Emma "Kitty" Byron (1878 – after 1908) was a British female murderer found guilty in 1902 of stabbing to death her lover Arthur Reginald Baker, for which crime she received the death sentence. This was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.
Background
The daughter of a brewer, Byron came from a respectable family who originally lived in Pimlico, but after her father died, the family moved to Leytonstone, where, at the time of the murder, Byron's mother continued to live in a villa in Napier Road with her married son and his wife and their three children, as well as Byron's 14-year-old sister. In early 1902 "Kitty" Byron had been employed as a milliner's assistant at Mme. Timorey's Court dressmaking establishment in Old Burlington Street, but she was sacked because of her poor time keeping.
At the time of the murder Byron was unemployed and had lived for several weeks in lodgings with her lover Arthur Reginald Baker, a stockbroker, in the home of Madam Adrienne Liard (born 1841 in France), a widowed mantle maker at 18 Duke Street, Portland Place in London. Originally they had rented two rooms but after a few weeks they had difficulty paying for these and subsequently moved into a bed-sitting room at the same address.
Arthur Reginald Baker was born in Crawley in Sussex in 1857, the son of John Baker, a solicitor and partner in the firm of Baker, Blaker and Hoare of London. Baker married Alexandrina Mabel Turner (born 1861) in Marylebone in 1880. Their daughter Aileen Mabel Marguerite Baker was born in 1898; she died in 1969. Alexandrina was the step-daughter of Alderman Thomas Harrison, a former Mayor of Torquay from 1897 to 1898 and the owner of the Queen's Hotel in Torquay. Baker had not lived with his wife since January 1902, and on 4 November 1902 he was served with a divorce petition from her in which Byron was named as co-respondent. The divorce papers were served on Baker by former Detective Chief Inspector John Littlechild, at that time working as a private investigator.
Byron was described as "a young woman of attractive appearance - slight of figure, with dark eyebrows, black hair and handsome features." Although Baker was already married Byron called herself "Mrs Baker". Baker was an alcoholic, and he frequently argued with Byron and violently assaulted her.
Murder of Baker
At 7 p.m. on 7 November 1902 Baker and Byron were again fighting when Byron was forced to leave their rooms, appearing on the landing in her nightdress. Madam Liard reported at the subsequent trial that at that time Baker was drunk and Byron sober. The next day Madam Liard told the couple to leave her house. Baker told the landlady that Byron had agreed to leave if he could keep the room. Initially Madam Liard refused, but after some persuasion she agreed to allow Baker to stay for another week provided Byron left.
On the morning of 10 November 1902, the day of the Lord Mayor's Show, Byron bought a strong-bladed spring knife from a shop at 211, Oxford Street. At about 1 pm she sent an express letter by post office messenger from the Lombard Street Post Office to Baker at the Stock Exchange where he worked. The message said "Dear Reg, I want you a moment, importantly. Kitty." The messenger, 16-year old William Robert Coleman, returned stating he had been unable to deliver the letter, so Byron sent him back again.
This time Baker was found and went with the messenger to the post office in Lombard Street but Byron was not there. On her coming in a little later at about 2.30 p.m. she and Baker went out into King William Street where the two began a violent, furious argument. Witnesses related that Byron then pulled out the knife she had concealed in her muff and leapt off the steps of the post office at Baker, stabbing him three times. During the brief attack she severed his aorta, killing him instantly. When the police arrived they found Byron crouched sobbing over his body, crying out "Oh, Reggie, Reggie, let me kiss him!".
Byron was overpowered by several men who witnessed the attack, and Baker was taken in an ambulance to St Bartholomew's Hospital but died before reaching it. On arriving at Cloak Lane Police Station Byron said, "I killed him willingly, and he deserved it, and the sooner I am killed the better." Inspector Frederick Fox of the City of London Police stated that Byron later said, "Inspector, I wish to say something to you; I bought the knife to hit him but I did not know I was killing him."
Baker was buried at Norwood Cemetery on 14 November 1902.