Queer Places:
Coleraine Cemetery
Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
John
Bodkin Adams (21 January 1899 – 4 July 1983) was a
British
general practitioner, convicted
fraudster, and suspected
serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients probably
died while in a coma, so deemed to be worthy of investigation.
In addition, 132 out of 310 patients had left Adams money or items in
their
wills. He was tried and
acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957. Another count of
murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as
"an abuse of process" by the presiding judge
Sir Patrick Devlin, causing questions to be asked in
Parliament about the prosecution's handling of events.
The trial was featured in headlines around the world[3]
and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of
all time"[4]
and "murder trial of the century".[5]
It was also described at the time as "unique" because, in the words of
the judge, "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence."[3]
The police acquired a
memorandum belonging to a Daily Mail journalist,[iv]
concerning rumours of
homosexuality between "a police officer, a
magistrate and a doctor".
The "doctor" directly implied Adams.
The 'magistrate' was Sir
Roland Gwynne,
Mayor of
Eastbourne (1929–31) and brother of
Rupert Gwynne, MP for Eastbourne (1910–24).
Gwynne was Adams's patient and known to visit every day at 9am. They went
on frequent holidays together and had spent three weeks in
Scotland.
The 'police officer' was the Deputy Chief Constable of Eastbourne,
Alexander Seekings.
The trial had several important legal ramifications. It established the
doctrine of
double effect, whereby a doctor giving treatment with the aim of
relieving pain may lawfully, as an unintentional result, shorten life.
Secondly, because of the publicity surrounding Adams' committal hearing,
the law was changed to allow defendants to ask for such hearings to be
held in private.
Finally, although a defendant had not been required within recorded legal
history to
give evidence in his own defence, the judge underlined in his
summing-up that no prejudice should be attached by the jury to Adams not
doing so.
Adams was found guilty in a subsequent trial of 13 offences of
prescription fraud, lying on
cremation forms,
obstructing a police search and failing to keep a dangerous drugs
register. He was struck off the
Medical Register in 1957 and reinstated in 1961 after two failed
applications.
Scotland Yard's files on the case were initially closed to the public
for 75 years, and would have remained so until 2033.
Following a request by historian Pamela Cullen, special permission was
granted in 2003 to reopen the files, and these have since been used by
several researchers.
My published books:
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams