Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Staffordshire & the Potteries by Nicholas Corder

Author:Nicholas Corder
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473831599
Publisher: Wharncliffe

Cook died a painful, convulsive death. No-one suspected murder at this point, as Cook had been ill for several days. But it wasn’t long before the suspicions of Cook’s stepfather, William Stevens, who didn’t like Palmer anyway, were aroused. Stevens and Dr Jones went to Lutterworth in Leicestershire, to try to trace the will, but returned to Rugeley empty-handed to find that Palmer had already ordered Cook’s coffin. Palmer also told Stevens that Cook had outstanding bills of £4,000, although no one could corroborate this fact. Stevens was now wary and couldn’t find Cook’s betting book, which doubled his suspicions. He asked the coroner for an inquest and a Dr Harland from Stafford was commissioned to do the post-mortem. Stevens then returned to London to consult a solicitor about Cook’s financial affairs.

A modern post-mortem is carried out on strict medical and legal guidelines. But Cook’s first post-mortem was more like a circus act. A small crowd was allowed to watch as Charles Devonshire, a medical student, and Charles Newton, a chemist’s assistant, performed it in a public room of the Talbot Arms. The body was hacked about and samples removed from the room and then returned, with no knowledge of what had happened to them while out of sight. Indeed, it was such a farce, even by the standards of the times, that a second one was carried out a few days later at the request of a Dr Taylor, from St Guy’s Hospital in London, who had been asked by Stevens to analyse samples.

Palmer then discovered that Dr Taylor was writing to the coroner. He got his postmaster friend, Samuel Cheshire, to intercept letters from Dr Taylor. Palmer also appears to have tried to bribe the coroner with various gifts, urging him to record a verdict of death by natural causes.

The Shrew, Rugeley. Formerly known as the Talbot: Arms, it figures twice in this book. It was here that the body of Christina Collins was brought after being found in the canal. Room 10 was where John Parsons Cook died of poisoning at the hands of William Palmer. The author

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