What do you get when a serial liar, suspected fraudster, manipulative nurse, and convicted murderer all happen to be the same person?

This week, Dee and Isla dive into the chilling case of Malcolm Webster – the so-called "Black Widower" whose trail of deception, suspicious fires, insurance scams, fake illnesses, and attempted murders stretched from Scotland to New Zealand.

From the mysterious death of his first wife Claire Morris in a burning car in rural Aberdeenshire, to a near-identical attempt on the life of his second wife Felicity Drumm in New Zealand, Webster spent years evading justice while charming, manipulating, and financially exploiting the women around him.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic abuse, coercive control, alleged drugging with sedatives, fraud, arson, and murder. Listener discretion is advised.

Sources

• Charles Lavery, The Black Widower: The Life and Crimes of a Sociopathic Killer (2012)

• BBC News coverage of the Malcolm Webster trial and conviction

• The Guardian – Malcolm Webster conviction and sentencing reports

• The Independent – Life term for wife killer Malcolm Webster

• The Scotsman – Reporting on allegations surrounding Webster's nursing career

• STV News and STV Footage archives

• Daily Record interviews with survivors and family members

• NZ Herald reporting on the New Zealand investigation

• CaseMine and vLex legal records relating to Malcolm Webster's appeals

• Murder She Spoke podcast, Episode 30

• They Walk Among Us podcast

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On 18 November 1987, a small fire broke out beneath a wooden escalator at London’s King’s Cross St Pancras Underground station. It should have been a routine incident. Instead, within minutes, it became one of the deadliest fires in modern British history. Thirty-one people lost their lives, more than 100 were injured, and an entire culture of complacency was exposed.

In this episode, Dee takes us back to 1980s London, when smoking was still common on the Underground, many escalators were made of wood, and repeated fire warnings had been ignored. We explore how a seemingly minor escalator fire developed into a devastating flashover that engulfed the ticket hall in seconds, trapping passengers and firefighters alike.

Sources

• Fennell Report: Investigation into the King’s Cross Underground Fire (1988)

• London Fire Brigade History Archive

• British Transport Police Historical Records

• UK Parliament Hansard Debates

• Journal of Fire Protection Engineering

• Contemporary reporting from The Guardian and ITV News

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of murder, extreme violence, mental illness, child abuse, and graphic injuries.

In February 1933, police were called to a quiet house in Le Mans, France, after René Lancelin returned home to find the doors locked, the lights out, and his wife and daughter missing.

Upstairs, officers discovered a scene so brutal it would shock France for decades to come.

At the centre of it all were Christine and Léa Papin - two devoted sisters who had worked as maids for the wealthy Lancelin family for years. Quiet, obedient, and intensely close, the sisters lived an isolated existence in the attic of the home they served.

But on the evening of 2 February 1933, something snapped.

Sources

• Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica)

• Criminocorpus – Papin Sisters Case Archive

• Criminocorpus – Archival Material Part 1

• Criminocorpus – Archival Material Part 2

• All That’s Interesting – The Papin Sisters Case

• The Guardian – The Maids Review / Papin Sisters Context

• Morbid Podcast – Episode on the Papin Sisters

• My Favourite Murder