WHO POISONED WITH A DOSE OF
AS WEALTHY heiress Mabel Greenwood tucked into a slap-up lunch, she had no idea it would be the last meal she would ever eat. Just hours later the mother of four died in a suspected murder which is still a mystery nine decades later.
In 1898 Mrs Greenwood and her husband, Yorkshireman and solicitor Harold Greenwood, moved to Wales. They settled in Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire.
In 1919, the 47-year-old Mrs Greenwood’s health declined dramatically. She was prescribed medication by her doctor, a Mr Griffiths, for “the change” when her illness was diagnosed as menopause.
Mrs Greenwood did not improve and on June 16 complained of stomach pains after eating lunch of “a hot joint, vegetables, gooseberry tart, and custard”. She and her family also had a bottle of wine with lunch, called Real Pure Wine.
According to a book published in 1930 by Winifred Duke, called Trial of Harold Greenwood, after the lunch Mrs Greenwood was described as looking “pale and pinched and speaking in a very low voice”.
Her husband gave her brandy, which made her vomit, and between 6.30pm and 7pm Mrs Greenwood became very unwell and with great difficulty her husband and daughter took her upstairs to her bedroom. Mrs Greenwood was in pain, vomiting, and had diarrhoea.
The doctor was called several times later that night, and in the early hours of the following morning, but Mr Greenwood’s conduct that evening was the subject of great suspicion.
When he was sent to fetch the doctor it was said he “was so long in returning with or without Dr Griffiths that [daughter] Irene had to go to the doctor’s house to discover the reason for his delay”. A Nurse Jones, who was with Mrs Greenwood at the time, claimed Mr Greenwood was gone for nearly an hour. However, Mr Greenwood – and Miss Griffiths, the doctor’s sister he had been with – both claimed he was gone for only 10 minutes.
Ms Duke wrote in her book that: “Still later, when Mrs Greenwood was practically at the point of death, [Mr] Greenwood, urged to bring Dr Griffiths, came back alone, saying that he could not rouse him. The nurse went over and wakened the doctor at once.
“The prosecution made much of these two incidents as emphasising that Greenwood’s conduct was highly inconsistent with his supposed anxiety about his wife.”
By the early hours of June 17 Mrs Greenwood fell into a coma and died.
Mrs Greenwood’s cause of death was certified by Dr Griffiths as heart disease.
Just four months after his wife’s funeral Mr Greenwood, 45 at the time, remarried. His new wife Gladys Jones was in her 30s and thus much younger than Mrs Greenwood, which caused a stir in the local community.
Indeed just a day after Mrs Greenwood’s death, Mr Greenwood went shopping with his soon to be sister- in-law to buy mourning clothes and went to the vicarage to select a plot in the graveyard for his wife.
Following his wife’s death Mr Greenwood had also divided her jewellery among his daughters, with her engagement ring going to Irene. He later revoked this gift, though, saying he would like to have it made into something for himself and would buy Irene a new ring. He then changed his mind and gifted her mother’s ring to Irene – and gave the new ring to his new wife.
Mrs Greenwood had been popular and active in the Kidwelly community, attending events and meetings, and her bereaved husband’s quick second marriage began to stir the town into action.
In her book, Ms Duke states: “Mrs Greenwood seems to gave been much liked and esteemed and somewhat of a personality in the place.
“She took a sympathetic and practical interest in village affairs, was a regular attendant at St Mary’s church, shared any social activities of the neighbourhood, and, despite the handicap of her somewhat frail health, supported local tennis and croquet clubs with enthusiasm.”
The town’s opinion of her husband was not favourable, as the book describes. “A candid (male) acquaintance described him as not having a single man friend. On the other hand he was exceedingly popular with the opposite sex.
“When his character came to be investigated he was accused of ‘carrying on’ – a convenient term conveying anything from affability to adultery – with sundry ladies in the neighbourhood.”