THE POISONED LIFE OF MRS MAYBRICK

Paperback. Foreword by Lord Russell of Killowen. The dramatic story of Florence Maybrick who was the accused in one of the most famous murder trials of all time. It was in 1881 that the then Florence Chandler, an American girl aged 18, met a rich cotton broker from Liverpool, James Maybrick, in traditionally romantic circumstances on a trans-atlantic liner. Florence's husband later became ill and by then he had a mistress and Florence a lover. The servants in the Maybrick household, who had never been fond of Florence, learned of her liaison and also knew that she used arsenic in a cosmetic preparation for her skin. She obtained the substance by soaking fly-papers containing the poison in a basis in her bedroom, a method of obtaining arsenic which had already featured largely in a famous poisoning case. When her husband died, therefore, things looked pretty black for her and she was tried and found guilty in the press before the case had even come to court. But her mother persuaded Sir Charles Russell, one of England's leading barristers, to defend her, and towards the end of the case the papers were clamouring for her acquittal. Mrs Maybrick was nevertheless found guilty and condemned to death, but the public uproar continued and in the end she was released after 15yrs in prison. A brilliant reconstruction of Mrs Maybrick's extraordinary and tragic life, and Sir Michael Havers, former Solicitor-General, examines the important legal aftermath of her trial. James Maybrick achieved further notoriety for being a Jack the Ripper suspect. Illus., Appendix, Bibliog. and Index. 288pp. p/back. V. lightly browned pp. and sl. faded sp. o/w Nr. F. with no marks or creasing to covers.