epilepsy while Cream was having an affair with Stott’s wife. Stott’s death was attributed to natural causes, but following his burial, Cream bizarrely wrote to the coroner stating that he believed the pharmacist had put too much strychnine in the pills he had prescribed to the dead man. Stott was exhumed and, indeed, a large amount of strychnine was discovered in his body. Fearing arrest, Cream fled to Canada but when Mrs Stott turned state’s evidence and placed the blame firmly on her lover, he was arrested and taken back to Chicago. He was found guilty and jailed for life.
Ten years later, he walked through the gates of Joliet Prison, a free man. His brother had pleaded for leniency on his behalf and had backed that up with judiciously placed bribes. But Cream’s life in prison and consumption of drugs had taken its toll on him and, with his thinning hair and watery, yellow eyes he looked far older than his years. But his father had died, leaving him a sizable inheritance and he decided to use it to make a fresh start. He briefly returned to Canada before setting sail for England where, from his home at 103 Lambeth Palace Road, he launched his career as a poisoner of prostitutes. Masquerading now as Dr Neill and claiming to work at St Thomas’s Hospital, he was a regular user of working girls, sometimes visiting three in one night in an effort to satisfy his insatiable sex drive. He often gave pills to the girls with whom he had slept, ostensibly to clear acne, but actually laced with strychnine that would lead to an agonizing death.
Poisonous chemicals were comparatively easy to obtain in Victorian times. Cream got his strychnine from a chemist on Parliament Street and the only legal requirement was a signature on a register. He had told the chemist that he was a doctor from out of town who was attending a series of lectures at St Thomas’s and had purchased the strychnine in the form of nux vomica in the first week of October 1891.
On October 13, 1891, 19 year-old prostitute, Ellen ‘Nelly’ Donworth, was found in dreadful agony in Waterloo Road. The daughter of a labourer, Nelly had taken to the streets rather than earn a hard living as a bottle-capper in Vauxhall. That night she told a friend that she was meeting a man and she was seen later emerging from a pub with a man, presumed to be the one she had planned to meet. Later still, a friend found her in Morpeth Place, apparently drunk and incapable. The friend took her back to her digs, but by that time she was writhing in agony. Between terrible convulsions of pain she gasped that she had been given a bottle containing white fluid to drink by a tall man with a squint, bushy whiskers and gold-rimmed spectacles. She was rushed to nearby St Thomas’s but was dead on arrival. It was discovered that she had been poisoned with strychnine.
A week later, on October 20, 26 year-old prostitute, Matilda Clover, was found in terrible pain in her lodgings in Lambeth Road where she lived with her 2 year-old son. Following her lover’s abandonment of her and his son, she had descended into alcoholism, taking to the streets to earn a living. Ten days previously, she had gone out to meet a man named ‘Fred’ outside the Canterbury Theatre. At around nine, she brought the man back to her room and he left shortly after. In the middle of the night ten days later, Matilda’s neighbours were awoken by terrible screams coming from her room where she was discovered in agony and unable to breathe. A few hours later, she was dead. She had swallowed some pills, she had gasped shortly before her death, given to her by ‘Fred’ to cure her acne.
‘Fred’ had, of course, been Cream who had been watched by two other prostitutes as he picked Matilda up the previous week. They would later identify him as ‘Fred’ during his trial. Matilda’s death was, however, ascribed to ‘Natural Causes’ by the doctor who signed her death certificate. He claimed that she had mixed
Ten years later, he walked through the gates of Joliet Prison, a free man. His brother had pleaded for leniency on his behalf and had backed that up with judiciously placed bribes. But Cream’s life in prison and consumption of drugs had taken its toll on him and, with his thinning hair and watery, yellow eyes he looked far older than his years. But his father had died, leaving him a sizable inheritance and he decided to use it to make a fresh start. He briefly returned to Canada before setting sail for England where, from his home at 103 Lambeth Palace Road, he launched his career as a poisoner of prostitutes. Masquerading now as Dr Neill and claiming to work at St Thomas’s Hospital, he was a regular user of working girls, sometimes visiting three in one night in an effort to satisfy his insatiable sex drive. He often gave pills to the girls with whom he had slept, ostensibly to clear acne, but actually laced with strychnine that would lead to an agonizing death.
Poisonous chemicals were comparatively easy to obtain in Victorian times. Cream got his strychnine from a chemist on Parliament Street and the only legal requirement was a signature on a register. He had told the chemist that he was a doctor from out of town who was attending a series of lectures at St Thomas’s and had purchased the strychnine in the form of nux vomica in the first week of October 1891.
On October 13, 1891, 19 year-old prostitute, Ellen ‘Nelly’ Donworth, was found in dreadful agony in Waterloo Road. The daughter of a labourer, Nelly had taken to the streets rather than earn a hard living as a bottle-capper in Vauxhall. That night she told a friend that she was meeting a man and she was seen later emerging from a pub with a man, presumed to be the one she had planned to meet. Later still, a friend found her in Morpeth Place, apparently drunk and incapable. The friend took her back to her digs, but by that time she was writhing in agony. Between terrible convulsions of pain she gasped that she had been given a bottle containing white fluid to drink by a tall man with a squint, bushy whiskers and gold-rimmed spectacles. She was rushed to nearby St Thomas’s but was dead on arrival. It was discovered that she had been poisoned with strychnine.
A week later, on October 20, 26 year-old prostitute, Matilda Clover, was found in terrible pain in her lodgings in Lambeth Road where she lived with her 2 year-old son. Following her lover’s abandonment of her and his son, she had descended into alcoholism, taking to the streets to earn a living. Ten days previously, she had gone out to meet a man named ‘Fred’ outside the Canterbury Theatre. At around nine, she brought the man back to her room and he left shortly after. In the middle of the night ten days later, Matilda’s neighbours were awoken by terrible screams coming from her room where she was discovered in agony and unable to breathe. A few hours later, she was dead. She had swallowed some pills, she had gasped shortly before her death, given to her by ‘Fred’ to cure her acne.
‘Fred’ had, of course, been Cream who had been watched by two other prostitutes as he picked Matilda up the previous week. They would later identify him as ‘Fred’ during his trial. Matilda’s death was, however, ascribed to ‘Natural Causes’ by the doctor who signed her death certificate. He claimed that she had mixed
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