Robert George Clements

Robert George Clements (1880-1947[1]) was a physician and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is suspected of the murder of his fourth wife, who died of morphine poisoning. His first three wives also predeceased him, raising suspicions that he murdered them as well.[2] Clements committed suicide by an overdose of morphine[3] before he was caught by the police and therefore never stood trial.

Life

Clements was born in 1880 in Belfast, Ireland. He graduated in 1904 aged 24.[4]

Marriages

Clement married four times. His first wife, Edith, died of "sleeping sickness" in 1920 aged 40. His second, Mary, died of endocarditis in 1925, aged 25, and his third, Kathleen, died of cancer.[5] His last wife, Amy Victoria Burnett, was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. She died on 27 May 1947 in suspicious circumstances in Southport. The previous day Clements had called in another doctor when his wife fell ill. She was taken to a nursing home where she died the next day.[6] Both Clements and the other doctor called in diagnosed myeloid leukaemia, which was confirmed by a botched post-mortem carried out by another physician, Dr James Houston.

The circumstances of Burnett's death caused people at the time to question the deaths of Clement's first three wives. All, with the exception of the third, were wealthy women when he married them and were almost penniless at the time of their deaths. Clements signed the death certificates himself[2] and although there were some suspicions voiced following the death of his third wife there wasn't any opportunity to perform a post-mortem as her body had already been cremated.

When the police came to arrest Clements they found that he had committed suicide, leaving a note:

"To Whom It May Concern: I can no longer tolerate the diabolical insults to which I have been recently exposed."

A second autopsy was conducted by a Dr Grace who deduced that she had died from morphine poisoning. This was confirmed by Dr J.B. Firth, Director of the Home Office Laboratory in Preston.[7] Clements is thought to have murdered Burnett in order to inherit her money.[8] When Dr Houston found out that his post-mortem had missed the presence of morphine, he too committed suicide.[2][9][10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ One hundred years of medical murder, John Camp, 1982. Page 5
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective, BMJ
  3. ↑ "Trust me, I'm a doctor" - Bernadette Friend, Health Services Journal, 3 February, 2000
  4. ↑ The collected works of Max Haines, Volume 4, Max Haines, 2000. Page 571
  5. ↑ The People's almanac presents the book of lists, David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, 1977. Page 70
  6. ↑ The new murderers' who's who, page 86
  7. ↑ The medical murderer, 1967. Page 150
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 38050. p. 3926. 19 August 1947. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
  9. ↑ TorontoSun.com - Max Haines: Crime Flashback - Practice makes perfect
  10. ↑ The laboratory detectives: how science traps the criminal, Norman Lucas, 1972. Page 101

External links