There Must Be Evil

by Bernard Taylor

  MARY ANN FINLEY,

  Died 13th February, 1886

  Aged 55 years.

  Rest in Peace.

  The work of raising the coffin was then proceeded with, and was accomplished by the aid of chains and ropes. It was then placed on the sward near to the grave and washed, and the sticky clay and dirt having been removed, it was found to be thoroughly well preserved. Dr Harris, who had travelled from Manchester to make the post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased, was careful to secure a jarful of the soil taken from the grave about 6 inches above where the coffin rested, and he then followed the coffin to the outbuilding near the registrar’s office. It had been intended that the examination should be made in this building, but on finding from Brother Kleppell that there would be no objection to such a course, the doctor decided to make the examination in the open air. The coffin was therefore placed on a trestle, and opened to the view of the jury. To allow of better identification some water was poured over the face, and the two females before mentioned were brought forward to look upon the disfigured form of their former acquaintance, and were naturally both very much affected. The face of the deceased woman appeared somewhat swollen, and the body altogether was naturally in an advanced state of decomposition. Having viewed the body the jury were conveyed back to Castleton to the Blue Pits Hotel…Dr Harris concluded his investigation at the cemetery shortly after noon, and the result will be communicated to the Coroner and the jury in due course. By order of the Cemetery Board the cemetery is altogether closed to the public today.

  On the assembly’s return to the Blue Pits Inn the inquest was opened, and Sarah Wolfenden and Mary Ann Lyons testified that the body they had seen at the cemetery was that of Mary Ann Finley. With this the coroner adjourned the proceedings until 7 February. In the meantime Dr Harris would despatch to the county analyst a number of containers holding the viscera of the dead women. When the 7th came, however, the analyst’s work was not complete, and as a consequence the proceedings were adjourned for a further week.

  When the inquiry resumed on 14 February the newspaper reporters were the first to arrive, followed by the local police, and then, shortly before two o’clock, by Superintendent Tindall of Rochdale. Also present was solicitor Joseph Whitaker, there to watch the proceedings on behalf of Elizabeth Berry. At ten minutes past two the coroner arrived, and the first testimonies were heard.

  In what was to be a full day the jurors heard from ten witnesses, some of whom gave evidence that was greatly shocking as they disclosed details of the final days in the life of Elizabeth Berry’s mother.

  The first witness was twenty-nine-year-old Mrs Mary Ann Lyons of 5 Albion Street, who had previously identified the deceased’s body. In her testimony she said that she had known Mrs Finley for eighteen months, seeing her almost every day. ‘I was with her on the Friday before her death on the Saturday,’ she said. ‘I saw her at eight o’clock and ten o’clock that night. She seemed well then, and looked likely to get better. I heard she died at seven o’clock next morning.’ She had never expected Mrs Finley to die, she added, ‘but we all had suspicions, for on the Friday she looked so likely to get better. I and other neighbours all suspected that something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything because I was afraid to. You know, none of them would like to do that.’

  The next witness was Mrs Sarah Wolfenden of 11 Back Albion Street, who, like the previous witness, had identified the deceased’s body at the cemetery.

  The Blue Pits Inn, Castleton, scene of the inquest into the death of Mary Ann Finley. Photograph: Jack Ireland, c. 1986.

  After saying in her testimony that she knew Mrs Finley well and frequently went into her home, she recalled Mrs Berry’s visit on Wednesday 3 February, saying, ‘She came to my house because her mother was out – she’d gone to Manchester that morning,’ and went on to say that Mrs Finley’s state of health was very good on that day, but that on the Wednesday evening, after appearing well all day, she ‘was taken poorly’. She added, ‘I went to see her and found her in bed. She said she had been very poorly since she had had her tea. I saw her every day until she died. On the Friday night before she died I went to see her about half-past nine. She was in bed then, and said she expected to get better and felt quite well. I left the house about eleven o’clock. I saw her the next morning about seven o’clock or a few minutes before, and she was dying. She was twitching very much all over her body. Every nerve seemed to be at work. Her eyes were closed, and her breast was rising and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth. Her mouth was very dry, as was her tongue, and she appeared to be unconscious. I said to Mrs Berry, “What a change there is,” and she said, “Yes, there’s a great change.” I asked her when the change took place and she said it had taken place at the turn of the night.’ After telling the court that she had helped to lay the body out, she was asked about Mrs Berry’s calling at her door in Castleton. She said in reply, ‘We had some tea, and we were talking about her mother going back to work at the mill, and Mrs Berry said she’d had a dream, and that whenever she dreamed anything to that effect there was usually a death in the family, and she believed this time it would be her mother. She said she had the feeling that she had come to Castleton to bury her mother.’

  This ended Mrs Wolfenden’s testimony, and her place was taken by Mrs Alice Eaves of 14 Back Albion Street. She told the court that she remembered Mrs Berry coming to stop with Mrs Finley. ‘I saw Mrs Finley every day from then until her death,’ she said. ‘She hadn’t been so well the week before, but she had got better of that, and was knocking about until the Tuesday evening. I met her that Tuesday in the afternoon near Mrs Wolfenden’s house. She was very poorly then, and at one moment she almost fell. I told her to get home and go to bed, as she looked in such a poor state. I went round that same night and saw her in bed. She was very bad and in a dreadful state. She seemed as if she was in a fit. Her daughter, Mrs Berry, was with her. I went for my husband and fetched him as I thought Mrs Finley was dying. While I was there Mrs Berry took a small bottle off the mantelpiece and gave a spoonful out of it to her mother. Mrs Finley got quieter after this, but she didn’t seem to know us. There was a lamp in the room and I held it up to show a little light, but Mrs Berry told me to take it away, saying that she didn’t want any light. I offered to stop all night but Mrs Berry said she wasn’t frightened and that she could manage by herself. I saw Mrs Finley again the next day and she appeared to be a little better. She was in bed. On the Friday, the day before her death, I went into her house with the agent for the Prudential Society. Mrs Finley wanted one of her policies endorsed and I took him in for that. When I got in, Mrs Berry was washing her mother in bed. I started to talk to Mrs Finley but Mrs Berry said, “Don’t talk to her. Her pulse is beating quicker than it should.” Mrs Finley told Mrs Berry where the policies were – there were three of them – and Mrs Berry fetched them and the agent took one of them away with him.’

  Mrs Eaves then told the court of her last meeting with Mrs Finley. ‘That Friday evening I was going past the window of Mrs Finley’s house,’ she said, ‘and she called me in and asked me to give her something to drink. She wanted some beer. She said they had plenty but that her daughter wouldn’t let her have any. Mrs Berry wasn’t in the house at the time. Mrs Pemberton, Mrs Finley’s sister, was there, and she gave Mrs Finley some cake and I gave her a gill of bitter beer. She looked very well at the time and said she felt much better. I went out shortly afterwards and that was the last time I saw her alive. I went into the house a few minutes after she’d died the next morning, and asked to see the body. I didn’t see her face as it was covered. Mrs Berry said there had been a great change for the worse in her during the night.’

  The next witness was Alice Chorlton who gave her age as twenty-four and said she lived at Five Arches, Spotland Bridge. She told the court that she had lodged with Mrs Finley from 4 July till January 1885. ‘After I left Mrs Finley I used to see her nearly every day,’ she said. ‘I used to call on her
on the way home from work. I knew that Mrs Berry came to see her on the Wednesday, 3rd of February last year – it was my birthday. Mrs Finley told me of her visit the next day when she came round to see me. I last saw her on the Friday, the evening before she died, about a quarter-tosix. She was in bed. She called me to her bedside and when I went to her she put her finger to her mouth as much as to say she wanted something to drink. I said to Mrs Berry, “Lizzie, your mother wants something to drink. See – she’s just beckoned me for it.” Mrs Berry said, “Yes, she’s not had her medicine, and she won’t take it from me. You try if you can and give her something – she might take it from you.” Mrs Berry then poured something out of a bottle into a cup – about a tablespoon. I added some water to it and took it to Mrs Finley’s bedside. I raised her head from the pillow, and she drank it straight off, and then she said, “Oh, dear, that is bad! That’s worse than poison!” I turned to Mrs Berry and I said, “Lizzie, did you hear what your mother says?” and she said, “Oh, she’s always saying that,” and she told me to add some more water to the medicine. I went home afterwards, but I called again the same night about half-past ten. Mrs Finley was in bed, asleep. Mrs Berry asked me if I’d like to take some supper with her, but I said I’d be having mine when I got home. I did have a small sup of beer. That was the last time I saw Mrs Finley alive.’

  Harriet Dorrick, twenty-seven, residing at 6 Albion Street, was next called, and testified that she knew Mrs Finley very well. In the course of her evidence she said, ‘On the Friday, the 5th, I saw Mrs Finley coming down Albion Street. She called to me, and I went over to her and asked her how she was. She said to me, “I don’t know.” Then she said, “I’ve got a visitor,” and I asked who it was and she said it was her daughter Lizzie. She said, “She’s just been giving me some medicine and I feel very sick and queer after it.” She’d come out for a walk, she said, to try and shake it off, and held up a jug and said she was on her way to fetch the supper beer. I saw her again the next day, Saturday, and also the following Monday when she introduced me to her daughter, Mrs Berry. At that time Mrs Finley was still looking pretty well. But the next morning, Tuesday, when I went to see her she didn’t appear to be very well, and she told me she couldn’t eat. While I was there Mrs Berry left the house. She said she was going into Rochdale to get a chicken. That was about eleven o’clock. I was still there when she came back about one o’clock.’

  The next witness had also been a neighbour of Mrs Finley. She was Mrs Henrietta Morton, living at 3 Cross Street, Castleton. She said she knew Mrs Finley and used to visit her. ‘On the 5th of February Mrs Berry came to my house,’ she said, ‘and we had tea together, and Mrs Finley came along for her later on to walk home with her. After she had come into the house Mrs Finley sat down and put a hand to her side, and Mrs Berry asked her if she had that pain again. Mrs Finley replied that she had. Mrs Berry told her that she had a prescription that she had taken from a doctor’s book, and that she thought it would do her good as it was for lung and heart disease. Mrs Berry asked me if there was a pharmaceutical chemist in Castleton, and I told her I thought not, but that she would get it at Mr Highley’s in Rochdale.’ She then said that Mrs Berry left her with Mrs Finley, saying she would catch the 6.40 train to Rochdale.

  It was no doubt of great interest to the jury then to learn that Mrs Berry had spoken to Mrs Morton also of her prescient dreams. Questioned as to the conversation the witness had had with Mrs Berry when they sat having tea together, Mrs Morton told the court that Mrs Berry said that she had had a dream, and that when she had a dream of that sort there was always a death in the family.

  The coroner asked her: ‘What was the dream? Did she say what it was?’ Mrs Morton replied, ‘She told me she dreamed that she went to a new situation, and she was going down one of the wards and noticed that the beds were placed feet to feet. When she got to the bottom of the ward she saw one of the beds reversed and she saw a person lying there. She then saw that it was her mother. She said she asked her mother what was the matter. Her mother didn’t speak, but raised herself up on her side and one arm, and Mrs Berry saw marks of blood on her.’

  With this remarkable postscript, Mrs Morton was allowed to step down.

  The next witness was Mr John Taylor, a chemist of Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, whose evidence was to create something of a stir. He testified:

  ‘On the afternoon of the 9th February last year I remember my late assistant, Fred Butterworth, handing me a slip of paper from a medical man on which was written in Latin: “Liquor Atropia Sulph.” I thought it was written by a medical man because it looked so in the handwriting. The translation of it was a solution of sulphate of atropia.* I was in the dispensing room at the time, and I asked my assistant what he, the customer, wanted it for. He said it was a woman in the shop, and when I went into the shop I asked her what she wanted it for. She said she wanted it to drop into the eyes. I hadn’t seen her before, and she said in answer to my inquiries that she was an infirmary or workhouse nurse. She said she knew all about the medication and had been using it for some time; that she was accustomed to using it. I asked her if she knew that it was a poison, and she said she did. I told her that I would want her to write her name in the sales book along with her address. She gave me the name: “Ellen Saunders, Freehold, Castleton,” and I wrote it in the sales book and she signed the book. I mixed the medication and after she paid me I returned the paper with the Latin prescription to her – which is customary in the trade – and she left the shop.’

  Mr Taylor’s interesting testimony did not end there. He went on to say that three days later, on the 12th, she was in the shop again. ‘She handed me the same slip of paper, and asked for a further supply. I asked what had become of the other as I didn’t think it could all have been used in the time for dropping in the eyes, and she answered, “I knocked it over and spilt it.” I went into the dispensing room then to prepare the article, leaving the door of the room ajar, and she called out to me, “What will double the quantity be?” I went back and asked her why she wanted so much of it, and she said if she got double the quantity she wouldn’t have to come again so soon. I told her the price and then after she had signed the book I gave her an ounce of the medicine.’ Asked to describe the woman, he said she was a little person, between twenty-eight and thirty years of age, and of a dark complexion. He could not, he said, remember how she was dressed.

  Mr William Henry Lawson, Master of the Oldham Union Workhouse, was then called. After telling the court that he was familiar with Mrs Berry’s handwriting he was handed a letter written by Mrs Berry and then shown the Rochdale chemist’s book bearing the two signatures of ‘Ellen Saunders’. In his opinion, he said, the signatures were in Mrs Berry’s handwriting.

  After Mr Lawson came Frederick Wallwork, of the Wesleyan and General Assurance Society, who told the hearing that Mrs Finley had been insured with the society for £100, the premiums paid by Mrs Berry. He was followed by Henry Jackson, an agent for the Prudential Assurance Society, who told the court that Mrs Finley had been insured through his agency for £27 6s. and that on Mrs Finley’s death the money was paid to Mrs Berry.

  Dr Harris, who had conducted the post-mortem on Mrs Finley’s body, was called next, but as his investigations were not complete the inquiry was again adjourned, this time for a fortnight, to be resumed on Monday 28 February.

  With the coroner’s call for an adjournment the long day’s hearing was at an end, and a remarkable day it had been. There had been many testimonies to Mrs Finley’s good state of health at the time of Mrs Berry’s arrival, and thereafter to her rapid decline and sudden death. There had also been the reports of Mrs Berry’s revelations as to her strange dream – the dream which, she said, presaged a death in the family. And not least remarkable was the purchase of a great deal of poison by a woman whose handwriting and physical description were similar to those of Elizabeth Berry.

  With regard to this latter, the purchase of the poison, the Evening Chronicle
made its heading for the report of that day’s hearing as ‘Mrs Berry’s Purchases of Poison’. No newspaper, of course, would dream of printing such a headline today while an inquiry was still in progress. Such a headline might very quickly result in a suit for damages, and possibly jeopardize the inquiry.

  In its report of 15 February on the day’s hearing of the inquest, the Chronicle closed its account by saying that no date had yet been fixed for Mrs Berry’s trial in Liverpool, but added that it was expected to be called before the week was out.

  The paper then added a line presenting the possibility of a most unusual situation that might arise, saying: ‘Should Mrs Berry get acquitted at Liverpool, and the jury which is inquiring into the death of her mother at Castleton return a verdict of wilful murder against her, she will be sent to the next Manchester Assizes for Trial.’

  So there it was – a most remarkable situation – one in which if Elizabeth Berry escaped the death penalty at her trial for her daughter’s murder, she might well, depending on the outcome of the Castleton inquest, face a second murder trial, this time on a charge of murdering her mother.

  *

  There were in fact seven coffins above Mrs Finley’s.

  *

  Now known as atropine.

  16

  The Trial Opens

  The calendar of indictments for the Liverpool Assizes that spring of 1887 named no fewer than ninety individuals who were to be brought for trial. In addition to the lesser charges, such as theft and assault, were those of a more grave nature, rape, attempted murder and manslaughter. There were three indictments for the ultimate crime, that of wilful murder, of which Elizabeth Berry’s was scheduled to be the third, and the last in the calendar.