One Of Britain's First Serial Killers Was An Elegant Lady With A Ruthless Motive
Mary Ann Cotton: wife, mother, nurse — and notorious serial killer. One might expect a woman whose literal job was to care for people to be quite gentle and empathetic, but nothing could have been further from the truth when it came to Cotton. Here was a person who was truly twisted in the darkest way imaginable.
Hands covered in blood
By the end of her life in 1873 Cotton’s hands were covered in blood. While she was only ever convicted of a single murder, the true number of her victims is thought to have been way higher. And these weren’t just any victims: they were some of the closest people in her life.
A husband-killer and worse
And that is by no means an exaggeration. Among the many deaths attributed to Cotton were three out of the four spouses she took throughout her life. But it gets even worse than that, because on top of being a husband-killer, she’s also thought to have slain some of her own children, too.
Horror that doesn’t bear thinking about
The numbers here are quite staggering. Cotton gave birth to 13 kids during her time on Earth, and of those she’s thought to have killed 11. That’s a level of horror that really doesn’t bear thinking about, but it unfortunately seems to have been the case. Something was deeply, truly wrong with this woman.
A seedy motive driving her on
So, how is it Cotton came to be such a sick, terrifying person, capable of such evil? What drove her to commit these appalling crimes throughout the course of her life in 19th-century England? Well, weak as it unquestionably was, she had a seedy motive to drive her on.
