Richard Clifford Brinkley

Richard Clifford Brinkley was convicted of the murders of 55-year-old Richard Beck and 57-year-old Elizabeth Beck and sentenced to death.

He poisoned them with prussic acid at 32 Churchill Road, Croydon on 20 April 1907.

Richard Brinkley was a carpenter by trade but also dealt in dogs and fowls. He was described as a man of respectable appearance but of the worst possible character.

He had been friends for some years with an elderly woman who had lived in Fulham and whom had seemed to have expressed her intention of leaving her property to him, to the exclusion of her daughter and grand-daughters. However, in December 1906, with the help of another man, Richard Brinkley prepared a forged Will signed by the elderly woman in which she left her property to him. The witness signatures that were on the will were Richard Brinkley's friend who had helped him forge the will and that of a third man and it was dated 17 December 1906. The elderly woman died on 19 December 1906. As soon as the elderly woman died, Richard Brinkley took possession of the property.