Adelaide Bartlett

Adelaide Bartlett, photograph around 1868

Adelaide Bartlett (* 1855 in Orléans as Adelaide Blanche de la Tremouille) was the alleged murderer of her husband, Thomas Edwin Bartlett, in one of the most famous criminal cases of the Victorian era . The case is best known because it has not yet been clarified how the victim died.

prehistory

Adelaide was born out of wedlock to Clara Chamberlain and probably to Adolphe Collot de la Tremouille, Comte de Thouars d'Escury in Orléans. She grew up in France but then moved in with an aunt and uncle on her mother's side in Kingston upon Thames . There she met her husband, Thomas Edwin Bartlett, who was eleven years her senior in 1875. Edwin Bartlett was a successful and wealthy businessman. After the wedding he sent his wife to a school in Stoke Newington for two years to complete her education and to a school in Belgium to complete her education . During this time, the couple only saw each other during school holidays. After finishing school in 1878, the Bartlett couple moved into an apartment in Herne Hill that was above a Bartlett's shop. During this time it was suggested that she was having an affair with Edwin's younger brother, Frederick Bartlett. According to Adelaide Bartlett's testimony in the later criminal proceedings, there should only have been one sexual contact between the spouses, which immediately led to a pregnancy. However, the child was stillborn.

In 1883 the couple moved to East Dulwich and another two years later to Merton Abbey near Wimbledon . There Adelaide Bartlett met the then twenty-seven-year-old clergyman George Dyson. The friendship between Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson was even promoted by Thomas Edwin Bartlett, who is said to have liked to see the two kiss in his presence. He also insisted that in the event of his death, Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson should marry. When the Bartlett couple moved into an apartment at 85 Claverton Street, Pimlico in August 1885, Thomas Bartlett made sure Dyson could visit his wife in his absence, even hiring him as his wife's teacher of Latin, history, geography and mathematics . The couple slept in the same room, but he slept in bed and she on the couch - one of the reasons for this should have been Thomas Edwin Bartlett's bad breath.

Thomas Edwin Bartlett believed that he was infected with syphilis and treats the disease himself with mercury . In December 1885 he was diagnosed with diarrhea and gastritis .

The death of Thomas Edwin Bartlett

On December 27, 1885, Adelaide Bartlett asked George Dyson to procure a larger quantity of chloroform . He bought a larger bottle of chloroform and gave it to Adelaide Bartlett on December 29th. When Dyson asked, she had told him that Bartlett's doctor would ignore an illness, but that she could treat it with the help of chloroform.

In the early morning of January 1, 1886, Adelaide Bartlett woke the maid to find her husband dead. Bartlett was lying in his bed, a wine glass about three-quarters full with a liquid made from brandy and a substance that smelled of ether was within reach . There was also a small bottle with “Condy's Fluid” and a bottle with “Chlorodyne” - a solution with morphine and chlorine. At the request of the doctor called Dr. Leach, whether her husband could have poisoned himself, assured Adelaide Bartlett, this could not have happened without her knowledge.

Investigations

The autopsy took place on January 2, 1886. The five doctors involved in examining the body found themselves unable to determine a natural cause of death. Rather, there were significant amounts of liquid chloroform in the stomach of Bartlett's corpse, which the doctors were able to determine as the cause of death.

Upon a hint from Dr. Leachs that chloroform was found during the examination of the body, Adelaide Bartlett told him that her husband had regained sexual interest in her. In order to avoid his advances, she had dripped chloroform on a tablecloth and held it in front of his face. After the police investigation also revealed that Adelaide Bartlett had procured the chloroform, she and Dyson were arrested on suspicion of murder.

The process

On April 13, 1886, the criminal trial of Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson began in Old Bailey . Dyson was acquitted in the preliminary proceedings and the trial focused on the accused.

The main problem was how the deadly chloroform got into the victim's stomach. A fundamentally possible suicide was considered unlikely, an accident would be conceivable, for example as a result of mixing up chloroform with one of the other medicine bottles or bringing it in as part of a homicide. When taken orally, chloroform leads to considerable blistering on the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat and is so uncomfortable that someone who should be poisoned in this way would hardly be able to be induced to swallow the substance. However, sufficient blistering could not be determined. It is also water-soluble in a mixing ratio of 1: 200, then Bartlett would have had to ingest several liters of the mixture in order to be able to achieve the amounts of chloroform found in the stomach. To this day it is still unclear how he died.

Adelaide Bartlett was acquitted because it could not be proven whether and especially how she could have killed her husband.

Cinematic processing of the case

In the British series "A Question of Guilt" from 1980, the case of Adelaide Bartletts was also taken up.

literature

• Brian Innes, Corpses Testify - The Hundred Most Sensational Cases from the World of Forensic Medicine , Moewig, Rastatt, 2000, ISBN 3-8118-1716-7

Web links

• Michael Farrell, Adelaide Bartlett and the Pimlico mystery , BMJ 1994; 309: 1720-1723 (English)