I quite often read that an infamous murderer said something just before they were hanged, only to find out later that it almost certainly isn't true. Before he was hanged the poisoner William Palmer is supposed to have said 'Are you sure this thing is safe?'. But nobody who was present at his execution ever mentioned him saying that. The story that he did first appeared long after he was dead. Another poisoner called Thomas Neill Cream is supposed to have said 'I am Jack the ...' just before someone pulled the lever and he was hanged. Again, the same applies. The story first appeared in a magazine long after he was dead and nobody who was actually there ever mentioned him saying that. (In any case, he was in prison at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders).
In Britain, the last person under the age of 18 to be hanged for murder was 17-year-old Charles Dobel on 2 January 1889. In 1933, the minimum age for hanging was raised from 16 to 18.
A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923. The victim was Mary Frances Pelham, aged 37. According to newspaper reports, she was born in ‘the north of England’. During the First World War, she moved to Brighton and later to Portsmouth. She was separated from her husband. Mary was a kind woman, especially to local children. She was a sex worker, although she also sold flowers. She was known as Brighton Mary.
On 27 January 1923, a neighbour found her dead in bed in her hovel. The unfortunate woman had been strangled with a scarf or handkerchief. She was also stabbed or slashed with a broken bottle. A neighbour had seen Mary with a sailor the previous night. The navy held an identity parade and a woman did pick out one sailor but he had an alibi and was never arrested. The killer was never found.
The public was shocked, not just by the murder but by her living conditions. She lived in Blossom Alley, an alley 300 yards long and only 4 feet wide. Her home was a ‘one-up-one down’. Built in the 18th century it was one room over another joined by a ladder.
The floors were sagging so the ceiling of the bottom room was 6 feet high at one end and 10 feet high at the other. Five houses shared three outside toilets and one water tap. Following the horrific murder, a great deal of slum clearance took place in Portsea.
Louisa Merrifield poisoned a woman with phosphorus. She was born in Wigan, Lancashire, on 3 December 1906. She married her third husband, Alfred Merrifield in 1950. In 1951 they moved to Blackpool.
In March 1953, she was employed as a housekeeper to a 79-year-old woman named Sarah Ann Ricketts, who lived in a house she owned in Blackpool. Both Louisa Merrifield and her husband moved in with Mrs Ricketts.
Mrs Ricketts was so taken with her new companions that she made a will in their favour. They would inherit her house. That proved to be a deadly mistake.
Perhaps Merrifield was impatient to inherit the house. Or maybe she was afraid the old woman would change her will. At any rate, she turned to murder.
Sarah Ricketts had the odd habit of eating jam from a jar with a spoon and drinking rum with it. It’s believed that Merrifield added rat poison, which contains phosphorus, to it. Mrs Ricketts died on 14 April 1953, although a doctor visited her shortly before she died and found her to be healthy.
Louisa Merrifield did not call a doctor until the next day. He was suspicious and he refused to issue a death certificate. Instead, he phoned the police.
An autopsy was conducted and the body was found to contain poison. Several witnesses told the police that they had seen Sarah Ricketts the day before her death and she seemed normal. She certainly did not seem ill.
The police found that Merrifield had purchased rat poison from a chemist. (At the time, anyone who bought poison was legally obliged to sign a poisons register). The police also found a spoon with traces of poison, although Louisa had carefully disposed of all the jam jars Sarah Ricketts ate from.
Both Alfred and Louisa Merrifield went on trial on 20 July 1953. On 31 July, Louisa was found guilty and she was sentenced to death. Alfred Merrifield was acquitted, and he was released. Louisa Merrifield was not so lucky. She was hanged on 18 September 1953. She was the third-to-last woman to be hanged in Britain.
Edward Pritchard was a poisoner. The press dubbed him the Human Crocodile. He was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, on 6 December 1825. His father was a naval officer. At the age of 21, Edward became an assistant surgeon. In 1851, he married Mary Jane Taylor, a woman from a wealthy family. The couple moved to Hunmanby in Yorkshire. They had 5 children.
However, Pritchard had a reputation for being a liar. He was also a womaniser. In 1858, he moved with his family to Glasgow. Pritchard continued womanising. Then, in 1863, a servant girl named Elizabeth McGirn died in a fire at his home. Strangely, the girl had not attempted to escape; she was found lying on a bed. Nothing was ever proved, but it’s possible Palmer drugged her and then started the fire. Perhaps Pritchard made her pregnant, then decided to kill her to get rid of her.
In 1865, Pritchard poisoned his mother-in-law, Mrs Taylor, and his wife. Pritchard’s wife, Mary Jane, fell ill, and her mother moved in to nurse her. Mrs Taylor fell ill and died on 28 February 1865. Her daughter died on 18 March 1865. A Dr Paterson, who attended the sick woman, refused to sign a death certificate, so Pritchard signed one himself.
However, someone (probably Dr Paterson) wrote an anonymous letter to the police accusing Pritchard of murder. The bodies of both victims were exhumed and were found to contain antimony. The police also discovered that Pritchard had purchased large amounts of poison shortly before the two women died.
Pritchard was charged with murder, and he went on trial in July 1865. He was found guilty and he was hanged in front of a large crowd in Glasgow on 28 July 1865.
It was the last public execution in Glasgow. (Public executions were banned in Britain in 1868).
