The domestic servant who poisoned her cantankerous elderly employer with rat poison after convincing her to change her will, and her husband who got away with it.

Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Date: April 14, 1953

In 1953 Louisa May Merrifield was aged 46, on her third marriage and had previously been in prison for ration-book fraud. She lived in Blackpool with husband, 71-year-old Alfred.

She had a questionable employment history having been through 20 domestic jobs in the previous 3 years, having been fired or forced to leave due to a poor attitude to work and alleged pilfering.

On 12 March 1953 the couple accepted a job as resident housekeepers and companions to Mrs Sarah Ann Ricketts, an elderly woman, age 79, who owned a bungalow worth £3-4000 (in 1953 money) in Blackpool.

Ricketts was a renowned locally to be a difficult woman with a short temper. She was a widow whose two husbands had both committed suicide by gassing themselves in the kitchen.

It was an unhappy working relationship with Ricketts complaining that the Merrifields did not give her enough to eat, and that they wasted her money on large quantities of rum. Merrifield was known to drink frequently and excessively.

Three days before Ricketts’ death Merrifield boasted to a Mrs Brewer that she worked for an old woman who had died and left her a bungalow in her will. When questioned further allegedly Merrifield stated:

She’s not dead yet, but she soon will be

Louisa May Merrifield

On 9th April Merrifield asked Dr Yule to certify that Ricketts was fit and sane enough to make a new will. This was not unusual in itself as Ricketts was known to frequently fall out with people and who changed her will as one beneficiary displeased her

On 14th April Mrs Ricketts died.

Suspicion was aroused when Merrified didn’t call a doctor until the following morning, and tried to hurry through Ricketts’ cremation without informing the relatives. Dr Yule refused to sign a death certificate

A post mortem showed Ricketts died from phosphorous poisoning. Police searched the house but found no poison.

While the search was being conducted Merrified requested the local Salvation Army band play ‘Abide with Me’ outside the bungalow.

Merrifield and her husband were arrested 14 days later.

The couple were both tried for murder at Manchester in July 1953.

The prosecution alleged that Merrified had poisoned Rickets with jam laced with the rat poison Roding, which contained phosphorous, in order to benefit from her death. Ricketts was known to enjoy eating jam straight out of the jar by spoon and the jars were found to be laced with Roding.

Merrifield arrived at court every day in a taxi, smiling and waving to photographers and crowds outside the court, seemingly enjoying the attention she was getting.

During the trial when she accused Ricketts of bedding Alfred the judge called her

a vulgar and stupid woman with a very dirty mind.

Mr Justice Glynn-Jones

Albert, on the other hand, portrayed himself as a ‘tragic simpleton’ who never spoke and who had no knowledge of the crime.

Despite the evidence being circumstantial and possibly implicating either defendant, Louisa was ultimately condemned by the statements she made about killing Ricketts while her tongue was loosened by alcohol.

She was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The judge in the case, Mr Justice Glynn-Jones described the crime as:

As wicked and cruel as murder as I ever heard tell of.

Mr Justice Glynn-Jones

The jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on Alfred and he was released and inherited a half share in the bungalow.

No longer the ‘tragic simpleton’ Alfred went on to regularly appear in sideshows on Blackpool’s Golden Mile billed as The Murderess’ Husband, having suddenly become surprisingly eloquent and astute.

For the rest of his life he profited from the crime, donating some of Merrifield’s clothes to Tussaud’s Blackpool Chamber of Horrors, and was even paid £200 for a waxwork of him to stand next to his wife.

Louisa Merrifield was hanged in Manchester’s Strangeways Prison on 18th September 1953.

She was the last woman to be hanged at that prison by the famous executioner Albert Pierrepoint.

Her body was buried in an unmarked grave alongside other executed prisoners within the walls of Strangeways.

Source:

Stephen-Stratford.co.uk
Murderpedia.org
MurderUK.com
TrueCrimeLibrary.com
Wikipedia.com

Image source
Louisa May Merrifield
Albert Merrifield