Harold Greenwood

On 17 June 1919, Mabel Greenwood died in the company of her husband Harold Greenwood (1874 – 17 January 1929) an English solicitor. Greenwood was accused and acquitted of murdering his wife by arsenic poisoning. He was tried at Carmarthen Assizes in 1920 and defended by Edward Marshall Hall; his case is a rare example of a legal professional being charged with murder.

Facts Harold Greenwood, a Yorkshire solicitor, moved to Wales in 1898 where he, his wife Mabel (née Bowater) and their four children lived comfortably with domestic staff, in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire. Mabel was not in good health and on 16 June 1919, complained of stomach pains after eating a gooseberry pie for lunch; "it always disagrees with me", she said. The jury had been told that Greenwood had purchased weedkiller containing arsenic. The case was Hall's third murder trial of the year, and he was already in poor health; however, he decided to accept the brief, despite doubts expressed by others, claiming "The man's innocent, and I'll get him off – you'll see".

Greenwood, with his second wife, moved to Sellack, near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, changed his name to Pilkington, and lived an uneventful life until his death in 1929.