Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (May 27 1850 - November 16, 1892) was a serial killer, who claimed his first victims in the United States and the rest in England. Cream poisoned his victims and was executed after his attempts to frame others for his crimes brought himself to the attention of London police.

Some sources state that his last words as he was being hanged for his crimes were an apparent claim that he was Jack the Ripper. Although he was imprisoned at the time of the Ripper murders, this alleged incident led to much notoriety.

Early life

Born in 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland, Thomas Cream was raised in Quebec, Canada, after his family moved there in 1854. He was an excellent student at school and, later, college. He went to study medicine in London in 1876; he had an added incentive for crossing the Atlantic since he had just married a woman he had made pregnant, the bride's family having forced Cream to the church literally at gunpoint.

The honeymoon was only just over when Cream left in the night for England, leaving a note to explain his absence to his new wife. He returned to Canada long enough for his wife to die of a mysterious illness, a death for which he would later be blamed. He went to Edinburgh to practice medicine, but when a woman with whom he was alleged to have had an affair was found dead, pregnant and poisoned by chloroform in an alleyway, in August 1879, Cream relocated to the United States.

Chicago conviction

Cream went to Chicago and set up a medical practice not far from the red-light district, offering illegal abortions to prostitutes. He was investigated after a woman he had allegedly operated on died, but he escaped prosecution due to lack of evidence.

On July 14, 1881, a man named Mr. Stott died of strychnine poisoning. Cream was arrested, along with Mrs. Stott, who had obtained poison from Dr. Cream to do away with her husband, whom she suspected of cheating on her. Mrs. Stott turned states evidence to avoid jail, which left Cream to face a murder conviction on his own. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served at Joilet Prison .

Although Cream was undoubtedly a psychopath who disliked women, the treachery of Mrs. Stott no doubt increased his misogyny. He was released ten years later after his brother pleaded for leniency , allegedly also bribing the authorities.

Gaslit streets of London

Using money from his recently deceased father's inheritance, Cream, then aged forty-one, went to Britain, arriving in Liverpool on October 1, 1891. He went to London and settled down in Lambeth. Victorian England was the centre of the vast and wealthy British Empire, but in places such as Lambeth, there was poverty, petty crime and prostitution.

On October 13 that year, Ellen "Nellie" Donworth, a 19-year-old prostitute, went out for a few drinks with Cream. She was severely ill the next day and died on October 16 from strychnine poisoning.

On October 20, Cream dated a 27-year-old prostitute named Matilda Clover. She was ill following that evening and died the next morning; her death was at first recorded as related to her alcoholism.

On April 2, 1892, after a vacation in his home country of Canada, Cream was back in London where he attempted to poison a woman who, finding him suspicious, refused to consume the drinks he was trying to give her.

On April 11 Cream met up with two prostitutes, Alice Marsh, 21, and Emma Shrivell, 18, and talked his way into their flat where he offered them bottles of Guinness. Cream was long gone by the time the strychnine he had added to the drinks took effect later that night. Both women died in agony.

Capture

Cream's downfall came through an attempt to frame two respectable and innocent doctors. He wrote to the police accusing these fellow doctors of killing several women, including Matilda Clover. Not only did the police manage to quickly determine the innocence of those accused, but they also realised that there was something significant within the accusations made by the anonymous letter-writer. Namely, he had referred to the murder of Matilda Clover. In fact, Clover's death had been noted as natural causes, related to her drink problem. The police knew that the false accuser who had written the letter was the serial killer now referred to in the newspapers as the 'Lambeth Poisoner'.

Not long afterwards, Cream had met a policeman from New York City who was visiting London. The policeman had heard of the 'Lambeth Poisoner', and Cream was considerate enough to give him a brief tour of where the various victims had lived. The American policeman happened to mention it to a British policeman who, understandably, found Cream's knowledge and interest in the case suspicious.

The police at Scotland Yard put Cream under surveillance, soon discovering his habit of visiting prostitutes. They also liaised with the police in the United States and learned of their suspect's conviction for a murder-by-poison in 1881.

On July 13, 1892, Cream was charged with the murder of Matilda Clover. His trial lasted five days, between 17 and 21 October that same year. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

The death penalty was a quick process in Victorian England. Less than a month after his conviction, on November 16, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison.

"I am Jack..."

According to some sources, his last words were reported as being "I am Jack...". This was interpreted to mean Jack the Ripper, but the words were muffled by a hood. Experts note that this whole incident may be nothing more than a story invented at a later date, as police officials and others who attended the execution made no mention of this alleged interrupted confession. Records show he was still imprisoned at the time of the murders (1888) , but some authors have suggested that he could have bribed officials and left the prison before his official release, or that he left a look-alike to serve the prison term in his place. Neither notion is seen as very likely by most scholars.