The Case of Eliza Fenning

Eliza Fenning worked as a cook in a London household until she found herself in the middle of a poisoning accusation. Her controversial trial brought the bias of the 19th-century British criminal justice system into focus. 

Research:

• “Circumstantial Evidence.” The Abilene Gazette. June 23, 1876. https://www.newspapers.com/image/367010505/?terms=eliza%20fenning&match=1
• Hempel, Sarah. “The Inheritor’s Powder.”  W. W. Norton & Company. 2013.
• Hempel, Sarah. “Eliza Fenning: the case of the poisoned dumplings.” The Telegraph. June 17, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130620172222/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10117903/Eliza-Fenning-the-case-of-the-poisoned-dumplings.html
• Clarke, Kate. “Trial of Eliza Fenning.” Mango Books. May 2021.
• “Circumstantial evidence : The extraordinary case of Eliza Fenning, who was executed in 1815, for attempting to poison the family of Orlibar Turner, by mixing arsenic in yeast dumplings. With a statement of facts, since developed tending to prove her innocence of the crime.” https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b21051732
• Watkins, John. “The important results of an elaborate investigation into the mysterious case of Elizabeth Fenning: being a detail of extraordinary facts discovered since her execution, including the official report of her singular trial, now first published, and copious notes thereon.” London. William Hone. 1815. Accessed online: https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b2840807x
• MARSHALL, TIM. “Not Forgotten: Eliza Fenning, ‘Frankenstein’, and Victorian Chivalry.” Critical Survey, vol. 13, no. 2, 2001, pp. 98–114. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41557107
• “The Story of Eliza Fenning.” The Wells Journal. August 8, 1857. https://www.newspapers.com/image/812381127/?terms=eliza%20fenning&match=1

 

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