Miss Hickman

[A.P. Wolf]

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has ever looked at the case of Miss Hickman, a famous female surgeon before her time, who was found badly dead and decomposed in Richmond Park. She refused to go away, as this much later article from The Times in 1909 indicates:

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/miss20hickman1.jpg

[Chris G.]

Here's a pdf download:

Susan Collinson, "The Case of the Missing Doctor," (http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/reprint/14/2/83.pdf) Sketches from the history of psychiatry (Women, suicide and insanity at the turn of the century), Psychiatric Bulletin 1990;14:83-86.

The article chronicles the case of Miss Sophia Frances Hickman, MD Bruxelles, LRCP, LRCS Edinburgh, a locum tenens at the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, reported missing in August 1903. It looks as if it was a case of suicide, a hypodermic syringe being found near her body, and evidence introduced at the inquest that before her disappearance she had purchased 15 grains of sulphate of morphine. Her body was found to be "in repose" and there was no sign of sexual interference.

Chris

[Chris G.]

Inquest testimony as reprinted in Frederick John Smith and Alfred Swaine Taylor, editors, The Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence by the Late Alfred Swaine Taylor (http://books.google.com/books?id=P6RDAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA306&lpg=RA1-PA306&dq=%22Richmond+Park%22+body+Hickman&source=bl&ots=ThxrHXoklB&sig=BxJCPQIqPxiNOp2noqPjNK4dhv0&hl=en&ei=dizzSrPXFZWV8AbkiPXpAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Richmond%20Park%22%20body%20Hickman&f=false). 5th Edition. Churchill, 1905, pp. 306-8.

Chris

[A.P. Wolf]

It does sort of look like suicide, Chris, mainly inspired by the shaky testimony of a single witness, but that doesn't really explain the surgical knife that was later discovered close by where her body had lain - and it didn't belong to Miss Hickman, as all her surgical instruments were inscribed, this one wasn't - and it certainly doesn't explain the fact that her head had been removed from her body.
Some suicide technique that.

[Chris G.]

It does sort of look like suicide, Chris, mainly inspired by the shaky testimony of a single witness, but that doesn't really explain the surgical knife that was later discovered close by where her body had lain - and it didn't belong to Miss Hickman, as all her surgical instruments were inscribed, this one wasn't - and it certainly doesn't explain the fact that her head had been removed from her body.
Some suicide technique that.


How about disturbance by a dog or some other animal, AP? Hmmmmm?

"Dr. Gardiner, living at Richmond, deposed that he was a registered medical practitioner and police-surgeon of the division.

"Examination before Removal.—Dr. Gardiner said: 'On Sunday, October 18th, about 10.30 p.m., I was summoned by the police to view the body of a woman that had been lying in one of the plantations in Richmond Park. The police required me to see it previous to removal. I went to the plantation and saw the body. The body was lying on the ground as near as I could guess about eight yards from the iron fence which surrounded the plantation, and was covered by the leaves and boughs of rhododendrons. The body was lying on the left side and slightly prone, the head pointing towards the direction of Richmond Hill. The left arm was fully extended at right angles to the body palm up ; the right arm was across the chest and tucked in below the left breast; the thighs were flexed slightly upon the abdomen, the legs flexed upon the thighs. The left leg was drawn up more than the right, and the right ankle was in the hollow of the left foot. The body was clothed, and the clothes were in no way disarranged. The head was separated from the body, and lay about five or six inches away and slightly behind the middle line; it was turned up as if looking over the right shoulder. The head and face were denuded of all soft parts with the exception of a little integument on the occipital bone. The lower jaw was detached and lying a little in front of the middle line of the body, partly covered by leaves and partly by a large straw hat, which was lying upon and among leaves, crown up. The lower jaw was devoid of tissue, and several teeth were lying beside it, having dropped from the jaw. The neck appeared to be gone, but in the line of the neck, and close to the body, I found the second cervical vertebra. The hands and feet appeared to be gnawed.' . . ." [Emphasis added]

[A.P. Wolf]

It would be a determined dog that could part a human head from its body, but perhaps there were still hyeanas in Richmond Park in the early part of this century, as they are just about the only scavenger capable of gnawing through such bone mass. I'd respectfully suggest that if a wild animal had removed the head it would have moved it a good deal more distance than we see in this case.
One also has to consider that the body was found hidden deep within the vegetation, which appears to preclude the possibility of Miss Hickman laying down to take a sleep, as is the suggestion.
Much evidence was disallowed at the inquest, and never heard, particularly in regard to the syringes and drugs supposedly in Miss Hickman's possession.
If this was suicide then I'm the Maharajah of Cooch Behar.

[SirRobertAnderson]

Inquest testimony as reprinted in Frederick John Smith and Alfred Swaine

Nice dinner time conversation.

I presume they believed an animal ate her brain ? I'm not saying that's not the case, just asking.


"The head was entirely detached, the cervical vertebrae all detached with the exception of the seventh; all the other cervical vertebrae were missing with the exception of the second. The skull was denuded of all soft parts, and exhibited no fractures and no wounds, bullet or other. The face was long and oval; the upper and lower jaws when placed in position were opposed; many of the teeth in both jaws had dropped out; some were stopped with gold, and others with amalgam. The brain had gone."

[Chris G.]

Hi Sir Bob and AP

It is a mystery and I have no definitive answers. Although you will note that Susan Collinson, author of "The Case of the Missing Doctor," in the Psychiatric Bulletin for which I gave the reference to the pdf of the article, seems comfortable enough with the verdict. That having been said, this might be a case where outside influence was brought to bear on the coroner to reach a verdict of suicide while insane (like the influence of Michael Maybrick in the Maybrick inquest to implicate Florence as James's murderer), the conduct of Miss Hickman's father before the discovery of her body being untoward and bizarre in claiming she was being kept prisoner by nuns, etc.

Chris

[Chris G.]

If this was suicide then I'm the Maharajah of Cooch Behar.

But, AP, I thought you were the Maharajah of Cooch Behar.

Chris

[Chris G.]

Interesting mention of the site of Miss Hickman's demise in the diary of Virginia Woolf for May 1918 (http://books.google.com/books?id=MWts3hAbrR4C&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq=%22Virginia+Woolf%22+Hickman+Richmond+Park&source=bl&ots=8R01nRUDVU&sig=1XcxirjQyO9PUGtrkihVU3cMU44&hl=en&ei=w-PzSvrMH8vU8AbniPHzCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Virginia%20Woolf%22%20Hickman%20Richmond%20Pa rk&f=false):

". . . I wandered through Richmond Park in the moonlight with Desmond. We jumped a palisade into Miss Hickman's funeral grove, & found the dark green mounds pointed with red rosettes. The rhododendron is a lovely flower for the moonlight."

Chris

[Robert Linford]

Needless to say, the situation didn't change.

April 20th 1914

[SirRobertAnderson]

being untoward and bizarre in claiming she was being kept prisoner by nuns, etc.

Chris

We are all, in some fashion, kept prisoners by nuns.

I like the part about it taking 4 guys to lift her body. She must have been a rather large woman.