The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo by Tim Vicary. Part 10.
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Chapter 11. The mystery
Did Charles Bravo kill himself, or was he murdered? After listening to everyone’s story, the Coroner came to a decision. After listening to everyone’s story, the Coroner came to a decision.
The Times
Friday 11th August 1876
Charles Bravo Murdered!
Yesterday the Coroner read out this decision: ‘Mr Charles Bravo did not commit suicide and he did not die by accident. He was murdered with the poison antimony. But it is impossible to say which person – or persons – killed him.’
But was the Coroner right? And if so, who killed Charles Bravo? Over the years since 1876, many books and television programmes have asked these questions. But they have all given different answers.
The police learnt that the coachman, George Griffiths, was in Kent when Charles Bravo died, and his new employer said that was true. So Griffiths was not the murderer, but was he telling the truth when he said there was no antimony left in the stables? Perhaps there was some antimony left there – and someone found it, and used it. Or perhaps the antimony didn’t come from the stables at all.
Here are the four main possible answers to the mystery.
First possible answer: Charles Bravo killed himself
It is difficult to believe that Charles Bravo meant to kill himself. Why would he do that? He was young and healthy, he seemed happy, he had a rich wife – he had every reason to live. And to die from antimony is a very painful, horrible death.
But perhaps he killed himself by accident. Is that possible? Think about it. Charles Bravo was not a very nice man. He married Florence for her money, not because he loved her. He hit her when she argued with him. She drank a lot of wine, and he didn’t like that. Maybe he found the antimony in the stables, and put a little in her wine, to stop her drinking. After all, Florence did that to her first husband.
If he was using antimony in this way, perhaps he put some antimony in his water bottle by mistake; then forgot about it, and later drank from the bottle when he was thirsty.
Mrs Cox said he told her: ‘I have taken some of that poison.’ Did he really say that? And did Mrs Cox know which poison he was talking about? Probably not. She told Dr Harrison he had taken chloroform.
But then, if Charles knew he had taken antimony by mistake, why didn’t he tell the doctors about it? ‘I only took laudanum, nothing else,’ he told them. And laudanum didn’t kill him.
Second possible answer: Dr Gully killed Charles Bravo
Dr Gully loved Florence. He wanted to marry her. He hated Charles Bravo, and he was worried and angry when Jane Cox told him that Charles sometimes hit Florence. Did Dr Gully write that letter to Charles Bravo saying: ‘You don’t love her. You just wanted her money, that’s all.’ ? Charles Bravo certainly thought so.
Dr Gully certainly wrote to Mrs Cox, and sent her medicine for her mother. He was a doctor, he could easily buy antimony if he wanted. And maybe he thought: ‘If Charles Bravo is dead, then Florence will come back to me.’
But then, how could he get into the house, and into Charles Bravo’s bedroom, to put the poison in the water bottle? No one saw him there; he hadn’t been inside the house for months. But perhaps he did buy the antimony. And perhaps another person put it in the water bottle. Jane Cox, perhaps? Or Florence?
Dr Gully lived until 1882. The last years of his life were unhappy. No other doctors would speak to him or read his books. He didn’t spend much time with Florence, either. She wasn’t interested in him any more.
Third possible answer: Jane Cox killed Charles Bravo
Jane Cox was Florence’s companion and her friend. She knew and liked Dr Gully but she thought he was too old for Florence. So she introduced her to a younger man, Charles Bravo.
At first she thought Charles was a good husband for Florence, but she soon changed her mind. He was angry and unkind; he hit Florence when she argued with him. He got rid of many servants, and he tried to get rid of Jane Cox, too. So Jane Cox would lose her friend, and her job. She had three sons at school – how would she pay for them?
Mrs Cox knew Charles Bravo drank from his water bottle every night. She could easily go into his bedroom and put antimony in the bottle.
There are many questions about Jane Cox.
When Charles opened his bedroom door, shouting for hot water, why didn’t Mrs Cox come out? She wasn’t asleep. But she did nothing until the maid, Mary Ann, came to fetch her. And then, when she went into Charles’s bedroom, she sent Mary Ann out, again and again. Why? Because she wanted to be alone with Charles, perhaps? What did she do when she was alone with him? Give him more poison, perhaps? Burn the rest of the antimony on the fire? Clean out the water bottle, to make sure there were no grains of antimony left inside?
Why did she send for Dr Harrison, when Dr Moore lived much closer? Was she telling the truth, about what Charles said to her?
Some people say that Mrs Cox did it, because she was afraid of losing her job. She was a poor widow and needed the money.
But there is a problem with this, too. Jane Cox’s aunt, who lived in Jamaica, was very rich. And her aunt was dying. A month before Charles Bravo died, this rich aunt had left all her money to Mrs Cox’s sons.
So Jane Cox didn’t really need a job any more. And after Charles’s death, she stopped working for Florence. She took her sons to Jamaica, and lived in a big house there. She was a rich lady, and died in 1917, aged ninety.
Perhaps she did kill Charles Bravo. But she didn’t do it for the money.
Fourth possible answer: Florence killed Charles Bravo
Florence’s first husband, Alexander Ricardo, died because he drank too much. Before she left him, Florence tried to stop him drinking by putting small amounts of antimony in his wine, to make him sick.
Florence was a very rich young woman. She had a fine house, with lots of servants and horses. She liked to do things her own way. But she lived at a time when men told women what to do. When a man married a woman, all her money belonged to him. If a wife argued with her husband, the husband often hit her.
When Alexander hit her, Florence ran away, to Dr Gully. Dr Gully was the only man in her life who was kind to her. But she couldn’t marry him, because he was too old and his wife was still alive. So she married Charles Bravo instead.
She was only married to Charles for five months. They had many arguments, and he often hit her. He sold her horses; he got rid of her coachman, George Griffiths. They argued about money, they argued about servants, they argued about her drinking. She lost her baby, and he tried to get rid of her friend, Jane Cox. Florence had many reasons to hate him.
Was she really asleep, when he drank the poison? Charles shouted for help outside her bedroom, but she didn’t hear him. She lay in bed with her eyes closed.
Did she find some antimony in the stables? Did she put the antimony into his water bottle?
But then, when she woke up, she tried hard to save him. She sent for five different doctors. All the doctors thought she was very upset. And Charles didn’t think she had killed him. ‘You’ve been the best of wives,’ he said. His cousin, Dr Royes Bell, heard him. Charles left all his money to her.
After the enquiry, Florence Bravo left The Priory and went to live in Southsea, on the south coast of England. Her brother invited her to start a new life with him in Australia, but she refused. In Southsea she was lonely and unhappy. She didn’t talk to Jane Cox or Dr Gully. She drank more and more wine every day. In September 1878, two years after her husband’s death, she died. She had killed herself by drinking so much alcohol. She was thirty-three years old.
So did she love her husband, or did she kill him?
No one knows.