85. The Monkshood Murderer

Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling

BBC

True Crime, Comedy

4.3 • 922 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Iain looks at an historic poisoning case in Wimbledon. When Percy Malcolm dies in his bed at Blenheim House boarding school, his teachers and fellow pupils are horrified. But his headmaster thinks he knows what happened – and he thinks he witnessed it happening…

Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling is available twice a week on BBC Sounds. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. Email us at lauraandiain@bbc.co.uk.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 1997 when the streets of a housing scheme erupt.
0:05.0	Angry scenes at the Raploc Estate in Stirling outside the house of a convicted paedophile.
0:11.0	At the heart of the crowd, Big Mags Haney, an anti-pedophile campaigner who made headlines.
0:17.0	She wasn't the only person who stood up. She just happened to shout the loudest.
0:21.8	Dubbed the matriarch of a family from hell.
0:24.7	The amount of crimes committed by that family was stuff of legend.
0:28.5	I was so scared.
0:30.0	Crime next door, the ballad of Big Mags.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:40.0	Hi, guys, a quick word of warning
0:42.1	before we begin this episode.
0:44.1	This episode will have distressing scenes from the start,
0:46.7	so listener caution is advised.
0:50.7	Laura, I'm taking you back to 1881 today.
0:55.0	We're travelling to one of South London's most affluent neighbourhoods, Wimbledon, home of tennis and strawberries.
1:03.7	It's the evening of December 3rd and we're at a boys' boarding school named Blenham House.
1:09.8	The school consists of two large townhouses.
1:12.6	It's located in the heart of Wimbledon on St George's Road.
1:16.6	In general, Blenham House is a happy school.
1:19.6	Every day the corridors are filled with the sounds of pupils' play fighting,
1:23.6	laughing at one of those jokes, or chatting about the amount of homework they have to do and the size of their trust funds.
	...

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