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THE STORY SO FAR
The year was 1910. When Frederick Seddon took in a lodger, it seemed like good financial sense. He was a well-known businessman and always had a nose for making money, but when his lodger died, leaving all her cash to him, her family couldn’t help but grow suspicious…
THE CASE
To the outside world, Frederick Seddon was the ultimate family man.
A loving husband to his wife Margaret Ann and good father to their five children.
They lived in a sprawling home in London, which they shared with his father.
Frederick prided himself on being a provider but, what few people outside his family knew was that his need to make money was an obsession.
He worked as a mortgage salesman and insurance agent, speculated in property and ran a second-hand clothes business in Margaret’s name.
But this wasn’t enough. In 1910, he had another scheme for making money, renting out rooms in hisown house. But his scheme didn’t end there. He planned to con his new lodger out of their hard-earned savings.
So he placed an advert offering the second floor of his house for rent.
Soon after, there was a knock at the door. It was 49-year-old local woman Eliza Mary Barrow.
She had previously been living with a cousin but now she wanted a place for herself, her 10-year-old ward Ernest Grant and his aunt and uncle.
Eliza was just the sort of lodger Frederick had hoped for – eccentric, unmarried and easily led.Better still, she didn’t trust banks, kept her cash at home.
She was the perfect victim.
Over the next few weeks, Frederick got rid of Eliza’s aunt and uncle by ordering them to pack their bags and move out.
Now, with Eliza on her own, Frederick persuaded her to sign her savings over to him.
‘You’ll get a monthly allowance,’ he explained. ‘And you can live here rent free for the rest of your life.’
With Seddon’s financial background, Eliza trusted his advice. She snapped up the offer and looked forward to a future without any money worries for her and Ernest.
But her future was about to be cut short.
In August 1911, Frederick, Margaret and the children went on holiday to Southend.
Eliza and Ernest went, too, proving just how close she’d grown to the family.
But a month after returning home, Eliza began suffering crippling stomach pains.
Seemingly showing concern, Frederick called the doctor.
He wasn’t surprised Eliza was ill. There was an outbreak of diarrhoea in the area. The doctor prescribed morphine and, briefly, the woman seemed to improve.
But a couple of days later, she was worse again.
Bedridden and doubled over in agony, Eliza dictated her will to Frederick.It was witnessed by different members of his family and Frederick was named as the main beneficiary.
A few days later, even though she was being nursed by Margaret, Eliza died.
From then on, Frederick took over. He hurried to a local doctor for a death certificate.
The diarrhoea epidemic was keeping the doctor busy, so he issued one without seeing Eliza’s body.
Next, Frederick organised the cheapest funeral possible.
Poor Eliza was buried in a pauper’s grave, even though her family had a vault nearby in Islington.
And once Eliza’s relatives heard about her death and hasty funeral, they were suspicious.
Frederick arrogantly said the reason he had not contacted them was because they had snubbed his daughter during a visit.
He said it would teach them some manners.
And, with Eliza barely cold in her grave, Frederick took his family on another holiday, leaving behind a trail of suspicion.
Eliza’s family moved quickly, going to the police and demanding to have her body exhumed.
They explained about the hasty burial and the fact that Eliza’s money had gone missing.
But, even more damning was the fact that Frederick had produced a death certificate for a body that’d never been properly examined.
On 15 November 1911, it seemed they were right to question Frederick’s motives as pathologists found arsenic in Eliza’s stomach.
Frederick and Margaret were the prime suspects and both stood trial at the Old Bailey, charged with murder.
The evidence against them began to mount up.
Their daughter Maggie had been seen buying a large amount of flypaper, which contained arsenic.
The prosecution argued that the flypaper had been soaked in water to remove the arsenic, before being used to poison Eliza.
Frederick’s defence denied this, arguing the arsenic found in Eliza’s stomach could have been from medicine that contained arsenic.
Frederick then went in the dock to defend himself.
He suggested that Eliza could’ve drunk the water from the dishes of flypaper that were placed in her room to keep away the flies while she was ill.
It was a bizarre idea and, delivered in his usual arrogant tone, did not impress the jury.
True, he was money-obsessed and downright rude, but was he really guilty of Eliza’s murder?
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