53 year old Richard Clifford Brinkley was a carpenter and a Free Mason who had befriended an elderly lady, 77 year old Johanna Blume. He persuaded her to sign up for a trip to the seaside and that way got her signature on a blank piece of paper. He then obtained the signatures of Henry Heard and Reginald Parker, who were to be the witnesses, by the same subterfuge. In fact the paper was a will leaving Mrs. Blume’s property in Fulham to him.
Two days later, on the 19th of December 1906, Mrs. Blume died and Brinkley tried to claim the house. Her granddaughter who lived in the home contested the will. She went to a solicitor and Brinkley realised that they would want to interview the witnesses to the old lady’s signature. They would of course deny that they had witnessed a will or indeed that they had ever met Mrs. Blume. So he decided to eliminate them.
On the night of Saturday the 20th of April 1907, Brinkley visited Reginald Parker at his home at 32 Churchill Road, Croydon, to discuss a dog that Mr. Parker was going to obtain for Brinkley. Brinkley was a teetotaller so Mr. Parker was surprised that he had brought with him a bottle of stout which he opened and took a swig from. Brinkley asked Mr. Parker for a glass of water and while he was fetching it, added prussic acid to the stout. The two men left the house and went to look at the dog and while they were doing so, Mr. Parker’s landlord, 55 year old Richard Beck and his wife, 57 year old Elizabeth arrived. Sadly they decided to drink the stout and both died as a result. Their daughters, Daisy and Hilda were more fortunate and survived. Mr. Parker reported his suspicions to the police and Brinkley was arrested the next day.
Brinkley was tried at the Surrey Assizes at Guildford between the 22nd and 25th of July before Mr. Justice Bigham for the murders of the Beck’s. The forged will was produced and Mr. Parker told the court that in December of 1906, Brinkley had asked him to draw up a will. Like Mrs. Blume he had also been asked to sign up for the trip to the seaside. William Vale testified that he had supplied Brinkley with the prussic acid, on the pretext of needing to poison a dog. Railway Police Inspector Dew gave evidence of seeing Brinkley, whom he knew, at Chelsea station on the evening of April the 20th at 6.00 p.m. He caught a train to Clapham Junction at 6.15 p.m. and there was a connection there with a train to Croydon which would arrive at 7.20 p.m.
The police revealed that Brinkley had told them “If anyone says I bought beer, they have got to prove it.” At that stage no mention had been made to Brinkley of beer. The jury took just 53 minutes to return a guilty verdict.
Brinkley was duly hanged at Wandsworth at 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 13th of August 1907, by Henry Pierrepoint, assisted by John Ellis. He weighed 163 lbs and was given a drop of 6’ 8”.
Mrs. Blume’s body was later exhumed but an autopsy found that she had died of natural causes, a brain haemorrhage, and not poison as expected.

Comments
Post a Comment
We can do better!