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Name: KEPPIE, Margaret Elizabeth, Miss
Nee: dau of William Henry and Marianne Keppie of Leeds
Birth Date: 6.1.1901 Leeds
Death Date: 6.10.1932 Nakuru, murdered
First Date: 1932
Last Date: 1932
Profession: Pharmacist and druggist - Howse & McGeorge
Area: Nakuru
Book Reference: Hut, Murders, Barnes
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 - Mr M. Ritchie, the Nakuru manager of Messrs Howse & McGeorge. Working his way carefully to the bottom of a ravine below a forty-foot cliff, he came across the body of his employee, Margaret Keppie. She was shot through the head and had evidently been dead some time.
Nakuru North cemetery - Margaret Elizabeth Keppie, born 6/1/1901, Leeds, died 6/10/1932