"The court doth order You
to be taken from hence...
to the place of execution
and that you be hanged
by the neck until
you are dead..." |
| Florence Chandler and James Maybrick |
If anyone had told Florence Chandler she would be sentenced
to hang from an English gallows in Liverpool, she probably would never have
left the comforts of her Mobile, Alabama home. But misadventures are never
known beforehand, so an unwitting Florie (as she liked to be called) and her
mother, Baroness Caroline von Roques, boarded the SS Baltic on March 12, 1880.
Their final destination was Paris.
By the time the Baltic docked in Liverpool, Florie had
changed her destination. Impulsive and headstrong at age eighteen, she had
fallen in love during the crossing. She decided to marry an Englishman.
 |
The Chandler Mansion in Mobile, Alabama,
birthplace of Florence Chandler
|
James Maybrick was 24 years old the day Florrie was born.
Now, at 42, Maybrick had several dark secrets that he did not tell the young
American.
Had she known, one can only hope Florie would have made
better choices, she might have later recalled the Baltic voyage as a wonderful
memory, not as a time to regret.
Behind the gentlemanly facade lived a man with a double
life. Florie thought she had fallen in love with a successful cotton merchant
who lived in Liverpool but also spent much of each year in Norfolk, Virginia.
Unknown to Florie, Maybrick had an English mistress with whom he had several
children. Also unknown to Florie, Maybrick had a bad drug habit. He was hooked
on arsenic and strychnine.
People with double lives are often very good at keeping
personal secrets. In the summer of 1881, when Florence Elizabeth Chandler
married Maybrick at St. James Church in London's Piccadilly, she knew her
husband had contracted Malaria during one of his trips to Norfolk. (Malaria had
spread in epidemic proportions during the Civil War.) While Maybrick had
recovered from the disease itself, he had not recovered from the treatment. He
would remain addicted to the ingredients of Fowler's Medicine (arsenic and
strychnine ) for the rest of his life.
A chemical element, arsenic was a component of other
interesting products during the late 19th century. Women (including Florie
Maybrick) sometimes used it as a cosmetics base and chemists used it in
flypaper, among other things. Even Queen Elizabeth I used arsenic as part of
the preparation that made her face appear white.
It wasn't until Florie found "white powder"
stashed in various places around her house that she knew her husband had a drug
habit. But that was several years after her wedding. And it was well after
Florence had two children: James Chandler (called "Bobo") born in
1882, and Gladys Evelyn, born in 1885.
Long before 1887, Maybrick was a full-fledged "arsenic
eater." Later, a chemist (Edwin Garnett Heaton) from whom Maybrick
obtained his "medicine," said that Maybrick came into the shop on
Exchange Street East as many as five times a day to get his
"pick-me-up." But by 1887, the "pick-me-up" was producing
disastrous effects on Maybrick's personality. He was short tempered and started
to beat Florie.
Ever the headstrong woman, Florie took a lover - Alfred
Brierly - a friend of the Maybricks. It came as no surprise to family friends,
but when Maybrick realised the truth he was outraged. The fact that Maybrick
had kept a mistress throughout his marriage was beside the point.
From Maybrick's recently discovered diary (maybe genuine,
maybe not) we learn that Maybrick decided to stop taking huge doses of arsenic
during the spring of 1889. Medical knowledge available at the time stated such
a step could produce fatal results for a long-standing "arsenic
eater."
Just before her husband became desperately ill, Florie lost
her arsenic-based cosmetic prescription. In Mid-April, 1889, she decided to
make up the concoction herself by soaking flypaper to distill out the arsenic.
Not making any effort to hide what she was doing, Florie and her flypaper were
spotted by all the Maybrick's house servants. Unknown - at least initially - to
Florie, Nurse Yapp's tongue started to wag: Was the mistress trying to poison
Master Maybrick? By early May, as Maybrick's condition deteriorated, Nurse Yapp
talked to a family friend. Mrs. Briggs telegraphed Maybrick's brothers with the
words:
Come at once; strange things going on here
Michael Maybrick took charge. By all accounts he saw to it
that Maybrick changed his Will. Michael was now given the authority to handle
his brother's estate. Florie was all but cut out. It never was completely clear
- and still isn't to this day - whether Maybrick's last Will was a forgery. The
certified copy of the Will is hard to read, but contemporary newspapers
published transcriptions of it.
Florie was essentially banned from her husband's sick room,
although she was able to see Maybrick occasionally. She continued to see Alfred
Brierly and, to her everlasting regret, Florie wrote a note to Brierly which
she asked Maybrick's nurse, Alice Yapp, to post.
When things go wrong, they often go really wrong, and such
was the case with Florie's ill-conceived letter to Brierly. Little Gladys
Maybrick, walking to the post office with the nurse, was holding the letter and
dropped it into a mud puddle. Instead of returning the letter to Florie for a
new envelope, Alice Yapp opened it. Instead of simply putting the letter -
unread - into a new envelope, the nurse studied what was inside. Here is part
of what she read.
Dearest
...I cannot answer your letter fully to-day, my darling, but
relieve your mind of all...fear of discovery now and in the future. M. has been
delirious since Sunday, and I know now that he is perfectly ignorant of
everything... Excuse this scrawl, my own darling, but I dare not leave the room
for a moment, and I do not know when I shall be able to write to you again. In
haste, yours ever. Florie...
Florie's words to Brierly were never read by Brierly. But
within hours her words were known to everyone at Battlecrease Mansion. What
better way to fan the flames of rumor? Florie had set herself up for bad
things in the event her husband died.
 |
| St Georges Hall Liverpool the scene of the Trial |
 |
| Sir Charles Russell |
On May 11, 1889 James Maybrick died. Within hours, Florie
became a prisoner in her own home. Michael Maybrick had taken charge. Three
days later, Florence was arrested for the murder of her husband. A coroner, on
May 13th, had found death was "due to inflammation of the stomach and
bowels set up by some irritant poison."
Baroness von Roques hired a barrister who had been a
terrific trial lawyer during his prime. But in 1889, Sir Charles Russell was
past his prime. He had suffered a string of losses and, just before
representing Florie, he had fought a long, gruelling trial. A tired lawyer,
past his prime, could only spell trouble for Florence Maybrick.
The Trial began with the Crown's Opening Statement presented
by lead counsel John Addison. The case was finished in seven days. Even now,
more than 100 years later, it is shocking to comprehend that Florie's jury was
never told about the extent of Maybrick's addiction to arsenic and strychnine.
Even so, they knew that he had taken "the powder" and his chemist told
the court and jury about Maybrick's medicine.
 |
| Mr John Addison |
Almost worse than this omission, however, was a serious
mistake Sir Charles made at the end of the proceedings. Instead of controlling
his client - and the trial - he allowed Florence to make a statement to the
court. Trying to explain that she used the flypaper to make a cosmetic
concoction, Florence pleaded her innocence to the jury. But since this was the
first time Florie made the statement during the trial proceedings, her efforts
predictably backfired. Her lawyer should have known better.
Trial judges in British courts are allowed to comment on the
evidence. This is a procedure that ought to be - and usually is - handled with
great care. But Justice Stephen, who abhorred Florie's affair with Brierly - and
bluntly said so - told the jury Florie's statement was a lie.
 |
| Justice James Fitzjames Stephen, K.C.S.I |
The judge took two of the seven trial days to summarise the
case against Florence. Many of his facts were completely wrong. His bias was
clear. Before Sir Charles allowed Florence to make her statement, most trial
observers thought the verdict would be "not guilty." After the
statement, and the judge's comments, it took the jury 35 minutes to find
Florence Maybrick guilty of capital murder.
Now it was up to Florie's biased judge to pass sentence on
her. British judges followed a tradition before imposing a death sentence: They
wore a black cap before speaking. As Justice Stephen was about to pass
sentence, he put on his black cap. There was a gasp in the courtroom. Florence
Maybrick was sentenced to hang until she was dead.
Because Britain did not have a Court of Criminal Appeals in
1889, Florence was doomed. Criminal defendants who lost cases - even if the
trial was a travesty, the judge was insane and counsel was incompetent - had no
recourse. There was no place to appeal a blatantly unfair and wrong result.
Only the queen could save Florie Maybrick.
But Queen Victoria was not known as a compassionate monarch
who regularly pardoned criminals. Not until the public staged a huge
groundswell of support - with multiple petitions for clemency - did the Queen
act. As reflected in "An Open Letter to the Queen," published in the
September 1892 issue of The North American Review, even Caroline Scott Harrison
(wife of then - President Benjamin Harrison) begged Victoria to show mercy.
Noted in the various petitions, sent to Her Majesty, was the lack of judicial
recourse because of a non-existent appellate process.
Four days before Florie was scheduled to hang, the Home
Secretary issued an order that spared her life. Her sentence was commuted to
"penal servitude for life." She served fifteen years in Woking and
Aylesbury Prisons
By 1907, the criminal justice system was changed when
Britain's Court of Criminal Appeal was established. Had Florence Maybrick been
tried in 1907 - even if all else remained the same - she would likely have been
a free woman as soon as her case was reviewed by an appellate court. But
Florence did not have that luxury, and she served her entire 15-year sentence.
When Florence was set free in 1904, she spent six months in
a convent in Truro, Cornwall. The Truro Cathedral currently contains a painting
that depicts the beauty of this part of England, which is near the sea. But
Florie did not stay in Cornwall. She wanted to return to her own country. She
and her mother, Baroness von Roques, traveled to America together.
Everyone clamored to hear Florie's story. She wrote a book
about her ordeal, My Lost Fifteen Years, and became a fixture on the American lecture
circuit. After two years of constantly reliving her story, though, Florie gave
up the security of a steady income. She had had enough.
Source
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Records Office
Robert F Edwards
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