Detective tale writer may be real-life sleuth
DID the Queen of Crime solve one of Britain’s most notorious murders?
The year is 1876. The Priory is home to a newlywed couple, ambitious lawyer Charles Bravo and his wealthy wife Florence, in addition to a dozen servants.
On the night of April 18, Charles collapsed in agony. He had somehow ingested a rare poison. By the third day, he was dead.
His wife’s story that her husband had committed suicide was supported by the testimony of Mrs Cox, her lady’s companion, who told doctors that before his collapse Charles said to her: “I have taken poison, don’t tell Florence.”
His friends and family insisted he would never have taken his own life.
The inquest returned an open verdict. It emerged that Charles had ingested a massive dose of antimony, an unusual poison.
It was sometimes used to poison a victim over a long period, using tiny doses. However, even small amounts can trigger violent vomiting, expelling the poison before it does its deadly work. There was not a single known case of murder, or suicide, by such a large dose.
Mrs Cox then claimed Charles had, in fact, told her: “I have taken poison for Dr Gully, don’t tell Florence.”
Dr Gully was an eminent doctor with whom Florence had engaged in a sexual affair before meeting Bravo.
He was married and more than twice her age, and suspicions lingered the romance might not have ended.
Like an Agatha Christie thriller, there were several suspects: Mrs Cox, who feared Charles was about to sack her from her well-paid position at The Priory; Dr Gully; and at least one servant with a grievance.
Agatha Christie wrote about the case a few years before her death.
She believed Dr Gully had prescribed medicine to Charles for the neuralgia and rheumatism that plagued him, and put one poisoned pill in the bottle.
Along with other theories, Agatha’s solution is examined in a new book, Poisoned at The Priory, published by Mirror Books.
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