Sarah Reynolds was born in the village of Potton, Bedfordshire in 1819. She was the daughter of the local barber, Phillip Reynolds, and although Phillip worked hard, he fell into debt and in 1825 he was imprisoned at Bedford Prison. Having been released in 1826 he fell ill and subsequently died. The grieving widow however wasn’t lacking in shoulders to cry on and it appeared that, even before Phillip had died, Sarah’s mother had received visits from several male ‘friends’ and it’s suspected that Phillip knew his wife had been playing away throughout their marriage but had turned a blind eye in order to maintain peace and harmony in the Reynolds household.
Following her father’s death, Sarah then discovered she had several ‘uncles’ but eventually her mother decided to remarry. Sarah wasn’t an unattractive girl; auburn haired, brown eyed, tall and elegant so it wasn’t beyond the wit of man that she, like her mother, attracted more than her fair share of male admirers.
In 1838 Sarah married a local man, Simeon Mead and the young couple remained in Potton for two years and then moved out to Tadlow. Although it’s never been confirmed, it’s understood that Simeon discovered Sarah had been having an affair and he decided it’d be better to move her away from temptation. Whatever the reason, it seemed that Simeon and Sarah had a happy marriage and shortly after their move, they had a son, Jonah. Sadly, Jonah died when he was just seven months old and friends and neighbours rallied round the grieving couple but it seemed that, behind closed doors, the marriage wasn’t quite as lovey-dovey as the neighbours thought. Sarah obviously had more than her fair share of her mother’s genes and the couple were constantly at each other’s throats due to Sarah’s male visitors. But things changed drastically when, just a couple of months after Jonah’s death, Simeon died. Obviously this rocked the local community as Simeon appeared to be fairly hale and hearty and the local populace rallied forth and offered Sarah their condolences. Not only had she lost her baby boy but within such a short time, had also lost a young and apparently much loved husband.
However, their opinion of the young woman soon changed when, within a few weeks after her husband’s death, Sarah began a relationship with another man – a 23 year old labourer by the name of William Dazley and in February 1841, about four months after her husband’s death, the couple married. Not unnaturally tongues began to wag in the village so the young couple moved to a cottage in Wrestlingworth, just a couple of miles from Sarah’s birthplace of Potton.
As in her previous marriage, to the outside world they seemed a normal young couple, William even being prepared to take in Sarah’s 14 year old step daughter, Ann Mead but Sarah wore the trousers in the house and had actually demanded that Ann should join them. Like many a long suffering husband throughout the ages, it was anything for a quiet life as far as William was concerned. On the whole, the villagers accepted the couple and concluded they were perfectly normal although there were others who were unsure about Sarah. Word spread from one village to another and the smoke signals emanating from Potton and Tadlow, mainly fanned by the womenfolk, suggested that Sarah was a bit of man-eater and they wondered whether it was pure coincidence that Simeon had died so suddenly when he was in the prime of life. But basically, the women were happy to embrace the couple into the community provided Sarah didn’t embrace their husbands.
The notion that William and Sarah were blissfully happy soon dwindled as William became a frequent visitor at The Chequers Inn, Wrestlingworth – which still exists today; go to http://www.thechequersinnpub.co.uk – but being rather an insular man, he didn’t confide in any of his beer-swilling buddies although it was obvious to the villagers that something was troubling him as it was completely out of character.
Things finally came to a head when William returned home from the pub one Saturday night and Sarah immediately launched into him about his heavy drinking. William initially tried to avoid the confrontation but Sarah nagged and needled him to such an extent that the poor man snapped and lashed out at his scolding wife. This played right into Sarah’s hands as, the following day, Sarah met with her latest ‘playmate’, William Waldock and told him that her husband was a wife beater and that she would have her revenge. She then went on to tell one of her neighbours in the hope that the grapevine would do its good works and spread its tendrils through the surrounding local inhabitants informing them that William Dazley wasn’t the mild-mannered gent that everyone thought he was. Thankfully the good people of Wrestlingworth and surrounding villages weren’t that dumb and decided that there were normally two sides to every story.
A few days after the altercation between husband and wife, William Dazley was taken ill with stomach ache and vomiting. A Dr Sandell from Potton attended and prescribed some pills and William began to recover although he remained bedridden. A few days later, Sarah’s step daughter was busy in the kitchen area when Sarah entered. She didn’t notice Ann, who remained hidden quietly in the corner, and Ann witnessed Sarah rolling her own pills. Ann, being young and naïve, thought nothing of it and assumed that Sarah was somehow sweetening the pills to make them more palatable for William. That very same day, Sarah visited a friend in Potton, Mrs Carver, and told her she was concerned about William and was going to visit Dr Sandell for more pills. A short while later, Mrs Carver saw Sarah walking back towards Wrestlingworth and witnessed her throwing some pills into the hedgerow and replacing them in the box with some others. Mrs Carver shouted out to Sarah and told her that she’d dropped something and Sarah just replied that she didn’t think Dr Sandell’s pills were working and so she’d decided to call on the village healer, Mrs Gurr, who’d supplied Sarah with some other remedy.
Sarah arrived home and offered the pills to her husband who noticed that they were different to the ones Dr Sandell had prescribed and he refused to take them. Ann, who had a good relationship with William and had helped in nursing him during his illness, persuaded William to take the new remedy by taking a small dose herself. Needless to say, both Ann and William fell ill with stomach ache and vomiting. William rushed out and was sick on the ground by the pig pen and one of the pigs, putting it as pleasantly as I can, ‘did a good clearing up job’. The poor old pig was found dead the following morning but William and Ann survived. William and Ann were obviously no Holmes and Watson as they didn’t manage to work out there were common denominators here – pills, illness, dead pig!
Sarah continued to give William the pills and eventually he died on 30 October 1842. An inquest was held but there was no evidence to suggest anything other than an infection so William was buried at Wrestlingworth church. So, at the grand old age of 23 Sarah had been twice widowed. Things would probably have settled down and the locals would have felt some sympathy for Sarah but she wasn’t one for letting the grass grow under her feet and almost before William was cold in his grave, she began a full blown open relationship with William Waldock and by February 1843 the couple had announced their engagement.
The villagers of Wrestlingworth began voicing their opinion that there was something decidedly odd about the untimely deaths of Simeon Mead and William Dazley and warned William Waldock, who promptly took fright and ended the relationship. Indeed, some the villagers were so concerned about Sarah that they went to the local coroner, a Mr Eagles, and told him they thought there was something dodgy about it all and he duly arranged for the body of William Dazley to be exhumed for further investigation.
On 20 March 1843, at the Chequers Inn an inquest was held and an announcement was made that traces of white arsenic were found in William’s body and put out a warrant for Sarah’s arrest, but by the time of the inquest Sarah had decided she wasn’t going to hang around and disappeared from the area. A Superintendent Blunden from Biggleswade took up the case and discovered that Sarah had moved to a property in Upper Wharf Street in London. Sarah was subsequently arrested and questioned but told the police she was completely innocent. She had no knowledge of poison and had only administered the pills that had been prescribed by Dr Sandell. The rooms in which she lodged in Upper Wharf Street were searched but nothing untoward was found. However, Sarah’s protestations of innocence fell on deaf ears and she was escorted back to Bedford.
During the ensuing investigation the bodies of Simeon and Jonah Mead were exhumed and it was discovered that there were traces of poison in the young child and although there were signs of arsenic in Simeon’s body, as the body was so decomposed it couldn’t really be proven that he’d been fed sufficient poison to kill him..
On 24 March 1843 Sarah was committed to Bedford Gaol to await trial and she used the time to come up with a tale of woe to feed to the authorities and so she told them that William Dazley had poisoned Simeon and her young son in order that he could marry Sarah. When she’d discovered the truth she’d then meted out her retribution on William but, bearing in mind her promiscuous nature and the speed with which she seemed to move from one husband to another, her story didn’t quite ring true and so began the trial of Sarah Dazley in Bedford in July 1843 before Baron Alderson.
She was charged with murdering William Dazley but the case of little Jonah’s poisoning was held in reserve in case the first murder charge failed. The case of Simeon wasn’t put forward as there wasn’t sufficient evidence that he’d been given enough poison to actually finish him off.
From 1836 all defendants were legally entitled to be represented by a barrister and so Sarah was represented in Court by a Mr O’Malley who told the Court that she had administered the poison to William accidentally which was inconsistent with the two earlier tale she’d told, that she had no knowledge of any poisoning and later, that she’d given William the poison to avenge the deaths of her first husband and her only child.
The defence didn’t hold up well. Two chemists were called to the witness stand and confirmed that they’d sold arsenic to Sarah a short while before William had died and Sarah’s ‘friend’ Mrs Carver came forward and told the Court that she’d seen the accused throw the pills that Dr Sandell had administered into the hedgerow and replace them with some others.
Ann Mead was also called and told the Court that she’d seen Sarah ‘rolling her own’. Even William Waldock, Sarah’s ex-fiancé, came up to bear witness – he told the Court that a short time before William’s demise Sarah had told him that she and William had had a spat and that she’d ‘do for any man that ever hit her’.
Forensic evidence was presented to the Court which showed that William had died from arsenic poisoning. Unfortunately for Sarah, just seven years earlier James Marsh had discovered it was possible, by chemical means, to detect when arsenic had been administered and that it could be detected in human remains several years after death. Arsenic was widely available from chemists and following James Marsh’s findings, it was discovered that so many people were being murdered by arsenic poisoning that the Arsenic Act was passed in 1851 which prevented the sale of arsenic over the counter to strangers and the names of the purchasers were placed on a register. The arsenic also had to be mixed with soot or indigo to make it easily detectable if added to food or drink. Sarah’s case was in fact one of the earliest Court cases in which the Marsh test was considered admissible.
The jury retired and it only took them half an hour to put forward a verdict of guilty of murder and so the Judge, Baron Alderson, passed the death sentence on Sarah and she returned to Bedford prison to await her fate. She apparently spent her time learning to read and took to reading the Bible in order to gain some comfort. She kept herself very much to herself and didn’t converse much with her fellow inmates. She spent a lot of her time sobbing and wouldn’t eat which, amazingly, affected the very people who had taken against her – her neighbours – and they began to feel sorry for her.
The day of Sarah’s execution arrived – Saturday 5 August 1843 – and a crowd of around 12,000 people assembled in the town to witness her hanging. Bearing in mind it was the first execution to take place in Bedford for 10 years I suppose it shouldn’t have been unexpected as it probably made for a good family day out!
Sarah’s executioner was William Calcraft, one of the most famous and respected English executioners, and, other than asking Mr Calcraft to make her death swift, Sarah made no other comment. According to reports in the press, Calcraft tied Sarah’s hands in front of her, made some adjustments to the noose, turned her to face away from the crowd and ordered the bolt to be withdrawn. Sarah plunged through the floor and died almost instantly.
And so ended the life of Sarah Dazley at the grand age of 24, with four poisonings under her belt. Quite an achievement. Four poisonings I hear you utter – yes, four – one baby son, two husbands and let’s not forget the poor old pig!!
译文:
波顿投毒者
莎拉·雷诺兹1819年出生在贝德福德郡波顿的一个村庄里。她的父亲菲利普·雷诺兹是当地的一名理发师，尽管他工作上很努力，却最终未能幸免债务的困扰，1825年被判在贝德福德监狱受禁。1826年释放出狱，但随后发病死亡。然而，莎拉的母亲，这位原本哀伤的寡妇似乎生活中并不缺少可依靠的肩膀，也不为失夫感到悲痛，有迹象表明，即便在菲利普没死之前，她就经常和她的男性‘朋友'约会往来，而且，让人怀疑的是菲利普他本人可能也知道他的妻子有越轨的行为，但为了家庭的安宁与和谐，他选择了睁一只眼闭一只眼的态度，对此视而不见。
然在她父亲去世后不久，莎拉就发现她多了几个'叔叔'，而她的母亲最后还是改嫁了。萨拉她本人也是一位非常有吸引力的女孩，有着赤褐色的头发，棕色的眼睛，身材高挑优雅，天资聪颖，与她的母亲一样，很受男人的喜欢。
1838年莎拉与当地一个叫赛门·米德的男人结了婚，这对年轻的夫妇结婚后一直住在波顿，两年后却迁家去了泰德。尽管没有迹象证明，但我们可以推测的是赛门肯定发现了莎拉与人通奸，所以他决定最好还是带她离开这个诱惑之地。不管他们搬迁是出于什么样的原因，但在表面上给人看来赛门与莎拉的婚姻生活还是非常美满的，而且就在他们搬迁后不久，他们的儿子乔纳诞生了。只是遗憾的是，乔纳出生后几个月就死了，亲朋好友和街坊邻居都过来安慰这对不幸的夫妻，言谈之间人们似乎觉得这对夫妻在私下里的感情并不像先前他们想象的那般恩爱。显然，莎拉从她母亲那里遗传了更多的爱情基因，也正是莎拉与男人的鬼混，夫妻间常闹矛盾不和。但后来发生的一件事情改变了一切，那就是在乔纳死后数月，赛门也跟着死了。由于赛门的体格一向非常健壮，因此，这件事情在当地社区引起了很大的震动，谁也不曾会料到在如此短暂的时间内莎拉不仅痛失儿子，又接连失去一个年轻与爱她的丈夫。于是当地的百姓纷都纷过来向莎拉表示他们的吊念之情。
然而好景不长，人们对这位年轻妇女的观念有了很大的变化，沙拉在她丈夫死后不到几周，就开始与另一个年龄在23岁名叫威廉·达兹利的男子私通了。并于1841年二月，她丈夫死后四个月的时间，两个人结婚了。于是一些闲言赘语开始在村庄里流传，这对年轻的夫妇不得已搬迁去瑞斯汀沃斯的一个村子，这个地方与莎拉的出生地波顿相隔只有数里之遥。
如她在前次婚姻中表现的那样，在外面他们看上去像对关系很正常的夫妻，威廉甚至也准备抚养莎拉过继的14岁女儿安·米德，但由于莎拉在家里享有话语大权，最后还是她决定安与她们一起生活。像古今往来很多坚韧不屈的大丈夫一样，对威廉来说，过宁静的生活比什么都重要。虽然有些人对莎拉的为人不大信任，但总的来说，村民们还是接受了这对夫妇并认为他们的关系是完全正常的。但另一方面，由于妇道人家的煽风点火，从波顿和塔德洛散发出来的谣言在各个村庄广为流传，都说萨拉是个害男人的精，并对赛门在年轻气盛时猝死属纯粹的巧合表示怀疑。但基本上讲，只要莎拉不勾搭她们的丈夫的话，妇女们还是很高兴地接受这对夫妇融入社区的生活。
然那种认为威廉和萨拉在一起相处融洽的看法也很快落幕，威廉成了瑞斯汀沃斯契克斯酒店的一名常客——这家酒店今天仍然存在。点击网址http://www.thechequersinnpub.co.uk 可以查询——但与孤立的人不同的是，他对酒友们谁都不信任，虽然村民们都知道，他身上发生了些不愉快的事情，但这也与他性格是完全不相符合的。
事情终于发展到了严重的关头，一个星期六晚上威廉刚从酒吧回来，萨拉就埋怨他酗酒太多。最初威廉试图尽量避免与她针锋相对，但莎拉没完没了的唠叨个不停并不断用尖锐的语言讽刺他，可怜的威廉忍无可忍怒火心生就将他蛮横不敷的妻子揍了一顿。这正中莎拉的下怀，第二天，莎拉就与她最新的'玩伴'威廉·沃尔克碰了头，并告诉他，她的丈夫是个打老婆的人，并扬言要对他实施报复。她又接着去了一位邻居家告诉他们威廉打人的消息希望能将事态进一步扩大起到推波助澜的效果，同时她又在当地居民区中将这一消息蓄意传散，告诉他们威廉·达兹利其实与他们想象中的温和绅士相差甚远。万幸的是，瑞斯汀沃斯与附近村庄中善良的人民并没有听信一面之词，因为凡事都有它的两个方面，于是决定全盘考虑这个事情。
夫妻俩吵架几天后，威廉·达兹利就犯病了，出现胃痛和呕吐症状。于是从波顿请来了桑德尔医生帮他看病并开了一些药，服用后虽然他仍然卧床不起，但病情有了好转。数日后的一天，莎拉的继女正在厨房里干活，此时萨拉走了进来，但她并没有注意到安。于是安就躲在角落里静静地观看怎么回事，安发现萨拉在捣她自己的药丸。年少天真的安，也没有细想，认为萨拉是在药中加糖以使药味变甜好让威廉服用。也就是在同一天，萨拉去会面了她住在波顿的一位朋友卡弗，并告诉她，她很担心威廉的状况并想去拜访桑德尔医生向她多要一点药。过了一会儿功夫，卡弗看到莎拉办完事回瑞斯汀沃斯，亲眼看见她将一些药物往灌木篱笆里扔，并在药盒子里换上了其他的药。卡弗向莎拉大声喊话并告诉她掉了东西，但萨拉只是回答说，她认为桑德尔医生开的药效性不好，她想回去请村里的医生格尔帮忙看病，莎拉先前在那里也抓过一些药。
萨拉回到家给她丈夫喂药，她的丈夫也注意到了这些药与桑德尔医生开的药有些不同于是就拒绝服用它们。安，平时与威廉的关系要好些，在他患病期间也一直在帮忙照顾他，为了说服威廉服这种新药，她自己先试了小剂量。不用说，安与威廉都出现了胃痛和呕吐的症状。于是威廉冲了出去，走到猪圈旁吐了一地，其中有头猪跑过来 ’做了一件好的清洁工作‘ 将吐在地上的东西津津有味的吃了下去。第二天早晨这头可怜的猪就死了，但威廉和安幸免于难。威廉和安显然都不是福尔摩斯和沃森，因为他们没能推出一个共同的特性——那就是先服用药物，然后生病，再次是猪吃了后死亡！
萨拉继续给威廉服用这种药物，最后他还是在1842年10月30号去世了。为确定威廉的死因，人们对莎拉进行了审讯，但除了属感染外没有证据可查威廉死于他害，因此威廉就被安葬在瑞斯汀沃斯的教堂里。于是，这位风华正茂的萨拉在23岁的年龄已两次丧偶。事情最后很可能会平静下来，当地居民对萨拉多少也会有点同情。但是她并不是一个安分守己的人，还在威廉病危之前，她就开始公开和沃达克搞在一起，1843年的2月他们两个人宣布订婚。
瑞斯汀沃斯的村民也开始表达他们不同的意见，他们对赛门·米德和威廉·达兹利的英年早逝提出了质疑，认为其间必有蹊跷并通知威廉·沃尔克提高警惕，听到这他立马就被吓坏了，也断绝了与莎拉的往来。另一方面，一些关注莎拉事件的村民，他们找到了当地的验尸官伊格尔思，并告诉他整个事件中可能存在着一些不为人知的秘密，最后伊格尔思同意适时安排开棺对威廉·达兹利的尸体作进一步调查。
1843年3月20日，在契克斯酒店举行了一场审讯会，宣告威廉的体内发现有砒霜的残留痕迹，并对萨拉发出了的逮捕令，但就在要传讯她的时候，她从人们的视线中销声匿迹了，她逃离了本地。后来比格尔斯威德的布伦登警官接手这件案件，发现莎拉搬到了伦敦繁华的上街码头。随后萨拉被警方拘捕，在审讯时她声称自己完全是无辜的。她没有下毒，而且药是桑德尔开的。警方搜查她在上街码头租住的房间也没有什么重大发现。但莎拉此时声称自己的无辜，根本没有人会去相信了，她被押送回贝德福德。
在随后展开的调查中，人们将赛门和乔纳·米德的尸体挖出来检验，发现小孩有中毒的痕迹，虽然赛门的体内也有砒霜的迹象，但因为尸体已腐烂，不能真正查明他是服用了多少砒霜才中毒身亡...
1843年3月24日萨拉被押回贝德福德监狱等候审判，在这段时间里，她向当局讲述了自己一段漫长的辛酸史，她交待，威廉·达兹利为了娶她就用药毒死了赛门和她年幼的孩子。当她发现了事情的真相，她决定对威廉实施报复。但请记住，单从她的放荡行为的本质以及从她换夫的速度来看，她的讲述听起来就让人怀疑，因此1843年7月在贝德福德，巴伦·阿尔德松对萨拉·达兹利再度进行审讯。
为防第一项谋杀指控失败，最后莎拉被控告杀害威廉·达兹利的罪名成立，但小乔纳被毒害这一案子做了存档保存处理。由于没有充分的证据表明赛门他是因大量服毒而死，所以赛门的案件就没有拿出来审议了。
然从1836年起，法律规定所有被告都有雇请律师程堂作证的权利，因此，莎拉请奥马利在法庭上帮她申诉，她在法庭中说威廉中毒身亡是个意外，然而这与她先前两次所说的不一致，她的此番陈述无异于说自己没有参与任何一起投毒谋杀案，也就是说，她并不是因第一任丈夫以及她唯一的孩子死亡而要报复下毒去谋害威廉。
辩方律师的论据没有说服力。站在证人席上的两名化学家承认威廉死之前他们曾向莎拉卖过砒霜，萨拉的'朋友'卡弗也站出来告诉法院说，她曾看到被告把桑德尔医生开的药往灌木篱墙里扔并用另一些药取而代之。
安·米德也打电话告诉法院说她曾看见萨拉'捣自己的药'。甚至连莎拉的前任未婚夫威廉·沃尔克也出来作证——他告诉法院，就在威廉没死前不久，萨拉曾告诉他，她和威廉吵架了，并声称 '要对打他的任何男人实施报复'。
法医的检验结果呈送到法院，确认威廉是因砒霜中毒而身亡。对莎拉本人来说，不幸的是，早在7年前，詹姆斯·马什就发现通过化学作用可以对死者的服毒时间进行推算，并且在死者去世几年后它仍然可以从遗骸中检验出砒霜的残留成分。由于砒霜可以从化学家那里随处买到，并根据詹姆斯·马什的研究结果，发现有很多人因砒霜中毒而被谋杀，于是1851年通过的《砒霜法》禁止通过柜台向陌生人销售砒霜，对购买砒霜的人也要做登记注册。如果在食品或饮料中添加砒霜的话，则应将其先与煤灰或靛青混合以便人们知晓。萨拉的案件其实也是早期的一个法庭案例，在案子中马什的研究结果首次得到了认可。
陪审团退庭商议，半小时后，他们裁定谋杀罪成立。因此，巴伦·阿尔德松法官宣告对莎拉处以死刑，并将她遣回贝德福德监狱等候执刑。显然，她后来进行了认真的反思，对圣经产生了兴趣并开始阅读它以求良心上的安慰。但她几乎总是静居独处，也不与牢友们交谈心声。一个人时常哭泣个不停也不吃不喝，令人惊讶的是，她的举止感化了那些憎恨她的人——她的邻居们——她们也开始为她感到同情了。
萨拉执刑的那天来到了——1843年8月5日星期六——约1.2万人的民众在城镇广场聚集见证了她的绞刑。请记住，这是10年来在贝德福德处以死刑的首个案例，我个人不认为它是一个意外，相反，觉得它意在告诉人们应去珍惜美好家庭！
萨拉的死刑执行者是威廉·卡尔卡拉夫特，他是英国最负盛名与备受尊敬的死刑执行者。在对莎拉执刑时，她除了要求卡尔卡拉夫特让她快速死亡外，没说一句话。据媒体报道，卡尔卡拉夫在她面前绑手的时候，调整了下绞索，让她的脸背离群众的视线，将螺栓一拉。萨拉就扑通一下掉在地上，几乎是立即丧命黄泉。
莎拉就在24岁这样一个花样年华的时候结束了生命，她一手毒害了四头生灵。实在令人叹为观止。被毒害的四位是——一个小孩，两个丈夫，还有一位我们不要忘记的是，那可怜的猪哦!!
