A Killer's Mistake

Malcolm Webster murdered his first wife in order to collect her life‑insurance payout and managed to avoid suspicion at the time. He then went on to con women across the world, maintaining his deceitful schemes until he was eventually caught by police.

Malcolm Webster is presented as a single‑episode programme that focuses on the life of the eponymous con‑artist. Classified simply as an episode, the show follows the real‑world events surrounding Webster without any additional fictional framing. It adopts a straightforward, documentary‑style approach, keeping the emphasis on the factual sequence of his crimes. The story opens with Webster murdering his first wife in order to collect a life‑insurance payout. He manages to evade suspicion and avoids any immediate legal consequences for that initial killing, allowing him to continue his illicit activities unchecked. After escaping detection for the insurance fraud, Webster proceeds to swindle women across the globe, employing similar deceptive tactics in each case. His pattern of manipulation spreads internationally until authorities finally track him down and bring him to justice.