Antimony
The facts about Antimony
Antimony has been used in a number of prominent murder cases as in the
case of George Chapman where he
used it to murder several people. He might even have got away with it but
like most multiple murderers, he did not know when to stop. The symptoms
of Antimony poisoning begin with abdominal pains and a general feeling
of being unwell and then vomiting starts. The victim quickly deteriorates
until death. Just like arsenic it remains in the body long after death
so even though a body is exhumed several years later traces can still be
detected.
Another case in which Antimony was used was by Dr
William Palmer to dispatch a friend in order to steal his money. Palmer
was an addicted gambler who was not very good at winning. In fact he had
been losing one thing or another for most of his life.
To satisfy his ever growing need for money be murdered his mother-in-law,
so that her fortune would pass on to his wife. This bought him a little
time but he soon fell back into debt. Having realised an effective way
of obtaining money he methodically murdered members of his family including
his wife who had been insured for £13,000, four of his legitimate
children, several of his illegitimate offspring, his brother, an uncle
and several of his more persistent creditors.
In November 1855 he visited Shrewsbury Races with his friend John Parsons
Cook, another gambler, but one who had much more success than Palmer.
At the race meeting, Palmer
as usual lost all his bets while Cook won a considerable amount of money.
After the meeting they all went to the Talbot Arms Hotel, Rugeley, to celebrate
Cook's success. At the party Cook became ill and Palmer
offered to collect the man's winnings. Once he had got his hands on the
money Palmer used it to pay
off his own debts.
Cook was treated by Palmer during his illness and, on 21 November,
he died. John Cook's step-father was not willing to accept that a healthy
man could become ill and die so suddenly that he demanded a post-mortem.
An examination showed that the man had been poisoned with antimony and
Palmerwas immediately arrested.
There was a considerable amount of bad feeling towards Palmer
and so it was decided that in order to get a fair trial the case should
be heard out of county. In May 1856 Palmer was tried at the Old Bailey.
He was duly found guilty and was hanged outside Stafford Gaol on 14 June
1856 by George Smith in front of
a large crowd. He was suspected of being responsible for fourteen murders.
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For more information contact:
Gregg Manning