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The Balham Mystery- murder of Charles Bravo

21/4/2021

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Charles Delauney Bravo was a British lawyer who was fatally poisoned with antimony On This Day 21 April 1876 .

The case is still sensational, notorious and unresolved.

The case is also known as The Charles Bravo Murder and the Murder at the Priory.

It was an unsolved crime committed within an elite Victorian household at The Priory, a landmark house in Balham, within the historic parish of Streatham.

Leading doctors attended the bedside, including the Streatham-based royal physician Sir William Gull, and all agreed that it was a case of antimony poisoning. The victim took three days to die but gave no indication of the source of the poison during that time. No one was ever charged with the crime.
Florence Riccardo whilst living in Furzedown area of Streatham became friendly with a widow, Jane Cannon Cox, the daily governess to the Brookes’ daughter. Florence moved with Jane as her companion to the Priory, a large white, painted, house on Tooting Bec Common off Bedford Hill.

After ending her affair with Dr Gully and in an effort to regain her family and respectability Florence married Charles Bravo a young barrister. Unfortunately he turned out to be a fortune hunter and a violent and mean bully.

His mysterious death in April 1876 turned out to be murder and Florence, Jane and Dr. Gully were the main suspects in arguably the most mysterious murder of the 19th century.
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(Florence also lived at 10 Leigham Court Road 1873/74 and Dr. James Gulley lived at 43 Leigham Court Road in 1872.
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Charles Bravo

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Florence Bravo

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Dr James Gully

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    Mark Bery, Secretary Streatham Society

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