Welcome to Season 3, Episode 23 of They Walk Among Us, a podcast dedicated to UK True Crime.

Listener caution is advised, as this episode contains adult themes and descriptions that some listeners may find distressing.

Extramarital transgressions can cause anger and destruction, but add to that mix another element.

The people having the affair are related by marriage.

The following two cases cross the boundaries of family, sex and murder. In court they were branded incompetent assassins. Perhaps that was accurate.

They tried a number of ways to end 28-year-old Alan Lord's life between August and December

1973. Some of the methods came right out of a children's fairy tale.

Alan was partial to mushrooms. His love of the fungi would inspire the first attempt on his life.

His wife Margaret was planning to make dinner and they were going to be the key ingredient.

As Alan tucked in to the marrow stuffed with mushrooms at their home on Charles Witts Avenue

in Hereford, he had no idea his wife had handpicked them from the riverside.

Though Margaret hadn't picked them alone, she had been joined by John Lord.

John Lord was her father-in-law, Alan's stepfather, since he was a boy.

Recently widowed, 58-year-old John had spent more time with Alan, Margaret and their two children.

For the past few months, the relationship between Margaret and John had turned sexual. Margaret later told the police,

that always had a crush on me. Now they were strolling along the riverbank collecting mushrooms

for dinner. When Margaret laced the meal with the poisonous fungi, her intention was to kill her husband.

Though Alan didn't die, he was sick enough to be admitted

to hospital for a few days. Testing didn't uncover the cause of the illness, so he was sent

home nonetheless wiser. Margaret and John hadn't accomplished what they set out to do, so they

hatched another plan to dispose of the person between them.

They visited a library to read a book about deadly plants.

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