The Walton Poison Tragedy

A Walton man who poisoned a woman and baby and then tried to commit suicide was convicted of murder and saw his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. 

In early 1914 Charles Farrow, a bookkeeper and dispenser to two doctors, began living with an old childhood flame Jane Bruce at 86 Chirkdale Street in Walton. In January 1915, thirty nine year old Jane gave birth to a baby girl who they named Mary.

After falling ill and being prescribed stout, Jane took a liking to the drink and began to take it alongside spirits, sometimes drinking a bottle of whisky a day. This led to several quarrels between the couple and in March 1916 Farrow hit out at Jane, kicking her.

Farrow responded to Jane's drinking by gambling heavily and he lost £30 (equivalent to over £2,000 today) on the Epsom Derby. When Farrow failed to turn up for work at Dr Unsworth's surgery in St Anne Street on 5th June 1916 the alarm was raised and police broke into his home. They found him semi-conscious in bed with Jane, who was already dead. Mary was in a bad way too and they were both taken to Stanley hospital. 

After being transferred to Mill Road hospital for further treatment, Farrow was discharged on 15th June and arrested by Detective Sergeant Range. He was charged with murder, attempted murder and attempted suicide and taken to appear before the Stipendiary Magistrate. He responded to the charges by saying that Jane was a drunken woman who gave him provocation and that he then 'felt it better to finish the lot of us.' He admitted giving Jane three ounces of morphia, Mary one ounce then taking four ounces himself. Mary had made a full recovery and been handed over to the care of Jane's sister Mary Kelly.

Farrow was then remanded pending the outcome of the inquest that was scheduled for  Mrs Freeman from number 89 told the coroner that she had witnessed Farrow kick Jane and that her habits had deserved it. Jane's sister said she had visited from her home in Durham the previous Christmas and that the couple seemed comfortable together and fond of their baby girl. Dr Mildred Powell said the postmortem showed that Jane's liver was damaged by alcohol but that death was a result of poisoning. This led to the jury returning a verdict of wilful murder.

On 4th July forty one year old Farrow was committed for trial at the next Manchester assizes, which were about to start. His trial for the murder of Jane took place on 12th July and he offered no defence. Instead Farrow counsel suggested that he had fought a steady fight against Jane's drinking habits for two years and that his mind was disordered due to two years of brainstorm. 

In summing up, the judge Mr Justice Low was not favourable at all to Farrow, pointing out that death by poison was premeditation and that the killing had not been as a result of a sudden impulse. The jury found Farrow guilty, but recommended him to mercy. Farrow was sentenced to death by the judge, but two weeks later this was commuted to life imprisonment by the Home Secretary after representations by his solicitor Dr Geddes.

The Baltic Triangle's Quack Doctor

A quack doctor who gave medicine to a patient who later died was spared further punishment after being found guilty of manslaughter.

On 30th October 1828 William Birkett, a twenty one year old seaman was discharged from the Liverpool Infirmary and took up lodgings in Jordan Street. Three days later he was found by his landlady vomiting severely and called a local surgeon, Dr Wynn.

Birkett told the doctor he had bought what he believed to be a mixture of water and white vitriol from a woman named Nancy Simpson who lived in a court off the adjacent Brick Street. He said a nurse from the infirmary had told him to see her so she could give him something to 'take the Mercury from his bones.' 

Forty Eight hours later Birkettt died and a postmortem was carried out on the instruction of the Coroner. Parts of his stomach were found to be inflamed and dissolved, while the rest of the organs were healthy. One of the two surgeons who examined the stomach believed that rather than vitriol, Birkett had instead been given a corrosive sublimate. 

On hearing of Birkett's death Simpson had disappeared but she was apprehended the following day by two constables in Toxteth Park. Without even being told what they were taking her in for, Simpson said that she had bought the stuff from a woman who came off an Irish boat.

When fifty six year old Simpson's cellar was searched a number of powders, herbs and oils were found, as well as a book called 'Practice of Physic.' Enquiries with local druggists also established she had regularly tried to buy corrosive sublimates but was refused as she had no prescription. An inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter and Simpson was committed to Lancaster Castle on a coroner's warrant to await trial. 

On 14th March he following year Simpson, whose husband was away at sea, appeared at the Lancaster assizes charged with 'killing and slaying'. A surgeon gave evidence that there was not the slightest evidence that corrosive sublimate could remove mercury from the bones, with the judge interjecting that the public must be fully made aware of this.

Simpson was found guilty but Mr Justice Bayley imposed no further sentence, acknowledging that she thought she was acting in Birkett's best interests.  He warned Simpson though that if she were to be caught selling medicine again, the sentence would be severe.

Tenant's Confession Not Borne Out

When a man was found dead at his Dovecot home in 1955 his lodger confessed to having poisoned him. However after being held on remand charged with murder he was acquitted when the medical evidence pointed to death being by natural causes.

At 10.25pm on Monday 14th March 1955 a 999 call was made to the police by 33 year old George Jardine, who told the operator 'Take me in, I have killed my landlord'. The call was traced to a phone box at the corner of Pilch Lane and Adcote Road and police car was dispatched. Jardine approached the car and was taken to the CID office in Old Swan.

Jardine was interviewed by detectives and told them that the previous night he had crushed 25 tablets and added them to water and peppermint cordial then gave the solution to his landlord, who was found dead that morning. He went on to say 'I know you will find the stuff inside him when he is opened up. I thought if I saw him off the house would be mine but it has been worrying me ever since and I had to tell you tonight.'

The landlord in question was 59 year old widower Patrick Reid, who had been found dead in bed by Jardine's wife at his home in 29 Shortwood Road, Dovecot, that morning. Reid was a council tenant at the property, subletting to Jardine and, his wife and son. When Reid was found dead in bed that morning his doctor was called, but as he had not seen him since the previous November he refused to issue a death certificate and informed the Coroner.

Reid's body was taken to a mortuary where a postmortem was carried out and organs sent to a forensic laboratory in Preston for analysis. In light of Jardine's apparent confession, he was charged with administering poison with intent to murder and appeared before the Deputy Stipendiary Magistrate the following morning. Bail was refused and he was remanded in custody for two weeks, while the Coroner Mr Blackwood opened and adjourned the inquest.

Two weeks later Jardine was back at the magistrates' court, where his solicitor pleaded for bail as no money had gone into his household for two weeks to him not working as a civilian army clerk. This was refused, the Stipendiary Magistrate Mr McFarland commenting that the charge was too serious for this to be granted.

On 7th April all charges against Jardine were sensationally dropped. The postmortem report had stated that the cause of Reid's death was coronary arterial disease and conjunctive heart failure, while tests on organs had found no traces of any tablets. The Examining Magistrate, Alderman Gordon said the only evidence for attempt to murder was Jardine's statement to police, which was not borne out by the evidence. He then concluded 'On the evidence of the prosecution no jury cold find the accused guilty and I have to dismiss the charge.'

An inquest was then held at which Reid's daughter gave evidence. She said that Jardine had taken a job as a part time barman at her husband's pub in Edge Hill before Christmas and she suggested to her father that he took Jardine and his family in as lodgers. She believed that Jardine had treated her father very well and was a very good worker at the pub. She did say though that he had left work earlier than usual on 13th March and on informing her of her father's death, Jardine suggested that he be cremated.

Mrs Jardine described how she had found the body at ten past eight in the morning, having been concerned that Reid, usually an early riser was not up. The doctor who pronounced him dead believed that he had been so for about two hours. Jardine himself was then called, and was asked about the statement he made to police concerning the sleeping tablets. He replied that the statement was not correct and he could not explain why he did it. Under the instruction of the coroner, the jury then returned an open verdict, saying they were satisfied that it was not murder.  

Suicide Pact in a Hotel

When two lovers made a suicide pact at a Liverpool hotel, one survived leading to him being sentenced to death.

On Sunday 11th September 1904 a maid at the Waverley Hotel in Lord Nelson Street grew concerned about not being able to enter a room despite making several attempts during the day. At around 7pm the proprietor decided to force entry into the room, which had been booked in the name of Mr and Mrs Muir. On going in they found the female dead and the male alive but unconscious.

When the police arrived the male, 29 year old Allan Muir from Bootle came to but was in a delirious state. He was taken to the Royal Infirmary and then the Workhouse Hospital, where opium poisoning was diagnosed. A search of the hotel room found letters that appeared to indicate a suicide pact between the couple, who were not man and wife but instead two lovers. The female was Isabella Mackenzie, a mother of two from Glasgow who was separated from her husband.

On discharge from hospital Muir was arrested and charged with murder, as the law of the time decreed that if two people attempted suicide and one survived, the other was to be charged with murder. Muir replied to the detective on being told of this charge;  'I did not kill her, we both agreed to die together. She went out and bought the stuff and we both took equal amounts.'

Investigations into the couple's background established that they had met and began a relationship when they were crew members on board the Pretorian, which sailed between Glasgow and Canada. Three days before they were found in the room, they had gone to Muir's home in Bootle where there was a disturbance that led to the police attending. Their last day together had been spent having breakfast in the hotel before buying drugs from chemists in the Lime Street area.

At St George's Hall on 5th December a letter was read out from Muir to his wife, which said 'You have ruined my life with your tongue, you have driven me to this, may god forgive me. I sincerely hope the dear little children will not take after you.' Muir's defence suggested that his lover was a regular taker of opium and that it would have killed her one day, whether or not he was in the vicinity.

The judge's summing up was not favourable to Muir, as he pointed out that Mackenzie had wrote a letter to her husband begging forgiveness, indicating that she was planning to die. The jury returned a guilty verdict but with a recommendation for mercy. The judge passed the death sentence was was the norm but a week later the Home Secretary commuted this to penal servitude for life.

Poisoning Death Unsolved

When two sisters died of poisoning just before Christmas in 1856 their mother was found not guilty after the defence failed to prove she had ever had poison or administered it. 

On the afternoon of 20th December that year six year old Margaret Cochrane bought some buttermilk from a shop in St Martin Street. She then went back to the lodging house in the same street where she, her four year old sister Catherine, mother Bridget and father Michael lived. 

Margaret and her sister Catherine each had a cup of buttermilk and some boiled potatoes at about 630pm and were then put to bed by their mother who had spent the day hawking herring. Two hours later a lady who lodged in the room below became alarmed when the ceiling began to fall in and she heard the crackling of fire. As she got up to raise the alarm Bridget was running down the stairs screaming that her children were dead. 

A policeman managed to put out the flames before they spread to any other floor but questioning of Bridget and her labourer husband Michael aroused some suspicions. They gave differing accounts of whether they used candles in the rooms and also couldn't agree on how many children they had. At the inquest on 23rd December lodging house owner Mrs Kelly said that Bridget was screaming that her children were dead even though she didn't appear to have been in their room since the fire started. 

The coroner Mr P F Curry was not satisfied with the evidence and ordered that post mortems be carried out on the bodies of the children. With the inquest being adjourned until after Christmas, Bridget and Michael absconded separately. Two surgeons, one of them from Birkenhead, analysed the stomach contents and found fatal levels of oxalic acid, an irritant vegetable poison.

At the resumed inquest on 5th January the surgeons explained the results of the stomach analysis, saying they had no doubt that poison was the cause of death. Another lodger Mrs Rowlands told how she had not seen Bridget since Christmas Day and Michael since Christmas Eve. The shopkeeper who sold the buttermilk said she had sold a candle as well and that nobody else had complained of the milk making them sick.

Bridget's whereabouts remained unknown but detectives said they had made enquiries at previous places she had inhabited without success. They were able to say that she was well known in Woolton for felony and former neighbours in Stockport had told how she regularly beat and starved the children. Attempts to find out where the poison had been bought though were unsuccessful, oxalic acid being common enough that no druggist would have thought it exceptional to have sold any. 

Mr Curry pointed out to the jury that there seemed no doubt that poison had been administered and caused death, and the setting fire to the room was a 'cloak' to try and conceal the reason for it. There was no proof that Bridget had bought any poison but coincidentally, an earlier child of hers had died in a fire when she lived in Edge Hill and Michael was away in America. A verdict of wilful murder was returned against Bridget and then search for her and her husband continued. 

It was not until early April that the couple were apprehended in the town of Boyle in County Roscommon, Ireland. They were both brought over to Liverpool, but only Bridget was committed to the assizes on a coroner's warrant as Michael had not actually been there when the fire occurred or the girls had tea.

On 21st August Bridget appeared before Mr Baron Watson with a baby which she had given birth to in Kirkdale gaol a few days earlier. She was asked if she would like her trial postponed to the next assizes but replied that it would be preferable to have it over and done with there and then. The prosecution case was that she had poisoned the children and then put them to bed before setting fire to it. The motive suggested was that Bridget and Michael wanted to go to America and it would be easier to do this without the children.

Witnesses from the lodging house were called, as were the two surgeons and the shopkeeper. Although there was a lot of circumstantial evidence, the prosecution were still unable to prove that Bridget had ever been in possession of poison, or had the opportunity to mix any into the buttermilk. Under cross examination a surgeon admitted that death could occur anywhere between ten minutes and three weeks after taking this type of poison. The judge then directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty and 30 year old Bridget was discharged.

Vauxhall Poisoners

In 1884 two sisters made their way to the gallows after taking four lives by administering arsenic and then claiming insurance payouts, with more recent research having discovered that they may well have been part of a syndicate that took many more lives. 

In 1880 Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins, both Irish widows, lived in Skirving Street. The others in the house were Catherine's 22 year old son John Flannagan, lodger Patrick Jennings and his 16 year old daughter Margaret, as well as another lodger Thomas Higgins and his 8 year old daughter Mary. In December of that year John Flannagan died, apparently of consumption and his mother collected over £71 insurance money.

A year after John's death, Margaret had married Thomas Higgins and by November 1882 young Mary had died, having been insured for £22. Within two months Margaret Jennings was dead and again insurance money was collected. On each occasion the sisters had waited until the victim was already ill before administering the fatal dose, making it easier to get a doctor to issue a death certificate. 

After these three deaths the sisters moved, so as not to arouse any further suspicion, to 105 Latimer Street. No deaths occurred there and in September 1883 they moved to 27 Ascot Street, where Thomas Higgins was selected as the next victim. He was insured for nearly £100, but an attempt to take out a policy for an extra £50 failed when a drunken Thomas refused to undergo a medical examination, a fact he probably told to his brother Patrick.

After Thomas' death on 2nd October 1883, Patrick visited a number of insurance societies and found that the money had already been drawn. He approached the doctor, and they went to the coroner with their suspicions. The funeral was stopped so a post mortem could take place and Higgins was arrested. Flannagan fled the house but was taken into custody a few days later. 

Both were charged on 16th October after arsenic was found in Thomas Higgins' corpse. The three other victims were exhumed and traces of arsenic found in each. After a three day trial, the sisters were found guilty in 40 minutes and sentenced to death. They were hanged at Kirkdale Gaol on 3rd March 1884.

In 2003 Angela Brabin published a book called The Black Widows of Liverpool, which carried out further investigation into the killings. She uncovered evidence that suggested many more may have met the same fate and that although Flannagan and Higgins may have administered the poison, many more stood to profit from their deeds.

The Maybrick Case

The Maybrick case, or The Aigburth Mystery as it was first known by the Liverpool press, has fascinated criminologists for over a century.

Liverpool cotton broker James Maybrick (left), a hypochondriac who was known to take arsenic as a stimulant, died on 11th May 1889 at Battlecrease House in Riversdale Road, Aigburth, after being ill with a stomach upset. The doctor refused to sign a death certificate and referred the case to the coroner. His American wife Florence (below left), 14 years his junior, was arrested on suspicion of murder three days later.


Gossip had started against Florence when it became apparent that she was having an affair with another cotton broker, Alfred Brierley, who lived at 60 Huskisson Street (right). When a maid who had been asked to post a letter to Mr Brierly opened it, she found that Florence had written that James was near to death. A search of the house by Maybricks brothers found quantities of arsenic  and police decided to act.

The initial post mortem showed no traces of poison and the body of James Maybrick was exhumed on 30th May for analysis of samples from the heart, lungs and kidneys. Although these showed very little traces of arsenic Florence was found guilty of wilful murder by the coroners court, meaning she was committed to stand trial at Liverpool Assizes.

The August trial at St. Georges Hall lasted 7 days and the jury took just 35 minutes to find Florence guilty of murder. This was a surprising verdict, as the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Maybrick had indeed died from arsenic poisoning. The judge in the case, who was committed to a lunatic asylum two years later, had spent the first day of summing up stressing the importance of establishing exact cause of death, but switched track the next day to a vitriolic attack on Florence's private life. Florence was sentenced to death leading to an outcry on both sides of the Atlantic.

Just four days before she was due to hang, the Home Secretary overturned the guilty verdict on the grounds that it was not conclusive that James Maybrick had indeed died from arsenic poisoning. However, Florence was still sentenced to life imprisonment for 'attemptting to administer arsenic to her husband with intent to murder'. This was a crime for which she had not been tried in court, yet she still faced a lifetime behind bars.

Despite numerous appeals, Florence stayed in jail for 15 years. Queen Victoria had made it known at the time that she believed Florence to be guilty and felt that the life sentence should never be commuted. It was not until after her death in 1901 that moves could begin towards release. Just six months after Victoria's death, 1904 was fixed as the release date. 


After her release (when the picture on the left was taken) Florence returned to America where she wrote a book, My Fifteen Lost Years. She lived her last years as a recluse in Connecticut where she died in 1941. 


Maybrick is buried in Anfield cemetery but his grave, pictured below, has been vandalised in recent years.

The Poisoning of Margaret Burns

In the early 19th century Charles Angus stood trial for the murder of his sister in law but was found not guilty. Despite this, he found widespread animosity against him and returned to his native Scotland.

Born in Stranraer, Angus came to Liverpool where he quickly prospered in the mercantile insurance business. He married 13 year old Maria McQuistin, for whom he had been acting as a guardian on behalf of her plantation owner father. They had 3 children before Maria died of consumption aged 21 in 1805.

Angus then had a strong of affairs and claimed that he was able to perform abortions if need be. One of those affairs was with Maria's half sister, Margaret Burns and in March 1808 she was found dead by a servant but no doctor was informed for three days. A neighbour eventually alerted medics and a post mortem showed a hole burned in her stomach. Angus was charged with murder by administering corrosive poison.

At the trial in Lancaster, Angus claimed that it was the malice of other women that had led to his arrest, calling upon witnesses who said that Maria was a sickly woman was acquitted when surgeons admitted that the poison could have been administered accidentally. Afterwards however, most remained convinced he was guilty of the crime, having got off on a pure technicality. Angus went to Ayrshire where he died in 1820, still protesting his innocence. In 2000 a book by Glenn Chandler was published about the case.