In the early hours of New Year's morning, 1886, Adelaide Blanche Bartlet roused her

landlord in Pimlico, London with a few simple words.

Come down, I think Mr Bartlett is dead. She had awoke suddenly sitting at the

foot of her bed where she had dozed off earlier that night to find the feet of her husband Thomas Edwin Bartlett at Stone Cold.

During the following days the post-mortem was conducted and evidence found of a large quantity

of chloroform in the stomach of the deceased. However, there were no signs of how it had been ingested.

There were no burns, nor were there any sores or other signs of irritation that would usually line them out and throat from drinking such a caustic poison.

In the words of Sir Charles Russell, the attorney general who oversaw the inquest,

how came the chloroform there?

This is dark histories where the facts are worse than fiction. Thomas Edwin Bartlett was born in London in 1845. He was the son of a

builder and had built a small chain of grocery shops around Hearn Hill, South London.

By the age of 29 he was the co-owner of six shops and lived a financially comfortable life.

He was a strong and well-built man with a relatively imposing physical frame. In 1875 he met Adelaide de la Trenewall, a 19 year old French woman who was staying at his younger

brother's house and was immediately taken with her. He quickly made his intentions clear to her

and without discussing with his family family the pair were married at the

parish church of Croydon onlan, France in 1855. 11 years younger than her husband Edwin, she was 19 years old at the time of their

marriage. It was heavily rumored that her father was a man of great wealth and possibly even titled Comte de Tour de Scurrie, essentially a count of terrain.

Many proposed she was an illegitimate child with an English mother which accounts for having been sent to live with a family

presumed to be her aunt and uncle in England at a young age

details of how or why she became acquainted with Edwin's brother are not talked about in any of the case's materials.

However, it was during her time there that she met Edwin and seemingly agreed to marriage with no hesitation.

After the couple were married Adelaide professed to her will to gain a complete education.

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