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"Of
all the famous trials that were heard in St George’s Hall
in Liverpool, the case that lingers in the mind of people
to this very day was the story of Florence Maybrick in 1889.
She stood trial for the murder of her husband, James Maybrick.
Florence was a southern belle from Alabama, and James Maybrick
was a Liverpool cotton-broker, 20 years older than Florence.
Maybrick was obsessed about his health, he was a hypochondriac
and he purchased arsenic on a regular basis.
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| Vincent
Burke |
James Maybrick also had a mistress in London.The
relationship between Florence and James deteriorated and was
accelerated by Florence meeting another man in her life.
Florence
purchased 12 dozen fly-papers, soaked them to obtain from
them arsenic, claiming later it was for her complexion. Maybrick’s
health deteriorated rapidly and he finally died. They discovered
at the autopsy a presence of arsenic in his system.
Florence
stood trial at St George’s Hall on July 1899 and was found
guilty of murder and sentenced to death. She was reprieved
at the last moment and served 15 years’ imprisonment.
Mr
Justice Steven, who presided at the trial, seemed to be trying
her along with the jury for adultery rather than murder because
the evidence against her was wafer thin because of course
Maybrick had taken arsenic himself.
This
is regarded as one of the most famous cases of a miscarriage
of justice and remains a concern to crime historians to this
very day.
Florence
Maybrick was extremely fortunate and her life was saved by
having as counsel Sir Charles Russell, who believed in her
innocence and during the long years of 15 years imprisonment
he visited her on a regular basis, pleading constantly for
her to be released.
Liverpool’s St George’s Hall has seen the presence of some
of the greatest counsel this country has ever produced. Marshall
Hall, Sir Patrick Hastings, F.E. Smith, the local man, who
rose to be Lord Chancellor.
Charles Russell certainly compared favourably with any of
them and I believe Florence owed him a great debt for believing
as I believe that she should never of been convicted for this
murder.
On her release, after 15 long years, she returned to her native
America, wrote her life story and died in 1941. She returned
to this country once and that was to see the Grand National.
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