Thomas Neill Cream

Dr. Thomas Neil Cream (May 27 1850 - November 16, 1892) was a serial killer, who claimed his first victims in the USA and the rest in England. His last words were an apparant claim that he was Jack The Ripper, and this was believed for some time, even though it was impossible for him to have been responsible for those notorious killings.

Early Life

Born in 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland, Thomas Cream was raised in Quebec, Canada after his family moved there in 1854. He was an excellent student at school and, later, college. He went to study medicine in London in 1876, although he had an added incentive for crossing the Atlantic as he had just married a woman he had made pregnant, the bride's family having literally forced Thomas Cream to the church at gunpoint.

The honeymoon was only just over when Cream left in the night to head for Englnad, nothing but a note to explain his absence to his new wife. He returned to Canada just long enough for his wife to conveniently die of a mysterious illness, a death he would later be blamed for in the light of his subsequent activities. He went to Edinburgh to practice medicine, but when a woman he was alleged to have had an affair with ended up laying dead, pregnant and poisoned by chloroform, in an alleyway in August 1979, Dr. Cream relocated to the USA.

Chicago Conviction

He went to Chicago and set up a medical practice not far from the red-light district, and it is amongst the prostitutes of that area that he offered his services carrying out illegal abortions. He was investigated after a woman he allegedly operated on died, but he managed to escape prosecution due to lack of evidence.

On July 14, 1881, a man named Mr. Stott died of strychnine poisoning. Dr. Cream was arrested, along with Mrs. Scott, who had obtained poison from Dr. Cream to do away with her husband, whom she suspected of cheating on her. Mrs. Stott turned states evidence to avoid jail, which left Dr. Cream to face a murder conviction on his own. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served at Joilet Prison.

Although Dr. Cream was undoubtedly a psychopath who had an obvious dislike of women, the treachery of Mrs. Stott no doubt increased his hated of women. He was released ten-years later after his brother pleaded for leniency, allegedly backed up with a hefty bribe to the authorities.

Gaslit Streets Of London

Using money from his recently deceased father's inheritence, Dr. Cream, then aged forty-one, went to Britain, arriving in Liverpool on October 1, 1891. He went to London and settled down in Lambeth. Victorian England may have been the epicentre of the vast and wealthy British Empire, but in places such as Lambeth, there was plenty of poverty, petty crime and prostitution.

On October 13 that year, Ellen "Nellie" Donworth, a 19-year-old prostitute, went out for a few drinks with Dr. Cream. She was severely ill the next day and died on October 16 from strychnine poisoning.

On October 20, Dr. Cream had a 'date' with a 27-year-old prostitute named Matilda Clover. She was ill following that evening and died the next morning, although her death was at first recorded as just being related to her alcoholism.

On April 2 1892, after a vacation in his home country of Canada, Dr. Cream was back in London where he attempted to poison a woman who, finding her gentleman friend suspicious, refused to consume the drinks he was trying to ply her with.

On April 11 Dr. Cream met up with two prostitutes, Alice Marsh, 21, and Emma Shrivell, 18, and talked his way into their flat where he offered them bottles of Guinness. The young ladies guzzled away and Dr. Cream was long gone by the time the strychnine he had added to the drinks took effect later that night. Both women died in agony.

Capture

Dr. Cream's downfall came through an attempt to frame two perfectly respectable and innocent doctors. He wrote to the police accusing these fellow doctors of killing several women, including Matilda Clover. Not only did the police manage to quickly determine the innocence of those accused, but they also realised that there was something significant within the accusations made by the anonymous letter-writer. Namely, he had referred to the murder of Matilda Clover. In fact, Clover's death had been noted as natural causes, related to her drink problem. The police knew that the false accuser who had written the letter was the serial killer now referred to in the newspapers as the 'Lambeth Poisoner'.

Not long afterwards, Dr. Cream had met a policeman from New York City who was visiting London. The policeman had heard of the 'Lambeth Poisoner' and Dr. Cream was considerate enough to give him a brief tour of where the various victims had lived. The American policeman happened to mention it to a British policeman who, understandably, found Dr. Cream's knowledge and interest in the case suspicious.

The police at Scotland Yard put Dr. Cream under surveillence, soon discovering his habit of visiting prostitutes. They also liased with the police in the USA and found out their suspect's conviction for a murder-by-poison in 1881.

On July 13, 1892, Dr. Cream was charged with the murder of Matilda Clover. His trial lasted five days, between 17 and 21 October that same year. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

The death penalty was a quick process in Victorian England. Less than a month after his conviction, on November 16, Dr. Thomas Neil Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison.

"I am Jack The..."

Witnesses say that, as he stood with his head in the noose, Dr. Cream shouted "I am Jack the...", his sentence cut short when the trapdoor opened and he was sent plummeting to his death.

Naturally, everyone realised he was about to say he was Jack The Ripper and for a long time he was considered a viable suspect in the infamous case. However, when the murders the anonymous Jack The Ripper committed (1888), Dr. Thomas Cream was securely behind bars in America for murder.