By Tim Lambert
Sidney Fox was hanged in 1930 for the murder of his mother. Fox was born in Norfolk in 1899. His mother was Rosaline Fox. It’s not certain if Rosaline’s husband William, was his father. Before the murder, Sidney had a history of petty theft and fraud and spent time in jail.
In 1927, Fox’s mother met a 51-year-old woman called Charlotte Morse. Although Fox was gay, he began an affair with Mrs Morse. Fox also stole her jewellery and insured her life. One night, Mrs Morse awoke to find her room filling with gas. A gas tap behind a heavy piece of furniture had been turned on, so it was obviously not accidental. Fox was trying to murder the woman for her life insurance money. Mrs Morse told the police. Sydney was not convicted of attempted murder but of stealing and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
In May 1929, Fox and his mother began a life of staying in hotels and leaving without paying the bills. Sidney took out a life insurance policy on his mother, to expire at midnight on 23 October 1929. On that date, they were both staying at the Hotel Metropole in Margate. Mother and son were in adjoining rooms with a connecting door.
At 11.40 PM on 23 October, Fox raised the alarm that his mother’s room was on fire. Two other guests found the adjoining door closed. They found Rosaline Fox in a burning armchair. They pulled her out, but she was already dead. Sidney claimed he had left his mother reading a newspaper in her room. At first, it was thought the fire was accidental and Rosaline’s death was ascribed to shock and suffocation.
However, the insurance company was, not surprisingly, suspicious. It was just too convenient that Rosaline died just 20 minutes before the life insurance policy expired. The fire was supposed to have been started by a gas fire in the room but investigators found a patch of unburnt carpet between the fire and the armchair Rosaline was found in. The fire could not have spread from the gas fire to the armchair without burning the patch of carpet between them.
Even more suspicious, petrol-soaked newspapers and a can of petrol were found in the dead woman’s room. As a result of the investigation, the body of Rosaline Fox was exhumed. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury conducted an autopsy and claimed that the dead woman had been strangled before the fire started. There were no signs of smoke inhalation.
Sidney Fox went on trial at Lewes in March 1930. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury was adamant that Mrs Fox had been strangled and he claimed he saw a bruise on his throat. However, other doctors disagreed. They could not see the ‘bruise’ as it had disappeared as the body decomposed. It was possible, they argued that the ‘bruise’ seen by Spilsbury was just discolouration caused by the body decomposing. Spilsbury also had to admit that the hyoid bone (a small bone in the throat) was not broken. (It is usually broken during strangulation).
Fox did not help himself. He was asked why he closed the door to his mother’s rooms knowing it was on fire. Fox replied ‘so that smoke should not spread into the hotel’. The prosecution lawyer said ‘rather that your mother should suffocate in that room than smoke should get about in the hotel?’. Fox’s seeming callousness badly damaged his case. He was convicted of murder and he was hanged on 8 April 1930.
