JURY TAKES 44 MINUTES TO ACQUIT DR. ADAMS: EVENING STAR, APRIL 9, 1957

The jury of ten men and two women needed only 44 minutes. When they came back into the Old Bailey, the Associated Press reported from London, the 260-pound doctor stood to hear them, and "his face quivered and he gulped, but otherwise he showed no emotion." Dr. John Bodkin Adams, the Eastbourne physician the dispatch calls a "58-year-old bachelor society doctor," had been found not guilty of murdering Edith Alice Morrell, an 81-year-old widow. The Washington Evening Star put the story on its front page that day, April 9, 1957, beside an AP photograph captioned "Cleared of Murdering Widow."

The dispatch gives the case in a few hard lines. Scotland Yard had spent a long time looking into rumors that Adams profited from the deaths of an unusual number of wealthy, aged patients. The Crown charged that he had injected Mrs. Morrell with massive doses of heroin and morphine, first to make her an addict and then to end her life in 1950, to get, as the paper puts it, "a chest of antique silver and a Rolls Royce from her estate." Her body had been cremated. Adams never took the stand, and the verdict turned on the experts: the prosecution's said his intent could only have been to kill, while the defense held that after her stroke the drugs were meant only to ease her pain.

What happened next was the bigger surprise. The Attorney General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, at once dropped a second indictment, over the death of Gertrude Hullett the summer before, four months after her husband, a 71-year-old millionaire, had died. Her death had been recorded as suicide by an overdose, though the prosecution had blamed Adams for both Hulletts at the preliminary hearing. "I have reached the conclusion," the Attorney General said, "in all the circumstances and in the public interest it does not require Dr. Adams to undergo the ordeal of a further charge of murder." Adams walked out on bail, still facing charges over a cremation form, and the dispatch adds one last detail: "Mrs. Hullett left Dr. Adams another Rolls Royce in her will."

This is an Associated Press wire report filed from London the day it ran, not a court record. It places the verdict on April 9, 1957, while other records of the case give April 15; its 44 minutes appears elsewhere as about forty-five, and its "longest murder trial in British history" as the longest in England up to then. The "quashed" Hullett indictment was formally a nolle prosequi. Adams was never convicted of killing anyone: this acquittal was the only verdict a jury gave on a death, and the police suspicion that he killed many more patients was never proved. Later in 1957 he was convicted of thirteen lesser offenses, including lying on cremation forms, fined and struck off; he was restored to the medical register in 1961.

The Evening Star printed the dispatch in Washington on April 9, 1957, from Associated Press copy, with a photograph credited "AP Photo." The scan is the Library of Congress copy in Chronicling America, and the Library says it believes papers of this age are in the public domain but that they may contain some copyrighted third-party material. Neither the story nor its photograph carries a copyright notice, and the only notice anywhere in the issue sits over an unrelated syndicated column on another page. The citation and rights statement are under the scan.

The story jumps, and both halves are here: the front-page portion, with headline, photograph, caption and the line "See ADAMS, Page A-4," and the continuation in column 6 of page A-4 under "ADAMS / Continued From First Page," which picks up mid-sentence. The scan reads cleanly and nothing is marked illegible. The paper's own wording and figures are kept as printed, "Rolls Royce" without its hyphen and the "17-day hearing" among them, and the unrelated AP crash story that sits above the continuation has been cut off.

Scan of the front page of the Washington Evening Star, April 9, 1957: a two-column headline, "Jury Takes 44 Minutes To Acquit Dr. Adams," with an AP photograph of Adams captioned "Cleared of Murdering Widow" and text ending in a jump to page A-4, shown with its continuation. Part 1 of 2 (page 1).
Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 9, 1957, page 1, columns 6-7, continued on page A-4, column 6: "Jury Takes 44 Minutes To Acquit Dr. Adams." Library of Congress, Chronicling America (LCCN sn83045462). Part 1 of 2 (page 1).Select the scan to open it at full size. The full newspaper page: JPG or PDF.Rights: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials." This issue was published in 1957. Because it is less than 95 years old, the Library of Congress notes that issues like it may contain some copyrighted third-party material.
Scan of the front page of the Washington Evening Star, April 9, 1957: a two-column headline, "Jury Takes 44 Minutes To Acquit Dr. Adams," with an AP photograph of Adams captioned "Cleared of Murdering Widow" and text ending in a jump to page A-4, shown with its continuation. Part 2 of 2 (page 4).
Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 9, 1957, page 1, columns 6-7, continued on page A-4, column 6: "Jury Takes 44 Minutes To Acquit Dr. Adams." Library of Congress, Chronicling America (LCCN sn83045462). Part 2 of 2 (page 4).Select the scan to open it at full size. The full newspaper page: JPG or PDF.Rights: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials." This issue was published in 1957. Because it is less than 95 years old, the Library of Congress notes that issues like it may contain some copyrighted third-party material.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Jury Takes 44 Minutes To Acquit Dr. Adams

[Photograph caption:] —AP Photo JOHN BODKIN ADAMS Cleared of Murdering Widow

LONDON, April 9 (AP).—Dr. John Bodkin Adams was acquitted today of a charge of murdering an 81-year-old widow to get a chest of antique silver and a Rolls Royce from her estate.

Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller immediately quashed a secret indictment accusing Dr. Adams of killing a second wealthy patient last summer.

Dr. Adams was allowed to walk out of the courtroom on bail, but he still has minor charges hanging over him of violating the cremation act.

The jury of 10 men and two women deliberated only 44 minutes in acquitting the 58-year-old bachelor society doctor. The verdict ended a 17-day hearing in London's famed Old Bailey, the longest murder trial in British history.

Dr. Adams had been arrested after a prolonged Scotland Yard investigation into rumors that he had profited from the deaths of an unusual number of his wealthy aged patients in the seaside resort of Eastbourne.

The 260-pound physician stood up to hear the jury's verdict. His face quivered and he gulped, but otherwise he showed no emotion.

He had pleaded not guilty to the crown's charge that he had injected massive doses of heroin and morphine into Mrs. Edith Alice Morrell to turn her into a drug addict and finally to end her life in 1950.

Dr. Adams did not take the stand in his defense. Mrs. Morrell's body was cremated, and the verdict hinged largely on the conflicting testimony of medical experts for the prosecution and defense.

The prosecution experts said the doctor's intent could only have been to end Mrs. Morrell's life. A medical expert for the defense claimed the treatment was not unusual in such cases—

See ADAMS, Page A-4

[Page A-4]

ADAMS

Continued From First Page

the widow had suffered a stroke two years before—and that the treatment was intended only to ease her pain.

The attorney general said the quashed indictment concerned the death last summer of Mrs. Gertrude Hullett four months after her husband, a 71-year-old millionaire, died in Eastbourne.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Hullett were patients of Dr. Adams. Her death was officially recorded as suicide from an overdose of drugs, but during the preliminary hearing that led to Dr. Adams' indictment in the Morrell case, the prosecution had blamed the doctor for the deaths of both Mrs. Hullett and her husband.

"I have reached the conclusion," the attorney general said, "in all the circumstances and in the public interest it does not require Dr. Adams to undergo the ordeal of a further charge of murder."

Mrs. Hullett left Dr. Adams another Rolls Royce in her will.

The doctor still is accused of certifying, when he obtained permission for Mrs. Morrell's cremation, that he knew of no financial gain accruing to him from her death.

Notes: Associated Press dispatch. The page 1 portion (ARTICLE-CROP-PAGE-1.jpg) takes in the two-column headline, the AP photograph of Dr. Adams with its caption, and the text in two columns, ending with the jump line "See ADAMS, Page A-4". The continuation (ARTICLE-CROP-PAGE-4.jpg) sits in column 6 of page A-4 directly below an unrelated AP item, "34 Killed as DC-3 Crashes in Algeria", which has been cut off above the "ADAMS" jump head. "A-4" is the fourth page of the issue (sp=4 in the LOC viewer). The page 1 article prints "a 17-day hearing … the longest murder trial in British history" as given. Line-end hyphenation from column setting has been joined (e.g. "ac-/quitted", "sea-/side", "indict-/ment", "conclu-/sion"). A small ink speck before "Mrs. Hullett left" on page A-4 is not a character and has been ignored. The narrow edges of the crops show column rules and, at the bottom right of the page A-4 crop, a speck from the next column; no text from other stories is readable. Readability: very good; no [illegible] marks needed.