Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 27, No. 2, September 24, 1927

She had renewed the friendship, and when she took service with Mrs. Thomas he came to see her one night much the worse for drink. Her mistress came home and she told her Church was her brother and introduced him. A few days later he came again and he said: “Couldn’t we put the old girl out of the way?”

Kate said: “What do you mean?” and Church’s answer had been: “Oh, poison her.”

The Story Unfolds

Kate’s answer had been: “You must do that yourself. I’ll have nothing to do with that.”

Church said: “We would have her things and go off to America together and enjoy it. I’m getting tired of my old woman.”

Church came again on Monday night, March 3. “He had tea with Mrs. Thomas. I waited on them. After tea I asked to go out and see my little boy. When I returned late in the evening I noticed the light was turned down. I knocked three times at the door; the third knock Church opened the front door when I saw Mrs. Thomas lying on the mat in the passage, struggling and groaning, and he said ‘Come in.’

“I drew back on the step, frightened to go in. At this time there was a policeman standing on the opposite side of the road, a tall dark man. Church catched me by the arm, pulled me in and closed the door.

“I said, ‘Whatever have you done?’ He said, ‘Never you mind, I have done for her, and if you say a word about it I’ll put this knife into you up to the handle.’ That was a carving knife belonging to Mrs. Thomas. I said, ‘No, John, don’t. I won’t tell.’ ”

The story then ran that he took her to Mrs. Porter’s, and himself returned to the villa. He told her to go with young Robert Porter to the house and get the box. She met him on Richmond Bridge, and asked him what he was going to do with the box. He said, “That is my business.” She heard a splash. She had seen blood on the carving knife, but noticed it had been cleaned. Church was always about the house.

Kate Goes to Trial

He gave her his photograph and a card with his address, and said when she went away that he would stay home and “braze it out.” She was to stay three weeks in Ireland. He would then send her money and they would go to America together.

“I never laid a hand on Mrs. Thomas,” she concluded, “and had nothing to do with murdering her, but I knew Church had done it. I intend to tell the whole truth, as I don’t see why I should be blamed for what Church has done.”

Church was able to prove a complete alibi. On the evening named and at the time stated he was present at a meeting of the Slate Club. The various members swore to his presence.

He was one of the three men in charge of the keys required to open a fund box. The books of the club were produced bearing his signature, signed that night to certain entries. There was not the slightest doubt that he had not been near Mrs. Thomas’s villa.

Kate was undaunted. She said she had made a mistake. Church had committed the murder, not on Monday but Sunday night, and added that Porter had been a party to it.

Both men were, luckily, able to prove a most manifest alibi for Sunday night. Church was discharged at once and was hailed by the cheers of hundreds.

He did a roaring trade for days at The Rising Sun, and basked in the light of popularity and prosperity. He became a famous character, and prints of both he and Kate Webster were sold everywhere.

On July 2 Kate Webster was brought to trial. The defense tried to prove that it was in no way clear that Mrs. Thomas died by violence, or that the remains found were those of her.

Dr. Adams, who first examined them, thought the body belonged to a woman eighteen to thirty years old. Mrs. Thomas had been subject to fits. She probably had a fatal one. Kate had found her on the mat.

The police evidence as to charred bones, bloodstains, et cetera, was ignored. The defense could advance no theory as to what had become of the body.

The prosecution had an easy task. Miss Ives gave highly incriminating evidence that the boiler in the house next door had been in use the morning after the murder. The two boilers were back to back, and there was only a thin wall between.

The box with the remains was proved, without a doubt, to have been prepared in the villa and taken out by Kate with the innocent assistance of Robert Porter.

The Shadow She Cast

That she had premeditated the murder was proved by the evidence of Mary Durden, the bonnet maker.

Public opinion was all against Webster. She was hooted and booed in transit from prison to court. The trial ended on July 8, the verdict was “Guilty,” and the sentence “Death by hanging.”

On July 10 the prisoner made a long and rambling statement in which she said the actual murderer was a certain man who was the father of her child, and that he had been assisted by a woman whom she did not know.

Webster belonged to the Roman Catholic faith, and persistence of her confessor induced her to tell the truth at last.