EXCERPT: Lizzie Berry left a trail of profitable bereavement behind her. Her husband, Thomas, had died in 1881; her son, Harold, in 1886; and her daughter, in 1887. She had drawn insurance benefits after each of these deaths. All were sudden deaths, and, at least in the last two, the victim, nursed by Berry, had been recovering when she was struck ill for the last time.
[Judith Knelman, Twisting in the Wind: The Murderess and the
English Press, 1998, University of Toronto Press, p. 81]
***
Quotes:
Mary Ann Berry, 11: “… her mother asking her to drink the
white liquid contents of a glass, and the little girl saying, ‘No, mamma, I
can’t.’” – and, later, as the child’s health worsened: “At the time the child
was vomiting the [mother] had a tumbler in her hand. [Mary Ann] said, ‘Oh,
mamma, I cannot drink it.’”
[“The Oldham murder. – Am Extraordinary Crime.” The South
Australian Weekly Chronicle (Aselaide, Australia), Apr. 16, 1887, p. 6]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Summer 1881 – Thomas Berry, husband, dies.
Autumn 1882 – Harold Barry, son, dies.
Jan. 4, 1886 – Edith Annie Berry (11), daughter, dies.
Jan. 23, 1886 – appointed nurse at Chesterfield workhouse.
Feb. 15, 1886 – Mary Ann Finley, mother, dies; Castleton. Body
exhumed.
Jan. 28, 1887 – charged with murder of Mary Ann Finley;
Oldham.
Feb. 2, 1887 – body of Mary Ann Finley exhumed. Mostyn
Cemetery.
Feb. 21, 1887 – trial begins for murder of Esther, 4 days;
Assize Court, St. George’s Hall, Liverpool.
Feb. 24, 1887 – convicted of murder of Emily; sentenced to
death.
Feb. 30, 1887 – inquest on death of Mary Ann Finley; Blue Pits
Inn, Castleton. Guilty verdict.
Mar. 14, 1887 – Elizabeth Berry (31), executed, hanging, Waltham
Gaol, Liverpool.
***
FULL TEXT: The county police authorities in Rochdale up to yesterday
evening had received no information from the Home Secretary as to prosecuting
Mrs. Elizabeth Berry on the charge of murdering, Mrs. Finley, her mother, at
the village of Castleton, and this goes to strengthen the published statement
that she will be executed on the 14th. Inst. There have been missing links in the
published career of Mrs. Berry, but some have now been supplied.
For instance, at the trial for poisoning her daughter, it
seemed incredible that she should have taken the life of her child for the
paltry sum for which it was insured, whereas the fact was she had insured it
for £100,
and in her haste compassed the child’s death before the insurance company had
completed the documents, and she was under the impression that the £100
would be due. Her boy was insured for £10, but her account of his death was
rather suspicious. She was in the habit of stating that her boy and girl and
Mrs. Finley, on their last visit to Blackpool, were lodged in damp sheets, and
that actually the evening they arrived the sheets, and that actually the
evening they arrived the sheets were hanging out on the clothes-line to dry.
Both children were ill and the boy died in about three days. Those who knew
Mrs. Berry’s husband very well at Miles Platting deny that he was a delicate
man whilst employed there as a railway official. In support of this statement
was the fact that he was passed by an insurance doctor as a thoroughly healthy subject,
and accordingly was insured.
He died somewhat suddenly about six years ago, and Mrs.
Berry drew from the insurance company about £60. To her friends she has stated
that £20 of this sum she paid for training as a nurse ion the Manchester
Infirmary, passed also the degrees of a midwife. Mrs. Finley’s second husband
is still alive. He was a cotton operative by trade, but he is still alive. He
was a cotton operative by trade, but he is now earning a livelihood as a
pedlar. His wife refused to live with him some years ago. The murderess was
fond of jewellery and outward display. All her effects now consist of valuable
jewellery, amongst the articles being gold watches and chains, rings, and
valuable dresses. She had only £59 in the bank when her trial began at
Liverpool, and that must have been expended in her defence.
[“The Oldham Poisoner. – Further Revelations.” The Leeds
Mercury (England), Mar. 5, 1887, p. 5]
***
FULL TEXT: At the Blue Pits Inn, Castleton, on Monday, Mr.
F. N. Molesworth, district coroner, resumed the inquiry into the circumstances
attending the death of Mary Ann Finley, mother pf Elizabeth Berry, who now lies
under sentence of death for the murder by poisoning of her daughter. It will be
remembered that Mr. Finley died on the 15th February, 1886, at 4,
Back Albion-street, Castleton. Mrs. Berry, her daughter, was staying with her
at the time, and after the revelations which were made in connection with the
death of Mrs. Barry’s child, the Home Secretary granted an order for the
exhumation of the body of Mrs. Finley, in order that full inquiry might be made
touching the suspicion that her demise had been brought about by foul means.
Mrs. George Shaw, clerk to the guardians of the Chesterfield
Union, deposed that Mrs. Barry was appointed as a nurse of the workhouse at
Chesterfield on the 23rd Jan., 1886, and entered upon her duties on the 1st
Feb. following. The next morning she left, owing, as she said, to the serious
condition of her mother. She told witness she was seriously ill. On the morning
of the 5th February he received a letter from her in the following terms: “Sir.
– My mother is sinking very fast, so that it will be impossible for me to leave
her of resignation of the office of nurse on the ground that “my mother is
dangerously ill, and it is impossible for me to leave her.”
Police-sergeant W. Kidd spoke to being present at the
post-mortem examination of the remains of Mrs. Finley, and receiving certain
portions, contained in sealed jars, for analysis. He gave them to Mr. Paul, of
Liverpool.
Mr. Paul, F. R. C. S., lecturer on medical jurisprudence,
University College, Liverpool, deposed to having analysed the portion of the body
submitted to them. The result of his analysis showed that no mineral poison was
present in the body, but he had extracted a substance from the stomach and
intestines which had the same effect upon animals as atropia, and which he
believed to be atroptia. He sought to say in explanation that this was a poison
that could not be tested like mineral poisons. The only efforts were the
effects that could be produced upon animals. It was a substance extracted from
deadly nightshade, and caused death through the nervous system.
Mr. W. H. Sharples, a surgeon practising at Castleton, gave
evidence as to attempting the deceased woman in her last illness. On the 27th
January, 1886, he was called to attend her. She had had a severe attack of
bleeding from the nose. He prescribed her, and she got to be able to go about
again. He saw the woman three days afterwards, and again on the 6th February. She
was then complaining of palpitation of the heart and sleeplessness. He continued
to attend the woman until her death. On the day she had a fit, and on the 9th
or 10th of February he saw her convulsed. Having heard the evidence of the last
witness and assisted in the post-mortem examination he was now of opinion that
the deceased woman did not die from “cerebral hemorrhage and coma,” as he had
certified at the time, but from poisoning by atropia. All the symptoms he saw
in her were consistent with the administration of that poison, except that only
once did he see any dilation of the pupils.
Dr. Paul was here recalled by
the coroner, and he stated thar Mr.
Sharples’ evidence respecting the symptoms of Mrs. Findley’s ailmernts were
consistent with poisoning by atropin. It wass a very slow process to discover
it in the decomposed matter supplled to him.
Dr. Harries, of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, stated that
he made a post-mortem examination of Mrs. Finley’s body at Morton Cemetery on
the 3rd inst. The body was very much decomposed; the hands very nearly
separated by maceration from the body. The abdominal cavity, however, was not
opened, and the walls were not destroyed. The body was that of a well-nourished
woman. The stomach had exceedingly thin walls, which were very fragile, and through
which there were one or two small apertures in the abdominal cavity. There was
nothing inside the stomach. In the abdominal cavity there was a small amount of
fat, he removed and forwarded to Dr. Paul. The various organs of the body were
not sufficiently diseased to account for death; but there were some diseases
which after such a length of time after burial would leave no evidence of their
presence. He had heard Dr. Paul’s and Mr. Sharples’ evidence, and he
corroborated Dr. Paul’s opinion that the symptoms were very suspicions of
atropia poisoning.
Sarah Pemberton stated that she resided at East View,
Burslem, Staffordshire, and was sister to Mrs. Finley. On the 11th of February,
1886, she received a telegram from Mrs. Berry stating that her sister was
dangerously ill, and that if she wanted to see her to come at once. She did so,
and found Mrs. Finley in bed, and attended by Mrs. Berry, who administered to
her medicine. The first night she stopped up with her sister all night, and
Mrs. Berry slept upstairs. On Friday evening Mrs. Berry went to Rochdale, and
was away about two hours, and offered her mother some jelly, who, upon tasting
it, pushed it away, saying, “Take it away; I don’t like that.” Mrs. Finley at
the time was cheerful and appeared to be recovering. Witness retired to bed
about twelve o’clock, and woke up about four or five o’clock next morning, when
Mrs. Berry called her down, saying there was a great change in her mother for
the worse. She found her on her back, clutching her hands, and was all of a
tremble. Her face was of a livid colour, as if the blood was all in her head. Witness
thought that she was in a fit. Her eyes were closed. On the Friday night Mrs.
Berry rubbed her mother’s eyes, and Mrs. Finley asked her what she was doing to
her eyes. The deceased’s eyes never suffered, nor did Mrs. Berry’s replied that
he had stated that there was a great deal of brain mischief at work. She then
asked Mrs. Berry her opinion, as she was a practiced nurse. Mrs. Berry replied
that she thought her mother was sinking fast, but witness at this time was of
opinion that her sister was much better.
Mr. Joseph Chadderton, manager to the Wesleyan General
Insurance Society, stated that Mrs. Finley was insured in his office for £100,
and the amount was not due to Mrs. Berry until three months after Mrs. Finley’s
death; but in consequence of Mrs. Berry telling him that she was going to
Australia as a nurse, he paid her £100, minus 16s. 8d. for interest.
Mr. Congs said he was clerk to the National Sick and Burial
Association in which Mrs. Finley was insured, and he paid Mrs. Berry on the 15th
of February, 1886, £13. 4.
The Coroner having summed up, the jury deliberated in private for
about 15 minutes, and unanimously returned a verdict of willful murder against
Mrs. Berry.
[“The Suspected Poisoning Case At Castleton. – Inquest and
Verdict.” The Manchester Weekly Times (England), Mar. 5, 1887, p. 3]
***
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More cases: Female Serial Killers Executed
***
Publisher’s text: In 1887, Elizabeth Berry, an attractive
young nurse from the grim Oldham workhouse, found notoriety throughout the
nation after the death of her daughter, perceived by many to be the cruellest
of murders - performed with an ice-cold callousness that was almost beyond
belief. There were many who protested her innocence in the affair, but there
were also suspicions surrounding another death related to the nurse: that of
her mother. Suddenly Elizabeth Berry’s dark story began appearing darker still.
Was she in fact a coldblooded serial killer? In his new book celebrated crime
author Bernard Taylor, investigates the disturbing life of Elizabeth Berry
endured during an era of grinding poverty when Victorian England was obsessed
with the exploits of murderers and forensic science was in its infancy. He
takes a fresh look at the demise of Berry’s husband and two other young
children, deaths that for a long time were considered to be of natural causes. For
the first time we discover the true story behind this infamous case of the
first woman to be hanged at Liverpool’s Walton Prison and one of the Victorian
period’s most harrowing set of homicides. [Duckworth Press]
***
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More cases: Female Serial Killers Executed
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[1321-1/1/2021]
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