Eastbourne
Adams arrived in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1922, where he lived with his mother and also his cousin, Sarah Florence Henry. In 1929 he borrowed £2,000 (£90.6 thousand today) from a patient, William Mawhood, and bought Kent Lodge, an 18-room house in Trinity Trees (then known as Seaside Road), a select address. Adams would frequently invite himself to the Mawhoods' residence at meal time, even bringing his mother and cousin. He also began charging items to their accounts at local stores, without their permission. Mrs Mawhood would later describe Adams to the police as "a real scrounger". When Mr Mawhood died in 1949, Adams visited his widow uninvited and took a 22-carat gold pen from her bedroom dressing table, saying he wanted "something of her husband's". He never visited her again.
Gossip regarding Adams's unconventional methods had started by the mid 1930s. In 1935 Adams inherited £7,385 from a patient, Matilda Whitton. This is equivalent to £380 thousand today. The will was contested by her relatives but upheld in court, though a codicil giving Adams's mother £100 was overturned. Adams then began receiving "anonymous postcards" about him "bumping off" patients, as he admitted in a newspaper interview in 1957. These were received at a rate of 3 or 4 a year until the war, and then commenced again in 1945.
Adams stayed in Eastbourne throughout the war, and was "furious" at not being deemed desirable by other doctors to be selected for a "pool system" where GPs would treat the patients of colleagues who had been called up. In 1941 he gained a diploma in anaesthetics and worked in a local hospital one day a week, where he acquired a reputation as a bungler. He would fall asleep during operations, eat cakes, count money, and even mix up the anaesthetic gas tubes, leading to patients waking up or turning blue. In 1943, his mother died and in 1952 his cousin Sarah developed cancer. Adams gave her an injection half an hour before she died and according to historian Pamela Cullen, this is the only "case where it can be considered that the Doctor was 'easing the passing'".
Adams's career was very successful, and by 1956 "he was probably the wealthiest GP in England". He attended some of the most famous and influential people in the region, including MP and Olympic medal winner Lord Burghley, society painter Oswald Birley, Admiral Robert Prendergast, industrialist Sir Alexander Maguire, the 10th Duke of Devonshire, Eastbourne's Chief Constable Richard Walker and a host of businessmen. After years of rumours, and Adams's having been mentioned in at least 132 wills of his patients, on 23 July 1956 Eastbourne police received an anonymous call about a death. It was from Leslie Henson, the music hall performer, whose friend Gertrude Hullett had died unexpectedly while being treated by Adams.
Read more about this topic: John Bodkin Adams