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UNSOLVED CRIMES |
Date
Added |
 |
Poetry, Passion and
Prison |
May 2003 |
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Adelaide Bartlett was boyishly
attractive, with bobbed hair, full lips and flashing eyes. She
had few friends outside her husband's immediate family, and even they
were often at loggerheads with the willful young foreigner who had
come into their midst.
Adelaide was born in Orleans, France, in 1856 to an English father and
a wealthy, unmarried, French mother. At the age of 17 she came
to England to complete her education, staying in London at the home of
her guardian. A regular visitor to the house was her guardian's
brother, Edwin Bartlett, who speedily wooed, won and wed her.
Edwin, who at 29 was 10 years older than Adelaide, was a hard working
and prosperous family grocer, a kindly man - but one whose lifestyle
was not to his young bride's taste.
Adelaide fell out with Edwin's family - all except his younger
brother, Frederick, with whom she had an affair. While Edwin
devoted himself ever more diligently to his business, the bored wife
remained at home sewing and organising the household chores - and
waiting for Frederick's illicit visits.
She made so little secret of her attraction to Frederick that the
brothers' father intervened. After one acrimonious row, during
which Adelaide learned that the older Mr Bartlett was planning to move
in to the family home at her husband's invitation, she stormed from
the house and was not seen again for some days. Since Frederick
was also absent for this period, tongues began to wag... so much so
that when Adelaide's anger cooled and she returned home, she forced
her father-in-law to write a letter of apology to her.
In 1885 the Bartletts moved to a grander home in Pimlico. There
they were visited regularly by a young Wesleyan minister with a
penchant for poetry, the Rev. George Dyson.
Edwin considered Dyson to be an improving influence on his wife and
encouraged their friendship. What he may not have realised was
that the minister's flowery poetry was often directed at Adelaide.
He wrote to her:
Who is is that hath burst the door,
Unclosed the heart that shut before
And set her queen-like on its throne
And made its homage all her own?
My Birdie!
The Rev. Dyson did not confine his expressions of love to the written
word. And his love affair with Adelaide was aided by her
husband's strange reaction to the couple's growing closeness.
Bartlett not only condoned his wife's friendship, he actively
encouraged it. He even made a will leaving everything to his
wife and naming Dyson as the executor.
Then, in December 1885, Edwin Bartlett fell ill. He had always
prided himself on being particularly fit but this illness, diagnosed
by the family doctor as acute gastritis, took its toll on him and he
sank fast. Edwin died on New Years Day 1886.
The doctor was sufficiently suspicious to press for a post-mortem
examination, which revealed large quantities of liquid chloroform in
his stomach. Everything pointed to poisoning. Yet there
was one inexplicable fact... there were no traces of the burning
chloroform in Edwin's mouth or throat.
Both lovers were charged with the murder, although the case against
Dyson was later dropped for lack of evidence despite his admission
that he had bought quantities of chloroform at various chemists'
shops.
At her trial, the attractive Adelaide played brilliantly on the
emotions and Victorian prejudices of the jury. She admitted
dosing her husband with chloroform. But she claimed pathetically
that she had first used the drug to curb his sexual demands, then
later to help Edwin sleep during his illness.
The jury was sympathetic. They were also baffled by the means by
which the chloroform was administered without causing burning to the
throat. Thy acquitted Adelaide Bartlett, who disappeared without
trace after her trial. It was reported that she emigrated to
America.
A famous surgeon, Sir James Paget of London's St Bartholomew's
Hospital, commented: 'Now that it is all over, she should tell us in
the interests of science how she did it'. |
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