Palmer made large sums of money from the deaths of his wife and brother after collecting on life insurance, and by defrauding his wealthy mother out of thousands of pounds, all of which he lost by gambling on horses.

[1] As a seventeen-year-old, Palmer worked as an apprentice at a Liverpool chemist, but was dismissed after three months following allegations that he stole money.

[1] After returning to Staffordshire later that year Palmer met plumber and glazier George Abley at the Lamb and Flag public house in Little Haywood, and challenged him to a drinking contest.

[1] Still heavily in debt, with two creditors (to whom he owed £12,500 and £10,400[10]) threatening to speak to his mother and thereby expose his fraud, Palmer attempted to take out life insurance on his brother, Walter, for the sum of £84,000.

The pair found that Palmer had also been attempting to take out £10,000 worth of insurance on the life of George Bate, a farmer who was briefly under his employment.

[11] On 26 June/27 June 1855, Tharme gave birth to Alfred, Palmer's illegitimate son, thus increasing the financial burdens on the physician.

With Palmer's life and debts spiralling out of control, he planned the murder of his erstwhile friend John Cook.

[1] Afterwards Cook was violently sick and told two friends, George Herring and Ishmael Fisher, that, "I believe that damn Palmer has been dosing me".

[1] On 21 November, not long after Palmer administered two ammonia pills, Cook died in agony at about 1:00 am, screaming that he was suffocating.

[1] The jars were sent off to Alfred Swaine Taylor, who complained that such poor quality samples were of no use to him, and a second post-mortem took place on 29 November.

[1] Palmer also wrote to the coroner himself, requesting that the verdict of death be given as natural causes, enclosing in his letter a £10 note.

[13] The defence case suffered adverse comment from the judge because Shee had, against all rules and conventions of professional conduct, told the jury that he personally believed Palmer to be innocent.

[14] The prosecution team of Alexander Cockburn and John Walter Huddleston possessed fine forensic minds and proved forceful advocates, especially in demolishing the testimony of defence witness Jeremiah Smith, who had insisted that he had no knowledge of Palmer's taking out life insurance on his brother, despite Smith's signature being on the form.

"[15] Circumstantial evidence came to light: Palmer's financial situation was also explained, money lender Thomas Pratt telling the court he lent money to the accused at 60% interest, and bank manager Mr Stawbridge confirming that Palmer's bank balance had stood at £9 on 3 November 1855.

Few medical witnesses actually had any experience in human cases of strychnine poisoning, and their testimony would have been considered weak by 21st-century standards.

[1] Approximately 30,000 people were at Stafford prison on 14 June 1856 to see Palmer's public hanging by executioner George Smith.

"[18] Shortly after the execution, a newspaper reported: Some scholars believe that the evidence should not have been enough to convict him, and that the summing up of the judge was prejudicial.

[22] The incident involving Palmer at the autopsy of Cook is glancingly referred to in Dorothy L. Sayers's 1928 murder mystery novel The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.