On 24 October 1890 a policeman found the corpse of a woman in Crossfield Road, Hampstead. The head had been almost severed. Nearby was a bloodstained pram. Clara Hogg, Frank's sister, had been summoned to the mortuary to identify the body and she asked Mary to accompany her. At the mortuary Mary drew attention to herself by her hysterical behaviour when she viewed the body.
On the next day the body of an 18-month-old baby was discovered on waste ground near Finchley Road, a mile away from Crossfield Road. This time suffocation had been the cause of death. It was identified as being Phoebe Hannalope, the Hogg's daughter.
Frank and Mary had not been as discreet as they should have been and as soon as the police found out about the affair they were suspicious. They searched Mary's house and in the kitchen found obvious signs of violence with broken furniture and glass. The room was covered with bloodstains. While the police officers searched the house Mary, seemingly unconcerned, sat and played the piano and sang loudly. Officers discovered an axe, two bloody knives and bloodstained clothing, as well as a number of love letters between the pair.
Mary hoped to explain away the blood by saying that she had been killing mice but obviously this was not believed. The police questioned the neighbours who recalled seeing Mary wheeling a pram away from the house on the evening of the 24 and had heard screams coming from the house.
Once the case was pieced together it became apparent that the child had been placed in the pram, with only minor injuries. They had then placed her mother's body on top. It was the weight of her mother's corpse that had suffocated the baby.
At her trial at the Old Bailey in December 1890, Mary's defence was one of insanity, but it failed and she was sentenced to death. She was hanged on 23 December 1980 at Newgate Prison by James Berry a little over 10 years after her own father Thomas Wheeler had been hanged for murder.
Anne agreed and they set about trying to poison him using an old recipe of ground, roast spiders which they put in James' beer. This did not have the required effect and the pair graduated to arsenic. This was a much more effective solution and James died a painful death.
When examined by a doctor he was able to determine that the man had been poisoned and the pair were arrested. Anne was questioned and soon confessed implicating Sarah. On 14th August 1752 the two women were executed. Sarah was hanged and 21-year-old Anne was strangled and burnt at the stake.
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Gregg Manning