Pimlico Mystery

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The Pimlico Mystery is the name given to the circumstances surrounding the 1886 death of Thomas Edwin Bartlett, possibly at the hands of his wife, Adelaide Bartlett, in the Pimlico district of London. It describes the mystery as to how a fatal quantity of chloroform came to be in Mr Barlett's stomach, despite having not caused any damage to his throat or windpipe. Adelaide Bartlett was tried for her husband's murder, but was acquitted. Popular belief has it that Mrs Bartlett's acquittal was partly secured because the prosecution could not prove how Mrs Bartlett had committed the crime.

The Bartlett case was dramatized on the BBC radio series The Black Museum in 1952 under the title of "Four Small Bottles".

[edit] References

• Bridges, Yseult, Poison and Adelaide Bartlett
• Notable British Trial Series, The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett
• Stratmanm, Linda, Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion