Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: The story begins when a young ship's steward named Frederick
Speaker 2: Freddie Bywaters became involved with a married woman named Edith Thompson.
Speaker 2: They had known each other growing up in the same
Speaker 2: London suburb as her husband, Percy Thompson. The families all
Speaker 2: grew up together and Freddie was in the same class
Speaker 2: at school as one of Edith's brothers. At the age
Speaker 2: of thirteen, he joined the British Merchant Navy. It was
Speaker 2: generally considered that Freddie would marry Edith's sister Avis, but
Speaker 2: life doesn't always work out the way you think it will.
Speaker 2: He ended up being executed for Percy's murder, and so
Speaker 2: did Edith. But did the murderous duo deserve it? Historians
Speaker 2: now suggest maybe she wasn't any more than a witness
Speaker 2: to the event. Let's look whether or not Fredda and
Speaker 2: Edith were partners in crime, or if Edith faced a
Speaker 2: wrongful and unfortunate death for adultery. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm
Speaker 2: Maria Tremarky.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. She was born Edith Grayden and
Speaker 1: grew up imagining a life for herself different from the
Speaker 1: one that working class women were expected to live in
Speaker 1: early twentieth century England. She was born in the East
Speaker 1: London suburb of Manor Park on Christmas Day in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, the eldest of five children. She was educated
Speaker 1: and said to have been especially talented in mathematics, and
Speaker 1: as soon as she was able, she headed into London
Speaker 1: for work, where she joined the wholesale milliner's firm of
Speaker 1: Carlton and Pryor. She began as a bookkeeper, but quickly
Speaker 1: rose within the ranks to become the firm's chief buyer.
Speaker 1: Most often, she spent her evenings with friends, visiting West
Speaker 1: End theaters and restaurants. Biographer Laura Thompson, who is no relation,
Speaker 1: said of her ambition quote she was a sort of
Speaker 1: so called ordinary woman who wanted to be extraordinary.
Speaker 2: In nineteen oh nine she met shipping clerk Percy Thompson,
Speaker 2: and after a six year engagement, they married. They bought
Speaker 2: a house at forty one Kensington Gardens in the fashionable
Speaker 2: town of Ilford and Essex, a spot not far from
Speaker 2: where they both had grown up. With her work at
Speaker 2: Carlton Empryor. Edith earned more than her new husband, and
Speaker 2: she also earned more than her father too, since we're
Speaker 2: pointing out finances here. And though she contributed more than
Speaker 2: half the cost of the property, the deed legally had
Speaker 2: to be in Percy's name. Women wouldn't be given the
Speaker 2: right to hold property in the UK until nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2: She was expected to settle into domestic life, but Edith
Speaker 2: had other ideas, says biographer Laura Thompson of her quote,
Speaker 2: She's a girl about the town. She's ambitious. She wanted
Speaker 2: to own her own home, which she did, even though
Speaker 2: it had to be an her husband's name. But the
Speaker 2: thing Edith wasn't so good at in the conventions of
Speaker 2: her time was maybe she wasn't such a good wife.
Speaker 1: During a visit home in June of nineteen twenty one,
Speaker 1: Freddie hollidayed with Percy, Edith and Avis on the Isle
Speaker 1: of Wight. After they all returned back to London, the
Speaker 1: couple invited Freddie to live with them as a paying lodger,
Speaker 1: giving him a place to call home when he wasn't deployed.
Speaker 1: But unknown to Percy, a romance had sparked between Freddie
Speaker 1: and Edith, and it only flourished when Eddie was invited
Speaker 1: to move in with the Thompsons as a border.
Speaker 2: Freddie was handsome and he told amazing stories of his
Speaker 2: adventures around the world that piqued Edith's interest. Percy, by comparison,
Speaker 2: was reportedly a calm, proper, conventional person, and he was
Speaker 2: kind of a bore. Freddie, not Percy, was the one
Speaker 2: who closely resembled Edith's romantic eye deal because he was
Speaker 2: a way a lot. They wrote frequent letters, and Edith
Speaker 2: insisted their correspondence must be destroyed after reading. With roughly
Speaker 2: seventy letters remaining today, clearly Freddie must not have heard
Speaker 2: her request.
Speaker 1: While Freddie's letters are lost to history, surely Edith destroyed them.
Speaker 1: We do have access to many that Edith wrote. She
Speaker 1: often jumped around in her writing from topic to topic,
Speaker 1: from describing the mundane ins and outs of daily life
Speaker 1: to sharing her thoughts about everything from sex, pregnancy, termination,
Speaker 1: and even suicide. She referred to Freddie as darlingist and
Speaker 1: darlint she wrote in a place between fact and fantasy.
Speaker 1: Historians have noted an avid fiction reader. She would sometimes
Speaker 1: imagine herself as a character from a novel, and sometimes
Speaker 1: in her imagining so she would hint at wanting to
Speaker 1: be rid of Percy. Not often, but it did come up.
Speaker 1: In one letter, she fantasized about perhaps adding small pieces
Speaker 1: of glass to his food. That section read quote, I
Speaker 1: was buoyed up with the hope of the light bulb,
Speaker 1: and I used a lot big pieces too, not powdered,
Speaker 1: and it had no effect. I quite expected to be
Speaker 1: able to send you that cable, but no, nothing has
Speaker 1: happened from it. She pleaded in her letters for Freddy
Speaker 1: to quote do something desperate. What scholars today want to
Speaker 1: know is is this a real request or is it
Speaker 1: just an outpouring of emotion, fact or fantasy. Were these
Speaker 1: two just play acting in imaginary scenario or were they
Speaker 1: discussing real actions. No one knew then, nor do we
Speaker 1: know today. Scholars, including University College London professor Renee Weiss,
Speaker 1: who has studied this case for decades and authored the
Speaker 1: book Criminal Justice, The True Story of Edith Thompson, believes
Speaker 1: that Edith's letters show no more than the quote workings
Speaker 1: of an overwrought romantic imagination.
Speaker 2: Another letter from Edith to Freddie reads quote, Yesterday I
Speaker 2: met a woman who lost three husbands and not through war.
Speaker 2: Two were drowned and one committed suicide. And some people
Speaker 2: I know can't lose one. How unfair everything is. Bess
Speaker 2: and Regg are coming to dinner Sunday.
Speaker 1: Late summer. A fight broke out one night when Freddie,
Speaker 1: home from sea, demanded that Percy divorce Edith. Percy ordered
Speaker 1: his lodger out of the house. Edith later described her
Speaker 1: own confrontation with Percy, stating that her husband struck her
Speaker 1: several times and threw her across the room, leaving her
Speaker 1: badly bruised.
Speaker 2: On October third, nineteen twenty two, Percy and Edith spent
Speaker 2: their evening watching the comedy The Dippers at the Criterion
Speaker 2: Theater near Piccadilly Circus. Freddie was home, having recently returned
Speaker 2: from several weeks at sea. As the couple walked toward
Speaker 2: their house, Freddy confronted them and, according to reports, set
Speaker 2: upon Percy, stabbing him repeatedly. Within seconds, Percy lay motionless
Speaker 2: on the ground, having sustained several knife wounds to his neck.
Speaker 2: Edith had been knocked to the ground, and Freddie fled
Speaker 2: before she could summon for help. Neighbors later stated hearing
Speaker 2: a woman screaming hysterically and shouting quote, no, don't several times.
Speaker 2: By the time police arrived, she had not yet been
Speaker 2: able to pull herself together. The morning light would reveal
Speaker 2: Percy's blood had splattered across a forty four foot stretch.
Speaker 1: Of the road. Later in court, Freddie testified to the
Speaker 1: evening's events, saying just about the same thing quote I
Speaker 1: waited for missus Thompson and her husband. I pushed her
Speaker 1: to one side, also pushing him into the street. We struggled.
Speaker 1: I took my knife from my pocket and we fought,
Speaker 1: and he got the worst of it. The reason I
Speaker 1: fought with Thompson was because he never acted like a
Speaker 1: man to his wife. He seemed several degrees lower than
Speaker 1: a snake. I loved her and I could not go
Speaker 1: on seeing her leading that life. I did not intend
Speaker 1: to kill him. I only meant to injure him. I
Speaker 1: gave him the opportunity of standing up to me like
Speaker 1: a man, but he wouldn't.
Speaker 2: At the police station, Edith implicated Freddie as the killer.
Speaker 2: The police never did consider her as a witness. They
Speaker 2: always considered her an accomplice. By all accounts. Edith appeared
Speaker 2: to be distressed at Ilford police station after the murder,
Speaker 2: and understandably so, as her husband was just murdered by
Speaker 2: her lover and all of it happened right in front
Speaker 2: of her. Believing herself to be a witness, not an accomplice,
Speaker 2: she confessed to the details of the nature of her
Speaker 2: relationship with Freddie.
Speaker 1: Detectives at the police station had also staged it so
Speaker 1: that Edith and Freddie would pass each other in a hallway,
Speaker 1: a plan in which they hoped that she would incriminate
Speaker 1: herself when she saw him. Instead, though after the encounter,
Speaker 1: Edith cried out, quote why did he do it? I
Speaker 1: didn't want him to do it? Oh God, what can
Speaker 1: I do? I must tell the truth. That was not
Speaker 1: exactly what they were hoping for, but they carried on,
Speaker 1: unswayed from their belief that Edith was guilty. As she
Speaker 1: was being led back to her house by a police sergeant.
Speaker 1: After questioning, Edith remarked to him that she knew she
Speaker 1: would be implicated that quote, they will blame me for this,
Speaker 1: and as we'll see, they absolutely did. We're going to
Speaker 1: take a break for a word from our sponsors, and
Speaker 1: when we return, we will walk through the investigation and
Speaker 1: the travesty that was Edith's trial.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Edith was called vain and arrogant
Speaker 2: at her trial, but that's no reason to convict a
Speaker 2: person of murder. It was the content of her love
Speaker 2: letters that convinced the court of her guilt. But let's
Speaker 2: talk about why that's super suspect.
Speaker 1: As the investigation moved along, Percy's brother also suggested the
Speaker 1: police speak to Freddie. All signs pointed to Freddie, and
Speaker 1: we know he also confessed. He was arrested and during
Speaker 1: a search of his property, investigators discovered the first of
Speaker 1: a series of love letters from Edith. His cabin on
Speaker 1: his ship, the SS Maria was also searched and more letters,
Speaker 1: reportedly up to sixty, were discovered locked in a box.
Speaker 1: Included in this pile of letters were some that mentioned
Speaker 1: Edith's apparent desire to be free of Percy. Those love
Speaker 1: letters were taken and later the prosecution produced them as
Speaker 1: evidence at the trial. They arrested Edith on the spot, but.
Speaker 2: There really was no clear evidence she was involved in
Speaker 2: Percy's killing. In fact, the only tangible evidence against her
Speaker 2: were those love letters, and were they really evidence she
Speaker 2: was a killer. In them, she fantasized about escaping her
Speaker 2: marriage to Percy. One note mentioned she'd fit him broken glass,
Speaker 2: as we said earlier, and in another claimed to have
Speaker 2: attempted to poison him, but authorities could not establish that
Speaker 2: she had in fact done either of those things. Percy's
Speaker 2: body was tested post mortem for poison and traces of glass,
Speaker 2: but nothing incriminating was found.
Speaker 1: One questioned about the letters, Freddie stated that he had
Speaker 1: never believed that Edith had attempted to or would attempt
Speaker 1: to harm her husband. Instead, he explained he believed, as
Speaker 1: did others in support of her, that she had a
Speaker 1: vivid imagination and fueled by the novels she read. She
Speaker 1: often wrote of herself in her letter as a fictional character.
Speaker 1: When he was told that Edith was also to be
Speaker 1: charged with Percy's murder, Freddie replied, quote, why her missus
Speaker 1: Thompson was not aware of my movements?
Speaker 2: The important thing about the letters is this. The correspondence
Speaker 2: allowed for the consideration of what's known as common purpose,
Speaker 2: which legally means if two people consider the murder of
Speaker 2: a third person, and one of those two people acts
Speaker 2: on the expressed intentions of both, Both are equally guilty
Speaker 2: by law. Because of that, Edith's letters became the star.
Speaker 1: Of the show. Intimate details from those letters were splashed
Speaker 1: across newspapers in their reports of the pre trial hearings.
Speaker 1: The entire folio of letters was later published by Philson
Speaker 1: Young in notable British Trial series in nineteen twenty three,
Speaker 1: although the letters do not appear in any kind of
Speaker 1: chronological order.
Speaker 2: Edith and Freddy's murder trial began on December sixth, nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty two, at the Old Bailey. Freddie, as he had
Speaker 2: been pleaded guilty and cooperated completely with investigators. He led
Speaker 2: police to the murder weapon and consistently maintained that he
Speaker 2: had acted without Edith's knowledge.
Speaker 1: Crowds of people arrived early to queue outside the London
Speaker 1: Court to get a seat, and it was standing room only.
Speaker 1: People hoping to make a buck or two queued outside
Speaker 1: the building each night, and then they sold their places
Speaker 1: in line the next morning, sometimes for more than the
Speaker 1: average weekly wage in Britain at the time. Edith and
Speaker 1: Freddy's trial was a hot, dramatic event. It's often said
Speaker 1: that from affair to execution, that the fascination with the
Speaker 1: case was quote inexhaustible. Beverly Nichols, a writer present at
Speaker 1: the trial, had noted that the case had an air
Speaker 1: of quote the days of the Roman Empire, when the
Speaker 1: Christians were thrown to the lions. Years later in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy three, he also described how the old Bailey quote
Speaker 1: had the atmosphere of a first night. He continued, quote
Speaker 1: you had all these people who might be in the
Speaker 1: dress circle or the stalls, a great many society women,
Speaker 1: sensation seekers, and they were all treating it as if
Speaker 1: it were a thing for which they paid for their seats.
Speaker 1: Professor Renee Weiss, who we mentioned earlier, said of the
Speaker 1: situation quote the public came to admire Freddy and intensely
Speaker 1: dislike Edith, a siren who had seduced a young man
Speaker 1: and thus set in motion a chain reaction that resulted
Speaker 1: in one man's death and the certain execution of.
Speaker 2: A lad During the trial, Freddy stated multiple times, and
Speaker 2: we can emphasize that that Edith had known nothing of
Speaker 2: his plans and couldn't have because of the very simple
Speaker 2: reason that he had not intended to murder Percy. His
Speaker 2: plan was to confront him and force him to deal
Speaker 2: with the love triangle situation, but Percy had reacted in
Speaker 2: a superior manner, which caused Freddy to lose his temper.
Speaker 2: Witness accounts to the court support this story that Edith
Speaker 2: had been taken by surprise on the night her husband
Speaker 2: was stabbed. The prosecution, though claimed Edith had insisted Freddy
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 1: Edith's counsel, Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, urged her not to testify.
Speaker 1: He felt the burden of proof lay with the prosecution
Speaker 1: and that there was nothing they could prove other than
Speaker 1: that she had been present at the murder. It was
Speaker 1: best if Edith just stayed silent. But Edith took the
Speaker 1: stand anyway. Of that. Author Laura Thompson has stated, quote
Speaker 1: that to me was a sign of innocence that you
Speaker 1: would be so adamant that you would want to do that.
Speaker 1: But Edith walked into a pit of vipers. The prosecution
Speaker 1: manipulated what she had written in her letters, finding and
Speaker 1: highlighting false narratives and giving misleading time periods to quote
Speaker 1: tie her up in knots. Edith's testimony did her no favors,
Speaker 1: as she contradicted herself regarding the contents of her letters.
Speaker 1: Her demeanor, it was reported, varied from flirtatious to melodramatic,
Speaker 1: and it was also reported that she made a poor
Speaker 1: impression on the judge and the jury. In reply to
Speaker 1: several questions relating to the meaning of some of the
Speaker 1: passages in her letters, including when asked what she had
Speaker 1: meant when she had written to Freddie asking him to
Speaker 1: send her quote something to give her husband, she stated simply,
Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Her own counsel later stated that the vanity and arrogance
Speaker 2: she brought to the stand destroyed her chances for acquittal.
Speaker 2: Her testimony, too, had been unfortunate. Her demeanor negated the
Speaker 2: positive testimonies of neighbors who had heard her cry out
Speaker 2: in horror as her husband was attacked, as well as
Speaker 2: the statements from police who dealt with the immediate investigation,
Speaker 2: who'd reported that she'd appeared to be in a genuine
Speaker 2: state of shock and disbelief, saying things like quote, oh God,
Speaker 2: why did he do this? End quote I never wanted
Speaker 2: him to do it.
Speaker 1: Renee Weiss, convinced of Edith's innocence, has written quote, Edith
Speaker 1: Thompson paid a terrible price for daring to be ruled
Speaker 1: by her passions and for behaving out of her social class.
Speaker 1: If confirmation were needed that it was her perceived immorality
Speaker 1: that brought her to perdition, it is proved by the
Speaker 1: foreman of her jury, who said, quote, it was my
Speaker 1: duty to read them the letters to the members of
Speaker 1: the jury. Nauseus is hardly strong enough to describe their contents.
Speaker 1: Missus Thompson's letters were her own condemnation.
Speaker 2: The letters were crucial evidence, but should have been flimsy
Speaker 2: evidence for the prosecution. Author Laura Thompson has stated of
Speaker 2: their use, quote, the horror of having them read out
Speaker 2: in court. That's what kills me, those private, intimate words
Speaker 2: and the public gallery behaving like crazed lunatics listening to
Speaker 2: this private, private stuff. It's like trying to torture someone.
Speaker 1: I think from court reports, it's also clear that the
Speaker 1: trial judge, mister Justice Sherman, was not impartial when it
Speaker 1: came to Edith's case. He repeatedly interjected on the side
Speaker 1: of the prosecution. He told the jurors, whom he would
Speaker 1: only address as gentlemen, despite there being two women on
Speaker 1: the jury exactly how he felt about Edith's adultery. All
Speaker 1: was adultery, not a thing about the murder charge. Quote.
Speaker 1: I am certain that you, like any other right minded person,
Speaker 1: will be filled with disgust at such a notion. Not
Speaker 1: biased at all.
Speaker 2: The judge labeled her an adulterer, deceitful, and by implication,
Speaker 2: surely capable of murder. Sir Bennett attempted to cast her
Speaker 2: immorality as defensible in the context of the quote glamorous
Speaker 2: aura of a quote great love, and tried to overlook
Speaker 2: the point continually being made by the judge that the
Speaker 2: case concerned only an adulterer and an adulterous wife. In
Speaker 2: his final address, Sir Bennett said of Edith, quote, this
Speaker 2: is not an ordinary charge of murder? Am I right
Speaker 2: or wrong in saying that? This woman is one of
Speaker 2: the most extraordinary personalities that you or I have ever met?
Speaker 2: Have you ever read more beautiful language of love? Such
Speaker 2: things have been very seldom put by pen upon paper.
Speaker 2: This is the woman you have to deal with, not
Speaker 2: some ordinary woman. She is one of those striking personalities
Speaker 2: met from time to time who stand out for some
Speaker 2: reason or another. You are men of the world, and
Speaker 2: you must know that where there is a liaison which
Speaker 2: includes someone who is married, it will be part of
Speaker 2: the desire of that person to keep secret the relations
Speaker 2: from the other partner. It is not the sort of
Speaker 2: thing that they would bring to the knowledge of their
Speaker 2: partner for life.
Speaker 1: Opinion pieces began to appear in newspapers, and most of
Speaker 1: them were not written in Edith's favor. In fact, they
Speaker 1: were scathing. The Times in London, for example, published a
Speaker 1: piece that read, quote, there were no circumstances in the
Speaker 1: case too of the slightest sympathy. The whole case was
Speaker 1: simple and sordid. Still people couldn't agree whether Edith and
Speaker 1: Freddy were partners in murder or not. And on that
Speaker 1: we're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 1: our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk about the
Speaker 1: events on the day of the execution, and you might
Speaker 1: want to brace yourself.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. The day of Edith's execution. Honestly,
Speaker 2: hattison tears. Prepare yourselves for an especially terrible day before
Speaker 2: and at the gallows.
Speaker 1: On December eleventh, the jury reached a verdict after two
Speaker 1: hours of deliberation, Edith, terrified, was carried into the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Both she and Freddie were found guilty of murder. Amid
Speaker 1: the commotion that followed, Freddy yelled out quote, the jury
Speaker 1: is wrong, that woman is not guilty. They were both
Speaker 1: sentenced to death by hanging.
Speaker 2: There were appeals in late December, actually not long after
Speaker 2: the trial ended. The Court of Appeal held that Edith
Speaker 2: was indeed guilty, stating that quote incitement to murder revealed
Speaker 2: in her letters, combined with her extraordinary catalog of lies
Speaker 2: about what happened on the night of the murder told
Speaker 2: to several witnesses up until her second witness statement, which
Speaker 2: was open to being found untrustworthy, her meetings with Bywaters
Speaker 2: on the day of the murder, and the content of
Speaker 2: her last letter was sufficient to convict her of arranging
Speaker 2: the murder. The Court of Appeal also took a narrower
Speaker 2: approach to the concept of quote principle in the second
Speaker 2: degree than the court had, but not in Edith's favor.
Speaker 2: A principle in the second degree is legally defined as
Speaker 2: a person who is present at the scene of the
Speaker 2: crime and aids, abets, or encourages that crime. A principle
Speaker 2: in the second degree might also be an accomplice, an accessory,
Speaker 2: or an accessory after the fact. It differs from principle
Speaker 2: in the first degree in that they didn't carry out
Speaker 2: the crime. It was concluded Edith and Freddie were untrustworthy
Speaker 2: end quote. So besmirched were their reputations before they had
Speaker 2: even entered the witness box. The relationship was considered one
Speaker 2: of quote culpable intimacy.
Speaker 1: It had been widely expected, even by the hangman himself,
Speaker 1: that Edith would escape execution, but according to her biographer
Speaker 1: Laura Thompson, Edith quote never stood a chance in front
Speaker 1: of that jury. Additionally, continued Thompson, quote, women disliked her
Speaker 1: because they feared her. She was one of those women
Speaker 1: that other women think men fancy, and she was troubling,
Speaker 1: and she couldn't be pitied.
Speaker 2: Neither would escape execution. The lovers were executed on January ninth,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty three, for the murder of Percy Thompson. Freddy
Speaker 2: was hanged at nine o'clock in the morning at the
Speaker 2: hands of hangman William Willis. Edith's execution followed just a
Speaker 2: few minutes later, about half a mile away. She was
Speaker 2: executed by hangman John Ellis.
Speaker 1: It's reported to have been an icy cold Tuesday morning
Speaker 1: when the hangman and his team arrived at Edith's cell
Speaker 1: of London's Holloway Prison. She had spent the last few
Speaker 1: days of her life in a state of near constant hysteria,
Speaker 1: falling between crying and screaming, and unable to eat. She
Speaker 1: was heavily sedated the morning of her death, barely conscious
Speaker 1: before her execution. According to author Renee Weiss, doctor John
Speaker 1: Hall Morton, who was both the governor and medical officer
Speaker 1: of Holloway Prison, was the one who administered the following
Speaker 1: medications to Edith. Forty five minutes before her death, she
Speaker 1: was injected with two milligrams of strict Five minutes later,
Speaker 1: she was given a zero point five milligram dose of
Speaker 1: scopolymene morphine and ten milligrams of morphia. Yes, in case
Speaker 1: you're wondering, Strick nine is a poison, but at that
Speaker 1: low dose it can also be used as a tonic
Speaker 1: or analeptic, and the other drugs would have sedated her quickly.
Speaker 2: One of the executioners team lifted her by the waist,
Speaker 2: telling her quote, come on, it'll soon be over. She
Speaker 2: was carried to the gallows by assistance of the executioner.
Speaker 2: They had bound her arms and ankles, though she was
Speaker 2: so sedated that hardly mattered. She had to be held
Speaker 2: upright while the noose was fitted to her. Edith was
Speaker 2: unconscious when the trap door opened. This next detail is graphic,
Speaker 2: so prepare yourself for skip ahead about thirty seconds or so,
Speaker 2: depending on whose version of events you believe. As we
Speaker 2: reach this part of Edith's story, she may or may
Speaker 2: not have bled from her vagina after her hanging, after
Speaker 2: she'd fallen through the trap door, and the question remains today.
Speaker 2: Did she hemorrhage during her execution, and if so, why
Speaker 2: it goes without saying. There is a lot of speculation here.
Speaker 1: Famed pathologist Sir Bernard Spillsbury claimed the bleeding was likely
Speaker 1: caused by her being pregnant and miscarrying. After her execution,
Speaker 1: Spillsbury carried out Percy Thompson's autopsy. He may have carried
Speaker 1: out Edith's post mortem exam too, but that's unclear. We
Speaker 1: know that he wrote about her case. He thought her
Speaker 1: trial was an injustice, but there's no evidence of a
Speaker 1: post mortem from him. If he didn't examine her, his
Speaker 1: comment on a pregnancy would be no more than mere speculation.
Speaker 1: And as we've seen, many people speculated many things about
Speaker 1: Edith for many following the case, wouldn't the whole event
Speaker 1: have been that much more tragic or immoral depending on
Speaker 1: how you felt about Edith if she was pregnant with
Speaker 1: Freddy's not Percy's baby.
Speaker 2: But then if she did bleed, it could have just
Speaker 2: been how bodies work and nothing more than a side
Speaker 2: effect of her cause of death. Hangings can be bloody
Speaker 2: in addition to common things like cerebral hypoxia, cervical fracture,
Speaker 2: and the spontaneous evacuation of urine and feces from the body.
Speaker 2: For instance, bleeding is not unusual. A person may bleed
Speaker 2: from the nose, mouth, or ears bleeding in the lumbar
Speaker 2: region called Simon's Bleedings, hemorrhages under the plura of the lungs,
Speaker 2: and bowel wall hemorrhage are all characteristic signs of death
Speaker 2: by hanging in some countries today but not during Edith's time.
Speaker 2: By law, women are dressed in adult diapers before they're
Speaker 2: hanging to contain fluids, including uterine blood that escapes during
Speaker 2: the trauma of the event, and as the uterine muscles
Speaker 2: relax as the body dies. Uterine bleeding doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 2: a woman was or wasn't pregnant during her execution.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Cronin, who was the Deputy governor Holloway Prison and
Speaker 1: was present at the time of the execution, refuted those
Speaker 1: pregnancy claims, stating nothing quote untoward happened during the execution.
Speaker 1: We know that Edith was not visibly pregnant while in prison.
Speaker 1: We know she did not give birth in prison either,
Speaker 1: and there are no hard facts to suggest she was
Speaker 1: pregnant when she was hanged. To that point reported in
Speaker 1: House of Commons answered of March twenty seventh, nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: the then Home Secretary, Major Lloyd George stated that Edith
Speaker 1: was indeed sedated and had to be carried to the
Speaker 1: gallows and supported on it. But he had also concluded
Speaker 1: and reported to Parliament that he had examined all the
Speaker 1: available evidence, including post mortem reports, and concluded that again,
Speaker 1: nothing quote untoward had happened. There were no references to pregnancy.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of documentation involved in an execution, and
Speaker 2: one known as the LPC four form is required to
Speaker 2: be completed by the warden after a hanging, it records
Speaker 2: basic facts of the death. Edith's LPC four form, for instance,
Speaker 2: notes dislocation as the cause of her death and mentions
Speaker 2: bruising of the neck from the rope. It does not
Speaker 2: mention that she was pregnant. In fact, it doesn't mention
Speaker 2: anything about uterine bleeding. It's not mentioned on any report
Speaker 2: even once, though it appears in unsubstantiated accounts of her
Speaker 2: death told later on.
Speaker 1: After Edith's trial and hanging, several of the prison officers
Speaker 1: took early retirement. In fact, John Ellis, who you'll recall
Speaker 1: had been her executioner, stated quote, I never dreamt missus
Speaker 1: Thompson would hang. I really believe the authorities would bow
Speaker 1: before the storm of protest from the public. He retired
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter, in nineteen twenty three. A quick trigger alert
Speaker 1: here regarding suicide, So jump ahead ten seconds or so
Speaker 1: if that is not something you want to hear. Ellis
Speaker 1: went on to end his own life nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 1: His closest friends and associates later stated that he was
Speaker 1: never able to shake off the horrors he'd felt of
Speaker 1: Edith's final sedated moments at the gallows.
Speaker 2: Every woman sentenced to death during the previous decade had
Speaker 2: been reprieved, yet please and appeals on Edith's behalf had
Speaker 2: all been rejected. According to author Laura Thompson, quote when
Speaker 2: you see the contortions which the Home Office underwent to
Speaker 2: ensure that she was executed, it's really quite terrifying. Thompson believes,
Speaker 2: as many now do, that Edith's adultery was seen as
Speaker 2: quote an attack on morality and the sort of behavior
Speaker 2: in a woman that risked quote destroying the institution of
Speaker 2: marriage and destroying all that was good to that point.
Speaker 2: After the execution, Home Secretary William Bridgeman received notes from
Speaker 2: women thanking him for defending the honor of their sex
Speaker 2: by not allowing the death sentence to be commuted.
Speaker 1: Novelist and screenwriter and contemporary of Edith, Edgar Wallace stated quote,
Speaker 1: if ever, in the history of this country a woman
Speaker 1: was hanged by the sheer prejudice of the uninformed public,
Speaker 1: and without the slightest modicum of evidence to justify the hanging,
Speaker 1: that woman was Edith. Thompson. Edith's crime was not murder, quote,
Speaker 1: it was that she was an attractive, unfaithful woman, and,
Speaker 1: according to one expert on the case at the time,
Speaker 1: she was quote a victim of a societal intolerance of
Speaker 1: women who did not obey the moral codes of the day.
Speaker 1: Modern historians frequently describe Edith's fate as an unmistakable act
Speaker 1: of quote gendered social prejudice. Her lawyer would later state,
Speaker 1: quote missus Thompson was hanged for immorality.
Speaker 2: Those who believed and still believe she was not a
Speaker 2: partner in this crime held that police and prosecutors in
Speaker 2: this case found her adulterous behavior to be such bad
Speaker 2: behavior that she deserved to die, regardless of whether she
Speaker 2: was involved in her husband's murder or not. In his
Speaker 2: book Verdict in Dispute, Edgar Lustgarden examined the controversial trial
Speaker 2: and execution and stated that quote the Thompson verdict is
Speaker 2: now recognized as bad, and the trial from which it
Speaker 2: sprang stands out as an example of the evils that
Speaker 2: may flow from an attitude of mind.
Speaker 1: Another critique of her trial was made by author Lewis Brod,
Speaker 1: whose book The Innocence of Edith Thompson, a study in
Speaker 1: Old Bailey Justice, published in the early nineteen fifties, gives
Speaker 1: us several arguments of her innocence as well as a
Speaker 1: look at problems surrounding her trial. So to paraphrase his
Speaker 1: points from his work. First, Broad points out the judge's
Speaker 1: use of morally prejudiced language with the jury and that
Speaker 1: he used it to incite the prejudice of the jury
Speaker 1: and allowed the jury to be influenced by prejudice on
Speaker 1: account of her immorality. Second, Broad suggests that prejudice was
Speaker 1: allowed instead of what should have been the place of
Speaker 1: proof of meaning, motive, and intention in respect of her letters.
Speaker 1: And notably, he also stated that Edith was done at
Speaker 1: a service by having to appear alongside Frederick Bywaters in
Speaker 1: a single trial, and that she should have been granted
Speaker 1: a separate trial of her own.
Speaker 2: Broad also criticized the prosecution for the unfair use of
Speaker 2: her letters at the trial and pointed out several problems,
Speaker 2: and we're paraphrasing him again here on four things. The
Speaker 2: first is that many of Edith's letters were censored by
Speaker 2: the court during the trial because the judge felt subjects
Speaker 2: like menstruation and orgasm were not proper for public discussion
Speaker 2: of the available twenty five thousand words in total from
Speaker 2: her letters, only a fifteen hundred word extract was used
Speaker 2: at her trial. That's it. That's all the jury heard too.
Speaker 2: There was only one unambiguous reference to poison in the
Speaker 2: five months preceding the murder, yet it overwhelmed the judge
Speaker 2: and prosecution's view of her involvement in her husband's death.
Speaker 2: Three Nothing regarding the context of the murder suggested an
Speaker 2: element of planning, and Freddy's version of events never wavered.
Speaker 2: He admitted he entered into what he thought would be
Speaker 2: a scuffle, but it ended in a death. Despite a
Speaker 2: meandering and very casual discussion of the fantasy of Percy's murder,
Speaker 2: there is nothing in Edith's letters that amounted to any
Speaker 2: sort of agreement or conspiracy to kill. And the fourth
Speaker 2: that the letters were part of a fantasy between two
Speaker 2: enamored parties was not disclosed to the jury. They should
Speaker 2: have been treated like what they were, love letters. Instead,
Speaker 2: the judge and prosecution saw them as mission directives.
Speaker 1: Edith's body was buried quote within the precincts of the
Speaker 1: prison in which she was last confined in a court
Speaker 1: with her sentence, but then on November twenty second, twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: she was finally formally reinterred alongside her parents in accordance
Speaker 1: with her mother's wishes, at the City of London Cemetery
Speaker 1: at Manor Park. A partner in crime to murder through
Speaker 1: modernize this is one time when we get to report
Speaker 1: likely not we never get to report that, where I
Speaker 1: was like, probably, would you like to make it a double.
Speaker 2: I would love to.
Speaker 1: This is a horrible, horrible story, it is. I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about a number of things as I was trying
Speaker 1: to come up with a drink for this, because it's
Speaker 1: not a particularly joyous story, and I kept thinking about
Speaker 1: two things in particular. One is a weird detail and
Speaker 1: one is just about the nature of Edith's personality. So
Speaker 1: one this may sound a little grizzly, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to get something with a reddish tinge because I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about how much blood was reported at the crime scene,
Speaker 1: and then this whole idea of blood after the fact
Speaker 1: just all kind of gruesome, but it made me just
Speaker 1: feel like that was right. And blood is also you know,
Speaker 1: red is also the color that we think about when
Speaker 1: we think about passion and romance anyway, And I really
Speaker 1: find myself it's not identifying, but sympathizing quite deeply with
Speaker 1: Edith Right because she is clearly this person who envisions
Speaker 1: a life of greater passion and excitement than the one
Speaker 1: that she is in, which I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people experience and a lot of us have had those
Speaker 1: moments where we're just like, I would like more thrill
Speaker 1: than what I'm living right now, And so it's pretty
Speaker 1: natural to have, you know, fantasy ideas of like what
Speaker 1: your life could be. Oh yeah, and the idea that
Speaker 1: you could potentially commit some of those fantasy ideas, you
Speaker 1: don't think of them as reality. There are things you
Speaker 1: work through to kind of give yourself the you know,
Speaker 1: dope mean hit of what if. And the idea that
Speaker 1: something that is so personal like that could then become
Speaker 1: not just evidence but also published in folio form, could
Speaker 1: be like shared throughout the country and the world is horrifying.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just find myself going, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: if like my texts among my closest friends are like
Speaker 1: between me and my husband were ever shared, I'm sure
Speaker 1: someone could like twist something to make it sound like
Speaker 1: I was a monster. Even if like, you know you're
Speaker 1: you're saying something sarcastic, but when you're reading it straight,
Speaker 1: people don't know that. Similarly, when Edith is like in
Speaker 1: this relationship where she feels safe sharing her imaginary thoughts
Speaker 1: with someone else, the whole thing just sounds horrifying.
Speaker 2: To me and right frontage news.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to think about all of this in
Speaker 1: a way that would create a drink that is pretty strong,
Speaker 1: a little unexpected if you know what's in it, an
Speaker 1: extra unexpected because it kind of looks like something it's not,
Speaker 1: which we've done a little bit on previous seasons, but
Speaker 1: I really wanted to lean into this this time around.
Speaker 1: This is called romantic imagination. The first drink that comes
Speaker 1: to mind when I think of something very red is,
Speaker 1: of course the Negroni, which is, as we know, is
Speaker 1: not really my big fave, but many people love it.
Speaker 1: No shade if you do. But I wanted to do
Speaker 1: something that was a little bit sweeter maybe, but also
Speaker 1: had a tartness. I wanted it to be one of
Speaker 1: those drinks that as you're drinking it, you're like, is
Speaker 1: this a sweet drink or a tower drink? And also
Speaker 1: one that looks like a negroni more or less, so
Speaker 1: it's very easy to put together. You are going to
Speaker 1: use one ounce of sweet vermouth, which would be in
Speaker 1: an a grony, but that's the only crossover. One ounce
Speaker 1: of crem de noio, which is a liqueur that we've
Speaker 1: used before, although not very often. It has like an
Speaker 1: almondy flavor to it, one ounce of vodka because you
Speaker 1: want a neutral spirit there, and then one ounce of
Speaker 1: lemon juice. And you just shake this and strain it
Speaker 1: into a glass of ice. And it is a strange
Speaker 1: one because as you're sipping it, the sweet and the
Speaker 1: tart of the citrus are they're not at odds because
Speaker 1: you're not like this feels unbalanced or weird, but it
Speaker 1: is hard to decide which one you're tasting More of
Speaker 1: that make we're all sip it and be like this
Speaker 1: is quite tart, and then I'll have another sip and go, no,
Speaker 1: it isn't. Now I taste the sweet almond no and
Speaker 1: some of that I think is just the aromas that
Speaker 1: you're getting from it as well that are feeding that.
Speaker 1: But it does kind of make this very oddly sippable,
Speaker 1: considering it is a lot of alcohol at that point, right,
Speaker 1: You're three ounces of alcohol with a little lemon juice
Speaker 1: added to my palate. It did not taste super alcoholic.
Speaker 1: It really the lemon juice really undercuts all of that.
Speaker 1: But that makes it also, you know, a little bit dangerous,
Speaker 1: so be careful. But I wanted something where you were
Speaker 1: not sure and it didn't quite make sense because Edith's
Speaker 1: entire trial and execution did not quite make sense, right, right,
Speaker 1: So that is the inspiration for the romantic imagination. To
Speaker 1: make the mocktail. You will still use your one ounce
Speaker 1: of lemon juice, but obviously beyond that everything's got to change.
Speaker 1: So you will do one ounce of almonds syrup, one
Speaker 1: ounce of a grape juice, and you do want like
Speaker 1: a dark grape juice for this, not a white which
Speaker 1: comes up frequently and will come up in a future segment.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna take those three things, shake them
Speaker 1: with ice, strain them over ice, and then you'll top
Speaker 1: it with one ounce of club sodas. So the mocktail
Speaker 1: has a little bit of bubble to it. Similarly, it
Speaker 1: is like, am I getting more almond or more lemon?
Speaker 1: Is this tart or is this sweet?
Speaker 2: I'm not having the same effect.
Speaker 1: That's nice. I actually really like the mocked out version.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Oh, we can make a bunch of those,
Speaker 1: and then we'll add vodka to that. I don't know,
Speaker 1: we'll see, but in any case, if you make it,
Speaker 1: I hope that it is delicious to your palette. We're
Speaker 1: so grateful that you spent this time with us, and
Speaker 1: we will be right back here next week with another
Speaker 1: tale of criminal duos. Will they actually be criminals?
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, you can figure that out later. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.