The Insurance
The Insurance
Agent's Policies of
Death
ON 17th September, 1877, Edmund Bennett, an insurance canvasser, who lived in Richmond Street, Preston, set off on the road to Longridge, in an attempt to obtain some clients for The Prudential Assurance Company. When he reached Alston he knocked at the door of the cottage home of Mary Whiteside, and his salesman's patter was successful. By the time he left, Mary Whiteside had agreed to take out Life Insurance Policies on herself, her husband Robert, her two children, John and Peter and her sister Ann Weighill. Little could Edmund Bennett have known when he clutched the signed proposal forms in his hand, that within a year, three of the persons whose lives were insured would be dead. Nor could he have imagined that the woman, whom he had just met, would be standing in the dock of the Crown Court of Lancaster Assizes accused of murder.
The policies were duly taken over by the local agent, James Cook, who resided in Berry Lane, Longridge, and he regularly called at the Whiteside's home to collect the premiums.
Early in the year of 1878, tragedy began to befall the Whiteside family when their two-year-old son Peter was taken ill, dying on 26th January. Within a matter of weeks his elder brother John, aged 5, was also taken ill and his death occurred on 7th April. Both deaths were attended to by the local practitioner, Edmund Eccles, who signed the death certificates.
After both deaths, the father, Robert Whiteside, called upon the local insurance agent James Cook and was paid the six pounds due upon the surrender of the policies.
The next significant event to take place occurred on 28th June of the same year. That day, Robert Whiteside, who was a strongly-built man some 5 feet 8 inches tall, worked in the gardens of Hothersall Hall, where he had been employed for the previous 15 months. He was in his usual good health and in a cheerful, good-spirited mood. His day's work over, he returned home and poured himself a glass of nettle beer. After which he ate his tea, which consisted of bread and butter followed by a large helping of gooseberry tart. He then sat upon the sofa nursing the baby for a short time.
Suddenly he was seized with a fearful pain and began shivering. He kept jerking his head backwards on the sofa, whilst his body kept convulsing upwards. His wife immediately ran for assistance and a local constable and a neighbour entered the house in an attempt to administer relief to him. He was offered a drink of water but refused and his face was wiped with a wet cloth to remove the perspiration from his brow.
His cramped position on the sofa was uncomfortable and he was laid on the floor. He then became quiet and within minutes he was dead. When Dr. Eccles arrived he gathered as much information as he could as to the cause of death. It was hot weather at the time, and from the information he received, he came to the conclusion that the man had died from sunstroke.
Before her husband's funeral, Mrs. Whiteside called at the home of the Insurance Agent James Cook to claim the money due on the death of her spouse. She told him that death had occurred due to apoplexy, accelerated by excessive heat. Within a few days she produced the necessary death certificate and Mr. Cook advanced her £3 on account for the policy which was for a sum of £7 15s.
Rumours abounded in Preston and Longridge and an Inquest into the death of Robert Whiteside, which returned a verdict of death by strychnine poison administered by persons unknown, failed to quell them. The fact that Mrs. Whiteside had lost two small children and her husband within a matter of months fuelled the rumours and they increased when it became common knowledge that on a number of occasions she had called at the local druggists in Longridge to purchase rat and mice poison which besides starch, liquorice and indigo contained the deadly strychnine.
With a view to dispelling the innuendoes, the respected Preston surgeon, Edwin Moore, was commissioned to carry out an examination on the body of Robert Whiteside in Longridge churchyard. The body was removed from the coffin and was found to be in a decomposed state. The surgeon removed various organs from the corpse and placed them in jars for later examination. The heart appeared healthy as did the liver, kidneys and other organs and nothing in their appearance seemed to account for his death. The theory that Robert Whiteside had died from apoplexy or from sunstroke was dismissed by Dr. Moore, and after consultation and examination of the organs by himself and a surgeon from Liverpool, a common conclusion was reached. That was the man had died as a result of poisoning by strychnine. This opinion was supported by the symptoms exhibited by the deceased, such as calling for air, shivering and shuddering, and remaining conscious up to the time of death. The fact that strychnia was not later found in the stomach, did not alter the opinion of the medical men. They were happy to refer to previous known cases of strychnia poisoning, where post-mortem examinations had failed to find any grains of the deadly substance.
As a result of the investigations Mary Whiteside appeared at Lancaster Assizes in January, 1879, accused of the murder of her husband the previous summer. The court was crowded for the hearing of the case and many were unable to gain admission. Mr. Justice Lindley presided over the proceedings and the jury were asked to dismiss from their minds anything they may have read in the newspapers with reference to the case.
The sequence of events that led to Mary Whiteside's appearance in the dock were revealed to the court. On 21 st January, 1878, the prisoner had visited a chemist and druggist's shop in Longridge and purchased a 3d. packet of mice and rat poison, which contained sufficient strychnine to poison ten human beings. On the 26th of that month the little boy, Peter, just two-years-old, died and the insurance was obtained by the father, in the presence of the prisoner.
Then on 4th April, the prisoner visited the same druggist and purchased another packet of mice poison. Three days afterwards the boy John died and the policy money was paid to the father.
At about five o'clock on the 28th June, Mary Whiteside again visited the druggist and purchased another similar packet of poison. Within three hours Robert Whiteside, a strong muscular man, died in "excruciating agony", showing all the symptoms of poisoning by strychnine.
Edmund Eccles, who issued the death certificate stated that having heard the evidence and opinions of the medical experts called, he no longer held the view that the man had died from sunstroke.
It was testified that just half-a-grain of the poison would be sufficient to cause death, and various theories were suggested as to how it could have been administered. Half-a-grain dissolved in half a pint of water would cause a very bitter taste was the general opinion and for it to be consumed in an ordinary meal without detection was considered to be highly unlikely.
The question remained by whom was the deadly poison administered? There were only two conceivable administrators, the prisoner or the victim. In the case of the children, there was nothing to indicate they had died of poisoning. Although the circumstances and coincidences surrounding the situation inevitably led to the arousing of suspicions.
When His Lordship drew the investigation to a close, he told the jury that they must not convict the woman on circumstances alone and that it was their duty to decide whether the man was poisoned by strychnine. If they were convinced so, then they must find the prisoner guilty.
The jury retired, and after an absence of two hours and ten minutes returned into court. The verdict they brought with them was "Not Guilty" and Mary Whiteside was discharged on the indictment of murder.
The following day she once again appeared in the Lancaster Crown Court charged with feloniously endeavouring to obtain £20 17s by means of a forged death certificate. Mr. Justice Lindley once again presided, and Edmund Bennett, the insurance canvasser from Preston told the court how he had visited Mrs. Whiteside and she had agreed to take out the policies including one on the life of her sister Ann Weighill.
The policies were issued in due course and 3d. per week was paid to the agent on that policy which was the concern of the court hearing. Around Christmas, 1877, Mary Whiteside told a neighbour that her sister had died, and she borrowed money from her so that she might attend the funeral. She then visited the home of the Insurance Agent in Longridge and informed his wife that she wanted the money due. The agent's wife told her that she would not receive any money from such a new policy unless death had been caused by typhus, scarlet fever or something of that nature.
Mary Whiteside then went away but returned on 3rd January, with a certificate that stated that Ann Weighill had died of Bronchitis and Typhus Fever and it bore the signature of a doctor from Lytham.
The certificate aroused suspicion due to the misspelling of certain words. Subsequent investigations showed that no such Doctor Foster practised in Lytham, and indeed Ann Weighill was alive and well completely oblivious to her apparent death.
By eleven o'clock in the morning the jury had retired and when they returned after an absence of 22 minutes, the Foreman announced that they found the prisoner "Guilty as charged".
His Lordship then addressed her stating that she had been found guilty of an act of much deliberation, not something done on impulse. He then informed her that she was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour. She was then taken to the cells below and the business of the Assizes was declared to be concluded.
Keith Johnson