From the magazine

The gruesome fascination of female murderers

The 17th-century broadsheets revelled in describing the ‘lewd, abominable, corrupt’ nature of the ‘haggs’ and ‘she-devils’ indicted for homicide

Alice Loxton
Tales of female offenders dominated the broadsheets, the most popular crimes being domestic homicide and infanticide Alamy
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 22 February 2025
issue 22 February 2025

Alice Loxton has narrated this article for you to listen to.

On 27 January 1688, Mary Hobry, a French midwife living in London, strangled a man to death. The corpse lay in her bed for several days before she carved it up. Then, in the dead of night, she used her petticoat to drag the dismembered body through the neighbourhood – Castle Street, Drury Lane, Parker’s Lane – to be disposed of.

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