On 9th June 1958 43-year-old Mary Helen Marymont was admitted in a critical condition to the hospital on the air base at Sculthorpe, near Fakenham in Norfolk. She had collapsed after attending a luncheon in Kings Lynn. When her husband was informed that his wife was dying he expressed no particular concern over her sudden illness. Despite all efforts to save her she had died. Doctors told the 37-year-old Master Sergeant that they suspected poison and that there would have to be a post mortem. He initially agreed to this but then later withdrew his consent.

The authorities were already suspicious and continuing their investigations they discovered that the man had been having an affair with 23-year-old Cynthia Taylor who he had met in a night-club in Maidenhead. She was a married woman but who was separated from her husband. He had told her that he was married but that his wife and children were living in the States.

They also found out that Marymont had tried to buy arsenic from a chemist's in Maidenhead and that he had asked two civilian cleaners at the base where he could obtain arsenic from. Marymont's objections to a post mortem were overruled and the pathological indications were that the dead woman had ingested arsenic about 24 hours before she collapsed.

Marymont denied administering arsenic to his wife when he appeared before a US General Court Martial at Denham, Bucks, in 1958. He was found guilty of murder and of misconduct with Cynthia Taylor and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was taken back to Fort Leavenworth Prison, Kansas, to serve his sentence. 

Real-Crimer.co.uk