Doc Croc Transcript (Scotland: A Scottish History Podcast)
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Scotland - A Scottish History Podcast
Episode 23 - Doc Croc
MICHAEL PARK: There is a curse, or so author Jack House thought, in one particular piece of Scotland’s biggest city. Glasgow is steeped in its bloody reputation and while the names may not be so familiar, the crimes, the motivations, the betrayals and the grief are all too close to the bone.
But that doesn’t explain four of the city’s most high profile cases of murder most foul. All committed in a span of 50 years within a tiny geographical area. House called it the Square Mile of Murder, and if you believe in curses that take 50 years and a full square mile to be enacted, then you might want to turn this off and consult your ouija board.
It is May 5th 1863 and a fire is raging through a house in Berkeley Street. It’s home to Dr Edward Pritchard, his wife, and their servants.
The fire had started in Elizabeth McGrain’s room. She was one of the Pritchard family’s domestic servants and made no effort to leave her bed. She burned to death in her room.
Weird circumstances, for sure but the insurance company was happy to pay out to the good Doctor for the damage to the house. Nobody asked the big, obvious questions which - had it been invented at that point - would have been lit up in big neon letters. Why didn’t she run? Was she drugged? Unconscious? Already dead?
The procurator fiscal didn’t seem interested.
It is 1865 and Doctor Pritchard has moved to a house on Sauchiehall Street with his wife, Mary Jane, and his mother-in-law, Jane Taylor.
Mrs Taylor had recently moved into the house to nurse her daughter who was suffering from terrible headaches and uncontrollable retching. Her husband had diagnosed her with gastric fever.
As if the house were cursed, Mrs Pritchard’s mother began to suffer ill health too. Although that wouldn’t have been a shock for a Victorian woman in her seventies, the fact that she was strong, and fit, and also suffering similar symptoms as her daughter started to get people scratching their heads.
A local physician, Doctor Paterson, examined both women and concluded that they were under the influence of opium. Ridiculous, Pritchard said, and dismissed him. He would carry on the treatment himself.
She died in February of 1855. Must have been something in the air.
The Doctor was having a pretty bad couple of months by anyone’s standards. Less than a month later, on 18th March, his wife passed away too, leaving him with nothing but his memories, a £2,500 life insurance policy, and the company of a 15 year old servant girl called Mary MacLeod.
During one of his wife’s many holidays where her health would begin to improve before deteriorating again on her return home, Pritchard had seduced their young servant.
Bad enough you might think - and you’d be right - but when you find out that the family’s young maid found herself having a 'forced miscarriage’ soon after, you begin to realise the kind of person you’re dealing with.
MacLeod supposedly told a colleague that if Mrs Pritchard died, then the doctor would marry her. In order to get that though, she would need to have the abortion.
Pretty convenient then, if you were a suspicious person, that Mrs Pritchard died so soon after that. Even more convenient that her mother beat her to the grave by three weeks. Even more convenient that Doctor Pritchard was able to issue the death certificates himself and ordered no autopsy.
The Doctor seemed distraught at the loss of his wife after all, he had nothing to comfort him but her massive life insurance pay out and the a young - too young - bride from Islay.
Pritchard stood by the graveside at his wife’s funeral and cried floods of tears. He asked for the casket to be opened so that he may kiss her one last time. And while he stood grieving by the casket, a mysterious letter arrived at the offices of the Procurator Fiscal in Glasgow.
The letter suggested that the respected Doctor E.W. Pritchard’s wife and mother-in-law had been poisoned.
The bodies were exhumed and a post-mortem examination showed that Mrs Pritchard had died of a combination of antimony, aconite and opium administered over a prolonged period. People began to question their Doctor’s credentials.
Their doctor who had cried so inconsolably, as ancient cultures believed Crocodiles did when they bit down into the flesh of their trapped prey. The Doctor who had murdered his wife and mother-in-law and watched them waste away in front of his eyes. The Doctor who was responsible for the coerced abortion of his 15 year old mistress’s baby. The Doctor who ensured that Elizabeth McGrain burned to a cinder in her bed.
Pritchard was arrested at Glasgow Queen Street Station and taken to Edinburgh for trial. The jury wasn’t in any doubt. Pritchard was convicted and sentenced to be hanged.
He was taken to Glasgow Green on 28th July 1865 where a crowd of thousands watched the philandering murderer’s body go limp.
CREDITS
You’ve been listening to Scotland, it was written and produced by me, Michael Park and is a production of Be Quiet Media.
The music for every episode of Scotland is by the human substitution cipher, Mitch Bain, you can check out more of his work by heading over to Facebook and searching for Mitch Bain music.
Scotland is supported by Chris Lingwood and listeners like you on Patreon. Get involved and chuck us a couple of bucks at: patreon.com/scotlandhistorypodcast
You can find out more about the show on our website, thisisscotland.co and on twitter, facebook and instagram by searching Scotland - Scottish History Podcast.
Thanks for listening to Wee Scotland, we’ll see you next time.