The Poisoner

Dr William Palmer, the Prince of Poisoners, was nineteenth-century Britain's most notorious, cold-blooded murderer, whose Old Bailey trial in 1855 was avidly followed by newspaper readers from New York to Ballarat. Charles Dickens was fascinated by the case and Queen Victoria herself read the reports. Palmer was a new kind of killer for the industrial age; outwardly charming and respectable, a middle class provincial doctor. That is what made his crimes so shocking to Victorians.


This gripping account of his life and crimes reveals insights into Palmer's life and psyche and explores the dark and seamy side of Victorian morality. Using Palmer's hidden letters to his mistress and other original documents, this is a fascinating reconstruction of the character of a killer in one of the crimes of the century.