 By Emily Casey

 Adolescent life o Dysfunctional backgrounds involving sexual or physical abuse o Bipolar mood disorder o Feeling of resentment towards society o Isolation o Absence of love or nurture o Unstable home life  Mental illness o Most not psychotic o Psychopaths o Perceives themselves as Gods o Become addicted t killing

 Born in October 1832 in Low Moorsely, County Durham  Near poverty and abuse as a child  Feared her father  Age 8, family moved o Year after father fell down a mine shaft to his death  Mom remarried  Hated stepfather, but had to stay to keep money coming in for the family  Married early to get away from her stepfather Interpretation of a young Mary Ann Cotton

 Married William Mowbray  20 years old  Had 5 children o 4 died from gastric fever  Husband later died of intestinal disorder in January of 1865  Cotton then collect insurance when Mowbray died

 George Ward in 1865  3 ½ year old daughter died o Daughter Isabelle lived with grandmother  Ward died due to intestinal problems  Cotton collect insurance as soon as he died  During marriage her mother died on June 9 th 1867 of stomach pains

 Married to James Robinson  Isabelle had stomach pains and died o Robinson’s two other children died of the same reason  Their child, Mary Isabelle, died after birth due to stomach pain  Robinson threw Cotton out 1800’s arsenic container

 Cotton was living on the streets  Married Fredrick Cotton  Had sons Robert and Charles Edward  Fredrick died from gastric fever in December 1871  Mary didn’t collect insurance Medical Certificate of Fredrick Cotton

 After Fredrick died, Charles Edward was only Cotton boy still alive  Mary believed he was in the way of her  She told parish official, Thomas Riley, Charles was “sickly” and she “won’t be troubled long. He’ll go like all the rest of the Cottons.”  Five days later, July 12 th 1872, Charles was dead  Riley was suspicious, so he told the doctor not to write a death certificate yet  Mary first call after death of Charles was to insurance office o She was told that she Death Certificate of Charles Edward Cotton

 Local newspaper found out about Mary Ann and her suspicion in killing Charles Edward  They found out she lost 3 husbands, a lover, 2 other family members, and a dozen of children. o All of them died of “stomach fevers”

 Trial began March 5 th 1873  Found that Mary Ann killed victims using arsenic poisoning  Only took 90 minutes to find her guilty.  She was hanged on March at Durham County Gaol by William Calcraft Death Sentence for Mary Ann Cotton

 Serial Murderer o Killing of 3 or more victims over an extended period of time o Mary Ann Cotton killed about 20 people over a period of 10 years  Fit the demographics of a serial killer  Motive o Collect insurance money after death  Type o Hedonistic Kill for pleasure Just for fun or for profit

 Mary Ann Cotton is evil o Killed her family members to get money out of it o Killed by means of arsenic poisoning  Type o Moral evil- harms perpetrated by some agent  Characteristics of an evil person that Mary Ann has o Deceives others o High level of respectability to victims o Projects sins/evils onto very specific group  Mary Ann does not say if what she did was evil or not o If she did she probably wouldn’t because she repeatedly killed family members by arsenic poisoning

 Descriptors o Age- killings during her twenties and thirties o Sex- female o Race- Caucasian o Residency- Murton in Durham County o Proximity- o Social skills- very good, she had 4 husbands and 2 lovers o Work history- worked in a factory o Educational level- fairly smart, but no college or other legitimate schooling

  men/cotton/1.html men/cotton/1.html  cotton.html cotton.html 