Murder by Poison!! The Trial at large of E. W. for the wilful murder of R. Sparkes, etc (1815)
The 49 year old farmer’s widow, mother to eight children, owed her husband’s aged uncle some money. The last two times she sent him cake, he had become ill. Or so he testified. In July, Elizabeth sent her daughter Amy off with a basket full of cake, pie, and veal to the uncle. An unsuspecting housekeeper sent the cake home with her son in law for her grandchildren. A six year old boy fell very ill and passed away.
The local druggist later testified he had sold Elizabeth arsenic on four separate occasions over the last year, and the surgeon had analyzed the cake and found traces of arsenic. It did not take long for the facts to implicate Elizabeth.
She was tried and later hung at Turnkey’s Lodge in Ipswich (Elizabeth Woolterton (capitalpunishmentuk.org)).
Like many of the more salacious murders of the era, there was a published account of her trial (snipped above).
19th Century Arsenic Detection
