Transcription
[Music] Christiana Edmonds was the first born child of successful architect William Edmonds and Ann Christiana Byrne, the daughter of a royal marine captain, on the 3rd of October 1828 in Margate, Kent, England. William and Ann went on to have a second child a year later, a son also called William. Two other daughters, Mary and Louisa, and another son named Frederick Thomas. Unfortunately, Frederick Thomas passed away when he was just 16 months old, and another daughter, Ellen, was born shortly afterwards. However, she survived for only three months. The family suffered unbearable heartache and endured many hardships following the deaths of their two youngest children.
The Edmonds siblings had a very privileged upbringing in Victorian society, with both Christiana and her brother William being sent to private boarding schools. She graduated in 1842 and arrived home to meet the latest arrival in the family, her baby brother Arthur. But unfortunately, by this time, the family's finances had dwindled. What was once a prosperous business for her father, William's architectural work was drying up, and as a result, the family's second home had to be sold. William became a violent man and was clearly suffering mentally and physically. He was diagnosed as suffering from syphilis, which he had contracted following several affairs he had outside of his marriage, and less than a year later, his wife Anne signed a lunacy order, which led to William being taken into a number of asylums in the years that followed. With occasional spells of returning home, though he eventually passed away in March of 1847.
A year later, the Edmonds family moved from Margate to Canterbury. During her early twenties, Christiana was diagnosed with hysteria. By 1869, Christiana, who was in her early 40s, was living with her widowed mother and sister Mary at number 16 Gloucester Place, Brighton. At this time, Christiana grew fond of a Dr. Charles Beard, who owned a doctor's surgery on Grand Parade, located directly opposite the Gloucester Place residence. Christiana had visited him often in regards to neuralgia she was suffering from. Charles was already married; however, it was a well-known fact that he enjoyed harmless flirting with other women when he could, including Christiana. The two exchanged secret love letters and eventually engaged in an emotional affair, though the specifics regarding the affair are often disputed. Charles claimed that the relationship was nothing more than letters and flirtation and that the pair never had sexual relations.
The following summer, however, Charles broke off the relationship, leaving Christiana angry and upset. She had adored Charles and saw only one way in which to have him as her own. In September of 1870, Christiana visited Dr. Beard's wife, Emily, and gifted her a box of chocolate creams, which she had purchased from a local confectioner. Emily ate one of the chocolates, noticing that it was very bitter and subsequently spat it out. Shortly afterwards, she became very sick, though she soon recovered. Charles found this very suspicious and decided to remove Christiana from the Beard's home. He believed that his ex-lover had something to do with his wife's sudden illness, but after he banished Christiana from his family home, he thought nothing more of it. There was no proof that Christiana was responsible, not to mention that Charles had a reputation to uphold. He never would have wanted to be involved in such a scandal. Little did Charles know that if he had reported his wife's poisoning to the police, several lives could have been spared.
On the 12th of June 1871, a four-year-old boy named Sydney Albert Barker and his uncle's family were spending the day in Brighton, and as a sweet treat, his uncle allowed him to eat some chocolates he bought from a local confectionary shop. But shortly afterwards, tragedy struck. Both his uncle Charles Miller and young Sydney became violently ill, and although Miller recovered, Sydney did not and passed away later that same day. An autopsy was conducted on the boy, and traces of strychnine were found to be in his system. The chocolates he had been eating had been laced with the poison, but even though the poisonous substance was found, Sydney's death was ultimately ruled as accidental.
Mr. John Maynard, who owned a confectionary shop, was questioned extensively by police, but he was not deemed to be a suspect in the death of Sydney Barker. He had a very good reputation and had run his shop in Brighton for 18 years. Maynard made each and every chocolate sold and never had received any complaints from customers. He didn't put any chemicals into the mixtures, and he didn't even own any poisons, nor did his suppliers for pest control. He simply used his own cat. Police couldn't find any evidence to indicate that John was involved in the poisonings; therefore, he was exonerated. As a precaution, Maynard destroyed the entirety of his stock.
Christiana purchased chocolates from J.G. Maynard's confectionary shop before taking them home and lacing them with strychnine, which she had purchased from a local chemist, Isaac Garrett, whom she had told that the poison was to get rid of stray cats. Though he had told her himself that strychnine was not ideal to get rid of pesky felines, as it was too potent. Christiana, who went under the alias of Mrs. Wood when conversing with the chemist, eventually managed to convince Garrett to sell her the poison after reassuring him that she would be careful. Christiana returned to the chemist a second time under the alias of Mrs. Wood for strychnine, this time claiming it was to destroy an elderly dog who was sick. Garrett gave her the poison without a second thought. In reality, a dog which was in Christiana's care at the time was found dead after being seen alive and well just 30 minutes prior by a servant. Its spine had been twisted backwards, and a taxidermist who examined the dog's corpse determined that the animal had been poisoned. Christiana then would return the chocolates to Mr. Maynard, claiming the chocolates were not what she wanted. Maynard then sold the chocolates to the unsuspecting public.
A number of Brighton residents fell violently ill, including a paper boy and a politician. Although initially, the dots were not connected back to the confectionary shop. After catching wind of the news that the Beards were moving up north to Scotland, Christiana began selling parcels of fruit sweets and cakes to persons of high society, including a magistrate, a surgeon, a newspaper editor, and Emily Beard, who once again was struck down with sudden illness along with two of her servants, all of whom had eaten the plum pudding which was sent in this parcel. As a way to divert suspicion, Christiana also sent parcels to herself, though misspelt her name. It was at this time that authorities realized that the chocolates from the Maynard's shop were the source of the high number of sudden illnesses in the vicinity.
Following his wife falling ill for the second time and after reading an appeal made by police in the newspaper regarding the poisonings, Charles Beard informed police about Christiana Edmonds and how she had tried to poison his wife Emily with strychnine-laced chocolates. She also attempted to sell chocolate boxes on the streets and attracted many customers who described her as approachable, well-mannered, and smartly dressed. She looked like a very friendly middle-class woman who appeared easy to trust. Fortunately, there were no reports of any unusual deaths in the area, and after witnesses believed they saw Christiana trying to sell the goods, police tracked her down and arrested her.
Following being caught, the addition of Dr. Beard coming forward to police regarding his wife's poisoning and the fact that a handwriting expert concluded that the address labels sent on the parcels matched her handwriting, Christiana Edmonds was charged with the attempted murder of Emily Beard and the murder of four-year-old Sydney Barker. Christiana was put on trial at the Old Bailey in London in January of 1872 for the murder of Sydney Barker. Many could understand why Christiana felt the need to be rid of Emily Beard, but why would she have poisoned members of the public, especially an innocent four-year-old boy? Her motives for doing so still remain unexplained. It was testified by witnesses that Christiana had coaxed some young boys into buying some of the chocolates from the shop in order to cover her tracks. She wanted John Maynard to fall under the veil of suspicion for these horrific poisonings so that her name would be cleared, and this would mean she could mend her relationship with Dr. Beard.
Dr. Beard testified regarding their relationship, and in doing so, some of Christiana's letters were read out in court. Strangely, she dropped some Spanish references to certain people, such as "la madre" and "la sposa," not to mention she signed it from Dorothea. It appeared that Christiana had perhaps developed another personality, or she had simply lost touch with reality due to the strength of her infatuation with Dr. Beard. It also came to light that Christiana had written letters to Sydney Barker's parents under three different aliases, all in an effort to implicate John Maynard in the crime. She urged Barker's parents to take action against Maynard for the death of their son. The Barkers, left suspicious, took the letters immediately to police.
Christiana decided to plead not guilty by means of insanity, but despite testimonies made by psychologists and family members detailing a long line of insanity in the Edmonds family, including Christiana's father's madness, and the fact that one of her brothers, Arthur, was already in an asylum and her sister Louisa had taken her own life, the jury were not satisfied with the insanity plea. On the 15th of January 1872, 43-year-old Edmonds was found guilty of several charges: three for attempted murder and one for murder, and was sentenced to death by hanging at Newgate Prison. However, she immediately claimed she was pregnant, therefore she could not face the death penalty until she had given birth. She was examined by doctors and was determined not to be expecting a child; she had simply used this excuse as a way of buying herself time. The death sentence was eventually downgraded to life imprisonment after psychiatrists examined Edmonds and declared her to be insane.
Christiana was subsequently sent to the notorious Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum on the 5th of July 1872, where she remained for the rest of her life. She died from senile decay, which in modern terms is old age, in September 1907 at the age of 78. Christiana never offered any explanation as to why she laced the chocolates in Maynard's shop, nor did she show any remorse for her crimes. The court papers chillingly described Christiana Edmonds as a "fiendish, devilish, and poor mad creature," who has over the centuries become notoriously known as the "Chocolate Cream Killer."
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