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Overview
Their names may not be as familiar as such notorious female serial killers as Aileen Wuornos, Myra Hindley, Martha Beck, or Belle Gunness. But more than a century ago they made headlines and enthralled a bloodthirsty public.
Now, venturing into the darkest side of human behavior, journalist Stephen Jakobi unearths the life and crimes of four of history’s most twisted women: Agnes Norman, a London servant girl whose victims of choice were children, including three infants. Most startling is that Agnes was a child herself—only fifteen-years-old. Louie Calvert, a prostitute condemned for only one murder. But her unique death cell autobiography revealed much more to her story. Kate Webster committed one of the sickest slayings of the Victorian era. Was she also responsible for the Thames Torso Murders which rivaled Jack the Ripper? Finally, the mysterious Mrs. Willis, an English “baby farmer” whose services included foster care, wet-nursing, and infanticide.
Using original research based on family-owned primary sources and government files only recently made available, In the Mind of a Female Serial Killer delves into to the grisly psyche of these infamous murderesses.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781526709738 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Books Limited |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Part 1 Agnes Norman
Timeline
1856
Born in Clipston, Northamptonshire.
1860
Moves to London.
1869
January Enters service of Ralf Milner.
10 February Death of baby Thomas Milner.
24 February Death of infant Amelia.
1870
20 April Enters service of Mr Gardner.
1 May Death of baby John Stuart Taylor.
18 May Death of infant James Gardner.
August Enters service of Mr Brown, staying a fortnight. Attempted murder of 10-year-old Charles Parfitt.
September In the service of Mr Thomas.
1871
5 April Enters service of Mr Beer.
7 April Death of infant Jesse Jane Beer.
11 April Inquest on Jesse Jane Beer.
28 April Arrested on charge of murdering Jesse Jane Beer. Taken before the magistrates at Lambeth Police Court on the 29th.
10 July The trials at the old Bailey.
1. Murder of Jesse Jane Beer: verdict, not guilty.
2. Attempted murder of Charles Parfitt. Verdict, guilty.
Sentenced to ten years in prison.
1871–1880
Imprisonment in Marshalsea, Woking and Manchester prisons.
1880
29 July Married William Henry Cowlan.
1. What We Know About Her Life
When Adam delved and Eve span who was then the gentle man? Radical priest, John Ball, 1381 revolt.
Agnes Norman was born in 1856, the eldest daughter of Joseph Norman, a bootmaker living in Clipston, Northamptonshire, and his wife Elizabeth. The family moved to London in 1860. In 1869, she commenced the two-year killing spree outlined in the prologue. In 1871, she was tried on two separate offences, receiving a prison sentence of ten years. On her release in 1881, she married William Henry Cowlan, before disappearing from records.
The Northampton village of Clipston, according to the 1851 census, had 800 inhabitants, and would have been typical of similar agricultural villages in middle England. However, it was part of the Northampton–Bedford–North Buckinghamshire area that specialized in growing flax and lace making. While Adam delved, there were 140 agricultural labourers and 20 self-employed farmers with small holdings. Eve was a 'lace runner'. Lace running was a cottage industry that employed the wives and daughters of the agricultural labourers in piecework embroidery of patterns on lace. There were seventy-five lace runners in the village, typically very young, the usual age being 10 or 11, but some were as young as 5.
The other unusual activity for a small village was the industrial scale of boot- and shoe-making. The village had a baker, a blacksmith, a carpenter and a bricklayer, but it had fifteen shoemakers. Two of these were masters employing a journeyman and apprentices, the rest independent craftsmen. The village was a full day's journey from Northampton, the centre of England's boot- and shoe-making trade, causing one to wonder whether the village output was sent to Northampton for sale.
Joseph Norman, the son of an agricultural labourer, appears in the 1851 census as a shoemaker. In 1853, he married Elizabeth Buttin, only daughter of a smallholding farmer in a neighbouring village. She was three years his senior. Did the father have anything to do with his apprenticeship?
Agnes Norman was born in Clipston in 1856, the eldest daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth. She had two elder brothers, George, born in 1852, and Walter, born the same year she was, but not a twin. In 1860, Joseph moved to the Saint Sepulchre area of Clerkenwell, where siblings William (1861), Mary (1864), Anne (1868), Joseph (1869), and twins Naomi and Emily (1870) were born.
At Norman's second trial, it was mentioned that she had confided to a friend that she did not like children. One can picture her relief at leaving home in 1869–70 where she was probably responsible for looking after five siblings under the age of six.
On conviction, she was sent to Marshalsea Prison, a holding prison for young females, before being transferred a few months later to Woking Prison, then the newly opened main prison for females in England. She was the youngest prisoner when she arrived and, incidentally, a contemporary of Kate Webster.
At some stage, she was transferred to Manchester, a young female offenders' unit at the time, and from there, on release, married William Henry Cowlan, the son of a musical-instrument maker who lived close by her family home in Lambeth. The Normans and the Cowlans were extremely close. In 1878, Catherine Cowlan, born in the same year as Agnes Norman, and presumably a personal friend, married her elder brother Walter. Norman therefore married her brother-in-law, Catherine's younger brother. Walter was one of the witnesses. William died in St Thomas's Hospital on 28 August 1890, his residence being given as his father's home Newington Butts. They had no children. Norman presumably changed her name and there would appear to be no later public record about her.
2. The Suspicions of Detective Sergeant Mullard
The usual venue of a coroner's court in England during these times was a local tavern. The inquest on Jessie Jane Beer, aged 14 months, conducted in April 1871 before Mr Carter, the coroner for East Surrey, was held at the King and Queen tavern, Newington Butts. It would have passed virtually unnoticed had it not been for the sensational evidence of Detective Sergeant Henry Mullard, attached to L Division of the Metropolitan Police. His evidence concerned the actions and antecedents of the child's nursemaid, Agnes Norman. There is an extraordinary parallel to the Constance Kent case. The nursemaid to that household, Elizabeth Gough, was initially arrested but then released.
It is not known how the activities of Agnes Norman came to the attention of Mr Mullard. The usual procedure in the late-nineteenth century was one in which the coroner's officer, a serving or retired police officer, would perform the initial investigation. It could have been through William White from the coroner's office, or Mr Beer, the child's father, that the Lambeth police became involved.
Jesse Beer died on Tuesday, 7 April 1871. In the six days between her death and the following Monday, 13 April, when the inquest took place, Sergeant Mullard's investigations had been completed. His evidence was ready for court. In only four working days, he had managed to locate and interview a score of relevant witnesses, including a number of local doctors, putting together what eventually turned out to be a literally incredible story.
Subsequent events made it clear that the inquest, and the way it was conducted by the coroner, left both Sergeant Mullard and the child's father profoundly dissatisfied with the result. Afterwards, both went to the press.
It was not until 19 April, six days after the inquest, that a national newspaper, The Morning Advertiser, started a public outcry over the activities of Agnes Norman. The article clearly aimed for sensationalism. It began:
'Some circumstances which read like a horrible tale of Eastern Thugee, or some morbid conception of an opium eater, are stated in the report of an enquiry before Mr Carter coroner for East Surrey on Monday last'.
It cited the evidence of Mr Beer about his infant daughter Jesse and her death, and the evidence of the surgeon that she been suffocated, adding that the servant girl had been employed by the Beers for only three days before the event. It said that Mr Mullard, detective officer, stated a series of facts about her, 'so starkly is almost to exceed the bare possibility of belief, he said, 'several children had expired under similar circumstances.'
The article went into some detail, without disclosing names of the families or children concerned. It continued:
Now, we do not wish for one moment to assert our belief in this category of horrors. In the last instance the child might have fallen out of bed and been suffocated between the bed and the wall. Such things do occur. But either Detective Sgt Mullard has been listening to a number of romances and cruel groundless scandals, all the tragic suggestiveness of his story is of a nature to curdle the blood with horror and take away the breath. We are bound to – and heaven knows we wish to – believe that the jury had good reason for being impressed with the girls innocence, since they returned a verdict that Mr and Mrs Beers child 'died from suffocation accidentally caused' but if so where is Detective Sgt Mullard's judgement and discretion?
The article went on to make the obvious point:
The father professed himself dissatisfied; and well he might, under the circumstances; and so are we, in one sense. It would have been just towards the girl – and not unjust, as the coroner said it would be, in his opinion – to examine the witnesses in court who could offer direct evidence concerning these grave imputations.
The article ended:
'As the matter stands conjecture is rife. The unfortunate and bereaved father has declared that the matter shall not rest there; and we think for the sake of the girl, if she be innocent, who rests under such suspicions, and for the public satisfaction that it is as well it should not'.
On Wednesday, 22 April, three days later, the London Evening Standard published a much longer article about the affair. This one commenced:
A strange rumour ran through the town a fortnight ago to the effect that the nursemaid had been detected whose mania was the destruction of the children committed to her charge. An inquest was then opened at Newington Butts on the body of an infant, one year and two months old, who had unquestionably come by its death under very extraordinary and even startling circumstances ... We are most anxious not to give the mystery, for that there is a mystery will soon be seen, any prejudicial colouring whatsoever it may be as well, therefore, to quote, without comment, a short colloquy which, at this point, took place between the representative of the law and the parent of the dead infant. The father of the deceased here said he had witnesses present who could give a history of the girl Norman.
The Coroner: 'have you any witnesses who can say that this girl has murdered your child?'
Mr Beer: 'I am unable to say that, but I should like these persons to be examined.'
The Coroner: 'I do not think I should be doing justice to this girl if I examine them.'
Mr Beer: 'if a verdict is given without, I shall think it very unfair.'
Whereupon a statement was made (by the coroner) of so singular a character that the inexplicable verdict subsequently given 'that the deceased died of suffocation accidentally caused' does not dispose of it at all. (He said) there was no more proof of accident than there was of violence, and of violence there was not unless we attach importance to the marks on the lips and even with respect to then it was not sought to be shown that any particular individual was implicated.'
But the statement, we repeat, was made, and made by Detective Sgt Mullard an officer attached to the Kennington Lane police station. We desire to take it at not one iota more than it is strictly worth, or maybe worth, after a commentary to it has been supplied. It may betray the existence of a terrible morbid instinct, impossible to comprehend; it may represent no more than a series of marvellous coincidences or it may be an exaggeration though that is not likely.
The London Evening Standard then demands, for the sake of the girl herself, a thorough scrutiny into a set of allegations so alarming to society is peremptorily demanded:
When the inquest was first opened the report floated about with respect to this nursemaid that when previously engaged in gentleman's families, no fewer than four children in her charge had died mysteriously. It was to ascertain the truth or falsehood this assertion the silent and secret detective sagacity was employed. We repeat, boldly, the evidence given by Sgt Mullard after completing his researches, clearly not less on the girl's behalf than that of the public that the horrible doubts thus suggested must be set at rest in one way or another.
The other half of the article goes into considerable detail, without naming the names of the families involved the article and concluded:
... but the truth though, at all events, to be traced home; for the detective's version of the story is enough to chill the blood of every mother in the land who employs a nursemaid. Everyone must be anxious that a part, at least, of the mystery should be dispelled or proved to have been of an innocent nature.
A grieving parent backed by a thwarted detective, had started a public outcry.
3. The Reinvestigation
The commissioner's office at Scotland Yard had reacted quickly to the Morning Advertiser's article. A file on Agnes Norman was opened immediately.
By this time, the Metropolitan Police district was an area covering about a ten-mile radius from Charing Cross, comprising twenty police divisions. The relevant police division was 'L - Lambeth'. Each division was headed by a superintendent with four inspectors and sixteen sergeants working for him. The commissioner initialled an order to his local superintendent, 'Mr Williamson – have careful enquiry made into the article referring to Detective Sgt Mullard.' Evidently Mr Williamson had ordered one of his inspectors to conduct the investigation.
On 28 April, the inspector's handwritten report was available for the commissioner:
Metropolitan police office, Scotland Yard 28 April 1871
I beg to report with reference to the attached newspaper extracts respecting the statement of Detective Sgt Mullard L division, as to the antecedents of Agnes Norman, who was a servant to John William Beer 58, Newington Butts, when his child Jesse Jane Beer died mysteriously of suffocation; that I have made careful enquiry into the matter, and found that in January 1869 she was in the service of Ralph Milner 19 Park Road Kennington whom I have seen, and he stated that she entered his service without a character and remained about two months. Soon after she came the baby Thomas Milner, 10 months old, was found to have a severely bruised arm which got well in about five weeks, and his elder son Alfred, aged eight years told him that Agnes let the baby fall off the table, and gave him a halfpenny not to say anything about it, and on 10 February 1869 he went out at 2 PM leaving Agnes Norman in charge of his four children and on his return at 4:30 PM the youngest child Thomas was dead, – this child was not particularly unwell at the time, but it had been ill from teething, and had had convulsions during the previous week, and that Dr Nott, Lucas Road Kennington, had attended the child and was called in at its death, but he refused to give a certificate of the cause of its dying, an inquest was then held upon the body by J Carter Esq coroner, when a verdict of natural death [a fit in dentition] was returned. Agnes Norman gave evidence on this occasion and on 24 February 1869 she was left in charge of his three children at 10:30 AM and on his return at 10 PM he found that his child Amelia aged two years and 10 months had died during the day she was a rather delicate child and powders were obtained for her of Mr Steedman, chemist, Walworth Road a few days previous to her death. Dr Nott, Lucas Road Kennington refused to give a certificate of the cause of death.
William Smith coroner's officer came and took the particulars of the case but no inquest was held. He had no suspicion at the time against Agnes Norman but shortly after the death of the second child she was sent upstairs at 9:30 PM to put his son Arthur age 6 years to bed, and when she came down he was heard to groan and on his going upstairs he found the child insensible. A Surgeon was sent for a powder was given to him and he recovered consciousness at 2 AM and when he got up in the morning he appeared much better and stated that Agnes had bought the ghost to him last night and he was afraid of her and did not want to sleep in the room with her again –
The Mother of the Children Elizabeth Milner corroborated the above statement, and further stated that after her son 'Arthur' was found insensible, he told her that Agnes Norman put his sister 'Amelia' into the wardrobe, and gave him a halfpenny not to say anything about it and that her son 'Alfred' age 8 years, stated that he asked Agnes where his sister was, and she said she was in bed, he then went to her bed there was only a pillow in it. He then told her she was not there, when she went to the closed cupboard and took her out of it, and laid her upon the floor, and that she appeared very pale, and that she gave him and his brother a halfpenny each not to say what she had done.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "In The Mind of a Female Serial Killer"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Stephen Jakobi.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
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Table of Contents
Preface,
Introduction,
Part 1 Agnes Norman,
Timeline,
1. What We Know About Her Life,
2. The Suspicions of Detective Sergeant Mullard,
3. The Reinvestigation,
4. The Criminal Proceedings,
Part 2 Louie Calvert,
Timeline,
1. The Exercise Book,
2. The Problem with Louie,
3. Early Crimes,
4. Prison and Borstal,
5. The War Years,
6. Theft and Murder: Swallow and Frobisher,
7. Arty,
8. Death of a Medium,
9. The Trial,
10. Aftermath,
Part 3 Kate Webster,
Timeline,
1. A Death Cell Brawl,
2. The Problem with Kate,
3. A Professional Criminal,
4. The Murder Trial,
Part 4 'Mrs Willis',
Timeline,
1. The Last Confession,
2. The Problem with Mrs Willis,
3. The Murder and the Trial,
4. The Search for 'Rhoda',
5. Who was 'Emma Willis'?,
6. Conclusion,
Epilogue,
End Notes,