Grisly crimes of the Dark Angel Story of Victorian female serial killer who murdered 2. Its nearly 1. 50 years since Mary Ann Cotton, Britains first serial killer, was sent to the gallows, but the shame still hangs heavy over her descendants. Cotton is believed to have killed three of her four husbands to inherit their money, along with 1. And she used only two weapons to carry out her cruel and calculated killing spree her sex appeal and arsenic. Its little wonder ITV has turned her shocking story into a two part drama Dark Angel, fittlingly starting on Halloween night, the very day Cotton was born in 1. The show is sure to make uncomfortable viewing for her surviving relatives, many of whom still keep their gruesome family history a secret. Read More. Joanne Froggatt playing Mary Ann Cotton in the new ITV drama. One of her great great grandsons, who still lives in Sunderland, only discovered he was related to Cotton in his mid 2. And he only agrees to speak about his grea great grandmother under the cover of anonymity. He says Its such a strange, dark secret for a family to have. To say it came as a shock when my dad told me, quite casually, that she was a direct relative, is an understatement. Track Lovers In Japan. Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff were listening to at. The word that was passed down through the family was that she was an attractive woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. I was out drinking with some friends and realised the pub we were in overlooked the spot where my great great granny was hanged for murder. Not many people can say that. Read More. Mary Ann Cotton was hanged after she killed 2. Photo Daily MirrorCottons family may remember her as attractive, but for generations the only two pictures of her a photograph and a drawing made her look either frumpy or demonic. But the Mirror can reveal a new picture, which shows Cotton as the original femme fatale, whose striking looks made her irresistible to the men she ensnared. The sketch was drawn by retired forensic artist Norman Kirtlan, afterstudying existing images and reading descriptions of Cotton, at the request of his former Northumbria Police colleague Supt Stephanie Yearnshire. Dark Angel Episode 15 Boxing Episode' title='Dark Angel Episode 15 Boxing Episode' />Short Episode Guide for Family Matters. GameRevolution. com is a property of CraveOnline Media, LLC, an Evolve Media, LLC company. All episodes Expanded View List View Upcoming Episodes Recent Episodes. Family Guy Episode Guide. All of your favorite Family Guy Episodes in detail. Normas version of Cotton is eerily similar to Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt Anna Bates in the show 3. Watch Elektra Download Full. Dark Angel. Stephanie says There were only two images in existence of Mary Ann Cotton. One of them shows what appears to be an old woman in a black and white shawl and her bonnet tied under her chin. The other has clearly been manipulated to bring her brows down into a very severe frown. Newspaper report detailing Cottons execution Photo Newcastle Chronicle. As soon as I saw his drawing I knew I was looking at the face of the real Mary Ann. This was a woman who was expert at seducing men, she was attractive and intelligent as well as being calculating and ruthless. Joanne has said of playing the real life figure Her story starts off as a story of desperation, really. How murderer Mary Ann Cotton was depicted in Victorian times Photo Newcastle ChronicleThis wasnt a story just about a one dimensional person that does horrible things. This was a story about a woman in that time period who had to make desperate choices. Once shes done it once, its now something that has changed her. Shes lost a part of her humanity after doing that deed and therefore the next time it makes it easier, the actress said. Cotton was born Mary Ann Robson in Low Moorsley in County Durham, which is now part of the town of Houghton le Spring. She left home at 1. William Mowbray in Newcastle when she was 2. They moved to Cornwall where they had five children, four of whom died from what was thought at the time to be gastric flu, including three year old Margaret in 1. John in 1. 86. 2. They are now believed to have been their mothers first victims. Cotton viewed her children as inconveniences who stood in the way of her climbing the social ladder and getting her hands on cash. The atmospheric series stars Downton Abbeys Joanne Froggatt. Video Loading. Video Unavailable. The video will start in 8. Beyblade V Force Episode 1. Cancel. From this point on in her life, many who came close to Cotton died in mysterious circumstances. Only years later did it become obvious all were victims of her poisoning, usually in their soup or tea. She killed first husband William in January 1. It was a trick she repeated several times. Cotton moved back to the North East, got a job at an infirmary in Sunderland and within eight months of being widowed she married a patient, George Ward. A year later George had died intestinal disorder and his widow was spending his life insurance. In 1. 86. 7, Cotton moved home to care for her sick mother Margaret Stott, then 5. She murdered her nine days later, possibly in revenge as she loathed George Stott, the man her mother had married after her father Michael Robson died. Joanne Froggatt and Alun Armstrong filming Dark Angel Photo Evening GazetteThat same year she moved on to shipwright James Robinson, who she married before killing two stepsons and a stepdaughter. James survived because he threw Cotton out after discovering she had stolen more than. By the end of 1. 87. Cottons son Robert from her marriage to Frederick, and yet another stepson. For years, Cotton avoided suspicion as the symptoms of arsenic were similar to many common gastric diseases. Her undoing came when she tried to get Fredericks remaining son Charles thrown into the poorhouse. Joanne Froggatt and Alun Armstrong filming Dark Angel Photo Evening GazetteWhen she failed she told the official I wont be troubled long hell go the same way as the rest of the Cottons. Five days later, the lad, aged 1. The official raised the alarm and a post mortem, which was carried out on the kitchen table, revealed arsenic in his stomach. During the case, Cottons neighbour Jane Hedley, who watched Nattrass die, said I saw him have fits. He twisted his toes and his hands and worked them all ways. Cotton, then 4. Charles and sentenced to hang at Durham jail on March 2. Her death was as grisly and violent as her victims. The execution was botched and she thrashed at the end of the hangmans rope for three minutes before he pressed down on her head and choked her to death. Joanne Froggatt in Dark Angel Photo Evening GazetteOnly two of Cottons children survived George, from her marriage to James Robinson, and Margaret Edith Quick Manning the product of an affair with a married man who was born in prison while Cotton was awaiting trial. A week before her execution Cotton, gave Margaret up to be adopted by a local couple she knew and the child survived to old age, dying in 1. Dark Angel is based on an investigation into Cottons crimes by David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University. Prof Wilson, who makes a cameo as Cottons lawyer in the series, said When I first started looking into her crimes I visited the North East towns and villages where she lived. The overriding impression that I got from the people I met during the course of my work up there was that she was misunderstood and had somehow been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. What I actually found was the complete opposite of that. I uncovered evidence of her poisonings when I found toxicology reports that were stored in the Brotherton Library at Leeds University. Joanne Froggatt will star as Cotton Photo Getty ImagesThe only conclusion I could reasonably reach was that Mary Ann Cotton is one of the coldest and most ruthless murderers this country has ever produced. She is up there in the top three British serial killers along with Dr Harold Shipman and Dennis Nilsen. In my view she was a psychopathic killing machine. Her method was to poison her victims, leaving what she hoped would be no trace of her crimes.