A TALE of a ‘doctor gone wrong’ is at the heart of a prolific author’s new book.

The murderous story of Dr George Henry Lamson, who is thought to have killed his two brothers-in-law, has been told by Dr Jan Bondeson in Doctor Poison.

Dr Lamson, who studied in Edinburgh before going on to run medical practices in England, was eventually caught by police and sentenced to death for the killing of Percy Malcolm John in April 1882.

However, Dr Bondeson was convinced – as were Lamson’s barrister and police detectives – that the doctor had also killed another brother-in-law, Hubert John.

Dr Bondeson, from Dunbar, said: “There was not sufficient evidence to prosecute him because it had happened several years earlier.

“Dr Lamson had a strange life. He was a morphine addict who destroyed his prospects as a doctor.

“He used to have practices in Rotherfield, where he murdered Hubert, but he had to leave because he was so addicted to morphine.

“He could not handle the practice anymore and moved to Bournemouth and became incapable of running his practice.”

Dr Bondeson, 59, is no stranger to writing about gruesome murders.

Earlier this year, he told the story of a dozen unsolved murders in London, including that of prostitute Harriet Buswell, who was killed on Christmas Day.

It was during the writing of that book, which was reissued this year, that he came across the story of Dr Lamson.

Dr Bondeson said: “Back in 2018 or 2019, I wrote a book called Victorian Murders about various murders in Victorian times.

“Dr Lamson was one of the cases and I was surprised how much new material could be found about him.

“There had not been a modern study of him in the last 60 years and it seemed a good idea to remedy that and write a story of Dr Lamson using modern research, as well as files from the National Archives in Kew.”

Dr Lamson had been a military doctor before taking on the medical practice in Rotherfield, East Sussex.

After he married, he gained two brothers-in-law: Hubert, who had tuberculosis, and Percy, who had scoliosis.

In 1879, during a family gathering, Hubert died suddenly, with his cause of death listed as pulmonary consumption and amyloid degeneration.

Just two years later, Dr Lamson persuaded Percy to swallow a gelatine capsule, with forensic scientists later finding he had been poisoned with the uncommon vegetable toxin aconitine.

Dr Lamson was later found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

Dr Bondeson said: “During his criminous and wasted life, Dr Lamson had accomplished some good but also much wickedness; short and evil had been his days, as he stood on the scaffold counting one or two more seconds, the longest-lasting in his life, waiting for the drop to open.

“The police detectives, and even Lamson’s barrister Montagu Williams, felt certain that Dr Lamson was a double murderer, having poisoned both his brothers-in-law for the sake of profit.

“Comparing his murderous career with those of the prolific medical killers Palmer and Pritchard, it indeed seems likely that Dr Lamson murdered Hubert John as well and got away with it.”