6

CASTLEGAR NEWS, October 15, 1980

Sensational mu

Dr. John Bodkin Adams, 58, had practised medicine for more than 35
years in the resort town of Eastbourne, England. He never married, and
: lived alone in a large Victorian home with only a housekeeper to care for
his needs. The doctor had a lucrative. practice and was consid-

‘ ered to be something of a pillar of the community. Yet Dr. Adams was to

become the central figure in one of the most sensational murder cases ever .

to unfold in Merrie England,

The good doctor's life was to become
entwined forever with that of a patient,
Mrs. Edith Alice Morell. An elderly
lady, Mrs. Morell was visiting her son in
Cheshire in June, 1948, when she suffered

. a stroke. Taken’to' the Cheshire General
Hospital, she was in great distress and
was given a quarter gral of morphine
each day for the nine days she stayed in
hospital. On July 5 she was transferred by
ambulance to Eastbourne, where she
came under the care of Dr. Adams, who
was to remain her doctor until her death
on Nov. 13, 1950, at the age of 81. Mrs.
Morell’s body was cremated, and that, ,
for all intents and purposes, was that.

i Six years were to pass before any fur-
ther notice was to be paid to Mrs. Morell
and the manner-of her death. In 1956,
rumors spread in and around Eastbourne
that many of Dr. Adams’ patients who
had died were in the habit of leaving him
bequests in their wills, These rurhors
came to the. attention of the-authorities
‘and it wasn’t long before Scotland Yard

‘ dispatched senior investigators to look
into Dr, Adams and his medical practice.
‘As.a result of their inquiries the doctor
was arrested and charged with Mrs.
Morell’s murder. “ f

17-day trial

The murder ‘case that unfolded cap-
tured the imagination of the English
speaking world. While many doctors have.
stood trial for murder in England, rarely
had s doctor been accused of murder
while ministering to a patient. In fact, the

. last such case took place more thaa
100 years before, when infamous Dr.
Palmer, of Rugelsy,
murder. The Adams’ trial was to last 17
days, making it the longest murder trial
to take place in England up.to that time.

irs. Morell’s stroke had left her par-

tially paralysed. Eventually, she was -

able to get around with assistance, but
required

Although the alleged crime was six years
old at the time of the. trial, the: nursing
records detailing frequency of injections
and quantities of drugs administered
were readily available. All medication,

whether injected by the nurses or not,-;
given under the doctor’s instruc-—

lons. :

It was established that Dr. Adams was
a beneficiary in Mrs. Morell’s will. He
stood to gain a prewar Rolls-Royce, ‘as
well as an amount of silver valued at
1,275 pounds. After Mrs. Morell’s death
Dr. Adams did, in fact, come into pos-
session of these two items. :

From the time Mrs. Morell came under

demanding patient. i
During September, 1950, when Mrs.

DR. JOHN BODKIN ADAMS
— acquitted of murdering elderly patient.

Valley Landscape Nursery
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COLOR FOR
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was convicted of: .

nurses around the clock. :

Dr.
patient’s will. At one point when he
one to Scotland for a vacation
Morell, in a fit of anger, hanged her
leaving him nothing. Later, Dr.
‘returned to her good graces and
laced back in her will. There is little

‘Conversely, there was the matter of the
competent nurses who took care of Mrs.

’ Morell during her long illness. Not one of
them spoke up or suggested that during

her last weeks Mrs. Morell’s intake of
drugs was too high. Even Dr. Adams’
partner, Dr. Harris, who filled in for his
colleague while he was in Scotland, con-
‘tinued with the regime of morphine
and heroin. His explanation was that it is
customary, all things being equal, to

*. ‘continue medication as prescribed by the

regular doctor.

There were those who believed that Dr.
Adams set out to make Mrs. Morell
totally dependent on him after he realized
she was addicted to drugs. By abruptly
increasing her dosage he intended to

.influence her in any way he wished

oncerning her will. It must be remem-
bered Mrs. Morell was an extremely
wealthy woman. When her will was
finally probated, her estate amounted to
175,000 pounds, A tidy sum today, in 1950
this amounted to a fortune. E
Detectives uncovered a form, signed by

- Dr. Adams, which had secured Mrs.

Morell’s cremation. One of the questions
on'the form was, ‘‘Have you, as far as you
are aware, any pecuniary interest in the
death of the deceased?”

The doctor answered in the negative,

day of: Dr. Ada e
&tatement that was to haunt bina:

ughout his trial: In response to bein;

ised of his rights he’ told: a Scotlan
Yard detective, ‘‘Murder? Can you prove
it was. murder?” Not exactly the utter-

ance of.an innocent man.

uring the Adams trial it was revealed

that Mrs. Morell was not in actual pain © .

while under the doctor's care. Expert
medical opinion stated morphine and
heroin should be used only if the patient is
suffering agonizing pain. Mrs. Morell was
irritable and had trouble sleeping. Other
drugs shoufd fave been used, and further-
more, Dr. Adams, as a competent. phys-
ician, would know this. In fact, two expert

medical witnesses swore the dosages.

prescribed by Dr. Adams were certain to
cause death.

‘Theory ridiculed

Dr. Adams’ defense attorneys pro-
duced experts of their own, who stated it
Is .impssible to tell exactly how an 81-
year-old partially paralysed woman died.
Remember Mrs. Morell’:
cremated, so it was im
form an.autopsy. The defense doctors

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er trial |

claimed it is quite common for_an indl-
vidual who has suffered one stroke to,

* suffer a second, fatal one. ‘In fai
. Was suggested to the jury as an alterna-

erwise grim aff }
attorneys Hkened this second strok,
theory to the instance of a man walking
on a railroad track and being struck by a
train. Is {t reasonable to assume he had a
heart attack: a moment before the train
struck, and therefore death was‘not
0, a jivaln accident but to a, hi i
attac! : “a
crux of the Adams’ trial revolved:
the dediniton of murder. Murder 1s

there, j
his judgement, and institutes measures

that effectively terminates life, that is not §
* murder. Intent was of the essence in the

Adams’ case. ‘
Despite the suspictous circumstances
surrounding Dr. Adams and his partic«
ular brand of medicine, he received
the benefit of reasonable doubt. ‘The jury
took only 45 minutes to find him not

ty’. : i
The trial of Dr. Adams for Mrs.
Morell’s murder stands alone, and J hav:
tried to relate the salient points of:
tedious .17-day long trial as fairly’ #
ossible, However, the reader shoul
iow that, at the time, Dr. Adams came

ures, the
General Medical Council of England had
-Dr. Adams name struck off the Register
of Medical Practitioners. Sen

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