Black Widows of Liverpool

In 1880, unmarried sisters Catherine and Margaret Flannagan[note 1] ran a rooming house at 5 Skirving Street in Liverpool. The household consisted of the two sisters, Catherine's son John Flannagan, and two lodger families—hod carrier Thomas Higgins,[2] Higgins' daughter Mary, Patrick Jennings, and Jennings' daughter Margaret. John Flannagan, aged 22 and previously healthy, died suddenly in December 1880. His death did not raise any particular comment; Catherine collected £71 (worth roughly £7120 in 2019 pounds) from the burial society with which he had been registered and he was interred shortly thereafter.[1]

By 1882, a romance started between Margaret Flannagan and Thomas Higgins; the pair married in October of that year. Thomas's daughter Mary, aged 8, died within months of the wedding after a short illness.[2] Once again, the burial society payout was collected upon death, this time by Margaret Higgins.[1] In January 1883, Margaret Jennings, aged 19,[3] also died. Her burial payout was collected by Catherine.[1]

In the face of neighbourhood gossip about the death rate in the house, Catherine, Margaret, and Higgins[note 2] moved their household to 105 Latimer Street and then again to 27 Ascot Street.[4] In September 1883, Higgins, then 45, became yet another member of the household to fall mysteriously ill. His stomach pains were severe enough that a Doctor Whitford was called; he attributed Higgins's illness to dysentery related to drinking cheap whiskey and prescribed opium and castor oil.[2] Higgins died after two days of illness. Days later, the same doctor was contacted and asked to provide a death certificate. He did so, attributing the death to dysentery.[3]

Although Higgins's death by apparent dysentery raised no questions for Doctor Whitford, Higgins's brother Patrick was surprised to hear that Thomas, who had been strong and in good health, could have succumbed so easily to illness.[3] When Patrick discovered that his brother has been insured with five different burial societies,[1] which left his widow with a profit of around £100,[2][3] he pursued the matter with the authorities. A postmortem examination was ordered on Higgins's body. To the surprise of mourners, the coroner arrived at the home to perform the examination in the middle of Higgins's wake.[3] Catherine, upon hearing that a full autopsy was to be performed, fled the home.[1][3]

When a full autopsy of Higgins's body was completed, evidence of arsenic poisoning was found: His organs showed traces of arsenic, in quantities indicating the poisoning had taken place over several days.[3] Evidence from the home, including "a bottle containing a mystery white substance and a market pocket worn by [Margaret]"[1] was examined by poison expert Dr Campbell Brown, who verified the presence of arsenic – dust in Margaret's pocket, and an arsenic solution (containing unusual adulterants) in the bottle.[3] Margaret was arrested immediately; Catherine, after moving from one boarding house to another to avoid police for nearly a week, was taken into custody in Wavertree.[2] On 16 October 1883, the sisters were formally charged with the murder of Thomas Higgins.[1]

Orders for the exhumation of the previously deceased members of the household were issued when it became clear that arsenic was the mechanism of Higgins's death. The bodies of John Flannagan, Mary Higgins, and Margaret Jennings all showed evidence of minimal deterioration, a quality associated with arsenic poisoning, and traces of arsenic were found in the remains of all three.[3]

Investigators initially assumed that the arsenic used to poison the victims had come from rat poison, but when common adulterants used in rat poison failed to show up in autopsies, they were forced to come up with a new theory. It was unlikely that the illiterate sisters would have been able to acquire arsenic through the usual method of visiting a chemist, a route open to doctors rather than spinsters. Eventually it was discovered that common flypaper at the time contained arsenic, and that by soaking the flypaper in water, a solution substantially identical – including the same adulterants – to that found in a bottle at the Higgins residence could be obtained.[3]

At the time of her arrest, Catherine claimed to her solicitor that the murders were not isolated, and provided a list of six[5] or seven[6] other deaths that she claimed to be killings related to burial society fraud as well as a list of five other women who had either perpetrated those murders or provided insurance to those who did.[4]

Contemporary accounts of the Flannagan sisters referred to them as "disciple[s] of Lucrezia Borgia",[3] or as "the Borgias of the Slums",[2] in reference to their use of poison and the tales of how Borgia had been known to do the same.[8] Modern accounts of the sisters, such as those by Angela Brabin[5] and the television series Deadly Women,[9] have focused more on the cooperative aspect of the crimes rather than the poison aspect, and tend to refer to them as "black widows" or "The Black Widows of Liverpool", particularly in reference to the allegation that the Flannagan sisters were part of a larger murder ring. Wax effigies of Flannagan and Higgins were placed in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors after their executions.[4]

A radio dramatization of the murders and following events titled Life Assurance, written by Chrissie Gittens based on the book The Black Widows of Liverpool by Angela Brabin (Palatine Books, 2003 ISBN 978-1-874181-21-7/2nd Revised Edition 2009 ISBN 978-1874181606) and directed by Claire Grove, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005, with Sorcha Cusack as Catherine Flanagan, Gillian Kearney as Ellen Flanagan, Anny Tobin as Margaret Higgins, Robert Hastie as Inspector Keighley, Stephen Hogan as Thomas Higgins, Hugh Dickson as Dr. Whitford and Nicholas Boulton as Patrick Jennings.[10]

• Black Widow Murders