The Sheffield Poisoning Case – The Artist, the Housekeeper and the Fatal Fowl (1881)
News of the Times | Episode 586 |1881
A quiet December dinner in Victorian Sheffield ends in horror — and a respected artist whispers his final words: “I am poisoned.”
In today’s investigation, we unravel the 1881 case of Thomas Skinner, a brilliant Sheffield craftsman and etcher whose sudden collapse after a simple meal of fowl and onion stuffing sparked one of the most controversial poisoning mysteries of the Victorian age.
At the centre of the storm stood his striking young housekeeper, Kate Dover — admired locally as “The Heeley Beauty” — whose purchases of arsenic, chloroform, and laudanum in the days before the tragedy drew the eyes of detectives, chemists, and an increasingly suspicious public.
Was she a fellow victim?
A naïve young woman caught in scandal?
Or did forensic science — still in its infancy — uncover the truth?
Join us as we explore:
• The Victorian forensic tests that revealed arsenic in the stuffing
• Conflicting medical testimony and the limits of 19th-century toxicology
• A missing packet of poison
• A mysterious £10 cheque found in the street
• Trial drama, a shocking verdict, and a courtroom collapse
• And the strange, quiet life Kate Dover lived after her release
This episode blends historical investigation, forensic analysis, and archival reporting, drawing directly from 1881 newspaper accounts and court testimony.
📜 Further Particulars:
We close with a wonderfully absurd 1830 tale of a man whose thunderous snoring during a London church service caused such chaos that the beadle considered divine intervention the only possible explanation…
👤 Narrated by Robin Coles
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