Thomas Neill Cream - a strychnine poisoner

Thomas Neill Cream was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 27 May 1850, but his family moved to Canada when he was a child. Cream was trained to be a doctor. He was first convicted of murder in 1881. While living in Chicago, he gave strychnine to a man named Daniel Stott, who suffered from epilepsy. Cream managed to convince Stott that he had a cure for the ailment. Stott’s death was, at first, ascribed to natural causes. 
However, Cream did something very strange. He wrote to the coroner accusing a pharmacist of poisoning Stott. 

The body was exhumed and was found to contain strychnine. Cream was arrested and tried for murder. He was convicted but he was treated with surprising leniency. 
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and he was released in 1891. Why did Cream write to the coroner? He could have gotten away with murder. Perhaps Cream wanted to be caught.

At any rate, after being released in 1891, he moved to Lambeth, London and began poisoning sex workers. Presumably, Cream got some sadistic pleasure from poisoning people. 

The first victim was a 19-year-old woman named Ellen Donworth. She collapsed in agony on the street on 13 October and she died on the way to the hospital. Before she died, she said that a ‘tall gentleman’ had given her a bottle with ‘white stuff’ in it. An autopsy showed she had been poisoned with strychnine. 
Again, Cream wrote letters to people about the murder. He wrote to the coroner, using a false name, offering to name the murderer in return for a large sum of money. He also wrote to the owner of the booksellers W.H. Smith, accusing him of the murder of Donworth and offering to keep silent in return for money. Again, he used a false name.

Next, Cream murdered Matilda Clover. On 20 October 1891, she was found writhing in agony in her room and died shortly afterward. She said a man had given her some pills. Cream wrote to a doctor, William Broadbent and accused him of murdering Matilda Clover. 

In April 1892, Cream met a sex worker called Louise Harvey. Cream helpfully offered her some pills, which he said would clear up her complexion. Fortunately, she only pretended to take them. Cream left, presumably believing he had poisoned her. 
Two other women were not so lucky. On 11 April 1892, Cream met two sex workers, Alice Marsh, aged 21 and Emma Shrivell, aged 18. Cream spent the night with them but before he left, he gave them some pills. 

Unfortunately, both girls took the pills and died of strychnine poisoning.
Cream was caught because he could not resist talking about the murders. He met an American tourist and offered to take him on a tour of the places where the murders were committed. 

However, the tourist was a policeman and he was suspicious of Cream. He informed the British police and they placed Cream under surveillance. They found that he often paid for the services of sex workers and they also found out about his criminal record in the USA. 

Cream was arrested on 3 June 1892 and his trial began on 17 October. He was found guilty on 21 October and was sentenced to death. Thomas Neill Cream was hanged on 15 November 1892.

Henri Landru - Bluebeard

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Sidney Fox - he killed his mother

 Sidney Fox was hanged in 1930 for the murder of his mother. Fox was born in Norfolk in 1899. His mother was Rosaline Fox. It’s not certain if Rosaline’s husband William, was his father. Before the murder, Sidney had a history of petty theft and fraud and spent time in jail.

In 1927, Fox’s mother met a 51-year-old woman called Charlotte Morse. Although Fox was gay, he began an affair with Mrs Morse. Fox also stole her jewellery and insured her life. One night Mrs Morse awoke to find her room filling with gas. A gas tap behind a heavy piece of furniture had been turned on, so it was obviously not accidental. Fox was trying to murder the woman for her life insurance money. Mrs Morse told the police. Sydney was not convicted of attempted murder but of stealing and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

In May 1929, Fox and his mother began a life of staying in hotels and leaving without paying the bills. Sidney took out a life insurance policy on his mother, to expire at midnight on 23 October 1929. 

On that date, they were both staying at the Hotel Metropole in Margate. Mother and son were in adjoining rooms with a connecting door. 

At 11.40 PM on 23 October, Fox raised the alarm that his mother’s room was on fire. Two other guests found the adjoining door closed. They found Rosaline Fox in a burning armchair. They pulled her out, but she was already dead. Sidney claimed he had left his mother reading a newspaper in her room. At first, it was thought the fire was accidental and Rosaline’s death was ascribed to shock and suffocation. 

However, the insurance company was, not surprisingly, suspicious. It was just too convenient that Rosaline died just 20 minutes before the life insurance policy expired. The fire was supposed to have been started by a gas fire in the room but investigators found a patch of unburnt carpet between the fire and the armchair Rosaline was found in. The fire could not have spread from the gas fire to the armchair without burning the patch of carpet between them. 

Even more suspicious, petrol-soaked newspapers and a can of petrol were found in the dead woman’s room. As a result of the investigation, the body of Rosaline Fox was exhumed. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury conducted an autopsy and claimed that the dead woman had been strangled before the fire started. There were no signs of smoke inhalation. 

Sidney Fox went on trial at Lewes in March 1930. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury was adamant that Mrs Fox had been strangled and he claimed he saw a bruise on his throat. However, other doctors disagreed. They could not see the ‘bruise’ as it had disappeared as the body decomposed. It was possible, they argued that the ‘bruise’ seen by Spilsbury was just discolouration caused by the body decomposing. Spilsbury also had to admit that the hyoid bone (a small bone in the throat) was not broken. (It is usually broken during strangulation). 

Fox did not help himself. He was asked why he closed the door to his mother’s rooms, knowing it was on fire. Fox replied ‘so that smoke should not spread into the hotel’. 

The prosecution lawyer said ‘rather that your mother should suffocate in that room than smoke should get about in the hotel?’. Fox’s seeming callousness badly damaged his case. He was convicted of murder and he was hanged on 8 April 1930. 

Peter Kurten - The Vampire of Düsseldorf

 Peter Kurten was a German serial killer. He was born on 26 May 1883. He was one of 13 children. His father was an alcoholic and physically abused Peter. 

Kurten later claimed he committed his first murders when he was 9. He said he pushed a friend, who could not swim, off a raft. Another boy jumped in to save him but Kurten held the would-be rescuer underwater. The other boy, unable to swim, drowned. The authorities ascribed the two deaths to accidental drowning. Whether Kurten killed them or whether the deaths were accidental is not known.

Kurten claimed that he began abusing animals when he was 13. As an adult, Kurten had a record of petty crimes such as stealing and fraud and he spent much of his life in prison.

Kurten committed his first definite murder on 25 May 1913. He broke into an inn. Kurten found a 9-year-old girl called Christine Klein asleep. He strangled her, then cut her throat. Unfortunately, Kurten was not caught. 

From 1925 to 1929, Kurten committed many crimes of arson in Dusseldorf. Then, on 3 February 1929 a woman named Apollonia Khun was attacked with a knife. Fortunately, she survived. On 8 February Kurten strangled and stabbed an 8-year-old girl named Rose Ohliger. On 13 February 1929 Kurten stabbed a 45-year-old man named Scheer while he was walking along the street drunk. Kurten attempted to strangle four women between March and July 1929. However, all escaped. The next murder was on 11 August when Kurten strangled and stabbed a woman named Maria Hahn. 

On 21 August Kurten stabbed three strangers. All three survived. Then, on 24 August Kurten killed two girls, Gertrude Hamacher aged 5 and her adopted sister Luise Lenzen aged 14. Kurten persuaded the older girl to go to buy him some cigarettes. While she was away he strangled the younger girl and cut her throat. He did the same to the older girl when she returned. The next day, 25 August Kurten met a young woman named Gertrude Schulte. Kurten asked to have sex with him. The woman said ‘I’d rather die’. Kurten replied ‘Well die then’ and stabbed her several times. Fortunately, she survived. 

For his next murder, Kurten used a hammer. He killed a young woman called Ida Reuter on 30 September 1929. On 11 October 1929, he killed a young woman named Elizabeth Dorrier with a hammer. On 25 October 1929 Kurten attacked two women with a hammer but both survived.

However, on 7 November 1929 a 5-year-old child was not so lucky. Kurten strangled and they stabbed her. In 1930 Kurten continued to attack young women early in 1930 but all of them survived.

Finally a woman called Maria Budlick came to Dusseldorf by train looking for a job. She had the misfortune to meet Peter Kurten. He persuaded her to come to his apartment for a meal. She agreed and afterward he offered to take her to a hostel. Instead he lured her to a secluded place where he tried to strangle her. Budlick screamed so Kurten let her go. 

Budlick did not inform the police. Instead she wrote a letter, which was incorrectly addressed. A postal worker opened the letter and upon reading the contents he showed it to the police. They spoke to Budlick and she was able to show them the building where Kurten lived. 

By chance Kurten returned to the building and saw police there. He fled the scene and went to live in lodgings. But on 23 May he returned home and he confessed to his wife and urged her to claim the reward for finding the murderer. 

Kurten seems to have decided that the game was up. On 24 May his wife told the police. She also told them that Peter had agreed to meet her at St. Rochus church later that day. Kurten was arrested when he came to the rendezvous. He surrendered without any struggle or protest. Instead he made a long confession to all his crimes. 

Kurten went on trial on 13 April 1931. At first he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but he later changed his plea to guilty. On 22 April he was convicted of nine murders. Peter Kurten was executed by guillotine on 2 July 1931. 

Burke and Hare - they murdered people and sold the bodies

 Burke and Hare are often called grave robbers. In reality, they did not rob graves. Instead, they murdered people and then sold the victims’ bodies to surgeons for dissection. Today, many people donate their bodies to science but in the early 19th century, attitudes were very different. Most people were horrified by the idea of being cut up after they were dead. As a result, surgeons found it hard to find bodies to dissect in lectures. So some were willing to pay large amounts of money for dead bodies, without asking too many questions. Burke and Hare are believed to have murdered 16 people. 

William Burke was born in Ireland around 1792, and it’s believed he came to Scotland to work as a navvy on the canals. He eventually settled in Edinburgh, where he worked as a cobbler, repairing shoes. It’s not certain when William Hare was born. He was probably from Ireland. At any rate, by 1827, he owned a lodging house in Edinburgh and he had befriended William Burke. 

The murders began in stages. In November 1827, a boarder known as Old Donald died in Hare’s lodging house. He died owing £4 (a considerable sum of money in those days). Hare told Burke and they decided to sell the body to anatomists to recoup the money. They told the authorities that Old Donald was dead. A carpenter made a coffin for him. Burke and Hare filled it with bark (normally used for tanning). They sold the body to a surgeon, Dr Robert Knox, for £7 and 10 shillings (there were 20 shillings in a pound). So they made a handsome profit from his death.

The next step was to murder a man who was ill but still alive. A tenant called Joseph, a miller, fell ill with an infectious disease. That would drive away other tenants from the lodging house. The two men gave Joseph whisky, then suffocated him.

This time, Burke and Hare sold the body for £10. Suffocating him meant there were no marks on the body. When the body was dissected, it would not be obvious that the person had been murdered.

Burke and Hare began regularly killing people and selling the victims’ bodies. It’s not certain in what order they killed the victims, but the third victim was probably a woman named Abigail Simpson. In February 1828, she was lured to the lodging house and given whisky. She was then suffocated. Once again, they sold the body for £10. Over the next months, Burke and Hare continued luring people to the lodging house, giving them whisky, then suffocating them, and then selling the bodies. 

One of the victims was a mentally disabled man, James Wilson. He was called ‘Daft Jamie’. He was well known in Edinburgh. He was often seen begging. The unfortunate man was lured to the lodging house, where he was given whisky and suffocated. They sold the body, as usual, but this time several medical students recognised the dead person. Local people also noticed James was missing. Dr Knox likely suspected the truth because he ordered the immediate dissection of James’ body. Like so many other murderers, Burke and Hare became overconfident and started being careless.

The last victim was an Irishwoman named Margaret Docherty. She was murdered on 31 October 1828. Burke and Hare befriended her. She was invited to stay at the lodging house. Two other lodgers, James and Ann Gray, were told they must move out to make room for her. Margaret Docherty was suffocated in the usual way and her body was hidden under some straw. The Grays returned the next day to collect their belongings. They were left alone in the house and they looked under the straw, discovering the dead body. 

The Grays immediately alerted the authorities but while they were away, Burke and Hare removed the body and took it to be dissected. 

On 3 November, Burke and Hare were arrested. But the authorities were not sure if they could secure convictions.

So Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he turned King’s evidence, that is if he testified against Burke. On 25 December 1828, William Burke was found guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death. 

He was hanged in public in Edinburgh on 28 January 1829. Burke’s body was publicly dissected, as his victims' bodies were. His skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School. 

William Hare moved to England. What happened to him after that is not known. No action was taken against the surgeon, Dr Robert Knox.

The dreadful crimes were remembered in a rhyme:

‘Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox the boy that buys the beef’

Dr Marcel Petiot - the deadly doctor

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