Herbert Rowse Armstrong
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Herbert Rowse Armstrong (1869 - 31 May 1922), the "Hay poisoner", commonly known as Major Armstrong, and cited to be the only solicitor in Britain to have been hanged for murder.
Major Armstrong practised in Hay-on-Wye, on the border of England and Wales, from 1906 until his arrest on 31 December 1921 for the attempted murder of a professional rival. He was later also charged with the murder of his wife.
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[edit] Murder
Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong was a British solicitor practicing in the countryside around the town of Hay-on-Wye, on the English-Welsh border. He married Katharine Mary Friend in 1907, a year after he joined an older solicitor's firm in Hay. The couple would have two girls and a boy. Armstrong was a hard working man and rose in the social community of the town. He was a leading member of the Freemasons. He even was court clerk when the assizes came to the area. He joined the county volunteer forces and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1914 he was called up to fight in the First World War, where he eventually gained the rank of "Major" in the regular army, and he is usually referred to as "Major Armstrong".
Accounts show that Kate Armstrong was domineering. She was taller than Herbert and frequently treated him in an embarrassing manner. One particular story relates how, when they threw a garden party for friends, Herbert was in the middle of a lawn tennis game. Kate told him to stop playing because it was time for his bath. This type of behaviour is what neighbours and friends of the Armstrongs were frequently aware of.
In 1919 Kate's health began to weaken with a case of nephritis. At first she was improving but suddenly began to weaken again. Armstrong kept in close contact with the local physician, Dr. Thomas Hincks, and showed great concern for his wife. Hincks found that Kate was showing signs of mental collapse and came to the conclusion that it was connected to her illness. Kate was taken into hospital care, where she began to improve, but shortly after she returned home she worsened again. She died on February 22, 1921, and was buried with Armstrong and his children present, as well as their neighbours. It was mentioned that Armstrong, despite crying rather openly at the funeral, also got deeply involved with another mourner in discussing a legal problem concerning land.
[edit] Attempted murder
Oswald Martin was Armstrong's only rival solicitor in Hay. They were each representing parties in a lawsuit that ended with Armstrong's client losing and having to pay a large sum to Martin's client. Martin kept mentioning the matter of payment to Armstrong, but the latter continually delayed the payment date. Armstrong eventually invited Martin to a meeting at his home on 26 October, 1921. Martin found tea laid out with cakes and buttered scones. The two men discussed the date for payment while dining, during which Armstrong picked up a scone, said "'scuse fingers!"[cite this quote] and handed it to Martin, who ate it. Later, having not arrived at any date agreement, Martin left, and shortly afterwards became very ill and nearly died.
Two people were fascinated by Martin's surprise illness. One was his father-in-law, John Davies, the chemist (pharmacist) for Hay. He could not understand why Martin became so sick. Neither could Dr. Hincks, who was amazed how Martin's illness resembled the symptoms he saw with Mary Armstrong. Hincks, Martin and Davies discussed the situation and the latter learned of Armstrong's tea party, at which point he remembered that Armstrong took care of his home's lawns with weed killer and arsenic.
It was subsequently uncovered that a few weeks before the tea party a box of chocolates had been anonymously sent to the Martins. Martin's wife and sister-in-law had eaten some and become violently ill. Fortunately some chocolates remained and when examined were found to have a small nozzle-like hole in the base. The three contacted Scotland Yard and explained what had happened to Martin, as well as their new suspicions about Mrs. Armstrong's death. Samples of the chocolates and Martin's vomit were examined and found to contain arsenic.
Scotland Yard had to move slowly so as not to warn Armstrong of their suspicions. They eventually arrested him on December 31, 1921, and he was charged with the attempted murder of Martin. When he was arrested, the police found a packet of arsenic in his pocket and many more in his house. Mrs Armstrong's body was exhumed and examined by Bernard Spilsbury. Her body revealed high levels of arsenic.
[edit] Trial
Armstrong's situation was bleak, but not hopeless. In the trial, before Mr. Justice Charles Darling, he was defended by Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, one of the leading criminal trial barristers of the 1920s. A year earlier there had been a trial near Hay of another solicitor, Harold Greenwood, for the murder of his wife by poison, supposedly disguised as an illness. Greenwood had been acquitted. Also, the fact that the three men who brought the charges to the police included Armstrong's business rival and the latter's father-in-law looked suspicions.[1]
However, Armstrong had to explain his habits concerning arsenic. It seems he put a small portion of arsenic into pouches which he squirted into the ground near spots where dandelions tended to grow. One small pouch was found on his person when arrested, but there was no reasonable explanation offered for his carrying it around, particularly since the arrest was in December. Armstrong did not come off well in a cross-examination by Mr. Justice Darling concerning this point.
In April 1922 Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of his wife at Hereford. On 16 May 1922, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Armstrong's appeal and he was executed at Gloucester Prison on 31 May 1922. Reportedly, before the trap was opened on the gallows the Major called out, "I am coming Katie!"[2]
[edit] Motives
Two motives subsequently emerged for the poisoning of Katharine Armstrong. The Major had decided he wanted a different wife. He was actually romancing several while Katharine was in her forced decline and it emerged he was being treated for syphillis. Secondly, Katherine Armstrong had written a will in 1917 leaving the bulk of her estate not to her husband but their children. At the time of her death, Armstrong produced a new will which was probated giving him the estate. When it was later examined it was found to be forged. Apparently the Major was in financial difficulties, and his refusal to pay Martin was due to his peculating the funds of his own client.
[edit] Similarities to the case of Dr Crippen
The case of Major Armstrong bares curious similarities to that of his younger contemporary Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. Both were married to rather overbearing wives, whom they were tried for poisoning. Both men were remarkably harmless looking to the public, and both proved to have rather interesting extra-marital situations. Also, both men nearly committed what is referred to as "the perfect crime" only to undo their clever planning by simple and unnecessary further actions of their own.
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This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2008) |
Had Crippen stayed put in 1910, and not fled with his girlfriend, Ethel Le Neve, the police might not have become suspicious about the disappearance of his wife. In Armstrong's case, the sudden desire to get rid of his only rival solicitor in Hay, Mr. Oswald Martin, led to the unravelling of his "perfect crime".
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This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2008) |
[edit] Media adaptations
The Armstrong case was dramatised on the BBC radio series The Black Museum in 1952 under the title of The Champagne Glass.
It was also the subject of a 1994 TV mini-series called Dandelion Dead, which starred Michael Kitchen as Major Armstrong, with David Thewlis as Oswald Martin and Lesley Sharp as Martin's wife. It was directed by Mike Hodges and won a BAFTA in 1995. As well as telling the main story of Major Armstrong's crimes, the series develops the courtship of Martin and his wife and shows the effects of events on Armstrong's children.
With elements of the Crippen case, Frances Iles created her novel of murder in a country village, Malice Aforethought, making the killer a doctor like Crippen and having the murder scheme unravelled by a second murder plot.
[edit] References
- ^ Jones, Frank. Beyond Suspicion: True Stories of Unexpected Killers. Toronto: Key Porter Books, c1992. ISBN 1-55013-278-4 p.53-85
- ^ Laurence, John. A History of Capital Punishment. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1930. p.131
[edit] Bibliography
- Jones, Frank. Beyond Suspicion: True Stories of Unexpected Killers. p.53-85: "A Tale of Two Lawyers": The author compares the cases against Greenwood and Armstrong. He also points out a counter theory that Armstrong may have been innocent but framed by Martin, Davies, and Hincks.
- Odell, Robin. Exhumation of a Murder: The Crimes, Trial, and Execution of a Perfect English Gentleman. London, Proteus, 1978. ISBN 0-8467-0606-0
