Louise Masset

On 27th October 1899, the naked body of a 4-year-old boy was found in a shawl in the woman’s toilets at a London station. He had been suffocated. The victim was identified as Manfred Louise Masset, the illegitimate son of Louise Masset. The woman who had identified the body, Mrs Gentle, had been looking after the boy for a while. She had recently received a letter from Louise, informing her that her son’s father wanted him to go and live with him in France. So Mrs Gentle had handed the boy over to his mother.

Louise Masset claimed that she had handed her son plus some money over to a Mrs Browning, who was starting a children’s home. But police had found some of the boy’s clothes up in Brighton, where Louise had met with her lover, Eudore Lucas. Louise must have had the boy with her their, and so she was found guilty of murder. She was hanged on 9th January 1900.

However there were witness statements that actually suggested Louise was innocent. Louise had been seen with the victim at another station four miles away. If this was true, why would she travel another four miles to kill the boy in another station? There were also witnesses claiming to have seen the Browning sisters with the victim. Despite this, Louise Masset was convicted anyway.