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Mary Reeder and Elias Lucas. |
20 year old Mary Reeder and 25 year old farm labourer, Elias Lucas were publicly hanged at Cambridge on Saturday the 13th of April 1850.
They had been convicted of the murder of Elias’ wife, Susan Lucas who was Mary’s sister whom they had poisoned with arsenic on the 21st of February 1850.
Elias and Susan had been married for some four years but during that time an affair developed between Mary and Elias. In January of 1850 Mary went to live with her sister at Castle Camps, six miles south of Newmarket, ostensibly to nurse her through childbirth. On the 21st of February she was observed to be in good health but died the next day, raising suspicions of foul play. A post-mortem was ordered and the stomach contents sent to Professor Taylor for analysis, which revealed several grains of arsenic in her stomach. The police found the stash of arsenic in an outbuilding at Lucas’ cottage. Elias had been told by his employer, Mr. Cross, to dispose of left over arsenic from the farm where he worked but had taken it home instead.
Mary and Elias were arrested and
remanded to Cambridge Gaol to stand trial at the Lent Assizes. They were tried together at
While on remand, Mary made a confession in which she stated that she had put arsenic into Susan’s gruel at Elias’s urging. She further stated that she had said to Elias “Do you think there is any harm in poisoning for love, as Catherine Foster did? He allegedly replied “No”. She then asked him how much arsenic would be needed and he replied “As much as will sit on a shilling.” Catherine Foster had been hanged for a similar crime less than three years earlier, but apparently her execution did not deter Mary and Elias
She later said to him “You know Elias that you gave me the arsenic” to which he replied “That was to wash your feet with.”
Elias admitted to the affair but not the murder. The nearest he came to a confession was to the Rev. H. Roberts and the governor of the Gaol, Mr. Orridge, regarding what Mary had said. He told the chaplain “Well, I might have told her to do it, but if I did it was when I was in a passion.”
After the trial Mary made a second confession in the presence of visiting magistrates in which she stated that Elias knew nothing about the murder. This was communicated to Sir George Grey, the Secretary of State. He replied, saying that in the opinion of the trial judge both defendants were equally guilty and that therefore the law must take its course.
On the fateful Saturday the
streets of
The gallows had been erected outside the Debtor’s Door of Cambridge Gaol on Castle Hill.
Inside the condemned prayed with their clergy and at 11 o’clock partook of the Sacrament from the Rev. H. Roberts.
William Calcraft, the hangman, pinioned the couple just before noon and as the clock struck the hour they emerged from the prison surrounded by the officials and led by a number of javelin men. Both prisoners walked unaided to the scaffold, Elias ascending first. He quickly placed himself under the beam and Calcraft drew the white hood over his head and adjusted the noose. Mary then climbed the steps and was prepared likewise. The Rev. Roberts told them “God Almighty bless you both. God bless you both. God bless you both.” They responded “God bless you, Sir.”
Calcraft then released the trap and they died with very little struggle, just a few convulsive movements of the limbs being observed. After hanging for the usual hour, the bodies were taken down and later interred within the prison. The Rev. Roberts conducted the burial service. A broadside was published on the case.
On the 3rd of April 1830, a relative of Mary, William Reeder, age 20, together with William Turner and David Howard had been hanged at Cambridge, all for arson.
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