In 1898, 51-years old Mrs Sands was living at 25 Anson Road Cricklewood. For some time she and her neighbours had been receiving nasty anonymous letters and parcels. This had been going on for several years but came to a head in January when she was sent a parcel containing live black beetles. She reported it to the Post Office who conducted an investigation.
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She was Elizabeth Frances Colechin, born about 1847 in Kingston Jamacia. At the time of the 1871 census, her father William was a surveyor in the War Department, living in Portsea. In 1876 Fanny had married William Gregory Sands a merchant, and they had two sons who were born in Japan. But he died four years later in Kobe, and Fanny and the boys returned to England where they first lived at 40 Perham Road in West Kensington.
About 1894 she became friends with Josephine Chilcott who lived with her mother and stepfather in Fulham. Josephine was the youngest of four children of Mary Seymour Swatridge who married George Alfred Chilcott in April 1854 in Bradpole Dorset. He lived at Stratton Mill in Dorset, and was a miller and corn dealer, shown as employing five men and boys in the 1861 census, together with two female servants. However, business was not going well and in 1867 George Chilcott went bankrupt. Soon after, he and the family emigrated to Canada where he became a farmer. It seems the marriage broke down, and by 1871 Mary and the four children had moved to York Township in Toronto where she was running a servant registry. George stayed on the farm and he died seven years later in Bruce Canada.
While in Toronto Mary may have met Canadian-born Frederick Arthur Verner, who was also living there. He was a well-known artist, famous for his paintings of buffalo and Native American people. Mary returned to England and in October 1882 she married Verner in Liverpool. Frederick, Mary, and Josephine lived at 16 Edith Villas Fulham.
The first time Mrs Sands heard about anonymous letters and parcels was in 1895 when Miss Chilcott showed her some of the letters which she received. Then Mrs Sands began to receive them as well. In July 1895 she moved to Cricklewood but they continued to arrive at her new address.
On Boat Race Day, 3 April 1897, she noticed the handwriting on the letters was similar to Josephine’s. Mrs Sands asked Josephine, in front of her mother, if she had written the letters, and she said No. At this point, Mrs Sands refused to have anything more to do with her. The letters and parcels which contained old clothes, bricks, empty bottles, and insects continued to arrive. Mrs Sands name had been given anonymously to the police accusing her of being a party to murdering a very young child whose body had been found in a parcel by the railings of the Marylebone Workhouse.
An advertisement was placed in the London Standard announcing the wedding of Henry Carter to Fanny Elizabeth Sands, widow of the late W. Sands, at St George’s Hanover Square. An advert was also placed in the papers for a lunatic attendant and Mrs Sands received dozens of letters for the job.
She received two letters asking her to renew their friendship. Both letters were from the country and purported to be from dying companions of Miss Chilcott – they were bogus letters written in disguised handwriting. When Mrs Sands replied the letters were returned as address unknown.
Since she had moved to Cricklewood she had received hundreds of letters containing vile allegations. All her neighbours had also received them accusing Mrs Sands of being a prostitute and a murderer. She had employed private detectives to trace who was sending them.
Detective Cartwright, working for Post Office, had kept observation and on 12 January 1898 he saw Miss Chilcott posting the parcel which they found later had contained the live beetles, to Mrs Sands.
DS Edwin Butler attached to the Post Office, with Detective Inspector Nash of X-Division, arrested Josephine Chilcott in the Fulham Palace Road Post Office. In the cab on the way to the police station, she had torn up a letter. Butler managed to re-arrange some of the pieces of the letter to Mrs Sands which mentioned live insects.
While Josephine was in custody, he and DI Nash searched her bedroom where they found letters in the same handwriting as the parcels sent to Mrs Sands, and a notebook with details and dates of when the letters and parcels were sent. The last entry was 12 January.
She was held in the cells overnight and released on £100 bail, due to appear at the West London police court on 26 January, charged with sending live insects and threatening letters through the post.
But three days earlier, 34-years old Josephine was found dead in her bed by the servant Mabel Armstrong at noon.
At the inquest, PC Daniels investing for the coroner, said he found half a bottle of chloroform hidden under the mattress in Miss Chilcott’s bedroom. Dr Blake of North End Road Fulham confirmed that her death was caused by chloroform.
Giving evidence, Thomas Bodfish, an omnibus timekeeper, and ex-policeman, said about two years ago Mrs Sands and Josephine came to him to complain about parcels being delivered to 16 Edith Villas and asked him to watch the house, but he had not seen anything suspicious.
There were letters, cards, and parcels. Some addressed to Miss Chilcott, ‘The Sunday School Teacher’, others to ‘The Kensington Prostitute’. The night before her death Josephine had asked him to go to the police court and speak for her. She said she was distressed and could not face the court hearing.
During their search of her bedroom, the police found a note written by Josephine saying her stepfather Mr Verner had threatened to kick her out. ‘He will not have me with detectives here drinking whisky’. Mrs Verner said her husband objected to Josephine helping the private detectives who had been employed by Mrs Sands. Frederick Verner denied threatening to throw her out saying they had a good relationship. He believed the letter was one of Josephine’s delusions.
Mrs Verner said Josephine was entirely broken down by her experience of staying in the cell and appearing before the magistrate. She had always suffered from insomnia and neuralgia. Josephine had been ‘perfectly infatuated with Mrs Sands’ and was very upset by the breakup of their friendship. But Mrs Verner did not know what the disagreement was about. The day before her death, two men had called separately at Josephine’s house, and she told her mother one of them tried to kiss her and demanded she tell the truth in court.
Mabel Armstrong who had been a servant at the house for 12 months, said Josephine was ill after the men had visited the house. She knew Josephine had bought some chlorodyne but never seen her take chloroform. Parcels had been coming to the house for some time addressed to Mrs Sands, and Miss Chilcott had redirected them.
Rev. Walter Paton Hindley, of St Clement Vicarage, Fulham, said the deceased had been a teacher and the superintendent (unpaid) in his Sunday school. During the eight years he had known her there was nothing he saw or heard to make him think she was unchaste. She had refined manners and had tried unsuccessfully to get work as a governess.
He had recently received a letter signed by Henry Major Kemble. Who said he was very sorry Josephine was dead. He had called at the house offering to help her in court. She had believed he came from Rev. Hindley (which he did not). He strongly denied that he tried to kiss her. He did not give evidence at the inquest and it is not clear why he had gone to Josephine’s house.
After hearing the evidence, the inquest jury returned a verdict of suicide during temporary insanity.
It seems that Josephine was a troubled young woman, prone to delusions. Had she initially sent herself letters and parcels to gain attention, and then bombarded Mrs Sands and neighbours with abusive letters when her friendship with Mrs Sands ended?
We do not have enough information about her or her mental state to clearly understand this sad and very odd story.
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