WEBVTT - Bad Medicine 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:06.560 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:15.760 Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.360 The most Beautiful Girl in New York City was, according 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.480 to the judges of the contest that decided such matters, 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.880 a dark haired, blue eyed young woman by the name 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.280 of Olive Duffy. It was nineteen fourteen, and with her 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.240 newly minted title and all of the attention that came 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.720 with it, Olive was on her way to fame and fortune. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.840 She worked first as a showgirl on Broadway before moving 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.920 on to the silver screen, the public's newest and most 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.600 exciting form of mass entertainment. Olive was a natural fit 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.720 for the Hollywood set. A studio darling with both a 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.520 foul mouth and a mischievous air, she seemed to be 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.600 living out the fantasies of so many young girls. She 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.200 got jobs, and eventually she got the man. Olive and 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.440 John Pickford, one of the most eligible bachelors of the day, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.200 began carousing, partying, and gaining quite the reputation around the sets. 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.000 They were madly in love, yes, but they were also 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.240 wildly volatile. Their pairing rife with a magnetic passion that 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.880 bound them together and seemingly endless, passionate affairs that tore 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.920 them apart. In September of nineteen twenty, Olive and Jack 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.720 set sail for Paris. It was supposed to be a 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.520 reconciliation of sorts, an attempt to quiet their quarrels and 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.959 quell their tempers. Oh. Once they got to town, they 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.720 checked into the hotel Writs and went off to explore 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.960 the city. And there they drank and danced as the 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.720 night ticked on, a stumbling back to their room in 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.960 the early morning hours. There's old wisdom that tells us 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.600 that nothing good can happen at this liminal time between 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.520 night and day. Some may beg to differ, but knowing 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.280 what we know now, we might assume that our ill 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.400 fated couple might agree. Jack would later claim that he 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.200 had already climbed into bed, half asleep and soaked and whiskey, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:14.200 when suddenly, from the bathroom Olive began to scream. In 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.040 his haze. Jack stumbled out of bed and found Olive 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.119 leaning against the counter holding a bottle. As he would 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.680 recount later, she looked at him, pale with horror, and said, 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.360 oh my god, I'm poisoned. Allegedly, Olive had been trying 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.680 to take her sleeping medication, but in her drunken, exhausted state, 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.960 she mixed up her medication with Jack's. At that time, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.400 Jack was treating his painful syphilis sores with bichloride of mercury, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.480 which just so happens to be extremely toxic if ingested. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.160 It seems that Olive had grabbed the wrong bottle, poured 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.760 a dose, and drank it down, but very quickly realized 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.520 her mistake. Jack scooped up his wife and carried her 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:58.800 to the bed. He grabbed the phone and called for 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.560 an ambulance. Olive was taken to the hospital, and shortly 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.600 afterward the story broke in the newspapers. Olive, the most 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.280 beautiful girl in all of New York, died in the 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.440 hospital five days later. The story of all of Thomas's 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.120 poisoning made the front pages of reputable newspapers and gossip 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.640 rags alike. Some believed Jack's affairs had finally been too 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.359 much for her, and that she had died by suicide 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.760 by deploying the precise medication he was using to treat 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.760 the infections had contracted from his string of infidelities. Others 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.519 claimed it was Jack himself, who had deliberately switched to 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.200 the bottles in order to avoid an expensive divorce. Police 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.000 immediately launched an investigation into the starlet's death and ordered 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.520 an autopsy. As it would happen, they quickly came to 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.680 the conclusion that it was, as Jack had reported, a 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:54.240 terrible accident. For all its tragedy, this poisoning is popularly 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.760 remembered not as something malicious or cruel, but in fact 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:04.160 a fairly ordinary accident that happened to someone of extraordinary circumstances. 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.000 She was known, and she was loved. There were many 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.320 eyes on the case. But others who don't have the 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:17.320 privileges of love and fame, they aren't so lucky. Some 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.919 tragic accidents, as we will soon see, have more to 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:25.640 them than meets the eye. I'm Lorn Vogelbaum. Welcome to 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:36.520 American Shadows. Thomas Neil Cream knew something about death. He was, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.680 after all, coming of age in the Victorian era, at 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:43.200 a time where medicine often felt like magic and the 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.560 average life expectancy was much shorter. He'd lost more than 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.560 one sibling and would lose his mother shortly before he 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.520 turned twenty. Even though his family was a prosperous one. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.120 His father had risen quickly through the ranks of a 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.799 Canadian shipping company, turning him into one of the cities 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.320 healthiest men. Mortality was something that even they couldn't buy 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.240 their way out of. By the time he was twenty one, 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.680 Thomas knew that he couldn't follow in his father's footsteps. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.200 He informed his dad that he was going to become 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.000 a doctor. He enrolled in McGill University in eighteen seventy 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.400 two and earned a reputation among his schoolmates as quite 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.400 the dandy. He loved flash and he loved style. He 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.960 was sure of himself arrogant, even knowing his life would 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.120 be made easier by his charms and his family money. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.640 At McGill, he straddled the line between the living and 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.640 the dead, dissecting bodies in his anatomy lessons. Most of 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.800 the cadavers he worked on were probably procured by crooked 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.600 grave robbers in the middle of the night. It was 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.280 an unseemly business, but it was considered the only way 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.920 to unlock the body's secrets, a small price to pay 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.560 to serve the living. The coursework captivated him, sparking all 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.600 kinds of intense curiosities. One of the subjects of his 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.320 fascination came in liquid form. It was chloroform, a new 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.200 wonder drug that had begun showing up in doctor's offices 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:12.039 and pharmacies across the world. Was prescribed to treat just 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.240 about everything from insomnia to alcoholism to sea sickness, and 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.520 call it still. How it worked exactly was somewhat of 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.000 a mystery. It seemed to slow the body down and 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.240 put a person to sleep. As more doctors began to 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.680 use it, patients began to die on operating tables. It 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.800 said that on average, one in three thousand surgical patients 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:40.200 died due to its application. But without being totally clear 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.600 on how it worked or what a safe dose was, 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.559 the doctors were at a loss as how to best 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:50.480 mitigate fatalities. It was a wildly unpredictable substance, asking all 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.600 those who dealt in it to partake of a game 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:57.080 of chemical roulette. For his part, Thomas was more fascinated 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.520 by chloroform than any other herb or drug. In his arsenal, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.000 he wrote a thesis on the effects of chloroform and 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.880 graduated from University with honors in March of eighteen seventy six. 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.240 Soon after, Thomas met a woman named Flora Brooks, the 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.840 pretty daughter of a wealthy businessman. He observed all of 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.840 the proper courtship rituals that were demanded of him, even 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.040 though he wasn't marriage minded. He had bigger plans for himself. 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.800 You might imagine his surprise when Flora told him she 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.800 was pregnant. He demanded that she get an abortion, and 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.679 that he be the one to perform it. Soon after, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.280 Flora fell sick and her family called in a local doctor. 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.080 He immediately diagnosed the consequences of the botched abortion. It 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.560 was clear to all at her bedside that Thomas was 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.360 responsible for this whole mess. Flora's father was livid, but 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.440 Thomas and Flora married two days later under the threat 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.600 of her father's gun. It wouldn't be long, though, before 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.280 Thomas get town under the pretense of enrolling in a 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.320 British medical school. Flora was behind in what we can 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.280 assume was a flurry of mixed emotions. She never made 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.280 a full recovery. Flora took to bed dutifully following a 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.240 regiment of pills that Thomas mailed her from overseas. When 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.000 her local doctor asked her where they came from, she 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.160 told him. He told her to stop immediately, he couldn't 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.760 identify them. Laura died soon after, succumbing to what appeared 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:30.000 to be consumption, But those little pills later aroused suspicion 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:39.240 in all who came to hear his story. Thomas Cream 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.800 arrived back on this side of the pond in eighteen 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.760 seventy eight. He had a bit of European education under 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.080 his belt and a need for cash. He settled down 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.920 in Ontario. It was here he thought that he would 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.120 set up his new practice. He became an active member 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.839 in his community of something that had long ago been 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.440 instilled in him by his father. He was a frequent 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.000 presence at Sunday morning church services and tutored children in 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.760 their lessons. His daytime hours would never have suggested that 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.080 his neighbors should wonder what he was getting up to 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.040 after dark. His habits had come with him. It was 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.359 whispered that he was seen out frequenting bars and carousing 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.800 with prostitutes. He drank, and it seemed that he had 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.920 picked up a morphine habit along the way. This all 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.840 was wholly unacceptable for a man of his station. Even still, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.559 he was a doctor. His degree earned him clout in 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.240 the eyes of those who knew him, and created a 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.360 polished reputation that was sought by folks who wanted to 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.960 meet him. But all of that respectability that came with 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.560 his title couldn't save Thomas from what happened. In May 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:48.000 of eighteen seventy nine, one frosty morning, a young girl 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:52.040 tromped outside to use Thomas's backyard privy. When she pulled 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:56.080 the door open, she found a woman dead, slumped cold 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.320 and stiff against the wall. The woman in the privy 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.719 appeared to be in her mid twenties and wore a 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.920 faded purple dress, and next to her sat a small, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.960 uncorked bottle. A doctor was called, who decided that she 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.440 probably had died before daybreak. He turned his attention to 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.199 the small bottle and gingerly took it in his hands. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.000 He turned it around and lifted it to his nose. 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:23.720 He sniffed it and immediately recognized the cloying fumes of chloroform. 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.680 An investigation got under way and the identity of the 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.400 woman was discovered. Her name was Kate Gardner. And those 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.360 who were investigating theorized that she had taken her own 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.240 life after becoming pregnant out of wedlock, but an inquest 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.000 was held all the same. The coroner discovered marks on 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.800 her face bruising it was likely they thought that this 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.200 could have been from a chloroform soaked handkerchief being held 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.360 tightly against her mouth and nose. They came to the 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.120 conclusion that she couldn't have done that long enough to 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.240 kill herself, especially once the chloroform had taken effect. They 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.040 knew they were looking for a killer, and it didn't 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.920 take them long to set their sights on doctor Thomas Crean. 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.440 Thomas didn't deny knowing this woman. He admitted that she 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.400 had consulted with him about an abortion, but he did 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.360 deny having anything to do with the chloroform found at 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.160 the scene. It was finally declared that she was killed 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.000 by the administration of chloroform to her by an unknown person. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.920 The investigation couldn't prove that he was guilty, but the 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.199 public opinion was of a different mind. He was extraordinarily 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.120 suspect in the eyes of his neighbors and the larger community, 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.520 which effectively put an end to his career in Ontario 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.800 not to be wholly dissuaded. He left for Chicago, a 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.240 much larger city, but he could disappear into and re 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.840 emerge anew in Chicago. Part of this new trajectory would 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.400 be a rebranding. He didn't aim for the same air 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.920 of respectability that had had in Ontario, but instead he 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.760 set up a practice near the booming red light district. 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.440 That abortion was still illegal in the United States and Canada, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.280 Thomas was playing a dangerous, albeit profitable game. He was 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.640 a functional extortionist in charging what he liked by capitalizing 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.000 on the desperation of his patients. At the same time, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.120 if something went wrong, the women were out of luck. 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.280 Seeking secondary medical attention for a botched abortion might cause 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.000 another doctor to report them for their crime. Because of 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:31.520 this underground illicit system, Thomas could ensure that his patients 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.600 wouldn't report him, and he felt confident that he could 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:39.679 continue to operate undetected unless something went wrong again, which 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:44.480 inevitably it did. In August of eighteen eighty, a resident 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.360 of an apartment building on West Madison Street noticed the 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.640 smell of death permeating the next door flat, and the 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.800 police were summoned and summarily broke down the apartment door. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.839 There they found a young woman lying peacefully on a 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.840 blood soaked bed. Her body was in a state of 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:05.600 deep decay. The reporting neighbor told police and the attending doctor, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.920 one Donald Fraser, that the apartment belonged to an African 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.679 American nurse and midwife named Hattie Mack. The dead woman, 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.240 whose name was mary Anne Matilda Faulkner, was said to 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.080 have been staying with her with an unknown doctor, making 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.440 frequent house calls. A note left by Hattie in the 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.520 apartment suggested someone It was addressed to one doctor Thomas 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:32.000 Neil Cream. When the police finally located Hattie, she started talking. 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.679 It was a botched abortion, she claimed, and she had 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.320 done everything she could to save the young woman. She 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.560 claimed that Thomas was in the business of abortions. She 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.160 claimed that Thomas had used chloroform on the young woman, 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.960 But when Thomas was confronted, he suggested that Hattie acted 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.440 alone and that he had been the one who was 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.920 called in to help. Thomas's word won out that day, 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.280 which would prove to be a grave mistake. Maryanne Matilda's 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.040 body wouldn't be the last associated with the doctor. The 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.160 next appeared in eighteen eighty one and belonged to a 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.800 domestic servant named Ellen Stack. She had been to see 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.880 a doctor who had written her a prescription. After taking 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.280 the pills, she was soon writhing in pain and soon 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.440 after that dead. The same doctor Donald Fraser, was brought 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.800 to the scene and quickly located the prescribing doctor as 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:29.120 one doctor Thomas Cream. Thomas naturally pointed fingers at the pharmacist, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.320 accusing them of making a fatal error. Not long after, 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.520 a young woman named Alice Montgomery checked into a hotel 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.640 called Sheldon House on West Madison. She took some medicine 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.400 with dinner, but collapsed to the floor not long after, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.480 screaming in pain. Doctor Seymour Knox was summoned to help her, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.800 but it was too late. He declared that she had 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.240 likely died of strychnine poisoning. During the examination, he discovered 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.360 that she also recently attempted an abortion, and that it 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.040 was likely the same doctor who had with her medicine. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.960 The prescription was written by doctor Donald Fraser, and when 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:11.640 Fraser was found, he confirmed the prescription was likely and aborrificant. However, 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:16.040 this wasn't his doing, the prescription wasn't written in his handwriting, 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:21.000 and his name was misspelled. Fraser was still interrogated at 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:25.040 the inquest, and though he was exonerated, newspapers continued to 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:29.120 speculate about his guilt. Others theorized that the guilty party 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.800 was indeed Thomas Cream, whose office was only a stone's 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.680 throw from Alice's hotel. They never could prove it, but 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:41.000 the abortion method of killing, location and time period made 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.680 Cream the most likely suspect. Still, Thomas carried on with 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.480 his life and affairs, including romancing a married woman by 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.480 the name of Julius Stott. They had met when she 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:57.040 diagnosed her husband with epilepsy. Cream's old pills that allegedly 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.440 cured his condition, and Julia picked them up for him regularly. 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.680 It's only when Julia's husband died with three times the 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.800 lethal dose of strychnine in his bloodstream did the police 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.080 turn more seriously to the neighborhood doctor. Thomas had promptly 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.280 written to the coroner, blaming the pharmacist again for batching 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.600 the man's prescription and attempting to claim life insurance funds 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.480 on behalf of his mistress. He was trusting. It seems 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:26.200 that his story would end here what they happily ever after, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.840 But Julia, crushed under the pursuit of law enforcement, turned 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.880 on her lover, pointing the finger at Thomas. He was 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:39.000 charged and convicted guilty of second degree murder. He was 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.520 handed a life sentence. Thomas was furious. He had always 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.440 gotten everything that he wanted. Money, women, and the power 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.160 to decide life and death. This wouldn't be the end 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:59.280 of his story. He just knew it. It's important to 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:04.120 understand that even in all of this, Thomas still had connections. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.919 He still had people who loved him and more importantly, 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.400 in this case, believed in him. And thanks to those 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.240 people and some very crafty lawyers, Thomas was given a 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.280 pardon and released in eighteen ninety one on the account 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.520 of good behavior. He returned home to his native Canada 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.320 and staying some time with his brother Daniel to get 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.520 his bearings. It soon became evident, however, that something was 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.919 not right. But the good doctor Thomas was increasingly volatile 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.880 and began lashing out at family members. He was erratic, 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.600 and soon the family began to discuss what to do 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.560 with him. It seemed at points that he was exhibiting 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.080 symptoms of intoxication and withdrawal. It was decided that his 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.159 old London stomping grounds would be a good place for 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.399 him to go for a while, and so his brother 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.359 made plans to help him get set up there. On 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.000 October first of eighteen ninety one, Thomas wrote a brief 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.600 note to Daniel to say he'd arrived and was getting 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.520 settled in Lambeth, a neighborhood with a seed reputation, though 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.800 he didn't mention that in his letter. He began frequenting 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:13.080 the restaurant's shops and other familiar amusements, including the best 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:17.600 spots to hire working women. On October thirteenth of that year, 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.880 Ellen or Nellie Donworth, a local sex worker, went off 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.480 with a tall man. When she arrived back at her 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.960 rooming house, she began to shake horribly. A medical assistant 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.000 was brought to examine her and explained that her condition 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.600 was dire. It appeared that she had all the symptoms 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.440 of strychnine poisoning. She refused to go to the hospital 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.080 and begged him to let her die at home. Even still, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.000 they decided to bundle her into a carriage, but she 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.399 would pass before they reached their destination. It's important to 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.159 remember that the streets of Victorian London were cold, hard places. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.400 Kindness was not found there in the twilight hours, nor 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.719 was it directed toward the women who worked the streets 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.199 in life or in death. They were a class of 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.560 people considered to be a moral scourge, often expendable in 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.199 the eyes of those who met them. This was the 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.760 attitude when Jack the Ripper had begun to stalk these 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.520 very same streets in eighteen eighty eight, and the papers 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:23.120 filled up with salacious stories of women brutally murdered. Even still, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.520 the investigators couldn't make much of Nellie's story about the 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.560 tall Man and decided that she had poisoned herself. They 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.240 ignored a letter from someone named a O'Brien, who offered 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.560 to help in finding the killer for an exorbitant fee. 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.600 He strangely seemed to know a lot about her death. 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.600 A week later, a woman by the name of Matilda 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.800 Clover awoke her entire house with her screen. Matilda jerked 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.480 violently as she whispered that someone named Fred had given 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.479 her pills, claiming that they would prevent her from catching 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.879 an even aerial diseases. The doctor who arrived at her 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.399 bedside didn't believe her story. He believed Matilda to be 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:06.440 suffering from delirium tremends. She died the next day and 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.080 alcoholism was given as her official cause of death. Soon 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.720 another letter arrived to a local doctor offering help in 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.520 finding the real cause of Matilda's death, again for a price. 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.040 The authorities made note, but there was no follow up. 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:27.080 Two more women friends in boarding house flatmates, would die next, 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.480 but not before telling those of their bedside a tall 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.880 man with a top hat, mustache, and crossed eyes who 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:39.080 gave them pills after their sexual encounters. In late October 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.560 of eighteen ninety one, young Louise Harvey made a date 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.920 with the man, claiming to be a doctor who wore 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.520 a black overcoat and a top hat. She later reported 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.080 that he had the strangest eyes she had ever seen. 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.240 He told her he was a doctor at the local hospital, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.200 and he made note of a few spots on her forehead. 0:20:57.520 --> 0:20:59.520 He promised to bring her pills when they met the 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.520 next day. That following day, he brought her roses and 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.160 they strolled along the river towards the theater. While there, 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.040 he handed her two light colored pills and told her 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.680 to swallow them immediately. Suspicious, Louise only pretended to put 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:18.280 them in her mouth. The man immediately left, claiming he 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.520 had an appointment at the hospital and that he would 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:25.639 meet her later. He'd never returned. By this point, news 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.720 of the so called Lambeth poisoner was starting to spread 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.880 and everyone was taking notice. One or two bodies might 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.720 be chalked up to the causality of hard living, but 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.119 so many reports of debts and near misses could no 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.880 longer be ignored. The Scotland Yard was starting to sit 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.359 up and pay attention, making inquiries around the neighborhood and 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:51.880 hearing some disturbing stories. An American policeman soon approached Scotland 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:56.199 Yard after an unsettling encounter with a local doctor. It 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.040 seems that this policeman had met a tall man who 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.439 had taken him on a tour of where all of 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.359 these women were poisoned and died. With this tip the 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:09.040 eyewitness accounts and the letters, it didn't take long for 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.879 police to turn their attention to Thomas, who perfectly matched 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.760 the description of their killer. He was tall, often seen 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:20.760 wearing an overcoat, had a mustache, and crossed eyes. The 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.240 detectives approached him and asked for his help, but not 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.480 before sending for police and jail records from Thomas's time 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.760 in Chicago. They told him that the killer had been 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:35.200 writing letters. Thomas, in his arrogant delusion and willingness to 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.760 tempt fate, cheerfully provided them with samples of his writing. 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:42.879 By the end of their investigation, Scotland Yard was confident 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.320 that they had their killer, but the handwriting samples and 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.240 the records of his previous conviction for murder by poison 0:22:49.560 --> 0:23:00.600 clinched it. Doctor Thomas Cream was promptly arrested. You can 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:05.640 imagine Thomas's surprise when Louise Harvey took the stand. Despite 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:10.160 his calculations, she had somehow survived, and her testimony was damning, 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.679 especially since he had casually and confidently mentioned people that 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.919 one of the poisoner's victims died at the theater. She 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:21.080 was supposed to have died at the theater, but here 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.439 she was in London's Central Criminal Court, in telling the 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:26.840 jurors about her run in with Thomas, and how he 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.199 had demanded that she take the pills, and how he 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:31.800 insisted on checking her hands to make sure she wasn't 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.239 holding onto them. She explained to her audience that she 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:37.600 and Thomas had planned to join up again that evening, 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:41.199 even though she suspected something was strange about him. He 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:46.400 never showed up and she was fairly relieved. Prosecutors made 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.320 a case that all of the women were poisoned with strychnine, 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:53.040 while Thomas's defense insisted he was only linked through gossip. 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.280 They insisted that there were many men in London who 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.160 dressed like Thomas and this was all simply a case 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.879 of mistaken idea entity, though they've had no explanation for 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.960 Thomas and the Lambeth poisoner sharing the same crossed eyes. 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:10.399 It took only ten minutes for the jury to find 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.960 Thomas Neil Cream guilty of murder and sentence him to hang. 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:18.720 While he was in prison awaiting execution, he finally admitted 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:23.480 to his crimes and claimed many others previously unknown. Thomas 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:26.680 stepped up to the gallows and into infamy on November 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:30.240 fifteenth of eighteen ninety two. The city breathed a sigh 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:32.960 of relief as a noose was looped around his neck 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:37.120 and the floor fell out from under him. There's more 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.359 to this story stick around after this brief sponsor break 0:24:40.440 --> 0:24:50.680 to hear all about it. A good nurse needs a 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:55.280 good bedside manner. They need a warm disposition, a kind spirit, 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:59.480 and a confident mastery of any task at hand. Jane 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:03.120 Toppin seemed to have this. She was so good, humored 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.439 and beloved at the Cambridge, Massachusetts hospital where she worked 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:11.159