thecrimeshop

A husband who was hellbent on murdering

More often than not, throughout his life he has lied in an effort to get his way, obtain funds for which he can shop, gain sympathy and as a means to manipulate others to bend to his will.  Lastly, he has resorted to murder and attempting to murder those that stood in the way of what it was he wanted to have as well as to avoid having to come clean.

It took investigators 11 years to begin an investigation and his trial was well known for being on of the longest trials in Scottish history by the end of the trial he was given 30 years for the murder of his first wife and the attempted of his second wife.

This is the story of Malcolm Webster born 4/18/59. He was an attention seeker, someone who would fake fainting or having cancer for attention, his nickname as a child was “pyro” as he loved fires, he left school at the age of 15 and somehow, was able to earn a job as a nurse as an adult. He  lied about having cancer while he was in his teens and then again as an adult.

Yet, he was also described as charming, he has the uncanny ability to manipulate his way into the lives of women who are not desperate for love, or who have the need to “have” to be in a relationship, yet the one thing many of them did have in common…they all had the one thing Malcolm didn’t have, that was money. Malcolm had been described as “thief, liar and philanderer.” He had been quoted as saying “”why work hard yourself when someone could be doing it for you?”

It was reported that within a 30 year period he had been involved with numerous women too many to count but several of the relationships did overlap.

His father was a Detective Chief Superintendent for the Metropolitan police. It’s been theorized that his father used his rank at one point in Malcolm’s life to get Malcolm safely out of the UAE where it was believed that while working as a nurse at Tawam children’s hospital, Malcolm overdosed at least 3 of his patients. It could not be proven of course due to Muslim culture, no autopsy’s were ever done.

Malcolm could never face reality, he was never capable of owning up to any wrongdoing, he would go to the greatest of length’s to avoid confrontation.

On 9/3/1993 Claire Morris married Malcolm.

During the course of their marriage Malcolm went on a spending spree with Claire’s money and when confronted he began to drug her with Temazepam which is a sedative. Some of the known side effects are; In addition to drowsiness, memory loss, paranoid or suicidal thoughts and impair memory, judgment, and coordination.  Additionally, combining Temazepam with other substances, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and possibly lead to death.

As if that were not enough though, in 1994 Malcolm deliberately crashed their car and then set it on fire, he informed a policeman that there was no one else in the car at the time. His story was that he had to swerve to avoid hitting a motorcyclist and the reason he told the police no one else was in the car? Why he was dazed and confused of course. He murdered his wife to collect a life insurance policy worth  £200,000.

To take everything over the top and to drum up sympathy, Malcolm spent time in the hospital claiming injury although medical staff found nothing wrong with him, not even a scratch. He wore a neck brace and used a cane at his wife’s funeral. Friends and family who attended the funeral were all fooled by the tears and raw emotion Malcolm displayed.

Fire crew and season police always suspected more was to the story but had no evidence so as to prove murder thus, Malcolm was a free man.

It was not until his relationship with Felicity Drumm, his second wife whom he married in New Zealand in 1997 ended, that suspicion would be cast as to whether or not he was capable of murder.  In 1999, Felicity had survived a car crash where to everyone’s shock it was discovered that she had been sedated. Malcolm you see was attempting to collect £750,000 worth of different life insurance policies he had out on her. What’s truly sad about this relationship is that together they brought a child into this world.

Malcolm tried to burn down Felicity’s parents home, he also drugged her the night of the honeymoon, she slept for 36 hours that night, I am sure that wasn’t the only night however as blood test revealed abnormalities in line with drug use in her liver.

He left Felicity with this chilling thought when she confronted him about trying to murder her “You would have died happy.” This is one of the rare times anyone in Malcolm’s adult life anyone would ever see the monster he keeps hidden deep within.

He managed to avoid arrest until 2007. He met Simone Banarjee sometime around 2002 where he learned she was independently wealthy. In an effort to garner her affection he lied and told her that he had  terminal leukemia. It worked but he had to go all out this time. He shaved from head to toe to appear as if he were undergoing treatment. After police warned her about Malcolm she initially blew it off until she found out that had a wife and son. Yes, he was still technically married to Felicity.

These are the most notable women in his life, the list however goes on and on. Some others are  a 15-year-old who aborted his baby, a woman who later committed suicide, and a married woman.

Malcolm was arrested in 2007 after police received information that he as embezzling funds from a local angling club. This is also when police slipped in the fact that they were re-opening his first wife’s death investigation.

In the end, the monsters true identity was discovered and Malcolm was found guilty of murder.

The case proves two points:

1. the police never give up
2. sometimes, you truly don’t know the other person

Long after Malcolm’s arrest, Simone later discovered that someone had tampered with her life vest as she was an avid boater. The last person she recalled seeing having touched her life vest was Malcolm.

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop

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