Sweets and secrets: The mysterious murder of Laura Mordaunt-Chapman

This week, we’re off to Twickenham (yes, it is in South London—Han’s learning geography as we go), where a wealthy widow was found brutally stabbed and partially burned in her own home in 1936. Laura Mordaunt Chapman lived a quiet, reclusive life—until Albert Hadfield, a local sweetshop owner with a shady past and a bicycle, wormed his way in. With 47 stab wounds, no signs of a break-in, and a staged crime scene, the case screamed foul play… but nearly 90 years on, no one has ever been convicted.

We’re talking poison apples (not really, but sort of), romantic misunderstandings, and the mystery of why Laura, who never left her kitchen, was found upstairs. Oh, and we’ve upgraded our recording kit thanks to Young William. Fancy.

Join us as we unravel a lesser-known but chilling South London murder and raise a glass (or a cider) to one year of Sinister South. Spoiler: Albert definitely did it.

Sources for this episode include: 

http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=1222&termRef=Laura%20Mordaunt-Chapman

https://www.tempestproductions.net/podcasts/episode/8fad0ca9/london-epitaphs-11-laura-mordaunt-chapman

https://bookreadfree.com/538064/13210324#:~:text=From%20August%201927%2C%20Laura%20had,callers%20and%20lived%20very%20quietly

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1936-07-13/1936-07-13?basicsearch=girl%20shoots%20a%20man%20dead%20for%20treading%20on%20her%20foot&somesearch=girl%20shoots%20a%20man%20dead%20for%20treading%20on%20her%20foot&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=score#:~:text=foot%27%20www,Knowl%20Usk%20Monmouthshire%20gave

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• 21:15 (Cont.) Sweets and secrets: The mysterious murder of Laura Mordaunt-Chapman

Transcript

Ep 19 - Laura Chapman
Hello, hi, I'm Rachel, I'm Hannah, and this is the Sinister South podcast coming to you live from South London We're going to discuss all things nefarious and untoward. This, the best side of the river. I loved that.

Well done. That was really over excited. We've got new equipment.

We do. And it's made me feel very professional. It is quite, it's nice.

I just hope. It's because it's bulky and manly and I'm like It is a bit like, oh, I don't know what to, the rest of it was always a bit like, oh, yeah. Well, we figured that out.

That's fine. And now this is a big This is really serious. It looks really serious.

I feel like we actually are doing things. I know. Although I do feel like we should, we should point out that this is all Williams kits.

We haven't suddenly like turned on Patreon. Oh god, we turned on Patreon and now we've bought this new kit. No, no, it is.

It is young Williams, a loan of young Williams possessions. Because we realised that there was, we've been having a lot of technical issues and it's been very annoying because we couldn't work out what the hell it was. And we now think we have figured it out.

I hope to God, because if this one, if Will goes to edit this and it's the same issues, I'd like, I don't know what we're going to do. I know. Well, this is what I was saying to him last night.

Literally the twitch of my eyes come back, thinking about it. Well, I was saying this to him last night. I was like, look, we've got a Patreon now.

We've got to start doing this properly. And he was like, yeah, I know. But I just I don't know what I don't know what the issue is.

And my response to him was, well, that is not good enough. I just love it that I went to a gig, didn't I? Yes, you did. How am I? Yeah, what have I been up to? I went to a gig recently at the Royal Albert Hall and I was there as moral support for Richard.

Like, I didn't really know. Well, I do know I knew the name of the band, but it's not been like. Are you going to say who they are? 100 Reasons.

Or as their support act introduced them as the 100 Reasons. Oh, the 100. To be fair, that is showing their age.

So that's fine. That's probably what they refer to themselves now. But I think the support band I'd also heard of, and it's got something to do with schools, rival schools, rival schools used for glue.

That's the song, if you like. That's the only song I know by them. But yes, yes, they were on a Karang album many, many years ago.

So it was funny. There was a lot of big baggy shorts at the Royal Albert Hall. Yeah.

But the sound quality was fucking terrible. Yeah. Really, really bad in the in the first half.

Yeah. For rival schools. It was like an it.

I think it really took away of the took away the atmosphere from the gig for them as well. Like, I don't know. It was just really odd.

But I messaged the group, like the Sinister South WhatsApp group, and I was like moaning about the sound. Like I thought, well, this will turn Will on. Yeah, I like.

Yeah, yeah. I'll talk about sound quality for a while. Get him engaged.

And then I was like, when we do our first live gig at the Royal Albert Hall, I expect better, William. And he just sent me that gif, like, obviously. It was like I was watching you typing to him and there was a part of me that was like, is she flirting with him? Is that what's happening? Babe, and now look what we've got.

It's true. Professional equipment. You think I'm thick? Space ain't painted on, babe.

Well, it is, but like. I love it. But it was just when you started talking about like, oh, yeah, they're watching this guy with a slide.

I just realized that me saying this face ain't painted on makes absolutely no contextual sense to what I meant. And I've got all of my things confused, because normally, like when someone's like, oh, they fancy or whatever. I'm like, well, yeah, he's not made of wood.

His eyes aren't painted on, like, and all that. But I don't know what I was trying to go for. I'm not thick.

My face isn't painted on. Like what? Anyway, do you know what, though? I'm here for it. So I just I needed to point out that I knew it made no sense before.

Like a listener. Let's be honest. My mom says to me, I don't know what you were talking about.

So that meant that's not actually a saying. Oh, dear. No, but it was what you started talking about, like watching the sandwich there.

And you were like, oh, yeah, the slide. I was like, don't mention the fucking sliders. Don't mention the sliders.

He will tell you in great depth what each of those sliders is for. We went outside to vape and Rich was like, who are you messaging? And I showed him and he was laughing. And then Will sent through a really long, yeah, explanatory message and he went, well, you've done it now.

You have only yourself to blame. I'm going to open this cider. I was just about to say, talking about being professional and doing things properly to record weeks in a row.

She's let me drink on my own. I'm drinking as well as I know. Cheers.

It's because the sun's out, man. Like, yeah, cheers, man. Cheers, babes.

Let's not. I can't. No, I'm not something over.

That's fine. And but yeah, a hundred reasons were good. How else are you? A hundred reasons were good.

How am I going to repeat everything you say? Apparently that tastes like fromage frais. It does. It does.

Really good. I'm really, really good. I was saying to you when I got here, I just keep fucking winning.

You do. Life is a load of wins at the moment, and I'm feeling incredibly positive. For those of you that are tracking it, it's a week after my period, so obviously I'm on top of the bloody world.

Yeah. Like got my new windows. Nice.

I mean, are we going to say about Richard and his dad both listen to this? I'm like, Rich, I love you. And Richard's dad, I fancy your son. It's like there was two things.

So one of the men that came to do the replacement windows was so insanely good looking that I couldn't speak. And it like it clarified two things. One, I can't take a stealth photo.

I tried twice to take a photo for Rachel to say, like, look how hot this guy is. And twice his face was completely obscured by like a part of the window or a tree. Honestly, I still don't know how good looking this man was.

I'm going to have to draw him for you at this point. I just couldn't do it because I couldn't be stealth. But it also just confirms to me that I will never be able to have an affair.

Yeah, because I can talk. I fancy Richard and I can talk to him as a sensible, normal, intelligent woman. Yes.

A stranger who I find attractive and I'm... So to any she, he's and they's out there, if I ever meet you and I cannot verbalize anything, I fancy you. She's got a little bit of a thing. He was like, do it like... He had to ask me something about the cat flap in the back door.

And he was like, is it like this height? I was like, what do you think? And he had to say to me, I've never met your cats. I was like, good point. You're so clever.

Absolutely. And I had to walk to the other room and go, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. Oh, I love it.

Oh, I love it so much. I am so tempted to post on the Instagram the picture that I took. Just do it.

Just to show everyone. Fine. Because I haven't done a floating head today yet.

Because we just post that with no context. Just that. By the way, Travis, we are recording this on a Friday, which is usually when the floating heads come out.

I haven't done one yet just because I'm very busy. Well, I'm feeling really positive today. So you might actually be able to capture my image.

Oh, maybe we'll do that. Maybe I'll introduce it and you do the talking. OK, because I can't.

I look like every the two every time twice that we've done. I've been in a floating head. Do I fancy you? Why can't I talk? Yes.

Every time we've done a floating head and I do the talk. I do. I do.

Fuckin' hell. You do indeed fancy me. That is what is happening right now.

And I do the talk. I just look like I'm in a home for the bewildered. I was just staring off into the middle distance.

And there was a crime. And it's because I get so like I'm so in my own head about the perception of it all. And I'm so like, like I just have to zone out.

Yeah, it's visible on my face. And I watch them back. And I'm like, she's that girl is not even in the room.

Well, yeah, we could do that. I will have to put some makeup on, though, because for some reason at the moment. You fancy me? I fancy you and I really need to make myself more presentable.

No, I've just I've been sitting and I've been sun seeking, been sitting in the garden and it's been absolutely bloody glorious. But I've been there all week working. And now I just feel like I've got the slightest bit of like a tan sunshine near my face.

And what it's done is made what I think to be my wrinkle is more pronounced. So I just put a little bit on. You're silly.

You're beautiful. Well, I love you. You're very lovely.

But it's a self esteem lyric. That's one of my favorites. Yeah, you're beautiful and I want the best for you.

But I also hope you fail without me. Well, and both of those things are one. That is our relationship is literally us in a nutshell.

How are you? How am I? I am good. I have been, as I say, sun seeking, which has been lovely. I've got my garden furniture, so I'm able to sit outside and work, which has been joyous, been absolutely beautiful.

I honestly the sun changes everything. My entire personality changes in the sun. Really? Honestly, I am so much happier about life and everything in it.

Yeah. Despite the fact that yesterday I was rear ended. Sounds like my love life.

No. So some a man crashed into my little car. He's a poor man.

He's a poor man from Nepal. Yeah. He basically was not paying any attention whatsoever.

And I had stopped because there was a big queue of traffic and I was letting someone cross the road because we were near a school and there was a designated road crossing. So I stopped and then this car just came and smacked the back end of my car. It's fine.

It's all cosmetic. It's fine. But you were fine.

That's fine. I was 100% fine. No kids in the car.

No, no one. No person crossing the road wasn't hurt. No one was hurt.

Let's let the positives, the positives. It was all fine. Fucking frustrating.

So fucking annoying. Because it's just another thing that you have to deal with. And it's another thing that you didn't ask for.

Yes. Now you have to deal with. But yeah, he was very apologetic and took my number and has been WhatsAppping me to tell me that he's a very poor man.

Just the messages are quite intense is the word I'm going to go for. They really are very intense. But yeah, but that happened yesterday.

But apart from that, everything is good. I'm I'm fine. Life is happy.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this weekend. Will and I are going on. We've got a date night.

Ooh la la. I know. A night out with our children.

Rearranged it twice in one week. Yeah, he don't get any ideas, Will. Absolutely none whatsoever.

Will not be happening. Ew. She doth protest too much.

But yeah, no, we've got a rare night off without the kids, which is nice. I say rare. Congratulations.

Thank you. I say rare. It's not actually that rare.

We're very lucky. I've got lots of people who are happy to have my children for me. It takes a village.

It does. But no, we are we are going to Nikko. Is it six by Nikko? Six by Nikko, yeah.

Yeah. So they're doing it's the six wonders of the world. And this time they've got like there's like puzzle boxes that you've got to do before.

Sounds really cool. It sounds really fun. But I'm also very concerned that what it means is that I have to somehow figure out a puzzle before they will let me eat.

And I get hangry. Yeah, so I this is such great motivation for Will to solve puzzles. 100%.

So so, yeah, but that's I'm looking forward to that. We're doing that tomorrow night. So that'll be fun.

We've never done an escape room together. No, I don't know that it will be a good thing. I really wonder what would happen.

I feel like one of us would be hurt or the the poor teenager that's whose job it is to lock us in the room would end up being a victim on one of these cases. It would be. We would talk like, listen, it was both of us.

Neither of us deals well with being locked in anywhere. We're both quite claustrophobic. And it was it was him or us.

It was. It was. Yeah, I feel like we would probably.

If it's spoken a riddle one more time. I've warned him. It would be like I feel.

Have you seen that? It's always sunny episode. Yeah, it would be like that. That is what would happen.

I keep getting served the there's a tick tock compilation going round is like every day I identify with Dennis Reynolds more and more. And it's just all of the things. And I don't I didn't realise how much Dennis Reynolds is in my vocabulary.

Yeah, it was like every every Valentine's Day, what and I send each other a stupid meme that is a picture of him. And then it just says, but she won't say no because of the implication. Happy Valentine's Day.

Anyway, well, shall we? Also, yes, I like a bit of a long intro. Yeah, I do, too. Oh, you're giving me the look of like, no, shut up.

No, no, no, no, not at all. Happy one year to us. I know we did a happy birthday podcast.

Happy birthday, Sinister South. And happy birthday, Trevor's. Yeah.

You can join in on this. And it literally is the Trevor's anniversary because it was in the first ever episode. It was in the first ever episode.

Oh, well, we did a thing. I'm so proud of us. I'm so proud.

I'm so proud we've stuck at it. I know. There were times when we could have fallen through.

There's a few times where this wasn't quite what we were going to. Yeah, it's fine. We just carry on.

But we've done it. We've done it. A whole year.

A whole year. It's been. So that's it.

The final episode. Oh, Dick, can you imagine? That's just how we end it. Yeah.

Cool. See you later. We've got a Patreon.

Bye. We've made a fiver. Let's go.

I'm taking. Oh, dear. No, I did want to address something, though.

Oh, God. It's not anything serious. Don't worry.

What have I done? We spoke about this beforehand. Fine, fine, fine. So Hannah was having a little snoop on the old Facebook group the other day, and there was a comment and there was a comment about someone going, someone had said, who were they talking about when we discussed the podcast that we thought was just all production value and no substance? And the reason I'm not going to tell you who it is, because that's more fun.

But what I am going to say is that someone said, I thought it might be Bailey Sarian, and I got very sad. Yeah, literally. So Bailey is Rachel's, like, just everything.

If I could be anyone. Yeah, that is who I would be. She has my life.

That's the one I want. So the idea that anyone in the world thinks that Rachel's got something against Bailey Sarian has kept Rachel up. It has kept me up at night.

It's genuinely I had to reply to Hannah just going, lol, we need to fix this. We need to squash this. I absolutely love Bailey Sarian.

It is not her. It's not her. She can do no wrong in my eyes.

And then if anyone turns around and now tells me that actually she's cancelled, I'm just going to ignore you. Because that is how we deal with things. That is how we do it.

That's why you still listen to Gary Glitter, isn't it? All the time, every weekend. Right, on that note, I've got a story for you, if you fancy it. I would love it.

Cool. Right. So this one, we're going back in time again.

We haven't done a historical one for a little while. So I thought I would do it. But it's not as historical as we've been before.

I mean, we went back to like 1500s with Christopher Marlowe, didn't we? But no, this time we are heading to Twickenham. And the year is 1936. Is Twickenham in South London? Yes, I am learning so much during this podcast.

Yes, Twickenham is in South London. How? That's really cool. Didn't know.

Didn't not know. And yeah, and the year is 1936. So so we're we're far enough back.

OK, I like it. I like it. I'm going to settle in.

Yeah, I'm ready. Get yourself ready. Pick up that cider.

That's it. Sort yourself. Done.

Behind the doors of an unassuming terraced house on Hampton Road, a reclusive widow tends to her garden, unnoticed by most. She's 61, wealthy and lives entirely alone. A few days later, the silence becomes deafening.

When the front door swings open on the 9th of July, the house is eerily quiet until police are led to an upstairs bedroom where a shocking discovery awaits. The body of Laura Mordaunt Chapman brutally stabbed and hidden beneath a smouldering pile of clothes. Who would murder a woman so private, so seemingly detached from the outside world? And why did her killer leave behind stacks of untouched cash, expensive jewelry and a house full of secrets? What followed was a sensational trial, a familiar face in the frame and a verdict that left more questions than answers.

Nearly 90 years on, the mystery of Laura Mordaunt Chapman's death remains unsolved. Who was Laura? Laura was born Laura Eliza Davis in 1876 in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales. But very little is known about her early years.

Records of her parents or childhood circumstances are very scarce, and her name has largely slipped through the cracks of documented history. The only known close relative identified in her later life was a brother named Albert Henry Davis, who still lived in Usk at the time of her death. We don't know much about how Laura spent her youth, how she was educated or how she came to meet her future husband.

But in 1912, when Laura was in her mid 30s, she married a man who would dramatically shape the course of the rest of her life. Her husband, Algernon Mordaunt Chapman. What a name, isn't it? Was a man at least 20 years her senior.

He carried himself with airs of nobility, though not always legitimately. It was rumoured that he had invented a senior naval title to elevate his status in polite society. Algernon was no struggling gentleman, though.

He owned multiple properties in prosperous areas at the time, including Brighton and Hasselmere, as well as various parts of suburban London, including Eltham and Sydenham. And this meant that he was a landlord with a very substantial income. But while he was rich, he was not particularly well liked.

Does anyone like a landlord? Hmm. That's a question, right? No, I have to like mine. Oh, you've got a good look.

You've got a good one, though. I've got three very good, really, really good landlords. They are the best people.

So he was known to be less than sympathetic. And it's widely assumed that his wealth was amassed through less than kind means, often being described as exploitative in his dealings with his tenants. Regardless, Laura and Algernon was said to be a happy couple who settled in southeast London, first in Eltham Road and then later on in Peak Hill in Sydenham, where they lived a relatively affluent lifestyle supported by two live-in servants.

They had no children. And from what can be gathered, because again, a lot of this is kind of hearsay evidence because it's that long ago, their marriage was stable, but not particularly public facing. Their relationship lasted a decade until Algernon's death in 1922.

When he died, Laura inherited not only a substantial financial estate, but also a functioning property portfolio, which gave her both wealth and independence. Among the holdings confirmed in police records were properties across London, the south of England and Whitstable. She also had her own business investments registered in her own name, which was really rare for women at the time.

And then she effectively became known as a lady of means. Go on, girl. However, Algernon's death deeply affected Laura, and according to later accounts, she seemed fractured emotionally after his loss.

And from that point on, she withdrew from the world that she had shared with him. And around 1926, she left southeast London and moved west to Twickenham, where she bought a large house at 126 Hampton Road. She was said to have chosen to sever ties with almost anyone who had known the two as a couple, including friends, extended family and general society at large.

That's really sad. It's really sad. Despite owning multiple properties and enjoying the comfort of considerable wealth, she was earning rental incomes of over £200 a month, which is the equivalent of nearly £14,000 per month in today's money.

Wow. Laura lived a very quiet and very reclusive life. It was said that although her house was large, boasting multiple rooms across several floors, she confined her life to just two spaces.

The semi-basement kitchen, which she used for cooking and other daily tasks and a small back bedroom on the first floor. Police and pathologists later noted that the rest of the house was so thick with dust and untouched, it was clear she had not entered those rooms in years. Oh, wow.

Her lifestyle was described as eccentric, deeply reclusive. She rarely left the house and only interacted with a handful of tradespeople and even had whiskey delivered to her door from the Prince of Wales pub just down the road. Laura was known locally as, I quote, someone of some education, but possibly mentally affected.

Oh, gosh. Which apparently is a label that society often gave to women who defied any of the social norms. Yet she was meticulous with her money.

She always paid bills promptly and she was known to be a generous tipper at Christmas time to those tradespeople that she had interacted with and seemingly the pub. Yeah, OK. Despite her wealth, Laura lived more like a tenant than the owner of a fine estate.

It's said that her furniture was worn, her interactions limited and her movements confined to the shadows of her once grand home. Now, enter the scene. Mr. Albert Hadfield.

In her later years, Laura allowed just one man regular access to her life and home. Albert Hadfield was born around 1868 and spent his professional life as a confectioner. For the majority of his career, he was based in Witten in Middlesex, but he found himself at the centre of the Laura Mordant Chapman case in 1936.

Specific info regarding Hadfield's birthplace, upbringing and the inception of his confectionery business remains scarce in public records. However, it's known that by the late 1930s, he operated a sweet shop in Witten and was an established presence in the local business community. Hadfield was married on the 9th of October 1897 at St George's Parish Church in Southwark.

He and his wife had two children, a son who was sadly killed during World War one, and a daughter whose name was Mary. Mary later became an inmate at Ewell Mental Hospital, where she had been residing for four years at the time of the 1936 events. Oh, wow.

We don't know why she was there. And I don't know what became of her. That was the only sentence I could find about poor Mary.

Despite being married, Hadfield had been living separately from his wife for many years, and it was widely believed that he was actually a widower until the investigation into this case brought these personal details to light. OK, so everyone just assumed that he didn't have a family, didn't correct them. According to his own later account, Hadfield and Laura first crossed paths in around 1929, three years after Laura had moved into the house in Twickenham.

The circumstances of that first meeting were remarkably ordinary. Hadfield said he'd been passing her garden when he noticed some fruit hanging over the wall, and Laura, perhaps eager for a rare exchange with somebody, offered him some of the fruit. OK.

What began as a simple act of kindness soon developed into a regular routine. Hadfield started calling on Laura every Monday morning, and over time he took on the role of helper, messenger and informal business associate. Laura, who had increasingly withdrawn from the outside world, seemed to welcome the assistance.

She was known to be meticulous, but not always trusting. And Hadfield, who was older, persuasive and full of opinions, according to her, slotted into a unique position of influence in her life. He helped manage her rental properties, posted letters on her behalf, liaised with tenants and even negotiated new lets.

Wow, he's really got in there. It was amazing from, can I have an apple? Yeah, now I'm going to manage all your business dealings. He had keys to some of her properties and was one of the very few people ever allowed past the front door at number 126, though he claimed to only ever enter the back basement bedroom and kitchen.

His familiarity with the house and Laura's routine was deeper than that of a mere associate. So he knew he was entwined in her life. Their relationship wasn't considered romantic in any way, shape or form, and was actually described as being emotionally fraught.

OK, so we know this because later on, we'll get into what happened to Laura in a minute, but later on, letters and notes that they found in the house from Hadfield revealed. Basically, this relationship was full of control, resentment. Oh, wow.

It was really, actually very unhealthy. Hadfield frequently chastised Laura in writing for ignoring his correspondence or being, and I quote, in a bad mood. In one particularly ominous message, he wrote, let me find you in a better frame of mind tonight or there will be fireworks.

Oh, God. Although, it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility that that is a text Richard has sent me. Oh, dear.

And he knows how much I love fireworks. Exactly. So he's actually just trying to be very nice.

Trying to be really kind. Yeah. He also grew increasingly assertive in matters of business.

On one occasion, after Laura had consulted her solicitor about a potential tax issue and had been told that there was no way to appeal, it was Hadfield who poured over her finances and secured a 400 pound rebate from the Inland Revenue, earning himself a 10% fee in the process, but further making her reliant on him. Yeah. But with his proximity came imbalance.

In 1935, Hadfield borrowed 500 pounds from Laura at 5% interest, using the deeds to his house as security. He later borrowed another 100 pounds to invest in a business venture, which quickly collapsed. I don't know what the business venture was, but apparently it didn't last very long.

Laura held all the paperwork and proof of his debt. And in the months before her murder, it seemed she was beginning to re-evaluate their arrangement. In fact, in May 1936, just six weeks before she was killed, Laura confided to one of her tenants that Hadfield had been, and I quote, doing her for some time, which sounds worse than I believe she meant it.

Yeah. Basically, I think she was kind of saying that she had to say, yeah, she thought that he was he was in on something. He was kind of taking advantage of her and that she planned to start handling her own affairs again and remove him from the from the situation.

Their association had become increasingly volatile. Hadfield relied on Laura financially and Laura began to resent his presence. And yet he kept returning, writing dozens of postcards, insisting on meetings, even demanding that she leave her door unlocked so he could save time.

What? Yeah. So he didn't want her to let him into the house. He wanted to be able to come and go as he pleased.

By the summer of 1936, their relationship was no longer just that of a lonely widow and a helpful neighbor. It had become an entirely tangled power play with mounting stakes, growing frustration and a backdrop of money, dependency and mistrust. And it was a situation that could only simmer for so long.

One of his final messages scrawled on a postcard and later found bloodstained in Laura's bedroom read, Mrs. Mordant, I have received a daffy of replies and one caller. It will be in your interest by saving time for me to see you this evening at six o'clock. Kindly leave the door open.

There was urgency now. Hadfield was desperate to secure a tenancy for one of Laura's properties in South Norwood, Croydon, and he felt that she was dragging her heels in allowing him to secure this. He complained that he had written 18 letters and that her agent was doing nothing and that if she didn't act, the deal would collapse.

And that's what this postcard was about. So he's kind of wrapping up a lot of this in the tone of, well, I'm trying to make I'm trying to help her. I'm trying to make this happen.

Exactly. I'm going to get this done for you. But actually, there's an undercurrent that's not particularly pleasant.

The last known meeting between Laura and Hadfield, according to his own account, was on Saturday, the 4th of July, 1936. He said that he had visited her at 126 Hampton Road to discuss the Norwood property and its prospective tenant. After this, he claimed that there was no reason to then visit her again on Monday, which was the day that they usually met because they'd covered what needed to be discussed.

However, witnesses would later suggest that that was not the case. Laura was last seen alive on Monday, the 6th of July, 1936. Her neighbor at number 128 saw her at 2 p.m. tending to her garden.

Apparently, she appeared well, calm and untroubled. And the neighbor saw that there was like nothing wrong. Nothing in the garden.

She was just there enjoying her garden. That evening, Laura didn't ring the alarm bell that she had installed by her bed. So basically, her neighbors, they understood that she was very reclusive.

They understood that she wanted privacy. She wasn't particularly friendly with them, but she also wasn't curt. You know, she wasn't a miser.

She wasn't like any of that. She wasn't a misanthrope. She was just like to be on her own, on her own.

But they had agreed that they would install a bell next to her bed so that if she ever needed help, one of them would hear it. One of them would hear it, which I think is really sweet. That's lovely.

And it's sort of like the 1930s equivalent of a red pulley. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really nice.

But yeah, so on the evening of the 6th, that bell wasn't rung at all. And it was installed by her bed. So it was in the downstairs room and it was covered in dust when police checked it later.

So there was not even an attempt to get to it. Absolutely not. Laura's Daily Express newspaper for the 6th of July was found open on her bed, but the editions for the 7th, 8th and 9th were still sealed on the doormat when police found her.

That, combined with some unopened postcards pointed to Laura meeting her demise on the 6th of July, likely in the hours after she was last seen. Yeah. On Wednesday, the 8th of July, Albert Hadfield claimed that he'd visited her at home after receiving no replies to two postcards that he'd sent her.

And when she didn't respond, he prepared and hand delivered a written note to which he said he wedged between the panes of the kitchen window. OK. The note read, Another wasted journey.

If you don't wish to let the house, why give me all this trouble for nothing? So the day of the discovery. So around 1130 in the morning, Albert Hadfield, who, you know, by this point, him and Laura had been in this weird relationship dynamic for about seven years, approached the house again. And according to his later statement, he was concerned.

And that's the reason he'd gone back to the house. And he said that this was because. So those two postcards that he'd sent, he'd not had a response.

He'd wedged the note. He'd gone back and he'd seen that the note that he had wedged was was still there. Right.

And that was weird. So he was kind of he was a little bit suspicious of the situation. And he says that he was also quite concerned.

So apparently he then tries the window. OK. He opens it.

He's able to get into the house through this window. And according to him, that was very unusual because Laura used to keep everything locked. Yeah.

Doors and windows. So he again, that kind of what he says to police is that that's what caused him to go into the house was because it wouldn't have been left unlocked. So he goes into the house inside.

He said that the kitchen seemed relatively untouched. It was very normal. But the back door was ajar.

And why did he go through the window? This is the question. But the back door was ajar and a few drawers looked like they'd been opened, but not shut properly. So they were kind of like Richard had been there.

Yeah. Or Will, one of the two. But he said that there were no signs of a break in, which to me feels weird.

Is that not a sign? If that's not her usual behaviour, then is that not a sign? But one would think. Yeah. But anyway, so he told police that he called out for Laura when he got into the house, but he had no reply.

So he decided to go upstairs to see if he could find her. Now, this is weird because we know that she didn't use the house upstairs. She used the kitchen and she used the downstairs bedroom.

So why he would think to go upstairs to look for her. And like him over everyone would know that. Yeah, exactly.

If it had been a neighbour, you might be excused of thinking of like. Well, bedrooms are upstairs. That's probably where she'll be.

No. So it's very odd. Well, it's just lies, isn't it? 100% it is.

So, yeah, so he decides to go upstairs to see if he can find her. And then he says that he found, and I quote, a heap of blankets and newspapers outside a bedroom. There were burn marks as if someone had tried to start a fire.

So a few minutes later at 1235 p.m., Hadfield went to the local post office and called the police. Now, I remember when I was writing this, I was like, why would he go to the but it's the 30s. So, no, that's fine.

So, yeah, so he goes to the local post office, he calls the police and he said that the front door of the property was open and the house looked disturbed and that, and I quote, there may be a body under some clothes. Just just take all that in. Just take all of that in.

This is what he is genuinely telling police. Oh, I can't even be bothered. Fucking man.

So the police were there within about 10 minutes and they found Hadfield waiting at the back of the house with his bicycle propped up against the garden wall. He let them in and walked them through the kitchen, showing them the note that he claimed he had left the day before that was still wedged in the glass. But officers immediately noted something strange.

The kitchen window that Hadfield had said he had used to enter was now closed. The front door was not open, despite him saying that it had been open. And like, yeah, it's just none of it is making any sense whatsoever.

And the police kind of recognised that from the word go. Yeah, which I mean, to be fair, we'll give the police some credit in the 30s. They kind of straight away were like, I don't think this is quite right, is it? Upstairs, the police found the same pile of blankets and clothes that Hadfield had described and under them the body of Laura Mordant Chapman.

She was cold, badly injured and partially burned. Downstairs again, Hadfield pointed out two postcards on the doormat that he had sent her earlier in the week. He picked them up and handed them to police, even though they'd asked him not to touch anything.

And then he also admitted that he'd poured himself a glass of whisky from the bottle in the kitchen, which apparently is the same bottle that had been delivered to Laura three days earlier on Monday the 6th. However, half of the whisky was gone. Fucking hell, how much did you pour, love? Yeah.

And while Laura was known to drink whisky, she wasn't known to be a heavy drinker. And then the pathologist later on confirmed that Laura hadn't had any. Right.

So whoever drank it, basically the police ascertained that they'd drunk half a bottle after she died. Yeah. So, yeah.

So again, this is another thing that I found really interesting. So he says that the front door is open. And yet the postcards that he sent are on the mat.

Nothing's been disturbed until he picks them up. So, yeah, it's all it's all very questionable. But now I thought I'd tell you what actually happened to Laura.

Now, full disclosure, none of this stuff is is pleasant. And I forgot to say at the beginning, all the sources and all that are going to be in the show notes, trigger warnings, all of that. But so when Laura was found, she was on the landing just outside her bedroom.

Well, it's not her bedroom. It's just outside the master bedroom. It's the master bedroom, right? She wasn't using it as the master.

But that's where she was found. Her body had been partially covered with blankets, newspapers and bedding. And when police lifted the fabric, they discovered the scene, a scene that was shockingly violent.

Laura had been attacked with extreme force. The postmortem revealed she had suffered a total of 47 stab wounds to her neck, chest and back. Wow.

Many of the wounds were deep, but delivered with a narrow but sharp blade. And before the stabbing, she had also been struck on the top of her head with a heavy blunt object, which was likely to have rendered her unconscious. And they believe that that blow was the start of the assault.

So she was whacked on the head. And then everything else happened. Oh, Laura.

The forensic pathologist determined that she was likely already unconscious when the stabbing began and that the attack had taken place exactly where she was found. Right. Which again is weird.

Why was she up there? Why was she up there? There were no drag marks or signs that her body had been moved at all. But there were signs that her killer had attempted to destroy evidence. So this whole idea of her being partially burned, there was burnt newspaper scattered beneath the blankets.

So she had clothes, then newspaper, then blankets. And so they can't work out if it was a case of someone setting fire and then changing their mind. So putting the blankets over the top to stuff out the fire.

Or it had gone out or never really caught to start with. And kind of the blankets had been there as kindling, but they'd actually ended up suffocating the fire. However, then after that, because they had the blankets that had been burned after that, the killer then covered her with more blankets and a bolster.

So I'm going to do a very, very short pillow side quest. Oh, God. A bolster is a long, narrow pillow or cushion typically filled with cotton down or synthetic fiber.

And it's often used for support for either the back arms or neck or as a decorative feature across the width of a bed. There you go. Indeed.

Just wanted some people might not know. The pathologist's report also noted that Laura's body showed showed no signs of struggle. She had no defensive wounds, no bruising on the arms.

Sorry, no bruising on the hands or arms. And that, combined with the fact that her alarm bell hadn't been rung, suggested that she was likely attacked by someone she knew and had let into her home willingly. So how many people does she let into her home? Or like, I don't know, my brain's going into overdrive here.

But like, I just can't. She didn't go upstairs. Why was she up there? Yeah, I know.

Unless like either she's let him in. They've like, whatever. He's gone upstairs.

And she's like, don't you go up there and gone up. Something of that ilk. Or she doesn't know he's in there.

He's up there. He's made noise. So she comes up and then he hits her on the head.

Yeah, potentially. Potentially. And unfortunately, we'll never know.

None of it made sense for a burglary. So this was one of the first things that the police ruled out. So there was absolutely nothing stolen that police could find.

No drawers, despite the drawers in the kitchen being partially opened, nothing had been rifled through. There was nothing that should have been in the drawers on the floor. Police found money all over the house, including a number of £10 notes in Laura's handbag under her wardrobe and some coins sitting out in plain sight.

But none of it had been touched. And at first I was a bit like, what do you mean all over the house? She only uses these two rooms. But then it dawned on me that, bless her, my nan used to do the same thing.

She'd like secret, like secret. Secret money everywhere. Yeah.

Under drawers and all the rest of it. So maybe it's just a way of keeping it safe. Yeah.

Along with the money, police also found small specks of blood on a wall near where Laura's body lay and also on the clothing of Albert Hadfield. Oh, what a shock. When Hadfield's cycling breeches and Macintosh were examined, they found three small blood spots on the front of both of these near his pockets.

The pathologist noted that any of the blood flung from the weapon or the killer's hand would likely have landed in these small isolated spots that were further away from the body. So they were cast off, basically. And investigators believed that part of the coat of Albert's coat had been recently washed, but not the whole thing.

So he'd done a little bit of spot dabbing. He'd seen it and gone, oh shit. Yeah, better clean that off.

But I hadn't noticed. I'd missed others. So today, something like this might have been enough to prove guilt, but not in 1936.

Forensic science at the time was limited. There was no DNA, no advanced blood typing, no luminal or trace pattern analysis. So while the spots of blood were suspicious, police were unable to confirm whether the blood was Laura's or how it got to be where they found it on Albert.

So as much as it feels like a smoking gun, it really wasn't. Police continued to look for the murder weapon in the property and in a sideboard cupboard in the semi-basement room, they found a heavy metal ornament that was broken, recently cleaned, but still had traces of blood on it. It's companion piece.

So there were two of these. These I don't even know what it was. It was just described as a metal ornament was still in place nearby and thick with dust.

The cleaned one was likely used to deliver the head injury. This I just so my gran has I just because that is immediately what came into my mind when you said it. And my granddad used to do like, you know, when you like go to house clearances and find antiques and stuff like that.

So they also had like they always had quite unusual. But my grand's interior decor, her taste in general is very she doesn't like things that are common. Like she's like very individual.

Yeah, but not I wouldn't say zany. Yeah, but like her taste for the has always been ahead of the time kind of thing. And they had these really heavy.

I don't know. I'm rubbish at sizing. Is that like a foot, maybe a two foot? Right.

Like statue of these men in like big I'm going to say like big kind of cloaky coat things, almost like a judge would wear kind of like a gown. Like, but they were heavy and silver. And that's immediately because there were two.

Yeah, I think there might have been more than two. But like that's immediately what came to my head. And you said it was like it was one of the men.

She had granny's men. She did. She she had granny's men.

And that is what killed her. But yeah, no, I'm with you. Like, it's funny, isn't it? I used to kiss them anyway.

Oh, sweet. I'm not sure what to do with that information. Oh, dear.

So while they found the heavy metal ornament or possibly one of GB's men, they never found this sharp, pointy, thin implement. So they don't know what it was that was used to stab her. They don't think that the blow to the head killed her.

Just unconscious. They just think that that's what knocked her unconscious. So they've never actually found the the murder weapon.

So it was a combination of all this, the wounds, the weapon, the traces of blood and the staged scene with the burnt blankets that led police to state whoever did this didn't just kill Laura. They tried to cover it up. They spent time in the house.

They attempted to set the body on fire, failed and then carefully covered it back over with domestic items. The scene doesn't look like a break in. It looked like someone she knew had come inside, lost control or maybe planned this all along and then tried to clean up the aftermath.

Oh, yeah, that is exactly what happened. Exactly what happened. But that's a very, very nice statement.

Thank you, police, for informing us. Nothing about who they're looking for. Just this is what happened.

End call. Bye. So how did suspicion fall on Albert Hadfield? Apart from the fact that he was the one to find her, was the only one allowed into the house regularly and was the only person with real motive? The short answer, his timelines didn't match and too many people had seen too much.

So according to Hadfield, as we've already said, he last saw Laura on Saturday, the 4th of July, to discuss her property in South Norwood. And he then said that there was no reason to visit her on the Monday. He claimed he went back on the Wednesday, left a note and then returned the following day when he discovered what he believed to be Laura's body.

But this version very quickly started to unravel. So on Tuesday, the 7th of July, around 945 a.m., a woman waiting for a trolleybus outside 126 Hampton Road heard a loud noise like something falling. She looked up and saw a man through the window appearing to polish something inside the house.

She assumed it was his house. Yeah. And so thought nothing of it.

And then him cleaning the murder weapon. Yeah. The little man.

Yeah. 45 minutes later at 1030, that same woman saw a man matching Hadfield's description leave through the side gate with a bicycle. Who had a bicycle when the police turned up? And then again on Wednesday, 8th of July, around 3 p.m., the same witness.

Now, this is why she's giving me pause. Yeah. I'm a bit like, what what are you up to, love? Where are you going? Because 945, then 1030 and then the following day at three.

It doesn't say that she was a neighbor. It just says she was waiting for the bus. Yeah.

The bus never came by. She never had. Yeah.

It's like in my neighbor to Toro. She's just like, wait, I'll still wait. So, yeah, on Wednesday, the 8th of July, she saw Hadfield again or a man fitting his description, I should say.

And this time he was going in the gate that she'd seen him come out of. Another pair of witnesses, a mother and a daughter from Trafalgar Road, which was a couple of roads over over, sorry, said that they saw a man that they again said fit Hadfield's description entering the house at 6 p.m. the same day, again with a bicycle. Right.

Hadfield had sent two postcards dated the 7th and 8th of July. He also claimed he left a note in the kitchen window on the 8th, which was still there when he returned on the 9th. But police found the postcards on top of the unopened newspapers, implying they were delivered after his death and then placed there intentionally, not by a postman, but by someone in the house.

Yeah. Hadfield picked them up during the police visit, despite being told not to touch anything and insisted they proved why he was there. But police just immediately thought that he was suspicious.

Yeah. Shut up, Albert. One of the hand-delivered postcards found in Laura's bedroom had a bloodstained thumbprint on it.

It wasn't clear enough to confirm as a match, but I do have a photo of it. So I'll put it up on Instagram. And so they couldn't say it was definitely Albert's, but it did bear some distinctive characteristics that resembled.

I wonder if if there was ever any reason to to look into it modern day, whether the technologies come on enough that it could be confirmed as his now. That's true. That's true.

Yeah. Interestingly, I mean, the thing is, right. So they I get it must be so hard, especially back in the day when there aren't these advanced techniques for things and whatever.

You're just having to deal with what you've got. Yeah. And I understand that you need to be able to prove things within like without reasonable doubt.

Like, but so they couldn't prove that this thumbprint was definitely his for whatever reason. However, they said that it resembled his thumb because he had a very visible scar that ran the length of his thumb. And that was found in the thumbprint on the postcard.

So you would think that's enough technique do you need? I genuinely don't understand. I mean, maybe it's just that they couldn't match. I don't know.

But it's very bizarre. But yes, so there's this big line through it that is in very similar to the scar that Albert's got on his thumb. So anyway, on the 10th of July, police received a tip off.

An anonymous caller told them to speak with a woman at 11 Bedford Road, which was just 150 yards away from Laura's house. She told investigators she'd seen Hadfield at the property on Tuesday, the 7th of July, looking through the window in the morning and then leaving by the garden gate with his bike. Her statements matched the match, what the other witness had already told the police.

But crucially, she made her report before any of these details had been made public in the press. Ah. So by now, the case against Albert was stacking up.

And on the 12th of July, police arrested him for the murder of Laura Mordaunt Chapman. On the 25th of September, Albert Hadfield stood trial at the Old Bailey and the prosecution presented what they believed was a solid chain of circumstantial evidence. They detailed his changing timeline, the witness sightings, the blood on his clothes, the staged crime scene and the bloodstained postcard.

They argued that Hadfield's financial dependence on Laura, combined with her growing mistrust and her recent comments about taking back control of her affairs, gave him a very clear motive. She was planning to cut him off. And if she did, he stood to lose a lot.

But Hadfield wasn't just any defendant. His barrister was Norman Burkitt Casey, one of the most respected and skilled defense lawyers of his time. Burkitt masterfully pulled apart the Crown's case, apparently.

So he his whole defense leaned very heavily on the fact that despite everything that we've got, there was no direct evidence linking Hadfield to the murder. So even though they found his thumbprint on the card, he has already admitted that he went into the house and saw her. He even though he's got blood on him, they can't prove it's Laura's.

Right. Even though he said that the front door was open and it wasn't. But so the wind could have blown it shut.

So everything, although everything is circumstantial, there's nothing that actually goes, oh, well, no, there we go. We've got your fingerprints on the objects that hit or we've, you know, nothing. No one had seen him commit the act.

The fingerprints weren't conclusive. The blood could have come from anywhere. And yes, his timeline was suspicious, but suspicion isn't guilt.

Then came a turning point. The judge paused proceedings, turned to the prosecution and said, is it safe on this evidence to put any man in jeopardy? So the judge outright stops the case and asks, do you have enough to convict him? Are you sure here? And then the answer from the prosecution was no, my lord. And so with that, the jury, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.

Yeah. They were basically told they had to. Yeah.

What other option did they have? Hadfield was acquitted and he walked free. Geez. After his release, however, many people, I think quite obviously, had questions about him.

And during the investigation, more than a few surprises had come to light. So we spoke about it a bit earlier to the outside world. Hadfield had been seen as a respectable widower.

He ran a sweet shop in Whitton. He cycled around town. He seemed to be a man of routine and reliability.

He was never asked about family, so he had nothing to kind of come back with. But if someone had asked him, he would never correct them if they thought he was a widower. Right.

So it turned out he wasn't a widower after all. Yeah. His wife, who he had been long estranged, was still alive and living in Balham.

She described Hadfield as, I quote, a man of exceedingly loose moral character. She said he had once suffered from a venereal disease, which she believed had affected both of her children. And she thinks that that is part of the reason why Mary ended up in the mental asylum.

Oh, wow. Which we shouldn't call them that now. But this is, you know, 1930s.

We're quoting her. Yeah. So she had also taken him to court in 1911 for cruelty and neglect and secured a separation order.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I know.

Mad. Right. And he was ordered to pay maintenance, which she said he rarely did.

Surprise, surprise. According to her, he had a violent temper and when angry was capable of completely losing control. So while Hadfield had convinced most of Twickenham that he was a harmless widower, a bachelor living a quiet life and helping an elderly widow with her affairs, in reality, he had a long history of manipulation, aggression and hidden family troubles.

So whether or not he was guilty of Laura's murder, and I think we all know how I feel on this. Yeah, he had certainly spent years presenting a version of himself that was only half true. And in a case full of unanswered questions, one thing became painfully clear.

The person Laura had trusted the most was a man that no one really knew. Yeah. So I was then starting to look to see if there was any other were there any other suspects was what else was looked into.

Did the police have blinkers, see Albert and go, that's definitely him because it was or not. So officially, Albert was the only person ever charged. Yeah.

And when he was arrested, there were no other suspects. And yeah, he was, as we've just said, he was acquitted after the judge declared the case too circumstantial to proceed safely. Technically, there were other suspects, even though none of them were formally charged.

Now, we say technically, we're using this quite loosely. So police did briefly look into other leads during the investigation, and there were some suggestions that they had fixated too heavily on Hadfield. But here is what we know.

So the first one was tenants or property disputes, because remember, she had a large property portfolio and her husband was known to be not particularly friendly with his tenants. So could that have been someone already animosity? Exactly. Someone someone out for revenge or something like that.

So during questioning, Hadfield himself pointed to one of Laura's tenants, a man living in Chelsea. We know nothing else about him and described him as a real nuisance. It's unclear exactly what he meant.

I don't think police really followed it up very much. But Hadfield implied that there had been trouble between Laura and the tenant potentially over rent or property condition. OK, however, there is no evidence that police that he was ever there.

And police didn't really follow it up at all. The police did receive an anonymous phone call directing them to a woman living nearby who said she saw Hadfield at Laura's home. Who liked to wait for buses.

Yeah. And this was kind of like at first, I think they thought that there would be more that could implicate other people when they went to speak to her. But it wasn't just further implicated Hadfield.

And there's no record of or in the surviving reports of any other viable suspects being investigated in detail. And later commentary on the case, including retrospective coverage and podcast episodes, has suggested that police may have tunnel visioned on Hadfield once they established the pattern of his visits, his financial ties to Laura and the oddities in his timeline. They built the entire case around him.

That's called detective. You would think. Right.

However, they think that there were other potential. Like there is I've listened to one of the other podcasts that is on this case. And it's and I like the podcast.

It's called London Epitaphs. And they've done one on Clawson, Jane Clawson. OK, I think it's all run by the Friends of Broccoli Cemetery.

Oh, right. Nice. So and spoiler alert, Laura's in Broccoli Cemetery.

So he's done a podcast on this. I've listened to it and I get I think that he's a bit tongue in cheek with it. I really.

But yeah, that's just my take on what he's saying. But so there's other possibilities that they think could have been overlooked. So one of them was this potential burglary gone wrong, despite there being nothing taken, a disgruntled tenant or even a personal acquaintance unknown to police due to Laura's reclusive nature.

And that was the one that kind of people think there could have been people that, you know, they could have been. Yeah. But but there also could have been a giant spaghetti monster that fell down and like, yeah, it's like there could be anything.

But what makes the most sense? Yeah, exactly. Who's been spotted? Who's got reason to be angry? Who's got if you've got motive, you've got means. Yeah.

What more do you want? Exactly. Exactly. But then police at the time when they were criticised said that, you know, because Laura was so isolated and that Hadfield was documented and known to be one of the only regular visitors that she had, they struggled to identify anyone else with opportunity, motive and access.

So there was no one nowhere else for them to look. Yeah. And to be fair, I agree.

Like, exactly. This isn't a case of, oh, police have got the blinkers on. Like they've looked at him because he did it.

Yeah. That's the end of it. I have trouble with this.

I can I don't often defend the police, but I get tunnel vision can be really detrimental and it can be really, really damaging to cases and and to getting the right answer and all of that. But that's not the rule. No.

Like surely like surely tunnel vision going wrong is the exception to the rule. Like if you're like if you're literally doing detective work, you're investigating, you are narrowing down the possibilities until you get to the one that is the most likely or the most likely. Yeah.

So I don't know. I don't know what I'm trying to you know what I'm trying to say. What you're saying just frustrates me a bit.

I'm like, well, tunnel vision is kind of the point. That's the point of it. I suppose I suppose with it, it's the idea that, you know, if you've.

But if they'd had. I don't think this can be like tunnel vision in the truest form, because I can see how it would be detrimental if that was it from day one. Bang.

Done. Not looking at anything else or anybody else or not investigating any other avenues. Done.

But they went and spoke to people. Yeah, they went and it led nowhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If they'd gone and met this woman that might have known something or like or that had the tenant that had a dispute in Chelsea and then they had been like, well, he was covered in blood holding a silver man. Like the tunnel vision wouldn't have been on Albert anymore. Would it have been on him? Yeah, exactly.

But there's only one person. It is. It's bizarre.

After the shocking events of early July 1936, Laura Mordaunt Chapman's funeral took place on the 16th of July the same year. She was laid to rest in Ladywell Cemetery, located in the London borough of Lewisham. The choice of burial site is a little bit unexpected, given that Laura had been living in Twickenham for several years.

However, reasons for her internment in Ladywell Cemetery remain unclear. Her family were from Usk in Wales. Yeah, they they didn't ever live in Lewisham.

It's all very weird. The only thing that they can kind of estimate it could have been related to was that if she did have familial connections that have just been lost to history in that area, or perhaps she had prearranged her burial there. Because when she lived with, what's his name? Algernon, Algernon, Algernon, there we go.

Because didn't they live in up like in South London? In Eltham and Sydenham, yeah. Sydenham kind of makes sense. They might have, you know, they had friends that she cut all ties with.

Yeah, it's true. But it might have been like, look, we're not not going to take all the way back to Wales. Like, yeah, exactly.

It could have been. I think it's also the Ladywell and Broccoli Cemetery. I know this is not Victorian times is sometime after, but it's it's a very it was a very popular cemetery in the Victorian age.

And it was very grand. And it had, you know, the they're all kind of rack and ruin now, which is really sad, but they had very large epitaphs and all the rest of it. So it could just be that it was a place that people wanted to be buried.

So she may have just bought a plot. I don't know if Algernon's there. I don't I don't I don't know any of it.

Yeah. But yeah, so that's why she's there. That's how I found out about this case.

Unfortunately, specific details about her funeral arrangements and those ties to Ladywell are not readily available in public records. Laura's grave is marked with a modest, simple headstone, seemingly mirroring her reclusive lifestyle in later years. To this day, no one else has been arrested.

And the murder of Laura Mordaunt Chapman remains officially unsolved. There's no closure, no justice, just a quiet house in Twickenham, a scattered trail of letters and postcards and a woman who withdrew from the world only to be violently taken from it. In life, Laura kept her world small.

In death, she left behind a mystery that's still bigger than the evidence could ever explain. The end. Albert did it.

Albert 100% did it. Well done, mate. Thanks.

That was epic. I really enjoyed that one. It was an interesting one to research because there's not actually a huge amount out there.

It's like all of the and I'll put it in the show notes, but all of the research that I did, there's one website that covers it brilliantly. Right. There's this podcast, the London Epitaphs.

And then there's like a couple of little. Scattering. But like from newspapers that you can find online.

But there's not a huge amount out there about her. But it is just interesting. And I there are I know that it's because of the fact that she's also buried in Ladywell Cemetery, but the the links between her and Jane Clausen and the idea that it's an unsolved murder that no one knows who did it, but we all know who did it.

Yeah. It's just really sad. It is really sad.

And why he felt the need to kill her so brutally is, you know, you know, it's just anger. It's true. It's true.

But it's just, yeah, it's really sad. And the fact that they didn't ever find the murder weapon that actually killed her. They only found the one that he bludgeoned her with to knock her out.

The little man, the little man is is also really sad. And I just wonder sort of like what it could have been like a. Yeah. A sharp, thin blade.

Letter opener. That's where my brain went. That's a good shout.

They're very thin. That's very good shout. Because I was thinking because when I was writing it, I was thinking something like I was getting into the staircase, but I was thinking like a fire poker.

An owl. An owl. It was an owl.

Like a fire poker. Yeah, a fire poker. But I think that would be more stabby.

Like it would be. But you know, I mean, like it's a bit more. That's more bludgeoning.

Yeah. Than stabbing. Yeah.

Yeah. I think letter opener. Yeah.

I think that's a very good shout. But yeah. Why the hell was she upstairs? When she never went upstairs? Because he lured her there.

He lured her there. You think he was he was hiding or he made her go there for some reason? Yeah. Or like they were having a debate or like they were having a row and he's gone upstairs because he knew it would aggravate her.

Yeah, true. True, true, true. You know, just like it feels antagonistic to me.

It does, especially if you know that she spends her life in those two spaces. It's just. Yeah, it's very bizarre.

But the other thing I find odd is she's she's reclusive. She's cut herself off from everybody. And I understand that that's grief and grief does very weird things to people and, you know, it's a horrible state to be in.

But she's so reclusive. She's got no friends. She's got no one that she speaks to regularly, apart from these tradespeople.

And then this bloke randomly walks across and says, can I have an apple? And suddenly he's so entwined in her life. It's just maybe it was loneliness. Maybe she'd kind of he just caught her on an off day or something.

But oh, that you know how many times did that Monday happen before they started talking about other things? You don't know, like what sounds like an attempt at coercive control. You know, it is insidious and it can. Yeah.

But they're like people that. That do it are very clever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How it works. Yeah, it's a problem, isn't it? Poor Laura. Yeah, poor Laura.

Just a woman with means. Yeah. Enjoying her life, enjoying her garden.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Sucks, man.

It sucks. And what else is really sad? I had to get four. I think I'm going to have to get AI to make me a picture of Laura because there are none of her.

You're going to do it in the studio, give me style. I'm going to do a studio Ghibli or I might do it in the Barbie Mattel. Yes, do it in the box.

We've just she is. Yeah, she'll have some she'll have an apple. Yeah, we'll do it.

We'll do that. But yeah, there's no photos of her anywhere. I'll get you a photo of one of granny's little men.

She's still got them. That'll be perfect. Yes, please.

Because I think we're going to need some. This is the problem we found like the last few cases. There's just been so hard to come by.

It's been really difficult last week. Like the Irish and that like that was just impossible. I miss you being like, why have you done this to me? I have literally got the most tenuous photos that I can pull to go with this.

I think on the cover, it's just the Bell Pub sign. I don't think next week is going to be much better for you either. Sorry.

Oh, great. There's a couple I can see in my head anyway. But yeah, so that's the story of Laura.

Really sad. As I say, historical, but not that far back. But unfortunately, seemingly one of those cases, it doesn't matter if it was in Victorian England or in 1930s England, there's still a dickhead who'll get away with murder.

So there we go. Well done, babe. That was really expertly done.

Thank you. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Also sad because I love the name Albert. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

I don't like one of my I'm never going to have a physical one, but my 20,000 metaphysical children that I have. I'll be. I'll be.

Yeah. My eldest had a little boy at school. She had a crush on called Albie.

And I was just love it. It's really cute. Very nice.

All right. My kids would be like proper old fashioned names. But I like Albert and I like Margaret, but I like Maggie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Margo. Margo's cute.

Yeah, I can say that it's like still my baby names. I'm not going to have any eventually might name a cat or a dog. Goldfish.

Richard Sox. Just naming everything. Margo the goldfish.

No, they are very cute. I like them. I like older names.

It's yeah. Anyway, there we go. So I suppose all that leaves us with then is all the nice things.

Indeed. So we have got a Patreon. There is a Patreon.

Can I just say to those of you mental people, you're so weird who have jumped on it and and joined like we love you. You're amazing. But it's still very odd that anyone is willing to give us money for this.

If more of you would like to do it, that'd be great because I'd love to retire. So would you really? I don't think I could retire. I wouldn't retire for working with you, but I'd quit my other jobs.

That's fair. Yeah, I feel like I just need to have a hobby. This can be the hobby.

Just make this my life. That's it. There we go.

So, yeah, if you want to go over and check out Patreon. So we've there's a couple of things with it that we're still trying to sort out. So we don't know what we're doing.

Yeah, we're muddling through this. So we've got the tiers. It's all great.

You can see what's in each of those tiers. There is an extra mini episode if you're five pounds a month and up. And then at some point in there, we have said that you will get a pin now.

I was. Can I just say from the start? Yeah, this was this is your baby. I know you wanted these pins.

I wanted the pins. The goth in you wanted another fucking badge. I did want another badge.

That's 100% what I wanted. And so we put it on there and then didn't think that anyone would would go for that tier. And they have.

So I've now got to design a pin. But answers on postcards, guys, if you know what you'd like the pin to look like. Yeah.

And if a very expertly designed and wonderful, beautiful pin would push you into going to that tier. Yeah, then please do submit on the email address. There we go.

Lovely Segway, which is Sinister South podcast at Gmail dot com. Well done. I don't think you could send it as an image on Instagram DMs.

Yeah, Instagram, which is Sinister South pod. Yeah. Neither of us ever looks at the TikTok.

I don't think so. Don't bother. Don't send anything to Sinister South pod.

It is Sinister South pod. Or the website. There is a contact us form.

Can they submit images via the contact us form? I can change it maybe so they can. I'll have a look. So basically, if you could do this for us, that'd be great.

That would be wonderful. But yeah, so so all of those things, as Hannah's just said, and you can you don't have to join the Patreon. We love you just for being you guys.

We're not going to stop doing what we do. Yeah, please don't stop listening. No, no, no, no.

Because we hit 50k. We did. It was such a week for us.

We was like, it's our one year we've launched the Patreon. We hit 50k. I was like, this is fucking epic.

It's just it's yeah. When I say I'm very proud of us, like I'm very proud of us. It's like, yeah, it's really validating.

I was like, OK, I'm going to I'm going to write a case. We're going to we're going to keep doing this. I might do this one.

Yeah, fine. Fuck it. But yes, so we'll still be doing these cases every Wednesday and then the patron.

There'll be smaller cases. Well, not smaller cases. They're still important.

They're still very big, important cases. But it just so happens that there is even like a lot of these cases we do. There is not a lot of publicly available information.

And as I've said before, and I'll say again, I'm not a journalist. No, we don't have any behind the scenes contact. No.

Occasionally I can ask my gran. But we don't have access to exclusive or private information that others don't. So a lot of them have we have difficulty researching or we don't want to say something that's an assumption.

But if we do, we try and caveat that. Yeah. Yeah.

The Patreon episodes are the kind of pinnacle of those where there is just not enough. And to make it a full hours long episode to give you guys bang for your buck. Like it just it just wouldn't happen.

We'd be we'd be lying or making it up or whatever. Exactly. And we've kind of we've done a few of them in the past where we've done the the so like the Halloween episode, the Christmas episode, where we've done sort of like a number of cases in one go.

You did one about LGBTQ people. And it's yeah, we've tried to bring some of those in. But there are some other cases that just there's there's nothing that we can group them together as.

But we want to tell the story. So that's where you will hear those shorter cases over on the Patreon. But they're still really interesting.

I think the one we've launched with Cheryl is so fascinating. It is insane. And I said it at the time.

It's one of those ones that will stick with me. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And she was beautiful. Found the photo of her.

And yeah, it's just. Stunning woman. And yeah, it's just.

Yeah. So if you fancy going and listening to those, then I would encourage you to go over to the Patreon and also anything that you want to see on the Patreon. Also, let us know anything.

Any cases that you come across from South London that you think we should cover? We had one suggested to us on Instagram last week, which is now adding to the list. Perfect. So.

So, yeah. So we'll still be here still doing this. Hoping that you're still enjoying it.

And we love you very much. Don't tell us. Don't tell us if you're not enjoying it.

No, no. Don't ruin this high that we are currently on. If we get to 100K downloads in 10 minutes, I'll tell you what the podcast is that we're talking about.

It's not Bailey. We love you, Bailey. And on that note, we'll say goodbye.

We love you lots. Have a great week, guys. Have a wonderful one and we will see you later.

See you later. Love you. Bye.