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Kill Total: |
21 |
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Kill date: |
1852 - 1872 |
Victim(s): |
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Date of Birth: |
October 1832 |
Marital Status: |
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AKA: |
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Occupation: |
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Born Mary Ann Robson, this most prolific of
serial killers, she Killed husbands, and possibly even her
own children, she was hanged in Durham prison on 29th
Match 1873, aged 40. She was hanged by William Calcroft,
it is rumoured that her body struggled for at least three
minutes after the trap was released. She stood to gain
from insurance policies, and killed using arsenic in cups
of tea.
Born in the small English village of Low Moorsley in
October of 1832, Mary Ann Robson did not have a happy
childhood. Her parents were both younger than 20 when they
married, her father barely managed to keep his family fed
by working as a miner. When Mary was eight the family
moved, Mary and her brother Robert went to a new school,
where shy Mary found it difficult to make friends. Not
long after the move the father fell down a mine shaft to
an early death. Life in Victorian England was never easy,
but especially so for a widow and her young children. the
shadow of the workhouse and separation from her mother
must have left dark shadows on Mary, indeed it is reported
that she suffered bad nightmares. The workhouse and
probably homelessness was avoided when Mary's moth
re-married. Mary did not like her new step-father, but she
liked the things his good salary could buy. finally at the
age of sixteen she could stand the hard discipline of her
step father,, she moved out to become a serving girl at a
nearby house.
After three years service, and many a scandal in the local
village about the many male visitor Mary took, she left to
train as a dressmaker. It was not long before she married,
already being pregnant. Her first husband was William
Mowbray, a miner. During the first few years of their
marriage, they travelled all around the country in search
of work, William taking work as a miner and sometimes on
the railroad. During the first five years together Mary
had five children, four of them dying as infants. Even
though infant mortality was high in Victorian England,
this was unusually high, but, was probably viewed as just
"Bad luck".
Cotton was eventually caught when a post mortem
examination on one of her children revealed arsenic
poisoning as the cause of death.
Convicted of only the murder of her step-son, she was
suspected of killing at least six people, and it is
believed that she actually took the lives of more than 20
victims over a 20 year period,
Cotton was pregnant with her seventh child at the time of
arrest and trial and the execution had to be delayed until
after she had given birth,. However, because of her
pregnancy, there was a petition for her reprieve. This was
denied and she was hanged in the prison yard.
