Softies Central: Knitted homes of crime!

This is the greatest idea for a softie gallery show - these are all knitted houses of female murderers or the houses of their victims! The show was in the UK in 2002.

Homes1

A photo of the art gallery and all the houses above and a photo of the house in the center is below. All houses were knitted by Jean Arkell.

House2

Ethel Major, aged 43, lived with her husband Arthur. In 1934, after 16 years of marriage and a child of their own, Arthur discovered that Ethel already had an illegitimate daughter, Auriel. Their marriage started to deteriorate and Ethel began to imagine that he was now having an affair. As a result of her suspicions she started to poison him. Arthur eventually died on 24 May 1934 after eating corned beef sandwiches containing strychnine. Ethel was caught on the day of Arthur's funeral when the police received an anonymous letter claiming that a neighbours dog had died after eating scraps of food from the Major's household. After an examination of Arthur's body and the exhumation of the dog she was charged. Ethel was found guilty of murder and hanged at Hull Prison on 19 December 1934.

Charlotte1

Charlotte Bryant, a 33-year-old illiterate mother of five, lived here with her husband Frederick. She enjoyed a drink and had a reputation as an amateur prostitute in the local pubs. Apparently her toothlessness and lice did not put the men off. Sometimes she even brought them home. One of these men was Leonard Parsons, a gypsy horse trader. Leonard became an occasional lodger in the Bryant household and Frederick did not seem to mind sharing Charlotte with him. Charlotte decided otherwise and started poisoning Frederick so that she would be free to marry Leonard. Frederick eventually died on 22 December 1935 after drinking a cup of Oxo containing arsenic. Charlotte was caught after the post-mortem on Frederick's body. A friend also told the police that she had seen Charlotte trying to destroy a tin of weed-killer. She was hanged at Exeter Prison on 15 July 1936.

Christiana1

Christiana Edmunds was a 43 year old spinster who lived with her widowed mother. She had become infatuated with a married man, Dr. Beard. In September 1870 she brought a box of chocolates to the Beard's house and insisted that Mrs. Beard eat some over a pot of tea. Christiana had filled these chocolate creams with strychnine. Immediately after eating one Mrs. Beard became severely ill. As a result Dr. Beard accused her of trying to poison his wife. Christiana denied the charge and set about trying to prove that there was a poisoner at large in Brighton. She would pay children to buy chocolate creams from the same sweet shop that she purchased the box of chocolates for Mrs. Beard from. She would inject these with strychnine, then re-wrap them and pay another child to return them. The innocent shop-keeper sold on these poisoned sweets. On 12 June 1871 this activity resulted in the death of 4-year-old Sidney Barker. Christiana even sent poisoned cakes and fruit through the mail, addressing some to herself, to try to emphasise her innocence. She was eventually caught and sentenced to death but when it transpired that she was mentally ill her sentence was commuted and she was sent to Broadmoor. She died there in 1907 aged 79. It later transpired that no less than four members of her immediate family had died as a result of mental illness