A poisoner somewhat after the manner of Mary Ann Cotton (q.v.) Mary Wilson used phosphorus to dispose of her first husband, and her lover, a chimney sweep who lodged with the couple in Windy Nook. Both were certified as dead of natural causes and the widow benefited by £46.
In 1957, when she was 64, Mary married a retired estate agent, Oliver James Leonard, aged 75, after first enquiring of Leonard's landlady: 'Has the old bugger any money?' The wedding took place at Jarrow Register Office. Thirteen days later, Leonard died, apparently of natural causes. The same view was taken of the death of her third husband, a namesake, Ernest Wilson. Mary's brazen jokes about her victims (she cheerily asked the undertaker to quote her trade rates) brought her to the attention of the police. Despite being defended by Rose Heilbron QC, assisted by the celebrated forensic expert Dr Francis Camps, Mary Wilson was sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment, and she died in Holloway Prison after serving 4 years.