William Palmer (murderer) - Early Life and Suspected Poisonings

Early Life and Suspected Poisonings

Born in Rugeley, Staffordshire, William Palmer was the sixth of seven children to Sarah and Joseph Palmer. His father worked as a sawyer, and died when William was 12, leaving Sarah with a legacy of some £70,000.

As a seventeen-year-old, Palmer worked as an apprentice at a Liverpool chemist's, but was dismissed after three months following allegations that he stole money. He studied medicine in London, and qualified as a physician in August 1846. After returning to Staffordshire later that year he met plumber and glazier George Abley at the Lamb and Flag public house in Little Haywood, and challenged him to a drinking contest. Abley accepted, and an hour later was carried home, where he died in bed later that evening; nothing was ever proven, but locals noted that Palmer had an interest in Abley's attractive wife.

He returned to his home town of Rugeley to practise as a doctor, and, in St. Nicholas Church, Abbots Bromley, married Ann Thornton (born 1827; also known as Brookes as her mother was the mistress of a Colonel Brookes) on 7 October 1847. His new mother-in-law, also called Ann Thornton, had inherited a fortune of £8,000 after Colonel Brookes committed suicide in 1834. She died on 18 January 1849, two weeks after coming to stay with Palmer; she was known to have lent him money. An elderly Dr Bamford recorded a verdict of apoplexy. Palmer was disappointed with the inheritance he and his wife gained from the death, having expected it to be much greater.

Palmer became interested in horse racing and borrowed money from Leonard Bladen, a man he met at the races. Bladen lent him £600, but died in agony at Palmer's house on 10 May 1850. His wife was surprised to find that Bladen died with little money on him, despite having recently won a large sum at the races; his betting books were also missing, thus there was no evidence of his having lent Palmer any money. Bladen's death certificate listed Palmer as "present at the death", and stated the cause of death as "injury of the hip joint, 5 or 6 months; abscess in the pelvis".

His first son, William Brookes Palmer, was born in either 1848 or 1850. He outlived his father, dying on 29 April 1926. William and Ann had four more children, who all died in infancy, the cause of death listed as "convulsions":

• Elizabeth Palmer. Died on 6 January 1851. She was about two and a half months old at the time of death.
• Henry Palmer. Died on 6 January 1852. He was about a month old.
• Frank Palmer. Died on 19 December 1852, only 7 hours following his birth.
• John Palmer. Died on 27 January 1854. He was three or four days old.

As infant mortality was not uncommon a the time, these deaths were not initially seen as suspicious, though after Palmer's conviction in 1856 there was speculation that he had administered poison to the children to avoid the expense of more mouths to feed. By 1854 Palmer was heavily in debt, and he began forging his mother's signature to pay off creditors. He took out life insurance on his wife with the Prince of Wales Insurance Company, and paid out a premium of £750 for a policy of £13,000. The death of Ann Palmer followed on 29 September 1854, at only 27 years old. She was believed to have died of cholera, as a cholera pandemic was affecting Great Britain (causing 23,000 deaths across the country).

Still heavily in debt, with two creditors (whom he owed £12,500 and £10,400) threatening to speak to his mother (thereby exposing his fraud), Palmer attempted to take out life insurance on his brother, Walter, for the sum of £84,000. Unable to find a company willing to insure him for such a sum, he instead returned to the Prince of Wales Insurance Company, paying out a premium of £780 for a policy of £14,000. Walter was a drunk, and soon became reliant on his brother, who readily plied him with several bottles of gin and brandy a day. Walter Palmer died on 16 August 1855. However the insurance company refused to pay up, and instead dispatched inspectors Simpson and Field to investigate. The pair found that William Palmer had also been attempting to take out £10,000 worth of insurance on the life of George Bate, a farmer who was briefly under his employment. They found that Bates was either misinformed or lying about the details of his insurance policy, and they informed Palmer that the company would not pay out on the death of his brother, and that they further recommended a further enquiry into his death.

At about this time, Palmer was involved in an affair with Eliza Tharme, his housemaid. On 26 June/27 June 1855, Tharme gave birth to Alfred. He was an illegitimate son to Palmer. His life and his debts spiralling out of control, he then planned the murder of his friend John Cook.