Christiana Edmunds was born in 1829 in Margate on England’s south coast. By the account of Historic U.K. she grew up to be “an ill-tempered, waspish spinster.” On the other hand, she was described at her first trial as “a lady of fortune, tall, fair, handsome, and extremely prepossessing in demeanour’.
Affair with her Doctor
Whatever the true nature of her character she had passions and Christiana Edmunds developed one for her doctor, Charles Beard, who she first met in 1869. By now she was living in Brighton with her mother and sister.
The Berkshire County Record Office says Christiana’s affections were returned and there was a brisk exchange of love letters: “There was an intimacy, and it appears that they carried on some level of romantic relationship for the next year.”
Dr. Beard claimed there was no physical dimension to their affair but there was certainly an emotional one.
There was only one problem; the inconvenient existence of a Mrs. Emily Beard.
Chocolate Creams Laced with Strychnine
Dr. Beard seems to have suffered pangs of conscience or he simply tired of the dalliance so, in the summer of 1870, he broke off the relationship.
Christiana Edmunds decided that Emily would have to become the late Mrs. Beard.
The Royal Pavillion and Brighton Museums records that, “Soon after, Christiana visited the doctor’s wife Emily, bringing a gift of chocolate creams. After eating one, Mrs. Beard was sick and her husband, suspecting foul play, banished Christiana from their home.”
Dr. Beard did not report his suspicion to the police, but shortly afterwards other people in Brighton started to fall ill. Then, four-year-old Sidney Barker became desperately sick and died in June 1871. However, even though strychnine was found in chocolates he had been given his death was termed accidental.
Christiana Edmunds Charged with Murder
Still people fell ill, Christiana Edmunds herself claiming to have been afflicted. The police were baffled until, finally, Dr. Beard came forward and told them of his thoughts about who might be behind the mystery.
Christiana was arrested and charged with the murder of little Sidney Barker and the attempted murder of Mrs. Beard.
Sensational Trial of Christiana Edmunds
The Brighton Museum notes that the “trial began in Brighton, where it caused a sensation, and was moved to the Old Bailey (in London) in January 1872.”
The newspapers loved the story and dubbed the accused “The Chocolate Cream Poisoner.”
Witnesses testified that Edmunds had sent children to buy chocolates. In a plan that seems to have been copied in the 1982 Tylenol murders in Chicago, she injected the candy with strychnine. Then, she sent the chocolates back to the store saying they were not what she wanted. Once more on the shop’s shelves, the chocolates then went about their grim task in a random fashion, although Emily Beard was targetted once again with a delivery of a plum cake to her house that succeeded only in making two of her servants ill.
At trial a pharmacist testified that he sold strychnine to the accused, which she said she needed to get rid of some feral cats.
Defence Relies on Insanity Plea
Faced with the overwhelming evidence, Miss Edmunds entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. A prominent expert testified that she could not distinguish right from wrong.
The Berkshire County Record Office recounts that, “Drs. Charles Lockhart Robertson and Henry Maudsley, the famous psychologist, argued that Edmunds belonged to the ‘morally defective’ group of lunatics – a Victorian precursor to the later term of psychopath.”
The jury did not buy the argument and returned a verdict of guilty with no recommendation for mercy; accordingly, she was sentenced to hang. But, the mental health evidence had attracted the attention of Britain’s Home Office and psychiatrists were sent to examine her. They found her to be insane.
In her book Brighton and Hove Murders and Misdemeanours , Janet Cameron writes the last chapter: Christiana Edmunds was “reprieved and her sentence commuted to life imprisonment due to her mental state. Finally, she was sent to Broadmoor Prison for the Criminally Insane, where she remained for the rest of her life.”
Christiana Edmunds died in 1907 and some might argue that spending 35 years in a place such as Broadmoor was a harsher sentence than hanging.
Sources
- Women Poisoners: Murder in Victorian England. Historic U.K, undated.
- Broadmoor Revealed. Berkshire County Record Office, undated.
- Death by Chocolate. Kate Elms, Royal Pavillion and Brighton Museums, February 14, 2011.
- Brighton and Hove Murders and Misdemeanours. Janet Cameron, Amberley Publishing 2008.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
