After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal - Palmer the Poisoner: Victorian England's Doctor of Death

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

In a century of poisoners, William Palmer stands out as the prince of them all. Charles Dickens called him "the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey".Maddy tells Anthony the story this week, whisking us back to Victorian England and the Staffordshire town of Rugeley where Palmer plied his trade. A town where Maddy's ancestor happened to be working as the chemist at the time....Edited by Tean Stewart-Murray, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongDiscover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code AFTERDARK sign up now for your 14-day free trial http://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase?code=afterdark&plan=monthly

Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time. Something out of the dark that's appeared in love. You'll meet the people who live life undercover. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? Vengeance felt good. Seeing these people pay for what they've done felt righteous. True Spies from Spyscape Studios. Wherever you get your podcasts. 1855, Rugeley.

A small market town in the south of Staffordshire. Edwin Falk, a young druggist's assistant, is standing behind the counter in a gleaming store. Before him is a wooden countertop, mostly taken up by a large brass scales and a plethora of ceramic jars. Behind him, extending to the ceiling, are shelves upon shelves of glass bottles, each containing colourful liquids, powders, and all labelled in bright gold lettering. It's been a slow morning, with a steady trickle of regulars coming into the store to purchase a herbal remedy for a cold, perhaps, or a cream to reduce bruising. So far, so good. But then, the bell above the door to the street

tinkles, and Edwin looks up. Entering the chemist is a gentleman. He's short, and no more than 30, though a receding hairline and pale, puffy skin lend him the air of a much older man. puffy skin lend him the air of a much older man. This is William Palmer, the town doctor. Respectable, well-known, local. He's come for supplies. Bandages, some ointments, and what's that? Edwin asks him to repeat the order. Strychnine. Now, there's no real reason why a doctor ordering poison should raise alarm. After all, as Edwin himself knows all too well, such substances are common in modern medicines. And yet, as the doctor leaves, the young druggist's apprentice can't help but feel a sense of deep unease. Such unsettling instincts will prove correct. In the space of a few short months, Palmer will go from provincial physician to infamous criminal.

He'll find himself the subject of inches of sensational newspaper stories and hauled up in front of a jury to answer for unspeakable crimes. He will enter the national consciousness, become the stuff of nightmares, and as Charles Dickens will put it, he'll be known as the greatest villain that ever stood in the old Bailey. Well, I'm very sorry to tear you away from mid-19th century Rugeley, but I just wanted to welcome you to this episode of After Dark with me, Dr. Anthony Delaney. And me, Dr. Maddy Pelling. And in this episode, we find ourselves in the middle of a period of growth in the British Empire. Victoria is on the throne. In Yorkshire,

the novelist Charlotte Bronte has just died. Healthcare in Britain is changing and across the world is changing in this period too. The government has just passed a law making smallpox vaccination compulsory, for instance, which will prove quite divisive. So there's a lot going on in this period, Maddy. So what was it particularly that drew you to this case? So there's many things that are interesting and significant in this case. So it's a story of two parts, essentially. On the one hand, it's the story of a serial killer. And in very broad terms, it's a story about 19th century medical practice, medical experience, chemical experimentation, practice, medical experience, chemical experimentation, and social class. But I also wanted to talk to you about this case because I actually know Rugeley very, very well. My mum

grew up there. I used to visit my grandparents when I was little there. And I would regularly go past the house that Palmer lived in. And my mum would say to me, Palmer, the poisoner, lived there. And it's very much a story that lives on in local folklore. But in the 19th century, it was this big national case that drew national attention. Now, Edwin Falk, who we met at the beginning of this episode, the druggist assistant, is actually a distant ancestor of mine. The way in which these personal histories, i.e. your personal history in this case, and these bigger histories come together is so fascinating. And it really brings a personal element to some of these stories as they unfold. But for those of us who, like me, have never been to Rugeley, and when I read this first, I thought it was called Ruggily.

So apologies to anybody who lives there. Give us a little bit of an impression of what Rugeley is like. Sure. So Rugeley today is kind of best known for the mining community that was there in the 1980s. There was a large power station that's been pulled down in recent years. So it's very much an industrial town. But in the mid 19th century, it was a small and quite unassuming, relatively pretty market town. It's largely made up of late 18th, early 19th century buildings, so a lot of brick everywhere. And in terms of where it sort of sits in the world, so it's in South Staffordshire. And in this period, it sits really amongst a burgeoning sort of boom time in terms of industrial revolution. So we've

got Birmingham to the south, and we also have relatively close by Stoke-on-Trent and the pottery industry there. So it's a sort of rural enclave in the middle of this big, changing world of the 19th century. So before we get to Palmer himself, who obviously is at the centre of this story, I'd like to know a little bit more about Edwin and how firstly you came to find out about him and secondly how he's important in this particular story. Yes, so Edwin's a really interesting figure in my family history but he's also a really useful way into this story and I should do a shout out to my family who do a lot of family history research and that's how I came to sort of know about him. So Edwin, his story kind of tells

us so much about social climbing in the 19th century and specifically about the opportunities and limitations that medical advancement brought to people looking to kind of better themselves in some way or to secure their position in society. Edwin is illegitimate, he's born out of wedlock. He comes into a family that's sort of in the middle of trying to restore their reputation a little bit. And in order to give him some kind of quality life, they send him to what we assume is relatives. So this William Falk, who is the owner of the drug store in Rugeley. We can't work out quite how they're related, but they have the same surname. They must be somehow connected. And it's very much a family favour, him taking him in. And the idea

is that Edwin will train as a druggist. And druggists in this period, so chemists and druggists, the terms are kind of used interchangeably. But it's really fascinating in thinking about Victorian medical experience, how healthcare was doled out to people. Anyone could set themselves up as a chemist, which is a little bit worrying. And there was very little medical training required. So the trade was, it was learned from like big instruction manuals, which would, you know, tell you how to mix and sort of compound chemicals together, you know, how to grind powders, that kind of thing. And that was kind of mixed as well with, I suppose, an older medical knowledge, the sort of folk healing.

And it's a sort of strange moment in medical history when these two things combine under the druggist. People will come to the store for things like treatments for coughs and colds, which I could definitely do with today with a bit of a croaky voice. But they'll also come for more sort of complicated chemical medicines. So things that include arsenic, that include opiates, that include chloroform. And of course, these are all incredibly dangerous substances. So you're putting a lot of faith in your druggist to give you the right dose. And there's a lot of responsibility in this role. Dr Drugists as well, and I think this is why it was possibly an attractive future for Edwin, or certainly his family felt so. Drugists had very good standing in the communities. They were the person that you would go to if you couldn't afford

a doctor. As such, they would know the medical intimacies of people in the community. They would know who was poorly, who was maybe transmitting diseases from one person to another, and that gives you access to people's lives in all kinds of ways. So it was a huge responsibility and it allowed a sort of interesting overview of the community in which you lived. And I suppose, as you've kind of hinted at there, these drugists or chemists become the first point of contact for a lot of these local people who may have significant ailments or illnesses, and they almost know what they need to treat themselves. So they go to their drugist, they go to their

chemist, they ask for their regular prescription, as such as prescriptions were in those days. But for people who are a little bit better off then, there was the more direct contact perhaps with the local doctor. And that's where we come in contact with this figure of Dr. Palmer, who you described at the beginning. So can you tell us a little bit about Dr. Palmer, who he was within this community, how he operated? Sure. So Palmer, a bit like Edwin, starts out as a chemist assistant. He's a local Staffordshire boy, much like Edwin. His father had been a sawyer, so literally someone who saws things, usually in a sort of industrial setting. And he died when Palmer was 12.

And so there are lots of parallels with Edwin, but he has to kind of find his way in the world, so he becomes a druggist apprentice. He's actually fired from that position for stealing money. And I think that's really interesting. It gives us a sort of early sign maybe that there is some trouble with this figure. He does manage to go on to study medicine. He gets himself to London and he qualifies as a doctor in 1846. So the decade before this story is taking place. Now, he comes back to his home in Staffordshire and sets himself up as a doctor. From then on, there are all kinds of instances of sinister little things starting to happen, strange occurrences, odd behaviour on his part, and a sort of string of, to begin with, people becoming ill around him,

and later on we're going to get bodies turning up. So the first kind of anecdotal story that we have about him is on his return to Staffordshire, he goes to a pub on the outskirts of a village near Rugeley, where he is the Newtown doctor. And he actually challenges someone in the pub to a drinking contest for cash. And hold that in your mind, this motivation of money. He is a social climber. The money issue is going to be central to his story. It's so bizarre. If you're thinking about the position of the doctor in the local community, it's quite an elevated position. And for him to be turning up, challenging people to a drinking contest, it's not adding up, really. It's certainly strange. And what's stranger is that his competitor goes home incredibly drunk,

presumably Palmer wins the cash, and the man he's been drinking with dies within a few hours. So there's nothing to link him to the death just yet, but it's certainly odd and things are going to get stranger. So you talked there about the sort of oddity of Palmer that he doesn't really behave in a particularly middle-class way. And I guess that's part of his sort of social climbing that he's not only learning how to be a doctor, how to practice medicine in a community, but he's learning how to position himself as such. And one way that he does this is by seeking a wife. So his choice of bride is eventually Anne Thornton, who is the wealthy young stepdaughter of a deceased army colonel who has been out in India, and from whom she and her mother have inherited a not insignificant

amount of money and property. So they inherit nine houses and 20,000 sikha rupees, which is the currency that's used by the British, specifically the East India Trading Company, I think, in India. And this colonel, before he dies, he puts Anne in the protection of some guardians, some local people. Palmer pursues her and the guardians do not approve, but Anne herself is charmed and relatively soon after meeting, they are married. It's difficult to know what could have charmed her from that description that you gave earlier of that kind of slightly puffy, he's obviously marrying up. I mean, as you were describing that scenario to me, I was going, wow, he's done well for himself here in terms of that's a considerable fortune. That's moving him up another social class again, even within the middling

classes. Yes. And his motivation for doing so is going to become clearer and clearer because not long after Anne and Palmer marry, Anne's mother, who is still alive, dies very suddenly while staying in the new couple's house. And of course, then her share of the inheritance left by the Colonel goes to Anne. So the bodies are starting to mount. So that's two now, right? We have the guy who did the drinking competition in the bar, and now his mother-in-law, Anne's mother, has also popped her clogs. Yes. Now, one thing that we know about palmer from this

early stage on and this is something that's going to shape the rest of his life is that he develops a real taste for gambling and in particular horse racing so he's always off to the races particularly at shrewsbury and of course inevitably he's going to lose a lot of money and he needs to keep up with this unchecked spending that's happening and as a result the bodies are going to keep piling up there's even more okay let's go on to the next bit of the story after the loss of palmer's mother-in-law the next death to occur is that of leonard blandon blandon is a gamb gambler and makes Palmer's acquaintance when the men are at the races. Blandon even lends the seemingly trustworthy doctor 800 pounds as they watch the horses.

This will prove his downfall. On the 10th of May, 1850, Blandon visits the Palmers at Rugeley, where he dines with the couple before collapsing and dying. Anne is distraught, though when she recovers from the shock, she notes that Blandon's betting book, with which she has often seen him, is not in his coat pocket where it ought to be. The evidence of Palmer's debt has, conveniently, disappeared. A verdict of death by abscess is given by the doctor, and no one has any reason to suspect anything else. Life for Palmer and his wife goes on. Over the next four years, he and Anne have five children, four of whom die in their infancy of so-called convulsions, although the infant mortality rate is such that, once again, suspicions are not raised.

But by January 1854 and the death of their final child, Palmer is facing catastrophic debt. He's been gambling now for years. In a desperate bid to cover the demands of his creditors, he takes out a life insurance policy on Anne to the value of £13,000. And by September of that year, Anne, too, is dead. though in the midst of a nationwide cholera pandemic, the death of an otherwise healthy 27-year-old mother goes virtually unremarked upon. Palmer's debts are, however, barely covered by the payout that comes after Anne's demise, and in the following months, he takes out similar policies, first on his mother, and a brother, Walter. It's not long before Walter turns up dead at the Palmer's, apparently the victim of his own excessive drinking. But now the insurance company is getting suspicious. This seems like an awful lot of bad luck for one man, and they refuse to pay out. Palmer's situation is now

dire, and he needs money. Although still, in appearances only, the respectable town doctor, he is, under the surface, drowning. An affair with his housemaid Eliza brings a new baby, another expensive mouth to feed, something must be done. I'm Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr. Six wives, six lives. I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and this month on Not Just the Tudors I'm joined by a host of experts to tell the stories of the six queens of Henry VIII who shaped and changed England forever. Subscribe to and follow Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. I mean, this is just chaos. He really has let things unravel to such an extent. You mentioned during your story there that he was drowning. I think that's such a pertinent description,

but that's not to evoke any kind of sympathy. This is all of his own doing. I will say the other thing that struck me while you were describing the things that happened over those years was how come it took an insurance company to say, oh, well, actually, this is all a little bit suspicious. I mean, people know this man, the community are watching him. Surely somebody must have thought this is a bit unusual. Yeah, I mean, I think he's protected on two counts. First of all, that he is a doctor. So it's taken for granted that he is responsible, that he is respectable, that he's protected on two counts. First of all, that he is a doctor. So it's taken for granted that he is responsible, that he is respectable, that he's to be trusted. And when

it comes to the death of Anne, he passes that off as cholera. There's a cholera pandemic spreading through Britain. And nobody really bats an eyelid. We have to remember that medical knowledge in the general population was not, you couldn't Google any symptoms, you couldn't go to your doctor and self-diagnose, and you certainly couldn't challenge the diagnoses that a doctor was applying to patients living or dead. And I think there's just an element that people are just taking him at his word. Now, as the title of this episode will suggest, he is poisoning these people. Quite how many victims he has, it is difficult to know. He seems to make a lot of connections

when he goes to the races and when he's in pubs. Some of these people are becoming ill afterwards and not dying. Some are dying within a short period of time. We don't know if he murdered his children, but certainly four out of the five of them do die. But of course, the infant mortality rates are so high in the 19th century that nobody would have really paid that much attention. It's tragic, but it wouldn't have been that unusual. One thing that I think is so crucial about this case and why it goes on to attract so much attention and so much speculation is that there is poison at the heart of it. There's a real anxiety in Victorian Britain about poison. There are huge numbers of substances becoming available to

people as chemistry advances. As I mentioned, there's chloroform, there's arsenic. And in Palmer's case, he certainly buys a huge amount of strychnine. Now, strychnine is white, it's powder, and it's odourless. And that's really important that it can be given to patients. And it is used in medical practice. And he buys it openly at the chemists in town included. There's several chemists, but he buys from chemists, including my ancestor, Edwin. If it's given in large doses, it can cause symptoms like agitation, restlessness, rigid arms and legs, jaw tightness, muscle pain, difficulty breathing, and eventually it can cause unconsciousness and death. So it's not

a pleasant substance to be messing around with. What I think is interesting is before I started to do the research for this story, if you'd said to me poison in the Victorian era, I would have said that's typically understood to be a woman's weapon because it's insidious. It's easily applied in the domestic space. You can apply it to food and drink. It doesn't require any level of physical strength. You don't have to attack anyone. And I've been thinking a lot about why it is that Palmer uses that, you know, why isn't he bludgeoning his victims over the head? And I think his role as a doctor is absolutely crucial. You know, he's able to administer substances to these people, role as a doctor is absolutely crucial. He's able to administer substances to these people, sometimes over a long period of time, sometimes on one meeting with them.

And he's getting away with it because he can do so openly. He can give people medications openly. He can be seen to be dosing and medicating, and nobody will bat an eyelid. But I presume, bearing in mind we are talking about him, so I presume there comes a point where he crosses a line of sorts and that he does get caught. What is the scenario that arises there? I was going to say, how does he slip up? But it makes it sound like he's being absolutely precise in the way he's gone about this. And actually, I think he's been quite messy and chaotic, as I said before. But what is it that really draws attention to him? Palmer's downfall will come at the end of 1855 with the death of John Cook, a fellow gambler met by the doctor at Shrewsbury Races, and with whom he has been seen multiple times.

The pair appear to be friends, and, inevitably, Cook lends Palmer cash. Not long after, he begins to complain of pains in his stomach, and even mentions to a bystander at one race session that he suspects Palmer of having tampered with his brandy. At the end of November 1855, Cook visits Palmer in Rugeley, staying in the local Talbot Arms. It's there, one morning after dining with the doctor, that Cook collapses, vomiting and convulsing on the floor. In no time, he's dead, joining a now undeniable, conspicuous trail of bodies following Palmer's wake. An initial inquest into Cook's death is held at the Talbot, headed up by a coroner and conducted by a jury of respectable local men. Among them is the druggist

William Fowke, Edwin's employer. Together they set about examining the body, cutting open the stomach and draining its contents, examining all with a magnifying glass. Samples from the intestines are poured into glass jars, and vials of blood are filled almost to the brim, before being sent to London for corroborative analysis. The results, compounded by witness testimonies, will prove divisive, marking an important moment in the history of medicine in Britain as well as the development of forensic science. I want to talk a little bit about those witness testimonies that you referenced there.

Who firstly is called and who does one call to testify against a doctor who is apparently using this invisible poison? Who do you even go to? What's notable about this case is that most of the witnesses that are called are from the lower working classes. They're mostly people in positions of servitude. So we have, for example, a male servant who's working for Palmer himself. We also have two of the maids who are working at the Talbot and who witness Palmer and Cook dining together the night before, who witnessed the death of Cook, and Palmer's behaviour while that is all going on. And it says so much about Victorian hierarchies and how, I suppose, something we always think about in this podcast is how when people behave in a way that isn't normal within their historical context, within their social context, those hierarchies and

systems of power do start to become upset or broken down in some way. And that's what happens here, I think, where once it's impossible to deny Palmer's involvement in Cook's death, and possibly in many more once people start to think about it, the status of him as a respectable doctor is stripped away. And so in a court of law, that playing field is levelled out somewhat and people who are below him socially are called to comment on his behaviour and to condemn him essentially. And if you think about the other men who are gathered during this inquest, and the inquest is being held at the Talbot. It is. So this is the initial inquest and there is going to be a much bigger trial as the media start to get wind of this. But this is the initial inquest. And the question that the inquest wants answered is not, is Palmer guilty? But has Cook died from natural causes

or from interference? Palmer's involvement here only becomes apparent as the inquest goes on. Amr's involvement here only becomes apparent as the inquest goes on. I'm just thinking about the juxtaposition of the supposedly respectable middle-class man who is called to this initial consultation around whether or not he's been poisoned in the Talbot arms, and then the witnesses that emerge for the later trial and their working-class status, and how actually a lot of those middle- class men who were trying to secure their positions in society would potentially have felt a bit of a personal attack, perhaps based on some of the evidence they're giving against this doctor who's supposed to have, you know, an elevated position in society. Equally, though, I suppose he has broken that social contract. And it's very clear for everybody to see that Palmer has transgressed

and is gambling and is mixing with people that potentially shouldn't have been. So I suppose it's not causing that much of an outrage. So as the inquest unfolds and these witnesses come forward, it becomes increasingly clear that Palmer is involved in a seedy underworld and that beneath the surface, as we say, he is drowning. Things are really un really unraveling to mix metaphors so witnesses come forward and say that they've seen him at the races with cook that they know that cook has lent him money one man from the races comes forward and he actually lives in london but he's called up because he is the person at the races that cook says to i think i've been poisoned my friend palmer

has messed with the brandy. I'm not feeling very well. And what becomes clear is that Palmer has at least had the opportunity and the motive to poison Cook over quite a long period of time. Now, Cook increasingly has claimed to be unwell. And Palmer, as his friend and doctor, has been medicating him. And so the suspicion is absolutely mounting. And there's a sort of race to gather this evidence as quickly as possible. There's one moment in this inquest where one of the witnesses, the male servant employed in Palmer's house, is called to testify about a telegram. So the way telegrams work in 1855 is you write down your message. So Palmer writes down on a piece of paper the message he wants to send. In this case, he's sending it to

someone in London. The servant takes it to Stoke, where there's a train station, and it's sent at the train station to presumably a train station in London, and then that is delivered to the home of the person he's sending the message to. Now, the person he's sending the message to is one of Cook's creditors. And he is trying to cover his tracks. He's trying to claim not only did he not borrow money from Cook, but that actually Cook owes him money. And now Cook is dead. Could he please have some of that money that is owed to him? And the telegram itself gets lost in the case. And it's this really crucial missing part that's going to cement his guilt potentially. And I think we've spoken about these medical

advances, we've spoken about the looming on the periphery, the big booming canals in railways, and now we've got the telegram. This is a moment of real change in Britain. And this case taps into all those advancements, those developments that are going on. I suppose in a lot of ways, it unearths some of those anxieties about a changing age and what happens when someone in a position of power can take advantage of those new technologies, that new knowledge, and use it for ill. Yeah, he's been both lucky and cunning, hasn't he? He's lucky in the sense of the scientific exploration and the advancements that's going on, because actually what some of that is doing, and some of the grey area that that's inventing, is masking some of his methodology, the way he

goes about killing these people. But it's also giving him further means through which to manipulate the situations and the scenarios that he finds himself in, such as with the telegram, as you're describing there. It almost feels like he's not quite capable of planning that. I think it might just be a happy coincidence, but certainly it's aiding him in obscuring some of the facts that are happening in these cases, and talking about kind of drawing out some of those facts. You mentioned before that there would be essentially, such as they were, a forensic examination of what was happening in Cook's stomach and the contents of Cook's stomach. What was found there? The same science, essentially, that Palmer is using for his own ends

and misusing for his own ends becomes his downfall and exposes something of what he's done. Now, this forensic study of the body is really in its infancy. And this case comes at a time when there's lots of debate around the use of this kind of investigation in legal cases. And the results of the study of Cook's body raise many, many questions, as many as they answer, really. And there becomes this debate around whether Palmer has actually poisoned him, and if he has, what poison he's used. So throughout Cook's body, there's the discovery of antimony, which is a substance that's commonly prescribed by doctors to purge the bowels. Lovely. And it's very clear that Cook has been taking this,

that Palmer's been giving it to him in small doses potentially for a significant portion of time. Now, that could be genuinely that Cook was unwell and Palmer was trying to help him to ease some of that discomfort that he felt. It's suggested by other people in the inquest that potentially purging the body empties the stomach so that other poisons can be introduced and absorbed quicker. And the poison that it's believed Palmer has used is strychnine. Now, among the witnesses at the inquest are drug assistance from other stores in Rugeley who all come forward and say, I sold him X amount of strychnine last week. Oh yes, I did the same the week before. But the science is just not quite there. It's really difficult for them to find any trace of strychnine in the body. It doesn't mean it's not there, but they cannot find it. And this becomes a huge problem. So once again, we find that Palmer is lucky, I suppose. Despite all of these advancements, the science still isn't quite able to expose him. But nonetheless, we are awaiting a verdict.

And I believe the next part of your story will tell us a little bit more about that. When the verdict of the inquest is eventually settled upon, it's this, that Cook was poisoned and that Palmer did it. Palmer is arrested and taken to Stafford Jail. A huge crowd rallies around his house to see him transported there, but the case soon takes on a new magnitude, picked up in the national press and quickly the talk of Britain. It's felt by many that Palmer should not be tried in Staffordshire, a place seen as a provincial backwater and where, given his entanglement with the locals, it's thought he may not receive a fair trial. The decision instead is made to move him to London and to the

Old Bailey. In the capital, a 12-day trial triggers a media storm as debate around the accuracy of the inquest and the ability of the jury to reach a conclusion rages in the newspapers and in the smoke-filled backrooms of private clubs. Could this doctor, a respectable middle-class professional, really have killed? And what if the authorities have got it wrong? Eventually, though, the jury return a verdict. Willful murder. Palmer, who claims his innocence to the last, is taken north for execution in Stafford. On the day of

his death, a crowd of 50,000 and a throng of reporters gather to witness his final moments. With apparent composure and perhaps cold disassociation, Palmer climbs the scaffold with what the papers describe as a jaunty air before dropping to his fate at the end of a room. He has become quite the character, hasn't he? You know, you talked about the way he approached the noose and there's something, and I often find this, so this isn't necessarily unique to him, but it's worth discussing, I think. There's something often in the legacy that is left behind after these types of criminals are hanged. And one of those legacies is the death mask and Victorian ideas that surrounded the death mask. I was wondering, A, do you know if he had one? And B, could you tell us a little bit more about the kind of

phrenology that went along with those things? Well, you're spot on, Anthony, when you talk about this kind of almost mythologising of Palmer. He becomes this character in the press and he's someone that Charles Dickens comments on. And the press kind of make him out to be, on the one hand, this monster who is disassociating from the crimes that he's done and doesn't show any remorse. And there's a kind of wallowing in the gruesomeness of the crimes and the insidiousness of what he has done. In terms of the death mask, yes, absolutely. Like many executed criminals, particularly famous murderers, there is a death mask made of Parma. We actually have images of it. I'm not sure where the original is or if it still exists,

but throughout the 19th century, there were prints, reproductions of it that were sold. You could buy these, quite wide one to own one, I'm not sure. I suppose he becomes a kind of collectible curiosity. The death mask, I have a copy in front of me of a print depicting the death mask of Palmer, and it's incredibly intimate. His head is shaved, or I suppose he was probably nearly bald at that time anyway. And for a man who died, I think he's 31, 32 when he dies. He looks like an old man. It's a very strangely tangible artefact that takes you to the moment of his death. And it literally brings you face to face with this serial killer. With Palmer

specifically, what's fascinating is that the death mask is used in conversations about phrenology. So phrenology is, as many listeners will know, this 19th century concept that the shape of your head is somehow connected to criminality, that you can predict people who are going to be criminally inclined, who are going to be mentally unwell based on the shape of their head. Of course, it is nonsense and it becomes co-opted within the 19th century and afterwards in terms of colonialism and becomes this racialised conversation. It's very interesting that in 1855, Palmer is used in these early conversations. And what I think is quite hypocritical almost about this idea, to me, it undermines it, that nobody could have predicted Palmer would do

this. He's a respectable middle class doctor. He's a pillar of the community in which he lives. He's medically trained. He's trustworthy. He takes an oath to protect life, not to take it. I find this idea that if only someone had looked at his head properly, they would know exactly what he was going to do. I find that completely ridiculous. And it's so interesting, therefore, that the death mask is used to explore those ideas and to uphold that theory that the life and crimes of Palmer really undermine, I think. Once when I was about six or seven, I jumped off a tractor and I landed on a hold to that theory that the life and crimes of palm are really undermined i think once when i was about six or seven i jumped off a tractor and i landed on a bale of hay and i fell backwards and i hit my head off one of those like wheel nuts on a tractor and so i have this dent in the back of

my head even still from that i'm just wondering what phrenologists would have thought had they examined my cranium i dread to think Listen we shall leave it there I think. Let's leave it there. I hope everybody has enjoyed finding out about Palmer the Poisoner. It's not something I had known about previously. Thank you so much for listening. Join us again next time where we explore another dark and mystifying history on After Dark. missions of all time. Suddenly out of the darkness appeared Bin Laden. You'll meet the people who live life undercover. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do

in their position? Vengeance felt good. Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous. True Spies from Spyscape Studios. Wherever you get your podcasts.

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