MURDER....in JACK THE RIPPER'S LONDON! THE VICTIMS
|
|
How many times have you said
this. At times I would like to murder him.
|
MARY ANNE NICHOLS "Polly" Nichols as she was known to many, was aged 42 when Jack the Ripper's icy hand took her life. The estranged wife of a printer, Polly had borne five children before husband William eloped with one of her friends in 1877. It was then that she became trapped in the downward spiral of drink and prostitution, her final days spent living in the squalid conditions of the "White House" doss-house on Flower and Dean Street. She was laid to rest at Ilford cemetery on September 6th 1888.
|
|
ANNIE CHAPMAN "Dark Annie" met her death on a foggy night, alone, undernourished and suffering from brain and lung diseases which would soon have claimed her if Jack's Knife hadn't. Aged 7, she wandered the East End Streets penniless following the death of her husband in 1886. Cruelly treated by life, Annie had two daughters, one of which died in 1882, and a son who was crippled. Living off
immoral earnings and selling matches and flowers, Annie was a street hardened rogue. She was buried in secret, at Manor Park on
September 14th 1888, by her family.
|
ELIZABETH STRIDE "Long Liz" was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in November 1843, named Elizabeth Gustafsdotter. After becoming a registered prostitute and giving birth to a still born girl, she moved to London in 1866 and married John Thomas Strise, a carpenter, supposedly living in Gower Street, London. The Strides allegedly kept a
coffee shop prior to the breakdown of their marriage in 1882. long Liz was to have had eight convictions for drunkenness before her fatal appointment with Jack the Ripper. Elizabeth Stride was buried in a paupers grave in the East London
cemetery aged 44 years.
|
|
CATHERINE EDDOWES Born in 1842, the daughter of a tinplate worker, Catherine Eddowes came to London's Bermondsey district at the age of two. She returned to her native Wolverhampton, with Thomas Conway, a pensioner, who was to father her three children. The couple separated in 1880, victims of habitual drinking. "Kate" left for London once more, where she resided in Flower and Dean Street. Following a hop picking venture in Kent, Kate was sadly to embark on her final tragic journey via Bishopsgate police cells into the clutches of the evil Ripper. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Ilford on 8th October 1888, witnessed by hoards of onlookers, aged 44
|
MARY JANE KELLY "Black Mary" was unlike the other victims. At 25 she was young and attractive, and as a prostitute would have better served the prestigious West End clients as opposed to working the grim streets of the East End. Mary was born in
Limerick, Ireland and moved to Wales where she married a collier who was tragically killed in a pit disaster. After turning to prostitution in Cardiff, she moved south to London where she worked in a West End brothel. "Fair Emma" came to lodge at various abodes around Dorset Street, London, the "Wicked Quarter Mile", and it was at Millers Court that she was found brutally murdered. She was buried at Walthamstow R.C. cemetry on 19th November
|
|
The place London
|
|
|
|
|
Dr.
William Palmer
Kill Total: 10+
Kill Dates 1842 - 1856
At the age of 17 Palmer had been sacked for stealing while
working as an apprentice with a pharmacist, his life of
crime had begun. He was later to be sacked again, after it
was discovered that he was operating an illegal abortion
clinic.
He carried on with his fascination for medicine, and
eventually qualified as a doctor at St. Bartholemews
hospital, London. Setting up practice as a GP in his native
Staffordshire he married, and soon had a child from one of
the servants. His married suffered through this,. as well as
gambling and drink, his practice also started to suffer. As
Palmer's debts, mainly through horse racing, increased,
members of his family started to decrease. First to die was
his moth-in-law, then his wife, who had been insured for
£13,000 his brothers demise followed. Four of his children
also mysteriously died, along with several of his known
creditors.
Palmer finally came unstuck after killing a friend he had
gone racing with, the mans wealthy family demanded an
autopsy. Poison was found and Palmer was duly accused of
murder. He was found guilty, and on 14th June 1856 he was
hanged at Stafford jail in front of an audience of more than
50,000 onlookers, hanged by chief executioner George Smith.
|
|
Peter
Sutcliffe
Kill Total 13+
Between 1975 and 1984 Sutcliffe was known as the "Yorkshire
Ripper" as he terrorized prostitutes around Northern England
with his hammer and other instruments of torture.
A former mortuary worker, Sutcliffe apparently spoke with
God frequently. The good Lord ordered him to go out and hunt
prostitutes and, as a true Christian, he did as he was told.
Luckily, he also enjoyed the job and would cum in his pants
as he hammered and stabbed his victims to death.
Police were frustrated with numerous false confessions they
received during their search for him. On January 2, 1981,
Sutcliffe was finally caught sitting in a car with a
prostitute. While in custody he confessed everything. The
ripper is also suspected of having killed and maimed several
other women in France and Sweden during his travels abroad.
On March 10, 1997 Sutcliffe was stabbed in both eyes by a
fellow inmate during a fight at the Broadmoor Hospital. It
is believed that Sutcliffe was in his room in Henley Ward
when he was attacked. The attacker, Ian Kay -- also known as
the "Woolworths Killer" -- stabbed The Ripper with a
fibre-tipped pen, the type used in drawing classes at the
hospital. Not the nicest "chap in the block," Kay --
described as an "extremely dangerous man" -- was jailed for
a minimum of 22 years in 1995 for the November, 1994, murder
in southwest London of a Woolworths manager which he carried
out while on leave from prison after serving less than three
years of an eight-year term for nearly killing another shop
worker in an almost identical attack.
On January 28, 1998, Kay admitted to stabbing Sutcliffe,
adding attempted murder to his long list of convictions. In
no uncertain terms, Kay told the court he had meant to
attack The Yorkshire Ripper with a razor embedded in a
toothbrush handle. "I was going to ... walk into the room
and cut his jugular vein on both sides and wait there until
he was dead. Killing has always been in my mind, ever since
I've been here (at Broadmoor). In hindsight I should have
straddled him and strangled him with my bare hands... He
said God told him to kill 13 women, and I say the devil told
me to kill him because of that."
In March, 1996, Sutcliffe was assaulted by a different
patient. Then, a prisoner at the high-security hospital in
Berkshire almost garroted Sutcliffe with the flex from a
pair of stereo headphones because he "resented being locked
up with sex offenders". The attacker was pulled off by two
other murderers, Kenneth Erskine, the "Stockwell Strangler,"
and Jamie Devitt.
|
|
|
|
|
John Reginald Haliday Christie
Kill Total 8 ?
Kill Dates 1943 - 1953
Christie, an ex-special constable, was a sex killer and psychopath of the worst kind, he gained his sexual gratification through rape, murder, and necrophilia. He liked to make his victims unconscious, and then strangle them while performing necrophilia. He actually admitted strangling one of his victims during intercourse. Although, baby Geraldine Evans was clearly disposed of as a screaming baby, who, without a mother would arouse suspicion. In the 1940s and 1950s this man killed at least five prostitutes, his wife, a female lodger and her baby daughter. He also kept a collection of clipped pubic hairs, some of which did not match any of his known victims. Christie was not a poular man, seemingly respectable but not liked. As a teenager he had been nicknamed "Reggie No Dick" because of his sexual inadequacy.
In 1949 the top floor flat at 10, Rillington Place was empty, the new lodgers were Timothy John Evans, a 24 year old van driver, and his wife Beryl (20), and their baby daughter Geraldine. On 30th November 1949 Timothy evans was in Wales, he walked into a police station and confessed to putting his wifes dead body down a drain. After a search at Rillington place police found not only Beryl, but, also baby Geraldine, Evans was arrested, then changing his story and accusing Christie of the gruesome murders. Christie was the chief prosecution witness at the murder trial of Evans, he denied any knowledge of the deaths of Beryl and the baby. Evans was found guilty, and hanged on 9th March 1950.
Two yaers after the Evans' events Christie killed his wife in December 1952, and buried her under the floorboards of his ground floor flat. In January 1953 he killed two prostitutes, and in April another. Christie left 10, Rillington place leaving the new occupier to trace the origins of the awful smell in the flat. After investigations by Mr. Brown (the new tenant) police, and a pathologist, the kitchen cupboard was found to contain the human remain of three women. Under the floor was Mrs. Christie, and in the garden two further bodies.
John Reginald Haliday Christie was arrested on 31st March 1953. While in custody Christie made detailed confessions to six of the killings. Confessing to the murder of Beryl Evans at his trial, he continued to deny the murder of baby Geraldine Evans. His plea of not guilty on the grounds of insanity was rejected. He was hanged in Pentonville prison on the 15th July 1953..On 18th October 1966 justice was finally done when Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous pardon !......
VICTIMS; . (known)
Ruth Furrest - aged 21 - died - 1943
Murial Early - aged - 32 died - 1944
Beryl Evans aged - 20 - died - 1949
Geraldine Evans (baby) aged - 15 months - died - 1949 ?
Ethel Christie - aged - 54 - died - 1952
Kathleen Maloney - aged - 26 - died - 1953
Rita Nelson aged - 24 - died - 1953
Hectorina MacLennon - aged - 26 died - 1953
Robert Black
Kill total 4
This convicted child killer is now serving 10 life sentences for the murders of three other girls. He was offered immunity from prosecution for the murder of another19 year old girl if he provided information leading to the discovery of her remains.
The body of Genette Tate, who was 13 when she disappeared in Aylesbeare, Devon, in August 1978, has never been found. Detectives suspect that Robert Black may have killed her. Black was linked to the area where Genette disappeared by tracking his gas station receipts. But, this remains unproved.
|
|
John George Haigh
The Acid Bath Murderer
Kill total 9 ?
Kill Dates 1944 - 1949
Haigh meticulously planned each of his murders, with all three stages carefully though out to prevent untidy, or messy finishes to his gruesome activities.
The first stage was to isolate the victim from any familiarity around them (escorting to his "workshop", which was nothing more than an adjacent room next to a factory). In all of the cases, his victims were always led under a pretence of discovery, which was based upon his initial friendship established with each of them. Put quite simply, they had absolutely no reason to suspect Haigh of performing anything unusual, until it was too late.
The next stage was to cleanly render his target incapable of responding to his attack, via the use of a .38 Webley revolver. He concealed the gun upon his person once he had coaxed his intended target inside his workshop. Then Haigh would seize any opportunity to kill the victim with as little effort as possible on his part.
Finally, and probably most difficult of all, was the traceless disposal of the body (vats of industrial acid). It was Haigh's mistaken belief that a corpse could be completely disposed of via the acid. Unfortunately for Haigh, certain parts of the human body are more resilient to attack than most people realise, either by their very nature (such as teeth and bone) and artificial items (such as false teeth) and are usually picked up as trace evidence by forensic experts. Haigh's false assumption that murder could not be proved without the body was to have lead to his downfall.
One other key element in all the murders is the violations performed on the victims in the consumption of blood. Though the murders were very important to Haigh, he also saw the need to sustain himself financially, and would thus strip the body of any valuables that he could use himself (things such as jewelry, and ration cards which he later used for himself). These would later be found at his home, which provided further damning evidence against him.
Peter Manuel
Kill Total: 15 ?
Kill Dates 1954 - 1958
Using a Webley revolver, a Beretta pistol, an iron bar, and using strangulation this Scot killed seven people in and around Glasgow and the Lowlands of Scotland. Manuel was a known sex offender with previous convictions for indecent assault and rape. His need for sexual gratification through violence peaked with the killings.
Manuel was born to Scottish immigrants in the USA in 1927, he moved with his parents back to their native Scotland in 1932. His young days were spent in and out of approved schools and borstal for a string of petty crimes including theft and burglary. A loner who loved the dark, he lived with his parents in Birkenshaw, this was in the centre of his killing territory.
Arrested on the 14th January 1958 He was tried at Glasgow crown court in May that year. He conducted his own defense, and by all accounts did a very good job, but to no avail, he was found guilty of 7 of the eight murder charges. He was hanged at Barlinnie prison on 11th July 1958. Before his execution he confessed to all the murders, and even a few others that the police had not originally attributed to him. It is suspected that Peter Manuel was responsible for the death of no less than 15 people
Victims; Age;
Anne Knielands 17
Marion Watt 45
Vivienne Watt 16
Margaret Brown 41
Isabelle Cooke 17
Peter Smart 45
Doris Smart
Michael Smart 11
|
|
|
|
|
COLIN IRELAND
Kill Total 5
Known in London as the "Gay Slayer", Colin Ireland aimed to become a serial killer, he had read an article that said to be a serial killer you must have killed 5. So, this was the number he aimed for.
For this purpose he strangled five homosexual men. Robert Ressler states in "However Fights Monsters" that one has to commit five murders to become a serial killer. Colin read the book and used it as a manual in his quest to become a serial killer. He meticulously planned each murder as he set out to become a famous serial killer. He chose gay sado-masochistic men because they were willing to get tied up. Also, he believed that the public would feel less sympathy for them. Before his arrest he taunted the cops with rambling calls claiming responsibility for the murders and threatening to keep striking once a week. He even stated "I have got the book, I know how many you have to do..."
It has been rumored that Colin has killed again in prison. It is suggested that Colin has strangled a convicted child murderer in his cell, but because he was serving life with no possibility of parole it was a waste of time and money to prosecute him. The murder was carried out while Colin was in Wakefield Prison, Yorkshire. Two weeks after, he was moved to Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire.
Back to serial Killers
|
|
Beverly Allit
Kill total 4+?
Beverly Allit was a nurse suffering from the mental health illness known as Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy (a desire to kill or injure to get attention). She was given 13 life sentences at Nottingham crown court in 1993 after being convicted of murdering four children and attacking nine others. Her arrest followed an investigation into several incidents of alleged tampering with patients' ventilators and pumps delivering intravenous medication at various hospitals in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.
The nurse is now detained in Rampton Maximum Security Hospital for the criminally insane. It is unlikely that she will ever get out, but if she does relatives of the dead children have promised to kill her. Public reaction to the case was particularly hostile, as, being a nurse, she was obviously in a position of trust and in charge of caring for children. Although no further investigations are ongoing, it is not known if Allit has killed more of her patients in the past
|
Dennis Andrew Nilsen
Kill total 15 + ?
Dates; December 1978 - January 1983
So much has been said and written about this most gruesome of killers, that l keep this description to a minimum.
This alcoholic homosexual civil servant could not come to grips with life in the closet and resorted to murder and necrophilia. He would lure young homeless men to his apartment, render them unconscious with alcohol and strangle them to death He would stash their bodies under the floor boards and in cupboards. Occasionally he would take one out, wash and dress it, and pretend to have a date. He would lay the corpse next to him in bed and masturbate. Then, return it to the floor boards. Like Jeferry Dahmer his American counterpart, he killed out of loneliness.. He kept an assortment of body parts around the house as company and sometimes even left them in plain view when he went out to work. Nilsen killed 12 or 13 men over 4 years, and destroyed their bodies in a series of large bonfires in his garden. However, when he was forced to move to a new apartment with no garden he had to improvise new ways to dispose of "his friends." In 1983 he was discovered when he tried to flush human remains down the toilet, and clogged the plumbing. The neighbours complained about the blocked drains, and caught him trying to clear them at midnight. After a plumber had been called, and discovered what he believed to be pieces of chicken in the drains, the police were called. When the Police searched his top floor apartment, they discovered body parts of 3 men, who Nilsen had dismembered using his army butchery skills. On 4th November 1883 Nilsen was sentenced at the Old bailey to life imprisonment, he was aged 37.
PETER MOORE
Kill Total 4
Born in 1940, Moore ran a theatre in north Wales, apparently fixating on Jason Voorhies from the F13 movie series. He murdered and mutilated 4 men in 1995, the bodies found near small rural towns. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996. No victims beyond the 4 he admitted have been suggested by police.
|
|
Dr. Thomas Neil Cream
Kill Total 5
Kill Dates June 1881 - April 1892
Cream is probably most famous for having confessed to being the infamous "Jack The Ripper". With the noose around his neck on the scaffold at Newgate on 15th November 1892 cream yelled out "I Am Jack" as the hangman threw the bolt. This is not at all possible , Cream's detention in the state prison in Illinois USA for the murder of Daniel Stott by poisoning, proves beyond doubt that he could not have been in the east end of London at the time of the Ripper murders.
It seems that Jack the Ripper may have had Some medical training, but, Cream was quite a proficient surgeon, having studied medicine in Canada, Scotland and at St. Thomas's Hospital in London.
KENNETH ERSKINE
"The Stockwell Strangler"
Kill Total: 11
Kill Dates April 1987 -
At 24 Erskine was judged to have had the mental age of 11. He was abandoned by his parents, and was a 'persistent loner' that drifted from one special school to the next. He was arrested on various occasions for burglary and had ten different bank accounts full of the proceeds from his successful thefts.
Eventually Erskine felt the need to go one step further and began taking more than money.
His first murder victim was Eileen Emms, 78. She was strangled in her home in April 1987. Less than a month later Janet Crockett, 67, went the same way. On June, 28 Erskine scored a double-header. First he got Valentine Gleime, 84. And later in the day with 94-year-old Zbigniew Stabrawa. All of these victims had been manually strangled. He had also molested all the victims. The molested victims had all been sodomized. The police could not determine if this buggery was done before or after death.
It was at this time that Erskine was dubbed 'The Stockwell Strangler', named such because the victims all lived in this area of South-west London.
On July 28, Erskine was arrested for trying to conceal one of his savings accounts from Social Security, and unluckily for him his palm print matched one found at a 'Stockwell Strangler' crime scene. He was then picked out of a line-up by a survivor of one of his attacks. When questioned about the crimes Erskine said -
"I don't remember killing anyone, I could have done it without knowing it. I am not sure if I did it."
Erskine was charged with seven murders (two more were dropped on insufficient evidence, and police have closed the book on two other murders) and was found guilty. He was given seven life terms, but comes up for parole in 2028.
|
|
|
|
|
Ian Brady & Myra Hindley
Moors Murderers
Kill Total (5)
Ian and Myra met while working for a chemical company in Hyde, Greater Manchester. She thought he was quite an intellectual as he sat in the canteen reading Mein Kampf in German. As their love blossomed they became more obsessed with Nazi paraphernalia, pornography and sadism. At first they enjoyed shooting pictures of themselves in the buff and in S & M drag. They thought they could crack the local porn market with their pictures but failed. Soon they proved to be more successful in child abduction and murder.
Most of their victims were children whom they sexually molested before killing. These sadist lovebirds liked to document their murderous deeds. They kept an extensive collection of photographs of their victims as well as a recording of the screams of one girl's torturous end. In 1966 they were arrested after Ian bragged about his killings to Myra's brother-in-law. When the brother-in-law doubted his ability to kill, Ian smoked a young man right in front of him. The brother-in-law did not react appropriately. Instead of showing admiration, he went to the cops. Twenty years after their arrest, Ian confessed to four new murders the police had never linked to them.
In December 1995, Hindley, who is in the same jail in northern England as fellow serial killer Rosemary West, gave her first public account of her crime spree, admitting she had been wicked and corrupt but claiming she was now a changed woman. Hindley described herself as a political prisoner who was being used as a scapegoat by politicians and the media. The formerly monstrous killer said: "The majority of people don't want to accept that people like myself can change, They prefer to keep me frozen in time together with that awful mug shot so that their attitudes, beliefs and perceptions can remain intact." On February, 1997, her lawyers made a plea to win her release. However, a London Superior Court decreed that Myra will spend the rest of her life behind bars with no possibility of parole.
On May 21 the High Court announced a judicial review of their 1990 decision of imposing a "whole-life" sentence on the aging neo-Nazi convicted killer. Hindley's lawyers will argue that the decision did not reflect the views of the judge in the case, Mr. Justice Fenton, who recommended only that she serve "a very long time." According to her lawyers the "whole-life" sentence represented an "irrational leap" from the 30-year period fixed by the Home Office in 1985.
On November 21 supporters of Myra called for a review of sentencing procedures after Jack Straw reaffirmed the decision of his predecessor, Michael Howard, of never releasing Myra from prison. The ruling came under immediate attack from penal reformers and civil liberties campaigners.
Lord Longford, who has lobbied for Hindley's release, expressed "total disgust and contempt" and described her as a "good woman". He told BBC Radio 4's Today show: "I am very sorry indeed that a high-minded man, a Christian socialist like Jack Straw should have taken that decision. Of course it's all as a result of the horrifying pressure exerted by the tabloids." Lord Longford said that Hindley had been a good young woman "until she began to work under a very gifted, but mentally disturbed man, Ian Brady. She was an infatuated accomplice 31 years ago".
On October 7, 1998 Myra concluded a hearing at the Court of Appeals trying to overrule her "whole-life tarriff." In her new attempt at overturning her life sentence and win the right to a parole hearing, Hindley claimed that she can prove that she took part in the Moors murders only because Brady abused her, and threatened to kill her mother, grandmother and younger sister.
Freedom seeking Myra alleges that trigger-happy Ian bit, strangled, whipped, drugged and even blackmailed her into taking part in the murders. He lawyers claim that new material that will be presented to court includes photographs taken by Brady showing her naked with bruises and injuries caused by bites, whips and canes. Then again, they did have a sado-masochistic relationship, and bruises and bite marks are something that goes with the territory.
Brady, 60, now a patient at Ashworth Special Hospital in Merseyside, responded saying that "33 years of duplicity" had driven "her into the realms of psychotic delusion and absurdity". He also claimed that the bruises were faked using lipstick in their attempt at selling pornographic pictures. The cooperative type, Brady has said he would release "sick" letters to the highest bidder that she wrote to him up to six years after they were convicted. Any payment, he added, should go to victims' families.
This latest court action represents the third strategy Hindley has adopted since conviction. At first she stayed silent, and then later revealed evidence of other murders in a fruitless bid to convince the public that she had reformed. Now she is claiming that she took part in the crimes unwillingly.
Brady has condemed Hindley's attempt to blame him for the killings and released a six-page letter he sent to the Home Secretary. Brady wrote: "Hindley, in her usual Barbara Cartland prose, has created a Victorian melodrama in which she portrays herself as being forced to murder serially, by being drugged, blackmailed, whipped, raped, battered, having her family threatened with slaughter, bitten, strangled etc, etc.
"At first I was staggered and appalled, then as the catalogue of feverish crimes mounted to stultification level, I slowly realised that desperation had finally driven her over the top. It appears that the neurosis bred by her own pathological machinations has developed into psychosis. She appears to be suffering from a histrionic personality disorder, adopting manipulative attention seeking behaviour . . . an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, concealing a strong tendency towards rebellion and acting on impulse."
UPDATE
Ian Brady On Hunger Strike
Brady goes to court to appeal that the Staff at the secure unit, Ashworth Hospital, where he is serving life, do not have the right to force feed him.
The appeal is refused, he is fed.
|
|
Rosemary & Fred West
Kill Total 12+
Kill Dates 1967 - 1990?
Rosemary and her husband Fred West, were accused of murdering 10 women and young girls over a 16 year period ending in 1987. They took great joy in luring away vulnerable runaways with offers of rides, lodging or jobs as nannies. Once in their clutches inside the "House of Horrors", the young women were stripped, bound with tape, raped, tortured, then killed, some were dismembered and buried. The killer couple was arrested at their home, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, in 1994.
Police, armed with a search warrant, dug up the remains of their 16 year old daughter, Heather, who vanished in 1987. Further excavations under the house and in garden produced eight more female bodies, including Rosemary's stepdaughter, Charmaine.
One more body was found under the kitchen of a former home at 25 Midland Road, Gloucester. Fred hanged himself in jail on New Years Day in 1995. He also faced two further charges of murdering his ex wife and a baby-sitter and burying them in fields near his former home. Authorities believe that Fred probably killed more women. Rosemary, an admitted prostitute, still maintains her innocence. However, on November 22, 1995, she was convicted of 10 murders. Authorities are investigating the whereabouts of nine other missing women who frequented their home. More on this story is sure to follow over the years.
KIERNAN KELLY
Kill Total: 9
Kill Dates 1975 - 1983
At the age of 54 Kelly decided he did not like tramps. This was odd, as he was a tramp himself! He disliked them so much he decided to kill them. Kelly, originally from Ireland, came to the UK in 1953. An alcoholic he first killed in 1975, killing a fellow drinker in a drunken brawl. By 1979, the time of his second killing, he was well known to the police for many offences, all relating to his inability to control his drinking. Kelly was acquitted of this murder, but, in 1983 he was again in the court, this time accused of attempted murder, when he tried to push a fellow drunk under a train, he was again acquitted. Later that year Kelly was drunk in a police cell, in the cell with him was a fellow vagrant, Kelly did not like the drunken singing of his comrade, and strangled him with his socks. He could clearly not deny this one, and, decided to confess. Police were astonished as Kelly admitted to 9 killing over the previous 30 years. One of the confessions and the one that he stood trial for was that of fellow drunk in a graveyard in 1975. Kelly was sentenced to life imprisonment. At his trial at the old Bailey a psychologist suggested that it would probably never be safe to release Kelly from prison and that he should spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.
Michael Lupo
Kills: 4+
This former choir boy served in an Italian elite army commando unit before dedicating his life to sadomasochism and hairdressing !
In 1975 Lupo moved to London where he started off as a hairdresser and worked his way up to owning a styling boutique. He also racked up about 4,000 gay lovers and developed a taste for the whip and built a modern torture chamber in his house. It all turned nasty in March 1986 when Lupo was diagnosed with having AIDS.
After this deadly diagnosis he then started his bloody rampage against the gay night life scene of London. Over a period of two months he slaughtered four men who he picked up in gay bars and left their bodies slashed and smeared with excrement. After two potential victims had escaped, police moved in and arrested Lupo, on 20 May 1986. He received four life sentences. Police in Berlin, Hamburg, Los Angeles and New York are all investigating mutilation deaths that might be linked to Lupo's travels in the eighties.
Dr. William Palmer
Kill Total: 10+
Kill Dates 1842 - 1856
At the age of 17 Palmer had been sacked for stealing while working as an apprentice with a pharmacist, his life of crime had begun. He was later to be sacked again, after it was discovered that he was operating an illegal abortion clinic.
He carried on with his fascination for medicine, and eventually qualified as a doctor at St. Bartholemews hospital, London. Setting up practice as a GP in his native Staffordshire he married, and soon had a child from one of the servants. His married suffered through this,. as well as gambling and drink, his practice also started to suffer. As Palmer's debts, mainly through horse racing, increased, members of his family started to decrease. First to die was his moth-in-law, then his wife, who had been insured for £13,000 his brothers demise followed. Four of his children also mysteriously died, along with several of his known creditors.
Palmer finally came unstuck after killing a friend he had gone racing with, the mans wealthy family demanded an autopsy. Poison was found and Palmer was duly accused of murder. He was found guilty, and on 14th June 1856 he was hanged at Stafford jail in front of an audience of more than 50,000 onlookers, hanged by chief executioner George Smith.
William Burke & William Hare
Kill total 16
Possibly two of Scotland's worst imports were the serial killers William Burke and William Hare. Burke and Hare originally from Northern Ireland, moved to Scotland to work as laborers on the Union Canal. Ever aware of needs of the market, Burke and Hare set themselves up as procurers of human bodies to satisfy the demand of Edinburgh's medical schools.
Originally the two would dig up the graves of the recently departed in the dead of night, steal the body and then sell it for cash to a doctor for use during anatomy demonstrations. Tired of digging, the two entrepreneurs started murdering people in Edinburgh's old town and selling their cadavers on an "ask no questions basis." They killed their victims by strangling them using a method they had perfected which left no obvious trace of foul play and little evidence of the murder.
The murder of their 16th victim led to their arrest. Burke's mistress and Hare's wife were also arrested. Because the courts had little evidence to prosecute them successfully, the Lord Advocate, Sir William Rae, offered Hare immunity from prosecution if he would turn King's evidence. The evidence Hare and his wife provided sent Burke to his death on the gallows on 28 January, 1829 while his mistress Helen MacDougall escaped when the charges against her were found not proven.
William Hare is said to have died a penniless pauper in London in 1859. Robert Knox - the doctor who willingly bought most of Burke and Hare's bodies was never prosecuted. |
|
|
|
|
Top
|
