R.J. Parker: The Serial Killer Compendium

December of 1946 – Emily Louise Mortimer died at age seventy-five. Afterwards, Adams took a bottle of brandy and a clock from her room. He claimed the clock had been loaned by him and that it was not “right to leave spirits in a nursing home.” Adams received the remainder from Mortimer's will and by 1957 had earned £1,950 in dividends from the shares he inherited.

February 23, 1950 – Amy Ware died at the age of seventy-six. Dr. Adams had prohibited her from seeing relatives prior to her death. She left Adams £1000 of her total estate of £8,993, yet Adams stated on the cremation form that he was not a beneficiary of the will. He was charged and convicted for this in 1957.

December 28, 1950 – Annabelle Kilgour died at age eighty-nine. She had been attended by Adams since July when she had a stroke. She went into a coma on December 23, immediately after Adams started giving her sedatives. The nurse involved later told the police that she was very certain Adams either gave her the wrong injection or far too concentrated a type. Mrs. Kilgour left Adams £200 and a clock.

January 3, 1952 – Adams purchased 5,000 Phenobarbitone tablets. By the time his house was searched four years later, none were left.

May 11, 1952 – Julia Bradnum died at the age of eighty-five. The previous year, Adams asked her if her will was in order, and accompanied her to the bank to check. On examining it, he pointed out that she had not given her beneficiaries addresses and that it should be rewritten. She had wanted to leave her house to her adopted daughter, but Adams suggested it would be best to sell the house and then give money to whomever she wanted, and that is what she did. Adams ultimately received £661. While Adams attended Bradnum, he was frequently seen holding her hand and chatting to her on one knee. The day before Mrs. Bradnum died, she had been doing housework and going for walks. The next morning she woke up feeling sick. Adams was called. He gave her an injection and stated, "It will be over in three minutes.” It was. Adams then confirmed, "I'm afraid she's gone," and left the room.

Mrs. Bradnum was exhumed on December 21, 1956. Adams had written on the death certificate that she had died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Dr. Francis Camps examined her brain, however, and excluded this likelihood. The rest of the body, unfortunately, was not in good enough condition to ascertain the real cause of death. Furthermore, it was noticed that Adams, the executor, had put a plate on Bradnum's coffin stating that she had died on May 27, 1952. This was the date her body was interred.

November 22, 1952 – Julia Thomas, seventy-two, was being treated by Adams (she called him "Bobbums") for depression after her cat died in early November. On the 19, Adams gave her sedatives so she would feel "better for it in the morning.” The next day, after more tablets, she went into a coma. On the 21 he told Thomas' cook, "Mrs. Thomas has promised me her typewriter, I'll take it now.” She died at 3 am the next morning.

January 15, 1953 – Hilda Neil Miller, eighty-six, died in a guesthouse where she lived with her sister, Clara. They had not been receiving their mail for several months previously, and were cut off from their relatives. When Hilda's long-standing friend, Dolly Wallis, asked Adams about her health, he answered her with medical terms she "did not understand.” While visiting Hilda, Adams was seen by her nurse, Phyllis Owen, to pick up articles in the room, examine them, and slip them in his pocket. Adams arranged Hilda's funeral and burial site himself.

February 22, 1954 – Clara Neil Miller died at age eighty-seven. Adams often locked the door when he saw her for up to twenty minutes at a time. When Dolly Wallis asked about this, Clara said he was assisting her in "personal matters” – pinning on brooches, adjusting her dress. His fat hands were "comforting" to her. She also appeared to be under the control of drugs. Early that February, the coldest for many years, Adams had sat with her in her room for forty minutes. A nurse entered unnoticed and saw Clara's "bed clothes all off and over the foot rail of the bed, her night gown up around her chest, and the window in the room open top and bottom while Adams read to her from the Bible. When later confronted by Detective Hannam regarding this, Adams said, "The person who told you that doesn't know why I did it.”

Clara willed Adams £1,275 and he charged her estate a further £700 after her death. He was the sole executor of her will. Her funeral was arranged by Adams and only he and Annie Sharpe, the guesthouse owner, were present. She received £200 in Clara's will; Adams tipped the minister a guinea after the ceremony. Clara was one of the two bodies exhumed during the police investigation on December 21, 1956. Dr. Francis Camps concluded that she had suffered from bronchopneumonia, probably brought about by high drug doses, not a heart problem, as Adams had said on the death certificate. According to prescription records, Adams had not prescribed anything to treat the bronchopneumonia.

May 30, 1955 – James Downs, brother-in-law of Amy Ware (see above), died at the age of eighty-eight. He had entered a nursing home with a broken ankle four months earlier. Adams treated him with a sedative containing morphine which made him absentminded. On April 7, Adams gave his nurse, Sister Miller, a tablet to give to Downs to make him more alert. Two hours later, a solicitor arrived for Downs to amend his will. Adams told the solicitor that he was to be made a beneficiary to inherit £1000. The solicitor amended the will and returned two hours later with another doctor, Dr. Barkworth, who confirmed the patient to be alert. Dr. Barkworth was paid three guineas for his time. Nurse Miller later told police that she had heard Adams earlier in April tell the "senile" Mr. Downs, "Now look Jimmy, you promised me you would look after me and I see you haven't even mentioned me in your will. I have never charged you a fee.” Downs died after a thirty-six-hour coma, twelve hours after Adams's last visit. Adams charged his estate £216 for his services and signed Downs' cremation form, stating he had "no financial interest in the death of the deceased.”

March 14, 1956 – Dr. Alfred John Hullett died at only seventy-one. He was the husband of Gertrude Hullett. Shortly after his death, Adams went to a Chemist to get a 10cc hypodermic morphine solution in the name of Mr. Hullett containing five grains of morphine, asking for the prescription to be backdated to the previous day. The police alleged this was to cover morphine Adams had given him from his own private supplies. Dr. Hullett also left Adams £500 in his will.

November 15, 1956 – Annie Sharpe, owner of the guesthouse where the Neil Millers’ had died, and consequently a major witness, died suddenly of carcinomatosis of the peritoneal cavity while detectives Hannam and Hewett were in London conducting their investigation. Adams had diagnosed her with cancer just five days earlier, and had given her a prescription for hyperduric morphine and thirty-six Pethidine tablets. The police were very frustrated. They’d had two chances to interview Sharpe, and Hannam and Hewett felt she had been about to reveal information. She was cremated quickly, precluding an investigation into her death. Detective Hannam also revealed that four members of Adams' household staff had been given morphine, heroin, or Pethidine by Adams in prescription form. Adams obtained these on the National Health Service, leading the detectives to conclude that he was merely using their names and keeping the drugs for his own supplies an act of fraud.

In the aftermath of the trial, Adams resigned from the National Health Service and was convicted in Lewes Crown Court on July 26, 1957, on eight counts of forging prescriptions, four counts of making false statements on cremation forms, and three offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1951; he was fined £2,400 plus costs of £457. His license to prescribe dangerous drugs was revoked on September 4 and on November 27 he was removed from the Medical Register by the GMC. Adams continued to see some of his more steadfast patients, prescribing over the counter medicine to them.