Editing William Palmer (section)

==Biography==
Palmer was born in Staffordshire in 1824. He worked as apprentice to a chemist when he was seventeen, but was sacked for stealing money. After returning to Staffordshire in 1846 he met a plumber named George Abley and challenged him to a drinking contest. Abley accepted, fell ill and died an hour later. It was noted that Palmer had an interest in Abley's wife.

Palmer set up a doctor's practice in his hometown of Rugeley. He married a woman named Ann Thornton, whose mother had just inherited £8,000 from her husband. In 1849 the mother-in-law came to stay with Palmer, dying after mysteriously falling ill. The village doctor, Dr. Bamford, diagnosed the cause of death as apoplexy but it is now presumed that Palmer poisoned her for an inheritance.

Palmer began betting on horse racing, borrowing money from a man named Leonard Bladen. On 10 May 1850 Bladen died in agony at Palmer's house. Although he had recently won a large sum on the races, his money was missing, as were the ledgers containing evidence of his loan to Palmer. Despite this his death was written off as an ulcer by Dr. Bamford.

Palmer's first son was born in 1848, and became the only Palmer child to outlive his father. The Palmers had four more children, but all four died in infancy. The cause was listed as "convulsions" by Dr. Bamford, although after Palmer's conviction it was concluded that he had killed all of them because he didn't want to have to support all of them.

By 1854 Palmer was heavily in debt, resorting to forging signatures and defrauding his mother in order to pay off creditors. He took out life insurance on his wife, who died soon after. She was believed to have died of poisoning, although the cause of death was written off as cholera. Palmer was still in debt to two creditors, taking out life insurance on his brother. His brother soon died, supposedly from alcohol poisoning, but the insurance company were suspicious and dispatched inspectors who discovered Palmer's history of suspicious deaths. Although unable to prove murder they were able to convince the company not to pay out.

In November 1855 John Cook was violently sick while drinking with Palmer. He voiced his suspicion that Palmer had spiked his drink (a conclusion that was no doubt influenced by Palmer's sudden insistence that the drink had not been tampered with), but went drinking with him again on 17 November after recovering. However, he was sick again and remained bedridden for the next few days. During this time, Palmer sent a bottle of gin up to Cook's room; Cook's vomiting increased and a chambermaid who drank some of it was taken ill. The next day, Palmer purchased some strychnine from a chemist, crushed it up and placed it inside two ammonia pills. On 21 November he administered the pills to Cook, who died in agony around 1:00 am. Palmer successfully obtained a death certificate from Dr. Bamford announcing the cause of death as apoplexy, but a post-mortem examination was ordered anyway. 

During the examination of Cook's corpse Palmer blatantly interfered; he bumped into the surgeon in charge, causing him to spill the contents of Cook's stomach across the floor, before putting it in a jar and taking it for "safekeeping". When Palmer sent the jar to a toxicologist he reported that the contents had been badly damaged and was of no use to him. During a second examination Palmer attempted to bribe the coroner, prompting the police to arrest him. This also lead to suspicion that he killed Cook.

Palmer was charged with Cook's murder at the Old Bailey. During the trial, the corpses of Palmer's wife and brother were exhumed. No poison could be found in his brother's corpse due to decomposition, but his wife's organs contained traces of antimony. During the trial several witnesses testified that Palmer had bought strychnine shortly before Cook's death, and that Cook had personally believed that Palmer had poisoned him. Dr. Bamford testified on Palmer's behalf, but was soon found to be too senile to be regarded as a reliable witness. Several other doctors also testified that Cook had died from strychnine. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death. 

Palmer was hanged on 14 June 1856. Before his death the prison governor asked him to confess his guilt, but Palmer ambiguously replied "Cook did not die from strychnine".
[[Category:List]]
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[[Category:Early Modern Villains]]
[[Category:Deceased]]
[[Category:Serial Killer]]
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[[Category:Con Artists]]
[[Category:Execution]]
[[Category:Family of Victim]]
[[Category:Doctors and Scientists]]
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