John Donellan

Cyanide has been used by many murderers to dispatch their victims. One such case was John Donellan who used this form of poison to murder his wifes brother. As was the custom in the 1700's the male would always inherit the estate, but of course if he died then the estate would go to Donellan's wife.

Theodosius was required to take medicine each morning, a 'purging draught for Sir Theodosius Boughton' as the label put it. After he had forgotten to take the medicine one morning he was persuaded by Donellan to leave the bottle on a shelf outside his room so that he would see it when he came out each morning.

On Monday 26th February 1781 Sir Theodosius retired shortly after 9pm and requested his mother to call him the next morning and give him his medicine. At about seven the next morning she went to his room and gave him his medicine. They both remarked on the strong, nauseous smell of the medicine, like bitter almonds, this was a characteristic of Cyanide. Within two minutes Sir Theodosius 'struggled very much. He made a prodigious rattling in his stomach, and guggling.' This lasted about ten minutes before he appeared to sleep. As he seemed to be calmer his mother left him alone for five minutes. When she returned she found him with eyes fixed upwards, teeth clenched and foam running from his mouth. She sent a servant to fetch Donellan.

When he arrived he was informed of the situation and that it was unlikely that Sir Theodosius would live. He took both the medicine bottles that had been standing on the shelf and washed them out. When she told him that he should not have touched anything he replied that he was merely doing it so that he could taste them. He ordered one of the servants to remove the bottles and the basin in which they been washed. Lady Boughton countermanded the order but, when her back was turned, Donellan again told the servant to dispose of the bottles, which she did.

Dr Rattray, of Coventry, carried out a post-mortem and concluded that death was consistent with poisoning. Donellan was arrested and lodged in Warwick Gaol. At his trial Lady Boughton identified the smell of the medicine as being consistent with that of a distillation of laurel-leaves, now called cyanide. Donellan's defence consisted of a flat denial of anything to do with the death but jury did not believe him and found him guilty.

At 7am the following day, 2nd April 1781, John Donellan was hanged in Warwick and his body was used for dissection.

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Gregg Manning