Anfang der siebziger Jahre, im Zuge des Umbaus des Gefängnisses, wurden ihre sterblichen Überreste zusammen mit denen dreier anderer in Holloway hingerichteten Frauen auf den Brookwood Cemetery überführt und in einem namenlosen Grab bestattet. Her sentence was unjust. The case against Edith rested largely on the evidence provided by some seventy letters that she had written to Bywaters. Edith’s famous letters were not at all about sex, or her loathing for her husband. Januar 1923) war britische Staatsbürgerin, die in einem umstrittenen Prozess wegen Beihilfe bzw. I can tell you this, that if the true story of Edith Thompson’s execution were ever published, half the people who read it would be physically sick.

An evolving selection of key articles about the case from the press at the time. [8][9], Eine wichtige Rolle in dieser Einschätzung und der Beweisführung der Anklage spielten dabei die über 60 Liebesbriefe, die Thompson an Bywaters geschrieben hatte. From such references the Crown inferred poison, and exhumed Thompson’s body. In fact it is the grave of Mrs Thompson, the last woman to be hanged in Holloway, fifteen years ago. The evidence of John Webber and other witnesses to the murder, and the judge’s hostile response. EDITH THOMPSON by a life-long friend of Mrs Thompson, Lloyds Sunday News, 17 December 1922. After the executions at Holloway and Pentonville, Wallace wrote: Never in our history has there been so terrible a miscarriage of justice, or a verdict based so little upon evidence and so much upon prejudice, as that which sent Edith Thompson to that filthy scene in Holloway Gaol. An updated and illustrated version of the 2001 Penguin edition of Criminal Justice, The True Story of Edith Thompson, by René Weis. The case against her was weak in law from the outset and the judgment passed down in December 1922 at the Old Bailey is now seen almost universally as unjust as it was gender-biased. Gayle Hunnicutt spielte Edith Thompson 1981 in einer Folge der britischen Serie The Lady Killers, in der der Fall Bywaters/Thompson thematisiert wird. However, the two most distinguished pathologists in the country independently concluded that there had been no attempt at poisoning. The proceedings opened on 6 December 1922. She must have masterminded it because she was a successful business-woman in London, whereas the much younger Bywaters was a mere merchant sailor. During the trial he scribbled on his note pad “great love ... nonsense. [9], Der Fall Edith Thompson, ihre Verurteilung zum Tode ohne nachgewiesene Tatbeteiligung sowie die Umstände ihrer Hinrichtung waren auch noch Jahre später Anlass heftiger Diskussionen. Even at the time of the trial many observers thought she was almost self-evidently innocent. Occasionally I return to East Ham and Ilford, mostly to show friends where Edith Thompson grew up, her school, the church she was married in, her house in Ilford, the parks nearby, the station through which she commuted, even her bank. You can read a contemporary account of the trial edited by Filson Young Trial of Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson (London: Butterworth, 1923). Increasingly Edith Thompson’s at times lucent love letters have come to be seen as documents of exceptional human interest, for her fluency, her turns of phrase, her gift for evoking the rhythms of daily life in 1920s London. On 22 November 2018, Edith Thompson was reburied in the grave of her parents in the City of London Cemetery. And when I was somewhat tritely told that the case had not been threshed out, I answered: “She is tried and condemned and there is no hope for her”.’. New Pages    Since 9 January 2020 a number of pages have been added to SOURCES on the site:    ... Thursday 9 January 2020: City of London Cemetery   LETTER (by Edith to her aunt Edith Walkinshaw) [Holloway Prison] (read by Nicki Toay)... Email the site administrator, René Weis, here. In fact, the bulk of them chronicled her daily life and fantasies for her lover’s benefit, to keep him involved in her suburban routines while he was sailing the oceans of the world. [6][10] Edith Thompson schrie um Hilfe, ein herbeigeeilter Arzt konnte aber dem schwer verletzten Percy Thompson nicht mehr helfen, er verstarb noch am Schauplatz des Überfalls. Edith Thompsons Leben, der Mordfall und der Prozess gegen sie und Frederick Bywaters inspirierten auch Literatur und Film. Sehr schnell wurde sie auf Frederick Bywaters, seine enge Beziehung zu den Thompsons und besonders Edith aufmerksam. The following is an article on the case, written by, If the “Messalina of Ilford”, as the popular press dubbed her, could not be found guilty of poisoning, then she had to be found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder. [6][10], Die herbeigerufene Polizei wurde angesichts der Tatsache, dass Edith Thompson keinen Angriff erwähnte, sondern davon sprach, ihr Mann habe „eine Art Anfall“ gehabt, misstrauisch, und begann mit Ermittlungen. (Edgar Wallace, ‘The Murder of Mrs Thompson’). Anstiftung zum Mord an ihrem Mann Percy verurteilt und im Holloway Prison hingerichtet wurde. In dem Kampf fügte er Percy Thompson mehrere tiefe Schnittwunden zu, ehe er floh. Ihr kontroverser Fall wurde von Zeitgenossen heftig diskutiert. [12], Edith Thompson wurde im Hof von Holloway Prison beerdigt. It is reproduced here with his permission. 2006 veröffentlichte Molly Cutpurse A Life Lived, einen Roman, in dem das fiktive Leben einer begnadigten Edith Thompson beschrieben wird. Dezember von Innenminister William Bridgeman abgewiesen wurde. Dezember 1893; 9. Edith Jessie Thompson (* 25. [7] Während seiner Seefahrten schrieben sie sich Briefe, die während des Prozesses eine wichtige Rolle für die Beweisführung der Anklage spielen sollten. The bestselling author and journalist Edgar Wallace was invited to cover the trial in December 1922: ‘I refused the commission. As her family entered her cell in the bowels of the Old Bailey immediately after the verdict, Edith rushed towards her father, crying “Take me home, Dad!”, as if he could. In the view of her counsel Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, she was put to death for adultery, not murder. They must not be exploited commercially. She was the Madame Bovary of North-East London. One cannot avoid feeling that a wider and sinister logic operated against Edith Thompson: her husband was dead, her killer would die, and this woman needed to atone for the loss of the two men. It is in the shape of a grave. Her name must be cleared.".

[9] Zudem erzeugte die Konstellation, dass eine verheiratete Frau und ihr acht Jahre jüngerer Liebhaber des Mordes angeklagt waren, große Aufmerksamkeit. Oktober noch eine zweite vom 3. All materials and images on this site marked © René Weis are free to download for private use and research.

Oktober wurde er verhaftet[2][4] Edith Thompson, die bis dahin einen Angriff auf Percy Thompson verneint hatte, sah Bywaters auf der Polizeistation, woraufhin sie zusammenbrach und Bywaters als den Mörder ihres Mannes identifizierte. It attracts the eye at once for it stands alone, strangely out of place among the general scheme of flower beds and paths. [12] Der Fall wurde von Gegnern der Todesstrafe in Großbritannien während der Diskussion über die Abschaffung häufig als Beispiel für die Grausamkeit von Hinrichtungen angeführt.[12].

…, There were two murders committed in the Thompson case. Executioner John Ellis, waiting outside her cell heard the sound of moaning inside the cell. Edith Thompson was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of her husband Percy by her young lover Frederick Bywaters. Edith was probably innocent in the murder of her husband, although her lover was certainly guilty as he gunned her husband down on a city street. [4] Auf eine Einladung Percy Thompsons hin begleitete er im Juni 1921 die Thompsons und Ediths jüngere Schwester Avis bei einem Urlaub auf der Isle of Wight. A complete set of all of Edith Thompson’s extant letters to her lover Freddy Bywaters, in chronological order; and some from him to her. Bywaters died fearless, Edith Thompson disintegrated on the gallows. Ihr kontroverser Fall wurde von Zeitgenossen heftig diskutiert. [8] Daneben schickte sie ihm Zeitungsausschnitte über Vergiftungen. [2][3], 1920 traf das Paar den damals achtzehnjährigen Angehörigen der Handelsmarine Frederick Bywaters, den Edith Thompson schon seit dessen Schulzeit kannte. [1][2] Im Jahr darauf heiratete sie den drei Jahre älteren Expedienten Percy Thompson, mit dem sie seit sechs Jahren bekannt war. Des Weiteren existieren zahlreiche Biographien über Thompson und Studien des Falles, unter anderem The Innocence of Edith Thompson: A Study in Old Bailey Justice von Lewis Broad (1952), Fred and Edie von Jill Dawson (2000), sowie Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson von Rene Weis aus dem Jahr 1988. They both had famous lawyers defending them — Edith’s barrister Henry Curtis-Bennett had earlier that year appeared for the arsenic poisoner Herbert Rowse Armstrong and Bywaters’ lawyer Cecil Whiteley had in 1915 defended the ‘brides in the bath’ … There is no stone, or mark, on her grave. “It was my duty to read them [the letters] to the members of the jury ... ‘Nauseous’ is hardly strong enough to describe their contents ... Mrs. Thompson’s letters were her own condemnation.”. …  If ever in the history of this country a woman was hanged by the sheer prejudice of the uninformed public, and without the slightest modicum of evidence to justify the hanging, that woman was Edith Thompson. [2][6], Schon kurze Zeit nach der Vollstreckung kamen Gerüchte über Details der Exekution Edith Thompsons auf. Frederick Bywaters und Edith Thompson waren einige Jahre als Wachsfiguren bei Madame Tussauds ausgestellt. Together the clandestine lovers discussed the plots of the books as they read them.

This website features a number of documents that bear on the case of Edith Thompson. [6][12][15] John Ellis, ihr Henker, war von der Hinrichtung so traumatisiert, dass er zwei Wochen später einen Suizidversuch unternahm. She was a truly ordinary woman. Edith Thompson was the Emma Bovary of Ilford, that most suburban of 1920s so-called lower middle class London suburbs. Occasionally I return to East Ham and Ilford, mostly to show friends where Edith Thompson grew up, her school, the church she was married in, her house in Ilford, the parks nearby, the station through which she commuted, even her bank.

Anstiftung zum Mord an ihrem Mann Percy verurteilt und im Holloway Prison hingerichtet wurde. Nach dem Besuch der Schule fand die als „sehr fähig“ beschriebene junge Frau 1914 Arbeit als Buchhalterin und leitende Angestellte in einer Hutmacherei. Percy Thompson, der dies bemerkte, warf daraufhin Bywaters im August nach einem heftigen Streit, bei dem er auch gewalttätig gegenüber Edith geworden sein soll, aus dem Haus. His last words to his mother the day before he died, as she left the death cell at Pentonville, were “give my love to Edie”. Januar 1923) war britische Staatsbürgerin, die in einem umstrittenen Prozess wegen Beihilfe bzw. 'Laura Thompson has written a stunning, passionate and unforgettable book which will hopefully bring some balance to the story of Edith Thompson and Freddy Bywaters' Shiny New Books. On 9th January 1923, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were hanged in London, she at Holloway, and he at Pentonville. [6][9] Im November 1993 wurde mit einem Gottesdienst eine neue Grabstelle zur Erinnerung an Edith Thompson feierlich eingeweiht. And the horror is intensified by the sure knowledge of every sane man or woman, who can look facts squarely in the face … that she died innocent of the crime of murder. The jury had to assume either that the Solicitor General was lying, or that explicit conspiracy to murder was spelled out in one of the withheld letters. Edith’s famous letters were not at all about sex, or her loathing for her husband.