|
Kill Total: |
2 |
Kill place: |
Nottingham |
|
Kill date: |
12 May 1935
10 September 1935 |
Victim(s): |
Mrs Baguley
Ada Baguley |
|
Date of Birth: |
1899 |
Marital Status: |
Widower |
|
AKA: |
|
Occupation: |
Nurse |
In 1935 Dorothea and her
lover, 39-year-old Ronald Joseph Sullivan, opened a
nursing home in Devon Drive, Nottingham. Dorothea was not
an attractive woman with a long, thin face and large buck
teeth. She also had a long criminal record with several
convictions for fraud and petty theft. Waddingham was her
maiden name that she started using again after the death
of her elderly husband, Thomas Willoughby Leech, from
throat cancer. She was left to bring up five children and
opening a nursing home, with her as matron and Ronald
Sullivan as a general assistant, seemed a good way of
earning a living.
Dorothea’s sole medical experience consisted of a period
as ward orderly at the Burton-on-Trent Workhouse Infirmary
but this did not prevent the home gaining accreditation
from the County Nursing Association. It was the
Association that sent along her first two patients, in
January 1935. These were 89-year-old Mrs Baguley, who
suffered from senility and was bedridden, and her
50-year-old daughter, Ada Louisa, who was afflicted with
creeping paralysis.
Mrs Baguley and Dorothea came to an agreement whereby the
home would care for the two women, until their deaths, on
condition that Mrs Baguley left Dorothea her estate. This
amounted to around £1,600 which, considering the condition
of the two women, seemed a good deal to their carer. On
6th May Mrs Baguley rewrote her will to this effect. Six
days later she died with the cause of death being given as
cerebral haemorrhage (Stroke).
Nobody was particularly surprised and the woman’s death
was attributed to old age. Ada followed her mother on 10th
September with, again, the cause being given as cerebral
haemorrhage. Dorothea now aroused suspicion by producing a
letter, supposedly from Ada, dated 29th August. In it she
requested that she be cremated and that her relatives not
be informed of her death. Dorothea sent this letter to the
Nottingham medical health officer, Dr Cyril Banks, with a
request to approve cremation.
Dr Banks was sufficiently alarmed to order a post-mortem.
This was carried out by Dr Roche Lynch, who found three
grains of morphine in the corpse. After this discovery,
the body of Mrs Baguley was exhumed and again a fatal dose
of morphine was found. Dorothea and Ronald Sullivan were
both arrested and charged with Ada Baguley’s murder.
Their trial began at
Nottingham Assizes on 4th February 1936. It was
quickly ruled that there was insufficient evidence against
Ronald Sullivan and he was discharged. Dorothea tried to
claim that she had given the morphine on the orders of the
clinic’s doctor, Dr. H. Manfield. He denied this but
confirmed that he had prescribed morphine for another of
the home’s patients, Mrs Kemp. She had died in February
1935.
27th February 1936, the jury found Dorothea guilty
but added a recommendation to mercy. The judge and Home
Secretary ignored this. Dorothea Waddingham was hanged at
Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, on 16th April 1936
by Tom and Albert Pierrepoint.
Dorothea confessed to the double murder shortly before the
hanging.
