RUDDICK, James 1923-

PERSONAL: Born June 11, 1923, in Elmira, NY; son of James H. and Mary Cordelia (Litzelman) Ruddick. Education: Fordham University, 1940-44; Woodstock College, A.B., 1946, Ph.L., 1947, S.T.L., 1956; St. Louis University, M.S., 1950, Ph.D., 1952. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Canisius College, 2001 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14208. E-mail—ruddick@canisius. edu.

CAREER: Writer, journalist, and educator. Joined Society of Jesus, 1940; ordained Roman Catholic priest, 1955. St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ, instructor in physics, 1947-48; Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, assistant professor of physics, 1957-64, associate professor of physics, 1964—, director, seismology station, 1969—. Jesuit Community, rector, 1971—; Senate Priests, Buffalo Diocese, vice president, 1973-74; St. Peter's College, Jersey City, JN, trustee, 1970-76; Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, trustee, 1971—.

MEMBER: New York Academy of Sciences, American Physics Society, Optical Society of America, American Association of Physics Teachers, Sigma Xi.

WRITINGS:

Lord Lucan, the Truth about the Century's MostCelebrated Murder Mystery, Headline (London, England), 1994.

Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder inVictorian England, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: A murder mystery more than 125 years old is the focus of James Ruddick's Death at the Priory; Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England. The 1876 poisoning of prominent attorney Charles Bravo has long puzzled sleuths; even Agatha Christie declared it "one of the most mysterious poisoning cases ever recorded," wrote Paul Collins in New York Times Book Review. In Death at the Priory, Ruddick presents new evidence and detailed investigation which, he believes, points directly to the obvious culprit in the murder.

Ruddick is an ordained Roman Catholic priest and a lifelong journalist and educator. In Death at the Priory, Ruddick covers in detail the fatal poisoning of barrister Charles Bravo. "The sensational 1876 domestic poisoning," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, is highlighted by "archetypal mystery elements, including a gloomy south London mansion, inscrutable servants, rejected lovers, a despicable victim, and a protagonist embodying her era's tortured sexual politics." The murder and the resulting inquest, which revealed sexual indiscretions on the part of Florence Bravo, generated as much public interest and notoriety as the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper twelve years later.

The story begins with Florence Campbell, "an uncommonly independent young woman," wrote Mike Snyder at the HoustonChronicle.com Web site, Yet Florence "was the proverbial bird in the gilded cage," wrote Mary Ann Gwinn in a review at the Seattle Times Web site. "A young and beautiful daughter of a famous industrialist, she was raised in a 10-bedroom mansion surrounded by 3000 acres of parkland," Gwinn noted. However, Victorian England imposed considerable restrictions on young women of the time, barring them from education and professional work, forcing them into arranged marriages, and widely denying them rights that are taken for granted in modern society.

Florence married Alexander Ricardo but left him seven months after their marriage, after discovering he was an abusive, philandering alcoholic. However, she was ordered to return to him by her father. Instead, her mother arranged a stay at a sanatorium for Florence to recover before attempting a reconciliation with Ricardo.

The sanatorium Florence attended, called the Hydro, was managed by Dr. James Gully, a noted physician who had attended notables such as Dickens, Darwin, Gladstone, and Disrali. Gully, over forty years Florence's senior, "was kind and solicitous," Synder remarked, "and his attitudes about women were beyond progressive for his time." Florence finally left Ricardo for good, and he died shortly thereafter, leaving Florence a considerable fortune. But soon it was revealed that Gully and Florence had been engaged in an extended affair, before and after Ricardo's death, and the affair ended bitterly with an abortion, a lurid scandal, and Florence's social humiliation and ostracization.

Then Florence met Charles Bravo, "a socially respectable lawyer of her own age, and managed—with the help of her housekeeper, Mrs. Cox—to attract a marriage proposal from him despite her damaged reputation," Snyder wrote. Florence's wealth "was no doubt a major factor," Snyder observed. Charles Bravo turned out to be just as unpleasant and domineering as Ricardo, seizing control of Florence's fortune and abusing her psychologically and sexually. Bravo soon began indiscriminately dismissing Florence's servants at their south London mansion, the Priory. At risk of firing and attendant poverty was Mrs. Cox, "fiercely loyal to her mistress and facing the prospect of dismissal at Bravo's hands," Snyder wrote, and George Griffiths, a former coachman "publicly bitter about his recent sacking by Bravo," wrote Jackson.

One night in July, 1876, someone slipped a lethal dosage of poison into Bravo's bedside drinking water. In the "fifty-five excruciating hours" it took Bravo to die, wrote Thomas Jackson in Forbes FYI, his physicians had plenty of time to determine that he had been deliberately poisoned—but neither they, nor Bravo himself, could say who had done it.

The list of suspects, however, was lengthy. At first, suspicion focused on Mrs. Cox, because she seemingly provided misleading information to doctors and investigators in the case. Following the sensational inquest that revealed all the details of Florence Bravo's indiscretions, it was concluded that there was insufficient evidence to name a murderer. British authorities never solved the crime. Jane Cox eventually settled in Jamaica, and Florence Bravo, after the ordeal of the inquest, "drank herself to death," Snyder wrote.

Death at the Priory "is as full of dastardly villains and ladies in distress as any bodiceripper, but it also maintains a scholarly meticulousness," wrote a Kirkus Reviews critic. "Masterful detective work and storytelling keep the suspense high through the final pages."

More than a century and a quarter later, Ruddick "has uncovered fresh evidence, and he believes he's got the mystery licked," Jackson wrote. Following a trail of evidence across the Americas, Europe, and Australia, "Ruddick has done much admirable sleuthing," remarked Collins, and Snyder observed that "His research was impressively thorough—he reviewed original investigative documents, interviewed descendants of the principal characters, and traveled to Jamaica, where Jane Cox had settled after Bravo's death."

Nicola Upson in New Statesman wrote, "True crime can license greater flights of the imagination than fiction, but Death at the Priory has its feet refreshingly on the ground, and what Ruddick lacks in style he makes up for with exhaustive research . . . and, most importantly, considerable social and historical awareness to produce a solution that is not just plausible, but inevitable."

In addition to primary sources, original documents, and descendants of participants, Ruddick also had access to evidence previously inaccessible to other researchers of the Bravo case. This new evidence, including unpublished letters and family papers, provided "a rather surprising detail about Mrs. Cox that arguably cracks the case," Jackson wrote.

Although critics generally believed Ruddick's investigation to be exhaustively thorough and his conclusions effectively presented, some still questioned his solution to the mystery. "Ruddick's evidence is certainly persuasive, if not conclusive," Snyder remarked. A Kirkus Reviews contributor observed that Ruddick's work had produced a satisfactory solution with considerable support by the evidence, although it is a solution that is "not, perhaps, airtight." To Upson, "Ruddick's conclusions are hardly shattering, and the final twist, the moment of realization, never quite happens." Robert C. Jones, writing in Library Journal, remarked that Ruddick "has produced a book that is both murder mystery and social history," but further concluded that Death at the Priory "is not convincing in either capacity." Snyder remarked that "Ruddick's investigation is essentially a distraction from the far more interesting story of Florence Campbell, who defied the rigid social conventions that amounted to the enslavement of women in Victorian England."

Still, "Ruddick is extraordinarily good at dissecting a woman, her marriage, and society," Upson wrote. "The order and 'normality' demanded of Victorian women came at a dreadfully high price," Gwinn observed, concluding that "Ruddick traces, with precise logic, forces that dictated that Florence Bravo's ordeal would end with blood on the drawing-room floor."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Armchair Detective, spring, 1996, S. M. Tyson, review of Lord Lucan, the Truth about the Century's Most Celebrated Murder Mystery, p. 250.

Forbes FYI, March 4, 2002, Thomas Jackson, review of Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England, p. 84.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2001, review of Death at the Priory, p. 1472.

Legal Times, February 25, 2002, Beth Johnston, review of Death at the Priory, p. 25.

Library Journal, October 15, 2001, Robert C. Jones, review of Death at the Priory, p. 93.

Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2002, Merle Rubin, "Fabled Murder Case Gets a Retelling—and a New Ending," p. E3.

New Statesman, October 8, 2001, Nicola Upson, "Who Killed Bravo?" p. 53.

New York Times Book Review, February 10, 2002, Paul Collins, review of Death at the Priory, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, October 22, 2001, review of Death at the Priory, p. 59.

online

HoustonChronicle.com,http://www.chron.com/ (May 9, 2002), Mike Snyder, "A Victorian Murder."

Seattle Times Web site,http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ (May 9, 2002), Mary Ann Gwinn, "Victorian Murder Mystery Reveals the Dark Side of the British Class System."*