The World’s Worst Man

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

The World’s Worst Man

William Palmer, the Poisoner, was Probably the most Callous Murderer iu the History of British Crime.

This article, one of a series by Maude ffoulkes, published in “The Sunday Neics," deals with a man who has been described as one of the xcorst characters the world has produced: certainly the most callous murderer in English criminal history—William Palmer, the poisoner.

LOSE on 70 years ago, a young doctor, William Palmer, set up in practice at Rugeley, where his mother, Mrs. Sarah Palmer, a rich widow,

resided in a large mansion nearly opposite the old church. William Palmer was educated at Rugeley Grammar School. He then went to Heywood as pupil to Dr. Tylecote, subsequently deciding to walk the wards of Stafford Infirmary, and afterwards to qualify at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he took his M.R.C.S. degree in August, 1848. During these Heywood days William Palmer had made the acquaintance of Anne Thornton, a pretty girl, whose father had bequeathed her and her mother a fortune of nearly £20,000. When Anne left her finishing school she went to live with her senior guardian, Charles Dawson, who had a house at Abbot’s Bromley, near Stafford, and here Palmer followed her. Mr. Dawson seems to have “sensed” tragedy, and repeatedly warned his ward against the young man, but Anne, fascinated by her persistent lover, refused to listen —and married William Palmer in October, 1847. After their honeymoon the doctor and his girl-wife of 19 settled in Rugeley, renting a small house opposite the Talbot Arms, a house destined to prove the home of betrayal and secret murder, during the eight years which poor little Anne Palmer passed there as the hapless wife of one of the world’s worst men. An uneventful year passed before the eternal question of money vexed the avaricious soul of the doctor. His tastes were extravagant: he indulged in gambling, racing, and dissolute society, besides which, his many light “loves” proved heavy items in his expenditure. He therefore successfully directed his attention to his mother-in-law, and a query, “Why do you send so much money to Dr. Palmer?” elicited Mrs. Thornton’s startling reply: “Because, if I do not, evil will befall Anne.” Strange words, which probably emanated from a sub-conscious sense of impending doom—but when Mrs. Thornton was invited to stay at Rugeley she hesitated—consented—and —was lost. “I don’t believe I shall live long, if I go,” she remarked. Within the fortnight she was dead. The money which Dr. Palmer obtained by Mrs. Thornton’s death was rapidly exhausted. A new victim was necessary to provide him with the wherewithal.

The following year a certain Leonard Bladen, one of Palmer’s racing acquaintances, came to stay at Rugeley after the Chester races, when the doctor owed Bladen £6OO. “I’ll settle up at Rugeley,” he said, but any question of his indebtedness was forgotten in the visitor’s sudden illness, his wife only arriving an hour before his death. When the widow expressed some natural surprise that so little money had been found on Mr. Bladen, Palmer told her that the dead man was

actually in his debt, and his assurance never faltered when Mrs. Bladen produced a letter from her husband, sent before leaving Chester, in which he said that the doctor owed him £6OO, and would pay later. Poor Mrs. Bladen made no further fuss. She was nervous, poor, and she knew an inquiry would be costly and difficult; whatever she suspected she was too apprehensive to voice. But, in the ill-omened house, after the hurried funeral, Anne Palmer, whitefaced and shivering, whispered to a sympathetic friend: “Oh, what will people say? . . . My mother died under our roof last year. And now this man who had come to be paid a large sum. What will they say?” Mirror of Torture

William Palmer’s affairs became desperate. He had raised money by forging his mother’s signature, and as there was no other chance of getting clear," he decided to murder his wife, after insuring her life for £13,000, giving as his reason for such a heavy insurance that her income ceased with her death.

Within a few months of paying the first premium Anne Palmer died—presumably of English cholera.

That Mrs. Palmer believed her husband guilty of murder is practically certain. All her babies but one had died mysteriously from “convulsions,” and she had often heard the doctor inveigh against the expense of a large family. “Oh I hope poor Willie (her only living child) is safe,” murmured dying Anne —then, hurriedly correcting herself—“l meant, I hope he is well.” Anne Palmer was buried near her mother, and her disconsolate husband wept through the service. Following this, William Palmer’s brother Walter died of apoplexy. His life had been insured in favour of William for £14,000. Most of the money was paid away to moneylenders and in racing, for the smooth-tongued, good-looking doctor now owned a string of racehorses and was a wellknown figure on the turf. Cunning of a Hypocrite William Palmer was not 25 when he murdered Mrs. Thornton; he was only 30 when he murdered his last victim. The most horrible trait in his character was his blasphemous hypocrisv. William Palmer was a regular attendant at church, making marginal notes in his Bible. But Nemesis had already marked him as her own, employing as hexagent John Pai-sons Cook, a wealthy young man, one of Palmer's friends, who had entered his horse, Pole Star, for the Shrewsbury Handicap. Palmer's horse, Nettle, was running in another race, and the men stood to win £3,000 and £5,000. It is believed that if William Palmer had won £5,000, Cook’s life would have been spared, but the doctor’s horse lost, xvhilst Pole Stai* won, and netted her owner three thousand pounds—thereby sealing his fate.

Cook was first taken 111 at the Haven Hotel, Shrewsbury, after a hard drinking evening, but he rallied sufficiently to return to Rugeley late on the Thursday evening, with his anxious friend and medical adviser, William Palmer. The following Saturday he became very ill; on the Tuesday he died. When Cook's stepfather, Mr. Stevens, arrived at Rugeley, Palmer's behaviour, coupled with what he already knew of his character, increased Mr. Stevens’s aversion and suspicion so much that he insisted o t having a p t-mortem examination of his stepson’s body, expressing himself as dissatisfied with the cause of death. The examination resulted in the discovery of strychnine in the organs, and popular feeli g against Palmer ran so high that the bodies of his wife and brother were exhumed and subjected to exhaustive tests for poison. Anne Palmer’s corpse showed abundant proofs of strj r chnine poisoning; that of Walter—none, but the evidence against Palmer was already d, nning—he was foredoomed. His trial is one of the most notable in the history of poisoning. The Prince Consort took great interest in the proceedings, and names famous in society, literature, medicine and la 7 were represented at the Central Criminal Court, when, after an absence of an hour and a-quarter, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. On the night of Tuesday, May 27, 1556. William Palmer, heavily handcuffed and chained by the ankles, was brought from London to Stafford Gaol. He made no confession during the short time which remained to him, and his iron composure was unchanged even on the morning of his execution. Blowing some bubbles off the surface of a glass of wine offered him before being pinioned, William Palmer said, with a smile; “They always give me indigestion.” The real estimate of William Palmer’s character may be arrived at in the words of a contemporary writer: “He could not have been worse than he was.”