The Clergyman Who Hid His Wife’s Murder: The Shocking Case of Rev. Selby Watson | True Crime 1871

The Clergyman Who Hid His Wife’s Murder: The Shocking Case of Rev. Selby Watson | True Crime 1871
News of the Times | Episode 590 |1871

London 1871
A quiet Stockwell street.
A respected clergyman.
A locked room… and a truth no one wished to imagine.

In October 1871, Reverend John Selby Watson — scholar, headmaster, and a man thought incapable of violence — calmly told his servant that his wife had “gone out of town.” What followed was one of the most chilling domestic murders of the Victorian era: a brutal killing, a body hidden behind a library door, and a carefully written confession that raised as many questions as it answered.

Was this a momentary lapse?
A lifetime of strain erupting all at once?
Or a premeditated act disguised as madness?

Tonight, we walk through the investigation as it unfolded — from the servant’s first suspicions, to Dr Rugg’s devastating discovery, to the courtroom debate that divided Victorian London.

This is the case of a clergyman whose life unravelled in a single, terrible moment

And in today’s lighter end-of-episode Further Particular's tale:
Three cats, two furious ladies, and one judge who absolutely did not sign up for any of this.
A “Persian stud” turns out to be more “Camden wanderer,” and Victorian justice must decide which whiskers are genuine.

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📚 Related cases from the archive: 
1871 - 1910: Scorned: Jilted Partners and Vengeance |  Ep264
https://youtu.be/IyU0PpewCD0
1870-1871: Stories of in-law Issues |  EP319
https://youtu.be/NTNGLpFdOmU
1871-1873: Murder in Uniform: The Death of William Glass and the Hanging of Inspector Montgomery |  EP580
https://youtu.be/mPgfbM-2fGw

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