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In stories set in Victorian England, the home is often portrayed as a place of morality and duty,

where women are expected to be nurturing,

selfless, and pure. The wife and mother is the steady heart of the household, the one who cares for the sick and holds her family together through tragedy. But sometimes that very

image can be the perfect disguise. Mary Ann Cotton was,

by all appearances, a respectable woman, a quiet widow, a caregiver, a mother. She moved through

working class England with a calm demeanor, tending to her home and her children,

an enduring loss after loss.

Husbands died. Children fell ill. Funerals became a routine part of her life, and to those around

her, Marian Ann seemed cursed by

misfortune and marked by grief. But behind closed doors, that grief was something else entirely.

Mary Ann Cotton was not a victim of tragedy.

She was its architect.

In an era when arsenic was cheap, easy to obtain, and its effects mimic common disease,

Marianne discovered a deadly truth.

She could kill quietly, and no one would question her.

Mary Ann Cotton is believed to have poisoned as many as 21 people, a majority of them,

...