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Fresh evidence could clear notorious poisoner
One of Britain's most notorious murderers just may have been innocent.
Sarah Stoner looks at fresh evidence in the case against Mary Ann Cotton.
IT took Mary Ann Cotton three minutes to die – writhing in agony, she was "strangled like a rabid dog, with no dignity even in death," according to witnesses.
Few people, if any, cared that her hanging had been botched. As a convicted child murderer, and chief suspect in numerous other deaths, she could expect little pity.
But Seaham author Ian Smyth Herdman, who has spent years researching Cotton's story through trial and police statements, believes her conviction is questionable.
"If you evaluate her trial and the evidence presented, then you must accept that in today's modernity, the case would be purely circumstantial," he said.
County Durham-born Mary Ann Cotton is today remembered as Britain's first, and most prolific, female serial killer – believed responsible for 20 or more deaths.
Death stalked Cotton from an early age. Her pitman father, Michael Robson, fell to his death down a shaft at Murton Colliery when she was just eight.
And, during the next 30 years, the "strikingly beautiful" nurse was to lose three husbands, a lover, her mother and at least 14 children and step-children.
To the outside world, her life appeared to be filled with tragedy but, as the string of deaths continued to grow, so did the gossip surrounding her.
Cotton's reputation as a mass poisoner was finally sealed when the body of her stepson, Charles Cotton, was exhumed and forensic tests revealed traces of arsenic.
"This is not, in itself, a provable fact of intentional murder," said Mr Herdman, who is writing a book about Cotton, based on official documents.
"The earth surrounding corpses contains elements of natural arsenic, which over time can be absorbed into the organs and flesh of a decaying corpse.
"Many accounts of her life are hearsay. I have uncovered episodes of completely inappropriate statements, evidence and official inaccuracies."
Death was commonplace in Cotton's time. Diseases easily cured now could wipe out whole families.
The death certificates for Cotton's supposed victims recorded nothing suspicious. Indeed, the child she was convicted of murdering had been ill before his death.
"He was under the care of two doctors," said Mr Herdman. "He was suffering from purges and the chronic diarrhoea often association with TB.
"Medicine had been prescribed and, after her arrest, a search of Cotton's house revealed numerous empty medicine bottles prescribed by the doctors. The fact that they were empty, and not thrown away, suggests they were administered by Cotton as directed by the physicians."
She was arrested in July 1872 for the murder of the seven-year-old youngster, but maintained her innocence until the day she was hanged.
Part of the prosecution's case was that Cotton possessed arsenic – in a soap mixture designed to kill bed-bugs and lice – and had the knowledge to use it.
But while Cotton admitted to scrubbing her bed and walls with the soap, it was a common practice. All her neighbours admitted to using the soap too.
"A search of Cotton's house produced no evidence she had any arsenic in her possession," said Mr Herdman. "No traces were found in her kitchen utensils either. To overcome this dilemma, the prosecution had to present hard evidence that Cotton was seen to actually purchase the arsenic and find a witness to strengthen their claim."
The prosecution turned to assistant chemist Thomas Detchon, who claimed Cotton had bought three-penny-worth of soft soap and arsenic from him four years before.
Cotton had given her name as Mary Ann Booth, he told the court, and the sale of the arsenic was witnessed by a Newcastle woman called Elizabeth Robson.
"At the time Detchon supposedly sold the arsenic to Cotton, she was living in Pallion, Sunderland, many miles away from his chemist in Newcastle," said Mr Herdman.
"She was also five months' pregnant, yet he made no statement saying the woman was pregnant. It is possible, though, that her clothing concealed it. A more damning aspect is that, after Cotton's committal trial, Elizabeth Robson stated to the authorities in Newcastle that Mary Ann Booth was not Mary Ann Cotton.
"But Detchon's statement was never questioned thoroughly, and his word alone was the sole pillar of the prosecution's evidence that Cotton was seen to purchase arsenic."
Another prosecution argument involved the quantity of arsenic found in her "victims" – doses, they claimed, which were administered with drinks or prescribed medicine.
However, Mr Herdman believes traces of the soft-soap arsenic could have flaked off in hot weather – or come from a wallpaper known to contain large amounts of arsenic.
Indeed, Cotton's defence team claimed that the boy had inhaled the lethal dose accidentally – a theory backed up by a report from the medical journal The Lancet.
But Cotton's solicitors were either ignorant of, or chose to ignore, The Lancet report, and no forensic expert was produced to disprove the prosecution's theory.
"Today such findings from a world-renowned academic publication would undoubtedly be used as a defence argument," said Mr Herdman.
Other irregularities found by the author include evidence going missing, contaminated specimens and dubious witness statements.
"Immediately after the death of Charles Cotton a routine autopsy took place. No bruising, marks or cuts were found on his body by the doctors," said Mr Herdman.
"But at her trial, the prosecution claimed Mary Ann Cotton had beaten Charles Cotton in a 'most savage and dreadful manner' four days before his death. This evidence was accepted and used against her."
Although suspected of many deaths, Cotton – who gave birth to another child while in Durham Jail – was only tried for the murder of Charles.
It took the jury just 90 minutes to convict her. The 40-year-old was hanged on March 24, 1873.
"At no time was Cotton seen to purchase arsenic, no traces were ever found within her home, or on any item analysed by forensic examiners," said Mr Herdman.
"I am not seeking to eliminate the guilty verdict, or indeed state that she was innocent, I simply want to open up a debate into the evidence available at her trial."
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DIFFERING THEORIES ON THE CASE
MARY Ann Cotton has been painted as a chillingly evil mass murderer by many crime historians over the decades.
However, Sunderland-born Arthur Appleton, who published a book on Cotton in 1973, believed there was "considerable doubt" she committed all the murders attributed to her.
And local historian Norman Kirtlan, a retired police officer now working as a forensic artist, is convinced the Victorian trial evidence was "shaky."
"Without doubt, Cotton's convictions would not stand up in a court of law today," he said.
"However, forensic collection and examination would be much slicker.
"If she had been guilty of even one of the murders, then today's procedures would have proven that."
Another local historian, Janette Hilton of Living History North East, has a different theory altogether.
"I wonder whether she, like Beverley Allitt or Harold Shipman, displayed signs of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, where the individual becomes the centre of attention by deliberately causing illness, injury or harm to others," she said.
"Often the sufferer will work as a nurse or care giver.
"Few people suspect these wonderful, caring souls who deliver caring services and are there to relieve pain and discomfort.
"Who suspected Allitt or Shipman and who suspected Mary Ann?
"The doctors at Sunderland Infirmary had nothing but praise for her skills and devotion as a nurse.
"To many who knew her she exemplified certain qualities as a mother and care giver, but Mary Ann probably aspired to greater things and MSBP made her the focus of her world."
A LIFE FILLED WITH DEATH AND LUST
MARY Ann Robson was born in Low Moorsley – now part of Sunderland – in 1832, leaving home at 16 to work as a servant in South Hetton.
- She gave up the job after falling pregnant to her first husband, William Mowbray, and the couple travelled the country for the next five years.
- Mary lost eight of her nine children with Mowbray in infancy. Mowbray himself died in January 1865.
- Mary moved to Seaham a few weeks later, where she had an affair with married man Joseph Nattrass before moving to Sunderland.
- After finding work as a nurse at Sunderland Infirmary, she started courting a patient. They married in August 1865 and he died 13 months later.
- Mary became housekeeper to widowed Sunderland shipwright James Robinson in November 1866 – his youngest child died within a few weeks.
- Mary fell pregnant to Robinson but, in March 1867, her mother fell ill. She died nine days after Mary moved back home to nurse her.
- Mary returned to James Robinson with her surviving child, Isabella. Within a month she was dead, along with two more of Robinson's children.
- Robinson and Mary married in August 1867. Their child, Mary Isabella, was born in November, but died in April 1868.
- Robinson threw Mary out a year later, after becoming angry at her requests to insure his life. She bigamously married Frederick Cotton in 1870.
- Mary gave birth to Cotton's son in 1871, then moved her family to West Auckland after hearing Nattrass was there – the relationship was rekindled.
- Frederick Cotton died of gastric fever in December 1871.
- By the summer of 1872, Cotton's children were dead and Nattrass passed away soon after – but only after changing his will in Mary's favour.
- Mary was pregnant to another man, excise officer John Quick-Manning, when the body of Charles Cotton was exhumed and tested positive for arsenic.
- Mary gave birth to Quick-Manning's child in jail and was hanged soon after.
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