Cambridgeshire Murders by Alison Bruce Page A

referred to Susan’s suicidal tendencies, but said that he had dismissed the idea that his wife had killed herself, as he was sure that she would have killed him and their daughter too. She had told him that she liked the idea of the three of them dying together.
    The statement of Mary Butterfield, Susan’s midwife, with her account of the tragedy of Susan’s lost children, touched the court. Butterfield described how Elias Lucas had returned home two hours after the birth of their last child and stated that he wished he were not married: if he had known the troubles that would come his way with marriage to Susan he would not have proceeded, even if her father had given her a dowry of £1,000. Butterfield added:
    I told him not to say anything then, as it was a difficult time. This was not in the room where his wife was. He afterwards went to her room and said the same to her, I believe. He then came down and went out to work. I found his wife crying. On the Sunday after he asked me if the child was likely to live or die. I said I thought it did not look like a dying child. I went away on Monday. The deceased had a good getting-up.
    Despite this, the baby had died and further rumours spread around the village that it too had been the victim of foul play. Mary Butterfield’s daughter, also called Mary, took over from her mother and stayed for some days with Susan Lucas. She stated that, ‘Lucas had eight pigs. I used to feed them. He came home one day in the week and said he thought the pigs grew well, and he would keep the little cad-pig (the least of the lot) till he married again, and have a green leg of pork for his dinner. He said he should marry this Mary Reeder, and went into the house. So did I.’ She went on to say that Lucas told his wife he would keep this cad-pig until he married her sister. Sarah had said that it would never come to pass, for they never would allow him to marry her sister. But Mary also admitted that she had only heard him say this on that occasion and she had not thought that he sounded serious. Equally, she couldn’t comment about to whom she may have repeated this story, so which of the following witnesses were genuine and which were repeating gossip is impossible to judge. It is fair to say though that some of the comments, that Lucas was reported to have made, would have been shortsighted coming from someone contemplating murder.
    Two young women, Anne Ives and Emma Brown, claimed to have bumped into Lucas when they were on their way to Haverhill and said that he had told them that he had a bastard child coming, had been sick of married life from the first night and wanted to get rid of his wife, wishing she would die or go away. Both women denied seeing Mary Butterfield before their court appearances.
    Elizabeth Webb, another Castle Camps resident, recounted a conversation with Lucas that initially seemed more in his favour. According to her account, he had explained how the three messes had already been made when he arrived home and that he had been told to take the largest. Mary had taken the next and his wife the remaining one. His had contained sugar, but the other two had salt and pepper. His wife had complained at the taste of hers and eventually he put it down for the cat. But instead of continuing in his favour, Elizabeth Webb reported that Lucas had commented to Susan, ‘Damn it, that does not taste bad; I would eat mine if it killed me.’ This was reprinted in newspaper and handbill accounts and the public were encouraged to take it as a wicked private joke shared with his lover. Lucas was further damned by public opinion when it was reported that he was full of levity during the trial, often turning towards friends in the gallery and laughing out loud when a tin box containing part of his dead wife’s digestive tract was produced.
    In his closing statement Mr Couch, speaking for the defence, argued that there had been insufficient motive