taylor, which was exhumed for this purpose, revealed
the presence of ·279, or a little more than a quarter of a grain of
antimony in the contents of the stomach. Antimony was also found in the
blood, and 1·151 grain was recovered from 1,000 grains of the liver.
Dr. Penny, who made an independent analysis, found distinct evidence of
antimony in the liver, spleen, kidney, brain, heart, blood, and rectum,
but no trace of morphine or aconite. He also came to the conclusion
that Mrs Pritchard's death had resulted from the effects of antimony.
Antimony was found mixed with tapioca contained in a packet discovered
in the house, also in a bottle containing Batley's solution of opium
found in the prisoner's surgery.
Dr. Littlejohn, surgeon to the Edinburgh police, who was present at
the post-mortem examination of both women, gave his opinion that Mrs.
Pritchard's death had been due to the administration of antimony in
small quantities, and that continuously. In Mrs. Taylor's case he
believed some strong narcotic poison had been administered with the
antimony.
This opinion was further endorsed by Dr. Paterson. Evidence was
offered, that Pritchard had been in the habit of purchasing large
quantities of Batley's solution of opium, which the manufacturers
swore contained no antimony. For the defence it was urged, that there
was no proof whatever that poison had had been administered by the
prisoner, who had always lived on affectionate terms with his wife, and
that the motive suggested was of the most trifling nature; that the
stronger suspicion pointed to the maidservant Mary McLeod, on whose
uncorroborated statements the chief evidence against the prisoner lay.
The senior counsel for the prisoner (Mr. Clark) concluded his address
by stating that the Crown had admitted there were but two persons who
could have committed the crime--the prisoner, and Mary M'Leod. Mary
M'Leod's hand had been found in connexion with every one of the acts
in which poison was said to have been administered in the food. The
case against the prisoner seemed to depend on a series of suspicions
and probabilities, and not upon legal proof; and upon these grounds he
asked a verdict of acquittal.
The "summing up" of the Lord Justice-Clerk occupied three hours and
twenty minutes, on the conclusion of which the jury retired to consider
their verdict. After an absence of fifty-five minutes they returned
with the following verdict--"The jury unanimously find the prisoner
guilty of both charges as libelled."
Dr. Pritchard was thereupon sentenced to death, and was executed at
Glasgow on July 28, 1865.
There can be no doubt that he fully deserved his terrible doom.