Florence Maybrick

[Erato]

About 3 years before the Borden murders, Florence Maybrick was convicted of killing her husband with arsenic in Liverpool. The trial received considerable press coverage in the United States because Mrs. Maybrick was an American. Does anyone know if the Maybrick case was reported in the Fall River newspapers? If Lizzie was aware of the case, the discovery of arsenic in James Maybrick’s body and the conviction of Mrs. Maybrick might have influenced her choice of cyanide rather than arsenic when she made her attempt to purchase poison.

[Lizthemadcow]

My guess is it probably was, as it was a pretty sensational case. I would like to point out that Florence had far from a fair trial, and that James was a known arsenic and cyannide addict. I've been studying him because he's a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, another that I am obsessed with. Florence, although given the death penalty, (which was later revoked) got out after fifteen years in prison to live out the rest of her life. I feel sorry for the poor woman. I believe she was innocent. Many people in the late 1800's were addicted to what we now consider to be poisin, and arsenic was often used as an aphrodesiac. I think that it is highly probable James accidently killed himself.

[Kat]

I happen to have a little news item from The Times of New Jersey dated 10-12-1892 which carries a short column on the Globe apology over the Trickey-McHenry affair, and next item below that is an item on Mrs. Maybrick, out of Washington, D.C.

In Mrs. Maybrick's case, there was supposedly a deathbed confession by a man who claimed to have administered the poison, and the Secretary of State remarked, if it was true, the "English officials" should bring up Mrs. Maybrick's case again - even possibly discharge her.

There they are in the same column, same paper- tho October after the Borden murders.
Pretty interesting.