The fire crackled softly as Mary Ann Cotton sat by the hearth, her hands smoothing the edge of a quilt with care. She looked every bit the grieving mother, the sorrowful widow. Those around her saw a woman beaten down by tragedy, her life marked by loss after loss. But they couldn’t see the truth hiding behind her gentle smile.

Wherever Mary Ann went, death seemed to follow. Husbands, children, and lovers all fell, one by one. People whispered about bad luck, but the shadows in her wake told a different story. Was it just fate, or was something far more deliberate slipping unseen into the lives of those closest to her?

Macabrium is produced by Macabrium Creative and hosted by Megan Alda and Derek Stephen Brown, with writing and research by Chloë Kibbe, Megan Alda and Derek Stephen Brown. 

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Episode Reference Material 


Women Who Kill by Katherine Ramsland 

Mary Ann Cotton and Arsenic Poisoning in the Victorian Era by Rose Stavely-Wadham

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