Doctor Poison

Jan Bondeson

Description

One of the most notorious Victorian murders was committed by Dr George Henry Lamson, who stood trial in 1882 for poisoning his crippled brother-in-law Percy Malcolm John; he was found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed. This book is the first full-length account of the Lamson case since the relevant 'Notable British Trials' volume appeared back in 1912. Using contemporary newspapers, the police and Home Office files at the National Archives, and various other archival sources, it describes Lamson's adolescence in a distinguished New York family, his successful medical studies in Paris and Edinburgh, and his valiant wartime service as a military surgeon in Serbia and Romania. Things then went rapidly downhill: he failed to establish himself as a general practitioner in Bournemouth, and descended into a maelstrom of drug addiction and moral irresponsibility, ending up a cruel, calculating murderer for the sake of profit. New light will be shed on Lamson's motive for the murder, and on his choice of poison; arguments will be presented that the murder of Percy Malcolm John was not the first attempt on the life of this hapless youth by the murderous doctor; nor was he the first victim of this cunning and subtle Victorian poisoner par excellence.

Sujets

• True crime

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781800466579
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Jan Bondeson is a retired senior lecturer and consultant physician at Cardiff University, and a distinguished true crime author; his previous critically acclaimed books include The London Monster , Murder Houses of London , Rivals of the Ripper and Victorian Murders .

Copyright © 2021 Jan Bondeson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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CONTENTS PREFACE I. THE FAMILY AND EARLY CAREER OF GEORGE HENRY LAMSON II. AMERICA AND WARTIME SERVICE III. ROTHERFIELD AND BOURNEMOUTH IV. AMERICA, SHANKLIN AND LONDON V. THE HOUR OF DEATH VI. DR LAMSON AT BAY VII. DR LAMSON AT BOW STREET VIII. THE TRIAL OF GEORGE HENRY LAMSON IX. RESPITE AND AFFIDAVITS X. THE END XI. SOME REMAINING MYSTERIES XII. THE CURSE OF THE LAMSONS XIII. SUCH DEADLY DOCTORS XIV CONCLUDING REMARKS FOOTNOTES
PREFACE
In April 2001, my mother came from Sweden to visit me, and since I had recently moved from a flat in London to a large house in South Wales, I was able to present her with a good deal of entertainment. Since she had a strong fondness for historical monuments, we drove to see the castles of Caerphilly, Chepstow, Raglan, Kidwelly and Carreg Cennen. One day, we went for an expedition to Hay-on-Wye, the world-famous Town of Books, travelling on the old mountain road from Llanwihangel Crucorney via Capel-y-ffin, stopping at ancient Llanthony Abbey on the way. This old road was not much used, and coming through a bend in my TVR sports car, I was dismayed to see a large yellow dog sleeping peacefully on the tarmac just in front of us! When I braked hard and sounded the horn, the Welsh cur took a leap to safety, barking angrily at being disturbed in his slumber.
After admiring the glorious mountain views and descending on the other side of the summit, we arrived safely in Hay-on-Wye. Being a vigorous book collector, I lost no time before searching some of the bookshops, and just before luncheon, I found a copy of Hargrave Lee Adam’s Trial of George Henry Lamson . Although the book was in an unattractive library binding, ex Berkshire County Libraries HQ Reserve Stock, I purchased it since it cost just £2.95, and since it was one of my ambitions in life to accumulate a complete set of the Notable British Trials, all 83 volumes of them. During luncheon, I read some of Mr Adam’s introduction, finding it most hilarious that the murderous doctor had greeted his victim with the ludicrous words “Why, how fat you are looking, Percy, old boy!” before going on to entice the hapless lad to his death by exclaiming “Here, Percy, you are a swell pill-taker; take this, and show Mr Bedbrook how easily it may be swallowed!”
For many years to come, Hargrave Lee Adam’s Trial of George Henry Lamson stood among my other Notable British Trials, unconsulted after the initial reading back in 2001. I eventually managed to complete my collection of these agreeable books, but by that time I no longer had a mother, since she had died at an advanced age in 2009. In 2014, I decided to complete a project that had been ongoing since 2010, namely to compile two books based on a collection of old images from the Illustrated Police News and other Victorian periodicals, held by an old man in Cardiff whom I had befriended: one book ( Strange Victoriana ; Amberley Publishing 2016) about Forteana and strange events, the other ( Victorian Murders ; Amberley Publishing 2017) about Victorian murder stories. One of the cases covered in the second book was that of the celebrated medical miscreant Dr George Henry Lamson, and while making some researches, I was astounded to see how much new material came to light with regard to Lamson’s previous life, his motive, and the completion of his heinous deeds. When I discussed this book with my old friend, the late Richard Whittington-Egan, he asked whether I had been able to unearth important new evidence in any of the cases included. My response was that although I had been able to shed some much-needed new light on the unsolved murders of Mrs Ann Reville in Slough and Mrs Sarah Dinah Noel in Ramsgate, the case of Dr Lamson stood out with regard to the amount of novel information being accumulated. He then said that a short book on the Lamson case would not come amiss, and the very same evening, I added it to my list of potential book projects. 1 After three years of research and writing, it has passed from the nebulous world of purported book projects to the solid wooden shelf of published books waiting to be sold; I wish it many readers.
I.
THE FAMILY AND EARLY CAREER OF GEORGE HENRY LAMSON
William Lamson, the earliest ancestor of the Lamson family in the United States, emigrated from England to America in 1634, and became a freeman and farmer in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He was a man of some standing in the local community, and was elected supervisor of the swine and cattle let out on the common; he had authority to seize stray animals and impound them until their owner had paid a fine. He was also elected inspector of fences and permitted to fell 300 trees to make some improvements to the enclosures. He was part of the local militia, trained to protect the settlement and fight hostile Indian tribes. William Lamson married Sarah Ayers, fathering four sons and four daughters. He died in 1658 or 1659. His eldest son John Lamson, born in 1642, also became a prosperous farmer in Ipswich. He married Martha Perkins and fathered many children, seven of whom reached adulthood. In his will, he partitioned a considerable estate among his four sons and three surviving daughters. Since he could not read or write, he made his mark on the will in lieu of a proper signature.
William Lamson, the eldest son of John Lamson, was born in 1675. He took over the Lamson farm in Ipswich, his homestead being next to that of his brother, Ensign Samuel Lamson. A prosperous farmer, he allowed his sons Benjamin, Thomas and Jonathan to build houses of their own on his land. His eldest son William, born in 1708, had left Ipswich as a young man, to become a tailor in Exeter, New Hampshire. He married Joanna Tuttle and had three sons and two daughters. The second son Gideon Lamson, born in 1748, also lived in Exeter, being something of a jack of all trades, working as a tailor, a merchant, and a trader. He was well thought of locally, and was made a Selectman of Exeter in 1786, and a Coroner of Rockingham County in 1790. He had two sons, both of whom he survived: George, born in 1794 and John, born in 1798 and dead in 1824. George Lamson had a more distinguished career than any of his forebears. A graduate of Bowdoin College, he afterwards studied law, with considerable success. In 1817, George married Lucretia Bourne Orne, who may well have come from a wealthy family; in 1823, they moved to New York City, where he set up practice as a lawyer.

1. The Lamson pedigree.
George and Lucretia Lamson had five children: the daughter Lucretia who died young, the daughter Caroline Orne, born in 1823, the son William Orne, born in 1824, the son Edward Orne, born in 1827, and the son George Henry, whose year of birth is not recorded. It must have been quite a blow to this large family when George Lamson died unexpectedly in 1826, at the age of just 32. His widow Lucretia looked after the four surviving children as well as she could, and remained in New York City, being recorded to be living at No. 31 Fourth Street in 1841. The daughter Caroline Orne married a man named McGregor and had four children of her own. The son Edward Orne married but did not have issue. The son George Henry lived in China for a while and knew Napoleon III of France; he died in New York City in 1857, unmarried and without issue. 1
*
The son William Orne Lamson, grandson of Gideon Lamson and a member of the seventh generation of Lamsons in the United States, shared his father’s talent for an academic education. He studied at New York University, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1849 and as a Master of Arts in 1852. In March 1851, he was ordained to the deaconate, and in December 1852 to the priesthood, by Bishop Chase. In August 1851, he became Rector of St John’s Church in Stockport, New York, and in April 1852, Rector of the Church of the Ascension, South Brooklyn.
In 1850, William Orne Lamson married Julia Wood Schuyler, the daughter of the wealthy New York ‘railroad king’ and financier Robert Schuyler, and granddaughter of US Representative Philip Jeremiah Schuyler. It was clearly a very favourable marriage for the Rev. Mr Lamson, whose family would not be troubled by any financial worries for many years to come. They soon had two sons: George Henry, born on September 8 1852, and Robert Schuyler, born in 1854. The Rev. Mr Lamson took his work seriously, and he appears to have been a good clergyman, who had genuine religious feelings and a prominent sense of philanthropy, and who stayed away from telling untruths, embezzling money and molesting children. He was on the lookout for more stimulating work than what was offered by