The Prince of Poisoners

William Palmer was known to all in Rugeley. The son from a wealthy family had trained in London as a surgeon and returned to the English village with his beautiful, respected wife to raise a family and live out his days as a country doctor.

But Dr. Palmer wanted more. More money. More thrills. More women. He dove into the shady world of horse racing, gambling heavily and spending a fortune to build his stable of thoroughbreds. When money grew tight, he found that a dosed drink or two could clear the way. He got away with it, poisoning his wife, mother-in-law, his infant children, fellow gamblers and many more, until he killed one time too many.

The story of Dr. Palmer’s deadly treatments at the birth of the mass media riveted the nation and spread around the world. The sensational 12-day trial in London’s Old Bailey drew the attention of royalty (Prince Albert bought one of Palmer’s horses at auction) and literature (Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins followed the case) and made legal history as the first trial in which strychnine figured and the first to be moved because of pre-trial publicity.

In The Illustrated Life and Career of William Palmer, the anonymous author combined facts and rumors about Palmer’s life and crimes with sketches of debauched medical students sampling London’s notorious nightlife and crooked scams in horse racing. With addition of hundreds of footnotes and contemporary essays added by historian and journalist Bill Peschel, the result is a compelling look at life in the early Victorian era and the criminal doctor who was placed at the head of his profession by none other than Sherlock Holmes!