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The Oxford English Dictionary is the principal historical dictionary of the English language. When it was originally compiled, volunteers were recruited to find and submit quotations of words in use. The principal contributor of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century quotes was Dr William Chester Minor. A task he did from Broadmoor Hospital, where he was held as a “certified criminal lunatic”. Let’s explore how this man, so tortured by mental illness that he became a murderer, found redemption in words.
William was born in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in June 1834. His parents were Congregationalist Church missionaries from New England. He was a sensitive boy who enjoyed painting and playing the flute. He also spoke several languages. At the age of 14, he was sent to live with an uncle to begin his medical studies. He would eventually graduate from Yale. In 1863, he became a surgeon for the Union Army.
From May 5th to the 7th, 1864, William was present at the Battle of the Wilderness, fought as part of the American Civil War. No side would claim victory, and it cost the lives of nearly 4000 men; it is a battle most notable for the awful casualties, including the burning alive of hundreds of soldiers. It is believed that being exposed to the full horrors of war was the trigger for William’s mental illness.
On one occasion, he was forced to brand the letter D into the face of an Irish deserter. This caused him a lot of mental torture, so much it would form the basis for some of his paranoid delusions. He feared the Irish Fenian Brotherhood, an organisation the soldier belonged to, would seek him out for revenge.
Once the war ended, William was posted to New York City, it was where he began to frequent the red light district. By 1867, his behaviour had deteriorated, and he was sent to a remote posting. In 1868, he was admitted to St Elizabeth’s Hospital. It was clear that he was very mentally unstable; he was permitted to resign his position on the grounds of quote “incapacitated by causes arising in the line of duty” end quote. He was given a full army pension.
He was discharged from the hospital in 1871, and he made the move to Lambeth, London. It is unclear if this was intended as a permanent move or a holiday that brought him across the pond.
William began to suffer from extreme paranoia, utterly convinced that the Irish were plotting their revenge against him. He took to carrying a loaded revolver with him.
At about 2 am on the 17th February 1872, William woke up believing a man was trying to break into his room. He gave chase to the intruder and shot the man in the street. Unfortunately, it was all a delusion, and the man he shot was George Merritt, a man simply on his way to work.
George was a stoker at Lion’s Brewery and was on his way to start his 2 am shift when William fired 4 shots at him on Tenison Street. Two shots entered his neck he was declared dead on arrival at St Thomas’s Hospital.
A policeman heard the shot and proceeded up Belvedere Road towards the noise when he encountered William on the other side of the road holding the gun. The constable enquired if he had fired and at whom. He indicated he had and said quote “A man, I should not be such a coward as to shoot a woman” Bystanders detained William, although he did not fight, and the gun was taken – it was still warm.
William was charged with murder at Southwark police station. He would not stand trial. On the 6th of April 1872, he was judged not guilty by reason of insanity and detained “ until her majesty’s pleasure be known” in Broadmoor hospital.
Eliza, George’s widow, spoke at the magistrates’ hearing of a 34-year-old family man who had been in his job for 8 years. They had 6 children aged 18 to 12 months, and she was carrying their 7th. The large family kept them poor but happy, but now, without him, she was in deep distress over how and if she could care for her family.
In Broadmoor, William was given 2 rooms and access to painting materials and books. He even had a visitor – Eliza. William was very wealthy and was financially supporting her. It was a highly unusual request for the victim’s family to have contact with the offender, but in this case, it seems to benefit both parties. Eliza began to visit monthly, bringing books from various bookshops in London for William.
In one of those books was an 8-page flier from the Oxford English Dictionary from the editor, Dr James Murray, requesting for volunteers to compile quotations for the dictionary. In this task, William found a new vocation. Unfortunately, Eliza’s visits would slow and then stop as she found numbness from her grief at the bottom of a bottle.
For 30 years, William would be the principal contributor of sixteenth and seventeenth-century quotes. Eventually, James would begin to visit Broadmoor.
In 1902, William’s mental health began to decline; he began to believe he was abducted nightly and transported around the world, where he would be forced to assault children in the worst way. He was so deeply disturbed by the delusion that he severed his own penis to prevent it from happening.
As his mind came apart, a campaign was waged to have William released and returned to America. In 1910, this was granted by the 35-year-old Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.
He would return to St Elizabeth’s Hospital, where medicine had finally found a name for what William was suffering with, and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1919, he moved to a retreat for the elderly insane in Hartford, Connecticut, where he saw out his days. He was laid to rest in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.