Mary Ann Cotton

Mary Ann Cotton was born in a small village in North England on 31st October 1832, to a miner father who died while Mary was just 8. The mother had to take care of three children, while suffering with the depression owing to her husband’s death. Mary’s mother remarried a few years later, but Mary hated her stepfather. The constant assaults from her stepfather left Mary no choice but to run away from home at the age of 16.

The nearby village of South Hetton was her destination and she started working there as a nurse at the house of a manager named Edward Potter. A few years later, she returned back to her stepfather’s house and started working as a dressmaker with dreams of making wealth and she got married for the first time at the age of 20.

Mary Ann got married for first time at the age of 20 to a labourer William Mowbray and the couple moved to South West England where she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Margaret Jane. Another daughter was born two years later and when two more years passed, her first daughter Margaret died in 1860. Mary gave birth to two more children - a boy and a girl - over the next few years. In early 1965, her husband, William, died of an illness. Doctors said he died of gastric fever.

William was properly insured and Mary collected 35 Pounds on his death from the insurance company, British and Prudential Insurance Company. Mary moved to Seaham Harbour upon her husband’s death and started a love affair with Joseph Nattrass. Her daughter Margaret died of a sickness a few months later and Mary returned back to Sunderland, where she started working in an infirmary.

Mary’s good looks helped her with getting the attention of George Ward, who happened to be one of the patients in the infirmary, where she worked as a nurse. The couple dated for some time and got married in August 1965. Roughly a year later, George succumbed to an illness with symptoms of paralyzed body and intestinal infections. English Cholera was found out to be the cause by the doctors who said that he had been suffering from the illness since a very long time, but even then, they said his sudden death was surprising, but no suspicions were raised. Mary Ann took the insurance money and started a relationship with a widower, James Robinson.

Mary was hired by James as a housekeeper, who had a son, John Robinson, from his previous marriage. Soon, sis son died of gastric fever, breaking James emotionally. Mary came ahead to comfort him and ended up getting pregnant.

In 1866, she heard the news about her mother getting severely ill with hepatitis, and although she was recovering, Mary still went to see her. Suddenly, her mother started complaining of stomach cramps and died in the spring of 1867.

The investigation by some local newspapers revealed that Mary had moved many places around North England and whosoever she married, they all, along with their children, died from the same cause. Charles Cotton’s proper post mortem was done and arsenic was found in his body, claimed as the cause of his death. Samples of many of her previous victims also clarified a certain amount of Arsenic in the bodies. Mary Ann was finally arrested in 1873 and her trial began in March that year. Mary claimed she was innocent since the very end but eventually, all the proofs went against her, and she was sentenced to death by hanging.