Preliminary hearing on murder charge for ‘Black Madam’ delayed

The preliminary hearing scheduled for the woman charged with murder in connection with a fatal silicone-injection buttocks-enhancement procedure in an airport-motel room was continued Wednesday morning.

 

A new preliminary-hearing date had not been set for Padge Victoria Windslowe, but a “status of attorney” hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

She is charged with third degree murder, conspiracy, recklessly endangering another person, possessing an instrument of crime, and unauthorized practice of medicine for the 2011 death of a British woman, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The backstory

Windslowe, a 42-year-old performer in music videos, was arrested at a Germantown “pumping party” on Feb. 29 by police who had been investigating her allegedly illegal practice of injecting silicone into the buttocks of women who paid between $500 and $1,000 for the back-alley cosmetic enhancement.

That arrest stemmed from a procedure that left a woman hospitalized as the silicone entered her bloodstream and embedded in her lungs, where it remains today.

Investigators then spent months trying to nail down evidence that Windslowe, aka the “Black Madam,” was responsible for a fatal injection more than a year earlier.

Connecting the cases

Even before her arrest, Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker said the non-fatal, illegal procedure with which she was being charged that night “is similar to” a Feb. 2011 case that resulted in Claudia Aderotimi’s death.

In late July, District Attorney Seth Williams announced his office had the evidence it needed to press charges.

“Padge Windslowe’s arrogance and blatant disregard for human life is shocking,” Williams said at the July 24 press conference, noting that the suspect “put her own greed above the public’s health and safety. Instead of being remorseful, she bragged about [her background] to prospective clients.”

Windslowe faces 44 to 88 years in prison in the Aderotimi case.