|
Kill Total: |
1 |
Kill place: |
Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire |
|
Kill date: |
February 1921 |
Victim(s): |
Wife - Katherine
Armstrong |
|
Date of Birth: |
1869 |
Marital Status: |
Married |
|
AKA: |
|
Occupation: |
Solicitor |
Herbert Armstrong was a
53-year-old solicitor in Hay-on-Wye. He was a retired
Territorial Army Major and was executed for the murder of
his wife on 31st May 1922.
He was a small, dapper,
mild-mannered man who married a domineering woman who
nagged him continuously. His wife, Katherine, was a
hypochondriac and was certified insane in July 1920.
She returned home after several months in an asylum but
died of an agonising illness shortly afterwards.
Her death was certified as
gastritis and Armstrong went on a long holiday to recover.
Another solicitor
practising in Hay-on-Wye was Oswald Martin and Armstrong
was in dispute with him professionally. Armstrong invited
Martin to tea where he handed Martin a scone, apologising,
“Excuse fingers.” Later that day Martin was violently ill
and his father-in-law, the town’s chemist, informed the
doctor treating Martin that Armstrong had made several
purchases of arsenic. The doctor agreed to send a sample
of Martin’s urine for analysis and, as suspected, it
proved to contain arsenic.
31st December 1921 Armstrong was arrested and
charged with the attempted murder of Martin.
Mrs Armstrong’s body was
now exhumed and Bernard Spilsbury, the pathologist,
carried out a post-mortem. It contained two hundred and
eight milligrams of arsenic. Though the body had been
buried for ten months it was in a remarkable state of
preservation, this being due to the mummifying effect of
arsenic.
April 1922 Armstrong
was tried at Hereford for the murder of his wife and the
trial is notable for the weight of medical evidence.
Armstrong had a hard time trying to explain away why he
even had a packet of arsenic in his pocket when arrested,
he was found guilty.
31st May 1922 Armstrong
went to the gallows at Gloucester Prison where John Ellis
and Edward Taylor hanged him.
Armstrong was the only
solicitor ever to be hanged in England.
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