THE STORY SO FAR
Edith Thompson was different to the average middle-class woman living in the 1920s – she was educated, well-read, spoke French and had a young lover – but would she kill to be with him?
THE CASE
It was the 1920s – the age of the Flapper, short skirts, bobbed hair, silk underwear and dancing!
Women were as good as men. They’d proved that by doing men’s jobs during the First World War. So why shouldn’t they have fun, too? Edith Thompson agreed.
She was one of the first girls in her neighbourhood to cut her hair, smoked openly and wore calf-length, sleeveless dresses. Plus, she devoured romantic fiction and worked as a manageress in a milliner’s shop. She earned more than her husband Percy.
They’d married in January 1916 when Edith was 22, Percy, 24. She’d never truly loved him, and tried to back out on the morning of her wedding.
Not one to take risks, Percy was hardly the dashing hero of the romance novels she read.
Then, in summer 1920, Edith met Frederick Bywaters.
At 18, Freddy was nearly nine years her junior. He was handsome and muscular with light brown, wavy hair. Edith was smitten. Freddy captivated her imagination with fantasy-fuelled tales of how, at 15, he joined the Merchant Navy.
So, the following summer, when Freddy’s ship returned from the Far East, Edith persuaded Percy to let Freddy lodge with them.
Unaware of the chemistry between them, Percy agreed. A fortnight later, Edith skipped work for breakfast in bed with Freddy.
Percy soon became suspicious of their affair as the lovestruck couple fussed over each other. Two months later, the men came to blows and Freddy moved out.
‘I have got her and will keep her,’ Percy told Freddy.
Shamed Percy refused to divorce Edith.
But, undeterred, over the next year whenever Freddy’s ship docked at Tilbury, Edith and Freddy snuck secret trysts together.
And when they were apart, they wrote constantly. Edith wrote:
All that lying and scheming and subterfuge to obtain one little hour in each day – when by right of nature and our love we should be together for all the 24 in one day.
She even revealed she’d considered bumping off Percy by poisoning his tea or lacing his porridge with crushed glass!
But was it fact or fiction?
Percy has the right by law to all that you have the right to by nature and love – yes, darling, be jealous, so much so that you do something desperate,
Edith urged in one letter.
Did she want Freddy to become one of the heroes she loved to read about – or a villain?
In late September 1922, Freddy’s ship docked in Tilbury. The following five days were intense, as the pair snatched every spare moment. But, as eloping was out of the question, they’d have to keep writing and hoping.
Then, on 3 October 1922, as Edith and her husband were walking back to their Ilford house after an evening out, a figure jumped out of the darkness.
The thug pushed Edith to the ground, and began stabbing Percy.
‘Why don’t you get a divorce from your wife, you cad?’ the man seethed.
Freddy?
‘Don’t!’ Edith screamed, as the stranger slashed Percy in the back and neck.
One blow severed Percy’s carotid artery. He died within minutes as the killer disappeared into the night.
Distraught, Edith ran up to a nearby couple.
‘Help me, my husband’s ill and bleeding!’ she begged.
Later, when questioned by police, Edith broke down and eventually admitted the attacker had been her lover – Freddy Bywaters. She insisted she knew nothing of Freddy’s murderous plot.
And when, soon after, he was arrested wearing a bloodstained coat, Freddy claimed he had acted alone.
But when the police searched Freddy’s belongings, they discovered a bundle of 65 letters from Edith. They read about her poisonous plans.
And, despite a postmortem examination showing Percy had no sign of poisoning or internal scarring from glass, Edith was arrested and charged with murder.
Yes, the couple had had an 18-month affair. Yes, she’d written him countless love letters. Even suggested she’d like to be rid of Percy to be with Freddy.
But would she really get her lover to kill her husband?
Just two months later, Edith Thompson stood trial at the Old Bailey.
Her letters were a goldmine for the prosecution’s case.
If we ever are lucky enough to be happy, darling, I will love you for all you do for me,
Edith had written.
Scandalous!
They cast Edith as a scheming, murderous, adulterous wife whose evil mind encouraged Freddy to kill.
Had she really fuelled Freddy’s imagination? Used her besotted lover to turn her romantic fantasies into reality?
Testifying, Edith explained most of what she’d written was lifted from the trashy novels she adored. She tried to convince jurors that Freddy had committed a crime of passion.
Throughout, she maintained her innocence. Freddy, too, insisted he acted alone.
And, of course, there was no concrete evidence.
So, was Edith an innocent dreamer or evil conspirator?
Go to page 2 to find out what happened next
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