Murder of Julia Martha Thomas

Julia Martha Thomas, a widow in her 50s, was murdered on 2 March 1879. Her maid Kate Webster, a 30-year-old Irishwoman with a history of theft, disposed of the body by dismembering it, boiling the flesh off the bones, and throwing most of the remains into the River Thames. After the murder, Webster posed as Thomas for two weeks but was exposed and fled back to Ireland. She was arrested there on 29 March and was returned to London, where she stood trial at the Old Bailey. Webster was convicted and sentenced to death after a jury of matrons rejected her last-minute attempt to avoid the death penalty by pleading pregnancy. She finally confessed to the murder the night before she was hanged

About Murder of Julia Martha Thomas in brief

Julia Martha Thomas, a widow in her 50s, was murdered on 2 March 1879. Her maid Kate Webster, a 30-year-old Irishwoman with a history of theft, disposed of the body by dismembering it, boiling the flesh off the bones, and throwing most of the remains into the River Thames. After the murder, Webster posed as Thomas for two weeks but was exposed and fled back to Ireland and her uncle’s home at Killanne near Enniscorthy, County Wexford. She was arrested there on 29 March and was returned to London, where she stood trial at the Old Bailey. At the end of a six-day trial, Webster was convicted and sentenced to death after a jury of matrons rejected her last-minute attempt to avoid the death penalty by pleading pregnancy. She finally confessed to the murder the night before she was hanged, on 29 July at Wandsworth Prison. The case attracted huge public interest and was widely covered by the press in both Britain and Ireland. The details of Webster’s early life are unclear, as many of her later autobiographical statements proved unreliable, but she claimed to have been married to a sea captain called Webster by whom she had four children. According to Webster’s account, all the children died, as did her husband, within a short time of each other. One, named Strong Strong, was her accomplice in further robberies and thefts, and was later named as a man named Gibbons, Gibbons Webb, Gibbs, Webb, Gibbon, Webb and Gibbons.

The skull of Sir David Attenborough was found during building works being carried out for the BBC in October 2010, when the skull was found in the river. The head remained missing until October 2011, when it was discovered in a shallow grave in Richmond, London. It was alleged, although never proven, that Webster had offered the fat to a publican, neighbours and street children as dripping and lard. Thomas was a former schoolteacher who had been twice widowed. She had a reputation for being a harsh employer and her irregular habits meant that she had difficulty finding and retaining servants. Before 1879, Thomas had been able to keep only one maid for any length of time. Her desire to employ a live-in domestic servant probably had as much to do with status as with practicality. The house was a two-storey semi-detached villa built in grey stone with a garden at the front and back. The area was not heavily populated at the time, although her house was close to apublic house called The Hole in the Wall. Thomas had an \”excitable temperament\” and was regarded by her neighbours as eccentric. She frequently travelled, leaving her friends and relatives unaware of her whereabouts for weeks or months at a time. She habitually dressed up and wore jewellery to give the impression of prosperity. She lived on her own at 2 Mayfield Cottages in Park Road in Richmond.

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