The Brighton Trunk Murders

10th May 1927 - Trunk containing the body of a dismembered woman found at Charing Cross Railway Station

23rd May 1927 - John Robinson charged with murder

12th August 1927 - Robinson hanged at Pentonville Prison

17th June 1934 - Trunk containing arms and a torso found at Brighton Railway Station

18th June 1934 - Trunk containing two limbs found at Kings Cross Railway Station

15th July 1934 - Violet Kaye’s body found at Mancini’s lodgings 52 Kemp Street, Brighton

17th July 1934 - Mancini charged with the murder of Violet Kaye

10th December 1934 - Mancini’s trial begins at Lewes Assizes

14th December 1934 - Mancini found not guilty

1976 - Mancini publicly confessed to Kaye’s murder

The First Trunk Murder Trial

Robinson’s defence was that Bonati had died of a heart attack, but the prosecution argued that the injuries to her head were not enough to have killed her. On 11th July 1927 at the Old Bailey, Sir Spilsbury argued that Bonati was in good health and said that the bruises on her chest suggested someone had knelt on her while holding her down and possibly suffocating her. The jury believed him and Robinson was found guilty. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 12 August 1927. 

The Second Trunk Murder Trial

At Lewes Assizes on 10th December 1934 Mancini was represented by William Norman Birkett. Birkett was a liberal defence lawyer who had served as the alternate British Judge during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. He produced evidence that Kaye took morphine as well as being a heavy drinker and suggested this could have been the reason for her fall. Despite overwhelming evidence for the prosecution, the case against Mancini failed and on 14th December 1934, after 2 hours and 18 minutes deliberation, the jury found Mancini not guilty of her murder.

However in 1976, aged 68, Mancini publicly confessed to the murder in The News of the World, but the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled he could not be tried again. No evidence could be found to associate him with the second murder, and the woman, known only as the 'Girl with Pretty Feet', was never identified, her head was never found and her murderer was never brought to justice.

Minnie Bonati - first ‘trunk murder’ victim

Unknown - second ‘trunk murder’ victim

Violet Kaye - third ‘trunk murder’ victim

John Robinson - perpetrator of first ‘trunk murder’

Tony Mancini - perpetrator of third ‘trunk murder’

Chief Inspector George Cornish - investigating officer on the first ‘trunk murder’