Episode 73. Herbert Armstrong

Hello I'm Philip. And I'm Phoebe. Welcome to Dad. And Daughter do Death. Hi Phoebe. Hello Dad, how are you? I'm fine, I'm fine, yes. Something that has caught my attention this week, Phoebe, that I thought I'd just tell you about is sometimes in American true crime stories or even in dramatizations of crime, you hear about someone being mirandarized. In the calendar of true crime trivia that you gave me for 2023, this happened to pop up today. The words are, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will. You will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me? Those are the formal words of someone's mirandar rights. And they're very subtle, sorry, they're very subtly different to kind of being read your rights in England, aren't they? Because when you're arrested in England, you still get read your rights, but they're not called your mirandar rights, they're just your rights, aren't they? Yeah, I think we've always just had them as our rights, but I guess being in America, it was a thing when they came up with the subtle word changes that formulated these. So the story of the mirandar rights go back to a landmark case in 1966, which was between the Supreme Court of Arizona versus Miranda. Ernesto Arturo Miranda was arrested in March 1963 for kidnapping, beating and raping an 18-year-old woman in Arizona. Now he participated in a lineup of suspects and police implied that he was positively identified, to which he eventually confessed to being the culprit. And he proceeded to write down his confession on a piece of paper that had already been printed at the top. This statement has been made voluntarily and of my own free will with no threats, coercion or promises of immunity, and with full knowledge of my legal rights, any statement I make can and will be used against me. However, he wasn't informed of his right to speak to an attorney or his right to remain silent. So when his case came to court, he was actually sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison, but he had an appeal which was successful. And the basis of the appeal was that he hadn't been given his full rights of having the right to remain silent or the right to an attorney. And on that basis, they actually quashed his conviction. Yes. On a kind of a technicality, I suppose. However, he was, he was retried and found guilty based on the testimony of other people. But nevertheless, it was a landmark case. And it was after him that Miranda rights were put in place, which include the words about you have the right to remain silent and the right. To an attorney is called setting a precedent, isn't it? Yeah. So it's like a legal precedent. And the other one that's really famous is the Alford plea. Yeah, that. And that was Yeah, I think it's really interesting. All these like nuances, especially in American law. Yeah. Yeah. And people saying well, and yeah, yeah, I thought it was very interesting. And I think he was, he went to prison. And then he was murdered. He was. Yeah. So he. So in 1967, he was retried. He was convicted. And again, he was sentenced to 20 to 30 years, but he was actually paroled in 1972. So he did about four or five years. Then he basically got into other trouble and ended up in prison. He was paroled in 1975. On January the 31st, 1975. He was fatally stabbed. In a Phoenix bar fight. So there you go. I'm sure there was something to do with in he was like, he got relatively famous. And like in prison, people would send him like their like, arrest records or something like that. And he'd sign them. There was something like he'd send them and he'd like sign them to say, Oh, yeah. He made autographed Miranda warning cards. Oh, there you go. Yeah. For one pound 50. For $1.50. Yeah, that must have been what it was. Yeah, I don't know what that means. It's got the words printed on it. Yeah, like he signed it. So that's where the Miranda, the name Miranda comes from. That's really interesting, isn't it? I had wondered and I was really surprised when I saw that. So thank you. There's all sorts of interesting bits of information coming out of this. I thought it would be an interesting little, little thing to have on your desk. Yeah, absolutely. So Phoebe, I've been looking for interesting stories to tell you about and I've come across this one on the internet. Which is, as always, there for anybody else to find. And it is the story of Herbert Rouse Armstrong. Okay. I have no idea who that is. That's good. I'll tell you all about him. Herbert Armstrong was born at 23 Princes Square in Plymouth, Devon on the 13th of May, 1869. Okay. So Victorian, Victorian beginnings. What an oldie. Yep. The family later moved to Edge Hill in Liverpool, and he went on to study at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, where he got a degree in law and qualified as a solicitor in February, 1895. So he was about 25, 26 when he, when he qualified as a solicitor. Nice. He then went on to gain an MA from Cambridge in 1901. Now Armstrong started. He started practising as a solicitor in Liverpool and then in Newton Abbot. However, he successfully applied for a vacancy in Hay-on-Wye, Breconshire, which is right on the English Welsh border. I think half of the little town is in Wales and half of it's in England because there's a river. Okay. River that runs through the middle, yeah, the river that runs through it is the border, basically. So, yeah. That's cool. He got this job and moved to Hay-on-Wye in 1907. So the following year, 1907, he met and married Catherine Mary Friend of West Tynmouth, and the couple went on to have three children, two girls, Eleanor and Margaret, and a boy called Pearson. Nice. And the Armstrong family moved to an imposing family home called Mayfield in the village of Cussop Dingle, not far from. That's a great name. Cussop Dingle. Cussop Dingle. Cussop Dingle. Where Herbert ran his law firm of Cheese and Armstrong. There you go. Now, I'm not entirely sure where the cheese comes from because in the rest of the story, there's no reference to anybody called Cheese. I presume another solicitor that he went into partnership with or something. Unless he just thought it was a fun name to have it called Cheese and Armstrong. Cheese and Armstrong. Basically, he got his own law firm, which he may. May or may not have shared with someone called Cheese. Okay. So Armstrong was a hardworking man, and he rose in the social community of the town, and he was appointed clerk to the justices. He also joined the volunteer force and rose to the rank of captain. Bearing in mind this is all, like, just before the First World War. Yeah. But then in 1914, he was called up, where he eventually gained the rank of major in the Royal Engineers' territory. Oh, wow. He didn't see an awful lot of action, but he did go to France from May to October in 1918. Mm-hmm. So he was there for five months or so. On the front line. On the front line, yeah. And after the war, he was quite commonly referred to as Major Armstrong. Just a year later, in May 1919, Kitty Armstrong, which is. That's what his wife was known as. Her name was Catherine, so she was known as Kitty. Kitty Armstrong's health began. Began to weaken. Oh, no. The symptoms that she was showing were diagnosed by the local doctor, Dr. Thomas Hinks, as a case of brachial neuritis. Now, brachial neuritis is a. It doesn't help much. A type of peripheral neurothopy that affect the chest, shoulder, arm, and hand. And peripheral neuropathy is a disease which itself demonstrates itself by pain or loss of function. And she didn't need to consult Dr. Hinks for over a year. That's good. But in 1920, her health, both physical and mental, deteriorated again. Oh no. Herbert Armstrong kept in close contact with Dr. Hinks and showed great consistency. concern for his wife, consulting relatives and friends, keeping them informed. Dr. Hinks found that Mrs. Armstrong was showing signs of mental collapse and came to the conclusion that it was connected to her illness. At the end of August, Mrs. Armstrong was admitted to Barnwood, which is a private mental asylum near Gloucester. When she was admitted, she was found to have a fever, she was vomiting, she had heart murmurs and albumin in her urine. Oh no. There was also partial paralysis in her hands and feet and a loss of muscle tone. Mrs. Armstrong was also delusional. She doesn't sound very well. She doesn't sound very well at all, does she? Her condition began to improve at Barnwood and she was discharged home in January 1921. Oh, that's good. But shortly after she got home, her condition got worse again and she died a month after her return on the 22nd of February 1921. Oh my goodness. Now, Dr. Hinks was very puzzled by Kitty Armstrong's symptoms, but nevertheless, on her death certificate, he recorded that she had died of gastritis, aggravated by heart disease and nephrotitis. Okay. So, outwardly, Herbert had shown tremendous amount of concern for his wife, sitting by her bedside, reading to her in the evenings and leaving his office early whenever possible to be with her. But it would seem that there had been problems in their marriage. Now, this case has been studied quite considerably over the years and people who have researched into this couple kind of assumed that the Armstrong's marriage was a failure or was at least failing because of the fact that she had died of gastritis. But it was also because of the domineering attitude of Mrs. Armstrong to her husband. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. And it was generally believed that Mrs. Armstrong, Kitty, Catherine Armstrong, was quite an unpleasant woman who regularly abused and humiliated her husband in public. Oh, no way. And it was not unnoticed that although the local newspaper described Mrs. Armstrong as a popular hey lady, as in a lady. From hey or my. Hey. Few people attended her funeral. So, yeah, there you go. That's interesting. However, on the other hand, Mrs. Armstrong, whenever separated from her husband, either because she was in hospital or when he was away at the war or whenever that they were separated, it is reported that she always wanted the family to be back together as soon as they could be. So, who's telling the truth? That's a tricky one. Well, whatever the truth, Herbert's service in the First World War had opened up new experiences for the major and he had had several affairs. And he also went to dances in Hay-on-Wye and made passes to local girls. On the day of Mrs. Armstrong's death, the servants in the house, this imposing house called Mayfield, closed all the curtains. As a mark of respect. But the first thing that Armstrong did when he got home was to open them all again. Okay. So, she's died after a period of bad health where she'd stayed in an asylum for a while. But nevertheless, her health has deteriorated and she's died. I don't actually know how old she was, but I'm guessing she would have been of a similar age. So, probably late 40s, that sort of age, possibly early 50s by this stage. Not particularly old. No. No. She's died. Not many people came to the funeral and it doesn't appear that Herbert Armstrong is that sad. Hmm. That's suspicious. Herbert Armstrong carried on his business as a solicitor, but he had a business rival in Hay-on-Wye, another solicitor called Oswald Martin. At one time, they were representing opposing parties in a property sale, the Villinwith estate, which could have resulted in Armstrong's death. And Oswald Martin was also involved in the sale. Oswald Martin was also involved in the sale. Oswald Martin was involved in the sale. than the sizes of another solicitor harold greenwood for the murder of his wife by poison which he supposedly made out that it was an illness that she had but greenwood in that case had been acquitted oh that's interesting also the fact that the three men who brought the charges to the police included armstrong's business rival oswald martin and his father-in-law which looked suspicious to some people as if herbert armstrong was being framed okay just kind of like looking like they're ganging up on him yeah and i mean it would be um easy to um you know try and frame him because um if they're working together they could combine and if they're they're able to get hold of the um right medication that could do this i wouldn't yeah too difficult would it yeah i mean oswald martin might be framing him so to to close down herbert armstrong's law yeah yeah so he could have been framed where the things have happened yes yeah the arsenic could have been planted on him if if oswald's father-in-law was the chemist free access to arsenic yeah the widespread belief was that he would be acquitted okay but the prosecution case was a strong one catherine armstrong's death was now clearly due to arsenic poisoning and armstrong had made huge purchases of arsenic well yeah you can't really sign that well no there had to be in a poison's book or something surely yeah so the defense had somehow to make the jury believe that mrs armstrong had committed suicide by getting out of bed going downstairs and helping herself to arsenic without anybody seeing or hearing her or that the massive doses of arsenic that were found in her body were somehow got into her system in an accidental way so you accidentally ingest that amount of arsenic do yeah it's it's not uh not likely is it no and i suppose the fact that he was very attentive to her visiting her yeah i mean no that's a great opportunity to uh you know administer some more yeah drink this cup of tea or have this water or whatever yeah it was particularly impossible for her to have done that herself because towards the end of her life she was virtually paralyzed she couldn't have walked or really done this yeah that's true so i guess it would be really difficult for the doctor to the doctor to administer it to her in her own home and for when she went away she got better yeah it would have been good there i wouldn't i guess if it wasn't and dr spillsbury the home office pathologist insisted that the fatal dose must have been taken and that's why she's now in the hospital and she's now in the hospital within 24 hours of her death okay when she was at home uh okay yeah and dr hinks affirmed that for mrs armstrong to have taken that dose herself was absolutely impossible so it's not looking good for her but is it no it doesn't sound like a suicide either so definitely i mean it definitely doesn't sound like a suicide so yeah not looking good for him so herbert armstrong had to explain his habits concerning arsenic or rather the white powder arsenic trioxide which he was buying he claimed that it was his practice to put small portions of arsenic into individual pouches which he squirted into the ground near spots where dandelions tended to grow one of these small pouches were found on him after he was arrested and there was no reasonable reason why he was carrying it around particularly as the arrest was made in december when yeah you don't need to be getting rid of dandelions not really no and armstrong did not come off well under questioning by justice darling concerning this point yeah exactly that why are you carrying arsenic to kill the lines in december after the trial two possible motives have emerged for catherine armstrong's poisoning firstly armstrong had decided he wanted a different more ingenial wife secondly catherine had written a will in 1917 leaving the bulk of her estate not to her husband but to their children okay armstrong produced a new will following his wife's death giving him control of her estate but studies suggest that it was probably forged oh no for some time before the vellon with estate affair armstrong's business had been in financial relation to the sale of that particular estate made things even worse for him however the evidence against armstrong though considerable was nonetheless only circumstantial no one had actually seen armstrong administering the poison and mrs armstrong had occasionally spoken of suicide some medicines contained arsenic and there were plenty of other people coming into contact with her at mayfield yeah that's true yeah yeah it wasn't just him and her was it there was a lot of other people kind of in and out of the house yeah yeah lots of other people it was a big house yeah the prosecution failed to show how it was armstrong and only armstrong who administered the poison as for the oswald martin poisoning other than gaining armstrong a little time the death of oswald martin would not in any way have relieved armstrong's business problems yeah that's true so they were saying well yeah what's the motive armstrong made no confession and adamantly maintained his total innocence but on the 13th of april 1922 at hereford shire hall he was found guilty of the murder of his wife oh no mr justice darling stated that he concurred with the jury's view and that it was absurd and unsupported by any evidence that mrs armstrong had committed suicide although it doesn't actually say that it was armstrong at gilda yeah nevertheless he was found guilty and he was sentenced to death oh no that was on the 13th of april the case went to appeal but on the 16th of may the court of criminal appeal dismissed his appeal so barely six weeks after the jury had found him guilty armstrong was hanged by john ellis at gloucester prison on the 31st of may 1922 oh no oh dear the news of the world reported that when asked by the prison governor on the morning of his execution if he had anything to say armstrong's last words were i am innocent of the crime for which i have been condemned to die oh dear i mean there's certainly quite a lot of reasonable doubt in there well there is i mean there's a lot of strong circumstantial evidence i suppose yeah yeah yeah yeah but who else would have wanted her dead yeah that's true tricky his story has been the inspiration of several works of fictions dorothy elsaez who is most famous for her law peter whimsy stories wrote a mystery novel called unnatural death okay which was kind of loosely based on story of herbert armstrong and she also wrote a novel called strong poison where a murderer is caught with packets of arsenic there's a novel by anthony barkley cox called malice of forethought which was written in 1931 okay and that also includes someone who uses arsenic to kill dandelions as part of the plot oh that's interesting can you still get arsenic to like kill flowers or no i don't think so you just get weedol or something yeah that's true which probably hasn't got arsenic in it yeah that's true so yes it's back in those days sort of at the end of the 19th century early 20th century where you could just go into a chemist and buy yeah arsenic and various other poisons over the counter for what would be fairly innocent reasons yeah killing dandelions but um yes to put in your mouse butter put in your mouse butter yes so i don't think we tend to see arsenic poisoning so much these days no you hear of um antifreeze poisoning yeah yeah so much arsenic probably because you can't get really you can't really get a hold of us no no so there you go that's the story of herbert armstrong the murder of his wife the attempted murder of oswald martin allegedly yeah um i'm not sure if he was found guilty of that or not it just says that the story ends with the fact he was found guilty of the murder of his wife there you go i guess if they knew they were going to hang him they probably didn't need to bother finding him guilty of something else did they maybe not yeah there we go really interesting story thank you very much hay on why is famous for its literary festival that they hold every year as well thank you very much for sharing that story you're very welcome you're very welcome yeah an interesting I will find some pictures. Thank you. Where will you share? I will put some pictures onto our Instagram account. At DadAndDaughterDoDeath. I'll upload them to Facebook. DadAndDaughterDoDeath. And if you'd like to email us about this or any of our other stories that we've covered, you can always get in touch with us. DadAndDaughterDoDeath at gmail.com. Be good to hear from you. Yeah, thank you for listening. Hopefully you found this as interesting as I did. And, yeah, let us know if you've got any questions, comments. Yeah, it'd be really good to hear from you. Suggestions would be lovely to hear from you. Although there are plenty more to talk about. Yes, I'm sure. Yeah, there's always more for us to find. Yeah. So if you found this story interesting, by all means, go ahead, look up the case of Herbert Armstrong. You'll find lots, I'm sure, out there. Yeah, have a look at that. Join us next time when, once again, Dad. And Daughter. Do. Death.