May 22, 2025 • 26 mins
A crime anthology that delves into real-life cases, presenting dramatized stories that highlight the darker aspects of human nature. Each episode offers a suspenseful journey into criminal investigations.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Alton Wells speaking from London.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Black Museum, Stopping Yard, Museum of Murder.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Here in a grim stone structure on.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The Thames which houses scoff and Yard, is a warehouse
of homicide. Well everyday objects.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Things like a packet of matches, a colossi parts, a
very knife.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh I touched fine murder, a hair is, a pint bottle,
labels meatsjuice. That's you've seen one of these if grandmother
(01:01):
said that so one fact when you were a child,
you man and fair meat use for the islands strength.
It contained from just such a small glass bottle. Yet
there it is, in the midst of all the other
relics of.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
This well insteator.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
What do you think, mister Heron, We did our best.
A little bit of quite sediment at the bottom of
the bottle. See if they're still you know what?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
That is?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, arsenic and to me.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
At least the means of murdering my brother.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Of to day that bottle of meat juice can be
seen in the Black Museum.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
From the annals of the Criminal Investigation Department of the
London Police, we bring you the dramatic.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Story of the crimes recorded by the objects in Scotland
Yards Gallery of Death, the Black Museum.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
In just a moment you will hear the Black Museum
starring awesome world.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Here we are a Black Museum, Scotland Yards.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You see him.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes, here are all these castry labeled weapons labeled in boxes.
And violence here is something unexpected violent deaths.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Resence is a small mule conch as you might find
in any lady's hand bag that had printing ladies.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
This one once inspect to escape teen girls or brown hair,
and what she.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Saw reflected up nearly disordered beauty. She saw murders striking.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
As here and it's the bottle of label beat juice.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Obsolete archaics type of writing on this label repeat with
flourishes and shading, no prosaic typing, hand written by an
ext ft ten.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And this was only naturale in the eighteen nineties. And
this bottle became a focus of the odds, even a
very disturbing situation.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Of course, on the surface, the Hammond family, Liverpool, England
eighteen ninety two displayed no evil, always happiness on the scenes.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That salary to the great events. Good, Oh, forgive me
a bottle? What did they there?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You have it, my dear, my own brother doesn't remember
our wedding anniversary and your anniversary old name?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Which one I at Arthur eight years of happiness, not
to mention six years of our son and author you forgot,
perhaps because I.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Wasn't to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's right, Robert met me and we were engaged in America,
because we were married here with my aunt changed exactly
while I was in America myself.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, with all that straightened, ud, shall we post the occasion?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
After all?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
How many times it's a pleasant family gathering on a
pleasant family occasion.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Nothing evil on the surface. Of course, undercurrents do show themselves.
Occasion almost three o'clock the time I took my medicine.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yes year, which one is it? This time?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The liquid or that happens?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I took the liquid tool that means the tablets now
they are.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Oh, you have no idea as for what it means
at my age having to head my bustles.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Uncle stands me.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Aye, I really don't your rhypo condriac Robert hetch taste
the truth, no laughing matter of these sedatives, well, I
learned all about them when I was an America lost one.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Contains art Nick the other has spected in it all.
Now you are Joki. I'm not in very small quantities,
but pison.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Nevertheless, here are your tablet's loater, Dear, thank you, thank
you for everything.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's not easy, I know, for God, be married to
a man twice.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
For an age don't very ridiculous, Robert. I'm very happy,
and so would you be if you let yourself honestly.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Others, sometimes I.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Think you detect the undercones, the constant harp being their
fifty year old husband on the fact is white.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
It's not your thirty all. The evil is there deep
down underground, but it's there. I would hardly say it
came to the surface.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
An incidents such as this, I think someone.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Might he just a note to the Plaza hotel in London.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
He Plaza, London. Yeah, I had word this morning. Aunt
Rose is video and there's no one to stay with her.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
You've been out all day, so I've written to rest
room to save time before I could.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, of course you want to go party can watch her.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But David, I suppose Doty is a jeweler man servants Dear,
of course she can excellent.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I saw doctor Hubert's day my dear, he's not at
all satisfied with my condition. However, we shall see he's
given me an evil to him who evil thinks. Perhaps still,
the bleeding between plants a niece at the Plaza Hotel
in London was something to think about it, Dolly, Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So long, too long, my bloodd too long.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But now, my sweet three whole days together, three glorious days, Oh, John.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
An interesting irons, would you say, particularly when the.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Young white is half her husband's aid. Now, there were
some things which Ruth Hammond had in common with her husband.
One was a love of horses, horse racing.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They followed them. Upon the time for the Grand National arrived,
Robert pulled himself together and took his wife to the
world famous race. And then an incident took place relevant
to the story.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh it's wonderful, Robert, just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, my dear. To imagine running into.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
You here, John, John, the gentleman seems to know.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You, my dear.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I'm sorry, mister John Browney, my husband, how do.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
You doing well? Thank you? You as well as can
be expected.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
John's no friend of mine, Robert, aren't you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
John? Yes, I think I can say, I am. Don't
you join us?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
There's plenty of room in our box, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Sure we'll be happy to have a casual meeting. Is
simple introduction of gesture of hospitality.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But who would expect a circumspect young woman to cast
cut from land.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Good behavior to the winds? Bobby?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Where were you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
The past day is with you?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I left her at the racetrack?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Won't she be along? Since I don't care what you
mean or what she does? Robert, Robert can never forgive.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Me if you must make an exhibition of your self, Ruth,
must it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Be in public?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Is thereveryone care about your public pride?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I ought to by you from my dead and body that,
even when for my son, I would.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Please please forgive me. I'll never have to like that again.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
John Rowling is out of my life through me. Very well.
We shall see got it? Yes, sir, forguess what you've
seen here? Understand forget it all? And now does the
husband's turn to visit London? Robert Hammond weather it's a
(09:36):
specialist about his nerves, about the pains he believed came
from a b From a specialist. He went directly to
a chemist shop.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I'd like this prescription field please here a good sair
in Can you.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Make it up quickly?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He said, he is a candidate and you have to
sign a receipt for this preparation that it contains stickening.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
My wife too, was visiting a chemist, a chemist in Liverpool.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Anything else now, No, I think that completes the list.
Oh nos, I'd almost forgotten tie papers. You do have
thie papers, don't.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, ma'am, any particular brand.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
No, but I prefer the strongest you have. I hate
to see anything linger longer than necessary.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Ruth Hammond took her purchases with her at home. She
ranked the maid.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You love them? Yes? Isn't any hot water on the stove?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yes, we must cook as kIPS kettle boiling very well, Dottie.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I want the kettle and the dish. Can I have
the sup and tie paper. That's a juggist for a
chemist you'd call him in America.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Showed me how to obtain the.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Arctic from fly David.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's part of a preparation to keep the complexion fresh.
And my skin is none too good these days.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Dotted fixed the kettle in the fish hand.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Will you please thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Perhaps nothing more would have been thought about that, about
the quarrel in the hall, if another event about the credos.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Immediately Robert Hammond fell ill, not merely the imagine the
illness of the hypochondract with an actual illness. Doctor Hubert
was called manic examination.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Then may I see you a moment, Missus Hammond in
cost not the lt. I'm possibles by mister Hammond's symptoms.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
His heart seems from enough be de complained.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The chest page and the conference fortin you.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm boied, Missus Hammond. Have you no diagnosis?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I preferred a consultations. Stop the consultation to learn it.
Doctors probed and listens and probed again.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
By then wait after huberts to die there and waited
outside the sacred not to Davis address himself of the problem.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I don't like it, Hubert. All that chine is the plad.
Speaker 8 (12:21):
Symptom of our cynical poisoning, the man injting himself with
our clinical medicine.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh yeah, and I know those compounds. You know. The
arsenic is minute Hubert, who is nursing him by his wife,
of course, and I, with some help from the maid,
I want a registered nurse in there and no one else.
You don't suspect anything day this. I want to convent
suspicion if I can get a nurse in there as
soon as possible. Mean why you will prescribe tonics? He
(12:50):
chooses a mesttle thing.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I want the bubbles watched night and day, the medicine,
the patients to nurse, all that's in the signal, everything
and everyone else outside, including the lovely wife, Yes, including
the lovely wife that the day bttle of meat juice
(13:16):
just seen Black mus In just a moment we will
continue with the Black Museum.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Starring Awesome Well.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Eighteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
A man might die slowly for unexplained reasons without benefit
of laboratory tests, gastric TESTI examinations, any of the aids
to life and living which grace hard times sixty years later.
The doctors in eighteen ninety two did their level best.
They used their knowledge well as if.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It came to placing a nurse in charge, denying.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
A wife access to the sick room, or nearly ordering
concentrated meat juss atomic. They performed their functions according to
the time in which they lived. Thus it came about
that Robert Hammond suffered in his bed. Ruth Hammond was
ordered from his room, and his brother Arthur came to
stay in that tense for boarding household.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes I did, ash, said mistress sir. She asked me
please to mail this letter that let us open. Oh please,
I can explain. Get on with it. I'll take it
to the post box and I'll dropped distant beyond and
Outpris thirty.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You can see the Marster I see but one else.
I wanted to change the nplson.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Stad it opened.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
I couldn't help read the beginning stain you gardeners.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Play for the bans.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And dressed to mister.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
John Browneys, is it necessary to add more to report
the contents of that poor, indiscreet love letter.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I doubted the letter read, and then put away. Arthur
Hammond strode to his brother's room. Called the nurse's side.
I want you to keep special watch Getty, special watch nurse, And.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Under no circumstances omit, Missus Hammond, anywhere near these medicines.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But even a nurse's rest in two an hour off
each day, this nurse is replaced by Dotty Hammond's maid.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Oh, Missus Hammon of the topic. Sis, you're not becoming mere.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Please don't be ridiculous, doti.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Of course, my dear, have they been keeping you away
from me? Oh? Please? Are these all your meds? Miss Robert? Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Most of them out filthy tasty, poor Robert.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Oh, ma'am, you're not supposed to touch with me. You
stn't be bad, Robert, m it certainly smells good, my
good rare steak oom. I wouldn't mind taking it myself.
You'll leave other pills.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Wouldn't you mind taking it yourself? Missus Hammond? I wonder
now then I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Not alone in that brother Arthur wanted to had he worried,
particularly when he found you alone in the pantry washing
medicine bottles, Hiru, washing bottles.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Isn't that dot his work?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
This is at least I can do for my husband,
even I'm not allowed to see.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
But you did see him yesterday.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And if I did, who has a better right?
Speaker 8 (17:24):
I'm not speaking of rights, route, I'm speaking of wrongs.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
If you have something of which you wish to accuse me,
why don't you?
Speaker 6 (17:30):
I may you see I had the leak too, shoe
hander yesterday analyzed I see you did it contained arsenic,
and you insinuate.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I put it there.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I do.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I did put something in that bottle. Robert ar Smitchel,
some powdery head in a small box. He told me
it all. It gave him relief, and the doctors had
forbidden it.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I see they forbade it. Well, my dear sister in law,
we shall see what we shall see.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
They saw sooner as twenty four hours later, a weeping
dartis old brother Arthur.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
The doctor's death. Just as I where to go, so
cricket came. No, don't try to call anybody not keeping you.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Mister, doctor Hubert stated, I personally will not certify his
death until there has been a piste bottom by doctor Davis,
and doctor Davis reported this was due.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
To aggravated inflammation of internal organs. The body contains something
less than half a grain of arsenic. I recommend an
immediate investigation by the police.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Enter Inspector Adams the CID. What's your opinion of the
Hubert as an expert on this case. It will be
very difficult to have an opinion, Inspector.
Speaker 8 (19:04):
You see, mister Hammond was a too hypocondriac, always still
seeing himself with patent's medicines, all kinds of prescriptions. But
the man's dead, and added to the difficulties that there
seems no really natural cause.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
For his passing.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Thank you doctor, not at all, Inspector, anything I can
do for him?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
From a doctor's office, the inspector made his way to
the House of Mourning. There his first object to inquire
was Arthur Hammond. So you are suspicious of the cause
of death, wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You be, Inspector?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I need more facts in my positionion.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
The os are things as libel or, sir, and charges
of false arrest. Perhaps you'll be interested in this, Inspector.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
What is it? A letter written by the widow to
High London Paramoa and discovered.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Quite by accident. Thank you anything else, mister Allan, what
you think might be? There were several things which brother Arthur.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Brought to the attention to the inspector, and these in
turn brought Garthy into the presence of the man from
the yard list. There's Mammy bef I can get what's
all this about your mistress? And a bottle of mistus if.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Hit something in the bottle, cut the bottles here it is, sir, did.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Anyone else touch this? Bottle beside Missus Helen.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
She got the medicine proper. She did watch better than
her course.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I see, then you are prepared to swear that no
one touched the bottle before or after Missus Hammond except.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
The mess Yes, sir, oh swear sir? You mean in
a child like inspector?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yes, Megir, hadn't you thought of it before the police
gave it? The questioning completed to the moment Inspector Adams gave.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It instructions, Sergeant, I don't heaven house sets from top
to bottom.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Here's a wallet. Get away.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The sergeant took a crew and did go to work.
Every milk and granny at the old house was seen.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Two closet walls were founded in such a secret.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Panel's heart stones were pride loose. Even the cold then
was emptied. Sergeant Hall reported back to the inspector. Here
it is, say, I'll stick all over the place. It
followed it the next morning, I have a warrant for
your arrest Missus Heaven. The charge is wilful letter. It
(21:35):
was a celebrated trial. The court room in Liverpool was
packed with the curious, the cruel, and the very very
few who found some sympathy in their feelings. The newspapers
enjoyed their traditional field day with the lourid scandalous details
of the story really pregnant. Details of the case were few, however,
simple and contradictory.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Arsenic was found in the possession of the prisoner. She
did not deny it with hers.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Doctor Davis testified concerning the post morton. I found a
little less than half a grain of arsenic in the
body he has darted. But would you say that this
poison was the cause of death? I would, And then
the contradictions set him. I asked the same question. Doctor
Hubert replied, no, I would.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Not say so, and certainly not in the case of
this patient.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Ah, why not?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Miss Diamond had.
Speaker 8 (22:36):
Accustomed himself over the years in taking arsenic in small hauntities.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
He was used to it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
The prosecution countered this with the Liverpool chemist, whom missus
Hammond had visited.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
While her husband was in London. She came in that
morning with a list.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
The flypaper was not on the list. The chemist had
no idea what Ruth Hamid had wanted with the flypaper.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
However, Doughty did, Yes, Sir. She bought the arsenic out
of the fly pape, borrowed it out whatever for she said,
to make something for a complexion. She told me she
died about it in America.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Sir, And did you darthy ever see her use such
a preparation?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Nonswir, I never did.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Of the defense well. In eighteen ninety two, the accused
did not testify himself defense. The accused was permitted, however,
to make a statement and.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Look, my Lord justice, with your permission, my lord, twa things.
I did soak the flypapers for the arsenic they contained.
Speaker 9 (23:41):
I made a cosmetic preparation from it, which I learned
about from doctor.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Henry Maysfield in Brooklyn, New York, when I lived there.
I did put clowder into my husband's medicine. He asked
me too.
Speaker 9 (23:56):
This was a preparation he brought back from London, which
had helped him times before.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But which his doctors year refused to give him. Finally,
my Lord, I wish to state that for the state
of our son, for.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
David's sake, my husband and I had a complete reconciliation,
and on the day before his death, I made a
full confession of the terrible wrong I had done him.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
The jury retired the court waited, the President waited, the
crowds waited. Hours passed, then a knock on the locked
door of the jury room. Bailey opened the twelve good
men and crew file back and the jury boxes. The
(24:50):
judge's gabble rights the prodcast performan to rise and face
the prison. He told the traditional question, gentlemen of the jury,
have you reached a verdict? We have and what is
(25:10):
your verdict? We find the prisoner guilty of pre meditative murder,
and today the bottle of METU's, the decisive clue in
this case, is still to be found in the Black Museum.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Austin Wells will be back with you in just a moment.
Well they didn't hang Ruth Hammond now, despite the fact
that public sentiment was so much against her.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
At the start of the trial, he changed quite drastically
once she had been sentenced to hanging. Letters telegrams poured
into the Home Office and took a London Times, and
her reprieve was granted, and after many long years in prison,
Ruth Hammond was released. She returned to America to die,
(26:13):
there forever silent about the crime for which she had
been furnished. The judge himself, when asked concerning her guilt
or innocence, replied only.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I never did express an opinion.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And how the next time we meet here in the
Black Museum for another story.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Her reign is always obediently illness
This is Alton Wells speaking from London.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Black Museum, Stopping Yard, Museum of Murder.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Here in a grim stone structure on.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The Thames which houses scoff and Yard, is a warehouse
of homicide. Well everyday objects.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Things like a packet of matches, a colossi parts, a
very knife.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh I touched fine murder, a hair is, a pint bottle,
labels meatsjuice. That's you've seen one of these if grandmother
(01:01):
said that so one fact when you were a child,
you man and fair meat use for the islands strength.
It contained from just such a small glass bottle. Yet
there it is, in the midst of all the other
relics of.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
This well insteator.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
What do you think, mister Heron, We did our best.
A little bit of quite sediment at the bottom of
the bottle. See if they're still you know what?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
That is?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, arsenic and to me.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
At least the means of murdering my brother.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Of to day that bottle of meat juice can be
seen in the Black Museum.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
From the annals of the Criminal Investigation Department of the
London Police, we bring you the dramatic.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Story of the crimes recorded by the objects in Scotland
Yards Gallery of Death, the Black Museum.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
In just a moment you will hear the Black Museum
starring awesome world.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Here we are a Black Museum, Scotland Yards.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You see him.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes, here are all these castry labeled weapons labeled in boxes.
And violence here is something unexpected violent deaths.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Resence is a small mule conch as you might find
in any lady's hand bag that had printing ladies.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
This one once inspect to escape teen girls or brown hair,
and what she.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Saw reflected up nearly disordered beauty. She saw murders striking.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
As here and it's the bottle of label beat juice.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Obsolete archaics type of writing on this label repeat with
flourishes and shading, no prosaic typing, hand written by an
ext ft ten.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And this was only naturale in the eighteen nineties. And
this bottle became a focus of the odds, even a
very disturbing situation.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Of course, on the surface, the Hammond family, Liverpool, England
eighteen ninety two displayed no evil, always happiness on the scenes.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That salary to the great events. Good, Oh, forgive me
a bottle? What did they there?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You have it, my dear, my own brother doesn't remember
our wedding anniversary and your anniversary old name?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Which one I at Arthur eight years of happiness, not
to mention six years of our son and author you forgot,
perhaps because I.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Wasn't to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's right, Robert met me and we were engaged in America,
because we were married here with my aunt changed exactly
while I was in America myself.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, with all that straightened, ud, shall we post the occasion?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
After all?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
How many times it's a pleasant family gathering on a
pleasant family occasion.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Nothing evil on the surface. Of course, undercurrents do show themselves.
Occasion almost three o'clock the time I took my medicine.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yes year, which one is it? This time?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The liquid or that happens?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I took the liquid tool that means the tablets now
they are.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Oh, you have no idea as for what it means
at my age having to head my bustles.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Uncle stands me.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Aye, I really don't your rhypo condriac Robert hetch taste
the truth, no laughing matter of these sedatives, well, I
learned all about them when I was an America lost one.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Contains art Nick the other has spected in it all.
Now you are Joki. I'm not in very small quantities,
but pison.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Nevertheless, here are your tablet's loater, Dear, thank you, thank
you for everything.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's not easy, I know, for God, be married to
a man twice.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
For an age don't very ridiculous, Robert. I'm very happy,
and so would you be if you let yourself honestly.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Others, sometimes I.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Think you detect the undercones, the constant harp being their
fifty year old husband on the fact is white.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
It's not your thirty all. The evil is there deep
down underground, but it's there. I would hardly say it
came to the surface.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
An incidents such as this, I think someone.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Might he just a note to the Plaza hotel in London.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
He Plaza, London. Yeah, I had word this morning. Aunt
Rose is video and there's no one to stay with her.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
You've been out all day, so I've written to rest
room to save time before I could.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, of course you want to go party can watch her.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But David, I suppose Doty is a jeweler man servants Dear,
of course she can excellent.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I saw doctor Hubert's day my dear, he's not at
all satisfied with my condition. However, we shall see he's
given me an evil to him who evil thinks. Perhaps still,
the bleeding between plants a niece at the Plaza Hotel
in London was something to think about it, Dolly, Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So long, too long, my bloodd too long.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But now, my sweet three whole days together, three glorious days, Oh, John.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
An interesting irons, would you say, particularly when the.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Young white is half her husband's aid. Now, there were
some things which Ruth Hammond had in common with her husband.
One was a love of horses, horse racing.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They followed them. Upon the time for the Grand National arrived,
Robert pulled himself together and took his wife to the
world famous race. And then an incident took place relevant
to the story.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh it's wonderful, Robert, just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, my dear. To imagine running into.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
You here, John, John, the gentleman seems to know.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You, my dear.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I'm sorry, mister John Browney, my husband, how do.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
You doing well? Thank you? You as well as can
be expected.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
John's no friend of mine, Robert, aren't you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
John? Yes, I think I can say, I am. Don't
you join us?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
There's plenty of room in our box, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Sure we'll be happy to have a casual meeting. Is
simple introduction of gesture of hospitality.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But who would expect a circumspect young woman to cast
cut from land.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Good behavior to the winds? Bobby?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Where were you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
The past day is with you?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I left her at the racetrack?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Won't she be along? Since I don't care what you
mean or what she does? Robert, Robert can never forgive.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Me if you must make an exhibition of your self, Ruth,
must it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Be in public?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Is thereveryone care about your public pride?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I ought to by you from my dead and body that,
even when for my son, I would.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Please please forgive me. I'll never have to like that again.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
John Rowling is out of my life through me. Very well.
We shall see got it? Yes, sir, forguess what you've
seen here? Understand forget it all? And now does the
husband's turn to visit London? Robert Hammond weather it's a
(09:36):
specialist about his nerves, about the pains he believed came
from a b From a specialist. He went directly to
a chemist shop.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I'd like this prescription field please here a good sair
in Can you.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Make it up quickly?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He said, he is a candidate and you have to
sign a receipt for this preparation that it contains stickening.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
My wife too, was visiting a chemist, a chemist in Liverpool.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Anything else now, No, I think that completes the list.
Oh nos, I'd almost forgotten tie papers. You do have
thie papers, don't.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, ma'am, any particular brand.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
No, but I prefer the strongest you have. I hate
to see anything linger longer than necessary.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Ruth Hammond took her purchases with her at home. She
ranked the maid.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You love them? Yes? Isn't any hot water on the stove?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yes, we must cook as kIPS kettle boiling very well, Dottie.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I want the kettle and the dish. Can I have
the sup and tie paper. That's a juggist for a
chemist you'd call him in America.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Showed me how to obtain the.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Arctic from fly David.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's part of a preparation to keep the complexion fresh.
And my skin is none too good these days.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Dotted fixed the kettle in the fish hand.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Will you please thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Perhaps nothing more would have been thought about that, about
the quarrel in the hall, if another event about the credos.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Immediately Robert Hammond fell ill, not merely the imagine the
illness of the hypochondract with an actual illness. Doctor Hubert
was called manic examination.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Then may I see you a moment, Missus Hammond in
cost not the lt. I'm possibles by mister Hammond's symptoms.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
His heart seems from enough be de complained.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The chest page and the conference fortin you.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm boied, Missus Hammond. Have you no diagnosis?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I preferred a consultations. Stop the consultation to learn it.
Doctors probed and listens and probed again.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
By then wait after huberts to die there and waited
outside the sacred not to Davis address himself of the problem.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I don't like it, Hubert. All that chine is the plad.
Speaker 8 (12:21):
Symptom of our cynical poisoning, the man injting himself with
our clinical medicine.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh yeah, and I know those compounds. You know. The
arsenic is minute Hubert, who is nursing him by his wife,
of course, and I, with some help from the maid,
I want a registered nurse in there and no one else.
You don't suspect anything day this. I want to convent
suspicion if I can get a nurse in there as
soon as possible. Mean why you will prescribe tonics? He
(12:50):
chooses a mesttle thing.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I want the bubbles watched night and day, the medicine,
the patients to nurse, all that's in the signal, everything
and everyone else outside, including the lovely wife, Yes, including
the lovely wife that the day bttle of meat juice
(13:16):
just seen Black mus In just a moment we will
continue with the Black Museum.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Starring Awesome Well.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Eighteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
A man might die slowly for unexplained reasons without benefit
of laboratory tests, gastric TESTI examinations, any of the aids
to life and living which grace hard times sixty years later.
The doctors in eighteen ninety two did their level best.
They used their knowledge well as if.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It came to placing a nurse in charge, denying.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
A wife access to the sick room, or nearly ordering
concentrated meat juss atomic. They performed their functions according to
the time in which they lived. Thus it came about
that Robert Hammond suffered in his bed. Ruth Hammond was
ordered from his room, and his brother Arthur came to
stay in that tense for boarding household.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes I did, ash, said mistress sir. She asked me
please to mail this letter that let us open. Oh please,
I can explain. Get on with it. I'll take it
to the post box and I'll dropped distant beyond and
Outpris thirty.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You can see the Marster I see but one else.
I wanted to change the nplson.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Stad it opened.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
I couldn't help read the beginning stain you gardeners.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Play for the bans.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And dressed to mister.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
John Browneys, is it necessary to add more to report
the contents of that poor, indiscreet love letter.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I doubted the letter read, and then put away. Arthur
Hammond strode to his brother's room. Called the nurse's side.
I want you to keep special watch Getty, special watch nurse, And.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Under no circumstances omit, Missus Hammond, anywhere near these medicines.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But even a nurse's rest in two an hour off
each day, this nurse is replaced by Dotty Hammond's maid.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Oh, Missus Hammon of the topic. Sis, you're not becoming mere.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Please don't be ridiculous, doti.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Of course, my dear, have they been keeping you away
from me? Oh? Please? Are these all your meds? Miss Robert? Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Most of them out filthy tasty, poor Robert.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Oh, ma'am, you're not supposed to touch with me. You
stn't be bad, Robert, m it certainly smells good, my
good rare steak oom. I wouldn't mind taking it myself.
You'll leave other pills.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Wouldn't you mind taking it yourself? Missus Hammond? I wonder
now then I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Not alone in that brother Arthur wanted to had he worried,
particularly when he found you alone in the pantry washing
medicine bottles, Hiru, washing bottles.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Isn't that dot his work?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
This is at least I can do for my husband,
even I'm not allowed to see.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
But you did see him yesterday.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And if I did, who has a better right?
Speaker 8 (17:24):
I'm not speaking of rights, route, I'm speaking of wrongs.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
If you have something of which you wish to accuse me,
why don't you?
Speaker 6 (17:30):
I may you see I had the leak too, shoe
hander yesterday analyzed I see you did it contained arsenic,
and you insinuate.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I put it there.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I do.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I did put something in that bottle. Robert ar Smitchel,
some powdery head in a small box. He told me
it all. It gave him relief, and the doctors had
forbidden it.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I see they forbade it. Well, my dear sister in law,
we shall see what we shall see.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
They saw sooner as twenty four hours later, a weeping
dartis old brother Arthur.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
The doctor's death. Just as I where to go, so
cricket came. No, don't try to call anybody not keeping you.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Mister, doctor Hubert stated, I personally will not certify his
death until there has been a piste bottom by doctor Davis,
and doctor Davis reported this was due.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
To aggravated inflammation of internal organs. The body contains something
less than half a grain of arsenic. I recommend an
immediate investigation by the police.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Enter Inspector Adams the CID. What's your opinion of the
Hubert as an expert on this case. It will be
very difficult to have an opinion, Inspector.
Speaker 8 (19:04):
You see, mister Hammond was a too hypocondriac, always still
seeing himself with patent's medicines, all kinds of prescriptions. But
the man's dead, and added to the difficulties that there
seems no really natural cause.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
For his passing.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Thank you doctor, not at all, Inspector, anything I can
do for him?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
From a doctor's office, the inspector made his way to
the House of Mourning. There his first object to inquire
was Arthur Hammond. So you are suspicious of the cause
of death, wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You be, Inspector?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I need more facts in my positionion.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
The os are things as libel or, sir, and charges
of false arrest. Perhaps you'll be interested in this, Inspector.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
What is it? A letter written by the widow to
High London Paramoa and discovered.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Quite by accident. Thank you anything else, mister Allan, what
you think might be? There were several things which brother Arthur.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Brought to the attention to the inspector, and these in
turn brought Garthy into the presence of the man from
the yard list. There's Mammy bef I can get what's
all this about your mistress? And a bottle of mistus if.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Hit something in the bottle, cut the bottles here it is, sir, did.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Anyone else touch this? Bottle beside Missus Helen.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
She got the medicine proper. She did watch better than
her course.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I see, then you are prepared to swear that no
one touched the bottle before or after Missus Hammond except.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
The mess Yes, sir, oh swear sir? You mean in
a child like inspector?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yes, Megir, hadn't you thought of it before the police
gave it? The questioning completed to the moment Inspector Adams gave.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It instructions, Sergeant, I don't heaven house sets from top
to bottom.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Here's a wallet. Get away.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The sergeant took a crew and did go to work.
Every milk and granny at the old house was seen.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Two closet walls were founded in such a secret.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Panel's heart stones were pride loose. Even the cold then
was emptied. Sergeant Hall reported back to the inspector. Here
it is, say, I'll stick all over the place. It
followed it the next morning, I have a warrant for
your arrest Missus Heaven. The charge is wilful letter. It
(21:35):
was a celebrated trial. The court room in Liverpool was
packed with the curious, the cruel, and the very very
few who found some sympathy in their feelings. The newspapers
enjoyed their traditional field day with the lourid scandalous details
of the story really pregnant. Details of the case were few, however,
simple and contradictory.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Arsenic was found in the possession of the prisoner. She
did not deny it with hers.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Doctor Davis testified concerning the post morton. I found a
little less than half a grain of arsenic in the
body he has darted. But would you say that this
poison was the cause of death? I would, And then
the contradictions set him. I asked the same question. Doctor
Hubert replied, no, I would.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Not say so, and certainly not in the case of
this patient.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Ah, why not?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Miss Diamond had.
Speaker 8 (22:36):
Accustomed himself over the years in taking arsenic in small hauntities.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
He was used to it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
The prosecution countered this with the Liverpool chemist, whom missus
Hammond had visited.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
While her husband was in London. She came in that
morning with a list.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
The flypaper was not on the list. The chemist had
no idea what Ruth Hamid had wanted with the flypaper.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
However, Doughty did, Yes, Sir. She bought the arsenic out
of the fly pape, borrowed it out whatever for she said,
to make something for a complexion. She told me she
died about it in America.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Sir, And did you darthy ever see her use such
a preparation?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Nonswir, I never did.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Of the defense well. In eighteen ninety two, the accused
did not testify himself defense. The accused was permitted, however,
to make a statement and.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Look, my Lord justice, with your permission, my lord, twa things.
I did soak the flypapers for the arsenic they contained.
Speaker 9 (23:41):
I made a cosmetic preparation from it, which I learned
about from doctor.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Henry Maysfield in Brooklyn, New York, when I lived there.
I did put clowder into my husband's medicine. He asked
me too.
Speaker 9 (23:56):
This was a preparation he brought back from London, which
had helped him times before.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But which his doctors year refused to give him. Finally,
my Lord, I wish to state that for the state
of our son, for.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
David's sake, my husband and I had a complete reconciliation,
and on the day before his death, I made a
full confession of the terrible wrong I had done him.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
The jury retired the court waited, the President waited, the
crowds waited. Hours passed, then a knock on the locked
door of the jury room. Bailey opened the twelve good
men and crew file back and the jury boxes. The
(24:50):
judge's gabble rights the prodcast performan to rise and face
the prison. He told the traditional question, gentlemen of the jury,
have you reached a verdict? We have and what is
(25:10):
your verdict? We find the prisoner guilty of pre meditative murder,
and today the bottle of METU's, the decisive clue in
this case, is still to be found in the Black Museum.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Austin Wells will be back with you in just a moment.
Well they didn't hang Ruth Hammond now, despite the fact
that public sentiment was so much against her.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
At the start of the trial, he changed quite drastically
once she had been sentenced to hanging. Letters telegrams poured
into the Home Office and took a London Times, and
her reprieve was granted, and after many long years in prison,
Ruth Hammond was released. She returned to America to die,
(26:13):
there forever silent about the crime for which she had
been furnished. The judge himself, when asked concerning her guilt
or innocence, replied only.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I never did express an opinion.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And how the next time we meet here in the
Black Museum for another story.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Her reign is always obediently illness
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