SDSDSVDSVSROB GANDYinvestigatesa
famous Liverpool crime.Wwhenyou step
out of Liverpool’s
Lime Street
stationyou ar e
greetedby the
sight of the majestic,Parthenon-
like St George’s Hall. Opened in
1854, itwas built to accommodate
the local triennialmusic festivals,
meetings, dinners and concerts.
At either endwere the city’s main
law courts; onefor criminal cases
and onefor civil cases.Theyhave
not been usedfor these purposes
since the opening of the Queen
Elizabeth II Law Courts in 1984,
although they host film and
television courtroom dramas,
often doublingfor the Old Bailey.
Arguably the mostfamous case
tried in St George’s Hallwas that
of Florence Maybrick in 1889, who
was accused ofmurdering her
husband,James Maybrick – with
flypaper. Florence Chandlerwas
a 17-year-old American when
she met cotton-broker Maybrick,
23 years her senior, in 1880;
they married thefollowingyear.
Subsequently, Maybrick hada
mistress in London, where he
frequently travelled on business,
and the deterioration of their
relationship accelerated when
Florence met another man in
Liverpool; upon discovering her
relationship, Maybrick assaulted
her and announced his intention
to seek divorc e.
Florencewas accused of
purchasing 12 dozen flypapers,
soaking them to obtain arsenic
from them, and then poisoning
Maybrick. His health had
deterioratedrapidly before
his death and the post-mortem
detected the presence of arsenic
in his system. Florence denied
murder, claiming that she had
extracted the arsenicfor her
complexion. Before modern-
day readers think that this isa
totally bonkers defence it should
be pointed out that in the 19thcentury flypaperwas not sticky,
but was soaked inwater with
a little sugar added to attract
flies.^1 Also, toxinswere regularly
prescribed in small dosesfor
medicinal and cosmetic purposes,
partly because theywere thought
to be invigorating.Opiateswere
not illegal. In 1883, a senior doctor
said that “if a lawwere passed,
compelling physicians to confine
themselves to tworemedies only
in their entire practice, arsenic
would bemy choicefor one, opium
for the other”.^2
James Maybrick’s health
was not good. He had always
been ahypochondriac, and
increasingly self-medicated with
an array of patent medicines;
many of his preferred tonics
contained strychnine, belladonna,
phosphoric acid or arsenic, and
he purchased the latter ona
regular basis.^3 Doctors prescribed
further quantities of poison,
such as a supposed digestive
aid containing prussic acid
(hydrogen cyanide).Therefore,
it was perhaps unsurprising that
these substances took their toll
on him and that when he died, in
the spring of 1889, arsenicwas
found in his system.The cause
of deathwas unclear, but when
a nursemaid surreptitiously
opened one of Florence’s letters
to her lover, the family and some
domestic staff suspected a motive
for murder.
Florence stood trial inJuly1889 underJudge James
Fitzjames Stephen, an arrogant
man whowas starting to show
signs of the mental illness that
would soon end his career. Despite
a strong defence – arguing that
the confusing and contradictory
medicalevidence made it clear
that the low levels of arsenic
found in Maybrick’s body could
not be confidently demonstrated
to have caused his death–
Stephen gave a summing-up
bitterly hostile to Florence.This
focused upon her infidelityrather
than whether or not she had killed
her husband.The jury of local
businessmenwas not persuaded
by the defence’srational
arguments, andfound Florence
guilty. She was sentenced to hang.
There was a public outcry at
the perceived miscarriage of
justice and the Home Officewas
petitioned,resulting in the death
sentence being commuted to
life imprisonment; Florencewas
finallyreleased inJanuary 1904,
having spent 14years in custody.
Always protesting her innocence,
she returned to America where
she wrote her life story. She died
in 1941, a destituterecluse with
only her catsfor company.
Ripperologists will have taken
note of the names of some of the
above players. Justice Stephen
was thefather ofJamesKenneth
Stephen, poet and tutor to Prince
AlbertVictor, eldest son of Albert
Edward, Prince ofWales – oneof the manyJack the Ripper
suspects.Allegedly, he committed
the murders “out of a twisted
desirefor reve nge” because of
the break-up of his homosexual
relationship with Prince Eddy,^4
and his psychological profile
apparently matched that of the
Ripper.^5
Of course, themurder victim
himself –James Maybrick – is
one of the biggest suspects. Itwas
his diary, which surfaced in 1992,
which has led to claims that he
was Jack the Ripper [FT76:61;
FT77:11].The diary’s author
was anonymous, but therewere
enough hints andreferences
consistent with Maybrick’s
established life and habits to
suggest that hewas Jack. Whether
or not the diarieswere forg eries
is still debated.^6 Interestingly,
the Whitechapelmurders took
place from lateAugust to early
November 1888, and itwas in
early 1889 that Maybrick took
seriously ill; therewere no further
Rippermurders after his death.
Irrespective of the merits of
the cases against Stephen and
Maybrick, it is notable that the
Flypaper Murder trial involved
the father of oneJack The Ripper
suspect as the judge and another
suspect as the victim.REFERENCES
1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
magazine-34464509
2 http://www.theguardian.com/
books/2014/feb/25/d id-she-kill-him-
kate-colquhoun-review
3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/
localhistory/journey/lime_street/
georges_hall/courts.shtml
4 Michael Harrison,Clarence: The
life of HRH the Duke of Clarence and
Avondale, WH Allen, 1972.
5 David Abrahamsen,Murder and
Madness: The Secret Life of Jack the
Ripper, Donald I Fine, 1992.
6 http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/james-
maybrick.htm2 ROB GANDYis a visiting
professor at the Liverpool Business
School, John Moores University,
and a regular contributor to FT.The Flypaper MurderFT 383 57SENDFORUM SUBMISSIONSTO:THE EDITOR,FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602,LONDON E17 0QD, UK,[email protected]FORUM
ABOVE: Florence Maybrick and her alleged victim, her husband James Maybrick.