Augusta Fullam

Case identification

Augusta Fullam

Status

Augusta Fullam was sentenced to death in 1913. Her sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life because she was pregnant. She died of heatstroke in Naini Prison on May 28, 1914.

Background

Augusta Fullam was the daughter of a Bengal river pilot. She was described as “minoe memsahib of the British Raj,” and as “a tubby temptress with claws of steel.” She was portrayed as having shockingly fallen in love with half-Indian Dr Clark, who was born August 15, 1868, and who was described as her lover’s husband’s “half-Indian” partner. Her motive was described as freedom from matrimony so that the surviving partners could marry each other.

The offence

Augusta Fullam used poisoning by arsenic. A double murder plan involved dispatching Louisa Clark while Clark was absent setting up a false alibi. The plan also involved procuring slaying by assassins with sword-slashes to the head. The murders were described as involving “slow poisoning” by packets of arsenic masked as “tonic powders.”

The source described that Augusta’s husband Edward resisted dying. Augusta sprinkled arsenic on his supper or slipped it into his tea. Eventually, Lieutenant Clark decided to finish him off with a huge dose of poison, administering it himself.

The source also described that the murder of Louisa Clark involved four assassins breaking into the house and striking Louisa Clark with a sword, smashing her skull. The noise woke the Clarks’ daughter, Maud, who screamed and caused the robbers to flee.

Investigation

Agra police’s suspicions fell on Augusta and Clark. The source described that Inspector Smith called at Augusta Fullam’s house and noticed a box hidden under the bed. When he asked what was in it, Augusta turned bright red “and fell like a heap into a chair.” Inside the box were 370 love letters described as containing every detail of how Augusta and Lieutenant Clark had planned their crime.

Trial

Augusta and Clark were tried jointly at Allahabad High Court in 1913, and both were found guilty and sentenced to death.

The assassins were tried separately: three were hanged, and one got off on alibi.

Sentencing

Augusta Fullam received a death sentence in 1913. Her sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life because she was pregnant by Clark. The source stated a son was born in prison, and that he survived and lived a good life.

Clark was sentenced to death and was hanged on March 26, 1913.

Augusta served 15 months before dying the following year.

Outcome

Augusta Fullam died of heatstroke in Naini Prison on May 28, 1914, aged 38.

Quotations (verbatim)

Augusta Fullam wrote:

• “Oh Harry, my own precious darling, your letter today is one long yearning cry for your little love.”
• “Yesterday, I administered the powder you left me… the result? Nil.”
• “My hubby returned the whole jug of tea… saying it tasted bad.”
• “Since 4pm [he’s] vomited eight times… vomited ten times at a quarter to nine… vomited 12 times at ten pm.”
• “I give him half a tonic powder every day in his Sanatogen, lovie darling, because it lays on the top of the white powder quite unsuspiciously.”
• “My very own precious lovie,” she had written when she and Clark first started administering the arsenic, “don’t you think our correspondence rather risky?”

The source included:

• “and fell like a heap into a chair.”

Timeline

• 1911 (October 10) — Augusta Fullam and Clark began poisoning Edward using arsenic.
• 1912 (November 17) — The Clark-related date was given in the case details.
• 1913 — Augusta Fullam and Clark were tried jointly at Allahabad High Court; both were found guilty and sentenced to death; Clark was hanged on March 26, 1913; Augusta’s death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life because she was pregnant.
• 1914 (May 28) — Augusta Fullam died of heatstroke in Naini Prison.

Other details

The source described:

• Augusta kept “her own incriminating letters to Clark” in a trunk.
• The trunk of letters was found.
• “The letter begins like many a private love letter.”
• The death certificate recorded the cause of death as heart failure.
• The source described that colonial India had “never before seen such a spectacular double murder.”