raids patrick o’connor’s lodgings, stealing his railway share
certificates.
the police discover patrick o’connor’s remains beneath the kitchen flagstones
at miniver place.
maria manning is arrested in edinburgh, having tried to sell the
share certificates.
maria manning furiously addresses the court during
her trial.
Above. a murder broadside depicting the public hanging of the mannings. broadsides such as this were sold as souvenirs by
pedlars at executions.—————Below. three views of maria manning’s death mask, reflecting the 19th-century interest
in physiognomy.
B
C
DEFG
3
4
215
12345
24
PART ONE — EUROPE.
Kate Webster (1849–79) was one of the most notorious murderers in late Victorian Britain. She became a fixture in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds and was recognized alongside murderess Sarah Malcolm (1711–33) as emblematic of female malice.
Born in Ireland, Webster found work as a servant to a widow, Julia Martha Thomas (c. 1823–79), in Richmond, southwest London, in January 1879. The relationship did not work out: Mrs Thomas was highly critical of Webster’s work and they agreed to part company at the end of February. Then, on 2 March, after a public row in church, Webster killed her mistress and dismembered the body. For two weeks, she then pretended to be Mrs Thomas before fleeing back home to Ireland. By 18 March, Mrs Thomas’s neighbours had become suspicious and called the police, who searched the house and found multiple bloodstains, as well as bits of finger bone in the fireplace. Webster had left a letter with her Irish address on it, so a wanted notice was issued immediately.
After her arrest, Webster claimed the death was accidental: that Mrs Thomas had fallen and choked as the pair argued. She later admitted cutting up her body and boiling the flesh. She had packed parts of Mrs Thomas’s body into a Gladstone bag and a hat box and thrown them into the Thames; they later washed up in Barnes. Furthermore, one foot was dropped into a rubbish tip in Twickenham, and the head was buried under the stables of the Hole in the Wall pub near Mrs Thomas’s home.
It was claimed that she attempted to sell the fat to neighbours, but this was never proven.
Webster was convicted at the Old Bailey on 30 June. She was revealed as a woman with a string of previous convictions, mostly for theft, but Mrs Thomas had never checked her references. In a last desperate attempt to save herself, Kate ‘pleaded the belly’, claiming she was pregnant. A jury of matrons rejected this and she was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 29 July. In a bizarre twist, Mrs Thomas’s skull was discovered in 2010 during building work at Sir David Attenborough’s Richmond home. •
Above. the stove where julia thomas’s dismembered body was boiled and julia thomas’s skull, discovered in
modern renovation work.
2 mayfield cottages, richmond.
March .
englandlondon.
KATE WEBSTER. × Julia Martha Thomas.
2 MAYFIELD COTTAGES.
the house where julia thomas
was murdered.
RICHMOND BRIDGE.
the bridge where kate webster dumped the
body parts.
BARNES BRIDGE.
the bridge where body parts were found in
a trunk.
TWICKENHAM (APPROX.)
the area where julia thomas’s
foot was found.
THE HOLE IN THE WALL PUB.
the pub where julia thomas’s
head was found.
weapon. strangulation.
typology. property crime.
policing. early forensics.
25ENGLAND — LONDON.
a series of images from the illustrated police news depicting kate webster disposing of the
parts of her mistress’s body.
PUSHINGTHE BOX OVER
THE BRIDGE.
THE FLIGHT
OF KATE WEBSTER.
THE POLICE FIND HUMAN BONES.
SEARCHING IN MRS THOMAS’S GARDEN.
RICHMOND BRIDGE.
KATE WEBSTER DENOUNCING
THE CHURCH.
KATE WEBSTER LEAVING FOR RICHMOND.
THE EXECUTION OF KATEWEBSTER
AT WANDSWORTH JAIL
THE RICHMOND MURDERESS.
THE MURDER AT RICHMOND.
BARNES BRIDGE.
KATE WEBSTER
& HER FRIENDS.
KATE SAID MRS THOMAS
HAD GONE OUT.
a series of images from the illustrated police news depicting the police searching for evidence at mayfield cottages, and finding bone fragments and
bloodstains at the scene.
the illustrated police news’s coverage of the discovery of the body parts that kate webster
had thrown into the
