Mary Ann Cotton (1832 - 1873) was an English serial killer and the third biggest female serial killer of all time. She is believed to have killed 20 people, most of them by arsenic poisoning. Cotton, like Belle Gunness, often killed for financial reasons. After an unhappy childhood, during which her father had fallen to his death down a mineshaft, Mary Ann married William Mowbray in Newcastle-upon-Tyne aged 20. They moved to Plymouth, Devon, where the couple had five children of which four died from gastric fever or stomach pains. They moved back to Newcastle where they had and lost three more children. Her husband died in 1865 of an intestinal disorder, at which point Mary received an insurance payout of £35, equivalent to one and half years of Williams salary.

Shortly after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to County Durham where she entered into a relationship with Joseph Natrass. He was however engaged to another woman and she left Natrass shortly after he became married. She returned to Sunderland, her place of birth, and took up employment as a nurse at Sunderland Infirmary. In order to work she sent her only remaining child, out of 9 born, to live with her mother. One of her patients at the hospital was engineer George Ward, who became husband number 2 when they married in August 1865. George continued to suffer ill health and he died in October 1866, the attending doctor later acknowledged that Ward had been in very poor health however expressed his surprise that his death had been so sudden. Mary Ann once again collected a large insurance payout, just over a year since her first.

A month after Ward's death Cotton was hired as a housekeeper for James Robinson, a shipwright. One month later Robinson's daughter passed away with gastric fever, and he turned to Cotton for comfort; she fell pregnant. Soon after her mother fell very ill and Cotton went to care for her, she died 9 days after Cotton's arrival, having started to feel better but also complaining of stomach pains. Cotton's nine year old daughter was brought to live with her and Robinson but herself began to experience stomach pains and died, as did another two of Robinson's children. All three children were buried in April 1867. Four months later the grieving Robinson married Cotton; shortly before the birth of their new child Mary Isabella. Mary Isabella fell ill with very familiar symptoms and died in March 1868. James however did not fall victim having fallen suspicious of his wife, who had stolen more than £50 that he had told her to bank and run up debts of £60 without his knowledge. She was being insistent that he started a life insurance policy, and he promptly threw her out. Mary Ann became desperate and was living on the streets after being thrown out by Robinson, before a friend named Margaret Cotton introduced her to her brother Frederick. Frederick had lost two of his children and become a widower, with Margaret taking the role of substitute mother for his remaining children but by March 1870 she too had died by a mystery stomach ailment, leaving Mary Ann to console Frederick. Soon Mary Ann was pregnant again, her eleventh pregnancy, and Frederick and Mary Ann married in September 1870. Unbeknown to her new husband, the couple were in fact committing bigamy due to Mary Ann not being divorced from James Robinson. Frederick soon followed his predeccessors to the grave, dying in December 1870 of 'Gastric fever'. Insurance had been taken out against him and, alarmingly, also taken out against the two children. Both of the children died, as did yet another partner of Cotton.

Cotton finally became unstuck when a parish official asked her to help a nurse with smallpox. She complained that the last remaining son of Frederick Cotton was in the way and asked the official if he could be sent to the workhouse. The official, Thomas Riley, said that if the boy went she would have to follow. She replied "I won't be troubled long. He'll go like all the rest of the Cottons." Riley replied "No, nothing of the kind - he is fine, a healthy boy" so he was shocked when just five days later Mary Cotton told him that the boy had died. Riley went straight to the police and demanded that the doctor delay writing the death certificate pending investigation. Mary Ann's went straight to the insurance office when the boy had died where she learnt that no money would be paid until she could produce a death certificate. The inquest however determined that the boy had died of natural causes, and it was not until the local press had cottoned on that it was discovered that Cotton had moved around northern England and lost three husbands, a lover, a friend, her mother and a dozen children - all of whom had died of stomach fevers. The body of the boy, the last victim, was subsequently taken up..... where it was found to contain traces of arsenic. Her trial began on 5th March 1873 and she was hanged from Durham County Gaol on 24th March 1873.

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