Kate Webster
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Kate Webster (née Lawler, 1849 - 29 July 1879) was a British murderer and the perpetrator of the Richmond Murder, one of the most infamous crimes of Victorian Britain. Webster, who was working as a maid for Julia Thomas, strangled her mistress and disposed of her body by dismembering her corpse, boiling the flesh off her bones and throwing her remains in the River Thames.
Biography edit
Webster, born Kate Lawler, was born in 1849 in Killanne, Ireland. She regularly stole things and eventually moved to Liverpool after buying a ticket there using stolen money, then later moved again to London. She was unable to find a job and turned to pickpocketing and prostitution to make ends meet, leading to a series of short prison sentences. Webster eventually had a son named John due to her job as a prostitute and often had to leave him with a friend when she was imprisoned for theft.
In January 1879 Webster found employment as housekeeper for 52-year-old Julia Thomas in Richmond, on the outskirts of London. The two of them resented each other and would often argue about Webster's lack of cleaning skills and tendency to spend too much time at the local pub the Hole in the Wall. Thomas eventually sacked Webster on 28 April 1879, but agreed to let her stay on until 2 March so she could help her prepare for church service. On that day, Webster failed to help Thomas because she was drinking at the Hole in the Wall, resulting in an argument that ended in Webster throwing Thomas down the stairs. Realizing what she had done, she strangled Thomas to prevent her from screaming and getting her into trouble. She then cut Thomas's body up with a carving knife and meat cleaver and boiled her remains to prevent identification. Afterwards she burned her finger bones in the hearth and packed her remains into a box and a Gladstone bag. Thomas's head and one of her feet did not fit, so she threw the foot onto a rubbish heap and buried the head near the Hole in the Wall, where it was found by workmen 131 years later in 2010.
Webster continued to clean the house and pretend nothing was wrong for two days, then on 4 March she travelled to Hammersmith to meet her old neighbours Robert and Henry Porter, taking the bag and box containing Thomas's remains with her. She claimed that a non-existent husband had died and left the house to her, and that she was in town to find a broker for the furniture. She also invited the Porters to drink with her at the Oxford and Cambridge Arms pub, taking the opportunity to throw the bag in the River Thames while the Porters were inside drinking. Afterwards she asked Robert Porter to help her carry the box, allegedly containing the furniture, across Richmond Bridge, where she claimed another friend would meet her. As Robert Porter left afterwards, he heard a faint splash as Webster dropped the box in the river.
The following day the box was recovered by a coal porter, who discovered it to contain a torso and two legs, minus one foot. The foot was found in the rubbish heap in Twickenham at around the same time. An inquest was held, but the remains could not be identified and an open verdict was recorded. It was alleged that during this time Webster attempted to sell Thomas's body fat to several neighbours as lard, but this was never proved and is likely untrue. Meanwhile, broker John Church was contacted by Webster, who told him she was Thomas, and agreed to buy her furniture. However, when his deliverymen came to remove the furniture, the neighbours, who had not seen Thomas in some time, asked who hired them. They replied "Mrs. Thomas" and indicated Webster, who, realizing she had been exposed, fled immediately and caught a train to Liverpool, from where she travelled back to Killane.
The police searched Thomas's house and found blood splattered on the walls, Thomas's burnt bones in the hearth and several deposits of human fat behind the copper. A wanted notice was put out for Webster, who was arrested in Killanne by the Royal Irish Constabulary. At trial, she at first accused Church and the Porters, the main witnesses against her, of conspiring to murder Thomas and frame her, but when both provided alibis she blamed an ex-lover named "Mr. Strong". She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. In a last-ditch bid to avoid execution, Webster claimed to be pregnant, but a jury of matrons examined her and ruled that she was "not quick with child". Webster was executed by hanging at HMP Wandsworth on 29 July 1879. The night before her execution, she confessed that she had murdered Julia Thomas with no help from anyone else.