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Malcolm Webster: The Man Who Married Women to Kill
He married women just to murder them and and inherit their wealth.
Arrested in 2009 and convicted in the longest Scotland criminal trial in 2011, Malcolm Webster’s case was a crafty and sinister life-mission to prey on single wealthy women. This case unearthed a “sociopathic” man who loved and killed for money. He killed his first wife and attempted to kill the second one, and while fleeing away from that crime scene, he was simultaneously plotting to enter the third marriage. The bone-chilling tale uncovers a disturbing pattern.
A Suspicious Death
Less than a year after marrying Claire Morris, Malcolm killed her on May 27, 1994. He crashed their car in Kingoodie, Scotland, and set the drugged Claire on fire in the passenger seat. His official narrative was that no one was in the car when it was set on fire; he underestimated the police’s expertise. Sadly, the doubts planted by that all-observant professional gaze of the police and firefighters would only help years later.
Malcolm was rushed to the hospital by concerned policemen, who were blissfully unaware of the man’s role in the death they had responded to. Malcolm insisted that he was injured, despite the hospital constantly reassuring him that was not the case. Nevertheless, he still insisted on wearing the neck brace.
Ch Insp Ian Wallace, the traffic policeman who responded to the case, knew something was fishy. He did not understand why Claire couldn’t unbuckle her seat to escape the fire. Ian said that no other car crash had caused such doubts in his career. During the trial, he said:
“I mulled over it for some time. I was unhappy with the circumstances. I also returned to the scene when off-duty such was my unease with what I had seen.”
Even though Ian raised his suspicions about it being more than an innocent car crash with his superiors (a bold step for that time), the investigation declared Malcolm to be innocent. Derek McDonald, one of the firemen who responded to the scene, also shared his…
