Chapter XVI: The Devereux Case

In 1905 a poisoning case of an unusual character was disclosed at the Central Criminal Court. On April 13 of that year the attention of the police was called to a large tin trunk that was found in a warehouse in Kensal Rise. Round the trunk was a strap and an endeavour had been made to seal it with wax. The lock was forced and the lid opened, and in it was found another covering consisting of a number of pieces of wood wedged tightly together, over which had been placed a mixture of glue and boric acid, which made the box absolutely air-tight.

On the wood covering being removed, three human bodies were discovered beneath, which appeared to be those of a woman and two children. The result of a post-mortem examination and analysis of the organs showed that all three had been poisoned with morphine. More than sufficient of the poison had been administered to the woman for the purpose of taking her life, and sufficient was found in the bodies of the children to achieve the same result.

The body of the woman was identified as that of Beatrice Ellen Maud Devereux, the wife of Arthur Devereux, a chemist who lived at Milton Avenue, Harlesden, and the children were found to be her twin boys.

The Devereuxs were married in London in 1898, and had three children, the twin boys being born at Stroud, where the family had moved in 1902. In 1904 they returned to London, where Devereux became manager of a pharmacy at Kilburn.

In December Devereux took a flat at 60 Milton Avenue, Stonebridge Park, stating that he wanted it only for six months. There was another flat in the house which the landlord, at his request, left empty.

On the afternoon of January 28, Devereux made arrangements for one of the boys to go to a day school in the neighbourhood and on the evening of the same day Mrs. Devereux was out shopping with her mother. They parted near Milton Avenue, and she was never seen alive again by anyone outside her own family. At the end of the following week Devereux appears to have decided to dispose of a number of things in the house, including a perambulator and women’s clothing. He gave out that his wife and the twins were away in the country, and arranged for himself and the other boy to go into lodgings in the Harrow Road. His belongings were removed by a local firm, who at the same time undertook to warehouse for him a large trunk which he said contained boxes of chemicals.

Shortly after this, Devereux obtained a situation with a chemist in Coventry, giving himself a reference in the name of Taylor. Mrs. Devereux’s mother, not having heard from her daughter for a considerable time, and finding the house in Milton Avenue empty, communicated with the police, which led to inquiries and the discovery of the trunk at the depository.

Devereux was arrested at Coventry and brought to London on April 13. He made the following statement to the police:—

“I, Arthur Devereux, hereby declare that one evening towards the end of January or the beginning of February last, after having been out for a few hours with my child Stanley, I returned to find my wife and twins lying dead on their beds, evidently, to my mind, having died from poisons taken or administered. Rather than face an inquest I decided, with a recent trial fresh in my mind, to conceal the bodies in a trunk which I had had in my house for the past two years. This I proceeded to do at once. I missed some poisons—chloroform and morphine—which I always kept in my writing-desk after leaving my last situation, in the event of my wishing to end my own life rather than face starvation. The room smelt strongly of chloroform, so I concluded that my wife had administered it to herself and the children, and probably also the morphine. I had had a violent quarrel with her before going out, also many times quite recently and during the past twelve months.”

The autopsy revealed no signs of disease in any of the bodies, and death was supposed to have been caused by asphyxiation.

Sir Thomas Stevenson, who examined the organs, said that he found altogether in the internal organs, 1·12 grains of morphine. In the case of the children he found morphine in small quantities which could not be accurately determined, but he believed it to be originally a fatal dose. In his opinion all three of the persons had died of morphine poisoning. There was no evidence of chloroform having been given.

After the police inquiry Devereux was committed for trial on the capital charge, and the case was tried at the Central Criminal Court on July 27, 1905.

The trial lasted for four days, the prisoner being defended by Mr. Elliott, who urged that he was a man of weak mind, and that, confronted by a crisis, was not likely to act like an ordinary person. He commented on the fact that Devereux had left traces of himself behind in London on going to Coventry, which showed him if not as a cunning criminal, at least as one who was free from the stain of murder. He also commented on the lack of motive for the crime.

Mr. Matthews, who prosecuted for the Crown, endeavoured to reconstruct the tragedy as he conceived it to have happened, and fixed it as occurring on the night of Sunday, January 29. He suggested that at supper time morphine was introduced into the food of the unsuspecting Mrs. Devereux and children, and on their going up to bed in a drowsy condition, Devereux could have easily administered chloroform to make assurance doubly sure. There was no evidence that the prisoner was insane.

The judge, in summing up, referring to the gruesome nature of the case, said there was a strong body of evidence against the prisoner. After only twelve minutes’ consideration, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty, and Devereux was sentenced to death.