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West Kensington Mansions - copyright Aug 2022 @GoogleMap2024
Welcome to the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast and audio guided walk of London's most infamous and often forgotten murder cases, all set within and beyond the West End.
EPISODE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN: At 8:30am on Monday 12th of November 1923, in the nursery of Flat 1 of West Kensington Mansions in Fulham, the bodies of Sonia Katzman aged four, and her 10 month old sister Jean were found, along side their nursemaid Dora Sadler. Dora loved Sonia, but did she love her too much?
THE LOCATION
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SOURCES: This case was researched using some of the sources below.
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE: Welcome to Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing on North End Road in Fulham, W14; four streets west of the tragedy of Mr & Mrs Park, three streets north-east of Lyn, Jan & him, a tube stop south of killing of a super spy, and one street north of the terrorist who forgot who he had planned to blow up - coming soon to Murder Mile. A short walk from Fulham Broadway sits West Kensington Mansions, a seven-storey red-brick mansion block containing close to eighty mid-Victorian flats. For more than a century, every neighbour has had to endure each other’s noise; whether the grating wailing of ungrateful brats, the rutting of amorous newly-weds, the daily bellowing of “I hate you” as love leaps to loathing as the honeymoon goes from hell to “Oh! Hello!”, with walls so thin, when the loo flushes you can hear what your neighbour’s eaten. One sweet detail is that the old signage still lingers over each entrance, telling you which flat is where. But what it doesn’t tell you are the terrible tales of what happened beyond those front doors. Back in 1923, Flat 1, a basement flat on the north-west corner was the home of Mr & Mrs Katzman, a middle-class couple with two young daughters. Keen to provide full time care for Sonia aged four and Jean aged just 10 months, they hired a nursemaid who loved their children… but maybe too much? My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 257: “Passionately fond of Sonia”. Love can be as destructive as hate… which the Katzman’s were unaware of. Born in 1894, as a boy, Benjamin Katzman was one of hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews who fled the pogroms, carrying only what they could carry and taking with them only those who might survive. Arriving in England, a place of freedom and seemingly less persecution than in his homeland, although an outsider, like so many, he’d use his skills as a milliner to make a better life for himself and his family. Like many good men, having built a prosperous business, he set his sights on marrying a good woman and was instantly smitten with Rebecca Specterman. Born in Spitalfields, as a British born Jew (who like Ben) spoke Yiddish, Bessie & Ben made a perfect partnership and soon marriage was on the cards. Living just a decade after the Victorian era, they were a remarkably progressive couple, as not only did Ben run a fashionable hat shop, but so did Bessie, with hers being on the same street as their basement flat at West Kensington Mansions. But when it came to marriage, they were a very traditional couple. Married in October 1915 in Whitechapel, Rebecca Specterman became Mrs Bessie Katzman. To keep their flat clean, to iron their clothes and to make meals for this busy couple, they hired a housemaid called Minnie, and discovering she was pregnant at the start of 1919, Bessie also sought a nursemaid. In August 1919, Bessie & Ben welcomed into the world their first born - Sonia Sarah Katzman, a sweet girl with fairish brown hair and apple blossom cheeks who was the spitting image of her parents. She was healthy and well, happy and joyous, and blessed with a loving family, her life would be good. With Bessie working fulltime, just days after the birth, she went to Hunt’s Registry Office seeking a nursemaid. And although Bessie said “I did not receive a good reference for her”, she liked her, they got on well, and by all accounts, they’d struck gold, as the nursemaid clearly loved her daughter Sonia… …but did she love her too much? Born on 21st of May 1886 in Queens Park, West London, Dora Sadler was one of five sisters and four brothers to Mary, a housewife and George, a stationmaster. As the eldest, Dora saw herself as another mother to her younger siblings, especially in 1907, when Vera, the last of the family’s brood was born. As a button-nosed child, Dora adored Vera, so it was no surprise (given the era) that with limited options, Dora became a nursemaid with her livelihood devoted to caring for children. So, it’s tragic in a way that someone so loving and devoted to the welfare of the most vulnerable, would never marry, had no known lover, and never had a child of her own. But maybe that was part of the problem? Something was wrong with Dora, it always had been, according to her family. On the surface, she was the epitome of a professional nursemaid; polite, wholesome and cheerful. If a child in her care cried, she knew exactly the song to sing, and how to soothe them back to sleep. But being prone to mood swings, although fervently sober and never a drinker, this “passionately loving person” was said by those who knew her to be “erratic”, “quarrelsome”, “moody” and “possessive”. Her younger sister Mae described how “she would get into a violent temper over nothing, only to then come back a week later as if nothing had happened”. Fuelled by emotions rather than logic, aged 17, having blown up into a petulant rage over something said to be trivial, she swallowed a bottle of spirits of salts (a caustic cleaner made of hydrochloric acid) which burned the insides of her throat. Surviving, in 1911, she worked for Mr & Mrs Salomon, a Jewish couple in Hampstead. From 1912 to 1915, for Dr & Mrs Rawlence of Southampton, who later stated “we had to dismiss her on the grounds of insanity”, and although they didn’t elaborate, both being doctors “it was our opinion that she was insane”. And in 1916, struggling with insomnia, she was sacked as a nursemaid in Selsey “owing to her violent temper and her abnormal jealousy”, which – again - resulted in a failed suicide attempt. By the August of 1919, having worked in Sloane Square, Dora Sadler became the Katzman’s nursemaid, who described her as “loyal, loving, devoted to our child”. In short, they couldn’t have asked for more. Working from 8am to 8pm, her diligence ensured that Bessie & Ben could run their businesses, then return home to a child who was clean, well-fed, healthy and happy. Across the next three years, Dora proved to be a blessing for the Katzman’s, then in January 1923, their second daughter was born. Her name was Jean, and like her older sister, even though she would always have a stronger bond with Sonia, Dora adored Jean as if she was her own child, being at her beck-and-call whenever she cried. If she’d had children of her own, Dora would have been a wonderful mother, as she was patient, calm and caring. But – again - that was part of the problem, that she wasn’t the mother of these children. And when it came to sharing the children who she saw as her own with their real mother… …Dora’s jealousy shone through. Following Jean’s birth, Bessie made the decision to shut-up her hat shop and become a full-time mum. But after three years of caring for Sonia, and now sleeping in the nursery to give Jean her night feeds, Dora loved the children with all her heart, but in equal measure, she hated Bessie with all her soul. Bessie said “during the years I engaged her, she looked after Sonia and Jean well from the time they were born, but she wouldn’t allow me to advise her, or even to be a mother to my own children”. She found Dora to be “a perfectly sane person who always acted in rational ways”, but as Dora disliked Bessie being in what she saw as her home, she began to treat her like an unwelcome stranger. For the first time, “Dora became quarrelsome over the silliest of things”, getting upset, then quickly calming. Struggling to find a housemaid who could cope with Dora’s temper, since Jean’s birth, several had quit and by the November of 1923, even the ever-reliable Millie had needed to take a week-long holiday, so with no housemaid there, Dora had to do those jobs too, which she resented. At around the same time, Dora stopped going home to see her siblings, saying the three-mile journey was “too great for the children”, and so, from that moment on, she slept beside them in the nursery. Dora’s behaviour was irrational and inconsistent, so it’s hard to tell if her hatred of Bessie was jealousy. In those final months, Dora was heard expressing her hatred of Jews, which was odd, as almost all of her former employers were Jewish, and she had never spoken any antisemitic words in their presence. But like a darkly familiar presence which had plagued her teenage years, and possibly the later stages of her previous employments before she was dismissed, a deep depression had crept back in, and with Dora having uninterrupted access to the children, day and night, Bessie would say “she tried to turn Sonia against me, and in consequence, Sonia did not show me the love a mother would expect”. A cloud hung low over the flat at West Kensington Mansions. Dora wasn’t cruel, just sullen. She wasn’t violent, just dismissive. And although for the third time, a few months before, Dora had threatened to take her own life, telling her friend Edith Jones “I am fed up. I will put my head in a gas oven”… …this wouldn’t be her only threat. That summer, Ralph, Bessie’s brother had bumped into Dora outside of the West Kensington Cinema. Seeing both Sonia & Jean looking so neat, he remarked “oh my, don’t the children look lovely… like father and mother”. Seeing a black look creep over Dora’s face, she glared “if I thought they would look like either of them, I’d do them in”, meaning to kill them, “because I am sorry they are Jews”. Being Jewish himself, he told his sister Golda, but always seeing Dora as a kindly woman who only had the best interests of the children at heart, “I did not take any notice of this. I did not take it seriously”. It could be a coincidence, but around the same time that Dora began to mentally decline, Vera, the baby sister who she doted on, collapsed in the street dying of an abscess of the brain, aged just 17. Her middle sister Mae said, “this seemed to affect Dora terribly” and left her with an ache in her heart. In an odd sort of way, Vera was like her own child… …but was this loss the trigger that led to Dora’s suicide, and a double murder? (Cliffhanger) By the October, growing ever more exacerbated with her nursemaid’s disobedience, Bessie dismissed Dora, but having said that she wouldn’t go as “Sonia would fret”, Bessie believed her and she was kept on. Dora wasn’t bad, she was a great nursemaid who the children loved, but she disliked Bessie. The coroner would later state “when the mother asked her to leave, this appeared intolerable to her unbalanced mind. A blind, jealous hatred dominated her to the exclusion of any other feeling”. For some nursemaids, this would just have been a job. But for Dora, this was her life and her children. Sunday 11th November 1923 began like any other day. At 7am, Dora awoke. Letting Jean sleep a little longer in her cot, so the wailing didn’t wake her parents, she rolled over and softly roused Sonia, as when the children had a fitful night, she slept beside them. Turning the gas fire up to warm the brightly coloured nursery, she washed, she dressed, and she made the children presentable, as the Katzman’s agreed “there was no disagreement during the morning”. At around 1pm, Ben & Bessie, Sonia & Jean, along with Dora walked three streets north-east to Queens Club Gardens and the home of Bessie’s sister, Golda, where they ate a brisket, roast potatoes and a medley of vegetables, and although Golda & Ben had wine, Dora had water and Bessie had lemonade. Later questioned, Golda said “during the meal, there was no ill feeling between of Bessie and Dora”. By 2pm, with their bellies groaning, the Katzman’s and Golda retired to the drawing room, slumped into armchairs and loosened a button or two, as Dora laid baby Jean down for her mid-afternoon nap on the sofa, and Sonia sat beside her. It was a replay of many other lunches they’d spent at Golda’s. The incident started over something so trivial, and so typical of a child, that it almost went unnoticed. “Sonia”, Bessie said tapping her leg, “come and sit on mummy’s knee”. It being a simple request that any mother would make to her own child, only Sonia shook her head. “Sonia, I said come here” Bessie retorted, only the more she demanded, the more the four-year-old cuddled closer into Dora’s arm. Feeling spurned, ashamed at her own child’s snub occurring in front of her sister, and sensing that the nursemaid (her hired help) had poisoned her own child against her, Bessie barked “if you don’t sit on my knee, I will smack you”. Not expecting Dora to bark back “if you smack her, I will smack you”, without waiting for a rebuke, Dora marched across the room and punched Bessie hard on the mouth. The shock of the assault stung as sharply as the thump itself, as Dora had never raised a hand to her employer before, and especially not in front of the children. Being so flabbergasted, Bessie couldn’t even speak, and not wanting to make a scene, Ben said nothing. With Dora unwilling to apologise or explain her actions, with the children crying, she popped on their warm coats and walked them home. The decision had been made, “she must leave our employment immediately”, Bessie demanded… …only Dora had already decided how and when she was going to leave. At 5pm, before the last post was collected, Dora sent a handwritten letter to her friend, Edith Jones. It read “my dear Edith. I don’t know how to write this, but when you get it, I shall be no more. I am taking my darling Sonia with me. I know she won’t be happy here without me, you know her mother. If you had seen the way she had carried on with Sonia, you will understand. I am not tired of life, but I cannot leave Sonia, and this is the only way I can have her. Don’t be upset. Goodbye dear, try to forgive me. I don’t want to take Jean, but I cannot put her outside – Nannie”. The letter would arrive early the next morning, but by then, it was too late to stop her. At 6:40pm, the Katzman’s arrived back at West Kensington Mansions in a foul mood. In the nursery, baby Jean was fast asleep, but Sonia was awake and restless. Her mother tried to calm her, but with her malleable mind having been polluted by the words of a nursemaid with an axe to grind, Sonia said “I don’t like you, mummy. I like nanny better”, which stung like the smack which smarted her cheeks. By 7:20pm, enough was enough. With Ben, again not wanting to make a scene, as firmly as he could put it, he ordered Dora “you must go tomorrow, and that is final”, and although Dora refused shouting “I will not go until you get another nurse” as her priority – supposedly – was the children’s welfare, Bessie barged in, and stamping her foot demanded “no, pack your things, you must go now” - she did not want that woman in her house. The fight went on, as all three sides sank into a stalemate of the best way to end Dora’s employment; Bessie wanted her out now, Dora refused to leave without a nurse to mind the children, and Ben was willing to wait until the morning to resolve this, as they had a prior dinner date with his brother, John. It ended in a semi-palatable concession; in the morning, Dora would be dismissed and given two weeks pay in lieu, and Jean & Sonia would be taken to Golda’s while Bessie hired a new nurse. But that night, with the Katzman’s heading out to dinner, they would leave their two daughters alone with Dora. At 8pm, having insisted that Dora pack her bags that night, the Katzman’s kissed their baby’s goodnight and left, knowing that their treasured tots were in the capable hands of a nursemaid who loved them… …but loved one of them, a little too much. At 12:30am, their taxi pulled up outside of West Kensington Mansions. Peeping over the railings, from the entrance, they could see that the nursery lights were off (as usual) and that the window was shut (which wasn’t), but with a cold damp fog having descended that night, they didn’t see it as suspicious. Inside Flat 1, all was quiet, which for any parent is a blessing and a curse. When asked “did you suspect anything wrong?” Ben said “no, nothing at all”. As with Dora’s bed empty and the nursery door locked, it wasn’t odd for the woman who nursed their babies since birth to sleep by their sides on a fitful night, so not wishing to sully their sweet dreams, the Katzman’s thought no more of it, and went to bed. (Silence, snoring, no other sounds until dawn). Monday 12th of November 1923 was to be a difficult day, as following Dora’s dismissal, a new nurse would need to be found, one who the children would adore, but it would be a fresh start for all. It was the unusual silence which first woke Ben & Bessie, as by 8:15am, no-one was stirring. Softly, for fear of awaking his sleeping babies, Ben knocked “nurse?”, only Dora did not reply. He knocked again, “nurse?”, but still he heard nothing, not the creak of a bedspring nor the sounds of a child’s yawn. Worried, he went round to the front, only he couldn’t see in as the curtains were drawn. “Nurse?”, he asserted as his knuckles hammered harshly with the aim that someone would rouse, only no-one did. It was then, with the aid of a workman, that he slipped the latch of the window, and got in. Inside, it was dark and cold, as in the air, a sulphurous odour permeated the room and made Ben gag. Choking on this noxious air which made him retch, between the cot Jean was sleeping in and the bed both Sonia and Dora were curled up on, he spotted a flexible rubber hose which hissed like a serpent. The fire was off, but with the ring having been deliberately pulled away and hose within inches of the baby’s noses, several hours earlier, a strong flow of gas had rendered them all unconscious. Aged just 10 months, Jean was still warm to the touch when Ben picked her up, and although her little pink body gave the appearance of life, as her chubby little arms and legs hung limply, their cherry-red hue gave a hideous clue that carbon monoxide had killed her. With no bruises, a pathologist deduced that she had died peacefully in her sleep, unlike her sister Sonia, who had died in a state of panic. With it determined that the gas tap had been switched on at about 5am, although her body showed no signs of force, Sonia had died quickly, as in her final death throws, she’d taken great gulps of gas. Choking and convulsing as every lungful hurt, writhing in pain, the tiny tot had clenched in her fist a handful of her own hair, having ripped a clump from her own head as the gas made her organs seize. Both children were dead. To his wife, Ben shouted “Bessie, the nurse, she’s killed the children”, and as the hysterical mother (who had fought through hours of labour) held her dead babies to her chest, her pain echoed the room with a heartbreaking wail as everything she had loved had been taken. Two doctors tried their best to resuscitate the little limp sisters, but it was all in vain. Lying next to Sonia, her beloved Sonia, lay the nurse. Dressed in her nightdress, Dora’s skin was the same cherry red hue of the children she had murdered. Motionless, a drying foam still frothed about her lips as (during the night) she too had writhed in pain… and yet, in all irony, Dora wasn’t quite dead. Rushed in an ambulance to Fulham Infirmary, it took almost a month for Dora to make a recovery. The investigation headed up by Detective Inspector John Hedley was short and swift, as having taken statements from Golda, Ben and Bessie, the gas pipe had Dora’s fingerprints on it, as did the door key, and on the mantlepiece she had also left a handwritten letter, which bluntly read “I am taking them both. I will not leave my Sonia to the creature she calls mother”, and it was signed, “Dora Sadler”. It was a moot point to such a tragic case, but while recovering in hospital, Dora gave a full confession to WPC Waite, and being deemed ‘sane’, on the 10th of December, she was charged with the murders of 4-year-old Sonia Katzman, her 10-month-old sister Jean and the attempted suicide of herself. (End) Assessed at Holloway Prison, she showed signs of petit mal seizures, an ovarian cyst proved to be benign, and although depressed, with no signs of delusions or hallucinations, the doctor decreed “I am of the opinion that she is mentally subnormal as shown by her violent temper, her threats, attempts at suicide, and her absence of remorse. I am of the opinion that at the time of the offence she was not insane, that she is now not insane, and that she is fit to plead and to instruct counsel”. With the trial delayed until she had fully recovered from the effects of the gas, on the 16th of January 1924, 37-year-old Dora Sadler was tried at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Greer. With no dispute with regard to the fact that she had murdered both children, the defence went for an insanity plea (as supported by the medical officer at Fulham Infirmary), while the prosecution reiterated, she was sane. With the jury deliberating for 23 minutes, the foreman declared a unanimous verdict of guilty of wilful murder, and with death being the prescribed punishment, they made no recommendation for mercy. It was plain and simple, as had happened at her other employments, Dora was jealous of the mother. Sentenced to death by hanging on 21st of February 1924, the Home Secretary commuted her sentence to life in prison, and having served her time, she died in 1961, and was buried in West Thurrock. With Sonia & Jean Katzman buried at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, although still grieving, on 28th October 1924 – bringing a little joy to their 52 years of marriage - Ben & Bessie welcome into the world a son called Henry Aubrey Katzman. He was healthy, happy, loved and protected, but unlike the sisters he never knew, he would live to the grand old age of 97, and only passed away in 2021. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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