Mary+Ann+Cotton+1

Mary Ann Cotton (1832 ~ 1873)



Biography
 * born in City of Sunderland
 * his dad was ardently religious and a fierce disciplinarian
 * when she moved to the County Durham village of Murton at the age of 8, and she found it difficult to make friends
 * Soon, her father fell 46m to his death down a mine shaft at Murton
 * When she was 14, her mother remarried and she did not like her stepfather so she moved out to become a nurse at Edward Potter’s home in South Hetton.

Victim Profile
 * believed to have killed 21 people and she started with her husbands/lovers
 * Husband 1: William Mowbray
 * Husband 2: George Ward
 * Husband 3: James Robinson
 * Husband 4: Frederick Cotton
 * Other Two Lovers

Method of Operation
 * mainly by arsenic poisoning (Poisoning with arsenic can raise lactate levels and lead to [|lactic acidosis]. Low potassium levels in the blood increase the risk of experiencing a life-threatening heart rhythm problem)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mary Ann’s nursing skills were becoming quite renowned. She was asked to nurse a woman suffering from smallpox. This was when she started to get careless. She asked parish official, Thomas Riley if the last surviving child of her late husband Fredrick Cotton could be committed to the warehouse, telling Riley that she thought it wouldn’t be long before he followed the rest of the Cottons, to which Riley replied, ‘No, nothing of the kind. He is a fine healthy boy’. Just days later the child was dead.