The Case of Frederick

Seddon

*

By
INSPECTOR C. CLARK

ova

Thirty-five Years Ago, Frederick Seddon Held the Spotlight at London's Old
Bailey for One of the Most Calculated Crimes on Record—Another in the

POISONERS ARE loathsome creatures.
Of all the crimes in the calendar, murder

by poison, that stealthy, secretive destruc-

tion of a fellow human being usually
under the guise of succouring the sick,
strikes lowest in the plane of human in-
famy. There have been wholesale poison-
ings, usually the work of a demented
mind, where families have been wiped

out, and systematic poisonings like those

planned and executed by the Italian Bor-

gias centuries ago; and in the last hun-

dred years stray individual cases of well

planned individual murders by the arsenic

method. The gallery of latter day poison-
ers includes such well-known figures as

Dr. Neill Cream, the infamous Dr. Lam-
‘son, J. H. Dickman, the suave Pole who
‘changed his unpronounceable name, and
‘married several women, each of whom

last was put away.
sealed when in an excess of

quickly met her end by poison. And
short, pudgy William Palmer, who put
many men out of the way until he at
Palmer’s fate was
zeal he tam-
pered with the exhibits at an autopsy.
The Maybrick case excited great atten-
tion years ago in Britain, although truth
to tell, in a present day court Mrs. May-
brick would probably have been acquitted.
Evidence for the defence proved beyond
a doubt that her husband had been taking
arsenic as a stimulant for years before his
death and his end might indeed have been
by his own hand.

In the list of famous poisoners 1s
Frederick Henry Seddon, and his case is
peculiar in the annals of criminal juris-
prudence for the reason that it was never
proved that Seddon had ever handled any
poison.

A LANCASHIRE MISER

A hard-headed product of Lancashire,
40-year-old Frederick Seddon lived in the
year 1910 at 63 Tollington Park, North
London, with his wife Margaret, his
father, and five children. He had been
for nine years district superintendent for
an insurance company and he was not
averse to making a little cash on the side.
Having paid what he considered a sub-
stantial sum for the Tollington Park
house, he decided to sub-let part of it,

SEVENTEENTH EDITION

Review Series of Famous Crimes.

and in answer to an advertisement ap-
peared Miss Eliza Mary Barrow, 48, a
shabby spinster with a prediliction for
alcohol. Miss Barrow had a small in-
come derived from British Indian stock
and the rent of a public house in Camden
Town, known as the Buck’s Head.

Seddon loved money; he loved it for
itself, for the ‘satisfaction of feeling it
in his hands. In an era when gold coinage
was popular, he often had £100 or so in
gold in the cash box in his house, and
many an evening he spent stacking the
gold in neat rows on his desk, handling
it and admiring it.

And, curiously enough, Miss Barrow
was also something of a miser, living on
next to nothing but frequently having
large sums in her possession.

Seddon must have been quick to sense
the possibility of separating Miss Barrow
from her wealth, for in the fourteen
months she lived with the Seddons, the
covetous insurance agent had taken over
her stock, in exchange for an annuity of
slightly over $500.00 a year, and the lease-
hold of the public house for a further
$250.00 a year. In possession of Miss
Barrow’s worldly wealth, Seddon could
either pay her annual annuity or—get rid
of Miss Barrow.

DreatH From PoIsoNING

On the 1st of September, 1911, Miss
Jarrow was stricken with a malady diag-
nosed as epidemic diarrhoea and two
weeks later she died. She was attended
by a physician, who was not present at
her demise, but issued a death certificate
at the request of Seddon.

Two days later she was buried in Isling-
ton Cemetery, East Finchley.

Cousins of Miss Barrow, living near-
by, were surprised that Seddon had not
notimed them of her death, and_ his
curious way of blocking their enquiries
aroused suspicion. They had always ex-
pected that Miss Barrow would leave
them something in her will, and after
some delay Seddon baldly reported that
Miss Barrow’s property had passed to
him.

They communicated their suspicions to
the police and two months later the body

was exhumed. After examination, Sir
Bernard Spilsbury, the eminent patholo-
gist, announced that he had found evi-
dence of arsenic in fatal quantities.

Piece by piece a damning chain of cir-

cumstantial evidence was forged: Sed-
don’s 14-year-old daughter had bought
fly papers containing arsenic solution.
Thus arsenic could have entered the house.
Mr. and Mrs. Seddon had attended the
ailing Miss Barrow, exclusively. No vis-
itor had entered the house or seen Miss
3arrow during her illness. The Seddons
had controlled the deceased in her final
two weeks of life. Seddon had her prop-
erty, and the annuity lapsed with Miss
3arrow’s death. He had made no effort
to seek out any relatives, and snubbed the
cousins in the next block when they made
enquiries. He had arranged for a hasty
funeral of the cheapest variety—in fact
the cost barely exceeded $20.00. And
even at that he arranged for a commission
from the undertaker for bringing him the
business !

On the 23rd November, 1911, an in-
quest was held, when Dr. Spilsbury and
Dr. Wilcox certified as to the presence of
arsenic in all parts of Miss Barrow’s re-
mains, that there must have been at least
two grains of the poison in hér system at
the time of death, and that the fatal dose
must have been administered within three
days of her demise. The inquest was ad-
journed.

Seddon’s arrest followed, and when the
inquest continued, he was present, in cus-
tody, reserving his evidence.

The jury returned a verdict that Miss
Barrow died of arsenical poisoning ad-
ministered by person or persons unknown,
who were guilty of wilful murder.

Then followed the arrest of Mrs. Sed-
don.

Charged with murder, the pair were
committed for trial, and appeared at the
Central Criminal Court in the Sessions
House, Old Bailey, on March 4th, 1912.
The trial, which occupied ten days, was
presided over by Mr. Justice Bucknill.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Rufus Isaacs, the At-
torney-General, appeared for the Crown,
assisted by Messrs. R. D. Muir, S. A. T.
Rowlatt and Travers Humphries. Ap-

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