Books: Mysterious story of Kinsale doctor in US who died at 33

Was Kinsale doctor Robert Acton murdered by his wife?

This is the question Macroom author Adrienne Acton is hoping the people of Cork will be able to help her answer, after she published a book about her great-grand uncle.

Robert Acton was born in Kinsale in 1867, and died aged 33 in 1900.

His cause of death was put down as a morphine overdose by the attending physician, Dr Goodman, but no autopsy was performed at the request of his grieving widow, Grace.

She was inconsolable at his death, by all accounts, and so her request to leave her husband’s body untouched was granted. After all, who would want to upset this meek and grieving well-to-do lady?

A few months after his family had learned of Robert’s untimely death, there was a knock at the door of his brother’s house in Kinsale. The guest was brought into the parlour.

There was stunned silence when she introduced herself as Robert’s widow, Mrs Grace Acton. She announced that she had travelled from New York and demanded to be financially rewarded for her great loss.

She was aware that Robert had received an inheritance from his late father’s estate and expected to be in receipt of it fast!

She left empty-handed and made her way back to America. Her friends believed she was visiting family in Manchester, England.

It was only a few years later, when Grace shot dead her fourth husband, Nicholas Smith, and tried to burn the house down with all their servants asleep in their beds that the sheen of respectability surrounding her vanished.

After her own death, the drama around Grace continued.

The Governor General stood over her corpse in the morgue and announced to all within earshot that he had no idea who the woman on the slab was, but that several months before his family had been made aware of a woman claiming to be his daughter.

“She’s an imposter,” he bellowed!

However, those who knew Grace claimed she had a copy of the governor’s last will and testament in her possession and that she was named as a benefactor.

The remarkable family story is told in Adrienne’s new book, Murder Most Graceful.

“It was a very complicated story to unravel,” Adrienne says.

“From Robert’s life in Kinsale, attending Queen’s University (now UCC) to his extraordinary sporting career with Munster rugby, his time at Harvard University and Vanderbilt University, to his meeting Grace, while serving as the resident physician at the notorious Blackwell’s Island penitentiary and insane asylum in New York, to his strange and untimely death.

“When I started to look into the story of his life I discovered a dark and murderous tale.

“His wife, Grace, who he kept secret from his family in Kinsale, was, I believe, a ‘black widow’ spider, a murderer, a bigamist, arsonist and imposter. She was a woman with five surnames.

“And why did her ‘father’ deny her very existence over her dead body?”

Adrienne visited Robert’s grave 20 years ago and said: “Ever since I stood before his grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, I promised him I would try and unravel the mystery behind his death.

“His wife Grace, who he kept a secret from his family in Kinsale, was a chameleon.

“She had five different surnames, a companion that she called her sister, and a talent for reinventing herself whenever someone was close to figuring her out and unravelling her lies.

“I’ve put the tale into a story form of 96 pages. Every word has been researched and every lead was followed up.

“But, like all great mysteries, there is one missing piece that will bring this tale to it conclusion.

“Perhaps someone who reads the story will find the missing piece of information that will allow Robert to finally rest in peace and for the mystery of his death to be cleared up.”

Adrienne says her family story poses so many questions.

“As he lay in his melancholy waiting for death to arrive, had he known of her intent? Did he know that she was an imposter? Was he aware that his beloved was the beast?”

Robert was also in the Corkmen’s Association in New York, and has a page on Wikipedia for his sporting talents in the U.S.

He was a college football player and coach and physician who played as a left guard for the Harvard Crimson team from 1893 to 1895 and was also a member of the university rowing team.

Acton was the fifth head football coach at Vanderbilt University, serving for three seasons, from 1896 to 1898 - two years before his death.

Adrienne explains: “By trawling through the archives, I have been able to put this complicated tale into story form.

“Come with me on a journey from Cork to New York and perhaps, you will be the one to figure out who this woman really was and if Robert’s untimely death was at the hands of the beautiful and mysterious Grace.”

Copies of Murder Most Graceful can be ordered directly from Adrienne Acton on Facebook

She will give a talk on the book in the city library on the Grand Parade at 11am on Saturday, July 11, where copies of it will be available to buy for €14.