65 years later a shocking crime comes to light again. This is a crime that went down in history and concerns the Cypriot Styllou Christofi who killed her German bride in London.
Styllos' grandson brings the case to light again in the BBC documentary Murder, Mystery and my Family, where he will examine the case together with two lawyers, Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein.
The show's microscope will cover the whole development of the case of how his immigrant grandmother was treated during the investigations and the trial, while the testimonies will be examined. for his grandmother's mental health, the cultural prejudice against her and the language barrier that contributed to her wrongful conviction for murder.
The two lawyers agreed that no justice was served in the case of Styllos Christofis, as a result of which she was unjustly sentenced to hanging.
According to the show's website, the two lawyers are looking for evidence to prove his wrong decision in court.
The case of Styllos Christofi
The Cypriot killer who killed her mother-in-law as a bride, and when she became a mother-in-law, strangled her bride wildly
Cyprus 1925. A 25-year-old woman kills her mother-in-law in a small village. With the help of two neighbors, who keep the woman still, she puts a lighted torch in her mouth, causing her mother-in-law to die a tragic death. The court did not find enough evidence, so the woman was released. His name was Styllou Pantopiou-Christofi and from a young age he married the victim's son, and had a child, Stavros. It is said that her mother-in-law was very pushy and critical of her, resulting in daily quarrels. One night he went out on his own and killed her in a heated argument. Her husband divorced her and since then she has taken care of her son's upbringing on her own.
When Stavros became an adult, he moved to Nicosia, where he began working as a waiter. He soon made a lot of money, which allowed him to move permanently to London. Styllou had a huge love for her son and it cost her a lot to escape. Stavros got a job at the famous nightclub of the time, Café de Paris and then met the German, Hella Bleicher, who worked as a model. The two young men got married and had three children. Styllou lived alone in Cyprus and in 1953 she decided to travel to London to visit her son.
Styllou stayed with her family for a few days, until she announced that she had decided to look for a job in London and live with them permanently. Her son could not refuse to host his mother and accepted her offer. However, her presence at home brought tensions to the family. Styllou spoke badly to Hella, instructed her and disagreed with the way she raised her children. A few months later, Hella and Stavros decided to tell Styllou to leave the house. It was the moment when she woke up again to her murderous instinct and decided to kill her son's wife.
The murder of the bride London, July 29, 1954. Stavros leaves home to go to work. Styllou grabs a disc and hits Hella hard on the head. The woman falls to the floor and then the Cypriot strangles her with a handkerchief. He tightened it around her neck with so much force that the handkerchief tore the skin. He then bathes the corpse with paraffin and sets it on fire on the balcony.
Neighbor John Young saw the fire and ran to help, but later claimed he thought he was burning a display case. Eventually, Burstoff's neighbors had Hella's body on the ground and from the marks on her neck they realized that it was a murder. They called the police with Styllou claiming that her bride had set herself on fire.
Police found Hella's wedding ring in the room in Cyprus, the handkerchief with which she strangled her in the trash and there were traces of blood all over the house. Examination of the corpse revealed that she had been strangled and her mother-in-law was the only suspect in her death.
The Trial On October 25, 1954, the trial began in Old Bailey, London. According to the psychiatrist, Styllou suffered from a delusional disorder, which came from her fear that her bride would not raise her grandchildren properly and would not allow her to see them. The main prosecution witness in the trial was her 31-year-old son, Stavros. Stillou was found guilty of killing her fiancée and sentenced to death by hanging. On December 15, 1954, he died in prison at the age of 53. As it wrote on its front page, the newspaper "Eleftheria" was the 13th woman to be hanged since the beginning of the last century. Until the end, she shouted that she was innocent and told her son that she forgave him even though he testified against her in court.
Source: philenews / paroikiaki / thecaller.gr