William Palmer (6 August 1824 – 14 June 1856), also known as the Rugeley Poisoner or the Prince of Poisoners, was an English doctor found guilty of murder in one of the most notorious cases of the 19th century. Charles Dickens called Palmer "the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey".
Palmer was convicted for the 1855 murder of his friend John Cook, and was executed in public by hanging the following year. He had poisoned Cook with strychnine, and was suspected of poisoning several other people including his brother and his mother-in-law, as well as four of his children who died of "convulsions" before their first birthdays. Palmer made large sums of money from the deaths of his wife and brother after collecting on life insurance, and by defrauding his wealthy mother out of thousands of pounds, all of which he lost through gambling on horses.
Early life and suspected poisonings
Born in Rugeley, Staffordshire, William Palmer was the sixth of eight children to Sarah and Joseph Palmer. His father worked as a sawyer, and died when William was 12, leaving Sarah with a legacy of some £70,000.
William Adolph Palmer (1881–1953) was Dean of Johannesburg from 1924 until 1951.
Palmer was ordained in 1912. His first post was at St Matthew Mission College, Keiskammahoek. He was then Principal of the Anglican Training College, Pietermaritzburg before his time as Dean; and then Warden of Zonnebloem College afterwards. He died on 3 October 1953.
The eldest son of William Jocelyn Palmer (rector of Mixbury in Oxfordshire) and Dorothea Richardson (daughter of the Revd William Roundell of Gledstone Hall, Yorkshire), he was born on 12 July 1811. Edwin Palmer and Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne, were his brothers. He was educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 27 July 1826, and was elected to a demyship. In 1830 he obtained the chancellor's prize with a Latin poem, "Tyrus", and a first-class in the classical schools. In 1831 he graduated BA and in 1832 was ordained as a deacon and received a Magdalen fellowship. In 1833 he proceeded MA and gained the chancellor's prize with a Latin Oratio de Comœdia Atticorum which was printed the same year. During the next three years he was a tutor at the University of Durham, from 1837 to 1839 an examiner in the classical schools at Oxford and from 1838 to 1843 a tutor at Magdalen College.
The health of the entertainer, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, was among the factors considered by the Court of Appeal when it ordered that he and his co-appellants would not be retried for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.
... \u201cLizard\u201d Williams. According to the Crown, the appellants murdered Williams on August 16, 2011 after he failed to return two unlicensed firearms which Palmer had given him for safe keeping.
The artist, né Adidja Azim Palmer, was placed under lockdown after an alleged cell phone infraction ... In 2014, Palmer, 47, was sentenced to life for the murder of his associate Clive “Lizard” Williams.
A man has now been charged with his murder ...SavannaBell is the sister of William Dwane Bell, who murdered three people during a drug-fuelled robbery at the Mt Wellington Panmure RSA in 2001 ... Her brother is triple murderer William Bell.
... that the Worl' Boss and his co-accused will get their 2014 murder conviction overturned ... Kartel, given name Adidja Palmer, was given a life sentence for the 2011 murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.
... is at the centre of the case which resulted in Vybz Kartel, given name Adidja Palmer, receiving a sentence of 35 years before being eligible for parole for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
