Arsenic and Ashes: The Story of Britain’s First Female Serial Killer

Step back into the fog-filled streets of Victorian England, where sickness, sorrow, and secrecy brewed behind every door. Britain’s First Female Serial Killer: The Mary Ann Cotton Story uncovers the chilling true tale of a woman who turned comfort into killing — and tea into terror.Mary Ann Cotton was no ordinary mother or wife. Beneath her calm smile and gentle voice hid a cold calculation: arsenic, life insurance, and death served one cup at a time. Between the 1850s and 1870s, over twenty of her loved ones — husbands, children, even her own mother — perished mysteriously, their deaths dismissed as “stomach fever.” But one doctor’s suspicion exposed the truth and shattered England’s illusion of innocence.This episode blends deep emotion, historical realism, and shocking twists to explore how desperation, deceit, and greed could transform an ordinary Victorian woman into one of the most prolific killers in British history.