Chapter XXIII: Some Poison Aspects of the Ilford Murder Case

The mystery surrounding the murder of Percy Thompson at Ilford caused considerable interest in this country towards the end of 1922. On the night of October 3rd, Percy Thompson, a city clerk, when returning from the theatre with his wife, was stabbed to death in a dark street near his home in Endsleigh Gardens, Ilford. His body was found propped up against a wall and by his side in a state of hysteria stood his wife. It was first thought by the doctor who had been called and made a brief examination in the street by the light of a match, that death was due to internal hæmorrhage. It was only when the body was taken to the mortuary that it was discovered that there were twelve or fourteen wounds in the neck and arms, and that the man must have been killed by an assailant armed with a knife or a stiletto. A few days later Frederick Bywaters, a young ships’ writer, was arrested and charged with the murder, together with Mrs. Thompson, the widow of the murdered man.

The youth of both—the man was only twenty, and the woman twenty-seven years of age—who had apparently conspired together to carry out the crime, impressed the imagination of the public to an unusual degree. When the case came before the magistrates, the police produced an alleged confession made by Bywaters, according to which he stated he had become deeply attached to Mrs. Thompson, and attacked her husband “because he never acted like a man to his wife.”

From a long series of letters which had passed between Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson which were produced in Court, the coroner, after consultation with the Home Office, decided that the body of Mr. Thompson should be exhumed and a post-mortem examination made. From the contents of the letters it appeared that Mrs. Thompson had for a considerable period, with the connivance of Bywaters, been attempting to put an end to the life of her husband.

These extraordinary letters, which were read in court, contained allusions to several poisons and are noteworthy from a toxicological point of view, as there is mention of the use of powdered glass, which has rarely been employed for criminal purposes in this country.

Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson were brought to trial at the Old Bailey, the man being charged with murdering Percy Thompson and conspiring and agreeing between June 1, 1921, and October 4, 1922, to murder him. Mrs. Thompson was further charged with administering poison to her husband between June 1, 1921, and October 4, 1922, and inciting to murder, also with soliciting and proposing to Bywaters, her fellow prisoner, to murder her husband and agreeing with him to murder her husband.

According to the Solicitor-General, who opened the case for the Crown, although Bywaters’ was the hand that struck the blow, Mrs. Thompson’s was the mind that conceived the crime, and it was under her controlling influence that Bywaters murdered the man.

The story as revealed at the trial was one of love and passionate hate, recorded in the letters of Mrs. Thompson to her lover, who, strangely enough, had preserved them, and thus stored up indisputable evidence against them both, of their nefarious plot against the life of the unfortunate man.

“He complained that it tasted bitter, as if something had been put into it,” is an extract from one letter of Mrs. Thompson to Bywaters.

“I am going to try the glass again occasionally when it is safe. I have an electric light globe this time” is from another.

Again she wrote “I used the light bulb three times; the first time he found a piece, so I have given it up until you come home.”

That Bywaters had been aiding her was evidenced in another letter in which she remarks, “I do not think we are failures in other things and we must not be in this. The dose was enough for an elephant, but you did not allow for the taste making a small quantity to be taken. I was buoyed with the hope of the light bulb and I used a lot of big pieces, but it had no effect.” ... “Would not the stuff make small pills coated with soap, and dipped in liquorice. Try while you are away.”

In other letters many suggestions were made by the woman to encompass her husband’s death, and in one which is worth noting she alludes to a novel entitled “Bella Donna,” and quoted a passage which says “Digitaline is a cumulative poison, harmless if taken once; frequently repeated, it becomes deadly.” She referred constantly in other letters to this book. In another she asks “Have you thought of bichloride of mercury?”

In a later letter allusion was made to aromatic tincture of opium which she said her husband had in his possession.

In the cross-examination of Bywaters he stated that what Mrs. Thompson alluded to in the letter was simply quinine, and it was that to which she alluded when referring to the dose being enough for an elephant.

Mrs. Thompson, giving evidence on her own behalf, denied ever having any of the poisons mentioned in her possession or using them.

Mr. Webster, analyst to the Home Office, said he had examined the organs from the body of Percy Thompson which was exhumed and found traces of an alkaloid giving a reaction for morphine in the liver and kidneys, but no other poisonous substances whatever.

Counsel recapitulated a remarkable list of the chemical substances that had been mentioned in this case which included hyoscine, cocaine, potassium cyanide, antimony tartrate, bichloride of mercury, digitalin and aromatic tincture of opium, all of which Mr. Webster had defined as poisons. Counsel, when referring to the allusion to ground glass, asked the analyst if he called that destructive and injurious, to which he replied in the affirmative if the powder was in fragmentary form. Administered as such it had been known to cause death. He further added, that ground glass if taken in any quantity might have a serious effect on the linings of the stomach and intestines. He found no evidence of any quantity having been taken in this case. Aromatic tincture of opium contained morphine and was used as a sedative to relieve pain.

Dr. Spilsbury, who made the post-mortem examination, said he found no signs of poisoning or scars in the intestines. Asked “If glass was administered, would you necessarily expect to find indications of it in the organs?” he replied that he would not, and went on to explain that the administration of broken glass and powdered glass produced different results. Large fragments of glass might produce injury by cutting the wall of the gullet or intestines, and if not fatal, scars might be found afterwards.

Given in powdered form, the immediate effect of powdered glass would be to produce innumerable minute injuries to the delicate membranes of the stomach and would result in illness. If the person recovered, the glass would disappear entirely, with the possible exception of the appendix, where it might lodge and remain for a long time. He found no indication of ground glass in the appendix in this case.

The Solicitor-General asked: “Is the negative result of your examination consistent with glass having been administered?”—Dr. Spilsbury replied: “Some time previously, yes.”

“Is it possible that large pieces would have passed through the system without injury to the organs or without leaving any signs behind?”—“It is possible,” was the reply.

“Is the negative result of your examination also consistent with powdered glass passing through the system?”—“Yes.”

Regarding the poisons, Dr. Spilsbury said he would not expect necessarily to find indication of them if they were administered a considerable time ago. Some poisons left no trace at any time; others produced an effect that might last a few days, or even a few weeks, but after that, there were few poisons which would leave indications, except those that were corrosive or irritant. Hyoscine and cocaine were not irritant poisons. Cyanide of potassium was irritant, but he doubted if it would leave any permanent damage.

Counsel for the prisoner asked: “All that comes to this, that there is no trace whatever, post-mortem, of any glass having been administered?”—“That is so,” replied the witness.

The judge, in summing up the case, said the question the jury would have to consider was, was it arranged between Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson that the murder should be committed. “If you think,” he continued, “that the letters of this woman are genuine and mean what they say, that would mean that she was inciting the man Bywaters to assist her in poisoning her husband. It might be that they found poisoning was no longer possible, and they might naturally turn their minds to some other means to effect their object. These letters form a very strong case, that the woman was writing to this man, asking him to assist her to remove her husband by the administration of poison. If they are accurate, she administered it, but the important part is that she was plotting and planning.”

The jury returned a verdict of “Guilty,” and both prisoners were sentenced to death.

This case is noteworthy from the fact that the evidence of attempted poisoning was entirely circumstantial. No one had ever seen Mrs. Thompson in the possession of the poisons mentioned in her letters, with the exception of the aromatic tincture of opium, and there was no evidence to prove that she had ever purchased them or administered them to her husband, beyond that contained in her letters.

From this study of some of the more famous poison trials of the past hundred years, it is clearly demonstrated that the toxicologist and scientific chemist are the most formidable enemies of the criminal poisoner.

It may be safely said, that the days have gone by when a person could administer a poison with intent to kill, without much fear of detection.

In the course of the past century, as science has advanced and new poisonous substances have been discovered, the chemist has been able to find a means of detecting nearly every poison known to science. Even in those cases where the poisoner has been one with skilled knowledge, and had the means of choosing the most subtle weapon of its kind and selected it with the greatest cunning, chemical experts have yet been able to find and reveal the cause of death.

The criminal poisoner, like other murderers, generally leaves some indelible traces that eventually prove his guilt. Such traces, as instanced in many cases, remain detectable even after the lapse of years. Thus the chance of successfully evading detection is gradually being reduced to a minimum, and as time goes on it is hoped that it will be brought to a practical impossibility.

INDEX

Abano, Petri de, 52

Aconite, 70

— how gathered, 72, 73

Act passed making poisoning high treason, 186

Agra poisoning case, the, 372

Agrippina, 35

Ainos of Japan, 22

Albany, Duke of, poisoned, 142

Alexander, Prince, mysterious death of, 108

Alexander the Great, 37

Alexander VI, Pope, death of, 133, 134

Alexipharmica, 42

Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie, 129

Algaroth’s powder, 98

“All Hallow E’en,” superstitions connected with, 214

Alraun, 67

American poison mysteries, 329

Andrew, Sir Euseby, strange case of, 171

Antidotes to poison, 41, 42

Antimony, 98

— cups, 99

— in human beings, 99

— preservative properties of, 342

Aqua Toffana, composition of, 125

Aquetta di Perugia, 126

Armstrong case, the, 385

Arrow poisons, 16

Arsenic, history of, 88

— against plague, 90

— as an amulet, 90

— contamination, risk of, 222

— eaters, 94

— — investigation of, 94

— for cosmetic purposes, 93

— in sweets, 94

— in wall-papers, carpets, and fabrics, 93

— use of in India, 89

— white, 89

Assay cups, 59

Atholl, Earl of, poisoned, 143

Bacon, Lord, on poisoning, 186

Bacteria, criminal poisoning with, 230

Banes, 16

Baroda, Gaekwar of, charged with poisoning, 108

Bartlett, Adelaide, trial of, 303

Bezoar stones, 60, 61, 62

Bhang, 248

Black case, the, 381

Blessis and his death mirrors, 199

Boiling alive, penalty for poisoners, 188

Borgia, Cesare, 129

— family, 128

— Lucrezia, 129

— poison, composition of, 140, 141

Borri, Giuseppe Francesco, 178, 179

Botulism, 219

Boughton, Sir Theodosius, poisoned, 265

Bouillon, Duchesse de, 160

Boyle, Robert, 97

Bravo case, the, 282

Brinvilliers, Marquise de, life and career of, 150

— — arrest and trial of, 156

Brittannicus poisoned, 35

Bull’s blood, 32

Bushmen, Australian, arrow poisons, 17

— African, arrow poisons, 17, 18

Calabar bean, 24

Canaby case, 318

Cantarella, La, 140

Carlyle and “Grey Powder,” 246

Carr, Robert, 104

Catharine de’ Medici, 146

Celts, poison used by the, 17

Cesare Borgia, 129

— — crimes of, 130

— — death of, 138

— — prepares a poison, 131, 132

_Chambre Ardente, La_, 149, 159, 160

Chapman, or Klosowski, case of, 337

Charms against poisons, 53

Chatillian, Cardinal, poisoned, 106

Chinese, poisons used by the, 38, 39

Chloral hydrate habit, the, 246

Chlorodyne habit, the, 242

Chloroform taking, 240, 241

Chlorpicrin, 225

Christison, 95

Cicuta, 31

Clark, Lieut., case of, 372

Cluny, Prior of, 145

Cocaine habit, the, 242

— and morphine, wholesale smuggling of, 245

— smuggling, 243

— — cunning methods employed in, 243

— traffic, 245

Condorcet, suicide of, 205

_Conium maculatum_, _see_ Cicuta

Cornelia and Serpi, 34

Corneto, Cardinal de, 132

Cornish poison mystery, A, 381

Cotta, Dr., 171

Council of Ten, 121

Cream, Neill, 314

— — his stethoscope and medicine case, 316

Crippen case, the, 350

D’Albret, Jeanne, 145

Dalkeith coffee poison case, the, 369

D’Annunzio and his “Pharmic Liberator,” 126

D’Astrées, Gabrielle, death of, 146

Devereux case, the, 347

Di-chlorethyl sulphide, 225

Dioscorides, poisons mentioned by, 32, 33

Di-phosgene, 225

Donellan, Capt., executed, 271

Draconites, 62

Dri, a Romany poison, 87

Dumas, his description of poisons, 255, 256

Dunbar, Earl of, poisoned, 144

Egyptians, poisons used by the, 28

Electrum, 62

Elizabeth, Queen, attempt to poison, 116

— — and Amy Robsart, 165

English surgeons experiment on criminals, 111

Essex, Earl of, poisoned, 106

Ether drinking, 242

Exali, 148

Fallopius, tests on criminals, 110

Fenning, Elizabeth, case of, 271

Fiction, poisons in, 254

Francis II, 145

Fresenius’ work on arsenic, 95

Ganja, 248, 249

Gas helmets, 224

— mustard, 225

— shells, 224

Geber, _see_ Jábir ibn Háyyan Gherian ware, 60

Gilbert, Jeanne, case of, 321

Ginseng root, 215

Girard, Henri, case of, 322

Glaser, 148

Gold leaf, suicide by, 38

Goldsmith and “James’ Powder,” 247

Greeks, poisons used by the, 28, 29

Gula, Babylonian poison goddess, 26

Hashish, 248

— antiquity of, 249

— effects of, 250, 251

— smoking, in India, 248

Hebrew poisons, 28

Hellebore, black, 74

Hemlock, 31, 74

Henbane, 75

Henrietta Anne of England, death of, 146, 147

Henry VIII apprehensive of poison, 103

Hermes Trismegistos, 28

Hewitt case, the, 280

Hindus, poison used by, 37

Hofrichter, Lieut., charged with poisoning, 193, 194

Horsford case, 291, 325

Hyoscine hydrobromide, 357

Hyoscyamus, 75

Ilford murder case, 401

Indians, North American, poisons used by, 21, 22

— Californian, poisons used by, 22

— Jivaro, of the Amazon, poisons used by, 21

— South American, poisons used by, 21, 22

Inoculation with tuberculosis bacilli, 227, 228

Irish poison mysteries, 345

Italian school of poisoners, 120

Jábir ibn Háyyan (Geber), 89

Japanese, poisons used by, 38, 39

Jean Douglas, Lady Glamis, charged and condemned, 142

John, King, and Maud FitzWalter, 101

John of Ragusa, a professional poisoner, 121

Kermes Mineral, 98

Kwang Su, Emperor, death of, 38

Lafarge, Madame, case of, 273

Lambeth poison mysteries, 314

Lamson, Dr., case of, 298

Laudanum, 81

La Vigoureux, 160

La Voisin, 149, 160

Lawford Hall, mystery of, 265

Leicester, Earl of, 105

“Leicester’s Cold,” 107

Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, attempt to poison, 178

Le Sage, 160

Locusta, 35

Louis XVIII, attempt to poison, 162

Love charms, 215

— philtres, 211

— — danger of, 212

— — native, 215

— — plants used in, 214

— — poison in, 215

— — strange ingredients composing, 213

Lucrezia Borgia, 129, 130

— — death of, 140

Luxembourg, Marshal de, 161

Macchiavelli, death of, 117

— his magic potion, 117

Malay poisons, 19

Mandrake, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68

Mantua, Marquis of, letters, 135

Mark Antony, 36

Marsh’s test for arsenic, 95

Maybrick case, the, 308

—, Mrs., her statement in court, 310

Mayerne, Sir Theodore Turquet de, 97

Medicine-men, 16, 24

Melampus root, 74

Mercury, history of, 96, 97

— as a charm, 98

— first used in treatment of syphilis, 97

Mescal buttons, 82

Methods employed by secret poisoners, 198

Molineux, Roland B., case of, 329

Moray, Earl of, poisoned, 142

Morphine taking, 239

Moulton, Lord, on the Maybrick case, 313

Muavi, 23

Nicander of Colophon, 42

— — — poisonous substances mentioned by, 43

Nigger Caeser’s cure for poison, 48

Opium, 76, 77

— eating, 79, 238, 239

— introduction into India of, 78

— smoking, 80

— use of in India, 80, 81

Orange, Prince of, attempt to poison, 205

Ordeal poisons, 23

Orfila, 95

— and the Lafarge case, 277

Orkney, Earl of, poisoned, 144

Orpiment, 88

Ovambos, arrow poison used by the, 18

Overbury, Sir Thomas, poisoning of, 103

Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of, 195

Palmer, execution of, 291

Parysatis, Queen, 36

Pearson and Black, case of, 345

Persians, poisons used by, 36

Petrograd case, 230

Phocion, 29

Phosgene, 224

Pigmies, Central Africa, arrow poison of the, 18

Pimlico mystery, the, 303

_Pocula emetica_, 99

Poison, definition of, 15

— duel between Court physicians, 36

— from a ceiling, 346

— gas, 223

— — attempted murder with, 229

— habits, 238

— in a wooden leg, 208

— in beer, 216, 217

— in chocolates, 222

— in cocoa, 221

— in foods, 219

— in glass, 222

— in honey, 220

— in the chalice, 114

— laws in ancient times, 40

— — in Italy, 40

— mysteries, in France, 318

— plots, 186

— — against Austrian officers, 193

— — against cavalry horses, 228

— — against Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 186

— — against Ministers of State, 189

— — against the Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, 195

— — in Lima, 189

— — in Malta, 188

— rings, 203, 204, 207

— — a cardinal’s, 207

— — Cesare Borgia’s, 206

— — stories of, 207

— symptoms and signs of, 35

Poisoned bed, 209

— boots, 199

— candles, 182, 200

— chocolates given to ’bus girls, 228

— coins, 146

— court plaster, 227

— cup, 199

— flowers, 209

— lavender, 208

— robe, 201

— shirts, 200

— — test by Dr. Nass, 200

— slipper, 201

— soup-powder dropped by enemy aircraft, 226

— sweets dropped by enemy aircraft, 225, 226, 227

— torch, 208

— wine, 198

Poisoners of Rome, 122

Poisoning, dread of wholesale, 186

Poisonous grass as a defence, 87

— boot-blacking, 203

Poisons used by ancient and primitive races, 15

— concealed in flowers, 194

— dropped by aircraft, 225, 226

— in mythology, 27

— in warfare, 223

— preventive methods against, 49

— tried on criminals, 109

— used in France in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 162

Pontæus, a quack, challenges the physicians of Oxford, 111

Porta, Baptiste, on poisons, 122

_Poudre de succession_, 161

Pritchard, Dr., case of, 293

Raspail and the Lafarge case, 276

Ravenna, Cardinal-Archbishop of, 110

Reinsch’s test for arsenic, 95

Rhinoceros horn, 58

Robsart, Amy, mystery of the death of, 164

— — burial of, 166

— — inquest on, 167

Roman Poison Laws, 40

Rome, mysterious deaths by poison in, 34

Royal and historic poisoners, 101

Rugeley mystery, the, 287

Sainte-Croix, 150, 151

— — casket found after death of, 154

— — contents and letter in casket, 154

— — death of, 153

— — poisons used by, 155

Sassy bark, 23

Scotiney, Sir Walter de, 102

Scottish poison mysteries, 142

Scythians, poisons used by the, 17

Seddon case, the, 362

Seneca, 29

Sentence for poisoning, revision after twenty-five years of a, 91

Sheffield, Lord, 107

Signs of death from poison, 41

Sirani, Elisabetta, death of, 118

Slow poisons, 15

Slow and time poisons, 113

— — — — origin of the tradition about, 113

Smith, Madeline, case of, 279

Socrates, death of, 29

Soissons, Comtesse de, 160

Somali, poisons used by the, 18

Somerset, Countess of, 103

Southwark poison mystery, the, 337

Spara, Hieronyma and her crimes, 115, 126

Spiders, poison lore of, 87

Stas’ process, 95

State poison of the Greeks, 29

Stevenson, Dr., proves the presence of aconitine, 299

Suicides by poison, would-be, 92, 93

Superstitions connected with poisonous plants, 53

Sussex, Earl of, 107

Tariff for poisoning, 121

Tartar emetic, 99

Terra Sigillata, 49

— — how it was tested, 50

Theophrastus, poisons mentioned by, 33, 34

Theriaca, 42, 43, 44

— ceremony of compounding, 46

— Galen’s test of, 45

— importation to London of, 47

— Mithridates’, 44

— Philonium, 45

— of Andromachus, 45

— of Bologna, 46

— of Cairo, 47

— of Damocrates, 46

— of London, 47

— of Montpellier, 48

— of Venice, 46

— Zopyros’, 44

Thoth, 28

Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 106

Toads, poison lore of, 84

— poisonous, principles extractedfrom, 84

Toadstone rings, 54

Toadstones, 54

Toffana, 122

Trial of venoms in 1432, 110

Trigg, Mr., and Miss Loeser, the mysterious case of, 332

Unicorn’s horn, 55, 56, 57

— — Coronation Chair of, 58

— — cups made of, 56

Upas-tree, 20

Visconti, Primi, 159

Westminster, Abbot of, poisoned, 102

Wheeldon trial, 190, 191

Willcox, Sir William H., on the Seddon case, 368

— — — — Black case, 384

Witch-doctors, 24

Witches’ hallucinations, 63

Women poisoners, 198

Wondreton’s commission to poison, 120

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Page Changed from Changed to

88 in Greece and Hungary. in Greece and Hungary.
Dioscorides knew it in its later Dioscorides knew it in its
form latter form

224 poisons vapours, and they poisonous vapours, and they
introduced the gas shell, of introduced the gas shell, of
which which

322 become popular among a wide became popular among a wide
circle in the district in which circle in the district in which

● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.