John Bodkin Adams

Dr John Bodkin Adams

John Bodkin Adams in the 1940s
Born 21 January 1899(1899-01-21)
Randalstown, County Antrim, Ireland
Died 4 July 1983(1983-07-04) (aged 84)
Eastbourne, England

John Bodkin Adams (21 January 1899 – 4 July 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer.[1] Between the years 1946-1956, more than 160 of his patients died under suspicious circumstances.[2] Of these 132 left him money or items in their will. He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957. Another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as "an abuse of process" by the presiding judge Patrick Devlin, causing questions to be asked in Parliament about the prosecution's handling of events.[3] The trial featured in headlines around the world[4] and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time"[5] and "murder trial of the century".[6] It was also described at the time as "unique" because, in the words of the judge, "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence."[4]

The trial had several important legal ramifications. It established the principle of double effect, whereby a doctor giving treatment with the aim of relieving pain may, as an unintentional result, shorten life.[7] Secondly, due to the publicity surrounding Adams's committal hearing, the law was changed to allow defendants to ask for such hearings to be held in private.[8] Finally, though a defendant had never been required to give evidence in his own defence, the judge underlined in his summing-up that no prejudice should be attached by the jury to Adams not doing so.[7]

Adams was found guilty in a subsequent trial of 13 offences of prescription fraud, lying on cremation forms, obstructing a police search and failing to keep a dangerous drugs register. He was removed from the Medical Register in 1957 and reinstated in 1961 after two failed applications.

Scotland Yard's files on the case were initially closed to the public for 75 years, until 2033.[9] Special permission was granted in 2003 to reopen the files.

Contents

Early years

Adams was born into a highly religious family of Plymouth Brethren, an austere Protestant sect of which he remained a member for his entire life.[10] His father, Samuel, was a preacher in the local congregation, though by profession he was a watchmaker. He also had a passionate interest in cars, which he would pass on to John. Samuel was 39 years old when he married Ellen Bodkin, 30, in Randalstown, Ireland, in 1896. John was their first son, followed by a brother, William Samuel, in 1903. In 1914, Adams's father died of a stroke. Four years later, William died in the 1918 influenza pandemic.[11]

After attending Coleraine Academical Institution for a number of years, Adams matriculated at Queen's University Belfast, at the age of 17. There he was seen as a "plodder" and "lone wolf" by his lecturers[11] and, due partly to an illness (probably tuberculosis), he missed a year of studies. He graduated in 1921 having failed to qualify for honours.[11]

In 1921, surgeon Arthur Rendle Short offered him a position as assistant houseman at Bristol Royal Infirmary. Adams spent a year there but did not prove a success.[12] On Short's advice, Adams applied for a job as a general practitioner in a Christian practice in Eastbourne.[13]

Eastbourne

Kent Lodge, where Adams lived from 1929 to 1983

Adams arrived in Eastbourne in 1922, where he lived with his mother and also his cousin, Sarah Florence Henry. In 1929 he borrowed £2,000 (£90.6 thousand today) from a patient, William Mawhood,[14] and bought Kent Lodge, an 18-room house[15] in Trinity Trees (then known as Seaside Road[16]), a select address. Adams would frequently invite himself to the Mawhoods' residence at meal time, even bringing his mother and cousin.[14] He also began charging items to their accounts at local stores, without their permission. Mrs Mawhood would later describe Adams to the police as "a real scrounger".[17] When Mr Mawhood died in 1949, Adams visited his widow uninvited and took a 22-carat gold pen from her bedroom dressing table, saying he wanted "something of her husband's". He never visited her again.[17]

Gossip regarding Adams's unconventional methods had started by the mid 1930s. In 1935 Adams inherited £7,385 from a patient, Matilda Whitton.[18] This is equivalent to £380 thousand today. The will was contested by her relatives but upheld in court, though a codicil giving Adams's mother £100 was overturned.[19] Adams then began receiving "anonymous postcards" about him "bumping off" patients, as he admitted in a newspaper interview in 1957.[20] These were received at a rate of 3 or 4 a year until the war, and then commenced again in 1945.[21]

Adams stayed in Eastbourne throughout the war, though he was "furious" at not being deemed desirable by other doctors to be selected for a "pool system" where GPs would treat the patients of colleagues who had been called up.[22] In 1941 he gained a diploma in anaesthetics[22] and worked in a local hospital one day a week, where he acquired a reputation as a bungler. He would fall asleep during operations, eat cakes, count money, and even mix up the anaesthetic gas tubes, leading to patients waking up or turning blue.[23] In 1943, his mother died[22] and in 1952 his cousin Sarah developed cancer. Adams gave her an injection half an hour before she died and according to Cullen, this is the only "case where it can be considered that the Doctor was 'easing the passing'".[24]

Adams's career was very successful, and by 1956 "he was probably the wealthiest GP in England".[1] He attended some of the most famous and influential people in the region, including MP and Olympic medal winner Lord Burghley, society painter Oswald Birley, Admiral Robert Prendergast, industrialist Sir Alexander Maguire, the 10th Duke of Devonshire, Eastbourne's Chief Constable Richard Walker and a host of businessmen.[25] However, after years of rumours, and Adams's having been mentioned in at least 132 wills of his patients,[26] on 23 July 1956 Eastbourne police received an anonymous call about a death. It was from Leslie Henson, the music hall performer, whose friend Gertrude Hullett had died unexpectedly while being treated by Adams.[27]

The police investigation

The investigation was taken over from Eastbourne police on 17 August[28] by two officers from the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad. The senior officer, Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam of Scotland Yard was known for having solved the infamous Teddington Towpath Murders in 1953.[28] He was assisted by a junior officer, Detective Sergeant Charles Hewett. The investigation decided to focus on cases from 1946 to 1956 only.[26] Of the 310 death certificates examined by Home Office pathologist Francis Camps, 163 were deemed to be suspicious.[2] Many had been given "special injections" of substances Adams refused to describe to the nurses caring for his patients. Furthermore, it emerged that his habit was to ask the nurses to leave the room before injections were given.[29] He would also isolate patients from their relatives, hindering contact between them.[30]

Obstruction

On 24 August, in an "extraordinary move"[31] the British Medical Association (BMA) sent a letter to all doctors in Eastbourne reminding them of "Professional Secrecy" (i.e. patient confidentiality) if interviewed by the police.[32] Hannam was not impressed, especially since any information gleaned would relate to dead patients.[32] He, and the Attorney-General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller (who prosecuted all cases of poisoning), wrote to the BMA secretary, Dr Macrae, "to try to get him to remove the ban".[32] The impasse continued until on 8 November Manningham-Buller met with Dr Macrae to convince him of the importance of the case. During this meeting, in a highly unusual move,[33] he passed Hannam's confidential 187 page report on Adams to Dr Macrae. Dr Macrae took the report to the President of the BMA and returned it the next day. In all likelihood, he also copied it and passed it on to the defence.[34] Convinced of the seriousness of the accusations, Dr Macrae dropped his opposition to doctors talking to the police. In the end though, only two Eastbourne doctors ever gave evidence to the police.[35]

On 28 November 1956, opposition Labour Party MPs Stephen Swingler and Hugh Delargy gave notice of two questions to be asked in the House of Commons regarding the affair, one asking what "reports [the Attorney-General] has sent" to the General Medical Council (GMC) of the BMA in the "past six months".[36] Manningham-Buller replied that he had "had no communications" with the GMC, but only with an officer of it. He did not mention the report.[36] Instead, he instigated an investigation into a leak,[36] later concluding that Hannam himself[37] had passed information regarding the meeting with Dr Macrae to a journalist, probably Rodney Hallworth of the Daily Mail.[38]

The meeting

On 1 October 1956 Hannam bumped into Adams[39] and Adams asked "You are finding all these rumours untrue, aren't you?"[40] Hannam mentioned a prescription Adams had forged: "That was very wrong [...] I have had God's forgiveness for it", Adams replied.[40] Hannam brought up the deaths of Adams' patients and his receipt of legacies from them. Adams answered: "A lot of those were instead of fees, I don't want money. What use is it? I paid £1100 super tax last year"[40] Hannam later mentioned, "Mr Hullett left you £500". Adams replied, "Now, now, he was a life-long friend [...] I even thought it would be more than it was."[40] Finally, when asked why he had stated untruthfully on cremation forms that he was not to inherit from the deceased, Adams said:

"Oh, that wasn't done wickedly, God knows it wasn't. We always want cremations to go off smoothly for the dear relatives. If I said I knew I was getting money under the Will they might get suspicious and I like cremations and burials to go smoothly. There was nothing suspicious really. It was not deceitful."[41]

Search

On 24 November, Hannam, Hewett and the head of Eastbourne CID, Detective Inspector Pugh, searched Adams' house with a warrant issued (in Pugh's name) under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1951. When told they were looking for "Morphine, Heroin, Pethidine and the like" Adams was surprised, "Oh, that group. You will find none here. I haven't any. I very seldom ever use them" he said.[42] When Hannam asked for Adams' Dangerous Drugs Register – the record of those ordered and used - Adams responded: "I don't know what you mean. I keep no register."[43] He hadn't kept one in fact since 1949.[44] When shown a list of dangerous drugs he had prescribed Morrell, and asked who administered them, Adams said, "I did nearly all. Perhaps the nurses gave some but mostly me"[43] - contradicting what the nurses' notebooks would show during his trial. Hannam then observed, "Doctor, you prescribed for her 75 - 1/6 grains Heroin tablets the day before she died." Adams replied, "Poor soul, she was in terrible agony. It was all used. I used them myself [...] Do you think it is too much?"[43]

Adams opened a cupboard for the police: amongst medicine bottles were "chocolates - slabs stuck - butter, margarine, sugar".[45] While the officers inspected it Adams walked to another cupboard and slipped two objects into his jacket pocket. Hannam and Pugh challenged him and Adams showed them two bottles of morphine; one he said was for Annie Sharpe,[45] a patient and major witness who had died nine days earlier under his care; the other said "Mr Soden".[45] He had died on 17 September 1956 but pharmacy records later showed Soden had never been prescribed morphine.[46] Adams was later (after his main trial in 1957) convicted of obstructing the search, concealing the bottles and for failing to keep a Dangerous Drugs register. Later at the police station, Adams told Hannam:

"Easing the passing of a dying person isn't all that wicked. She [Morrell] wanted to die. That can't be murder. It is impossible to accuse a doctor."[20][44]

In the basement of Adams' house, the police found, "a lot of unused china and silverware. In one room there were 20 new motor car tyres still in their wrappings and several new motor car leaf springs. Wines and spirits were stored in quantity."[47] Hallworth reports that Adams was stockpiling in case of another World War.[48] On the second floor, "one room was given over to an armoury [:] six guns in a glass-fronted display case, several automatic pistols".[47] He had permits for these. Another room was used "wholly for photographic equipment. A dozen very expensive cameras in leather cases" lay around.[47]

Sexuality

In December the police acquired a memorandum belonging to a Daily Mail journalist,[49] concerning rumours of homosexuality between "a police officer, a magistrate, and a doctor".[50] The latter directly implied Adams. This information had come, according to the reporter, directly from Hannam.[50] The 'magistrate' was Sir Roland Gwynne, Mayor of Eastbourne from 1929 to 1931 and brother of Rupert Gwynne, MP for Eastbourne from 1910 to 1924.[51] Gwynne was Adams's patient and known to visit every morning at 9 am. They went on frequent holidays together and had just spent three weeks in Scotland that September.[52] The 'police officer' was the Deputy Chief Constable of Eastbourne, Alexander Seekings.[53] Hannam however ignored this line of inquiry (despite homosexual acts being an offence in 1956) and the police instead gave the journalist a dressing-down.[54] The memo is, however, testament to Adams's close connections to those of power in Eastbourne at the time.[55]

There were rumours of Adams having three "mistresses"[54] but these were probably just "covers" to avoid suspicion.[56] Adams became engaged in around 1933 to Norah O'Hara[57] but called it off in 1935 after her father had bought them a house and furnished it. Various explanations have been suggested: Surtees suggests that it was because Adams's mother didn't want him to marry "trade"[58] though he also quotes a rumour that Adams wanted O'Hara's father to change his will to favour his daughters.[58] Cullen suggests that, apart from being homosexual, Adams also didn't want his being married to interfere with his relationship with his elderly female patients.[54] Adams remained friends with O'Hara his whole life and remembered her in his will.[59]

The arrest

Adams was arrested on 19 December 1956,.[60] When told of the charges he said:

Murder... murder... Can you prove it was murder? [...] I didn't think you could prove it was murder. She was dying in any event.[20][44]

Then while he was being taken away from Kent Lodge, he gripped his receptionist's hand and told her: "I will see you in heaven."[20][44]

Hannam collected enough evidence in at least four of the cases for prosecution to be warranted: regarding Clara Neil Miller, Julia Bradnum, Edith Alice Morrell, and Gertrude Hullett.[2] Of these, Adams was charged on one count: the murder of Morrell, but with the murder of Hullett (and also of her husband) being used to prove 'system'.[61]

Committal hearing

The committal hearing took place in Lewes on 14 January 1957.[62] The Chairman of the magistrates was Sir Roland Gwynne, but he stepped down due to his close friendship with Adams.[62] The hearing concluded on 24 January and after a five-minute deliberation, Adams was committed for trial. A vital piece of evidence, a cheque written out for ₤1000, went missing after the hearing instigating a further police investigation. While the culprit was not found, Scotland Yard suspected the local Deputy Chief Constable of Eastbourne, Seekings, of having misplaced it to help Adams. Seekings was known to have taken holidays with Adams and Gwynne, and even looked after Gwynne's finances while he was in hospital in January 1957.[53]

By the time the trial started on 18 March 1957 at the Old Bailey the charge had been reduced to just Morrell, with Gertrude Hullett held back for a possible second separate trial. Three days later, a new Homicide Act came into effect; murder by poison became a non-capital offence. Adams, having been committed before this date, would still face the death penalty if convicted. If, however, the Home Secretary decided to grant clemency, a conviction on a second count of murder, the Hullett charge, would make it far more difficult politically to sentence Adams to life imprisonment.[7]

Adams and Eves

On 22 February 1957 the police were notified of a libellous and potentially prejudicial poem about the case titled Adams and Eves. It had been read at the Cavendish Hotel on the 13th by the manager in front of 150 guests. An officer spent ten days investigating and discovered a chain of hands through which the poem had passed and been recopied in order to be redistributed. The original author was not discovered however, though an unnamed Fleet Street journalist was suspected. The poem finished:

[...]
It’s the mortuary chapel
If they touch an Adam’s apple
After parting with a Bentley as a fee
So to liquidate your odd kin
By the needle of the bodkin
Send them down to sunny Eastbourne by the sea.

Edith Alice Morrell

For more information see Edith Alice Morrell

Morrell was a wealthy widow who suffered a brain thrombosis (a stroke) on 24 June 1948 while visiting her son in Cheshire. She was partially paralysed and was admitted to a hospital. Adams, her usual doctor, arrived on the 26th[63] and the following day she was prescribed morphine (¼ grains) for pain. Adams took her back to Eastbourne and continued the morphia, gradually increasing the dose and adding heroin, until she was addicted.

Morrell made several wills. In some, Adams received large sums of money, Morrell's Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (valued at £1,500[64]) and furniture — while in others, he was not mentioned at all.[65] Finally, on 13 September 1950 a codicil was written cutting Adams out of her will completely.[66] After a year and three months of treatment, she died on 13 November 1950 aged 81.[64] Adams certified the cause of death as "stroke"[64] and on inspecting the body, slit her wrist to ensure she was dead.[67] Despite the last codicil, Adams inherited the Rolls-Royce, a Jacobean court cupboard and an antique chest containing silver cutlery worth £276.[64] After Morrell's death, he also took away an infrared lamp she had bought herself, worth £60.[68] Adams billed Morrell's estate for 1,100 visits,[69] costing ₤1,674 in total.[70] The police however estimated that Adams had visited Morrell a total of 321 times during her treatment. On her cremation form, Adams stated that "as far as I am aware" he had no pecuniary interest in the death of the deceased, thereby avoiding the necessity of a post-mortem.[64]

Gertrude Hullett

For more information see Gertrude Hullett

On 23 July 1956 Gertrude Hullett, another of Adams' patients, died aged 50.[71] She had been depressed since the death of her husband four months earlier and had been prescribed large amounts of sodium barbitone and also sodium phenobarbitone.[72] She had told Adams on frequent occasions of her wish to commit suicide.[71]

On 17 July 1956 Hullett wrote out a cheque for Adams for £1,000 - to pay for an MG car her husband had promised to buy him.[73] Adams paid the cheque into his account the next day, and on being told that it would clear by the 21st, asked for it to be specially cleared - to arrive in his account the next day.[74]

On 19 July Hullett is thought to have taken an overdose and was found the next morning in a coma.[71] Adams was unavailable and a colleague, Dr Harris, attended her until Adams arrived later in the day.[71] Not once during their discussion did Adams mention her depression or her barbiturate medication.[73] They decided a cerebral haemorrhage was most likely. On the 21st Dr Shera, a pathologist, was called in to take a spinal fluid sample and immediately asked if her stomach contents should be examined in case of narcotic poisoning. Adams and Harris both opposed this.[71] After Shera left, Adams visited a colleague at the Princess Alice Hospital in Eastbourne and asked about the treatment for barbiturate poisoning. He was told to give doses of 10 cc of Megimide every five minutes, and was given 100 cc to use. The recommended dose in the instructions was 100 cc to 200 cc.[75] Dr Cook also told him to put Hullett on an intravenous drip. Adams did not.[76]

The next morning, at 8.30 a.m. on the 22nd, Adams called the coroner to make an appointment for a private post-mortem. The coroner asked when the patient had died and Adams said she had not yet.[76] Dr Harris visited again that day and Adams still made no mention of potential barbiturate poisoning. When Harris had left, Adams gave a single injection of 10 cc of the Megimide.[76] Hullett developed broncho-pneumonia and on the 23rd at 6.00 a.m. Adams gave Hullett oxygen.[77] She died at 7.23 a.m. on the 23rd.[77] The results of a urine sample taken on the 21st were received after Hullett's death, on the 24th. It showed she had 115 grains of sodium barbitone in her body – twice the fatal dose.[78]

An inquest was held into Hullett's death on 21 August. The coroner questioned Adams' treatment and in his summing up said that it was "extraordinary that the doctor, knowing the past history of the patient" did not "at once suspect barbiturate poisoning".[79] He described Adams's 10 cc dose of Megimide as another "mere gesture".[79] The inquest concluded that Hullett committed suicide.[80] After the inquest, the cheque for £1,000 disappeared.[81]

Hullett left Adams her Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn (worth at least £2,900[81]) in a will written five days before her overdose.[73] Adams sold it six days before he was arrested.[81]

The trial

Adams was first tried for the murder of Morrell, with the Hullett charge to be prosecuted afterwards. The trial lasted 17 days, the longest murder trial in Britain up to that point.[82] It was presided over by Mr Justice Patrick Devlin. Devlin summed up the tricky nature of the case thus: "It is a most curious situation, perhaps unique in these courts, that the act of murder has to be proved by expert evidence."[4] Defence counsel Sir Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence QC – a "specialist in real estate and divorce cases [and] a relative stranger in criminal court",[4] who was defending his first murder trial – convinced the jury that there was no evidence that a murder had been committed, much less that a murder had been committed by Adams. He emphasised that the indictment was based mainly on testimonies from the nurses who tended Morrell — and that none of the witnesses' evidence matched the others'. Then, on the second day of the trial, he produced notebooks written by the nurses, detailing Adams' treatment of Morrell. The prosecution claimed never to have seen these notebooks (even though they are recorded in pretrial lists of evidence).[83] These differed from the nurses' recollection of events, and showed that smaller quantities of drugs were given to the patient than the prosecution had thought, based on Adams' prescriptions. Furthermore, the prosecution's two expert medical witnesses gave differing opinions. Dr Arthur Douthwaite was prepared to say that murder had definitely been committed (though he changed his mind in the middle of his testimony regarding the exact date),[84] but Dr Michael Ashby was more reticent.[85] Defence witness Dr John Harman, however, was adamant that Adams' treatment, though unusual, was not reckless. Finally, the prosecution was wrong-footed by the defence not calling the loquacious Adams to give evidence, and thereby avoiding him "chatting himself to the gallows".[86] This was totally unexpected, shocking the prosecution and the press, and even surprising the judge.[7]

When the jury retired to discuss the verdict, Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard phoned Devlin to urge him, if Adams were found not guilty, to grant Adams bail before he was to be tried on a second count of murdering Gertrude Hullett. Devlin was taken aback at this since a person accused of murder had never been given bail before in English legal history.[7] During the committal hearing prior to the trial, Goddard had been seen dining with Sir Roland Gwynne at the White Hart hotel in Lewes.[87] Goddard, as Lord Chief Justice, had by then already appointed Devlin to try Adams' case.[7]

On 9 April 1957, the jury returned after just 44 minutes to find Adams not guilty.[88]

Concerns of prejudice in the trial

There is considerable evidence to suggest that the trial was "interfered with"[89] by those "at the highest level".[90]

  • Adams himself gave three conflicting explanations for how the defence came to have the note books: they were given to him by Morrell's son when he found them among her effects and filed away at his surgery; they were delivered anonymously to his door after she died; they were found in the air raid shelter at the back of his garden. His solicitor, meanwhile, claimed later that they were found by the defence team in Adams's surgery shortly before trial.[83] All versions however differ from the police records: in the list of exhibits for the Committal Hearing given to the DPP's office, the notes are clearly mentioned. The Attorney General therefore must have known they existed.[93] According to Cullen, this shows "that there was a will at the highest of levels to undermine the case against Dr Adams".[2]

Possible reasons that have been suggested for interference

Police archives

Scotland Yard's files on the case and also those of the DPP, were closed until 2033.[9] This was an unusual decision considering the advanced age of the suspect, witnesses and others involved in the case. The files were only opened to the public after special permission was granted in 2003.[9]

Suspicious cases

It is worth quoting some of the evidence from testimonies gathered by Hannam during the investigation, but which was never aired in court. Taken together, they suggest a certain modus operandi:[100]

Hannam also discovered that 4 members of Adams' household staff had been prescribed either morphine, heroin or pethidine by Adams. Adams obtained these on the NHS, leading Hannam to conclude that he was merely using their names and keeping the drugs for his own supplies - an act of fraud.[117]

After the acquittal

In the aftermath of the trial Adams resigned from the National Health Service and was convicted in Lewes Crown Court on 26 July 1957, on 8 counts of forging prescriptions, four counts of making false statements on cremation forms, and three offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1951 and fined £2,400 plus costs of £457.[118] His license to prescribe dangerous drugs was revoked on 4 September and on 27 November he was struck off the Medical Register by the GMC.[118] Adams continued to see some of his more loyal patients, and prescribed over the counter medicine to them.[118]

Right after the trial, Percy Hoskins, chief crime reporter for the Daily Express, whisked Adams off to a safehouse in Westgate-on-Sea where he spent the next 2 weeks recounting his life story. Hoskins had befriended Adams during the trial and was the only major journalist to doubt his guilt. Adams was paid ₤10,000 for the interview though he never spent the proceeds – the notes were found in a bank vault after his death, untouched. Adams then successfully sued several newspapers for libel.[119] He returned to Eastbourne, where he continued to practice privately despite the common belief in the town that he had murdered people. This belief was not shared by his friends and patients in general, however. One exception was Roland Gwynne, who distanced himself considerably from Adams after the trial.[120]

Adams was reinstated as a general practitioner on 22 November 1961 after two failed applications and his authority to prescribe dangerous drugs was restored the following July.[121] He continued to practice as a sole practitioner, not resuming his partnership with the town's "Red House" practice. In August 1962 Adams applied for a visa to America but was refused because of his dangerous drug convictions.[122]

Adams later became President (and Honorary Medical Officer) of the British Clay Pigeon Shooting Association.[123]

Roland Gwynne died on 15 November 1971. Adams signed his death certificate.[124]

Death

Adams slipped and fractured his hip on 30 June 1983 while shooting in Battle, East Sussex. He was taken to Eastbourne hospital but developed a chest infection and died on 4 July of left ventricular failure. He left an estate of £402,970 and bequeathed £1000 to Percy Hoskins.[125] Hoskins gave the money to charity. Adams had been receiving legacies until the end. In 1986, The Good Doctor Bodkin Adams, a TV docudrama based on his trial, was produced starring Timothy West.

Historical views on Adams

Pre-2003

Opinion regarding Adams has been divided, though in recent years has tended to the view that he was a killer. Sybille Bedford, present at Adams trial, was adamant that Adams was not guilty.[126] Many publications however were sued for libel during Adams' lifetime, showing the prevalence of the rumours that surrounded him. The 1961 film Victim, meanwhile, alludes to Adams when it is mentioned that the main character, barrister Melville Farr, defended a "Dr Porchester". "He should have hung, you know," Farr is told by Calloway, an actor who was present in court; he replies "There was a moment when we thought he would. We were all very relieved."[127]

After Adams' death, writers were more free to speculate. In 1983 Rodney Hallworth and Mark Williams concluded Adams was a serial killer and probably schizophrenic:[128] "In the opinion of many experts Adams died an unconvicted mass-murderer".[129]Percy Hoskins, writing in 1984, was of the opposite opinion, adamant that Adams was not guilty but merely "naive" and "avaricious".[20] In 1985 Sir Patrick Devlin, the judge, stated that Adams may have been a "mercenary mercy killer"[130] but, though compassionate, he was at the same time greedy and "prepared to sell death"[123] : 'He did not think of himself as a murderer but a dispenser of death [...] According to his lights, he had done nothing wrong. There was nothing wrong in a doctor getting a legacy, nor in his bestowing in return [...] a death as happy as heroin could make it.'[123] He also "could be convinced that Dr Adams had helped to end Mrs Hullett's life".[131] In 2000, Surtees, a former colleague of Adams, wrote a more sympathetic account of him as being the victim of a police vendetta.

Post-2003

These writers based their opinions almost entirely on the evidence given in court regarding Morrell.[132] The police archives were opened in 2003 at the request of historian Pamela Cullen,[9] who writes that Adams "may have had more victims than Shipman".[133] In her view, Adams was acquitted more due to the way the case "was presented than [to] Doctor Adams' lack of guilt".[134] She also highlights the fact that Hannam's investigation was "blinkered" from the perspective of motive: Hannam assumed monetary gain was the driving force because during the 1950s, little was known of what really motivated serial killers, i.e. "physical needs, emotions and often bizarre interpretations of reality".[135]

John Emsley, writing in 2008, concurs with Cullen saying "It now seems almost certain that over a 30-year period he killed 160 of his patients".[136] Katherine Ramsland records that despite the outcome of the trial, Adams "is nevertheless believed to have repeatedly committed what the law regards as murder".[137] Herbert G Kinnell, writing in the British Medical Journal, speculates that Adams "possibly provided the role model for Shipman".[138]

Legal legacy

Adams's trial had many effects on the English legal system.

Subsequent cases

It was 25 years before another doctor in Britain, Dr Leonard Arthur, stood trial for murder arising from treatment. Arthur was tried in November 1981 at Leicester Crown Court for the attempted murder of John Pearson, a newborn child with Downs Syndrome. Like Adams, on the advice of his legal team he did not give evidence in his defence, relying instead on expert witnesses. He was acquitted.[141]

In 2000, Harold Shipman became the only British doctor to be successfully prosecuted for the murder of his patients.[1] He was found guilty on 15 counts and The Shipman Inquiry concluded in 2002 that he had murdered a further 200.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The Case of Dr John Bodkin Adams". strangerinblood.co.uk. http://www.strangerinblood.co.uk/html/case.htm. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cullen, p. 636
  3. ↑ Cullen, p. 537
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Not Guilty, Time, 22 April 1957.
  5. ↑ Law and Literature, ed. Brook Thomas, p. 149 – quoting Rupert Furneaux
  6. ↑ Times, 11 June 1985, p. 10
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Devlin, 1985
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Surtees, p. 132
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Cullen, p. 7
  10. ↑ He left £500 in his will to Marine Hall, his local Brethren congregation. (Cullen, p. 554)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Cullen, pp. 19–23
  12. ↑ Cullen, p. 23, p. 608
  13. ↑ Cullen, p. 24
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Cullen, p. 55
  15. ↑ Guilty on 14 Charges – TIME
  16. ↑ Kelly’s Directory of Eastbourne (1929). Kelly’s Directories Ltd 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Cullen, p. 56
  18. ↑ Her whole estate amounted to £11,465, or £590 thousand today. (Cullen, p. 59)
  19. ↑ Surtees, p. 24
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 Hoskins, 1984
  21. ↑ Cullen, p. 536
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Cullen, p. 32
  23. ↑ Surtees, p. 32, pp. 37-38
  24. ↑ Cullen, p. 203
  25. ↑ Surtees, p. 33
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Cullen, p. 42
  27. ↑ Cullen, pp. 15-17
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Cullen, p. 40
  29. ↑ Cullen, p. 593
  30. ↑ Cullen, p.588
  31. ↑ "...almost designed to frustrate the investigation". (Cullen, p.587)
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Cullen, p. 224
  33. ↑ The Home Secretary, Gwilym Lloyd-George wrote to Manningham-Buller that: "The disclosure of this document is likely to cause me considerable embarrassment. As you know, police reports have always been treated as highly confidential documents and it has been the invariable practice to refuse to disclose their contents to Parliament or to individual Members. Indeed I should have no hesitation in claiming privilege if their production were required in a court of law." He ended: "I can only hope that no harm will result." (Quoted in Cullen, p. 230)
  34. ↑ "It cannot be imagined that the Attorney General, a lawyer just one place below the rank of the Lord Chancellor of the realm could 'loan' a police report of such importance for Dr Macrae to take it to his President and expect that only one particular paragraph would be read by them or that they would make no copy of the report." (Cullen, p. 232)
  35. ↑ Cullen, p. 587
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Cullen, p. 227
  37. ↑ Cullen, p. 232
  38. ↑ Cullen, p. 228
  39. ↑ In court, the defence would accuse Hannam of intentionally "waylaying" Adams in order to informally question him. Hannam denied this. (Cullen, p. 369)
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 Cullen, p. 189
  41. ↑ Cullen, p. 190
  42. ↑ Cullen, p. 235
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 Cullen, p. 236
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 Cullen, p. 238
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 Cullen, p. 237
  46. ↑ Cullen, p. 551
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 Cullen, p. 594
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 48.3 48.4 Hallworth, 1983
  49. ↑ Probably Rodney Hallworth (Cullen, p. 610)
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 Cullen, pp. 243 - 244
  51. ↑ Cullen, pp. 622-635
  52. ↑ Cullen, p. 188
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 Cullen, p. 47
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 54.2 Cullen, p. 610
  55. ↑ Cullen, p. 591 and p. 641
  56. ↑ Cullen, p. 611
  57. ↑ She was the sister-in-law of one of Adams's Brethren friends (Norman Gray), and her father owned six butchers in the town. (Surtees, p. 23)
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Surtees, p. 23
  59. ↑ He left her: "in gratitude and memories of our long standing friendship any one item of furniture or personal or household or domestic use ornament or consumption belonging to me at the time of my death". (Cullen, p. 553)
  60. ↑ Cullen, p. 240
  61. ↑ Cullen, p. 250
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Cullen, p. 249
  63. ↑ Cullen, p. 560
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 64.2 64.3 64.4 Cullen, p. 94
  65. ↑ Cullen, pp. 88-93
  66. ↑ Cullen, p. 93
  67. ↑ Cullen, p.564
  68. ↑ Cullen, p. 96
  69. ↑ Cullen, p. 563
  70. ↑ Cullen, p. 565
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 71.3 71.4 Cullen, pp. 156-159
  72. ↑ Over 80 days 1512 grains of the former and 6¼ grains of the latter were prescribed. (Cullen, pp. 158)
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 Cullen, p. 569
  74. ↑ Cullen, p. 568
  75. ↑ Cullen, p. 585
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 76.2 Cullen, p. 571
  77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 Cullen, p. 153
  78. ↑ Cullen, p. 161
  79. ↑ 79.0 79.1 Cullen, p. 185
  80. ↑ The inquest itself has been described as a "travesty". In the opinion of Cullen, with an ongoing police investigation, the inquest should have been adjourned until the investigation had concluded. (Cullen, p. 184)
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 81.2 Cullen, p. 577
  82. ↑ Cullen, p.281.
  83. ↑ 83.0 83.1 83.2 Cullen, pp. 597-598.
  84. ↑ Cullen, pp. 423-424.
  85. ↑ When asked by Lawrence whether it was possible "to rule out the hypothesis that when the end came in that way at that time on that date, it was the result of natural causes?", Ashby replied "It cannot be ruled out". (Cullen, p. 448.)
  86. ↑ Surtees, p. 122.
  87. ↑ Cullen, p.633.
  88. ↑ Cullen, p. 526.
  89. ↑ Cullen, p. 596
  90. ↑ 90.0 90.1 90.2 90.3 90.4 90.5 90.6 Cullen, p. 599
  91. ↑ Devlin, p72.
  92. ↑ His reticence is especially perplexing since he was known for his doggedness. As Lord Devlin later said of him: "He could be downright rude but he did not shout or bluster. Yet his disagreeableness was so pervasive, his persistence so interminable, the obstructions he manned so far flung, his objectives apparently so insignificant, that sooner or later you would be tempted to ask yourself whether the game was worth the candle: if you asked yourself that, you were finished."
  93. ↑ Cullen, pp. 598-599
  94. ↑ Cullen, p. 230
  95. ↑ Devlin, p. 35.
  96. ↑ Macmillan, Harold. The Macmillan Diaries, The Cabinet Years, 1950–1957, ed. Peter Catterall (London, Macmillan, 2003).
  97. ↑ 97.0 97.1 Cullen, pp.97-101.
  98. ↑ Cullen, p. 618.
  99. ↑ Cullen, p. 648.
  100. ↑ Cullen, p. 589
  101. ↑ Cullen, pp. 61-65
  102. ↑ Cullen, pp. 72-73
  103. ↑ Cullen, pp. 124-126
  104. ↑ Cullen, pp. 109-111
  105. ↑ Documentation was found recording the purchase, though Adams denied it had taken place. (Cullen, p. 273)
  106. ↑ 106.0 106.1 106.2 Cullen, pp. 102-108
  107. ↑ Cullen, pp. 80-81
  108. ↑ 108.0 108.1 Cullen, pp. 132-144
  109. ↑ Cullen, pp. 143-144
  110. ↑ Cullen, p. 144
  111. ↑ 111.0 111.1 111.2 111.3 111.4 111.5 Cullen, p. 142
  112. ↑ 112.0 112.1 Cullen, p. 141
  113. ↑ Cullen, p. 140
  114. ↑ 114.0 114.1 Cullen, p. 143
  115. ↑ Cullen, pp. 126-131
  116. ↑ Cullen, pp. 145-147
  117. ↑ Cullen, p. 547
  118. ↑ 118.0 118.1 118.2 Cullen, p. 548
  119. ↑ Eric Ambler's 1963 book The Ability to Kill originally contained a chapter on Adams. 50 promotional copies were produced before the publishers got cold feet and removed the chapter for fear of being sued. The book was finally published with an alternative chapter included (jimbooks.com)
  120. ↑ Cullen, p. 634
  121. ↑ Cullen, p. 549
  122. ↑ Cullen, pp. 550-552
  123. ↑ 123.0 123.1 123.2 Profile of Adams at shycyberchamber.com
  124. ↑ Cullen, p. 635
  125. ↑ Cullen, pp. 553-554
  126. ↑ "Whenever the name of Dr John Bodkin Adams comes up, I am asked, 'Did he do it?' 'Was he guilty?' And I always answer, 'No'". (Bedford, p. vii)
  127. ↑ Victim, 1961
  128. ↑ Hallworth, p. 217
  129. ↑ Hallworth, p. 243
  130. ↑ Devlin, p. 199
  131. ↑ Quoted in Surtees, p. 165
  132. ↑ Though Hoskins and Hallworth, however, did visit Eastbourne in 1956 and talked to local residents and the police. Surtees interviewed many local residents and Adams himself, though decades after the events.
  133. ↑ He "may have had more victims than Shipman – and he had a far more successful career as a serial killer" from strangerinblood.co.uk
  134. ↑ Cullen, p. 556
  135. ↑ Cullen, p. 637
  136. ↑ John Emsley, Molecules of Murder, 2008, pages 75-76
  137. ↑ Katherine M. Ramsland, Inside the minds of healthcare serial killers, 2007, page 38
  138. ↑ Kinnell HG (2000). "Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective". BMJ 321 (7276): 1594–7. doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7276.1594. PMID 11124192. PMC 1119267. http://bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=11124192. 
  139. ↑ Treat Me Right: Essays in Medical Law and Ethics
  140. ↑ The summing up affirmed "that a doctor will be immune from criminal liability if his or her primary intention in these circumstances can be characterised as an intention to relieve pain, rather than an intention to hasten death." (Australian Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996)
  141. ↑ Killing the Willing ... And Others! Legal Aspects of Euthanasia and Related Topics

Sources

Further reading

External links

John Bodkin Adams murder case
Key figures
John Bodkin Adams · Gertrude Hullett · Edith Alice Morrell · Patrick Devlin
Prosecution figures
Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller · Melford Stevenson · Malcolm Morris
Defence figures
Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence · Edward Clarke
Witnesses
Dr Michael Ashby · Francis Camps · Dr Arthur Douthwaite · Superintendent Herbert Hannam · Dr John Harman · Detective Sergeant Charles Hewett
Other elements
Barbiturates · Eastbourne · Leslie Henson · Megimide · Morphine · Nolle prosequi · Old Bailey · Percy Hoskins · Rayner Goddard · Rodney Hallworth · Roland Gwynne