Betsy Halford

Betsy Halford died at 10.10pm on Saturday 21 January 1905 from opium poisoning.

She was the licensee of the Woolpack Inn, Leigh.

An open verdict was returned.

A doctor who lived in Church Street, Leigh said that on the Saturday night, 21 January 1905 that he was summoned out to see Betsy Halford at the Woolpack Inn and said that he arrived at about 8.45pm and found Betsy Halford in bed upstairs lying on her back. He said that her mouth was open, her breathing rapid and of a snoring character, that her face was pale and slightly sweating, her lips and the edge of her ears were bluish, and her eyes were closed.

He said that when he opened her eyes, he found that her pupils were contracted and not reacting to light. He said that her pulse was rapid and enfeebled, what doctors called a running pulse, such that he could not count the pulsations, and said that her heartbeat was about 160 to the minute and irregular.

He said that there was some wheezing over the front of her chest and that she was completely unconscious and insensitive to pain.

He said that he administered a certain restorative and remained with her for about 20 minutes but as there was no improvement he went home to get a hypodermic case and at the same time telephoned another doctor and asked him to meet him at the Woolpack Inn.

The doctor said that he was delayed at his house by about a quarter of an hour and that when he got back to the Woolpack Inn Betsy Halford had just died.

When a county analyst examined a sample of the contents from Betsy Halford's stomach, portions of liver and right kidney that he had been sent in a sealed jar he said that he found small quantities of meconic acid and morphine in her stomach contents which he said were two substances that were characteristic of opium and that proved conclusively that opium or a preparation of opium such as laudanum had been taken, adding that the quantity taken was considerably more than the medicinal dose.

He said that in the kidney he found further traces of morphine and of meconic acid and also slight traces of both substances in her liver.

The analyst noted that there was no connection between those substances and bromide of potassium.

He added that he thought that the preparation of opium had been taken within nine hours, probably six hours of Betsy Halford's death.

The doctor that carried out the post-mortem on Betsy Halford's body on 24 January 1905 said that Betsy Halford was very fatty and looked older than her age. He said that her lungs were bronchitic, her heart was fatty generally, that both kidneys were congested, her spleen was normal and that her liver was much enlarged and was a very light colour and had undergone very extensive fatty degeneration.

He said that the posterior surface of her stomach was congested, but not vividly and that it had contained three or four ounces of fluid but that there was no alcoholic smell and that there were no solids in her stomach.

He said that her body was generally overladen with fat and that her body was that of a person who had for a considerable time taken an excess of alcohol.

The doctor later said, after hearing the analyst’s evidence that he thought that Betsy Halford's cause of death was opium poisoning.

A metal dealer who lived in Arthur Street, Leigh, said that on 21 January 1905 that he had been in the Woolpack Inn and had seen Betsy Halford in the kitchen and heard her say, 'I have just had a drink, it tastes something like poison', or something like that. He said that a brick setter, Betsy Halford's brother-in-law, was also in the bar and he said, 'Its not, this is the bottle'. The metal dealer said that he then asked to see the bottle, but said that the brick setter replied, 'No, you will sup it if you do'. He said that when he smelt the bottle it smelled like whisky. He said that he then had a good drink out of the bottle and said that the brick setter then took it off him before he could sup it all. He said that the brick setter’s wife then asked him what it tasted like and he said 'Whisky and bitters'. He said that by that time Betsy Halford looked as though she had had some drink. He noted that the drink that he had supped had not made him sleepy and was not nasty taking. He added that he had had two good swallows out of it and that it had been the colour of whisky.

When Betsy Halford's sister, wife of the brick setter, gave evidence, she said that shortly after in the afternoon that she went to bed with Betsy Halford and went to sleep but did not remember giving Betsy Halford any sleeping draught.

Her husband, the brick setter said that he didn't know where the laudanum that poisoned Betsy Halford came from. He said that Betsy Halford kept craving for something to make her sleep, adding that she kept bothering for so long that he said to their domestic servant, 'For goodness sake go and fetch something that will make her sleep, laudanum or anything'.

He said that he then went to a chemist and got a sleeping draught which he gave to Betsy Halford at about 4pm in some whisky.

He said that she had had a sleeping draught earlier on the Thursday whilst she was sleeping upstairs and then another on the Friday whilst in the kitchen and then the sleeping draught on the Saturday that she died whilst upstairs in bed.

He added that he didn't remember Betsy Halford saying in the presence of the metal dealer that she had had something that tasted like poison. He added that the metal dealer was a chatty sort of chap and had said something in a funny way but that he had forgotten what it was and said that he could not suggest why he should say that Betsy Halford had said in his hearing that what she had had tasted like poison.

The domestic servant said that the brick setter had sent her off to get some laudanum but that she couldn't get it and that when she asked the brick setter what it was for he had told her that it was for rubbing purposes.

She said that earlier that morning Betsy Halford's brother-in-law, the brick setter, sent her off to a chemists in King Street, Leigh, for three-pennyworth of laudanum but said that the chemist told her that he had had none mixed and so she had gone back and told the brick setter who she said then sent him off to Boots' but said that they refused to serve her there and that when she had returned she had asked the brick setter what the laudanum as for and said that he told her that it was for rubbing.

She said that at about 6pm on the Saturday 21 January 1905 that she had gone into Betsy Halford's bedroom and saw Betsy Halford's sister and brother-in-law there and said that Betsy Halford's sister said to her husband, 'You must not give my sister any more sleeping draughts. See what you have done', and said that the brick setter replied that she would be better when she woke.

She said that on Tuesday 30 January 1905 that she saw a bottle labelled laudanum in the fireplace in the parlour. She said that it had been about three weeks since she had cleaned the fireplace and that nobody else would clean it. She said that the bottle was from Boots' chemists.

She added that she never saw any bottles labelled 'poison'.

She added that she had never heard of Betsy Halford sending off for sleeping draughts and noted that on the day that she died Betsy Halford had had neither breakfast nor dinner.

The domestic servant noted that only she and Betsy Halford lived in the house.

Another one of Betsy Halford's sisters said that Betsy Halford had never complained to her of sleeplessness and added that Betsy Halford had told her that she was troubled because her other sister and her husband, the brick setter had wanted to come and live with her. She noted that Betsy Halford also added, 'You don't know all'.

She added that she also found two bottle necks on 28 January 1905, one at the bottom of the cellar steps and the other under the steps.

A chemist at Avenue Pharmacy in Leigh said that on the Saturday afternoon the brick setter came in for a sleeping draught but said that he never told him the name or age of the person that would be taking it. He added that he did not supply the brick setter with any laudanum at all. When the chemist was shown the two bottle necks that Betsy Halford's other sister had found he said that he knew nothing about them but did say that one of them might have been the neck of a bottle that he had given to the brick setter when he had sold the sleeping draught to him.

The chemist in King Street said that the brick setter came into his shop on the Thursday and Friday before Betsy Halford's death and asked to be supplied with a sleeping draught. He said that when he asked him who it was for, the brick setter told him that it was for a woman that had taken too much drink. He said that he supplied him with a draught composed of 15 grains of bromide of potassium made into one ounce and a half that had a little tincture of orange and water. He said that the bricklayer had brought a spirit bottle for the draught and said that he advised him not to let Betsy Halford have any more whisky. He said that the bricklayer brought what appeared to be the same bottle to him again on 20 January but said that he noted that it had recently contained whisky. He said that he asked the brick setter whether he had been allowing Betsy Halford to have more whisky and said that the brick setter told him that he could not keep it away from her and the chemist said that he told him that that was very foolish. He said that he gave the brick setter a similar draught on the Friday as he gave on the Thursday. He added that he had never supplied him with any laudanum or opium.

He added that Betsy Halford's domestic servant came in to see him on Saturday 21 January 1905 and asked him for some laudanum but said that he told her that he didn't have any.

When the laudanum bottle that was found in the fireplace on 30 January 1905 was taken to the manager of Boots' Ltd in Railway Road, Leigh, he said that it was a bottle from their shop and added that they sold laudanum every day. However, he said that he could not recollect whether or not he had sold the brick setter any laudanum. He also noted that the label that was left on the bottle that he was shown was from a two-ounce bottle.

When the coroner summed up he said that the one thing that seemed to be common ground was that Betsy Halford had had three sleeping draughts administered to her over three days and that from the medical evidence that they had nothing at all to do with her death. He added that it also appeared equally certain that the real cause of her death was an overdose of laudanum or opium, or something of that kind. He added that they had not got a tittle of evidence regarding Betsy Halford having taken opium. However, he noted that the brick setter had sent the domestic servant out for laudanum which might be used as a sleeping draught and that the domestic servant had stated that the brick setter had told her that the laudanum was for rubbing. The coroner then noted that that was a discrepancy and that there were numerous other discrepancies in the evidence which he did not think was wonderful but thought he would not comment on in his summing up.

The coroner stated that the difficulty was that they had no explanation as to how Betsy Halford came by the opium and noted that were it that he thought that it could be of any assistance in unravelling that mysterious state of affairs then he would suggest a further adjournment, but said that he did not see how that could help materially and said that he thought that the wisest course would be for the jury to return an open verdict that Betsy Halford had died from an overdose of opium and that there was no evidence as to how that came to be administered.

An open verdict was then returned.