19th Century Barnsley Murders by Margaret Drinkall

Author:Margaret Drinkall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
ISBN: 9781473830158
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2015-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

The letter was signed Mr Geoffrey Lushington. Mr Allen then attended and told the coroner that he had continued with his examinations of the samples, but had found nothing. He said that he had researched some cases of eating mouldy bread that had proved poisonous. He quoted a case in which horses had died within a very short space of time after ingesting such mouldy bread. He then went into a long explanation of fungi and mould. Mr Allen stated that in his tests he had found that a substance called ‘ergot’ had been found to be poisonous, but he had failed to detect any in the samples. He concluded that the pudding had contained some substance that had resembled ergot, which would be the only conclusion that could account for the effects that had been observed. Mr Allen said that Mr Thawley had stated that the bread and butter pudding was ‘sloppy’. This suggested to him that it had not been properly cooked and therefore he thought that ‘sour food’ was the cause. Doctors Stewart and Connelly gave their evidence, which agreed with Mr Allen’s assumptions.

Finally, the two bakers that regularly delivered bread to the premises, John Robinson, of Grace Street, and William Hanger, a delivery man for John Robinson, then gave evidence. They both stated that the bread they had supplied had always been freshly baked. They confirmed that on some occasions the bread was newly baked and still warm from the ovens when it was delivered to the Albert Dining Rooms on Sheffield Road. Despite their assertions, what happened to the bread once it had arrived at the eating house could not be so easily dispelled. Superintendent Sykes told the coroner that he had visited the shop on several occasions and had seen crusts of bread ‘laying about’. The jury retired and returned after ten minutes with the following verdict:

The jury is of the opinion that the deceased Emma Thresh and Henry Mason came to their deaths from eating a portion of a certain unwholesome pudding; but how or by what means such pudding became unwholesome, there is not sufficient evidence to show.

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