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FACTFILE
12th July 1910, Eliza Mary Barrow was a close
neighbour to Seddon and his wife who had purchased a 14
room house in Finsbury park in 1900 as a way of renting
rooms to make money. Eliza moved in with her ten year
old ward, and family friend Ernest Grant.
Seddon was obsessed with
making money, and quickly persuaded Eliza to hand over a
control in her financial affairs to him, in retune he
would care for the 49 year old Eliza for the rest of her
life.
August 1911, Almost
as a way of showing the trust, Seddon took his own
family and Eliza and her family on holiday to Southend.
When they got back Seddon had asked Eliza's daughter to
go and collect flypaper from the shop.
The following day Eliza was
very ill, suffering terrible stomach pains. A doctor was
called, and he gave morphine.
13th September 1911,
Eliza was so ill and confined to bed, she made a will
written by Seddon and witnessed by members of his
family, naming Seddon as the executor of her estate.
14th September 1911,
at 6:125am while being looked after by Seddon's wife,
Eliza Barrow died.
Seddon went to the doctors,
who issued a death certificate without ever seeing a
body.
15th September 1911,
Although Eliza's family had a vault in a graveyard in
Islington, Seddon went to the undertakers and arranged a
paupers funeral, and an unnamed plot.
The funeral had been
arranged so quickly, and excluded Barrows family, they
became suspicious, and on;-
15th November 1911,
The body of Eliza Barrow was exhumed. A Young Home
office pathologist,
Bernard Spilsbury, conducted a post-mortem, and
found traces of
arsenic in her
body.
15th March 1912,
Both Frederick Henry Seddon, and his wife were accused
of murder.
At the trial the
prosecution were able to prove that the Seddon family
had purchased large amount of flypaper, that contained
arsenic. Seddon claimed that Eliza might have drunk
water from the dishes of flypaper placed in her room to
keep away flies.
The jury took an hour to
find Seddon guilty, and he was sentenced to death. The
jury found Mrs Seddon Not Guilty.
18th of April 1912,
Seddon was hanged at Pentonville by
John Ellis. Seddon
protested his innocence to the end.
Watch a youtube video about the case.
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