Book Review – Poison Panic – Arsenic Deaths in 1840’s Essex

Poison Panic – Arsenic Deaths in 1840’s Essex.
Helen Barell; Pub by Pen and Sword [2016]. Price £14.99
The names of Mary May, Sarah Chesham and Hannah Southgate, became household names in the late 1840’s as a result of deaths of several people as a result of arsenic poisoning.

The national newspapers followed the lurid details of the trials of these three women, resulting in the execution of two of them at Chelmsford. Arsenic was widely available, used in the main to kill vermin. Few questions asked as to the reason for purchasing it, even children could be sold it. Arsenic was a white powder, tasteless and odourless, and could be dissolved easily. The perfect weapon for the would be murderer and the unsuspecting victim, who often died in agony. Add to this the imperfect test for arsenic poisoning; with country doctors often putting the cause of death down to ‘English Cholera,’ and the perfect murder was possible.

The cases of the three women were even raised in Parliament and as a result the Sale of Arsenic Act, 1851, was introduced in an endeavour to restrict the easy access to the poison.

Helen Barrell has produced a well-documented and readable book, which was based on her own family researches, and extensive newspaper archives which were reported at the time of the crimes being committed.
Martyn Lockwood