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Thomas Neil Cream graduated with honors on March thirty first, eighteen seventy six, from Montreal's McGill Medical School. The address given to his class that day was titled the Evils of Malpractice in the Medical Profession. A little bit of evil foreshadowing, you might say. His thesis had been about the effects of chloroform A lot more foreshadowing, as he would soon demonstrate just how devastating he could be with
toxic compounds. Sixteen years later, a mob of onlookers attended his execution for murder and extortion outside Newgate Prison in London. So let's meet the good doctor. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Mariach Marky.
And I'm Holly Frye. Thomas Neil Cream was born on May twenty seventh, eighteen fifty, the eldest of eight children to William and Mary Cream in Glasgow, Scotland. The family left Scotland for Canada when Thomas was just four years old, and his father became the manager of a shipbuilding and lumber firm located in Wolf's Cove near Quebec City, and
the family prospered. His father had grown a very successful business, and Thomas had become accustomed to a wealthy lifestyle that included flashy clothing and jewelry and touring about in fancy horse drawn carriages. When he attended McGill, he gained a reputation among his fellow students as being extravagant, wild, and a little bit sleazy. Through photographs and written descriptions of him, we know that Thomas looked a lot like what you
might consider an archetypal villain of Victorian era. He wore a top hat and a black silk cape, and he had a big mustache that was perfect for twirling.
Thomas killed his first, well his first proven victims in the United States. Additional victims were in England, others in Canada, maybe in Scotland. But we're not here to talk about the murderer Thomas Neil Cream. We're here to talk about his other criminal offense, extortion and blackmail. Thomas was ultimately undone when he attempted to frame and blackmail other people for his murders.
Not long after his graduation from medical school, Thomas met a woman named Flora Brooks, who was the daughter of a prosperous hotel owner in Waterloo, Quebec. When Flora became pregnant, Thomas terminated her pregnancy, but that did not go well. Flora fell ill, and after learning what had transpired, her father tracked down Thomas, forced him back to Waterloo and then also forced him, allegedly at gunpoint, to marry Flora. But the day after the two were married, Thomas left. He moved to London.
Thomas's story takes place during the Industrial Revolution, which spanned from about seventeen sixty to eighteen forty, a period responsible for an increase in the standard of living, an increase in population, and the emergence of the capitalist economy. And we mentioned this specifically because in England there was an increase in the demand for doctors to care for those
living in poverty. Some reports state Thomas planned to study surgery at Saint Thomas's Hospital, but failed their entrance requirements. He was though accepted by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh. In late eighteen seventy eight, he returned to Canada, where he set up his practice in London, Ontario. He quickly became known as the guide to see a terminated pregnancy in a legal act. At that time in Ontario, he spent his free time carousing and courting women.
Meanwhile, back in Quebec, in eighteen seventy seven, his wife Flora contracted broncos and she died of what appeared to be consumption. Today we would call that tuberculosis. Her doctor, however, later stated that he couldn't help but wonder if her death had been linked to pills that Thomas had sent her, and he admitted that he had always considered that her death may have involved foul play. That, of course, though, was his opinion in the hindsight.
About a year after establishing his new practice in Ontario, the body of a woman named Kate Gardiner was discovered in an outhouse located behind his office building, with a bottle of chloroform next to her body. Authorities were suspicious about the circumstances of Kate's death, after all, there was a bottle of chloroform sitting with her, and they soon discovered that she had visited Thomas's office on more than
one occasion seeking to end a pregnancy. But when questioned, the doctor insisted that he had refused her in his estimation her death must have been a suicide. Jury disagreed with his assessment and ruled that Gardner died from chloroform administered by some person unknown. Thomas was not charged with her murder. However, suspicions against him grew so strong that both his practice and his reputation were ruined. He relocated
to the United States. Thomas set up a medical practice on Chicago's West Side, in a district known for its high percentage of sex workers and its poverty stricken neighborhoods. Soon word got around to those in the neighborhood and to local police that he was the guide to see to terminate a pregnancy, also illegal in the United States at that time.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors here, and when we're back we will talk about Thomas's arrest and time spent at the Illinois State Penitentiary.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the people who died under Thomas's care.
In August of eighteen eighty, a woman named Julia Faulkner whose name may have been Mary Anne. That's a little bit unclear anyway, she had been under Thomas's care, and she died under mysterious circumstances. This time he was arrested on charges of murder, but due to lack of evidence, he was not convicted. In December of that same year, another of his patients, Ellen Stack, died after she took
medicine that was prescribed by Thomas. It was about a month after Ellen's death when Thomas started to engage in blackmail and extortion. This was his first go round, and in it he attempted to blackmail the pharmacist who had compounded Stack's prescription by sending him threatening letters. The pharmacist complained to the police, but no charges were ever brought forth. Nothing can of this whole thing.
It was eighteen eighty one when authorities finally had enough evidence to arrest and try Thomas. They charged him with the murder of a Chicago man named Daniel Stott. Daniel's wife, Julia, had been regularly picking up pills from Thomas, who had
been marketing them as a remedy for epilepsy. She and Thomas began an affair, but when Daniel grew suspicious of them, Thomas coerced Julia into having her husband take out a life insurance policy on himself, and then he sent her home with strych nine laced pills instead of his epilepsy remedy. Stott died on June fourteenth, eighteen eighty one, within minutes of taking those pills, but his death was ultimately considered to be from complications of an epileptic seizure, and again
Thomas picked up his pen. He sent a blackmail letter to the coroner accusing the pharmacist who compounded Stott's pills of being responsible for the death, and he demanded five thousand dollars for his silence. He also threatened to collect money on Julia's behalf. When the coroner ignored the letter, Thomas went to the district attorney to request the body being zoomed. Upon further examination, it was found there was enough strychnine in Stott's stomach to kill three people.
Although he pointed a finger at the pharmacist, it was Thomas who was arrested. He was a suspicious character in the death, and then Julia told authorities that she suspected he had tampered with her husband's medicine. Thomas was charged with and found guilty of murder in the second degree, and he was sentenced to life at the Illinois State Penitentiary and Juliet. He didn't serve a life sentence, though not even close. He was released in June of eighteen
ninety one when Governor Joseph Pfeiffer commuted the sentence. Though there isn't really much, if any evidence, it is assumed that the governor was bribed and possibly by Thomas's family. Returned to Canada very briefly to collect an inheritance of sixteen thousand dollars from his father's death. Then he returned to England, where he moved to Lambeth Palace Road, in an impoverished neighborhood of South London.
Thomas began referring to himself as Thomas Neil minus the Cream. At this time. Almost all reports about him state he was addicted to morphine and possibly cocaine, and possibly other drugs too. In the first seven months in the Lambeth district, he poisoned at least four sex workers, including Matilda Clover, Ellen,
Nellie Donworth, Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivel. A fifth victim named Louise Harvey, had luckily and wisely decided against swallowing the strych nine laced pills the good doctor had offered to her. Her spidy sense of sorts kicked in and it saved her life. She later testified against him in court. Reynolds's newspaper reported the exchange between Louise and Thomas went as so quote. He took two pills out of his waistcoat pocket. They were wrapped in tissue paper and were long,
rather narrower at one end than the other. It was dark, but they seemed to be of light color. He asked her to swallow them one by one and not bite them. He put them into her right hand. She pretended to take them and passed them into her left hand. He then asked her to show her right hand, and she showed him it was empty. He then asked to see the left hand in which the pills were, and she threw them away.
Thomas worked by befriending his victims, and then he would offer them medications, supposedly to clear up something like a rash or another vague ailment or complaint they had. But his remedies were laced with strychnine. It's highly likely that he would have avoided detection. Except he could not stop scratching the itch. He decided to accuse his neighbor of two murders. And here's where he really begins to use
a distortion along with his killings. Using a false name of Malone, he wrote a letter to a prominent English neurologist, doctor William Broadbent, claiming to have evidence of the doctor's involvement in Matilda Clover's death, and he demanded twenty five thousand pounds to keep that information to himself. Doctor Broadbent contacted Scotland Yard, who then waited for the mystery blackmailer
to collect the money. No one ever showed up. But Thomas had unwittingly incriminated himself in that letter to Broadbent because he had referred to the death of Matilda Clover as a murder, despite it having been recorded as death due to her excessive alcohol abuse. He had revealed knowledge that only the killer could have known, and in that instant Scotland Yard knew the person the press had nicknamed the Lambeth poisoner was linked to the recent rash of blackmail letters.
Thomas also wrote to the coroner offering to name the murder of Nellie Donworth in return for a three hundred thousand pound payout. He also attempted to blackmail a WFD Smith, owner of W. H. Smith Books, accusing him of Donworth's murder and demanding money to keep quiet about it.
He then kind of went blackmail crazy. He claimed that he had incriminating evidence against a Joseph Harper, who was a local medical student. He sent an accusatory letter to Harper's father, signed William H. Murray, demanding fifteen hundred pounds to destroy alleged evidence against his son or he was
going to share his knowledge with the police. Harper refused. Then, under different pseudonyms and once pretending to be a detective, Thomas sent letters to the coroner implicating Harper and to a Frederick Smith, demanding three thousand pounds to destroy supposed evidence against both of them in the murders of the four women. A similar letter was sent to Lord Russell, a British Liberal Party politician. No blackmail money was ever collected.
We're going to take a break for word from our sponsors, and when we return, we'll talk about Thomas's arrest and sentencing and what he may or may not have said on the day of his execution.
Welcome back to criminalia. Now let's talk about how Thomas was finally caught and how he may or may not have been Jack the Ripper. Yeah, stay tuned with us on that one.
The poisonings were beginning to incite fear among the public, and London's Daily News reported quote the police at Scotland Yard are still pursuing their inquiries into the recent cases of fatal poisoning of women in the neighborhood of Lambeth, with a view to establishing a connection between the suspected
person against whom the police hold a warrant. From the accounts which the police have received from various quarters concerning this individual, there is every reason to believe that the opinion of the detectives is correct, that he is suffering from a form of mental derangement which finds exercise and
a desire to take away life. There is no other motive attributable to the cruel poisonings, and as the history of the Whitechapel murders shows, the indulgence of this homicidal tendency upon women and a defenseless position is not singular to the Lambeth poisoner. The Whitechapel murders mentioned were those committed by the notoriously unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
Now here's the thing about Thomas Neil Kream. He probably could have continued his killing streak if he had just stayed quiet about his activities. But he didn't. It seems like he couldn't. He bragged about his detailed knowledge of each killing. He even took former New York Least detective John Haynes on a tour of the murder scenes in the area. Haines became alarmed at the amount of detail that Thomas knew, and he brought his concerns to the
attention of the police inspector. Thomas also gave a similar tour to a mister McIntyre, who turned out to be a police sergeant. But Thomas did not know that. McIntyre began to surveil the doctor police constable. Comely we think he was a constable. He was definitely law enforcement had by chance seen a man who fit Thomas's description with two of the women on the nights of their deaths. He too, started to keep a close eye on him.
And then, of course there were those letters Thomas wrote his letters under false identities in an attempt to cast suspicion on other people, innocent people and always doctors or bourgeois, and to extort money from anyone who could have in some way been a potential suspect in the murders of the four women in Lambeth. Think of these as I know what you did, pay me not to talk kinds of notes. It's the very definition of blackmail, no matter
that there was no truth in his accusations. Once his letters drew attention from Scotland Yard, circumstances finally led to his arrest. Thomas was charged with the extortion of two London physicians.
Though there were others.
When evidence including seven bottles of Strych nine, was found at his lodging, he was subsequently arrested and charged with the murders of four women and the attempted murder of a fifth.
Thomas's trial took place at London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, over the course of five days in October of eighteen ninety two. The jury needed only twelve minutes to find him guilty of the death of Matilda Clover, and with that Justice Henry Hawkins, the presiding judge sentenced the doctor to hang, telling the prisoner that his deeds could quote be expied only by your death.
On November fifteenth, eighteen ninety two, Thomas was taken to the gallows. A pretty sizable crowd had gathered. Reports estimate anywhere between three hundred to five thousand people came to the scene of the execution. It wasn't public, though public hangings ended in London in eighteen sixty eight. The Toronto Globe reported the next day, quote, probably no criminal was ever executed in London who had a less pitying mob awaiting his execution.
According to the Courier in argus, quote, the morning was dull and wet. By order of the High Sheriff, no pressmen were admitted to the scene of the execution. Neil appeared half dazed, but he walked and assisted. After the executioner, James Billington, drew from his pocket a white cap and placed it over Neil's head. He pulled the lever. The bolts supporting the drop were drawn, and Neil was launched
into eternity. So as he fell, Thomas, allegedly, according to only Billington, began to say something and it was something that sounded like, quote, I am Jack, but he was cut off as he fell to his death. Historians have theorized that those last words, which Billington insisted were a confession that he was Jack the Ripper, were probably nothing more than an attempt to take credit for the murders of a more famous killer. However, it is even more likely that he never said anything at all.
While the Ripper theory is still holding today among some crowds, most following the Ripper's story believed he couldn't have been that infamous killer. As Thomas served his prison sentence from eighteen eighty one to eighteen ninety one in Juliet, Illinois in the United States, and all of Jack the Ripper's murders were committed between August thirty first and November ninth, eighteen eighty eight. And then there's this theory which we felt we really did need to include in his biography.
Marshall Hall, the lawyer who defended Thomas, stated he believed that the doctor had a double and that the two used the same name and used each other's terms of imprisonment as alibis for each other. I mean, it really does seem everyone has a theory about Jack the Ripper still today.
Oh yes, it has launched a thousand books. Would you like to head out to the coercion concoction area?
I certainly would listen.
This may be very predictable, but I wanted to do a creamy drink because of.
His name dark cream yep, and.
Because the pills that were mentioned were described as light colored. So I wanted to make something that you drink and you're like, oh, this tastes like a thing, and then a second later you go, wait, does this have that other thing in it? Which is exactly what happened when I tested on my adorable guinea pig's mouth. This is called Doctor Cream's Elixir. I almost called it criminal fanfic because as he made up so much stuff about other people.
And this is one where I really want you to stick with me, because you might go this doesn't go together, but I promise you it does something cool. We're gonna start out with a half ounce of a simple syrup or a vanilla syrup. I always like a vanilla for something like this. Two tablespoons of egg white, and this is where you're gonna be like holly, two ounces of pumpkin creamer. Now, I literally bought a creamer from the grocery store, like one of those that you put in
your coffee. If you want to be fancy and make your own homemade pumpkin creamer, you can do that by combining some pureade pumpkin and some heavy cream and a little bit of sugar and whatnot. But I just bought it off the shell. Food is great. Here's where again it's gonna get weirder. You're gonna add to this an ounce of white rum and then an ounce of absinthe. Now I know your brain is going does go together? It actually does?
What and then of course it had this moment.
Right yeah, licorice pumpkin. I'm telling you you're gonna shake this like the Dickens. Now, this isn't the case where, you know, often when you have egg white in a drink, you want to give that a hard, dry shake on its own without ice in it. You don't need to do that here because it's not the star of the show. You're not trying to like make it that beautiful frothy top that sits on a cocktail. You're just giving a
little more body to the whole thing. So you don't have to do that step if you want to go crazy, but you don't have to. But you are gonna give this a nice heavy shake. You're gonna strain it over fresh ice into like a rock's glass, and then it looks like a yummy, delicious winter time creamy drink, and it is. You can garnish it with pumpkin pie, spice or whatever. But what's interesting is you sip it and
it all goes together. It doesn't fight with each other at all, but the finish, you get that licorice note and go. Is there absent than this creamy? Which? There are creamy drinks with absinth, right, there's a drink called an absence sweee, which we may have referenced on the show before, which I love. But I just thought combining
it with pumpkin would do something interesting. And it did nothing dangerous to you unless you're allergic to something in here, but it does it echoes that whole I thought I was getting medicine, and then it was something else. But this one is a delightful surprise and not an evil one. If you would like to make the mocktail, obviously you can use your cream or your egg white and your syrup,
just as in lieu of white rum and absinthe. What I would do is either make an anis or a licorice tea and use that in the two ounce amount. Or you can do like an anisset syrup and use a little like a half ounce of that and then do like a really softy like a camo meal or something to fill it out. And then you're gonna have a yummy doctor cream's elixir like patent medicine, but this one will not hurt you in any way. That is our yummy drink for the week. I drank it, and then I kept drinking it.
And it was yummy.
I really really liked this one. I was surprised because even I was like, am I about to really miss this up? Am I gonna have to make a totally different drink, And in fact came out great pumpkin creamer. Listen, if you want to start playing with creamers in your cream based drinks. If you don't mind the pre made stuff, the world is your oyster. They come in all the flavors. Now you can chocolate chip creamer if you want. You can get pepper mentally popular this time of year. Pumpkin
pie is really popular this time of year. The sweet Italian cream I think would do some really yummy stuff and cocktails. Go forth and play. We are so thankful that you spent this time with us as we played around with history and talked about some grizzly things, but also had a yummy drink. We hope you join us again next week for more tales of criminals and some drinks inspired by them. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland
Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.