Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth (c. 1853–1941)

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Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth (c. 1853–1941)

American woman convicted in Liverpool of murder. Name variations: Florie. Born in Alabama, c. 1853; died in US, 1941; m. James Maybrick, 1881; children: 2.

Resided in Liverpool with English husband James Maybrick, a hypochondriac who regularly dosed himself with various substances including arsenic; after he died (May 11, 1889) and arsenic was found in his body, arrested for his murder; tried in Liverpool (July 1889), received death sentence (Aug 7), which was commuted to life imprisonment; served 15 years before release (1904) and penned the autobiography Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story; My Fifteen Lost Years (1904). Due to a host of factors, many have maintained her innocence.