Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost YearsMaybrick, Florence Elizabeth
History
Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth, 1862-1941; Trials (Murder) -- England; Women prisoners -- England
On this question the prisoner made a statement. She accounted for the
soaking of the fly-papers upon grounds which were not only probable,
but were corroborated by other incidents. That she was in the habit
of using arsenic as a face wash is shown by the prescription in 1878,
before her marriage, and of which the chemist made an entry in his
books, which came to light, after the trial, under the following
circumstances:
Among the few articles which Mr. Maybrick’s brothers allowed to be
taken from the house, they being the legatees of the deceased, was a
Bible which had belonged to Mrs. Maybrick’s father, and which, with
some other relics, came into the hands of Mrs. Maybrick’s mother, the
Baroness von Roques, who, months afterward, happening to turn over
the leaves of the Bible, came across a small piece of printed paper,
evidently mislaid there, being a New York chemist’s label, with a New
York doctor’s prescription written on the back, for an arsenical face
wash “for external use, to be applied with a sponge twice a day.”
This prescription contained Fowler’s solution of arsenic, chlorate of
potash, rose-water, and rectified spirits; and was again made up, on
the 17th of July, 1878, by a French chemist, Mr. L. Brouant, 81 Avenue
D’Eylau, Paris. It corroborates Mrs. Maybrick’s statement at the trial
that the fly-papers were being soaked for the purpose alleged by her.
If Mrs. Maybrick had obtained or purchased the seventy or eighty grains
of arsenic found in the house after the death, it is inconceivable that
she should have openly manufactured more arsenic with the fly-papers.
At the time she prepared the statement she had reason to believe that
the prescription had been lost. She knew, therefore, it would be
impossible for her to corroborate her story about the face wash, and
she could have omitted that incident altogether, and contented herself
by saying that she learned the preparation while at school in Germany.
[In further explanation I desire to state that during my girlhood, as
well as subsequently, I suffered occasionally, due to gastric causes,
from an irritation of the skin. One of my schoolmates, observing
that it troubled me a good deal, offered me a face lotion of her own
preparation, explaining that it was much more difficult to obtain
an arsenical ingredient abroad than in America, and to avoid any
consequent annoyance she extracted the necessary small quantity of
arsenic by the soaking of fly-papers. I had never had occasion to do
so myself, as I had a prescription from Dr. Bay; but when I discovered
that I had mislaid or lost this, I recalled the method of my friend,
being, however, wholly ignorant of what quantity might be required. The
reason why I wanted a cosmetic at this time was that I was going to a
fancy dress ball with my husband’s brother, and that my face was at
that time in an uncomfortable state of irritation.--F. E. M.]
ADMINISTRATION OF ARSENIC NOT PROVED
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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