Edith Thompson

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Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters

Edith Jessie Thompson (born December 25, 1893 , † January 9, 1923 ) was a British citizen who was convicted in a controversial trial for aiding and abetting the murder of her husband Percy and was executed in Holloway Prison . Her controversial case was hotly debated by contemporaries.

Life

Edith Thompson was born Edith Graydon in the Dalston neighborhood of Hackney, London . After attending school, the young woman, described as "very capable", found work as an accountant and manager in a hat making shop in 1914. The following year she married Percy Thompson, a travel agent who was three years her senior and whom she had known for six years.

In 1920 the couple met Frederick Bywaters, an eighteen-year-old merchant marine , whom Edith Thompson had known since he was at school. At Percy Thompson's invitation, he accompanied the Thompsons and Edith's younger sister Avis on a vacation on the Isle of Wight in June 1921 . After the vacation, Bywaters moved in again at Percy Thompson's invitation as a subtenant of the Thompsons in their house in Ilford . At this time Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters began an affair. Percy Thompson, who noticed this, threw Bywaters out of the house in August after a violent argument in which he is also said to have been violent towards Edith.

Bywaters and Edith Thompson then continued their relationship by meeting secretly when Bywaters was not at sea. During his voyages at sea, they wrote each other letters that were to play an important role in supporting the prosecution during the trial.

The murder of Percy Thompson

On the evening of October 3, 1922, the Thompson couple returned to Ilford from a visit to the theater in London. Bywaters approached them around midnight, pushed Edith Thompson aside, and attacked Percy Thompson with a knife. In the fight, he made several deep cuts to Percy Thompson before escaping. Edith Thompson shouted for help, but a doctor who had rushed up could no longer help the seriously injured Percy Thompson, he died at the scene of the attack.

The police that were called became suspicious of the fact that Edith Thompson did not mention an attack but said her husband had had "some sort of seizure" and began an investigation. She quickly became aware of Frederick Bywaters, his close relationship with the Thompsons and especially Edith. He was arrested on the evening of October 4th. Edith Thompson, who by then had denied an attack on Percy Thompson, saw Bywaters at the police station, whereupon she collapsed and identified Bywaters as her husband's murderer. Although Frederick Bywaters, after initial denial, stated that he planned and carried out the attack on his own, and Edith Thompson testified that she did not want Bywaters to kill Percy Thompson, both were charged with the murder of Percy Thompson.

Trial and sentencing

The trial of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters took place in Old Bailey from December 6-11, 1922, with great public interest. Edith Thompson became the first woman in 16 years to face execution. In addition, the constellation that a married woman and her lover, who was eight years her junior, were accused of murder attracted a great deal of attention.

As during the police investigation, Bywaters stated throughout the process that he had planned and carried out the attack alone, he denied instigation or knowledge of Edith Thompson as well as an intention to kill. To the press, Edith Thompson quickly became "Messalina von Ilford," a calculating woman who must have urged her inexperienced young lover to murder her husband.

The more than 60 love letters Thompson wrote to Bywaters played an important role in this assessment and the evidence provided by the prosecution. In them, the woman passionately described her love for Bywaters and indulged in fantasies about how much better life would be without her husband Percy. She also sent him newspaper clippings about poisoning. Because of her permissiveness, which was unheard of for the time (Edith Thompson described, among other things, an orgasm she had experienced in the arms of Bywaters, and the lack of menstruation ), only parts of the letters were presented to the jury . In one of the letters Edith Thompson described that she had mixed poison and ground glass into her husband's food. Neither the first forensic medical examination of the murder victim on October 5, nor a second on November 3 (after the incriminating passages had been discovered) could find any evidence of such an act.

Although she could neither be proven to be involved in the crime nor to be involved in the crime, and despite her pledges of innocence and Bywaters declarations that she was solely responsible for the crime, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were sentenced to death on December 11, 1922 .

Execution and Consequences

About a million people signed a petition demanding the pardon of Edith Thompson and, above all, Frederick Bywaters, whose commitment to his lover was felt to be particularly chivalrous. Thompson was no longer portrayed in the press as the calculating seductress of the youthful Bywater, but as a simple-minded woman. One of the most controversial issues was whether hanging a woman was morally justifiable. Bywaters and Thompson appealed, but on December 21, Home Secretary William Bridgeman dismissed it. In spite of all efforts and repeated statements by Bywater that he was solely responsible for the crime, both were executed on the gallows at 9 a.m. on January 9, 1923 , he in Pentonville , she in Holloway Prison.

Shortly after the execution, rumors began to emerge about the details of Edith Thompson's execution. Despite official statements, the execution had gone quiet, circulated reports that Edith Thompson was hysterical, with sedatives sedated and half fainting taken to the gallows, and for turning the noose held upright had to be. In some newspaper reports, there was talk that Edith Thompson had bled after the execution of the sentence, parts of her uterus had it by the execution fallen out of the body . The possibility of pregnancy and execution-induced miscarriage were discussed.

The devastating effects on the witnesses and those carrying out the execution were evident in the fact that several of them left their jobs early. John Ellis , her executioner, was so traumatized by the execution that he attempted suicide two weeks later . In 1923 he resigned, and in 1932 another suicide attempt was successful. According to his son, he had never coped with Thompson's execution.

Edith Thompson was buried in the courtyard of Holloway Prison. In the early 1970s, as the prison was rebuilt, her remains, along with those of three other women executed in Holloway, were transferred to Brookwood Cemetery and buried in an unnamed grave. In November 1993, a new grave site in memory of Edith Thompson was inaugurated with a service.

aftermath

The Edith Thompson case, her sentencing to death without proven involvement, and the circumstances of her execution continued to be the cause of heated discussions years later. In 1956, for example, the Home Office was forced to issue a statement denying that Edith Thompson's execution had resulted in particularly gruesome or repulsive events. The case was often cited as an example of the cruelty of executions by opponents of the death penalty in Britain during the discussion on abolition.

Edith Thompson's life, the murder and trial of her and Frederick Bywaters also inspired literature and film. Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make a documentary about the case.

Novels and plays based on or in which the case is dealt with exist by F. Tennyson Jesse ( A Pin To See the Peepshow - filmed for television in 1973 with Francesca Annis ), Frank Vosper ( People Like Us - originally by Lord Chamberlain of the Household and not listed until 1948), PD James , Dorothy L. Sayers and Anthony Berkeley .

Gayle Hunnicutt played Edith Thompson in 1981 in an episode of the British series The Lady Killers , in which the Bywaters / Thompson case is discussed. In 2001 the case was filmed again with Another Life , this time with Natasha Little in the role of Edith Thompson.

In 2006, Molly published Cutpurse A Life Lived , a novel describing the fictional life of a pardoned Edith Thompson.

There are also numerous biographies about Thompson and studies of the case, including The Innocence of Edith Thompson: A Study in Old Bailey Justice by Lewis Broad (1952), Fred and Edie by Jill Dawson (2000), and Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson by Rene Weis from 1988.

Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson were exhibited as wax figures at Madame Tussauds for a number of years .

Web links

Commons : Edith Jessie Thompson and Frederick Edward Francis Bywaters  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edgar Lustgarten: Edith Thompson. (PDF (20.7MB)) In: Verdict in dispute. Pp. 127–163 , accessed April 24, 2011 (English, p. 134).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Filson Young: Notable British Trials - Fredrick Bywaters and Edith Thompson. (PDF (18.9MB)) Accessed April 24, 2011 (English, p. Xxxii).
  3. ↑ Dee Gordon: Edith Thompson. (PDF (74kB)) In: Infamous Essex Women (Extract). Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, p. 1).
  4. ↑ a b c Edgar Lustgarten: Edith Thompson. (PDF (20.7MB)) In: Verdict in dispute. Pp. 127–163 , accessed April 24, 2011 (English, p. 130).
  5. ^ A b Filson Young: Notable British Trials - Fredrick Bywaters and Edith Thompson. (PDF (18.9MB)) Accessed April 24, 2011 (English, p. 74).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Edith Thompson and Fredrick Bywaters. Retrieved April 24, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Dee Gordon: Edith Thompson. (PDF (74kB)) In: Infamous Essex Women (Extract). Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, pp. 2-3).
  8. ↑ a b c d e Rene Weis: Death to the adulteress. Retrieved April 24, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Edith Thompson. (No longer available online.) In: The Brookwood Cemetery Society. Archived from the original on March 25, 2007 .;
  10. ↑ a b c Edgar Lustgarten: Edith Thompson. (PDF (20.7MB)) In: Verdict in dispute. Pp. 127–163 , archived from the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, p. 129).
  11. ↑ a b Edgar Lustgarten: Edith Thompson. (PDF (20.7MB)) In: Verdict in dispute. Pp. 127–163 , archived from the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, pp. 131-132).
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rosanne Kennedy: From Sentimentality to Abjection: the Case of Edith Thompson. In: Humanities Research Vol XIV. 2. 2007. Accessed April 24, 2011 .
  13. ^ Edgar Lustgarten: Edith Thompson. (PDF (20.7MB)) In: Verdict in dispute. Pp. 127–163 , archived from the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, p. 132).
  14. ↑ Dee Gordon: Edith Thompson. (PDF (74kB)) In: Infamous Essex Women (Extract). Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, p. 4).
  15. ↑ a b Dee Gordon: Edith Thompson. (PDF (74kB)) In: Infamous Essex Women (Extract). Retrieved April 24, 2011 (English, p. 5).
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, Edith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, Edith Jessie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British citizen, executed for accessory to murder
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1893
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1923