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the largely deaf Alfred
Merrifield appeared to be confused by the proceedings while his wife, who was confident that she would be acquitted, seemed to be revelling in the attention. Three doctors testified against Louisa Merrifield, as did several of her friends, who recalled her boasts of an inheritance. To one of her many previous employers, Merrifield had written "I got a nice job nursing an old lady and she left me a lovely littl Bundlow and thank God for it, so you see love all come right in the end." Unfortunately for Merrifield's case, the letter was dated two weeks before Ricketts had actually died. Merrifield's friend Jessie Brewer testified that three days before Ricketts died, Merrifield had told her: "We are landed. We went to live with an old lady and she died and she's left me a bungalow worth £4,000 ... It was all left to me, until that old bugger got talking to her and then it was left to us jointly ... I made everything all right. It cost me £2. 2. 0d to get a Doctor to prove she was in her right mind." Under cross-examination, Brewer was adamant that these conversations had placed the death of Ricketts in the past tense.
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and it was she who had called the doctors out claiming
Ricketts was near to death when she was actually just unwell. When Louisa accused Ricketts of bedding Alfred, the judge called her "a vulgar and stupid woman with a very dirty mind." He claimed that if the accusation is true, it is more likely that Alfred Merrifield was sexually abusing Ricketts. These incidents were used to demonstrate her guilt but Alfred's innocence. However, Alfred Merrifield had the same motives and opportunities as his wife: it may have been Alfred who had bought the Rodine, it was Alfred who refused to contact the solicitor when Ricketts wanted to write the Merrifields out of her will saying it "was too far for him", and Alfred who refused the doctor admittance to attend on the ailing Ricketts by pushing the dining table against the sick-bed while he ate his lunch.
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of Alfred
Merrifield that he was not included in the will, he was assigned half of the property. On 9 April, Louisa Merrifield convinced Dr Yule (Mrs Ricketts' physician) to certify that Ricketts was mentally competent to make a new will. Dr Yule later stated: "She said the reason why she wanted me to go was that the old lady might die at any minute with a stroke or a disease and she wanted to keep herself all right with the relatives." On 13 April, Dr Yule’s partner Dr Albert Victor Wood was called out by Merrifield. She stated that Ricketts was seriously ill, whereas Wood merely diagnosed mild
206:. Ricketts was a widow, whose two husbands had both committed suicide by gassing themselves in the kitchen. Despite her diminutive height (she was only 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m)), Ricketts was a difficult woman with a short temper. Ricketts had a habit of changing her will whenever a beneficiary annoyed or upset her, which was often. Soon after the Merrifields took up their jobs, Ricketts was complaining about their lack of care towards her, the shortage of food and that they were spending a lot of her money in the local
247:. She had purchased it through a local chemist. On 12 April 1953, Merrifield told her friend Jessie Brewer that she had to return home to 'lay out' an old woman. On Brewer's inquiry as to who had died, Merrifield said "she’s not dead yet, but she soon will be." Ricketts died on the evening of 14 April, but Merrifield did not call for a doctor until the next morning. She claimed that as Ricketts was clearly dead, she had not wished to call the doctor out late at night. Merrifield asked the local
219:. He later testified at Merrifield’s trial: "I remonstrated with Mrs Merrifield for calling me out, as I thought, under false pretences. She again said she was afraid of something happening during the night... Mrs Merrifield mentioned something about a will. I said I wasn't interested." Although this evidence is only circumstantial, it does lead to the conclusion that Merrifield was already trying to prove that the elderly Mrs Ricketts was dying of natural causes.
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on the morning of 18 September 1953. On the gallows she refused to remove her glasses when requested. A crowd of several hundred gathered outside the prison to read the official notice of her death. Pierrepoint later stated that the hanging "went very well. She said goodbye to the death cell officers
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The husband ... posed as a kindly and simple old man, never spoke – and it seemed as if this old man had been made use of by his wife and had been made to do things under her stronger will. This was not true; he was a cunning old man acting a part in court, but if one could judge of the two people, I
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The evidence against the
Merrifields was largely circumstantial, but what little there was had been exacerbated by Louisa's actions and her boasts of an inheritance while Ricketts was still living. It had been Louisa who had called the doctor to verify that Ricketts was well enough to sign a new will
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On 22 August 1950, she married her third husband, 68-year-old widower Alfred Edward
Merrifield (24 August 1882 – 24 June 1962), whose first wife Alice Whittle had died in 1949. He had abandoned her and their 10 children in 1928. On 12 March 1953, the couple were employed as house-keeper, handyman and
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It was becoming apparent to Louisa
Merrifield that her elderly husband would not be able to support her financially for much longer. By late March 1953, Merrifield had talked Mrs Ricketts into writing a will that left the bungalow to her. The bungalow was valued at £3,000 to £4,000. On the complaint
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QC leading for the prosecution and Jack
Messoud Eric Di Victor Nahum QC (1906–59) for the defence. Louisa Merrifield had her photograph on the front page of newspapers as she arrived at court every day in a taxi smiling and waving to the photographers and crowds outside the court. During the trial,
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band to stand outside the bungalow, playing ‘Abide with Me.’ Merrifield insisted for
Ricketts to be quickly cremated. She also did not want the old lady's family to know of her sudden death. Later, funeral director George Henry Jackson stated that Merrifield did not want Ricketts' "two daughters to
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where Louisa "drank excessively and habitually became severely inebriated". Louisa
Merrifield was a liar and a braggart, who had a loose tongue when under the influence of alcohol. She preferred to spend her time in the pubs of Blackpool rather than take care of her employer. She began to brag that
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HO29/229 XC2573 Original letter to Home
Secretary from Mrs Van der Elst 8th September 1953. Louisa had refused to see Alfred on two occasions. Unperturbed, he told newspapers: "I shall continue to do what I can for her, and I shall write her a cheery letter every day. " (Liverpool Daily Post 10th
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Professor J. N. Webster was called as an expert witness on behalf of the Merrifields and he stated that, in his opinion, Ricketts had not died from poisoning but from the necrosis of the liver. However, the damage was already done and, after deliberating for just six hours, the jury found Louisa
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Elizabeth Barraclough, who "was a complete stranger" to Louisa, testified that, while waiting in a bus queue, Louisa had told her that "she was very worried because she was looking after an old lady who was very ill" and after returning the previous day had found "her husband in bed with the old
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Following his wife's execution, the "tragic simpleton" Alfred Merrifield suddenly became very astute and continued to live at the bungalow while he fought a legal battle with Ricketts' daughters for a share of its value, gaining one sixth in 1956. He then lived in a caravan and became a regular
520:
HO29/229 XC2573 Blackpool County Borough Police Antecedents. With respect to her second husband, Louisa had claimed "that she had set the bed so that when he got into it, it would collapse; it did so and the shock killed ". Certain newspapers appeared eager to insinuate that these deaths were
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On reading of the death in the local newspaper, Mrs Brewer reported her conversation with Merrifield to the police. The police immediately ordered a post-mortem, which discovered that Ricketts had died of phosphorus poisoning, attributed to the rodenticide Rodine. When the police searched the
169:
By the time of her execution, Merrifield had been married three times. She married her first husband, Joseph Ellison (1905–1949) in 1931 and with him had six children. Two of them, Horace Ellison (1932–1933) and Ernest Ellison (1943–1944), died in infancy. She lost custody of all four of her
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Merrifield guilty of murder. The judge described her crime "as wicked and cruel a murder as I ever heard tell of." The jury were unable to reach a verdict on Alfred Merrifield, whom the judge described as a "tragic simpleton" and he was acquitted and eventually released from prison.
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lady, and was messing about with her and this had got her vexed". She is quoted as having said "if this goes on again, I'll poison the old bugger and him as well... She's leaving me the bungalow between me and my husband, but he's so greedy he wants it all on his own."
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ASSI 52/785 – Statement of George Forjan 28 May 1953. That Sarah had had no food recently was confirmed by the testimony by Dr George Bernard Manning (29 May 1953) who carried out the post mortem and stated that "there did not appear to me to be any food in the
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suspicious. For example the Daily Mirror wrote with respect to Louisa's first husband that "a coroner said it was difficult to determine the cause of death but after a month of laboratory tests, decided his death was due to natural causes." (1 August 1953)
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From 1950 up to the time of the murder, Merrifield had some 20 jobs working as a domestic helper and housekeeper. She had been frequently fired or forced to leave owing to her poor attitude to her work and her alleged pilfering.
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would consider that the old man was the most guilty ... He never troubles about his wife being condemned to death. He thinks, to look well he will take her a few flowers, but she can see through him and refused to see him.
350:– much better than I imagined." Louisa May Merrifield was the fourth and last woman to be executed at Strangeways Prison and the third to last woman to be hanged in the UK. As was the practice, her body was buried in an
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Chamber of Horrors and was paid £200 for his own waxwork to stand beside hers. Alfred Merrifield died on 24 June 1962 aged 80. He always maintained that he was unaware of his wife's activities and told crime writer
181:. Merrifield subsequently married 78-year-old Richard Weston on 6 February 1950. He died 10 weeks later of a heart attack. Two of her husbands were much older men, and she had been married three times in 10 months.
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Louisa Merrifield was originally sentenced to be hanged on 18 August 1953, but she appealed against her verdict. This was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal on 3 September 1953 and after the Home Secretary
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bungalow, they did not find any poison, but inquiries at a local chemist's revealed that Louisa Merrifield had recently purchased Rodine. She was legally required to sign the poison register.
362:. The cremated remains were re-interred in two graves (plot C2710 and C2711) in the adjoining cemetery. In her will she left £45 13s 9d to her son Oswald Ellison, a brickworks labourer.
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Days before her execution, Louisa and Alfred were reconciled and she was visited in her cell by her husband to whom she said: "Goodbye, Alfie. Look after yourself and God bless."
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the remains of 63 executed prisoners (of which 45 were identifiable including Merrifield) were exhumed from the prison cemetery and cremated at Blackley Crematorium in
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as Louisa May Highway, she was the youngest of five surviving daughters and two sons of Job Highway (1867–1945), an underground labourer in a coal mine, and Emma
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134:(3 December 1906 – 18 September 1953, née Highway) was a British murderer and the third-last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom. She was executed by
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beachfront side-shows billed as 'The Murderess's Husband' talking about his wife and the murder of Mrs Ricketts. He donated some of her clothes to
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Following the police investigation, the Merrifields were arrested and were jointly charged with murder before being committed to the
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alongside other executed felons within the prison walls of Strangeways. During rebuilding work at the prison in 1991 following a
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England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995 for Louisa Merrifield
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surviving two daughters and two sons when she was sent to prison for 84 days in 1946, having been found guilty of
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live-in companions to 79-year-old Sarah Ann Ricketts. Ricketts lived in her bungalow at 339 Devonshire Road in
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Mrs Ricketts was dead and had left her the bungalow, even though the old woman was still very much alive.
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for poisoning her elderly employer. She was notorious at the time as 'The Blackpool Poisoner'.
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England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005 for Louisa Highway (1931)
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that "the old bugger" would have poisoned him next for his share of the bungalow.
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straight from the jar, eating them by spoon. She accompanied the jams with either
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339 Devonshire Road in Blackpool – the scene of the murder – photographed in 1953
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by letter to commute Louisa's death sentence to life in prison. She wrote:
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Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain: Audience, Justice, Memory
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Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical Readings in Criminology
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Among her other rather odd eating habits, Ricketts enjoyed eating sweet
452:'Dead Woman Walking: Executed Women in England & Wales 1900 – 1955'
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HO291/330 (p. 22) Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU
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Joseph Ellison died in 1949, aged 44, owing to sub-acute infective
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The chilling stories of the women who were executed at Strangeways
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Her case featured in the television true-crime documentary series
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569:"On This Day in 1953 – Louisa Merrifield, the Blackpool Poisoner"
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1911 England Census for Louisa May Highway, Lancashire, pg. 41
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ASSI 52/785 – Statement of Elizabeth Barraclough 28 May 1953
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ASSI 52/785 – Statement of Dr Albert Victor Wood 16 May 1953
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know she was dead or have anything to do with the funeral."
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1939 England and Wales Register for Louisa May Ellison
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British Military & Criminal History: 1900 to 1999
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ASSI 52/785 – Statement of Jessie Brewer 28 May 1953
707:"Strangeways Manchester: As A Place Of Execution"
600:HO291/230 27359. Original letter included in file
239:. Louisa Merrifield added Rodine to the jams, a
852:People convicted of murder by England and Wales
478:England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916–2005
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842:20th-century executions by England and Wales
543:, Routledge (2007) – Google Books pgs. 81–83
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755:, Routledge (2014) – Google Books pg. 69
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174:fraud and refusing to pay the £10 fine.
764:'Mr Merrifield is Among the Horrors' –
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45:Please improve this article by adding
454:, PhD Thesis (1997), Faculty of Law,
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857:British people executed for murder
827:1953 murders in the United Kingdom
303:The anti-death penalty campaigner
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672:The Encyclopaedia of Executions
832:20th-century English criminals
307:petitioned the Home Secretary
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268:Alfred Merrifield is arrested
127:Louisa May Merrifield in 1953
47:secondary or tertiary sources
223:A spoonful of jam and Rodine
16:British poisoner (1906–1953)
508:www.capitalpunishmentuk.org
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837:20th-century English women
779:The Guardian – 13 Aug 1962
661:, Google Books, Chapter 25
366:attraction at Blackpool’s
872:British female murderers
789:Louisa May Merrifield –
377:Richard Whittington-Egan
372:Louis Tussauds Blackpool
882:Executed English people
456:University of Sheffield
411:Manchester Evening News
58:"Louisa May Merrifield"
847:Executed English women
732:'Undone by her Boasts'
674:, Blake (2004) pg. 839
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571:. 18 September 2018.
166:Duncan (1863–1944).
685:"Louisa Merrifield"
658:Quickly to Her Fate
504:"Louisa Merrifield"
305:Violet Van der Elst
793:Series 3 Episode 6
450:Anette Ballinger,
343:Strangeways Prison
335:Albert Pierrepoint
331:David Maxwell Fyfe
309:David Maxwell Fyfe
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368:Golden Mile
356:recent riot
245:rodenticide
172:ration book
811:Categories
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360:Manchester
347:Manchester
241:phosphorus
217:bronchitis
160:Lancashire
144:Manchester
69:newspapers
36:references
887:Poisoners
324:Execution
204:Blackpool
179:hepatitis
99:June 2020
582:stomach"
154:Born in
243:-based
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737:People
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237:stout
156:Wigan
90:JSTOR
76:books
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