Real-life Inspiration
In 1848, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Norwich, by James Blomfield Rush, a troublemaking tenant farmer of theirs. Rush had been their tenant for nearly a decade, and he had mortgaged and remortgaged his farm to raise money for improvements (so he said), but without improving the farm's output. The deadline to pay off the mortgages was approaching; otherwise foreclosure and eviction would follow (adversely affecting both his children and his pregnant mistress, their governess Emily Sandford). The Jermys had problems with the title to their estate, with relatives who claimed it was theirs. However, Isaac Jermy was the Recorder of Norwich, so he was a prominent local man with legal connections, thus it was unlikely that he would lose the property. Rush's plan was to kill both Jermys, their servant, and the younger Jermy's pregnant wife while disguised, and blame the massacre on the rival claimants to the estate.
Rush planned that Emily Sandford would provide an alibi, by stating that he was at the farm during the hour or so that the crime was committed. Rush wore a false wig and whiskers, but failed to hide his body sufficiently so that the wounded Mrs Jermy and the servant Elizabeth Chestney survived to identify him. Emily Sandford also refused to support his alibi. Tried in 1849, Rush defended himself (badly) and was convicted. He was subsequently hanged.
Read more about this topic: Blanche Fury
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