Dr Death hits home
The murder of Mary Laura Cross, aged 46, by her husband, a retired army surgeon aged 63, of Shandy Hall, Dripsey, led to a sensational court case. The surgeon major was found guilty of using arsenic to poison his wife and was sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out at Cork County Gaol.
As in all murders, the facts of the case as revealed in court are merely the tip of the iceberg. Underneath lies the motive, in this case marriage to an attractive 21-year-old woman, Effie Skinner, who had been the family’s governess and was pregnant with Dr Cross’s child. Mrs Cross died on June 1 and even though she was buried in haste, and different explanations for her death were given to different people, suspicions were not aroused until Dr Cross returned from a trip to England on June 26 with a new wife — the former governess, Effie Skinner.
