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Name: STEVENSON, Winifred 'Winnie', Miss

image of individualimage of individual

Nee: dau of Harry and Emily Stevenson

Birth Date: 1912

Death Date: 1932 Nakuru, murdered at Menengai

Last Date: 1932

Area: Nakuru

Book Reference: Murders, Barnes, Hut

General Information:

Murders - Saturday, October 8, 1932 - …. Charles William Ross, 19 year-old son of the late Major Ross, soldier and noted big-game hunter of British East Africa. Educated in his early years at a school in England, he had gone to live in Kenya in 1927, and was employed by the KFA, whose headquarters were at Nakuru. Ross's companions were two young women, Margaret Keppie and Winifred Stevenson.
Miss Keppie, a qualified chemist and druggist and member of the Pharmaceutical Society, had arrived in Kenya four months previously from Leeds, England, where she lived with her parents. She first joined the Nairobi firm of Messrs. Howse & McGeorge and was transferred to the Nakuru branch. A week before, her engagement to a fellow employee was announced.
"Winnie" Stevenson, 20 years of age, was the daughter of Mr Harry Stevenson, known in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, as Harry Venson, entertainer. A bright, vivacious girl and accomplished linguist, speaking the native languages of Swahili and Kikuyu fluently, she was generally understood to be Ross's sweetheart. He was known to be devoted to her. ……….. Missing trio …… Anxiety gave way to alarm when the strange tales of Ross's eccentricities and unusual behaviour were revived. Though mostly shy and reserved in the company of women, he was said to have exhibited vicious sexual tendencies which, apparently, were satisfied only by sadistic frenzies or indulgence in orgies of bloodshed. A story was told of his stabbing of animals after he had shot them and then smearing himself with the blood. He was accustomed, as well, to wander off by himself and mingle with the natives of the Colony, converse with them in their own dialects and participate in their quaint customs. The men of one tribe called him their young "White Chief". [Ross had murdered the two girls and was tried for the murder]
'An X-Ray photograph of Ross's head was used by Dr. H.L. Gordon, mental specialist and leading witness for the defence …….. Pronounced mental instability ……. He was midway between the feeble-minded and the moral-deficient. [He was found Guilty and hanged on January 11, 1933].
Murders - …. A secluded spot off the main road, just outside the Menengai crater. Beneath a coating of leaves and grass lay the decomposed body of Winnie Stevenson. She had been shot to death within a mile of her home. Her family and friends passed near the spot daily.
Barnes - Nakuru North Cemetery - Winnie Stevenson, daughter of Harry and Emily Stevenson, died 1932 aged 20

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