CASEBOOK:CASEBOOK: CLASSICCLASSIC CRIMECRIME ISSUEISSUE 22 SEPTEMBERSEPTEMBER 20152015 THETHE FAIRFAIR SEXSEX -- FAIRFAIR GAMEGAME Robin Odell WILLIAMWILLIAM WALLACE:WALLACE: MURDERERMURDERER James Murphy THETHE MURDERSMURDERS ATAT 1010 RILLINGTONRILLINGTON PLACEPLACE Jonathan Oates THETHE STORYSTORY OFOF GEORGEGEORGE JOSEPHJOSEPH SMITHSMITH Ben Johnson MURDERABILIAMURDERABILIA –– AA DYINGDYING TRADE?TRADE? Frogg Moody www.whitechapelsociety.com page 1 www.whitechapelsociety.com CASEBOOK: CLASSIC CRIME 2015 www.timezonepublishing.com EDITOR/GRAPHICS Frogg Moody SUB EDITOR/GRAPHICS Alex King Outside of a war zone you are EDITOR AT LARGE more likely to be murdered by Ben Johnson your partner than anyone else. So for the issue 2 ‘end of Summer Special Edition’ of Casebook: Classic Crime we examine ‘How to Murder Your Wife’. We dig up the remains of different attempts both old and new, for you to share with your loved ones ... ow to murder your wife? eyes at a drunken party, in a For many men involved in ‘shoot the apple on the head acrimonious divorce cases stunt gone wrong’. Hthe idea is very attractive - more attractive We plunge into our end of summer than the wife, and of course this special with the ‘Brides in the emotion is often reciprocated by Bath murders’ by Ben Johnson. the significant other: The mother Many men felt the one wife is of a friend was talking about her more than enough, but these divorce when she mentioned brides sink beneath the uncertain casually “I fantasized about waters of marriage with an slipping Laburnum seeds into his rapidity that could surely not sandwich, I would never have have been accidental? actually done it, but I thought about it...often.” If you can’t make it look like An accident, you have a problem Poison may be the woman’s weapon of what to do with the body. of choice, but to really avoid Without a body it is very detection the act should look difficult to prove that a murder like an accident. For the writer has taken place. Therefore, William Borroughs, this was Efficient disposal of the victim shooting his wife between the is of prime importance. www.whitechapelsociety.com page 2 www.whitechapelsociety.com The Journal of The Whitechapel Society. August 2009 Mary Ann Cotton could never A conviction can rest wholly on keep a husband for long, could the pathologist’s ability to it have been something to do identify the remains and the more with her cooking? imaginative the approach, the more likely it is to avoid detection. This wasn’t the situation in The wife of Dr.Crippen was found the kitchen of 10 Rillingtom de-boned and we talk to Lindsay Place where Ethel, wife of Siviter about the case and her Reg Christie, turned out a collection of Crippen artifacts. super shepherds pie. But as author Jonathan Oates tells Despite their best attempts, us, this couldn’t prevent her Husband’s often give detectives husband murdering her and the evidence they need. A map putting the remains under the with X marking the spot where floorboards. detectives would find the body was found in one husbands car. George Chapman was also fond A Cisco engineer was found to have of poison and as author a Google map search from the day Helena Wojtczak tells us, before the murder on his Chapman took great satisfaction computer - zoomed in to the exact in slow poisoning three women location of the crime and claiming ――― with tartar emetic, which that National Security would be contains antimony. breached by admitting this as evidence did not help the case. But as we mentioned, when it comes to murder, poison is Murderers often ‘live in the usually the choice of the Moment’, a NYC man beat his fairer sex and that reminds me wife to death for serving a of an old joke. Shopping in a vegetarian dinner. His defence supermarket a woman opened a that beating his wife was bottle of cleaning fluid, took ‘customary in Pakistan’ so a sniff and recoiled at the the sentence should be reduced smell. A passing assistant to manslaughter did not succeed. came to her assistance. Author James Murphy sifts through the evidence of the Wallace case. “““You should try this one perhaps” Did Wallace murder his wife or as he said “ it’s completely a chess player, was he convinced odourless.” that he would always be one move ahead of those trying to catch “““Wonderful! That’s just what him? I’m after” she said “the question is, will he be able to taste it?” Wives with knives kill husbands quite often and make up 40% of However, before you start spousal murders. This commitment planning the disposal of ‘your to getting rid of the husband other half’ we would like to might give you ’ the willies’ and point out that murdering your what husband can forget John significant other is invariably Bobbitt and his wife taking a a bad idea. If contemplating knife into the marital bed - this and you are not already a although a woman’s weapon of doctor, we would urge you to choice is usually poison. seek medical help. www.whitechapelsociety.com page 3 www.whitechapelsociety.com HE ENTRAL EWS GENCY T C N A THE FAIR SEX ––– FAIR GAME? by Robin Odell www.whitechapelsociety.com page 4 www.whitechapelsociety.com he Twenty-FirstTHE CenturyC ENTRAL has seen an N he mightEWS have A gotGENCY away with one such killing, his mistake upsurge in both levels and frequency was to repeat the exercise. of violent attacks made on women by Smith married a clergyman’s daughter in December 1914 their consorts, husbands and partners. and took out a life insurance policy on her behalf. The Every week the media feature stories couple moved to London and, following his earlier practice, with gruesome headlines about insisted that his wife made an appointment to see a doctor. demonic killings, ritual murders, This was part of his scheme whereby he planted the seed beheadings, stabbings, shootings, that she was prone to bouts of dizziness. bludgeoning and poisoning. For the perpetrators, no reason On 18 December, the landlady at their lodgings heard Tseems too trivial or too bizarre. Wife murder is not a new splashing noises coming from the bathroom, accompanied phenomenon, it is the intensity and barbarity involved by sounds of Mr Smith playing his harmonica. Mrs Smith which makes these crimes in today’s world seem ever more was later found dead in the bath, supposedly drowned after bestial. a fit of giddiness. No doubt to the satisfaction of her Of course, there is traffic in the other direction – that is husband, a verdict was given of death by misadventure. wives murdering husbands or partners – but it pales into The similarity of the third Mrs Smith’s death with those insignificance compared with men killing members of the of her two predecessors was noted and her husband was fair sex. The perverted reasoning, arrogance and self arrested. In due course, he was tried for murder when, in aggrandisement of the macho male and his expectation of an historic moment in court, the pathologist, Dr Bernard committing the perfect crime and the self glorification that Spilsbury, pointed out that the bath was too small to permit goes with it, seems to recognise no bounds. accidental drowning. His reconstruction was that Smith The annals of true crime contain many accounts involving lifted up his wife’s body by the knees while pressing her the murder of unwanted and disaffected wives, mistresses head down beneath the water. The harmonica player was and spouses by their husbands and lovers. There are some found guilty of murder and suffered the ultimate penalty. striking similarities in the methods used and explanations Smith had demonstrated how the bath might be used as a given, while all manner of ploys are adopted to dress up tool for procuring death in circumstances which appeared murder to look like accident, suicide or death from natural to be untainted by criminal intentions. After all, he had causes. got away with it in on two previous occasions. His One of the greatest challenges confronting the murderer is methodology attracted numerous followers who sought to disposal of his victim’s body. At great inconvenience, emulate his cunning plan. this can be achieved by dismemberment, secret burial or disposal in a watery grave. But there is always the danger Thus, in 1957, Kenneth Barlow used his medical that the corpse will resurface or be discovered, providing knowledge as a male nurse to secure his wife’s demise. He a forensic trail leading back to the murderer. Far more called a doctor to the house where they lived explaining effective is to contrive a method whereby the nature of that his wife had complained of feeling unwell prior to death is disguised and the body becomes less of a problem. taking a bath. He said that when he checked up on her he A time-honoured method is the use of a household bathtub found her submerged beneath the water. He tried artificial to drown the victim in circumstances contrived to give the respiration but failed to revive her. He realised, he said, that appearance of death by misadventure. Accompanied by she had drowned. pre-emptive suggestions of ill-health, this can provide an There were no marks of violence on the body but the effective smokescreen. Such a modus operandi was examining doctor was astute enough to note that the eyes adopted by George Joseph Smith, the infamous “Brides in of the dead woman were widely dilated – an indication the Bath Murderer”, and followed by others since.