THE LAMBETH POISON MYSTERIES
TOWARDS the close of the year 1891 and the early part of 1892, public
interest was excited by the mysterious deaths of several young women
of the "unfortunate" class residing in the neighbourhood of Lambeth.
The first case was that of a girl named Matilda Clover, who lived in
Lambeth Road. On the night of October 20, 1891, she spent the evening
at a music-hall in company with a man, who returned with her to her
lodgings about nine o'clock. Shortly afterwards she was seen to go out
alone, and she purchased some bottled beer, which she carried to her
rooms. After a little time the man left the house.
At three o'clock in the morning the inmates of the house were aroused
by the screams of a woman, and on the landlady entering Matilda
Clover's room, she found the unfortunate girl lying across the bed in
the greatest agony. Medical aid was sent for, and the assistant of a
neighbouring doctor saw the girl, and judged she was suffering from the
effects of drink. He prescribed a sedative mixture, but the girl got
worse, and, after a further convulsion, died on the following morning.
The medical man whose assistant had seen her the previous night, gave
a certificate that death was due to delirium tremens and syncope, and
Matilda Clover was buried at Tooting.
A few weeks afterwards a woman called Ellen Donworth, who resided in
Duke Street, Westminster Bridge Road, is stated to have received a
letter, in consequence of which she went out between six and seven in
the evening. About eight o'clock she was found in Waterloo Road in
great agony, and died while she was being conveyed to St. Thomas's
Hospital. Before her death she made a statement, that a man with a
dark beard and wearing a high hat had given her "two drops of white
stuff" to drink. In this case a post-mortem examination was made and
on analysis both strychnine and morphine were found in the stomach,
proving that the woman had been poisoned.
These cases had almost been forgotten, when, some six months
afterwards, attention was again aroused by the mysterious deaths of
two girls named Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivell, who lodged in Stamford
Street. On the evening of April 11, 1892, a man, who one of the girls
in her dying testimony called "Fred," and who she described as a
doctor, called to see them, and together they partook of tea. The man
stayed till 2 a.m., and during the evening gave them both "three long
pills."
Half an hour after the man left the house, both girls were found in
a dying condition. While they were being removed to the hospital
Alice Marsh died in the cab, and Emma Shrivell lived for only six
hours afterwards. The result of an analysis of the stomach and organs
revealed the fact that death in each case had been caused by strychnine.
There was absolutely no evidence beyond the vague description of the
man for the police to work upon, and this case, like the others,
with which at first it was not connected, seemed likely to remain
among the unsolved mysteries; when by the following curious chain of
circumstances, the perpetrator of these cold-blooded crimes was at last
brought to justice.
Some time after the deaths of the two girls Marsh and Shrivell, a Dr.
Harper, of Barnstaple, received a letter, in which the writer stated,
that he had indisputable evidence that the doctor's son, who had
recently qualified as a medical practitioner in London, had poisoned
two girls--Marsh and Shrivell--and that he, the writer, required
£1,500 to suppress it. Dr. Harper placed this letter in the hands
of the police, with the result, that on June 3, 1892, a man named
Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was arrested on the charge of sending
a threatening letter. He was brought up at Bow Street on this charge
for several days, when it transpired that in the preceding November
a well-known London physician had also received a letter, in which
the writer declared that he had evidence to show that the physician
had poisoned a Miss Clover with strychnine, which evidence he could
purchase for £2,500, and so save himself from ruin.
Neill Cream was remanded, and in the meanwhile the body of Matilda
Clover was exhumed, and the contents of the stomach sent to Dr.
Stevenson, one of the Government analysts, for examination. He
discovered the presence of strychnine, and came to the conclusion that
some one had administered a fatal dose to her.
An inquest was then held on the body of Matilda Clover, with the result
that James Neill, or Neill Cream, was committed on the charge of wilful
murder.
This man's lodgings were searched after his arrest, and a curious
piece of paper was discovered, on which, written in pencil in his
handwriting, were the initials "M. C.," and opposite to them two dates,
and then a third date, viz. October 20, which was the date of Matilda
Clover's death. On the same paper, in connection with the initials "E.
S.," was also found two dates, one being April 11, which was the date
of Emma Shrivell's death. There was also found in his possession a
paper bearing the address of Marsh and Shrivell, and it was afterwards
proved that he had said on more than one occasion that he knew them
well.
In his room a quantity of small pills were discovered, each containing
from one-sixteenth to one-twenty-second of a grain of strychnine, also
fifty-four other bottles of pills, seven of which contained strychnine,
and a bottle containing one hundred and sixty-eight pills, each
containing one-twenty-second of a grain of strychnine. These, it is
supposed, he obtained as an agent for the Harvey Drug Co. of America.
It was found he had purchased a quantity of empty gelatine capsules
from a chemist in Parliament Street, which there is little doubt he had
used to administer a number of the small pills in a poisonous dose.
Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was tried for the wilful murder of
Matilda Clover at the Central Criminal Court, before Mr. Justice
Hawkins, on October 18, 1892, the trial lasting five days.
It transpired that Cream, who had received some medical education and
styled himself a "doctor," came to this country from America on October
1, 1891, and on arriving in London first stayed at Anderton's Hotel,
in Fleet Street. Shortly afterwards he took apartments in Lambeth, and
became engaged to a lady living at Berkhampstead.
He was identified as having been seen in the company of Matilda Clover,
and also by a policeman, as the man who left the house in Stamford
Street on the night that Marsh and Shrivell were murdered.
Dr. Stevenson, who made the analysis of the body of Matilda Clover
on May 6, 1892, stated in his evidence that he found strychnine in
the stomach, liver, and brain, and that quantitatively he obtained
one-sixteenth of a grain of strychnine from two pounds of animal
matter. He also examined the organs from the bodies of Alice Marsh and
Emma Shrivell. He found 6·39 grains of strychnine in the stomach and
its contents of Alice Marsh, and 1·6 grain of strychnine in the stomach
and its contents, also 1·46 grain in the vomit, and ·2 grain in a
small portion of the liver of Emma Shrivell.
The jury, after deliberating for ten minutes, returned a verdict of
guilty, and Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, as he was otherwise known,
was sentenced to death. He was executed on November 15, 1892.