Episode
S5 Ep42: Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Serial Killer
- Podcast
- Crimes of the Centuries
- Published
- Jan 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2928
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://audioboom.com/posts/8835813
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Summary
In the industrial villages of 19th-century England, death was common—but not this common. Over two decades, Mary Ann Cotton married, buried, and moved on with chilling regularity as children, husbands, and relatives died from what doctors called “gastric fever.” Only when forensic chemistry advanced—and one parish officer heard her say too much—did her pattern come into focus.