Frances Kidder

Frances Kidder (c. 1843 – 2 April 1868) was the last woman to be publicly hanged in Britain. She was convicted of murdering her stepdaughter, Louisa Kidder-Staples.

Crime In 1865 Frances Turner married William Kidder, the father of her illegitimate child. She discovered only afterwards that he had another child, Louisa. A neighbour reported that when her husband was away, he could often hear Kidder beating her new stepdaughter.

In August 1867, Kidder was visiting her parents at New Romney. She took Louisa (then aged eleven) out on a walk, but returned to the house alone, claiming that the girl had fallen accidentally into a ditch.

Kidder was executed in front of Maidstone Gaol at 12 noon on 2 April 1868, aged twenty-five. Around 2,000 people, including her husband (who was by this time living with her sister