She was born in Low Moorsley (now part of Houghton-le-Spring
in the City of Sunderland) Image
into a poor working class family her father worked and died down the pit at Murton
Colliery when she was eight. At sixteen she moved out of the family home to
become a nurse. By 20
(Names,
date deceased, connections and locations)
A quick
search on the internet will fill lots of gaps History has Her globally
documented case seems pretty much sewn up
Legend
Mary is the subject of Urban myth and new folklaw. Around
Durham there are several stories told by children
“Say her name three times (over her grave) and she will rise out of the grave and she will get you”.
“Say her name three times (over her grave) and she will rise out of the grave and she will get you”.
In East Rainton small village on the outskirts of Durham where
many of the murders were committed and her husband Thomas Mowbray and several
of his children are buried in the village churchyard. There is also a legend
about reciting a poem at midnight in the churchyard conjures up her ghost.
"Mary Ann Cotton,
She's dead and she's rotten
She lies in her bed
With her eyes wide open
Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing
Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string.
Where, where ? Up in the air
Sellin`black puddens a penny a pair."
She's dead and she's rotten
She lies in her bed
With her eyes wide open
Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing
Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string.
Where, where ? Up in the air
Sellin`black puddens a penny a pair."
Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten,
Lying in bed with her bones all rotten.
Sing, sing, what can I sing?
Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string.
Lying in bed with her bones all rotten.
Sing, sing, what can I sing?
Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string.
Maybe we need to destroy a few real myths to take a more
balanced view of the case.
What is
a serial killer? There is much debate over the definition of a serial killer. The
description generally accepted across Europe is that a serial
killer is a person who murders three or more people, usually in service
of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over
more than a month and including a significant break (a "cooling off
period") between them (stream of known serial killer images) In the US the
FBI‘s definition is two or more victims.
The first myth to destroy Mary was Not Britain’s first
serial killer, there are at least 33 other known female serial killers that precede
Mary, documented in broadsheet ballads, a single sheet print of composed lyrics
to spread news, sung to other known tunes. Mary had several of her own. So why
did Mary gain this title?
The key is ‘documented’ and Mass circulation media that the Industrial
revolution brought.
just as today and completely unregulated the media sensationalised, exaggerated and lyed, and they did about Mary. They even touched up photos to make her look more sinister and published it all before her trial. broadsheets.
just as today and completely unregulated the media sensationalised, exaggerated and lyed, and they did about Mary. They even touched up photos to make her look more sinister and published it all before her trial. broadsheets.
This information is regurgitated repeatedly as research into
Mary is conducted feeding itself which is then published and then another
researcher reads it, and on and on.
Mary and her reported crimes were the epitome of Victorian
fears during the mid 19th Century
The Media turned Mary into a hate figure and a monster. For
the media what Mary represented was everything that Victorians of the mid 19th
C feared and that the media had warned of. Marys case made the public sit up
and listen. The shock to Victorian sensibilities by the perceived scale of a
woman’s crimes at the time could only be compared to the shock of any modern
discovery of mass serial murder, like Fred and Rose West who also killed their
own children.
The Victorians had a thirst for horror and had an insatiable
appetite for the pulp fiction of the day the penny dreadful. These news reports
also fed the Victorian thirst for the macabre.
Another myth or presumption is that as We can see on the map
that that Mary moved about a lot and this has been attributed to her covering
her tracks to commit her crimes elsewhere. This was actually a very normal way
to live. During the Industrial revolution, The Victorian population was in
constant motion. About half of all urban residents died or relocated to a
different town during any ten year gap between censuses.
Christopher Jefferies - Joanna Yeates
People will try to
make a personal name using Mary’s case for and against her and you have to
wonder if either side are searching for the truth Authors who have put their
name to condemning Mary are reluctant to put their reputation on the line and
risk the loss of book sales. People in defence of Mary choose to ignore the
volume of circumstantial evidence attributed to the case and known crimes such
as the theft of money and goods from her husband, which display a side to her
personality. But this doesent make her a murdress.
Was she Britain’s
first serial killer, no. Did she murder 22 people, almost certainly not. The
odds on her family members all surviving at that time would have been
phenomenal.
distribution of wealth 40% of the country’s wealth was owned by 5% of the population
Poverty workhouses ¼ of the population of Victorian Britain
lived in poverty
During the Victorian era, the middle-class was growing and
those who were better off could increasingly have at least one servant.the
lower-middle class comprised of small manufacturers, shopkeepers, clerks,
teachers and managerial officials. Middle-class occupations accounted for
roughly 7% of the population in the period 1850-70, Servants accounted for 4%
of the entire population – about 1.2 million people
The population of England in 1851 was 16.8 million but by
the end of the century it had nearly doubled. Whilst child mortality did not
improve much during the Victorian era, adult mortality did. The life expectancy
had been around 40 years and in 1871 the average woman was having 5.5 children.
Did a growing public awareness of arsenic based products and
their avoidance contribute to this. The symptoms of Arsenic poisoning look very
similar to ?
Queen Victoria removed all the green wall paoer from all her palaces after a complaint from a guest that he had not had a good nights sleep and had been made nauseous by the wall paper.
Queen Victoria removed all the green wall paoer from all her palaces after a complaint from a guest that he had not had a good nights sleep and had been made nauseous by the wall paper.
High infant and adult mortality rate
Based on Chadwicks survey of 1842.
National average = 41; Male 40, Female 42. This is however deceptive, in London the average life expectancy of labourers and servants was 22, whilst gentry and professionals reached a whopping 45. Manchester ‘s labourers and servants had it better at 25 however their tradesmen and farmers average reached only 20.
The national average for infant mortality at this time was three out of every ten babies died before their first birthday, taking into account the huge discrepancy between the haves and have nots in adult mortality we can only presume that for the poor the infant mortality rate was substantially higher. Unbaptised babies didn’t even make it into the stats and were treat as still born.
Based on Chadwicks survey of 1842.
National average = 41; Male 40, Female 42. This is however deceptive, in London the average life expectancy of labourers and servants was 22, whilst gentry and professionals reached a whopping 45. Manchester ‘s labourers and servants had it better at 25 however their tradesmen and farmers average reached only 20.
The national average for infant mortality at this time was three out of every ten babies died before their first birthday, taking into account the huge discrepancy between the haves and have nots in adult mortality we can only presume that for the poor the infant mortality rate was substantially higher. Unbaptised babies didn’t even make it into the stats and were treat as still born.
Introduction of death insurance.
Death insurance policies introduced early 1800’s for the upper classes. For the less well-off fearfully avoiding a paupers grave they had the delightfully named death clubs ran by Friendly Societies, mutual associations who through regular payment plans offered financial security to tradesmen during times of no employment. They had been established to cover funeral costs but often paid out substantially more. Mary had profited from the people who had died around her. There were already fears in society as early as the 1850’s that death insurance was almost an invitation to poison and profit.
Multiple membership of different clubs could turn a tidy profit on the death of a sickly child, or a healthy one. Later in the Victorian era Death Clubs were widely regarded as: 'the prolific mother of arsenical murders" and membership list nicknamed "The catalogue of the doomed,", in response to the problem, in 1850 Parliament enacted a statute prohibiting the insuring of children under 10 for more than three pounds.
by the 1850’s fear of poisoning whether malicious or accidental was a growing concern of the public and the media due to the unregulated availability of Arsenic. Historically poison has always been the weapon of choice for the female killer and arsenic was the weapon of choice for the Victorian. Of the 22 women were hanged in England and Wales In the decade from 1843 to 1852, 17 were arsenic poisoners and several of these serial killers. After sustained pressure in the press, the Earl of Carlisle introduced the Sale of Arsenic Regulation Bill in early 1851. This required the supplier to keep a register showing the name of the person making the purchase, the amount bought and the reason for buying it. The purchaser had to sign the register. The seller could only sell to persons they knew or if they didn’t know them to persons accompanied by a witness who could verify their identity and who had also to sign the register. From now on arsenic had to be coloured for normal sized purchases so that the defence that the poisoner had simply added it to food by mistake could not be used. Uncoloured (white) arsenic could only be bought in commercial amounts, a minimum quantity of 10 lbs being specified. It was originally to have contained a clause banning women from purchasing the substance although this was didn’t make it to the final draft.
Death insurance policies introduced early 1800’s for the upper classes. For the less well-off fearfully avoiding a paupers grave they had the delightfully named death clubs ran by Friendly Societies, mutual associations who through regular payment plans offered financial security to tradesmen during times of no employment. They had been established to cover funeral costs but often paid out substantially more. Mary had profited from the people who had died around her. There were already fears in society as early as the 1850’s that death insurance was almost an invitation to poison and profit.
Multiple membership of different clubs could turn a tidy profit on the death of a sickly child, or a healthy one. Later in the Victorian era Death Clubs were widely regarded as: 'the prolific mother of arsenical murders" and membership list nicknamed "The catalogue of the doomed,", in response to the problem, in 1850 Parliament enacted a statute prohibiting the insuring of children under 10 for more than three pounds.
by the 1850’s fear of poisoning whether malicious or accidental was a growing concern of the public and the media due to the unregulated availability of Arsenic. Historically poison has always been the weapon of choice for the female killer and arsenic was the weapon of choice for the Victorian. Of the 22 women were hanged in England and Wales In the decade from 1843 to 1852, 17 were arsenic poisoners and several of these serial killers. After sustained pressure in the press, the Earl of Carlisle introduced the Sale of Arsenic Regulation Bill in early 1851. This required the supplier to keep a register showing the name of the person making the purchase, the amount bought and the reason for buying it. The purchaser had to sign the register. The seller could only sell to persons they knew or if they didn’t know them to persons accompanied by a witness who could verify their identity and who had also to sign the register. From now on arsenic had to be coloured for normal sized purchases so that the defence that the poisoner had simply added it to food by mistake could not be used. Uncoloured (white) arsenic could only be bought in commercial amounts, a minimum quantity of 10 lbs being specified. It was originally to have contained a clause banning women from purchasing the substance although this was didn’t make it to the final draft.
Mary could also have had the experienced the burden of cost
of funeral expenses with so many people dying around her and not been prepared
to take them on again in new relationships especially with sickly spouses.
Arsenic seems so toxic to modern culture like strychnine or
cyanide that to be found with it at all is almost tantamount to intent to
poison or guilt.
Arsenic in Victorian Britain, regulation and ownership.
William Morris
Arsenic in Victorian Britain, regulation and ownership.
William Morris
Arsenics abundance in Victorian Britain and symptoms similar
to Cholera and gastric fever a common forms of death.
Prosecution opposition to the defence that arsenic poisoning
from arsenic in wallpaper had not been proven of killing anybody smells of the
Asbestos scandal of the ? and the tobacco industries rebuke of claims that
cigarettes caused cancer in the ? is now proven untrue. Ignorance is no defence
in the eyes of the law and that must also reflect back onto itself
Another defence could equally have been Some people immune
to arsenic can consume it like food without problems. She could have been
scrupulously clean a contemporary of Florence Knightingale. This is also modern
knowledge that could not have been considered at the time.
Female serial killers are rare, and given the view of
Victorians on women, ie placing them on a pedestal. Tried as a female applying
Victorian values (you are supposed to be this, but you are this). Poisoning was
a cowardly, secretive, skulking act , I
can only imagine how shocking this would have been.
Big shot barrister from London. Would that be normal?
Births deaths and marriages legal registration. Ancestory
searches that stop before
Cary Grant Arsenic and Old Lace
"Sister" Amy Duggan Archer-Gilligan
"Sister" Amy Duggan Archer-Gilligan
Unconscious conspiracy to find mary guilty. It was in too
many rich and powerful peoples interests for her to be found guilty scapegoat
Calcrafts last botched job as hangman and he was replaced.
It all happened so long ago, does it matter?...well, yes it
does!
Trust in the legal system to give justice to the innocent
its long history on display through wigs and capes to sell the brand and gain
authority.
Money for old rope
There must be countless miscarriages of justice lost to
history. Mary is more famous worldwide now than she ever was in her lifetime.
Personal journey to find out what my connection is to Mary
People will try to make a personal name using Mary’s case
for and against her and you have to wonder if either side are searching for the
truth Authors who have put their name to condemning Mary are reluctant to put
their reputation on the line and risk the loss of book sales.
Like all research the sources are important. We make a
mistake in thinking that the media giants of old were more scrupulous. Their
misleading half-truths and lies have been regurgitated and fed back out as easy
fact finding without deeper investigation, interpreting information through
modern eyes whilst studying evil caricature news reports
Current interest in Mary with Dark Angel based on David Wilsons
book, Mary Ann Cotton – Britain’s first serial killer.
Marys case may have signalled change in British legislation
to the common good but was she truly guilty of her ‘grand plan’ or a pawn/tool
for the media, government and wealthy industrialists. And should her decendants
have to still live with the stigma accociated with
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