Serial Poisoner Dr. Thomas Neill Cream
SEASON 3 : EPISODE 38
MAY 8, 2024
In terms of notoriety, this case belongs alongside the likes of HH Holmes and Jack the Ripper. His name usually comes up in both of their stories, but the truth about him is comparatively lesser known.
This is the story of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.
Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @agoodnightforamurder and subscribe where ever you listen to Podcasts.
Listen via Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, or where ever you listen podcasts.
The bonus content on Patreon for this episode is the story of another bad Victorian doctor.
This is the story of Dr. William Palmer.
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ARTICLES
A true-crime columnist turns his attention to Victorian-era serial killer Thomas Neill Cream
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream: “I am Jack…” the Ripper?
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream: Jack the Ripper Suspect
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (1850-1892)
The Crimes Of Thomas Neill Cream, The Victorian Doctor Who Killed His Patients
In Victorian London, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream Was a New Kind of Killer
Understanding physician and surgeon credentials
James Billington (executioner)
Victorian Era Medicine: Strychnine
Ether and Chloroform Were the Anesthetics of the U.S. Civil War
A Brief History of Abortion Law in America
Historical Abortion Law Timeline: 1850 to Today
VICTORIAN SOCIETY TIP SOURCES
The Queer Victorian Doctors Who Paved the Way for Women in Medicine
A Brief History On Women Doctors in the British Empire
Victorian Women and the Professions. The Female Doctor
History of the Female Physician
The Medical Practitioner Who Paved the Way for Women Doctors in America
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain
Why Women Shouldn’t be Doctors (According to Victorian medical men)
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INTRO
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
My name is Kim, welcome back for season 3 of A Good Night For a Murder podcast! In terms of notoriety, this case belongs alongside the likes of HH Holmes and Jack the Ripper. His name usually comes up in both of their stories, but the truth about him is comparatively lesser known.
This is the story of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.
But first, a Victorian society tip.
TIP
So… true confession, I had actually written this episode for the end of season 2 back in February
Then the days and weeks just started slipping by and all of a sudden it was March
So I thought, “Okay, I’ll just release this in March, which happened to be Women’s History Month.”
But clearly, that plan fell apart as well since here we are in May!
Apologies aside though, I don’t see why I can’t use this content I planned for Women’s History Month right now, as women’s history is important year round
Especially for this podcast
So, since the subject of tonight’s episode is a Victorian era doctor, we’re going to use this Victorian Society Tip to talk about Victorian views of women as doctors, and some female pioneers in the medical field.
First, let’s hear what some Victorian male doctors had to say about women entering their field:
First, they were offended by women studying alongside them
One man noted a number of “demoralising spectacles” he’d witnessed including - quote - “a young woman dissecting the thigh of a male subject while several male students were dissecting other parts of the same body.”
And, “another young woman, with unblushing front, taking notes along with young men, her fellow-students of a lecture […] exclusively devoted to the mons Veneris, clitoris, and hymen.”
Oh my…!
As noted in an 1870 edition of Medical Press and Circular, “Ladies are all very well in their place, and that is looking after the latest Paris fashions and making tea at home.”
When women clapped back that female patients may be more inclined to see a female doctor, one doctor disagreed, insisting women inherently don’t like other women
He said, “...women hate one another, often at first sight, with a rancour of which men can form only a faint conception.”
Are you mad yet?
Don’t worry, I’m ready to tell you about a number of women who heard those men, and didn’t care… they did it anyway…
First is Emily Blackwell, born in 1826 who became the second woman to earn a medical degree at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH in 1854
She, along with her sister Elizabeth, established the Women's Medical College in New York City
She also established the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in 1857, created the Women's Central Association of Relief, and helped form the London School of Medicine for Women
Marie Zakrzewska (Zach-shev-ska), whose mother was a midwife in Germany, was born in 1829
She assisted the Blackwell sisters with starting the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children
She also established the first general training school for nurses in America in 1862 within the New England Hospital.
Plus she also introduced the idea of “sand gardens for children” to America, modeled after those she saw in Germany
Big sandboxes, essentially - These were the first public playgrounds!
Lucy Sewall was born in 1857 in Roxbury, Massachusetts
She earned her medical degree in 1862 from New England Female Medical College
She also studied in London and Paris then went on to become 1 of 2 physicians for New England Hospital for Women and Children
She would later become director of the hospital as well as maintain her own private practice
In 1881, she, along with 8 other women in medicine approached Harvard about admitting women in to their medical program
They offered $50,000 to get them started - thats $1.5 million in today’s money
But, Harvard turned them down
Harvard Medical School wouldn’t admit their first class of women until 1945, and that was only a 10-year trial to - quote - “measure productivity and accomplishment of women both during and after medical schooling.”
1945… how embarrassing for them…
Moving on, Harriet Hunt was born in Boston in 1805
She got in to medicine when doctors failed to help her sister, Sarah
She sought the expertise of Dr. Richard Dixon Mott and his wife Elizabeth Mott
The Motts were kind of a power couple that focused on alternative methods of rest and relaxation as well as herbal remedies to help strengthen and cure patients
These treatments did help Harriet’s sister and she herself started practicing medicine in 1835, albeit without a medical diploma
She applied in Harvard Medical School twice, once in 1847 and again in 1849
In one instance, the new dean, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., was considering her application but all the other men raised such a fuss over it, he was forced to turn her down.
1853 she received an Honorary Doctor of Medicine from the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania
Susan Dimock was born in 1847 in Washington, NC
After the Civil War she moved to Sterling, MA where she attended an all girls school and- quote - “undertook an ambitious reading of every medical textbook she could borrow.”
In 1866, she was permitted to observe the wards and dispensary of New England Hospital for Women and Children
Then eventually permitted to attend clinical rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital and those of the Eye and Ear Infirmary
She was also rejected from Harvard , but was able to receive her degree from University of Zurich in 1871
Eventually she traveled back to MA where she become a resident physician New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1872
On September 1, 1872 she opened the first graded school of nursing in the United States
She worked as a surgeon, developed a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology, and performed a number of important surgical operations, a number of which are referenced in contemporary medical journals.
And she did this all before the age of 28!
She tragically died on May 7 1875 in steamship wreck
Sara Josephine Baker was born in 1873 in Poughkeepsie, NY
After her father and brother died, she decided she had to support her mother and sister, so she enrolled at the women’s school of New York Infirmary Medical College
After a year-long internship at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, she began a private practice in New York City
Dr. Baker effectively waged war on high infant blindness and mortality rates in New York
From Wikipedia - “
Baker and a group of nurses started to train mothers in how to care for their babies:
how to clothe infants to keep them from getting too hot, how to feed them a good diet, how to keep them from suffocating in their sleep, and how to keep them clean
She set up a milk station where clean milk was given out.
Commercial milk at that time was often contaminated, or mixed with chalky water to improve colour and maximize profit.
Baker also invented an infant formula made out of water, calcium carbonate, lactose, and cow milk.[13]
This enabled mothers to go to work so they could support their families.
She also invented single dose silver nitrate drops to prevent infant blindness transmitted by ghonnorhea during birth
blindness decreased from 300 babies per year to 3 per year after this
Baker also convinced New York City to license midwives to ensure some degree of quality and expertise,
and worked to make sure each school had a dr and nurse to monitor for lice and other infections in children
If her name sounds a little bit familiar, Dr. Baker is also noted for her involvement in the case of Mary Mallon, AKA Typhoid Mary in 1907 - which I covered in season 1!
Elizabeth Garret Anderson, born in 1836 and was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon.
She’d heard of Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell’s work in the US and started working as nurse at Middlesex hospital in London
She then moved on to the out patient’s clinic, and then on to surgery
She hired private tutors for anatomy and physiology and was eventually allowed in to the dissecting room and chemistry lectures
She was admitted to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries but only via a loophole which did not explicitly prevent women from enrolling
She did receive her license from there, after which the school immediately amended their policy to exclude women
She couldn’t get hired anywhere so opened her own practice
Then, she learned French she could attend the University of Sorbonne in Paris that did accept women to their program
She obtained her degree then became the first women to be made a visiting physician of the East London Hospital for Children
She went on to co-found and become a lecturer at the London School of Medicine for Women, the only teaching hospital in Britain to offer courses for women at the time.[41]
She continued to work there for the rest of her career and was dean of the school from 1883 to 1902
The last woman I’m going to tell you about is Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who was born in 1831
She was an American physician, nurse, author, and she was also black.
She graduated from New England Female Medical College in 1864, making her the first women of color to become a doctor of medicine in the United States.
In 1865 she moved to Richmond, Virginia where she worked with the Freedmen's Bureau to provide medical care to freedmen and freedwomen who were denied care by white physicians
Eventually she moved back to Boston where she specialized treating children, whether or not their families could pay
1883 she published, “A Book of Medical Discourses,” making her one of the first female physician authors of the nineteenth century.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome back for season 3 everyone!
Right off the bat, I want to welcome new Patreon members who joined just prior to the break: Logan, Valeri, and Aubrey
Thank you so much for supporting the podcast, I’m so glad you’re here
Now before we can get started with tonight’s story, we do have to talk about some changes for season 3.
The biggest change is that instead of two monthly episodes, A Good Night For a Murder will now be releasing episodes only once a month
And I understand if that is disappointing to you to hear
But, I think my writing and storytelling style has evolved so the episodes are consistently a little bit longer than they were in the beginning, the Victorian Society Tips seem to have stretched in length a bit, and the Patreon bonus content seems to have filled out a little more too
I just have found my way in to a style where what I want to tell you, is what I want to tell you
I can’t shorten it
And along with that, comes longer research time, and editing time,
and I just found it was taking me longer to put together episodes that met the quality of storytelling I wanted to share with you
I’ve said before, this entire podcast is a one-woman show, and I have a full time job, and I am a parent
And that made it challenging to produce episodes every two weeks
I found myself having to publish episodes late or even skip episodes in some cases
and if there’s one thing I want to do, it’s to get you episodes when I say I’m say I’m going to get them to you.
And to do that, I had to pull back to one episode per month
So, going forward for season 3, there will be one episode per month, inclusive of one story plus a Victorian Society tip
Housekeeper and Butler tier Patreon members though, will continue to receive two episodes per month
They’ll continue to receive the bonus content that accompanies every regular episode, PLUS, a monthly Good Night Snack episode, available ONLY on Patreon!
If you’re interested in learning more about the Patreon, you can visit my website at agoodnightforamurder.com
If you’re unable to contribute at the $5 Housekeeper and Butler tier level for the extra content though, and you’re bummed about only getting one episode per month, I’m also hoping this change will allow me to post more content on social media, so I can talk to you guys more often, and for free, on there
So, please follow me on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @agoodnightforamurder
Thank you all again for being here and supporting the podcast, I really appreciate each and every one of you
And with that, let’s move on to our story
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
This episode does include mentions of abortion.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
Thomas Neill Cream was born in Glasgow, Scotland on May 27, 1850
He would wind up being the oldest of 8 siblings
When he was about 4 or 5, the family moved from Glasgow to Canada, outside Quebec City
He attended school and actually apprenticed as a ship builder before deciding he’d rather study medicine
So in 1872 at the age of 22 he enrolled in McGill University in Montreal in pursuit of a medical degree
From the McGill News:
Thomas Neill Cream, MDCM 1876, enrolled in McGill’s medical school in 1872 as the scion of a prosperous family and as a well-respected member of Quebec City’s anglophone community.
He was a hard worker, a Sunday school teacher, a member of his church choir with a notably fine voice.
His neighbours joined with his boarding-school teachers in the opinion that he was an altogether fine young man of excellent character.
He left McGill a spendthrift, vain and unpleasant in manner, avoided by his peers and arousing the distaste of his professors.
One of his former instructors at McGill remembered Cream as being “rather wild and fond of ostentatious display of clothing and jewelry.”
So, it seems like Cream had quite the change of character while at McGill
Or, perhaps he was just finally showing his true colors….
Cream did graduate in 1876 with a MDCM degree
A MDCM degree is the same as a MD, it’s just McGill likes to call theirs something a little different
MDCM is an acronym for a Latin phrase that translates to Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery
Also in 1876, Cream entered in to a relationship with a young woman named Flora Brooks
When Flora accidentally became pregnant, Dr. Cream attempted to perform an abortion for her
But, there were complications and Flora unfortunately became very, very sick
It’s at this point that Cream attempted to flee the country, but he was caught by Flora’s father who forced her to marry him in a literal shotgun wedding ceremony
And I do mean literally
Her father apparently forced him back to Flora at gun point
The pair did marry, but as soon as he could, Cream was in the wind again
This time, he fled to London, England and the Brooks family never saw nor heard from Dr. Thomas Neill Cream again
Flora did recover from the botched abortion attempt, but would sadly die from tuberculosis a year later
In hindsight, some question whether or not Flora was one of the doctor’s first victims, though I don’t personally think that to be the case
In London, he received post graduate training at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School
Cream failed his examinations for The Royal Colleges of Surgeons, but went on to study at The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, where he did receive his diploma in 1878.
After this, he accepted a position for a physician in Des Moines, Iowa in the United States, but soon after returned to Canada - to Ontario this time - where he operated a clinic without a license
He was charged for this, and pled guilty, but that didn’t seem to do much to deter patients from visiting his practice
In 1879 though, a young woman named Catherine Hutchinson Gardner was found dead behind Dr. Cream’s office
It was determined that she died from chloroform poisoning
I think most people are familiar with how Hollywood depicts the use chloroform in movies and TV shows
But in real life in the 1870s, it was a little bit different…
Back then chloroform was commonly used as an anesthetic during surgeries
It became a popular choice when Queen Victoria used it during the birth of her 8th child, Price Leopold, in 1847
And became widely used in surgery during the Civil War from 1861 - 1865
In the movies, you’ll often see someone pass out from holding a chloroform soaked rag over their face after only a few moments
But in reality, it actually took several minutes of inhaling chloroform for it to take effect
And then you had to keep it coming, otherwise the person would wake up
The reason chloroform makes you pass out, is because it suppresses the nervous system, and slows everything down
Slow everything down too much though, and you’ll go in to cardiac arrest
In the case of young Catherine Gardner, it was also discovered that she was pregnant
When authorities asked Dr. Cream, “Why is there a dead, chloroformed pregnant lady in your back yard?”
He said she had come to him for an abortion, but he’d refused her
At this time, in Canada, abortion had been formally banned for the past decade
Instead, he’d encouraged her to hold a local businessman who she’d named as the father accountable
He even produced a letter from Catherine to him identifying who the father was
But, Catherine said she’d rather take her own life if he wouldn’t help her, and she’d chloroformed her self to death back behind his house…
Catherine’s family and roommate said that letter was not from her - it was forged
We all see what’s going on here right?
At the very least, he tried to perform an abortion and failed
At the other end of the spectrum, he’s probably the one who got her pregnant and she was going to tell everyone,
so he did away with her…
Either way, for whatever reason, police did not investigate further…
Some time in 1880, he moved to the US and opened a practice near Chicago’s red light district.
By this time all US states had laws restricting access to abortion
Now Dr. Cream did treat a variety of patients at his clinic, but he also became known for providing illegal abortions.
And in August of 1880, a patient of Dr. Cream’s, Mary Anne Faulkner, died
It started at a house at 1056 West Madison Street
I’m not too sure who owned the house… but there were 3 tenants who resided at it.
On the first floor was a man named George Green and his family
On the second floor there was a black woman by the name of Hattie Mack, or Mackey
I saw it both ways
And on the 3rd floor, in the attic apartment, was a woman named Miss Ellen Hackle
The first and 3rd floor tenants, Mr. Green and Miss Hackle, notice that the 2nd floor tenant, who we’ll call Ms Mackey, seems to have taken on a boarder who they described as a slim white woman
And for a short while, they noticed a man, who fit Dr. Creams description, was visiting the 2nd floor apartment 3 or 4 times a day
This excerpt that describes what happened next is from the Chicago Tribune:
Towards 4 o’clock on Friday morning an unusual noise on Mrs. Mackey’s floor aroused Mr. Green, who, arising, saw Mrs. Mackey leave the house, together with her children.
In the afternoon he went upon the second floor, but found the door to the rooms locked.
A horrible stench soon afterwards began to pervade the rooms, and Mr. Green reported the occurrence to Lieut. Steele, of the West Lake Street Sub-Station, who broke in the door of Mrs. Mackey’s rooms, where the decomposing remains of the … mysterious boarder were found lying upon a bed, and presented a sight which, combined with the odor, beat the officers back, and forced them to rush for the open [air].
A search of the premises revealed the fact that the unfortunate woman’s name was Mary Anne Matilda Faulkner and that she came originally from Ottawa, the Capital of the Dominion of Canada.
The first and 3rd floor tenants pointed police towards Dr. Cream,
It was also discovered that Ms. Mackey had left a note for Dr. Cream at a nearby pharmacy informing him that Mary Anne Faulkner had died
Police arrested both Dr. Cream and Ms. Mackey
Ms. Mackey said that in the recent past, Dr. Cream had performed an abortion for her, but she was unable to pay and was in debt to him.
He’d recently come to her and informed her he had a patient who was in need of an abortion and he needed somewhere to do it, and someone to care for the patient after the procedure
One source I had said that Ms. Mackey was actually a practicing midwife
So, Ms. Mackey agreed.
She said on August 12, 1880, Dr. Cream had performed the abortion in her apartment, but the procedure has gone badly
She said Dr. Cream looked in on her for the next few days - which would account for the multiple comings and goings the other two tenants noticed - but eventually Mary Anne died.
Dr. Cream said that it was Ms. Mackey who had tried to perform the abortion
But, something went wrong during the procedure and she had called in Dr. Cream for assistance
By the time Dr. Cream saw Mary Anne, she was already very sick
He’d done what he could for the girl, but, she was already too far gone.
He went on to say that he was confident that the pharmacist who had filled some of the scripts Dr. Cream prescribed for the girl would back him up
Unfortunately, it was a matter of he said/she said, and neither side could come up with enough evidence to prosecute
So, nothing happened
Later that year, Ellen Stack, another patient of Dr. Cream, died of what appeared to be strychnine poisoning
She was taking what she believed to be birth control pills that were manufactured by Dr. Cream.
Sadly, this incident went uninvestigated by police as well
Even after Dr. Cream tried to blackmail a local pharmacist, alleging he’d given him medications that were tampered with
Four months later, Alice Montgomery died in a rooming house up the road from Dr. Creams office from strychnine poisoning
This was ruled a murder, but was not linked to Cream at the time.
In hindsight, it seems reasonable that due to the proximity to Cream’s office, Alice may have been a victim of his as well.
I want to take a side bar for a moment here to discuss the use of strychnine
Because for a moment while researching this story, I thought, “Well, maybe he’s just a bad doctor?”
I knew that strychnine’s most popular use was that of a rodenticide, but Victorians were known to use some highly toxic substances in and on their body on the daily
So I looked up the medical applications of strychnine during the Victorian era, and there were some…
But none were what Dr. Cream seemed to be treating patients for
If you are curious (and I know you are…) some of the medical applications of strychnine included
Treatment of paralysis by being applied externally to the limbs or spine
Eye drops or injections to treat visual disturbances as it would cause contraction of the retina and surrounding muscles
Treatment of an irritable nervous systems?
This, I believe, was administered in pill form, sometimes chocolate covered, as strychnine is very bitter,
Seeing as too much strychnine would paralyze the nervous system I suppose it would indeed suppress an “irritable” nervous system..
And this final use is wholly unpleasant, if you’re at all squeamish I suggest fast forwarding just 20 seconds or so…
Strychnine injections were also used to treat rectal prolapse as the muscles would clench and hold everything in place…
If you fast forwarded, welcome back, you’re safe now…
Bottomline, based on those most common treatments, Dr. Cream was not accidentally overdosing his patients with strychnine
They were intentional poisonings, and his motive will become evident shortly…
About May or June of 1881, Daniel Stott started seeing Dr. Cream for epilepsy
Dr. Cream prescribed him some medication for it
But on June 14, 1881, Daniel Stott died
The cause of death was ruled to be epilepsy
While treating Daniel, Dr. Cream had grown close with the patient, as well as his wife, Julia
Cream says, “I don’t think this was epilepsy, I think it was some sort of poisoning.”
And he wrote to the pharmacist that had been providing the medication to Daniel, and said he is going to sue them on Julia’s behalf
OR they could pay Julia directly, and she won’t drag it out in court…
When the pharmacist ignored him, he then wrote to the coroner, who had already ruled the death natural, by the way…
And accused the pharmacist of poisoning Daniel, likely with strychnine
The coroner was like, “well, this is oddly specific, perhaps I ought to look closer in to this…”
And he took some of the leftover medication Daniel had been taking, and gave it to a dog
And the dog immediately got very sick and died… I know… I’m sorry…
What this told them though, was that they needed to exhume Daniel
When they did, they discovered he had enough strychnine in his body to kill him three times over…
When officials questioned the pharmacist, he said, “I absolutely did not fill any prescription with strychnine… in fact that Dr. Cream man who pointed you here, has also tried to blackmail me!”
Police investigate further, and discover that Dr. Cream had been having an affair with Daniel’s wife, Julia!
It would seem that Dr. Cream gave Julia the poison directly to get rid of her husband, then they’d try to get some money out of the deal by blackmailing the pharmacist
It was a poor plan, to be honest
If he hadn’t gotten greedy and tried to blackmail the pharmacist, they probably would have at least gotten away with the murder…
So Dr. Cream and Julia were arrested, but Julia turned state’s evidence
Which means she agreed to testify against Cream in exchange for avoiding jail time
Which worked, and Dr. Cream was sentenced to life imprisonment in Joliet Prison in Joliet, Illinois.
A friend of Daniel’s actually purchased a gravestone for him inscribed with, “Daniel Stott, Died June 12, 1881, Aged 61 Years, poisoned by his wife and Dr Cream.”
He is buried in the Garden Prairie Cemetery in Garden Prairie, Illinois.
Dr. Cream’s brother pled for leniency in his sentence, and may or may not have greased the palms of some legal officials, and succeeded in getting his brother’s sentence commuted for an early release.
So in 1891, Dr. Cream once again became a free man, having served only 10 years of what was originally a life sentence.
I want to take another sidebar here to call out that Cream was in prison in Illinois in the US from 1881 - 1891
There is a theory that Dr. Cream was also Jack the Ripper,
Jack the Ripper was active in White Chapel, London England in 1888
Again, Cream was in prison across the Atlantic from 1881 - 1891
We will discuss more why people think this later, but for now, at this point in our timeline, please notice that Dr. Cream was locked up while the Ripper murders were happening
Thank you…
So, Dr. Cream is now out of prison
While he was in prison, his father died, and left him an inheritance
Dr. Cream took his inheritance and new lease on life and moved to London.
Specifically, 103 Lambeth Palace Road, Lambeth, London on October 1, 1891
Lambeth was described by one source as having “...rivaled Whitechapel as one of the city’s poorest, dirtiest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods.”
Why do you imagine he picked here… hm…?
He also started going simply by “Dr. Thomas Neill” instead of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, likely to conceal his shady past…
About two weeks after his arrival in Lambeth, on October 13, 1891, he met with 19 year old sex worker Ellen, or Nellie, Donworth
During their time together, he offered her some sort of drink from a bottle he produced
Later that night, Nellie became very sick, involuntarily shaking and twitching
She told her landlady, “a tall, dark, cross-eyed man gave me something to drink.”
Not long after, Nellie died.
Her death was ruled a suicide, but, the coroner received a strange letter shortly there after from a man claiming to be a detective named A. O’Brien
This mysterious Detective O’Brien said that Nellie’s death was actually a murder, and for 300,000 pounds, he could tell him who did it
In another odd turn, a wealthy book store franchise owner, WFD Smith, received a letter accusing him of murdering Nellie Donworth, and threatened to expose him if also did not pay up.
Smith, of course escalated this to police, but nothing more would come of it.
A week later, on October 20, Dr. Cream met with another sex worker, 27 year old Matilda Clover
Cream gave her some pills with instructions to take them before she went to bed that night, with the understanding they would help prevent sexually transmitted diseases
Matilda followed his instructions, and died two hours later in pain and convulsing
Her death was ruled to be heart failure caused by alcohol withdrawal
After this incident, a prominent physician named William Broadbent received a letter from someone who signed their name only as M. Malone,
They claimed to be able to prove that he had murdered Clover, and for 25,000 pounds, he would keep his secret
Broadbent got a little more traction with police than Mr. Smith
In this case, Scotland Yard set up a sting operation to capture the blackmailer, but when the agreed upon time came, the blackmailer was a no-show
Next month, in November of 1891, Cream met a well-to-do young lady named Laura Sabbatini
Pair were swept up in a whirlwind romance and actually got engaged
A few months later, Dr. Cream took a trip back to Quebec in Canada
The exact reasons are unknown but while there, a curious incident occurred with a housekeeper in a hotel Dr. Cream stayed at
He noticed she was looking unwell
He approached her and offered her some pills that would help her make it through her workday
The housekeeper later reported she took one pill, but it made her feel even worse, so she threw the second one away
Before returning to London in March of 1892, Cream placed a large order through a pharmacy in New York that consisted of - quote - “various narcotics and poisons, mainly strychnine.”
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but remember strychnine did have some medical applications at the time…
On April 2, 1892, back in London now, Cream solicits Louise Harvey outside the Alhambra theater
The Alhambra theater was popular music hall that put on shows like aerial performances, operas, and ballets…
But… the shows were often risque, targeting male clientele who were allowed to mingle and flirt backstage with the performers…
Cream spent the night with Louise and agreed to meet the next day at a pub
The pair did meet up, and Dr. Cream offered Louise some pills he said would help clear up her “spotty complexion”
He was oddly insistent that she take them just before they parted ways, but this sent up a red flag for Louise, and she only pretended to take them
Instead while he wasn’t looking she actually threw them to the River Thames
That evening, the doctor was a no-show for the meeting they’d arranged
Probably because he expected her to be dead by then…!
A little over a week later, Dr. Cream solicited 21 year old Alice Marsh, and 18 year old Emma Shrivell
He spent the night with them, then either gave the two pills, likely with some cover story similar to what he’d used before, or gave them bottles of beer that he had brought with him
Both were dead by the following night
Their deaths are ruled to be caused by strychnine poisoning
Now there very likely were rumors circulating among certain populations for some time that if a tall man with slightly cross-eyed dark eyes offers you some pills, they’re poison, don’t take them
But this is about the time the police seemed to catch that they may have a serial poisoner in their midst, as newspaper reports from this time start to reference the Lambeth Poisoner
The London Daily News reported that:
The police at Scotland-yard are still pursuing their inquiries into the recent cases of fatal poisoning of women in the neighbourhood of Lambeth, with a view to establishing a connection between the suspected person, against whom the police hold a warrant. …
An experienced inspector of Scotland-yard has the matter in hand, and he is working with the aid of the local police and his own assistants to complete the web of evidence he is constructing in support of the case against the suspect.
From the accounts which the police have received from various quarters concerning this individual there is every reason to believe that the opinion of the detectives is correct ― that he is suffering from a peculiar form of mental derangement which finds exercise in a desire to take away life.
There is no other motive attributable to the cruel poisoning of Alice Marsh, Emma Shrivell, and Ellen Donworth; and, as the history of the Whitechapel murders shows, the indulgence of this homicidal tendency upon women in a peculiarly defenceless position is not singular to the Lambeth poisoner
Two things I want to point out about this clip
One is that even though Nellie Donworth’s death was ruled a suicide, she has now been included amongst the victims of the Lambeth Poisoner
The second is please notice that this clips says, “...as the history of the Whitechapel murders shows, the indulgence of this homicidal tendency… is not singular to the Lambeth poisoner.”
Meaning others have indulged in these crimes before
Others who were not the Lambeth Poisoner
Those living during this time did not think the Lambeth Poisoner was Jack the Ripper
Anyway, back to our story
Police learn that this tall man with dark crossed eyes going around handing out pills, usually refers to his self as Fred
Police are also aware of the blackmail letter received by Dr. Broadbent after Matilda Clover’s death
Though that death had also been ruled to have been natural causes, this blackmail letter claimed it was a poisoning
It seems like Dr. Cream may have been a little rattled by all of the attention the Lambeth Poisoner was receiving, so in an attempt to throw suspicion on someone else, he reportedly told a friend that he knew that Donworth, Clover, Marsh, and Shrivell had all been poisoned by his fellow lodger, a medical student named W.J. Harper.
He went so far as to write a letter signed with a fake name to Harper’s father accusing him
For all the effort he seemed to go to to distance his self from the crimes though, he also couldn’t seem to stop talking about them
About this time, Cream made the acquaintance of a police officer from New York City, who mentioned the recent poisonings he’d seen in the news
Dr. Cream said yyeessss he’d heard all about them!
Then proceeded to take the officer on a walking tour of the homes of all the victims…
Likewise, that officer made the acquaintance of a Scotland Yard officer while in London, and mentioned to him he’d met this guy, a “Dr. Neill”, who was very keen to talk about the poisonings and seemed to know a lot about the victims…
After this, Scotland Yard started looking in to “Dr. Neill,” and noticed he had habit of visiting with sex workers, plus, they found out he’d been previously convicted of murder in the US!
By June 3, 1892, police had gathered enough evidence to arrest Dr. Thomas Neill Cream for the murder of Matilda Clover
On July 13, he was formally charged for the murders of Matilda Clover, Nellie Donworth, Alice Marsh, and Emma Shrivell, attempted murder of Louise Harvey, extortion, and a handful of other charges
They were not about to let him get away…
The trial was held from October 17 - 21
Do you remember that he actually had a fiance, this whole time?
She doesn’t play much of a part in the story, but apparently she did testify that Cream had asked her to write some of the blackmail letters for him
He’d framed it as kind of a practical joke of sorts…
Anyway, it took the jury 12 minutes to deliberate and return with a verdict of guilty on all accounts, and Cream was sentenced to death.
The execution was held on November 15, 1892 at Newgate Prison
The Toronto Globe reported that, “Probably no criminal was ever executed in London who had a less pitying mob awaiting his execution.”
The sentence was to be carried out by James Billington
Billington started his career as an executioner in 1884 in Yorkshire, and succeeded James Berry as the chief executioner of Great Britain and Ireland just the year before Dr. Thomas Neill Cream would step on to the gallows
As Billington reached to pull the lever on the trapdoor of the gallows, he says Cream started to speak,
but the door opened before he could finish his sentence
He claims Cream’s last words were, “I am Jack…” before he was cut off by the noose.
Many other officials were there to witness the execution - no one else heard this…
Billington claims it to be true…
But, many suspect he just wanted to take credit for being the one to execute the infamous Jack the Ripper…
Cream was buried on the prison grounds, then disinterred in 1902 and moved to London’s municipal cemetery where he was buried in an unmarked grave in section 339.
His medicine, slash, poisoning kit that was taken into evidence is now, I believe, on display at the Crime Museum in London.
Now, we have arrived at the point in this episode where we’re going to talk about if Dr. Thomas Neill Cream and Jack the Ripper were the same person
You likely have already have guessed my stance on this, which is no, they are not the same person…
For some reason people seem to really want them to be, but the evidence just doesn’t add up
First, Cream was prison during 1888 while the murders in Whitechapel were happening
I feel like that should be enough reason in itself, but some people like to theorize that since it’s possible he and his family may have bribed his way out of prison, what if he paid a double to serve his sentence instead!?
This is a very, very, very big reach…
As one source put it, “Such notions are extremely unlikely and contradict all known evidence given by the Illinois authorities, newspapers of the time, Cream's solicitors, Cream's family, and Cream himself.”
As Casebook.org, the eminent source on Ripperology, puts it, “most refute the theory on grounds that Cream, was a poisoner, not a mutilator. It would make little sense for him to poison his victims before 1888, suddenly go on a murderous and vicious mutilating spree in that year, and then revert back to poisoning his women. His prison sentence adds only more fire to the arguments of the skeptics.”
So far as the very dramatic story of James Billington being the only one to hear Cream almost admit to being Jack the Ripper, I think he made that up…
He had just stepped up as chief executioner for all of England and Ireland and he wanted the notoriety of executing Jack the Ripper - or the illusion of anyway
And I guess it kind of worked, because here we are talking about it
I am curious to know what you think though.
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