Styllou Christofi

[1][2] In 1925, Christofi was arrested and charged with murdering her mother-in-law by ramming a lighted torch down her throat, after the two women had extensively bickered.

[1][2] On the evening of 29 July 1954, after Stavros had left for work and the children had been put to bed, Christofi went to the kitchen, where Hella was going about her chores, and knocked her unconscious with a blow to the back of the head with an ash pan from the boiler.

[4] She then strangled Hella to death with a scarf, removed the wedding ring from her finger, dragged the body into the back garden and attempted to cremate it by pouring paraffin over it and setting it on fire.

The flames caught the attention of next-door neighbour John Young, who was passing by the house walking his dog.

Hella's body was found to show signs of strangulation, and hastily cleaned bloodstains and paraffin-soaked rags and newspapers were discovered on the kitchen floor.

Furthermore, John Young, the neighbour who had witnessed Christofi setting the fire over what he had believed was a mannequin, soon came forward and told police what he had seen.

"[6] While in the condemned cell, she requested that a Greek Christian Orthodox cross be put on the wall of the execution chamber, which was granted.

[8] Christofi was hanged at Holloway Prison by Albert Pierrepoint and assistant Harry Allen on the morning of 13 December 1954.

With the exception of Ruth Ellis, the remains of the four other women executed at Holloway (i.e., Styllou Christofi, Edith Thompson, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters) were subsequently reburied in a single grave (plot 117) at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.

It was acquired in the 1980s by René Weis and Audrey Russell, who had interviewed Avis Graydon (Edith Thompson's surviving sister) at length in the 1970s.

The grave and plot were formally consecrated by the Reverend Barry Arscott of St. Barnabas, Manor Park, the church in which Edith Thompson was married in January 1916.

In it barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass re-investigated the case on behalf of her grandson, Pantopios (Toby) Christofis a.k.a.

Although question marks were raised over Christofi's execution and mental health, insufficient evidence was uncovered to suggest her conviction should be overturned.