The unsolved murder of a Swansea housewife was the final chapter in a strange tale of fraud and intrigue. Dr Nell Darby revisits the case and reveals why several people may have wanted the victim dead
On the evening of 4 February 1929, Kate Jackson returned home from a trip to the cinema with her neighbour, Olive Dimick. Shortly after they said goodnight, Olive heard a scream and, rushing back, found a bloody Kate on her doorstep with her husband Thomas bent over her. He said he had been woken by the sounds of a struggle. They called for a doctor, who found that Kate had several head wounds, yet Thomas seemed reluctant to take her to hospital, and did not stay long when he eventually did. Kate died six days later.
Suspicion soon fell on Thomas, a Swansea fishmonger, who had been living off his wife’s money. He was tried at court, but acquitted, his release resulting in cheers from the community. Yet the court case had raised numerous questions about who Kate Jackson really was, where her money had come from, and who might have wanted her dead. Kate had had several identities. She had been Mollie Le Grys, an illustrator of magazine stories; she had been Madame X, subject of a notorious Old Bailey trial two years before her death. She had claimed to be in fear of her life, terrified of strange cars in the area, and in possession of a revolver for her safety. Yet the court felt that Thomas had contributed to the mystery, wanting others to believe his wife had been adopting fake identities in order for them to believe she might have been subject to death threats from others.
But that wasn’t the only bizarre thing about the case: in 1919, the couple had got married in London, with Thomas using the fake name of Gordon Ingram. The 1921 census recorded them as living in Surrey, under the names of Gordon Thomas Jackson Ingram and Kate Jackson Ingram. In 1922, though, they got married again in Wales under their real names. Why they had used a fake name and married twice was never adequately explained.
Blackmail and murder
In fact, Kate was born Kate Atkinson, a humble cotton spinner from Lancashire. As a young woman, she had started a relationship with artist Leopold Le Grys, adopting the name of Mollie. When World War I started, they split up, with Le Grys marrying another woman (despite his wife still being alive). Kate then started a relationship with the secretary of the National Association of Coopers, George Harrison, which was largely based on her demanding money from him for ‘medical treatment’. In order to keep her happy, George embezzled the entire funds of the Association. He was duly tried at the Old Bailey and sent to prison for five years. Kate was referred to in court as ‘Madame X’ and ended up a notorious figure.
Read other instalments of Nell Darby’s historical cold cases:
The parents who never recovered
The mystery of the vanishing widow
Murder in the year of the Ripper
The strange case of ‘Mr Francis’
It was claimed that Kate had since received threatening letters from those involved in the court case, and from Le Grys, but there was no evidence that the letter-writers had killed her. After Thomas Jackson’s acquittal, nobody faced justice for Kate’s death, and nobody found out why she and Thomas had been keen to disguise their identities. The only thing known for certain is that a few years later, Thomas married Olive Dimick – the only other witness to the attack.
This article was first published in the April 2023 issue of BBC History Revealed