Mary Ann Cotton Britain’s First Female Serial Killer David WilsonCopyright and Publication Details Mary Ann Cotton Britain’s First Female Serial Killer David Wilson ISBN 978-1-904380-91-7 (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-908162-30-4 (Adobe E-book) ISBN 978-1-908162-29-8 (Kindle /Epub E-book) Copyright © 2013 This work is the copyright of David Wilson. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by the author in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide. Cover design © 2013 Waterside Press. Design by Verity Gibson/ www.gibgob.com Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library. e-book Mary Ann Cotton is available as an ebook and also to subscribers of Myilibrary, ebrary, Ebscohost and Dawsonera. Printed by Hobbs, Totton, Hampshire. Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: +44 (0)1323 521777; [email protected] ; www.gardners.com USA and Canada distributor Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. (800) 937-8000 / +01 615 213-5000, [email protected] ipage.ingrambook.com Published 2012 by Waterside Press Ltd. Sherfield Gables Sherfield on Loddon Hook, Hampshire United Kingdom RG27 0JG Telephone +44(0)1256 882250 E-mail [email protected] Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.ukContents Copyright and Publication Details Acknowledgements About the author Introduction: Searching for Mary Ann Cotton Thinking About Female Serial Killers From Criminology to History Questions of Gender Early Days The Mining Villages of East Northumberland Murton Northern Murders Deceptive Appearances The Importance of Early Influences? Seaham Harbour, Sunderland and Nursing Records and Registers Back to Sunderland as a Nurse Husband Number Two — George Ward Husband Number Three — James Robinson ‘I did not wish to part from him’ The Wandering Months A Death Too Far West Auckland and the Murder of Joseph Nattrass Arsenic Business as Usual The Coroner’s Inquiry A Series of Court Appearances and a Trial Magistrates’ Hearings Dr Thomas Scattergood Scattergood and the West Auckland Arsenic Cases Durham Spring Assizes An Execution Public Spectacles and Private Rituals William Calcraft Mary Ann’s Last Few Days Hanged by the Neck Until Dead Disappearing from View and Becoming Unseen Body Count Cotton as a Serial Killer Cotton as a Woman and as a Serial Killer Jack the Ripper Their Differing Styles — Their Differing Infamy? Antisocial Personality Disorder and the Psychopath A Summing Up Appendix 1: Murder Grew With Her — On the Trail of Mary Ann Cotton Appendix 2: Was Mary Ann Cotton a Psychopath? IndexAcknowledgements There are a number of people that I would like to thank who have helped immeasurably with the completion of this book. At Birmingham City University Barbara McCalla and Charlotte Wasilewski have continued to answer the calls of and written letters to many members of the public who want to discuss public criminology with me, and so too I would like to thank my colleagues at the Centre for Applied Criminology—especially Michael Brookes, Laura Caulfield, Lyndsey Harris, Sarah Pemberton, Craig Jackson, Donal MacIntyre, Edward Johnson, Adam Lynes, John Lamb and Di Kemp. Before leaving acknowledgements at the University I would also like to thank my undergraduate, masters and PhD students, who continue to inspire me to think about Criminology in different and diverse ways. The librarians and staff of a number of universities showed me a great deal of kindness—particularly at Birmingham City University, Cambridge University, The Radzinowicz Library in Cambridge, the Brotherton Library of Leeds University and Newcastle City Library. I am also grateful to various staff of Beamish Museum who very generously gave up their time to help me with my research; and The Byron Centre for the Study of Literature and Social Change, University of Nottingham. I am indebted to two health care professionals—Jacintha Godden and Sue Foster—who helped me to think through the various Victorian ailments that are encountered within the book, and who advised me more generally about the culture of nursing. I would also like to thank Nick Pyke of the Mail on Sunday Magazine for encouraging me to write about Mary Ann in a more popular form, and especially to Brian Taylor who accompanied me on a research trip to the north east to walk in the footsteps of this Victorian serial killer. That trip was memorable for a number of reasons, and I would like to thank the various people in West Auckland, Seaham Harbour, Sunderland and Durham who welcomed me into their homes or businesses to describe what they remembered or knew about Mary Ann. Bryan Gibson at Waterside Press has long championed my work and I am very grateful to him for his continued support and encouragement. I am also very grateful to Judith Flanders and somewhat humbled by her warm words of support that appear on page ix of this book. Finally, no book of mine would ever be completed but for the encouragement of Anne, Hugo and Fleur.About the author David Wilson is professor of criminology at Birmingham City University where he is Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology. A former prison governor, he is the editor of the Howard Journal and well-known as an author, broadcaster and presenter for TV and radio, including the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky. He has written a number of books for Waterside Press, including: The Longest Injustice: The Strange Story of Alex Alexandrowicz (with the latter) (1999), Prison(er) Education: Stories of Change and Transformation (with Ann Reuss) (2000), Images of Incarceration: Representations of Prison in Film and Television Drama (with Sean O’Sullivan) (2004), Serial Killers: Hunting Britons and Their Victims 1960-2006 (2007), and Looking for Laura: Public Criminology and Hot News (2011).This book is an enthralling read. I started off firmly believing that Mary Ann Cotton was innocent —that, indeed, there had been no murders. David Wilson’s meticulous research, his eye for detail, his forensic ability to reconstruct the material that survives, and assess the probabilities where gaps remain in the record, opened my eyes. David Wilson does not write generic “true crime”, but history of the highest order. Judith Flanders , Best-selling author, journalist and historian.Introduction: Searching for Mary Ann Cotton What you are about to read is a detective story — a true detective story. It’s about a “ serial killer” — perhaps our first ever serial killer, as we now define someone who kills three or more people in a period of greater than 30 days — who was once relatively well known, but who has over time been allowed to disappear. It’s about the victims who were murdered (some have suggested as many as 21), the person who killed them, and the various Victorians who brought this serial killer to justice. And so it’s also concerned with the science of criminal investigation, and the way that crime makes its way into the writing of History — or doesn’t. It’s about looking for the clues, and the evidence that will bring this person, and all the others who are part of this story, back to "life". So it is about false trails, dusty documents, and the towns and villages of the north east of England where this murderer lived, and killed. It’s about policing, the Victorian forensic science of the Leeds based toxicologist Dr Thomas Scattergood, and it’s about a woman. Yes, that’s right, a woman. However, chances are that you’ve never heard of Mary Ann Cotton. 1 There has only ever been one biography of Cotton, Britain’s first female serial killer, written by Arthur Appleton, which was published on the centenary of her execution in 1973. It is simply entitled Mary Ann Cotton . Then, in 2000, Tony Whitehead personally published a “Supplement to the Appleton Masterpiece”, based on his research using registers of births, baptisms, and marriage, and death and burial certificates, and in doing so was able to correct a number of factual errors in Appleton’s text. 2 Apart from this, there are a few notes, and an occasional mention of Cotton in other — mostly local — histories of the north east of England, 3 and one chapter about her in Richard Lambert’s rather quaint book, published in 1935 about “Nine Peculiar Trials”, and called When Justice Faltered . 4 Lambert’s chapter is riddled with factual errors, and is rather tartly called “Mrs Cotton’s Profession”. This is an obvious nod towards the playwright George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs Warren’s Profession” — that of a high class prostitute — which is frankly rather fanciful, as far as Cotton is concerned, even if there were rumours after her arrest that she had sold sexual services. But, with the exception of an occasional documentary, that’s it. No other books; no films, no plays; and not much academic interest either. To all intents and purposes, Mary Ann Cotton has disappeared from public view, or, to use a more academic description, she has become “unseen”. 5 Why should this be so? Cotton’s disappearance is all the more difficult to explain given that she may have killed up to 21 people, and, more than this, she was killing some 16 years before the serial killer known as “ Jack the Ripper” was murdering in Whitechapel, London. Jack the Ripper is generally, and incorrectly, regarded as Britain’s “first” serial killer, even if he is usually attributed with only a third of the tally of Cotton’s victims. He has also remained a source of inspiration for film makers,