Catherine Wilson: Britain’s Female Borgia — The Last Woman Publicly Hanged in London

Catherine Wilson: Britain’s Female Borgia — The Last Woman Publicly Hanged in LondonNews of the Times | Episode 600 | 1862A quiet lodger. A trail of unexplained deaths. And the last woman ever publicly hanged in London.In this episode, we investigate Catherine Wilson — the Victorian poisoner newspapers called “Britain’s Female Borgia.” Her story begins with a near-fatal “soothing draught” in a Kennington sickroom and unfolds into one of the most disturbing murder investigations of the 19th century.What seemed at first like a single attempted poisoning soon revealed a far darker truth. As police traced Wilson’s movements through London and Lincolnshire, they uncovered a pattern of sudden illnesses, vanished savings, altered wills, and victims who died in unmistakable agony.And behind each death stood the same gentle, soft-spoken woman.Join us as we explore:🕯️ The failed poisoning that finally exposed her🕯️ The lodging-house world of mid-century Britain — where killers could hide in plain sight🕯️ The suspicious deaths of Mrs Jackson, Peter Mawer, James Dixon, Mrs Soames, Mrs Atkinson, and others🕯️ The Victorian forensic limits that allowed her to evade justice for years🕯️ The Old Bailey trial that shocked the public🕯️ And the execution at Newgate that ended an era of female public hangingsAtmospheric, unsettling, and drawn entirely from the historical record, this is the chilling true story of a woman who moved unnoticed through the sickrooms of Victorian England — leaving devastation in her wake.✨ Further Particulars — A New Year’s Collection of Curious ProverbsTo open 2026 on a suitably elevated note, this week’s Further Particulars turns to that most scholarly of Victorian institutions… The Illustrated Police News.We’ve gathered a handful of wonderfully odd foreign proverbs from 1890 — sayings that range from the poetic to the practical to the frankly unhinged.Expect buffaloes, bears, burnt children, and at least one pig with questionable table manners.A light New Year’s reminder that across time and continents, human wisdom has always been a very mixed bag.👤 Narrated by Robin Coles

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