Dorothea Waddingham

Dorothea, born in 1899, was not a very attractive woman. She was very thin, had a long face and large teeth. She also had a long criminal record of fraud and petty theft. In 1935 she and her lover, Ronald Joseph Sullivan, opened a nursing home in Nottingham.

In January 1935 Dorothea was sent her first two patients; 89 year old Mrs Baguley and 50 year-old Ada Baguley. Over time Dorothea and Mrs Baguley came to an agreement that Dorothea would care for her until her death, as long as Mrs Baguley left her her entire estate, which amounted to around £1600, a great deal of money at that time. On the 6th May Mrs Baguley wrote out her will leaving all of her estate to Dorothea Waddingham. Six days later Mrs Baguley died of a cerebral haemorrhage (stroke). Nobody thought anything of this as, afterall, the woman was off quite an age. Four days later Ada died, also of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Suspicion was aroused when Dorothea produced a letter supposedly from Ada, claiming she wished to be buried and not to inform any of her relatives of her death. The medical health officer ordered a post-mortem. He discovered three grains of morphine in the corpse. The body of Mrs Baguley was exhumed and examined and, again, a lethal amount of morphine was found.

Dorothea Waddingham was arrested along with her partner. Sullivan was later released having nothing to do with it, but Dorothea was sentenced to death. She was hanged on 16th April 1936.