The intriguing case of convicted Liverpool poisoner Florence Maybrick was the first historical murder that drew my attention, after watching a documentary on her story some 20 years ago. I was so fascinated that I started researching Victorian murder for the very first time. However, I’ve never written about her, and after giving a recent lecture on the subject for Seabourn Cruises, I decided it was time to investigate her fascinating story further.
Florence Elizabeth Chandler was born in Mobile, Alabama on 3 September 1862. Her father, William Chandler, had been a successful banker and property owner, but his fortune had dwindled during the collapse of the Southern economy in the Civil War. Florence’s mother was Caroline Holbrook, who came from a long-established family that could be traced back to English aristocracy. When she married William George Chandler in 1858, he was considered to be one of the most eligible bachelors in Mobile society, due to his wealth and business connections. The couple’s first son, Holbrook St John Chandler, arrived shortly after the wedding. However, just before Florence’s birth, three years later, William died from inflammation of the brain.
Now widowed, Caroline moved to Georgia with her two young children, where she married Captain Franklin Bache du Barry. Their marriage didn’t last long, as he died during a sea voyage to Scotland in 1864. Caroline’s third husband was Baron Adolph von Roques, a flamboyant Prussian cavalry officer. By this time, young Florence was ten. By all accounts, Florence was a beautiful young woman, who was rather a social butterfly. Her mother said of her: ‘My daughter is not a woman of much penetration.’
In April 1881, when 18-year-old Florence was travelling on the White Star liner, Baltic, with her mother and brother for a tour of Europe beginning in Paris, she met wealthy cotton broker James Maybrick, aged 42. They were married at St James’ church in Piccadilly, London three months later. Despite the difference in their ages, James shared many interests with his young bride, including horse racing. However, James’ two brothers, Michael and Edwin, disapproved of their relationship, as they were concerned that Florence might be ‘flighty’, especially as her mother had been married three times. During the early years of their marriage, the couple divided their time between Virginia and James’ home city of Liverpool. Their first child, James Chandler Maybrick, was born in 1882.
In 1884, the Maybricks settled in Battlecrease House. This was a luxury mansion, with flush toilets, in the well-heeled Liverpudlian suburb of Aigburth. Two years later, their second child, a daughter called Gladys Evelyn, was born. At their family home, the couple had four servants: a cook, two maids and a nanny, Alice Yapp, who looked after the children. Unfortunately, the family were living beyond their means, and Florence received £7 a week from her husband for housekeeping, which did not cover their costs. She soon fell into debt.
James Maybrick was, apparently, a difficult man to live with. He was boorish, irascible and an incurable hypochondriac. He constantly complained about a number of aches and pains, for which he self-administered a range of homeopathic medicines. He was forever swallowing pills and taking tonics, which usually contained small amounts of arsenic and strychnine. The relationship between the couple started to deteriorate and this was exacerbated by Florence’s discovery, in 1887, that her husband had a long-term mistress, with whom he had had five children. Two had been born since he had been married to Florence but they had died in infancy. Devastated, Florence soon found comfort in the arms of an eligible and handsome young bachelor, Alfred Brierley, who was a friend of her husband – they had met at a dance at Battlecrease House. In March 1889, Florence and Alfred spent a weekend in London together, at the end of which Alfred ended their affair saying that he was in love with someone else. Florence returned to Liverpool alone. Soon after, however, she came across her recent lover at the Aintree races. She went over to speak to him. Her husband saw them and, at home later that evening, a row broke out, which resulted in James hitting his wife. The following day, he rewrote his will, excluding Florence – their marriage was all but over and existed from then on in name only.
On 13 April 1889, James Maybrick travelled to London to consult with a doctor, as he had been suffering from pains in his head and numbness in his legs. The doctor wasn’t able to diagnose him with any specific illness and he returned home to Liverpool. A week later, on Saturday 27 April, James woke up feeling very unwell. After going to the races, he had dinner with some friends, during which his hands were shaking so badly that he upset a glass of wine. He was no better the following day and complained of pains in his chest. His doctor prescribed him some prussic acid and told him to drink only soda water and milk. After a few days in bed, James rallied and returned to work but, within a week, he was sick again. This time, the doctor gave him some tonics, including Valentine’s beef juice and Fowler’s Solution, a commercial pick-me-up which contained a tiny amount of arsenic. Despite his doctor’s ministrations, James died on 11 May. A post mortem concluded that death had been caused by an irritant poison which had impacted the stomach and the bowel.
While James had been ill, Florence had given a letter to the nanny, Alice Yapp, for posting. It was addressed to Alfred Brierley. Using an excuse, Alice opened the letter and spotted that her mistress had written that her husband was ‘sick unto death’. The nanny passed the letter to James’ brothers. Michael showed it to the doctor, who informed the police. The doctor also had James’ faeces and urine tested but there was no trace of poison. When he finally died, the Maybrick brothers kept their sister-in-law in the house while they searched it for incriminating evidence, which they passed to the police. She was then arrested and detained at Walton Gaol pending their inquiries.
After James’ death, it transpired that Florence had been known to purchase fly papers from a local chemist. One of the maids and the nanny told the police that they had seen fly papers soaking in Mrs Maybrick’s washstand in the bedroom. Florence explained that she had been using the extraction from the fly papers in a cosmetic preparation for her face to clear her complexion. The police then discovered that she had bought some fly papers on 13 April, the day James fell ill, and also some cat poison on 1 May. This confirmed their suspicions and they decided to investigate further. When the Liverpool City police searched the Maybricks’ home, they found the sealed packet of arsenic, allegedly for killing cats, in a trunk. They also found 117 medicines from 29 different chemists, all with James Maybrick’s name on. They removed a number of other items from the home for testing, including a jug, which had contained the tonic Barry’s Revalenta, and several medicine bottles, as well as handkerchiefs, which had been concealed in a hat box. On analysis, it was discovered that three bottles and two handkerchiefs contained traces of arsenic. The analyst concluded that there was a sufficient quantity of the poison in the house to have killed 50 people. A fortnight after his death, James Maybrick’s body was exhumed and re-examined. This time they found half a grain of arsenic in his liver, kidneys and intestines. There were also traces of strychnine, hyoscine, prussic acid and morphia. At the inquest on 6 June, the jury returned a verdict of murder by Florence Maybrick.
Florence Maybrick’s trial opened on Wednesday 31 July at St George’s Hall in the centre of Liverpool. She was 26 years old. As was the law at the time, it was an all-male jury – this would turn out to be a key issue. The medical experts agreed that James Maybrick had died from gastro-enteritis, but they weren’t sure whether this was caused by a poison, such as arsenic, or by some food, or even a chill. Florence’s defence argued that, as James took arsenic as a tonic, it was therefore self-administered. Also, he hadn’t experienced the classic symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning, such as stomach cramps and, most importantly, a black tongue. The prosecution focused on Florence’s extra-marital affair, but nothing was mentioned of James’ long-standing relationship outside of their marriage. Furthermore, the letter, which had been opened by the nanny, was used as a key piece of incriminating evidence.
The trial lasted for seven days and, in the judge’s summing up at the end, he raised the question of a possible motive for Florence poisoning her husband, and he specifically mentioned her affair with Alfred Brierley, adding:
It is a horrible and incredible thought, that a woman should be plotting the death of her husband in order that she might be at liberty to follow her own degrading vices.
After 45 minutes’ of discussion, the jury delivered a guilty verdict and the judge passed the sentence of death. He was later booed as he left the court and 150 police officers had to be drafted in to handle the angry and emotional crowds. During my doctoral research in Liverpool, I went inside the condemned cell where Florence awaited the outcome of her trial, as well as the courtroom – it was a chilling experience.
Following Florence’s death sentence, the local residents of Liverpool were galvanised into action to save her from the gallows. They wrote letters to the home secretary, published articles in the press, and organised petitions. Finally, Florence received the welcome news that her sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment, due to reasonable doubt over whether James Maybrick had been poisoned or whether he had poisoned himself. The reprieve was granted just three days before the date set for her execution. Queen Victoria even commented on the case, saying that she regretted that such a wicked woman should escape justice due to a legal quibble. Despite further efforts to overturn her sentence, Florence remained in prison for 15 years, the first nine months of which were spent in solitary confinement at Woking Gaol. She was later moved to Aylesbury, where she remained for the rest of her time behind bars.
Florence Maybrick was released from prison in January 1904. She first travelled to France to visit her aging mother, and then returned to America where she died in 1941 in poverty in a cottage in Connecticut surrounded by cats. She was 78 years old and it had been 53 years since her husband’s death.
My investigation into Florence Maybrick’s case didn’t end there and recently I visited the grave of her brother-in-law, Michael Maybrick, at Ryde Cemetery on the Isle of Wight. The singer and composer moved to the island in 1893. A freemason, he became chair of the Isle of Wight hospital and was elected mayor of Ryde no less than five times. He died of heart failure on 26 August 1913. Over a century later, he is known more for his association with a convicted murderer than for his musical accomplishments.
