Mary Ann Burdock

At 30-years-old, Mar Ann Burdock was an attractive woman running a boarding house. When sailor Charles Wade came to stay for a while, she fell in love immediately. Charles told her he wanted to marry her, but could not as he could not keep her. He said if he could buy a shop and run it, he would be able to provide for her and therefore marry her.

Mary realised it was money standing in the way of their happiness, so she thought of a way to get around it. Another of Mary’s lodgers was Mrs Clara Smith, an elderly lady who, as Mary knew, kept her savings in a box under her bed. Mary believed there was several thousand pounds in here. Mary took some arsenic and poisoned the old lady, taking the money before anyone realised.

However just as Mary thought she was going to live a long, happy life with Charles, things went wrong. A relative of her victim became suspicious that Clara Smith had no money at death, when he knew that she had been keeping a large sum of money for later on. He contacted the police. The body of Clara Smith was exhumed, and traces of arsenic were found. Mary was arrested and found guilty of murder, sentenced to death. She was hanged on 15th April 1935.