A native of Cyprus, born in 1900, Styllou Christofi was tried, in 1925, on a charge of murdering her mother-in-law by ramming a lighted torch down the old woman's throat. She persuaded a jury of her innocence and was released, but her problems with in-laws were not at an end. In 1953, Christofi went to live with her son and his German wife of fifteen years in Hampstead, England. The women failed to hit it off, and things became so tense around the house that Hella Christofi announced her intention of taking the children to Germany for a holiday in July 1954. She let her husband understand that she did not expect to find his mother in the house when she returned. On the night of July 28, Styllou ambushed her daughter in the bathroom, knocking her unconscious with an ash plate lifted from the stove. Dragging Hella into the kitchen, she strangled the younger woman with a scarf and tried to hide the evidence by pouring paraffin over the body, setting it on fire. In moments, the flames leaped out of control, threatening to consume the house and her grandchildren, sleeping upstairs. At 1 a.m., a married couple parked near Hampstead station were approached by Christofi, babbling in broken English about a fire at her home. Returning with her to the scene, they doused the flames and found a woman's body, charred in places, with the livid mark of strangulation still visible on her throat. Police were summoned, and a neighbor came forward to describe Christofi stirring the flames around a prostrate "tailor's dummy." Prison doctors found Styllou Christofi insane, but she refused to permit an insanity defense at her trial. Convicted and sentenced to death in October 1954, her subsequent appeals were dismissed and she was executed after three doctors pronounced her sane. Her son did not attend the hanging.