James Ruddick

Charles Bravo (1845 - 21 April 1876) was a British lawyer who was fatally poisoned with antimony in 1876. The case is still sensational, notorious, and unresolved. It was an unsolved crime committed within an elite Victorian household at The Priory, a landmark house in Balham, London. The reportage eclipsed even government and international news at the time. Leading doctors attended the bedside, including Royal physician Sir William Gull, and all agreed it was a case of antimony poisoning. show more The victim took three days to die but gave no indication of the source of the poison during that time. Was it suicide, accidental self-poisoning, or murder? No one was ever charged for the crime.

His wealthy wife Florence had previously been married but had been separated from her first husband (who later died) because of his affairs and violent alcoholism. The impetuous Florence had also enjoyed an extramarital affair with a fashionable society doctor, the much older Dr. James Manby Gully, who was also married at the time. Her affair became public knowledge and Florence fell out of favor with her family and society. In order to reenter society, she married Charles Bravo. The marriage appeared to be doomed from the start. It was whispered that Charles had married Florence for her money, but the wealthy Florence had opted to hold onto her assets, a choice provided by new laws in England at the time (Married Women's Property Act 1870). This financial imbalance led immediately to tensions within the marriage. Police enquiries in the case revealed Charles's behavior towards Florence as being controlling, mean, and violent. Florence also experienced several miscarriages in quick succession, but Charles brutally persisted in forcing her to keep trying for an heir. However, given the nature of the man, there was no shortage of people in the Bravo household with motives for poisoning Charles Bravo.

Two inquests were held and the sensational details were considered so scandalous that women and children were banned from the room while Florence Bravo testified. The first returned an open verdict. The second inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder; however, nobody was ever arrested or charged. The household broke up after the inquest ended and the twice-widowed Florence moved away, dying of alcohol poisoning two years later.

Over a hundred years later, author James Ruddick embarked upon his own in-depth investigations in a case that reads like a modern page-turner. Drawing on detailed court and newspaper records, archives, family papers and letters, and interviews with surviving relatives, he has unearthed a wealth of information that gives conclusive evidence as to various suspects' motives and opportunities. His travels locally and internationally yielded comments from surviving family friends and local inhabitants. Medical research also gives tantalizing hints as to why, if it was not suicide or accidental self-poisoning, Bravo did not say whom he thought was the poisoner. This is a fantastic read and I could not put the book down. The author has found such compelling evidence to exonerate some particular suspects, evidence that was never investigated all that time ago. It points out the flaws in policing methods of the day, as well as how social perceptions of the time influenced popular thinking. Ruddick give a deep and, at times, sensitive insight into the personalities of the main players, showing how they were trapped by their own natures (the headstrong spoiled Florence and the dominant Charles) as well as by the social mores and actual laws of the era. It is also a fascinating insight into the stultifying, repressive atmosphere of Victorian England, and the sad situation of many women of all social classes. Detective novel, historical docu-drama, and police thriller... call it what you will, I highly recommend this book to all readers with a penchant for detective and mystery novels. Draw your own conclusions...the author gives plenty of evidence for and against! show less

A readable re-examination of the 1876 Charles Bravo murder, in which Ruddick claims to have proven the identity of the murderer. His historical overview of the case is well worth a read, and the new evidence he claims to have uncovered is certainly interesting. I even don't really have much of a problem with his ultimate conclusion about the case, which seems perfectly reasonable. I do, however, have to question a few of the speculative leaps he makes, and while interesting, I'm not entirely show more sure just how reliable I consider the oral traditions of distant descendants of the participants. show less

Wanting a break from fiction, I read Death at the Priory, which sounds like it ought to be a cozy but in fact is a non-fictional account of a domestic murder that rocked the late Victorian world. Like the Borden murders, the poisoning of Charles Bravo remains unsolved, not because there were no suspects but because there were so many.

Was it his wealthy, beautiful wife? Already notorious from having had an affair prior to this, her second marriage, with the much older Dr. Gully.
Was it Dr. show more Gully, who was still besotted with Mrs. Bravo?
Was it Mrs. Cox, the companion, who had been threatened with termination and faced destitution for herself and her three boys?
Was it Griffiths, the stableman, who Bravo fired and had vowed to revenge himself on his employer for casting himself and his wife out?

This author, like many others claims to have solved it. In fact, the murderer will go undiscovered for certain. What the matter did do is pull back the curtains on how, even in a wealthy, upperclass home, a man was free to be an abusive tyrant, and a woman, any woman, living under his roof had no recourse other than to submit to his brutality or find a more final solution.

The murder drew back the curtain on the domestic brutality of time. Marital rape, physical abuse, psychological torment. Social mores allowed no escape. A "good" woman was expected to submit. Or, as perhaps in this case, take justice into her own white hands.

A good reminder to be grateful we (as women) live now and not in earlier times. They were not romantic. They were damned unpleasant. show less

The fatal poisoning of Charles Bravo in 1876 remains a great, unsolved mystery. Author James Ruddick did some serious legwork doing deep research on each side of the Atlantic. While his interpretation of the facts may not sway you completely to his solution, his original work uncovering a primary source relating to housekeeper Jane Cox does make this work worth reading instead of or at least in addition to any previously formulated work. Regardless of whether he is correct, or not, the show more elegant and engaging presentation will be entertaining for any true crime fan. show less