Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bath by Kirsten Elliott

Author:Kirsten Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: TRU000000: TRUE CRIME / General
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781783037742
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2007-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Deadlier than the Male

Charlotte Harris and the Bath Poisoning Case

Are women less likely to commit a crime than men? Probably not, but throughout the centuries there seems to have been a sense that this should be the case. Newspapers reported women’s crime with a greater sense of shock than if the same crime were committed by a man. It is true that women used different tactics, and came up with different excuses from men, sometimes with comical results. In July 1846 Hannah Pearce was summoned for assaulting Louisa Wickham by throwing water over her in Grove Street. The assault was admitted by the defendant, but in mitigation she pointed out that the water was clean. The magistrates told her this did not excuse the act and fined her 10 shillings and costs or in default fourteen days in prison.

Prostitutes were frequently arrested for a variety of crimes besides prostitution and soliciting. They stole from gullible would-be customers, who seemed to carry astonishingly large amounts of money around with them. A married farmer who went to Bristol Fair ‘got among a room full of prostitutes at a public house, who eased him of 109 guineas’. He was carrying around in cash what in modern terms would be about £8,000. The girls must have thought Christmas had come. Smaller sums were equally likely to disappear. In 1850, Fanny Hooper was charged with having stolen Henry Silver’s purse. Silver said he met the prisoner in Westgate Street at 8.30 pm one Saturday, and went into a pub with her to have something to drink. This was frequently an introductory move by prostitutes, presumably to make sure a potential client had some cash. They then went to the King’s Head, in Lilliput Alley, part of which is now one of Bath’s best-known French restaurants but was then, to put it bluntly, a knocking-shop. Here, Silver paid for a room and some more drink with half a sovereign, adding the change to the 11 shillings already in his purse. An hour later, Fanny got up and dressed, and left the room. When she did not return, he looked in his pockets and found she had taken all his money except for half a crown. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence, leaving Mr Silver looking rather silly.

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