Walter Horsford - “The St. Neots poisoning case”.

Walter Horsford - “The St. Neots poisoning case”.

On Wednesday the 1st of June 1898, 26 year old farmer, Walter Horsford, stood trial before Mr. Justice Hawkins at Huntingdon Assizes, charged with the murder by poisoning of his cousin, Mrs. Annie Holmes.  He pleaded not guilty, the proceedings lasting six days

The prosecution, led by Mr. Rawlinson, Q.C., stated that Annie lived at Stoneleigh near Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire.  She was a widow and had three children, the youngest still a baby.  It was alleged that Horsford had been “intimate” with Annie.  In October of 1897, Horsford had married a woman named Bessie.  At the end of that month Annie moved to a cottage on East Street in St. Neots.  By December Annie told Horsford that she was pregnant by him.  He wrote her a letter which said, “Dear Annie, Will come over on Friday to see if we can come to an arrangement of some sort or other, but you must remember that I paid you for what I had done.  I gave you half a crown and so if I thought well not to give you anything you could not get it.  But still I don’t want the talk and to hear it that was by me that you are so.”

On the 28th of December Horsford went to a chemist in Thrapstone and purchased 90 grains of strychnine, on the pretext of killing rats.  On the 7th of January 1898, Annie was found dead by her daughter, also Annie.  A search of her bedroom revealed a packet containing strychnine with the words “Take in a little water.  It is quite harmless”, written on it in Horsford’s handwriting.

Mr. Paine the chemist who had sold Horsford the poison gave evidence and produced the poison register showing Horsford’s signature.

Annie junior told the court that on the evening of January the 7th her mother had taken a full glass of water up to her bedroom.  When she looked in her mother later most of the water had gone.  Later that night her mother began exhibiting the signs of poisoning and Annie went to get help.

Expert witnesses testified about the handwriting, the cause of death and the fact that Annie was not pregnant.  On Monday the 6th of June 1898, after a brief deliberation by the jury, Horsford was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.

On Monday the 27th of June, Horsofrd asked to see the governor of Cambridge prison, Mr. Burkinshaw, and handed him a sealed envelope which he requested not be opened until after his death.  The governor added his seal to the envelope in Horsford’s presence and then sent it to the Home Office.  It was later revealed that it had contained his confession to the murder.

The hanging was scheduled for Tuesday the 28th of June 1898.  A new execution shed had been constructed in one of the prison’s yards and contained the gallows set over a ten foot deep pit.  Two members of the press were admitted. James Billington pinioned Horsford in the condemned cell at 7.59 a.m.  He was led out into the yard and on into the execution shed in a procession formed by the governor, the Sheriff, Mr. Fowler, the surgeon, four warders and the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Christie.  Horsford walked unaided and maintained his composure to the end.  Billington got the hood and noose on quickly, while his assistant, Robert Wade, strapped Horsford’s legs.  Horsford weighed 182 lbs, and a drop of 7 feet was given. Death was recorded as “instantaneous”.  A large crowd had gathered outside the prison, a majority of whom were female, to see the black flag raised.  At the formal inquest later in the morning, before the coroner, Mr. A. J. Lyon, the prison surgeon testified that there had been fracture/dislocation of Horsford’s neck vertebrae.

Newspapers could print pictures by this time and it is thus possible to have an artist’s impression of what Annie and Horsford looked like.

Horsford was suspected of three other poisonings but they could not be proven.  The alleged victims were a former girlfriend, Fanny James, her brother and another, unnamed girl who Horsford apparently had a relationship with.