MATT FULLERTY

  A site about Paul Morphy, New Orleans chess world champion, prodigy, genius, tragedy
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The Murderess and the Hangman

The noose is hanging about all our heads, all our lives. This novel is about murder, execution, justice, the spectacle of guilt and confession - and the greatest fact of life - death.

As the hangman says: "toe the line."

 

The Murderess and the Hangman reimagines famed but forgotten hangman William Marwood, inventor of 'the long drop' for ensuring a swift capital punishment, and true-life murderess Kate Webster, hanged by Marwood in London for killing her landlady for a few pieces of furniture.

 
 
Research
 
Matt Fullerty is currently researching The Murderess and the Hangman. 
He hopes to complete the novel in 2007.
 
 
 

Mugshots: executioner

This is William Marwood, looking worn and sad. His eyes are very odd, ghostly, one strangely inert and the other eerily cruel. A man of science, he spent his career as exeuctioner trying to quicken the 'dance of death' at the end of his hangman's rope.

Mugshots: killer

This is Kate Webster, looking both proud and mournful, and frightening.

The Long Drop

This is the gallows at Wandsworth Prison, London, similar to the ones used to execute Kate Webster in 1879. Note the nearby lever to activate the 'long drop.' The room was a self-enclosed execution chamber, and portable. It was known affectionately as "The Cold Meat Shed."

 

 

 

 

 

The Pride and the Sorrow
 
Please visit The Hangman and the Murderess's sister site, The Pride and the Sorrow, the story of boy genius chess player Paul Morphy who became chess champion of the world aged twenty-one. But after touring and conquering Europe he is drawn back to New Orleans and a self-destructive love for the red-light district girl Clarabelle. See the full blog at http://theprideandthesorrow.blogspot.com/

 

 

This page was last modified by Matt Fullerty on October 09, 2006

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