The Curious Habits of Dr Adams: A 1950s Murder Mystery

'Was rich Mrs Gertrude Hullett murdered at her luxurious 15-room home on Beachy Head?Detectives are tonight trying to establish the cause of the 50-year-old widow's sudden death . . . ' Daily Mail, 1957In July 1957, the press descended in droves on the south-coast town of Eastbourne.An inquest had just been opened into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs Bobbie Hullett.She died after months of apparent barbiturate abuse - the drugs prescribed to calm her nerves by her close friend and doctor, Dr John Bodkin Adams. The inquest brought to the surface years of whispered suspicion that had swept through the tea rooms, shops and nursing homes of the town.The doctor's alarming influence over the lives, deaths and finances of wealthy widows had not gone unnoticed - it was rumoured that the family doctor had been on a killing spree that spanned decades and involved 300 suspicious cases.Superintendent Hannam of Scotland Yard was called in to investigate. The Curious Habits