{"id":1159,"date":"2010-09-10T21:38:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T03:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asylumeclectica.com\/grim\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2010-09-10T21:38:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-11T03:38:20","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-september-10-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour For September 10, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Bewitching Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary Bateman was known as the Yorkshire Witch. At the time of her crime Bateman lived in Leeds, Yorkshire, where she earned her living telling fortunes and swindling gullible clients out of their cash and possessions. In 1806, the 38-year-old Bateman was consulted by William Perrigo and his wife Rebecca. He was worried by chest palpitations but was reassured by a message from Miss Blythe that these would soon disappear – and they did. Over the next few months the trusting couple consulted Bateman many times and gave to her most of their money and quite a few of their belongings as well. It became obvious to Bateman in spring 1807 that there was little more to be milked from the Perrigos and that she risked exposure. So on one of their visits she gave the couple six numbered powders saying that they were to add them to their food over the next six days, beginning Monday, May 11, 1807. The magic powders would ward off a terrible misfortune. In fact the sixth powder was to be the cause of that misfortune, because it contained a corrosive sublimate. As a result, Mrs. Perrigo fell ill and eventually died, but Mr. Perrigo, who had taken only a little of the powder, survived. <\/p>\n

There is evidence that poor Rebecca Perrigo may have been taking poisoned powders for some time, judging by the state of her corpse, which was recorded as being covered in black spots of gangrene and stinking so appallingly that those who had to deal with it could only do so while smoking tobacco. Eventually, Mr. Perrigo informed authorities of his suspicions and as a result Bateman was arrested and her home searched. A bottle containing a solution of mercury chloride was discovered as well as a jar of honey dosed with arsenic.<\/p>\n

Bateman was put on trial in March 1809 and was hanged on the 20th of that month before a large crowd, many of whom regarded her more of a martyred mystic than a manipulative murderer. After her execution her body was cut down and the public were allowed to view it on payment of a small charge, the money raised going to the aid of local charities. Finally the corpse was skinned and pieces of her skin were sold as charms.<\/p>\n

Culled from: The Elements Of Murder<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah, the good old days – when you could sell pieces of murderers as charms! I wish I could run across something like *that* in an antique store!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Bewitching Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Mary Bateman was known as the Yorkshire Witch. At the time of her crime Bateman lived in Leeds, Yorkshire, where she earned her living telling fortunes and swindling gullible clients out of their cash and possessions. In 1806, the 38-year-old Bateman was consulted by William Perrigo and his wife […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}