The St Neots Poisoner

The St Neots Poisoner

Annie Holmes was a beauty. She attracted the attention of her cousin, Walter Horsford. They were intimate and intended to marry. Walter’s father, a prosperous farmer, objected to the liaison. Walter was well-educated and an accomplished sportsman. Annie was older and of a lower class. Both Walter and Annie married other partners. Annie fell on hard times. They secretly continued their relationship, with tragic results. Read on to learn of their fate.

Walter Horsford & Annie Holmes.

A painful death

On Friday 7 January 1898, Annie suffered from neuralgia throughout the day. She went to bed at 9.20pm. Annie asked her daughter, aged 14 years, for some sweets since she felt sick. About 30 minutes after eating the sweets, Annie started groaning, experiencing violent convulsions. Her lips turned black. By the time a doctor arrived, she was much worse. At 11.05pm Annie died.

Annie lived in East Street, St Neots. She was in good health. In the period awaiting the doctor, Annie told her daughter she had taken poison. Unusually, she had taken a glass of water to bed with her. She drank most of that. Neighbours who came to help threw the remaining contents of the glass away. They replaced it with fresh water before the doctor arrived.

The police arrived. Annie’s daughter told them her mother had received a letter from Walter Horsford that day. Annie thought she was pregnant. She told her daughter the poison taken was a powder sent to her by Walter to cause her to abort.

The inquest

An inquest was held the day after Annie’s death. Walter denied ever writing to Annie or sending her anything. This contradicted the evidence of Annie’s daughter. She remembered a letter from Walter about two months before. She was sure the writing in that and the most recent letter were the same. 

The inquest was adjourned, awaiting the outcome of the autopsy. There was no evidence to show whether Annie took the poison by accident or otherwise.

Further evidence

After the inquest, a search under the body revealed a letter from Walter and powder. They immediately arrested Walter Horsford on a charge of perjury.

The inquest gathered again a week after Annie’s death. By then, the police had a considerable amount of evidence. Annie’s body, swiftly buried after death, was disinterred for further examination.

The powder was pure strychnine, enough to kill 30 people. Annie’s urine had traces of strychnine. The letter in Walter’s handwriting said ‘Take with a little water, it is quite harmless ; will come over in a day or two.’ On the packet of strychnine in Walter's hand ‘One dose; take as told.’

A Thrapston chemist had recorded selling poisons to Walter on 28 December 1844. It took the inquest only five minutes to decide on a verdict. That was ‘Wilful murder against Walter Horsford.’

The victim

Aged 38 years at the time of her death, Annie Holmes came from a farming family, one of four children. After Walter’s father objected to her relationship with Walter, Annie married a widowed coal merchant. She gave birth to a son and daughter. When her husband died, Annie continued running the business. It didn’t pay. She worked as caretaker of Thrapston Wharf for 3 years. 

Annie hit hard times. She lost most of her savings in the Liberator Building Society frauds of 1892. Annie moved to St Neots in September 1897. Her son, aged 16 years, was apprenticed to the Tea Consumers’ Company in St Neots. The move was for his convenience.

Annie auctioned off all her furniture and effects. Her son contributed to the family expenses. Annie received help from her brother and sister. She also received 10s a month from an unknown source. Besides her son and daughter, aged 14 years, Annie was nursing a baby under a year old. Annie received visits from men other than Walter.

The suspect

Walter, aged 26 years, was the son of a prosperous farmer, with 5 brothers and 2 sisters. Well educated, he was a good cricketer, first-class shot and accomplished horseman. He started work as an apprentice grocer. Walter gave this up saying, ‘I was brought up a farmer and I couldn’t stand the confinement of a shop, so I left.’

Walter joined his father’s farm, working with his brothers for a few years. He then took over his own farm at Spaldwick. Newly married, Walter was anxious his wife did not hear of his relations with Annie. Walter was proposing to make some arrangement with Annie to stop her writing to him.

The trial

In June 1898 Walter appeared at Huntingdon Assizes. He was charged with the wilful murder of Annie Holmes. Walter pleaded not guilty.

From their correspondence in December 1897, it appeared Annie thought she was pregnant by Walter. She also received visits and money from men other than Walter, three of whom were named in court.

The Home Office witness stated he could imagine no more terrible or painful mode of dying than by strychnine poisoning. He knew of young girls who had taken strychnine to get an abortion. It was of no use and they only kill themselves.

Strychnine poisoning produces some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any poison. Within 10 to 20 minutes, the body’s muscles convulse. This starts with the head and neck and spreads to every muscle in the body. As the intensity increases, the victim’s backbone arches continuously. Death from asphyxiation or exhaustion follows after 2 to 3 hours.

Walter Horsford, seated in the dock of Huntingdon Assizes, 1898.

Walter’s defence called no witnesses nor produced any evidence. Mr Wild, Walter’s defence lawyer, claimed the prosecution case was based on prejudice throughout. Since the inquest, the public judged Walter a murderer.

Mr Wild asked the jurors to imagine the awful position of an innocent man, charged with a crime of which he knew nothing. The prosecution evidence was circumstantial. Walter had gone openly to the chemist to buy several types of poison. He gave a valid reason for the purchase, to kill rats. The true murderer would have been smarter, buying strychnine outside the narrow radius of the police search.

Walter had not admitted to letters written to Annie because he wished to conceal his relationship with her from his new wife. Since his arrest, newspapers had written as though Walter was the guilty man. Mr Wild questioned the testimony of Annie’s daughter about the handwriting.

After two hours, Mr Wild summed up as follows.

It is very hard in such a short space of time as is at my disposal to attempt to remove all the prejudice that has been created in this case, but that is what I have tried to do. I only wish to remind you of three fundamental facts.

The first is that your verdict is irrevocable - it is final - it cannot be undone. It is the edict of life or death.

The second fact is that the responsibility of your verdict rests upon the shoulders of each one of you individually as well as upon the whole of you collectively.

The third point is that you are only deciding upon conjecture, surmise, and very much upon theory. That theory has been proved to be weak. That is the evidence that has been given against Walter Horsford. If he were guilty and you said he was not guilty you would err on the right side. If you say he is guilty and he is, in fact, innocent, what then? It is too terrible to contemplate! There is a saying that it is better that nine guilty men should escape than that one innocent man should suffer. I commend that observation to you.

The judgement

The jury were confined on the Sunday. They attended church, then went for country walks. An elaborate dinner followed in the evening, with wine, sherry and champagne.

As the court regathered on Monday, three of Walter’s brothers attended. Judge Hawkins took three hours to sum up the case. He majored on the identification of Walter’s handwriting.

The jury took just twenty minutes to return an unanimous verdict of guilty. Judge Hawkins asked Walter if he had anything to say. In a low, sobbing voice, he replied, ‘All that I have to say is that I am an innocent man.’

The judge donned his black cap and passed sentence. ‘The sentence of the Court upon you is, that you be taken from hence to the place from where you came, and from thence to a lawful place of execution, and that there you be hanged by your neck until you be dead.’

Awaiting execution

Walter wrote to his wife, asking her to visit him. She refused. Walter’s mother swooned when she heard of the sentence. When recovered, she had ‘lost her reason’. Walter’s father, over 80 years of age, was a physical wreck.

Walter continued to maintain his innocence. In gaol, he slept and ate well and maintained a cheerful demeanour. His solicitors made an unsuccessful appeal for a reprieve. They gathered over 3,000 signatures.

Billington, the executioner, arrived the day before the execution. He spent the night at Cambridge gaol. Billington observed Walter in the exercise yard. He judged Walter’s weight and height to estimate a seven foot drop for a humane execution. Billington tested the scaffold using bags of sand equal to Walter’s weight.

Walter had a quiet Monday. His wife did visit him. Their farewell to each other deeply affected those who saw it. He slept for several hours, though seemed unsettled. Walter awoke early on the Tuesday. After a hearty breakfast, the chaplain paid a last visit.

The execution

Crowds packed into Castle Street to see the black flag hoisted over the gaol. It was over 20 years since the last execution in Cambridge.

At 7.55am, the executioner entered the cell. Walter had his arms pinioned behind his back. The group moved out of the cell to the execution shed close by. The prison bell tolled the death knell.

Walter walked unflinchingly to the gallows, head erect and eyes looking straight ahead. Beads of sweat stood out on his brow. Walter stood on the trapdoors. Billington strapped his legs together and placed a white cap over his head. The executioner adjusted the rope around Walter’s neck.

To the sound of the chaplain’s words ‘In the midst of life we are in death’, the executioner drew the trapdoor bolt and Walter fell. Death was instantaneous.

Post-execution questions

During the autopsy, it was clear Annie was not pregnant. Did she genuinely think she was going to give birth? Or was it a ploy to keep Walter’s affections after his marriage?

Was Walter a serial poisoner? There were rumours three other persons who fell out of favour with Walter died under mysterious circumstances. Two were women with whom he had a relationship. Both died after receiving a letter from Walter. The third was a man related to Annie Holmes. The man died in agony after Walter gave him some beer.