On January 5 he wrote to her that he would come and make some arrangement.  The woman was deceived as to her condition, but that made no difference with regard to the crime.  The letter went on to state:  “You must remember I paid you for what I done....  Don’t write any more letters, for I don’t want Bessie to know.”

On December 28 he purchased from a chemist to whom he was a stranger, and who lived at Thrapston, a quantity of poison, alleging that he wanted to poison rats.  Prisoner called in a gentleman as a reference to his respectability, as the chemist had refused to sell him the poison without.  At last a small parcel was supplied.  It was entered in a book with the prisoner’s name, and he signed the book, as did also the gentleman who was his introducer.  The poison was strychnine, arsenic, prussic acid, and carbolic acid.  No less than 90 grains of strychnine were supplied.  He had written to say he would come over on the Friday which followed January 5.  There is no reason to suppose he did not fulfil his promise.  On the Friday the woman was suffering from neuralgia.  In the evening, however, she was in her usual health and spirits, and did her ironing up to eight o’clock.  She went to bed between half-past nine and ten, and took with her a tumbler of water.  In ten minutes the little girl and her brother went upstairs.  They went to the mother, who was in bed with her child.  The tumbler was nearly empty.  The mother asked for a “sweet,” which the little girl gave.  After this Annie got into bed; the mother began to twitch her arms and legs, and seemed in great pain.  Dr. Turner was sent for, as she got worse.  His assistant, Dr. Anderson, came, and, watching the patient, noticed that the symptoms were those of strychnine poisoning.  She was dying.  Before he could get to the surgery and return with an antidote the woman was dead.  She who had been well at half-past nine was dead before eleven!

The police were communicated with, and a constable searched the house.  Turning up the valances of the bed, he found a piece of paper crumpled up; this was sent to an analyst on the following day.  An inquest was held and a post-mortem directed.

Horsford at the inquest swore that he had never written to the deceased or visited her.

On the evening of Saturday the 8th, after the post-mortem, Mrs. Hensman and another woman found between the mattress and the bed a packet of papers.  These were also submitted for analysis.  One of them contained 35 grains of strychnine; another had crystals of strychnine upon it.  There was writing on one of the packets, and it was the handwriting of the prisoner; it said, “Take in a little water; it is quite harmless.  Will come over in a day or two.”  On another packet was written:  “One dose; take as told,” also in the prisoner’s handwriting.

The body had been buried and was exhumed.  Three grains of strychnine were found by the county analyst in such parts of the stomach as were submitted to him.  Dr. Stevenson took other parts to London, and the conclusion he came to was that at least 10 grains must have been in the body at the time of death, while 1/2 grain has been known to be fatal.