PD Lennon was intrigued to learn that there was a place in Jamaica called Edinburgh Castle. But she couldn’t have guessed the person who built it was an 18th-century Scot who’s remembered as the Caribbean’s first serial killer. She tells Historia about her research and how she blended fact and fiction for her new novel, The Case of the Mad Doctor.
A chance reading of the Jamaican poem entitled Place Name: Edinburgh Castle first drew my attention to the legendary 18th-century ”Mad Doctor’. News that such a castle had ever existed in Jamaica was a considerable surprise.
An even greater surprise was who lived in it and what events occurred on his estate. The owner was a Scotsman, Dr Lewis Hutchinson, whom poet Kei Miller dubbed ‘the Caribbean’s first serial killer’. (The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion, Carcanet Press.)
Determined to learn more details about this deadly individual, I visited the Jamaica Archives Unit located in Spanish Town, St Catherine. Other than an unexciting civil case he was involved in, information was sparse.
Further online research proved that there was indeed an absence of facts about Hutchinson’s background. We do not know where in Scotland he was born or anything about his childhood or his family. Where did Hutchinson fit in the hierarchal structure of 18th-century Scotland? Did he descend from wealth or modest means?
I would particularly like to have discovered why he left Scotland in the first place, in or around 1760, aged 28. Many aspirational men of that era departed for the colonies to seek their fortunes and never returned. That could have been Hutchinson’s plan. Or he could have begun his crime spree in Scotland and fled to avoid suspicious peacekeepers.
Modern day forensic psychologists note signs of a budding serial killer can be detected from childhood displays of cruelty to animals. Later they move on to humans. Georgian-era doctors would not have known to look out for such signs of depravity, and Hutchinson possibly presented as a completely normal human being.
No records were found at the Edinburgh Medical School under Lewis Hutchinson or Lewis ‘Hutchison’, the latter name being attributed to him in some reports. The oldest registers from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow start from 1785, long after Hutchinson’s time, so there is a possibility he attended that venerable institution in the 1750s.
There is also a possibility that Hutchinson never had any medical training and created a whole new persona for himself. Faking medical credentials, even with only a quill pen and parchment, would be possible for a clever imposter seeking the title of Doctor which would place him in some esteem in Jamaica.
Arriving in Jamaica in 1760, Hutchinson had a wide choice of places to settle. Instead of establishing a practice in the busy capital of Spanish Town (St Jago de la Vega) or bustling Kingston, he headed for the desolate district of Pedro, St Ann. There he ran a sugar plantation and raised cattle.
Accused of stealing the cattle used to start his business, he denied the allegations and continued to thrive. No stranger to ungentlemanly behaviour, he became embroiled in a land battle with a neighbour, Dr Jonathan Hutton. The physical assault inflicted by Hutchinson severely injured Dr Hutton who had to return to England for a trepanning operation.
This report led me to believe Hutchinson was always criminal minded, and it was not the Caribbean Sea or tropical temperatures that facilitated his descent into a 12-year murder spree.
Fascinated by what I learned, I decided that this bloody Scotsman needed to feature in a tale. How to structure such tale evaded me and I set aside the idea for quite some time. I wrote a couple of contemporary crime novels in the years in between.
One day I came across reviews of Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors: The Untold Story. This gave me the idea to create a Black Georgian hero to pursue the Mad Doctor. A gainfully employed man, born and bred in England. A smart, witty, law clerk who was not subservient.
Isaiah Ollenu, a man who would be sent to Jamaica, a British colony where the colour of his skin would immediately be held against him and life, as he knew it, would take a drastic turn. Ollenu is entirely fictional, though it is not impossible that such a person existed. After all, the Black barrister Francis Williams was called to the bar in the 1720s.
When historical fact and fiction merge they can make for uncomfortable reading. The book includes the painful themes of slavery and racism, unavoidable in colonial scenes that wish to remain true to the era. My method of writing about pain includes adding dry humour while trying to stay true to the language of that day.
There are also elements of magical realism and Jamaican folklore that allow Black voices to be heard and cheered. When first written, the book was called The Adventures of Isaiah Ollenu Esquire To Be, later changed to The Case of The Mad Doctor.
Having never come across a portrait of Lewis Hutchinson, I envisaged a red-headed, bearded man who maintained an outgoing pleasant disposition to disguise evil thoughts. Creating words and speeches once I could visualise the killer was quite fun.
By all accounts, it does not appear that he murdered anyone outside his estate in Pedro District, St Ann. The victims were people invited to his home to wine and dine, or people who happened upon the premises while travelling elsewhere. There is no suggestion that he ever tried to pawn his victims’ belongings as various items of clothing and jewellery were found on his estate after his death.
In March 1773, when he was 40, his murderous pursuits finally came to an end at the gallows in Spanish Town Square.
His arrogance knowing no bounds, Hutchinson even demanded what inscription should be placed on his tombstone. A demand that went unmet by the officials.
Today, Edinburgh Castle in Pedro is an abandoned ruin, although some of the original stone walls remain. No plaque marks the area.
A plaque in Spanish Town Square commemorates the hanging of Lewis Hutchinson, as well as other notable events from centuries past that took place in the square. I imagine the Mad Doctor would be quite outraged at sharing the spotlight with a single soul.
The Case of the Mad Doctor by PD Lennon is published on 10 July, 2025.
Find out more about this book.
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A respectable trade in brutality: Blood & Sugar and TV review: The Long Song by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Reassessing Francis Drake: what research for my novel revealed about his role in the slave trade and Maria: the African woman who sailed with Drake on the Golden Hind by Nikki Marmery
The adventures of a Black Edwardian intellectual by Pamela Roberts
Crime and politics in the early 18th century by Douglas Skelton
And more about murderers:
An epidemic of murder in late Victorian London by Sarah Bax Horton
Living in the minds of monsters by Douglas Jackson
Giulia Tofana: poisoner, murderer, saviour? by Cathryn Kemp
The real Dracula: monster by nature – or nurture? by Ethan Bale
Vampire or victim? The real Countess Báthory by Sonia Velton
Historia interviews: Hallie Rubenhold by Matthew Plampin
Images:
- Map of Jamaica by Herman Moll, 1732 (detail): Boston Public Library via Picryl (public domain)
- The ruins of Edinburgh Castle: Vankuso for Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
- First Stage of Cruelty by William Hogarth, 1751: Yale Center for British Art (public domain)
- Sugar Estate (cutting cane, Jamaica) by William Berryman, 1808–16: Library of Congress (public domain)
- Francis Williams by (possibly) William Williams, c1760: Victoria and Albert Museum (public domain)
- Plaque in Spanish Town Square: supplied by the author
