Chapter XII: The Horsford Case

Towards the close of the year 1897, a widow, called Mrs. Holmes, was living with her three children at Stonely, near Kimbolton. She had a cousin named Walter Horsford, a well-to-do young farmer who occupied a farm at Spaldwick, about twelve miles away, and who frequently came to Stonely to visit her.

A romantic attachment eventually sprang up between them, which resulted in a too intimate acquaintance.

After a while Horsford’s affection began to wane, and in the end he married another lady. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Holmes left Stonely and took up her residence at St. Neots.

About December of the same year she wrote a letter to Horsford, informing him of her condition, a piece of news which appears to have greatly upset him, as he was in fear the information might reach his wife.

On December 28 he called at a chemist’s shop in Thrapstone, a neighbouring town, and asked for a shilling’s worth of strychnine, some prussic acid, arsenic, and carbolic acid, which he stated he required for poisoning rats. The chemist, to whom he was a stranger, requested him to bring a witness, which he did, and the chemist’s poison register was duly signed by Horsford and a man who introduced him. He took the poisons, which consisted of ninety grains of strychnine, one pound of arsenic, and some prussic acid and carbolic acid, away with him.

About a week afterwards Mrs. Holmes received a letter from Horsford. It was taken in by her daughter, who recognized his handwriting, and the envelope is also supposed to have contained two packets of strychnine.

On the evening of January 7, 1898, Mrs. Holmes retired to bed, apparently in her usual health, about half-past nine. The only other persons in the house were her daughter Annie, her son Percy, and her infant. The daughter noticed that her mother took a glass of water upstairs with her, which was an unusual circumstance. On going to her mother’s bedroom shortly afterwards, she found her suffering great pain, and she saw the glass, now almost empty, standing on a chest of drawers.

Percy Holmes ran out and called in the assistance of some neighbours, and then went for a doctor. When medical aid arrived, the unfortunate woman was in convulsions and died shortly afterwards.

The day after her death the police searched the house, but failed to find any trace of poison, and an inquest was held on January 8, which Horsford was summoned to attend.

In his evidence before the coroner, he swore that he had neither written to nor seen the deceased woman. The medical evidence proved that death was caused by strychnine.

The inquest was adjourned for a week, and in the meanwhile Mrs. Holmes was buried. From information received by the police, a further search was made in the house, with the result that two packets were discovered under the feather bed in Mrs. Holmes’s bedroom. One packet of buff-coloured paper was found to contain about thirty-three grains of strychnine in powder, on which was written the words, “One dose. Take as told,” in Horsford’s handwriting. On the second packet, the contents of which had been used, was written, “Take in a little water. ’Tis quite harmless. Will come in a day or two.” This was also in Horsford’s writing. A letter was also found downstairs, presumably from Horsford, saying he would come over on Friday to make arrangements, and that he did not wish to write any more letters, as he did not want his wife to know.

On January 10 Walter Horsford was arrested on the charge of perjury committed at the inquest, and it was resolved to have another examination made of the body of the deceased woman. On examination of further documents and letters discovered by the police, the charge of wilful murder was added to corrupt perjury against Horsford, and he was committed for trial.

The trial began on June 2, 1898, at Huntingdon, before Mr. Justice Hawkins, and lasted five days.

Evidence was given by Dr. Stevenson, scientific analyst to the Home Office, who stated that he had received and analysed the contents of the stomach of the deceased woman. He extracted 1·31 grains of strychnine, which was a dose fatal to an adult. He detected no other poison. The buff-coloured paper marked “One dose. Take as told,” contained 33¾ grains of strychnine, and the other paper which presented the appearance of having had the powder shaken out, had a few minute crystals of strychnine adhering. In each case it was the pure alkaloid.

On January 26 he made an examination of the exhumed body of Mrs. Holmes. The fingers and lower limbs were rigid. This was an unusual condition nineteen days after death. He had observed one case like it before, and that was the case of Matilda Clover, who was poisoned by Neill Cream. He removed the brain, spinal cord, heart, lungs, spleen and both kidneys and found strychnine in all the organs analysed. There was no appearance of disease in the vital organs. There could not have been less than 7 grains taken, more likely 10 or 12 grains. 1·31 grain would be an absolutely fatal dose for an average adult. In cases of strychnine poisoning, death occurs about half an hour after the beginning of the symptoms, and they come on about twenty minutes after the poison has been taken. Six hours is the extreme limit. The mind of a person suffering from strychnine poisoning would be very apprehensive of death. Death was caused in one of two ways—suffocation, by the muscles of the chest becoming fixed, or after a spasm of exhaustion. He could imagine no more terrible death.

He had examined some Dover’s Powder found in the workbox of Mrs. Holmes, but found no trace of strychnine.

He further stated that if strychnine were poured off a paper he would expect to find a few crystals adhering to the surface of the paper. If a person took strychnine in water the greater part would go down to the bottom of the glass as sediment. What was drunk would be the portion floating on the top.

Mr. Anderson, the medical practitioner called in to attend Mrs. Holmes, described her condition when he saw her. His opinion was that she was suffering from tetanus caused by strychnine poisoning. The convulsions were of a tetanic character and the spasms succeeded each other in rapid succession.

A specialist in handwriting was then called, who said that having compared the letter from Horsford in which he spoke about the “arrangements” with the two papers marked “Take in a little water. ’Tis quite harmless” and “One dose, take as told,” he came to the conclusion they were in the same handwriting, and in his opinion the handwriting was natural and there had been no attempts to disguise it.

Mr. Wild, for the defence, said there was no proof that the prisoner administered the poison and there was no motive for the crime. What evidence was there that the prisoner ever sent poison to the deceased? Everything in the case, he contended, depended upon the handwriting, and he urged that some of the handwriting produced as that of the prisoner was utterly unreliable.

The judge, in summing up, told the jury that if anyone wilfully caused another to take a deadly poison, whether intending to kill or not, and death resulted thereby, it was murder.

The question of handwriting was of vital importance, and it had not been shown that there was any single other soul in the neighbourhood who was interested in the deceased woman’s death, or who wrote in a hand like that of the prisoner. He enjoined them to remember these things and to deal with the case according to the evidence, and return the verdict which the evidence compelled them.

The jury returned at 1.20 p.m., after deliberating for twenty minutes, with a verdict of “Guilty,” and sentence of death was passed.

Horsford was hanged at Cambridge Gaol on June 28, 1898, and before he died made a full confession of his crime.