How Her Illicit Love Letters Got Edith Thompson Hanged for a Murder

Criminalia

This story is one of murder, but it's also a tale of woe. It begins when a young ship's steward named Frederick 'Freddy' Bywaters became involved with a married woman named Edith Thompson. They had known each other growing up in the same London suburb as her husband Percy Thompson; and, it was generally considered that Freddy would marry Edith's sister, Avis. But life doesn't always work out the way you think it will -- and he ended up being executed for Percy's murder. And so did Edith. History now suggests maybe she wasn't a woman who killed for her lover, but, rather, a witness to the event. Were Freddy and Edith partners in murder, or was Edith sentenced to death for adultery?

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