POISON AND ADELAIDE BARTLETT The pimlico Poisoning Case

Hardback. In the small hours of New Year's Day, 1886, at Claverton Street, Pimlico, Edwin Bartlett died of a dose of liquid chloroform. His wife, a Frenchwoman, as enigmatic as she was alluring, was charged with his murder, while a young Wesleyan minister, who appeared in the role of her lover, was charged with being an accessary before the fact. So scandalous a combination of circumstances created an enormous sensation. But the trial had no sooner begun at the Old Bailey than the Court was astonished to hear from the Attorney-General that he proposed to call no evidence against the second prisoner at the bar, and to ask the Jury to acquit him; so Adelaide Bartlett was left to face the accusation alone. Although there was no previous record of liquid chloroform having been used for the purpose of homicide - and there has been none since - the evidence against Adelaide Bartlett was overwhelmingly strong, but since the Crown's theory as to how she had administered the poison left her guilt open, on technical grounds, to 'reasonable doubt', the Jury acquitted her, indicating however by the unorthodox form in which they framed their verdict a considerable mental reservation. The author succeeded in unravelling some interesting details concerning Adelaide Bartlett's mysterious past and presents an entirely new hypothesis as to how she encompassed her husband's death. Illus., Epilogue and Index. 256pp. 8vo. h/back. Vg+