George Chapman: The Borough Poisoner who murdered his three wives

Few walking up and down the Borough High Street on their day to day business know they are passing a murder site. Number 213 Borough High Street is now an unremarkable building next to the John Harvard Library.

The only clue to its past is the preserved cream façade, a distant memory of the tragic events that occurred there just after the turn of the century. In 1902 a public house called the Crown stood on the site and its publican at the time was one George Chapman, a man whose name would go down in history as a sadistic poisoner.

George Chapman, or Severin Klosowski to give him his real name, was hanged in March 1903 at Wandsworth Prison. He was found guilty at the Old Bailey of the murder of his common law wife, Maud Marsh. He had slowly poisoned her to death by administering antimony, a poison akin to arsenic and used at the time for the treatment of tropical diseases. The jury took only eleven minutes to find him guilty of murder.

On October 25, 1902, the day of the King’s coronation, Chapman was arrested in the Crown by Detective Inspector Godley from Southwark Police Station. Chapman had originally been a junior doctor in Poland but moved to London sometime around 1887. At this time he was working as a barber surgeon in Whitechapel. Why he should take up such an inferior post for a supposedly qualified doctor is not clear. One theory is that he escaped from Poland after committing a murder.

Around 1895 he changed his vocation to publican and in 1901 became the occupant of the Monument in Union Street, now the site of the London Fire Brigade HQ. It was here in August 1901 that he hired a barmaid who had advertised for a position in the Morning Advertiser newspaper. He decided he needed help in the bar after his second ‘wife’, Bessie died of exhaustion from vomiting and diarrhoea. The barmaid was nineteen-year old Maud Marsh from Croydon. Little did she know that her advertisement had sealed her fate.

Bessie Taylor

Maud moved into the Monument and soon entered into an illegal marriage with Chapman. Whether or not she knew the marriage was a fake is hard to say. Chapman had previously married a woman back in Poland and left her there when he emigrated. Whilst in England he had many illicit relationships and ‘marriages’. Maud wrote to her mother, Eliza stating she had married Chapman in a Roman Catholic Church in Bishopsgate, that he treated her well and bought her presents.

However, Chapman was a misogynist and enjoyed beating Maud, even when she was lying in bed ill. It was noted at her post mortem that she had bruises on her body. Maud had previously told her sister Louisa that he held her by the hair and banged her head. She was obviously frightened of him, as she had burst into tears when they were late returning to the Monument after a tram ride, saying ‘you don’t know what he is like’. Chapman had treated his previous wives in the same manner. He attacked a woman named Lucy Baderski with a knife whilst in New Jersey but was interrupted. He later told her he meant to cut her head off and bury her.

Maud and George moved into the Crown Public House in 1902 after a fire at the Monument. It transpired that the insurers believed Chapman had committed arson and would not pay him compensation. Sometime after this, Maud was admitted to Guys Hospital complaining of stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea. She was kept in for three weeks, in which time she improved and returned to the Crown. Her mother Eliza was therefore surprised to see her seriously ill in bed when she visited her there. She was suffering stomach cramps and had a raging thirst. Chapman continually gave her drinks of water, brandy, lemonade and champagne but after each sip Maud instantly vomited.

Chapman employed a charwoman, Jessie Toon, to care for his wife. She later stated in her evidence that Chapman would not permit her to draw any water from the tap and insisted she go through him for any water that Maud required. She also told the court she had seen Chapman inject Maud with a syringe and that she was always ill afterwards. Louisa Cole, a servant in the house, stated she saw Chapman in the kitchen mixing up a substance from two bottles.

Maud’s parents were understandably suspicious of Chapman and on October 21, 1902, called in their own doctor, Dr Grapel, to examine Maud. He stated he believed she had been poisoned by arsenic but could not tell how this had happened. Chapman blamed it on some bad rabbit they had eaten previously and said he had also been taken ill. This was refuted in the evidence of servant Louisa Coles who stated she had cooked the rabbit and nobody was taken ill afterwards.

At 12.30 PM the following day Maud passed away in the presence of her parents and Chapman. Her last words were “I’m going, George” to which he replied “Goodbye”. Chapman asked the doctor to write out a death certificate and became angry when he refused. He learned from Jessie Toon that Maud’s mother and doctor wanted a post mortem. He called Eliza Marsh ‘a wicked old cat’ and told Toon to be careful what she said about the goings on in the Crown.

Maud Marsh

When the undertaker arrived to take the body away Chapman told him he wanted an early funeral at 9am so that he could get on with running the pub. He would not close it for the day of her funeral. Maud was laid out in the parlour of undertaker Alfred Smith. The funeral director gave evidence at Chapman’s trial and commented at what a remarkable state the body was in when he collected it. This added to the evidence that Maud had been poisoned. Before Maud was even cold in her bed, Chapman approached her sister, Alice and said “There is a chance for you as a barmaid now”. She refused the offer!

Doctor Grapel meanwhile, sensed foul play and informed DI Godley of his suspicions. Godley and Police Sergeant Kemp attended the Crown and asked for Chapman. On seeing them he dashed down to the cellar via a trap door. The officers pursued but lost him momentarily. They saw a beam of light from behind a door, broke it down and found him behind some barrels. He had a loaded revolver in each hand directed at them. He threatened both officers who managed to wrestle him to the ground even though both weapons were discharged during the struggle.

Amongst items found in a search of the pub were various medical books, a syringe and a poison label secreted inside a book. As Detective Inspector Godley dug deeper into the life of George Chapman it became apparent that he had murdered his previous two wives who had also lived and died under similar circumstances. Authority was duly given to exhume the bodies of Bessie Taylor and Mary Spinks; both were found in a remarkable state of preservation. Antimony poisoning has an effect on the body, which slows down the process of decomposition. This evidence was the final nail in the coffin for Chapman.

When he was charged, Chapman asked ‘can I have bail? My brewers will bail me’. This was denied, as obviously he would have taken flight the minute he walked from the police station. During his stay at Wandsworth he continually protested his innocence, despite the overwhelming evidence against him. He stated the whole case was a police fabrication and unsuccessfully appealed.

Chapman's motive for killing his three wives is not clear, but perhaps this crank just enjoyed the power of watching women suffer. His doctor stated that there was no suggestion of insanity in Chapman. Upon Mary Spink’s death he inherited £500, but there was no financial gain in killing Bessie or Maud. Eliza Marsh told the inquest that Maud had no life insurance policy but she had apparently been worrying Chapman for a baby and threatened to leave if she could not have one. And what became of The Crown? It was closed down around the mid 1960s and is now used as offices.