Dorset Murders (11 page)

The doctor could do little but pronounce Emily Burden dead. On examination he found her to have numerous wounds on her body, including two long, deep slashes in her stomach and two cuts across her throat, which had severed her carotid artery. Since either of the wounds to her throat would have caused almost instantaneous death, it was believed that the stab wounds to Emily's stomach had been made first and she had several cuts on her hands and fingers, suggesting that she had tried in vain to grab the weapon from her attacker.

Police began a search of the island for Frank Burden, but he was not discovered until the following morning, when he was spotted crawling on his hands and knees onto the road from Church Ope Cove. After wandering around aimlessly for hours, he had tried three times during the night to drown himself, but each time had been unsuccessful. Now cold, wet and suffering from severe cramp, he had but one question for Mr Elliott, the quarryman who first found him: ‘Is my wife dead?'

Assisted by a work colleague, Ambrose Stone, and a passing postman, Elliot half carried Burden to Easton Square, from where the police were called. When PC Osman arrived to collect him, Burden again asked about Emily. Having been told that she was indeed dead, Burden said that she hadn't been when he left her. He went on to explain to the policeman that, ‘This is all through men going to my house while I'm away.'

On his arrest, police found the remnants of three letters that Burden had started to write to his parents but never finished. Once in custody, he sent another letter in which he told his parents:

She drove me to kill her. She would not stop her games. Nearly drove me out of my mind. I was nearly crazy when I done it. I own up to it. I could not help myself. She was a bad one to drive me to it. I hope and trust God will forgive me. What I have done, I couldn't help myself. Dear Mother, don't worry about me for I am not worth it now. I will pray to God all the time I have in this world. I suppose everybody will cry shame at me. If they do I can't help it. All her fault. She drove me to do it. I hope and trust you won't make yourself bad over it, I wish I never seen her. Too late now. Dear Mother, if I never see you again, I hope and trust I may see you both in Heaven, for I am going to pray with all my heart for forgiveness. I hope I shall get it, but I am afraid I shan't. Give my love to all. I don't know how soon it will come. The sooner the better, for I am tired of this life.

Having appeared before magistrates at Weymouth, Frank Burden was committed to stand trial at the next Dorset Assizes for the wilful murder of his wife, Emily.

His trial opened in June 1902 and Frank pleaded ‘Not Guilty' to Emily's murder. His defence counsel, Mr C.A.S Garland, had conducted some investigations into Burden's mental health and had discovered evidence of insanity in his immediate family history. On Burden's father's side of the family, Burden's uncle and his father's cousin had both been certified insane, while on his mother's side, her brother, uncle and aunt were all similarly afflicted. Burden himself had complained of suffering from severe headaches prior to killing his wife, a statement corroborated by his brother Ernest, hence it was Garland's intention to offer a defence of insanity for his client.

Burden still continued to insist that Emily had brought about her own demise by being unfaithful to him. Two doctors had examined Burden after his arrest, finding his conversation to be wandering and confused, although both differed in their opinion of his mental state. Dr Peter MacDonald, medical superintendent of the Dorset County Asylum, considered Burden to be insane. To MacDonald, the injuries to Emily Burden were so severe that only a madman could have inflicted them. Frank Burden's perceived inability to sire children and his groundless convictions that Emily was being unfaithful to him were evidence that he was delusional and, by his own testimony, had felt so ill when he killed his wife that he did not know what he was doing. Dr W.E. Good, medical officer at Dorchester Gaol, felt otherwise and was prepared to testify that Burden had shown no evidence of insanity while he was incarcerated and awaiting trial.

Accordingly, Garland had mentally prepared himself to go into court and argue against Dr Good's opinion of his client. He was therefore completely flabbergasted when the counsel for the prosecution, Mr A. Cavell Salter, seemed to want the same outcome as the defence team.

Having heard from both MacDonald and Good, who continued to disagree on the subject, the court then heard from Dr Lionel Weatherly, the medical licensee of the Bailbrook Asylum near Bath, who had been consulted by the prosecution for a third opinion. Weatherly concurred with Dr MacDonald, stating that in his opinion Burden had inherited a potentially insane mind, which had broken down when he had become stressed by his delusions of his wife's sexual affairs. Emily's ‘conduct' had fast become an obsession and such delusions in a sick mind could easily produce an impulsive violent act such as suicide or murder.

At that, the judge intervened and instructed the jury to find Frank Burden guilty but insane. The jury complied and Burden was sentenced to be detained at Dorchester Prison during His Majesty's pleasure.

No evidence was ever found to support Burden's assertions that he was infertile. Ironically, just weeks before killing his wife, Frank Burden had been offered a job as a keeper to a titled gentleman. Emily had strongly urged him to accept, but he had refused because he preferred to stay in the Portland area, close to his family. Had Burden accepted the job and moved away then it was possible that Emily's life would have been spared.

[Note: In various contemporary accounts of the murder of Emily Burden, some variations of names appear. The Burdens' lodger, Jack Roberts, is alternatively referred to as John Roberts. Their neighbour is alternately called John and Jonathan Lano. The two men alleged to have had an affair with Emily Burden, Abe Winter and his friend John (Jack) Pearce, were the Burden's rent collector and a monumental mason. In some accounts Winter is referred to as the rent collector and Pearce as the stonemason – in other accounts their positions have been reversed.]

T
here was, Dr Pritzler Wetherall decided, something seriously wrong with his patient. The man had come to his surgery that morning complaining of vomiting and of being unable to sleep. However, as the doctor tried to question him, Edward Simmons refused to sit down, nervously pacing and babbling incessantly about anything and everything, making it almost impossible for the doctor to get a word in edgeways.

After several unsuccessful attempts at breaking into the man's monologue, the doctor had had enough. Casting a glance at Simmons's wife, who sat quietly in a corner of the surgery anxiously watching her husband's bizarre behaviour, Wetherall suddenly bellowed ‘Sit Down!' The order was enough to stop Simmons in his tracks for just long enough for the doctor to briefly examine him, diagnose alcoholic gastritis and prescribe some medicine.

When he next visited the surgery, Simmons was given short shrift by the doctor who had checked up on some of his ramblings from his first visit and found them to be a pack of lies. Simmons was not the ex-medical student he had claimed to be, nor did he have a brother in the Army Medical Corps. Excusing his brevity by saying that he had an urgent appointment, Wetherall dispensed some more medicine and ushered Simmons and his wife politely, but firmly, from his surgery.

The truth was that Simmons had suffered a severe illness as a child and his parents had been warned that he would most probably be left with some permanent mental disability as a result. Although he was undoubtedly a sickly child, suffering from frequent fainting spells, he did well at school and on leaving was employed by a firm of wholesale druggists. He initially did very well at his new job but, within a short time, he became convinced that the foreman did not like him and was deliberately picking on him.

He began to take unscheduled time off work and eventually just seemed to disappear into thin air. His parents were frantic with worry, wondering if this was the onset of the mental disability that they had been warned about many years earlier. In a desperate effort to find their son, they placed advertisements in national newspapers, asking for anyone who had seen Edward to contact them.

They were surprised by the response that the advertisement elicited. Writing in the third person, Edward himself replied. It was obvious that he had absolutely no memory of events that had occurred since he left his job for the very last time.

When he was safely home again, a family conference was called to decide what to do about Edward and it was at this point that his brother John, usually known as Jack, had a brainwave, announcing that he would give Edward a job. Edward was smart and cultured, said Jack, with a pleasant personality and the ‘gift of the gab' – he would make an excellent travelling salesman.

It seemed as though Edward had finally found his niche. Jack was delighted with his brother's performance, particularly since he firmly believed that the downfall of travelling salesmen was alcohol and Edward was a staunch teetotaller.

Or at least he was until he met up with a group of commercial travellers in a hotel in Cardiff. On learning that Edward planned to spend the evening balancing his books in his room, the salesmen were appalled and managed to persuade him to take the night off and come for a drink. Edward agreed, having first stipulated that he would take nothing alcoholic. He failed to notice that the group were spiking his drinks and was soon drunk to the point of passing out.

He woke up the next morning with a terrible hangover and was horrified to realise that, while he had been dead to the world, his brother's samples had been stolen, as had all the money he had collected on his trip and the contents of his own wallet.

Edward was far too ashamed to go home. Instead, he wrote to Jack begging his forgiveness and apologising over and over again for letting him down. He ended the letter by saying that he planned to go to Ireland and join the Army.

He served for eight years with the West Kent Regiment, achieving the rank of sergeant and travelling all over the world. Apart from a brief spell in hospital in India, his health improved dramatically and he was eventually discharged with an exemplary service record.

Once he had left the Army, Edward became the manager of a late-night club in Edinburgh, before moving to Manchester to manage a similar club for the same owners. In 1895 he married his wife, Frances, and the couple later adopted a child.

By this time Simmons was beginning to exhibit some rather strange behaviour. He constantly complained of headaches and was certain that the top of his head was about to come off. The loving and indulgent Frances would spend many hours humouring her husband by holding the top of his head in order to prevent such an occurrence.