Josephine Leonides is the main antagonist of Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House and its 2017 movie adaption. She was a 12 year old girl who killed her grandfather Aristide Leonides out of boredom, and her nanny for giving her hot chocolate despite her dislike of the beverage.
She was portrayed by Honor Kneafsey.
Biography
When she was first introduced, shortler after her grandfather's murder, Josephine told private investigator Charles Hayward that she is more clever then other family members, and acting like a sleuth she compared herself to Holmes and Chales to Watson. Josephine said she listen others secretly and learn some stranger things such as Brenda and Mr. Brown's love letters. Charles asked what she knows about the killings, but Josephine refused to answer, before mentioning how many murder mystery novels she had been reading. She told Charles that her grandfather was a terrible person because he refused to allow her to train as a ballet dancer, and said that her skills were "less Swan Lake and more Duck Pond". Josephine said she has a notebook diary,which she writes her days. Nanny always tries to find where was her and give hot chocalete,but Josephine said she hated it, Nanny does only for herself.
Several days later, Josephine fell to ground from her tree house, with her rope ladder being mysteriousl cut. After Josephine came home from hospital, Charles found scissors in her tutor Laurence's drawer. Shortly after this, Josephine's diary was stolen, driving her insane with anger towards Nanny, whom she blamed for the crime. That same night, Nanny was killed by cyanide poisoning, sourced from the family's mould-killer, and hidden in her hot chocolate, leading Charles to suspect that the poisoning was a second attempt on Josephine's life. He interrogated her, but Josephine refused to talk, prompting Charles to grab and shake her in anger. However, Charles would later use Josephine's lead about the location of secret love letters between Brenda (her grandfather's young second wife, and until this point the prime suspect in the case), and Laurence, had written about "wanting him gone". This led to the two being arrested. Her Aunt Edith then took Josephine to her car, telling her that the crime scene as no place for a little girl and saying they were going to eat ice-cream and drive. Suddenly Charles and Sophia found a letter written by Edith, confessing to the murder of Aristide. Charles and Sophia also found Josephine's diary in a tub of cleaning products, that had been intended to remove the writing from the pages.
Charles and Sophia drove after Edith and Josephine at high speed, during which time Sophia asked why Edith did that murders. Charles asked her to read Josephine's diary for the answer, and in the diary Josephine reveals that she murdered her grandfather for the thrill of it, out of boredom for how her life had been going, faked the letters by copying Brenda and Laurence's handwriting, threw herself out of her treehouse and cut her own rope to divert suspicion, and murdered Nanny because she thought she was getting close to the truth. Edith drove the car into a nearby quarry, killing herself and Josephine, with Charles and Sophie being too late to stop it.
Personalıty
Josephine was very curious and genius just as she said,she got poison knowledge to kill Aristide and Nanny. She looked like a very small and great girl,but this was totally wrong and an evil was in her body. She killed her grandfather only for she dismissed her dream and killed Nanny for knowing something. She was a sadist who killed for fun. Also it seemed that Josephine could do everything for deleting the doubts on her, she fell to ground her self.
Trivia
- Josephine is one of the most evil Agatha Christie villains despite being a kid.