The Crime Book

206

GAVE KATHERINE

WARNING TO

LEAVE

THE DRIPPING KILLER, 1879

T

he last time Henry Porter

had seen his Irish friend

Kate Webster, she had just

been released from jail for larceny.

Six years later, in March 1879, she

visited him at his west London

home, looking smart in a silk dress.

Now called Mrs Thomas through

marriage, Kate explained that she

had inherited a house in affluent

Richmond, Surrey, but wanted to

sell it and its contents. Did Henry

know of a property broker? Henry

introduced her to John Church.

Kate then enlisted Henry’s son,

Robert, to help her carry a box from

her Richmond home to the railway

station. He was not concerned

when, en route, she dumped the

box into the River Thames.

Shocking discovery

Unfortunately for Webster, the box

washed up downstream a day later,

where it was spotted by a coal

porter as he crossed a bridge.

Hoping it might contain stolen

goods, he fished it out and opened

it up. Inside was a disembowelled

female torso and two legs wrapped

in brown paper. Horrified, he

contacted the police, who quickly

linked the grisly find to a severed

human foot recently found nearby.

Meanwhile, at 2 Mayfield Cottages,

Richmond, Mrs Julia Thomas’s

neighbours were becoming

anxious. The 55-year-old had not

been seen for two weeks, although

her maid, Kate, was still around.

On 18 March, a fleet of vans arrived

at the house, hired by John Church

to buy Mrs Thomas’s furniture for

£68. When asked who had made

the arrangement, the removal men

said “Mrs Thomas”, and gestured

towards Kate, who hurried away

and caught a train to Liverpool.

Church realized that the “Mrs

Thomas” with whom he had done

the deal was an impostor. He called

the police, who searched the house

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Richmond, Surrey, UK

THEME

Profit-motivated murder

BEFORE

1809 In England, Mary

Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch,

is hanged for the murder of

Rebecca Perigo. She is one

of the first criminals to be

publicly dissected.

9 August 1849 Maria

Manning, a Swiss lady’s maid,

and her husband Frederick kill

Maria’s lover Patrick O’Connor

and bury him beneath their

kitchen floor. They are caught

a few days later, tried, and

executed on 13 November

1849 in London.

AFTER

1977–78 Scotsman Archibald

Hall, dubbed “The Monster

Butler”, murders four people

while in service to members

of the British aristocracy. He

is sentenced to life in prison.

I chopped the head from the

body with the assistance

of a razor which I used to cut

through the flesh afterwards.

Kate Webster

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207

Hangman William Marwood

used his newly perfected “long drop”

technique, in which the neck was

broken instantly at the end of the fall,

to execute Kate Webster.

See also: Lizzie Borden 208–11 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65

MURDER CASES

and found blood stains, charred

finger bones in the hearth, and a

copper laundry vessel clogged with

human fat. Scotland Yard learned

that Webster had fled to Ireland,

and she was arrested there. On

2 July, she stood trial for murder at

the Old Bailey. The revolting details

of the crime emerged over six days

of witness testimony.

Webster entered the service of

Julia Thomas in January 1879, but

relations between them soon

became strained. Julia was critical

of the work of her heavy-drinking

maid, and a month later, she fired

her, giving her a few weeks’ notice.

On the afternoon of 2 March, Julia

was at home preparing for a service

at the local church and waiting for

Kate to assist her. However, Kate

came back late from the pub, and

so Julia was delayed.

When Julia returned from the

service, the two women argued.

Kate claimed that in a fit of drunken

rage she pushed Julia down the

stairs, then strangled her to death

with her hands to prevent her from

screaming. Using a meat saw,

carving knife, and razor, she

butchered the body, burning large

sections of it in the kitchen.

Kate divided Thomas’s body

parts between a Gladstone bag

and the box she later hurled into

the river. Rather than trying to

avoid capture, Webster took to

wearing her late employer’s clothes,

assuming her identity, and selling

Thomas’s possessions. Some

reports even said that Webster had

boiled Thomas’s body and made

money selling the fat as dripping to

local pubs. True or not, this story

led many to dub her the “Dripping

Killer”. Webster was found guilty

and hanged on 29 July 1879. ■

Anthropological

criminology

During the 19th century,

pseudoscience (theories and

methods that were wrongly

regarded as scientific)

dominated academic debate

in Europe and the US. Among

these was Italian physician

and criminologist Cesare

Lombroso’s theory of

anthropological criminology.

Misappropriating Darwinistic

ideas, Lombroso argued that

criminals were evolutionary

throwbacks to primitive man,

and could be identified by

physical characteristics, such

as gangly arms, a sloping

forehead, jug ears, facial

asymmetry, and so on.

Kate Webster came under

similar scrutiny during her

trial, with middle-class

onlookers and the media

commenting on her strong,

“unfeminine build”, without

considering that this may have

developed as a result of a life

of manual labour. By the early

20th century, Lombroso’s

ideas had been discredited.

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