Thomas Neill Cream
| Thomas Neill Cream | |
|---|---|
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream
|
|
| Born |
Thomas Neill Cream 27 May 1850 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 15 November 1892 (aged 42) Newgate Prison, London, England |
| Cause of death | Execution by Hanging |
| Other names | Dr. Thomas Neill, The Lambeth Poisoner |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Killings | |
| Victims | 5+ |
|
Span of killings
|
1881–1892 |
| Country | U.S., England |
| State(s) | Chicago, Illinois, and London, England |
|
Date apprehended
|
3 June 1892, in London, England |
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (27 May 1850 – 15 November 1892), also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-Canadian serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the United States and the rest in England, and possibly others in Canada and Scotland. Cream, who poisoned his victims, was executed after his attempts to frame others for his crimes brought him to the attention of London police.
Unsubstantiated rumours suggested his last words as he was being hanged were a confession that he was Jack the Ripper—even though he was supposed to be in prison at the time of the Ripper murders.
Born in Glasgow, Cream was raised outside Quebec City, Canada, after his family moved there in 1854. He attended McGill University in Montreal and graduated with an MDCM degree in 1876 (his thesis topic was chloroform) and he then went for post-graduate training at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London.
In 1876 Cream married Flora Brooks, whom he had impregnated and almost killed while aborting the baby. Flora died, apparently of consumption, in 1877, a death for which Cream would later be blamed.
Cream went to London in 1876 for post-graduate study at St. Thomas' Hospital and later obtained additional qualifications as a physician and surgeon in Edinburgh in 1878. He then returned to Canada to practise in London, Ontario.
In August 1879 Kate Gardener, a woman with whom he was alleged to have had an affair, was found dead in an alleyway behind Cream's office, pregnant and poisoned by chloroform. Cream claimed that she had been made pregnant by a prominent local businessman, but after being accused of both murder and blackmail, fled to the United States.
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