Dena Thompson (born 1960), commonly known as The Black Widow, is a British convicted murderer,

confidence trick A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...

ster and

bigamist In a culture where only monogamous relationships are legally recognized, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their mari ...

who is also suspected of having killed a second individual. Dena habitually met men through lonely hearts columns and stole their money. She was imprisoned for murdering former media manager Julian Webb, her second husband (though she was still married to her first). She had previously been acquitted of the attempted murder of her next husband Richard Thompson (whom she married in 1998 after her

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

), having attacked him with a baseball bat and a knife but being cleared on the grounds of

self-defence Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in tim ...

. Despite her acquittal for the attempted

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

of Thompson, police became suspicious of the circumstances in which previous husband Webb had died, and after Webb's remains were exhumed and analyzed she was convicted of murder and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. A High Court ruling in 2007 determined she would serve 16 years, meaning she would not be eligible for release until 2019. She was also convicted of theft and defrauding former lovers. Following her 2003 conviction, Detective Chief Inspector Martyn Underhill stated: "This woman is every man's nightmare, the most dangerous woman I have ever met. For a decade, she has targeted men sexually, financially and physically. The men of Britain can sleep safe tonight knowing she has been taken off the streets." A judge described her as: "one of the most fluent liars I have come across." DCI Underhill observed Thompson was a

misandrist Misandry () is the hatred of or prejudice against men or boys. Earliest recorded use: 1885. "No man whom she cared for had ever proposed to marry her. She could not account for it, and it was a growing source of bitterness, of misogyny as well ...

: "I think the events of her childhood have made her hate men. If you look at her life, it is always men she has targeted." After her murder conviction it was revealed that police were investigating the suspicious disappearance of a previous partner she had in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, who has never been found. As of May 2022, Thompson was being held in an

open prison An open prison or open jail is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employmen ...

with day release provisions (either HM Prison Askham Grange or HM Prison East Sutton Park as these are the only two open prisons for women in England). Thompson was granted release on

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

in May 2022, and was released in June.

Early life

Thompson was born Dena Holmes in 1960 in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

, North London. She worked for a

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

. Her father was described in 2000 as a retired prison warder. She moved to

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

in the 1980s with her first husband. At the time of her arrest Thompson was living at an address in

Cullompton Cullompton () is a town and civil parish in the district of Mid Devon and the county of Devon, England. It is north-east of Exeter and lies on the River Culm. In 2021, the parish as a whole had a population of 10,071, while the built-up area o ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

Lee Wyatt

Thompson married Lee Wyatt in 1984, having met two years previously. She convinced Wyatt he had received £50 million for a toy he had patented and was wanted by the mafia. He was forced to live homeless for years in order to 'escape' the mafia. The defence described Wyatt as a "fantasist". She had previously secured an injunction against Wyatt after making false claims of being assaulted by him. During their marriage, she stole £23,000 from the building society in which she worked then attempted to blame it on Wyatt. She was jailed for 18 months in 1995 for this crime. They divorced in 1997.

Julian Webb

Thompson bigamously married Julian Webb in 1991. She murdered him on his 31st birthday in June 1994 by poisoning a curry. Webb had a penchant for very hot curry and it is speculated that this would have masked the taste of the anti-depressants. He died of an overdose of anti-depressants and ground aspirin in a drink. As he lay dying in bed, his mother had called to speak to him on his birthday, but she was told by Thompson that he was too unwell. His mother told her to call a doctor but she did not. The inquest into his death recorded an open verdict. Thompson unsuccessfully attempted to have his body cremated. The very next morning after Webb died she had tried to collect money amounting to £35,000, which would be released from his pension plan, in the event of his death but Webb's mother was able to establish that Thompson was not his next of kin, as she was still married to her first husband. Webb's mother later testified that she had warned her son about marrying a woman whom he had known for only three months.

Richard Thompson

Dena Holmes married Richard Thompson, her third husband, in 1998. They lived together in

Rustington Rustington is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex. Rustington is approximately at the midpoint of the West Sussex coast and midway between Chichester and Brighton. The A259 runs along the north of Rustington, west ...

near

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. On 1 January 2000, she attempted to kill her bound-and-gagged husband with a baseball bat. She had asked him if she could tie him up and blindfold him for a sexual game, but once she did so she returned to the room with the bat and a knife and attacked him. He managed to free his hands and fight back against her, and despite bleeding profusely from the head managed to force her to drop the knife. After this she broke down, saying "It's all been a lie. I've spent all your money". Richard later recounted his subsequent feelings on an episode of '' Crimewatch Solved'' in 2009: Dena Thompson left the house and the next day an

estate agent An estate agent is a person or business in the United Kingdom that arranges the selling, renting, or managing of real estate, properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a Letting agent, letting or manag ...

turned up unexpectedly, explaining that he had been told by her that he was to sell the house and stating he expected Richard would be in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. It emerged that Thompson had planned to kill her husband and then sell their house while he was on a long-planned trip to Florida, as no one would be suspicious of his disappearance since they would have thought he was away in America. Richard contacted the police and his wife was soon arrested. Police interviewed her former partners and found that she had stolen money from all of them and emptied their bank accounts of funds. Richard Thompson's accounts were likewise discovered to have been emptied. She admitted to police to conning money from men but denied trying to kill her husband. She claimed that he had attacked her following the revelation that she had defrauded him and had retaliated in self-defence. At the trial, the jury acquitted her of attempted murder charges, but she was convicted on 15 counts of deception, which she had admitted before the trial, and sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for the money she stole from Thompson and two other lovers. Richard Thompson later described Dena as "pure evil'.

Murder inquiry

Despite her acquittal for attempted murder, investigating officers had grown suspicious of the circumstances of the death of Thompson's second husband, Julian Webb, six years previously. They announced that they would be

exhuming Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects ...

Webb's body, which was done in October 2001. A friend of Thompson's came forward to tell police that she had indicated to him that she had given the overdose of drugs to her husband in a hot curry.

Conviction for murder

In 2003, Thompson was convicted of Webb's murder after a trial at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

and sentenced to life. She was told her sentence would run to 16 years at a 2007 High Court ruling, meaning she would not be eligible for release until 2019. The judge at her 2003 trial described her as "utterly ruthless and without pity". Wyatt, her first husband, had contacted her at the home she shared with Webb, and the motive for murder, according to the prosecution, was her fear the two men would meet and her double life would be exposed. Webb was also unaware of her attempts to try and implicate Wyatt for her thefts from the building society. She was dubbed "The Black Widow" in the press, as a black widow spider will kill their male counterparts after mating with them. As of 2016, Thompson was imprisoned in HM Prison Send, but she became eligible for

in 2019.

Additional suspected victim

Following her 2003 conviction, it was reported that Thompson was being investigated about the disappearance of another of her previous partners, Stoyan Kostov. Investigators had tried to trace all of Thompson's former lovers in order to establish if she had committed potentially criminal acts against further victims, stating "we cannot rule out the possibility that other partners have been injured in some way". It was discovered that Kostov, whom she dated in the 1970s and 1980s, had been missing since he had dated Thompson while she was training as a gymnast in

. In 2010, media interest was renewed in the disappearance after a new probe was launched, with investigators stating that "some sort of incident seems to have happened in Bulgaria but we don't know what it was." As of 2021, Kostov had never been found.

Release

In April 2022, the parole board announced that they would consider Thompson’s case for release and publish their decision in May. It was revealed that Thompson was already being held in an

with day release provisions (either HM Prison Askham Grange in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

or HM Prison East Sutton Park in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, as these are the only open prisons for women in England). Sean McDonald, the officer who led the investigation into Thompson, expressed his concern at her potential release, stating: "I believe she will reoffend, she won’t be able to stop herself. She has no remorse but will be the model prisoner and say all the right things. Her potential release concerns me and everybody who has been involved with her." Richard Thompson, the former husband of Thompson, also stated that he hoped Thompson would stay in prison, saying: "She definitely tried to kill me, and they proved that she murdered her second husband. So, she would have been a serial killer if she had been successful. And God knows what else she has done." Richard also complained he had not been notified of the parole hearing. On 23 May, it was announced that Thompson's release on parole had been granted and she would be released in early June. In a document setting out their decision, the Parole Board stated that they were satisfied from her progress in prison that she was suitable for release, although it was also noted that Thompson had previously been a "deceptive" individual who "could hold grudges" and did not always have "control of her temper". In August 2022 it was reported that Thompson had been seen out shopping having been released.

In popular culture

Documentaries

Thompson's case has featured in multiple documentaries: *On 29 June 2005,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

aired a documentary on Thompson titled 'The Black Widow'. It was part of their '' Cutting Edge'' series. *On 6 January 2009, Thompson was the subject of an episode of '' Crimewatch Solved''. *On 31 August 2012, Thompson was the subject of a season 6 episode of ''

Deadly Women ''Deadly Women'' is an American true crime documentary television series produced by Beyond International Group and airing on the Investigation Discovery (ID) Television, network. The series focuses on murders committed by women. It is hosted ...

''. It was titled 'Insatiable Greed'. *On 3 October 2013, an episode of ''Britain's Deadly Women'' was aired that featured Thompson's case. *A

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

documentary titled ''Black Widow'' was released in September 2024.

Books

A book was published about Thompson in 2010 by Adrian Gatton. It was titled ''Black Widow: The True Story of How Dena Thompson Lured Men into a Twisted Web of Sex, Lies and Murder''.