The Pimlico Mystery

A stomach full of chloroform, no burns at all, and a question science couldn't answer.

Edwin Bartlett was a successful London grocer with some unusual ideas about marriage. He encouraged a close friendship between his young wife Adelaide and a Methodist minister, the Reverend George Dyson. On New Year's morning 1886, Edwin was found dead in the couple's rented rooms in Pimlico.

The puzzle

The post-mortem found a large quantity of liquid chloroform in Edwin's stomach. Swallowed, chloroform burns the mouth and throat, yet there was no sign of burning. Had he drunk it himself? Could anyone have made him swallow it without his noticing, or while he was asleep?

What happened next

Adelaide was tried at the Old Bailey in April 1886. Her barrister argued that the prosecution simply could not explain how the chloroform got into Edwin's stomach, and the jury agreed that it had not been proved. She was acquitted, and soon vanished from the record entirely.

A leading surgeon of the day is said to have remarked that now she could not be tried again, she should tell them, in the interests of science, how she did it.

Why it still fascinates

It is a true medical locked-room puzzle. The question at its heart, how liquid chloroform came to be in a man's stomach without leaving a mark, has never been convincingly answered.