Harris then predator

“The key thing for me as a child was, if I met Rolf Harris, I’d think I know him. I’d never met him, but if I met him, because I’d seen him on TV, I would feel that I knew Rolf Harris.”- Peter Watt, National Services Director, NSPCC

In 1968, the same year Rolf Harris received his MBE, he assaulted his first young girl. Just a few years after his own daughter had been born; Harris abused a girl aged between 7 or 8. Harris was already well known by the time of her abuse. That’s why she came to see him at a community hall. She queued for his autograph. On finally meeting her idol in the flesh, he secretly sexually assaulted her. The child said later:"It took away my childhood. It affected every aspect of my life from the point he assaulted me.”

The victim was left with a sense of guilt and shame that her star had singled her out.“The fact that Harris was so family friendly and so well known for working with children...is what’s caused most of the victims so much shock.” Liz Dux, Abuse Lawyer, Representing Harris’ Victims, Slater and Gordon

But Harris was only getting started.

His main victim would be the best friend of his daughter, Bindi.

The 1980s saw his longest period of abuse. He preyed on his daughter’s best friend, grooming and molesting her. They lived opposite each other and she and Bindi had grown up together and had been in each other’s houses.

But it was when the Harris’s went on holiday and took her, aged 13, on holiday to Australia that the abuse began.

His victim had never been away. She was without her parents. She was dependent on the Harris family.

Harris violently sexually assaulted her. She was too terrified to resist him.She was too traumatised to report him. When she returned home, the abuse continued. He once abused her in his daughter’s bed, as his daughter slept beside them. By this point, she was fifteen. Harris was fifty. In an attempt to block out the abuse, she started drinking.

Either oblivious or indifferent to her suffering, Harris continued to abuse others. His audacity was such that in the 1980s, he fronted a child protection awareness video in which he told children how to say no to predatory adults.

Actor Tony Porter worked with him and behind the scenes, saw how blatant Harris had become.“The show was called Rolf. And it was just Rolf doing his shtick - bad puns and dad jokes. It wasn’t cutting edge comedy.”

Tony was in make-up and witnessed Harris reach for the make-up artist’s breasts. He acknowledged his lunge to Tony with a Hannibal Lecter like intake of breath. Believing it to be a one off, Tony didn’t report it.

“Harris presented a very warm, empathetic presence...he was very good with children, he was very good at cracking jokes and all the rest, yet in his spare time, he was also attacking women, and he was groping, and taking advantage...You can’t be both of those things.” Patrick Carlyon, Senior Journalist, Melbourne Herald Sun

Increasingly, in entertainment circles, Harris became known as ‘Dirty Rolf’. On one occasion, a well-known celebrity was at a Melbourne radio station when he saw a school group doing a tour. Knowing Harris was in the building he panicked, and ordered the school group out.But it seemed that Harris’s dirty secret would stay known to only a very few.

Full scale Grooming gang

“She was handed over…simply as a birthday present.” Nigel Bunyan, Journalist & Ghost Writer of ‘Girl A: My Story’“Every time we went up it always led to something sexual.”Lily, Child Abuse victimIn the Greater Manchester towns of Rochdale, and Oldham, girls - children - are drugged, made drunk and then driven all over the North of England to be used for sex by men. Such is the demand, sometimes the men form queues. “…maybe 20 men would be queueing to have their turn.”Nigel Bunyan, Journalist & Ghostwriter ‘Girl A: My Story’If the drink or the drugs have not made the females incapable of resisting, physical violence, or the fear and threat of something worse, ensure their submission.  

If the drink or the drugs have not made the females incapable of resisting, physical violence, or the fear and threat of something worse, ensure their submission. “If he wanted something, it was either ‘yeah’, or, it happen in a bad way.”Lily, Child Abuse victimAnd worse, this perverted world had been made seemingly normal by patient grooming by the predators. To an outsider, it seems unbelievable that children could feel obligated to have sex with adults out of a sense of obligation, but these children are targeted, as Adele Gladden, of Safeguarding Children’s Consent explains, because they’re vulnerable.  “…grooming meets a need. Quite often it meets a need in the young person to feel loved….once you know you’ve got a young person to a position of having complete trust in you, then you will manipulate the situation to make them think…that you’re deserving of something and make them think that it’s totally normal…to demand sex…in exchange for…cigarettes.”

It Begins

On the 19th of March 2013, 31-year-old Polish immigrant Lucasz Slaboszewski received a text from Joanna Dennehy. The pair had met previously on the streets of Peterborough, and Lucasz is thought to have believed that there was some chance of a romantic relationship. The text invited Slaboszewski round to Dennehy's flat where the pair drank and chatted together. Joanna persuaded Lucasz to put on a blindfold as part of what she said was a game. With her victim's eyes covered, Dennehy produced a knife and proceeded to stab Slaboszewski through the heart.Unable to dispose of the body alone, Joanna Dennehy called upon Gary “Stretch” Richards, a known criminal and associate of hers, for assistance. Richards – a 7 foot 3-inch giant of a man – was, by all accounts, smitten with Dennehy and was happy to do anything he could to help her.

Richards arrived at the flat with an associate of his, Leslie Layton, and together the pair relocated  Lucasz Slaboszewski's body to a wheelie bin outside a nearby block of flats. Days later, the body was retrieved and thrown into a ditch in the Peterborough countryside.On the 28th of March 2013, Joanna Dennehy called at the flat of her neighbour, 56 year old John Chapman, with some alcohol. The pair drank and chatted together until Chapman passed out drunk. Using the same knife she had killed Slaboszewski with nine days earlier, Dennehy stabbed Chapman six times in the chest.Again, Richards and Layton were called upon to help dispose of the body and Chapman's remains were dumped in the same ditch as those of Slaboszewski.The next day (March 29th) Joanna Dennehy invited Kevin Lee to her flat.There Lee was stabbed in the heart and killed. His body, dressed in a black dress of  Dennehy's, was dumped in another ditch some eight miles away from those of Joanna's first two victims, once again with the help of Richards.

On the 2nd of April 2013 Joanna Dennehy and Gary “Stretch” Richards committed a robbery in Norfolk. They contacted an associate of Richards', Mark Lloyd, who agreed to help them fence the stolen goods.Once in the car with the pair Lloyd was shocked and appalled at Dennehy's boasts of having murdered people and wanting to do so again. Driving around, Richards selected a victim for Dennehy, seemingly at random. Leaping from the car, Joanna stabbed 64-year-old Robin Bereza in the shoulder, then jumped back into the vehicle as he collapsed on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Nine minutes later Dennehy attacked another man, 57-year-old John Rogers, stabbing him more than thirty times. 

Making of the "Firm"

Ronnie was the organisational force behind “The Firm”, as they called their gang, developing a network of informants and showing an attention to detail and discipline that earned him the nickname “The Colonel”. He also developed a love of flash “gangster” clothes, and his homosexuality was an open secret in the East End underworld. As their reputation spread, Ronnie became more concerned with their position within the London criminal hierarchy, and “The Firm” gradually positioned itself as the dominant force within the London criminal network.The beginning of a rift between the twins occurred in 1956, when Ronnie, obsessed with firearms, shot a man during the commission of their protection racket business. Reggie was appalled at the risk Ronnie had taken, given the rarity of shootings at the time, but Ronnie was boastful after the event, and began to regard himself as invincible. This rift widened when, some months later, Ronnie alone was convicted of an assault that had involved both brothers, serving a three-year prison sentence as a result. Such was the reputation of the Krays that incarceration hardly interrupted their criminal activities, but Reggie used his time as sole head of “The Firm” to steer it towards more legitimate enterprises, developing a string of profitable nightclubs and gambling dens, that attracted celebrities such as Joan Collins and Barbara Windsor.

Ronnie, meanwhile, was moved to a prison on the Isle of Wight, where his influence over both inmates and outside events was greatly reduced. His mental health suffered as a result and, following the death of his beloved Aunt Rose on Christmas Day, 1957, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and returned to a secure mental facility on the mainland. He was eventually released in April 1959, and gradually began to reassert his authority over Reggie in “The Firm”, with the delusion of uniting the various London criminal factions into one organisation under his authority. Later that same year, Reggie’s 18-month conviction for extortion enabled Ronnie to cement his grip over the business again.The acquisition of a nightclub in London’s exclusive Knightsbridge area proved a turning point for the brothers’ prospects; the sheer volume of income generated by the business earned the Krays an entrée into the glamorous “Swinging 60s” set, enabling them to leave their East End roots behind them. Ronnie revelled in his role as gay playboy gangster, moving to fashionable Chelsea, and his celebrity contacts gave him access to the most influential people in the country.Despite this elevation of social status, his excessive drinking and drug taking gradually took the shine off his dream until, disillusioned, and suffering increasingly from deteriorating mental health, he moved back to the East End, to live in a caravan on a vacant lot.His business interest moved overseas, and increasingly grandiose schemes saw him involved in shady development deals in Africa. In July 1964 his friendship with a Conservative peer, Lord Boothby, led to a tabloid expose of their homosexual relationship in the Daily Mirror, which again catapulted the Krays into the public eye. Boothby denied any association with the Krays, and won substantial libel damages from the newspaper, although Ronnie Kray received nothing when he tried the same tactic. As a result of this affair, however, newspapers were more cautious about printing anything about the Krays in the future.In 1964, around the time of the Boothby affair, the newly promoted Scotland Yard detective, Chief Inspector Leonard Read, also known as ‘Nipper’, was charged with bringing the Krays to justice. Despite the concerted efforts of a dedicated task force, and a vast amount of circumstantial evidence, the Krays' ruthless reputation ensured that witnesses to their numerous crimes remained silent, and “Nipper” Read made little headway. An abortive attempt at bringing them up on extortion charges failed in 1965, and it wasn’t until late in 1967 that he made the breakthrough that saw the eventual collapse of the Kray criminal empire.During 1967 the Krays had become increasingly concerned that a close associate, Lesley Payne, was going to expose them, in exchange for clemency on various charges that the police had brought against him. Determined to silence him, they instructed one of their associates, Jack “The Hat” McVitie, to assassinate Payne. McVitie failed, and refused to return the fee he had been paid. Ronnie, incensed by this behaviour, goaded Reggie into murdering McVitie; Reggie stabbed him to death in front of witnesses at a home in South London, on 29 October 1967. The Krays' elder brother, Charlie, was persuaded to assist with the concealment of McVitie’s body; a task he performed so successfully that McVitie’s body was never found. Later Charlie served a 10-year prison sentence, as an accessory to the murder, for his trouble.Payne, meanwhile, made aware of this failed attempt on his life, decided that his best chance of survival was to confess all to the police. Unfortunately for the Krays, his knowledge of all elements of their business activities was voluminous, and he provided over 200 pages of damning testimony.

"Under the paving stones of Gloucester"

After one too many bizarre sexual suggestions, Caroline Roberts had decided to end lodging with the Wests. But a month later, she again accepted a lift from them. And during the journey, Rose was very apologetic for what had occurred before. But as Caroline tried to exit the car, Fred punched her unconscious. 

Caroline awoke to find herself bound and on the way back to Cromwell Street. Once there, Rose started to kiss and touch her. But to Caroline, Rose was more like a mother-figure. Rose’s actions were abhorrent to her. So when Caroline resisted, they threatened her.

It was the beginning of twelve hours of sexual abuse and torture.

At one point, Caroline heard a knock on the door. She risked shouting for help.So Rose covered her face with a pillow. Then Fred picked up her by the throat:

“...and I’ve got Fred’s face in my face...and he said, ‘we’re going keep you in the cellar and let our black friends use you and when we’ve finished with you, we’re going to kill you and bury you under the paving stones of Gloucester...there’s hundreds of girls there, police haven’t found them and they aren’t going to find you.”

And just when Caroline thought she was about to be killed, Rose went downstairs to look after the children.

Fred then raped Caroline:“

After he had raped me, he started crying. And he apologised for what he’d done, and he said, ‘please don’t tell Rose, if she finds out she’ll kill you and me.”

Caroline played along with both the Wests. But when she escaped, she went to the police.

Lacking the confidence that they believed her story, she decided not to give evidence.

In 1973, when the case came to court, the Wests escaped with a fine.

And with the lesson learnt that they couldn’t afford to let their rape victims escape.

That year, they murdered Lynda Gough.  In November, they abducted 15-year-old Carol Ann Cooper. After they had killed her they dismembered and buried her under their home.

SEXUALLY SADISTIC SERIAL KILLERS

Caroline Roberts had been right to suspect she was not their first or only victim. As she thought, Anne Marie, Fred’s eight-year-old daughter was being raped by Fred. And to help him, Rose would hold her step-daughter down.

It took place in the cellar which Fred was rapidly modelling into his own tailored torture chamber. He enlarged it and hooks were attached to the ceiling so victims could be hung.

The Wests were, in fact, turning the entire house into their own twisted playground. Holes were drilled in the toilet and bedroom walls to provide peepholes for them both. Intercoms allowed those in the kitchen to hear what went on the bedroom. Whips and other sexual paraphernalia began to litter the house.

The Wests developed a party reputation as the place to go for sex, drink and drugs.

But it was a trap.

For the next twenty years, the Wests would rape, torture and murder.

And Rose was crucial to luring the young girls and women into the cellar of Cromwell Street. Her presence would initially reassure female victims. For no matter how odd Fred may have been – for example, he liked to munch on raw onions like they were apples - surely no harm would come to them as long as Rose was there.

But once trapped, what was done to them is almost unimaginable. Victims were bound and gagged with clothing. This ensured they remained quiet – as they were sexually assaulted and tortured to death.

One victim had a mask made of tape and tubes. This bespoke bondage left the victim disorientated and only just able to breathe. Until the time the Wests decided they had no further use for them.“What we know about sexually sadistic homicides is that...they enjoy the humiliation. They enjoy degradation. They enjoy the suffering of the victim.”-Dr. Raj Dargee, Forensic Psychiatrist

Once dead, victims were then dismembered and often beheaded. Sometimes, small bones such as fingers, toes, and kneecaps were removed.Their victims would often be buried under the cellar floor on which they were killed.

In April 1978, 18-year-old Shirley Robinson was seen for the last time. She had become pregnant by Fred and had boasted of marrying him. She was eight months pregnant when she was buried under the garden of Cromwell Road - the cellar now being too full to accommodate her. It’s suspected that Rose had insisted that there would only ever be one Mrs West.

But her killing was never about sexual fidelity - Rose would eventually have eight children and not all of them by Fred – it was as much to do with Rose reacting and becoming like her father, controlling and paranoid.

For nearly the next ten years the Wests deeply depraved lifestyle continued but, almost unbelievably, there would be no evidence of them murdering anyone during this period. Their next killing, though truly sickening, would eventually be their undoing.

In 1987, Heather West, Rose’s first child, resisted her father’s sexual advances. He still raped her but Heather wasn’t scared of the threats made about what would happen if she talked about what was happening in Cromwell Street.

For daring to break the West conspiracy of silence, she was killed, dismembered and buried in the back garden.Rose and Fred told people that their 16-year-old headstrong, lazy, lesbian daughter had simply run off.

It would be seven years before the truth would be known.

Dangerous Cougar

“If you stab someone 24 times, you damn well mean them to be dead.”Geri Paynter, neighbourIt’s autumn 2012.In the picturesque, upmarket and quiet village of Scalford, Leicestershire, 20-year-old Eddie Miller is being subjected to another volley of violent abuse from his unstable girlfriend, the 31-year-old Michelle Mills:“They would argue on a regular basis, sometimes it was once a week, sometimes every ten days. It never went as long as two weeks without an argument.”Geri Paynter

Geri becomes used to their routine; argue, loudly, and then have make up sex, equally noisily.Despite his personal life spiralling out of control, professionally Eddie is succeeding. He receives a promotion to manager at the hotel. He and Mills go to tell his mum the good news:“I told him I was proud of him, how much I loved him. We just gave each other...it was a really embracing long hug. And you could tell that he left like the king of the castle sort of thing. And we all hugged together, and then they left.”Sara would never see her Eddie alive again.

It’s bonfire night.Eddie and Mills go drinking at their local pub, which has a fireworks display and where Mills has part time work. At first, the couple appear ‘lovey-dovey’.But eventually, inevitably, they argue. Eddie goes home alone.The time is approximately 9pm.Mills stays drinking. Once drunk, she heads home. Her neighbour Geri Paynter hears her return:“The first thing I heard was the argument that started at quarter to ten. And it was started like all the others. And I just thought, ‘Oh god, we’re in for it again!”“When Mills returns home they get into a fight. It turns out that Mills has been texting one of her ex-partners saying that she still loves him, wishes that she never left him. And I imagine that undoubtedly she’s coaxing him with this information. She’s trying to get him to rise to an argument, and it works because they get involved in a very, very big argument. Eddie must have felt so hurt, so let down, so upset. He’s put up with so much...and here is the woman that he loves saying that she wants to be with another man.”Emma Kenny, Psychologist

Neighbour Geri’s also pretty sick and tired of the whole pointless cycle. At about a quarter to midnight, she slams her door loud enough for Mills and Eddie to hear. For a brief few minutes, they seem to get the hint.And then the arguing starts again.Geri believes that what she hears next is evidence of Mills trying to manipulate. Mills is shouting,"get off me, get off me"...so that Geri can hear.Geri also hears Eddie shouting back,“It’s your fault, you’re the trouble maker. It’s your fault, you’re the one.”Eddie pushes Mills to the floor. In an attempt to calm things, or perhaps just sick of the whole thing, he sits on the sofa, and carries on drinking. But Eddie has resisted and pushed back against Mills. It is an unacceptable to Mills:“On that night...he argued back. He wasn’t being controlled the way that she controlled him usually. When somebody like this is told no, or somebody stands up to them, that’s when their anger increases.”Emma Kenny, PsychologistMills arms herself with a kitchen knife. She launches a frenzied attack;“She stabs him in the back, in the front...24 times. He literally did not have a chance.”Emma Kenny“It was with such ferocity that it pierced in one end and it had started to come out the other side.”Dylan Rockett, Eddie’s friendOne knife wound penetrates nine inches into the body. Such is the ferocity of the attack, Mills snaps the knife blade off the handle. Defence wounds on Eddie’s hands indicate he tries to protect himself. But the blows are too many. He’s stabbed in his chest, abdomen and back:“Had someone told me that it was a killing of passion, (I’d say) to them, you’re talking s**t because (with a passion killing)...once you’re done...you’re like ‘what have I done?’ And you will do anything in your power to rectify it. And you will show remorse...But she didn’t do that.She sat there and she watched him die.”Dylan RockettEddie is bleeding out before her eyes.Mills watches him. She waits 20 minutes to ring the emergency services.“I believe she planned to kill him, and I believe that in those 20 minutes she knew he was dying, and she let him die.”Dr. Keri Nixon, Forensic PsychologistHe’s still alive when the paramedics arrive.Mills doesn’t express remorse, or shock, or plead with the paramedics to save her Eddie. As her lover lies dying on the living room floor, she blames him for causing his own death. 

The unbelievable horrific truth

It’s believed that Savile started abusing in 1955.

For the next fifty years, Savile sexually assaulted and raped children and teenagers and even the elderly – of both sexes – with little fear of exposure. As revealed in the NHS investigations published in June 2014, his youngest victim was five: His eldest was seventy five.

'Anything that moved seemed to be a potential victim for Savile.' Peter Saunders Chief Executive,National Association for People Abused in Childhood

NHS investigations found he was even suspected of interfering with corpses.Those closest to him soon became aware of Savile’s sexual side. When his unofficial minder in the 1950s, Dennis Lemmon, asked a colleague why Savile was in a bad mood, he was told it was because of a court case to do with ‘messing about with girls’. When he later asked how the case had ended, Dennis was told it had ended like the last one: 'He paid them off.'

Savile, by paying off the accuser’s family, had escaped justice. 'What’s amazing is how brazen he was, how public he was even then...he’s just an individual who probably felt that he was fairly untouchable.' Miles Goslett, JournalistHis early escapes from public censure encouraged Savile to believe he was untouchable.

After that, nowhere was safe. Savile abused victims in his dressing rooms, his caravan and later his Rolls Royce. Nowhere was sacrosanct.  

In 1962, he started sexually assaulting patients in Leeds Infirmary. A 10-year-old boy was sexually assaulted on a trolley while he waited for an x-ray on his broken arm. Many were abused in their beds as they recovered from surgery. One girl, ‘Jane’ was first brought sweets and a magazine by Savile. He then stuck his tongue in her mouth as he touched her. When she told nurses, they laughed. In 1968, Guy Marsden, Savile’s 15-year-old nephew, travelled from Leeds to London with three friends. They were looking for adventure. At London’s Euston Station, they were approached by two men. They invited them to their flat. And when later Savile arrived, Guy thought his family had tracked him down. But he later found out from the police, that his his uncle was simply supplying and plying his paedophile ways in a network of children: 

'...most decent people find it incomprehensible that these sort of organisations...exist, but no less incomprehensible than why would anybody abuse a child. The fact that people come together to do it seems in a way somewhat more scary - because very often we’re talking about people...from the upper echelons of society.' Peter Saunders Chief Executive National Association for People Abused in Childhood’

Guy believes that the fact he survived these ‘parties’ unscathed was only because of his familial connection to Savile. For unlike many paedophiles, Savile didn’t need to abuse those in his family network. He had many, many opportunities elsewhere.

INDUSTRIAL SCALE ABUSE

According to the NSCPCC, when Savile was at the height of his fame, during the 1970s, so was his offending.

'...he hid his darkness in the light' Paul Connew, Former Editor, ‘Sunday Mirror’

Savile’s career at the BBC gave him more and easier access to the young. When his behaviour caused concern, the few who thought of whistle-blowing were informally told not to risk the career of such a star presenter, or their own, by pursuing the matter.The BBC shows, ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ brought a revolving door of fresh teenage and often unchaperoned girls to Savile. And if Savile wanted to spend longer with his victims, that could be arranged too. 

Between 1956 and 1958 Peter Manuel submitted his victims to an orgy of violence, making him Scotland's most notorious serial killer. The first of Manuel’s victims was 17-year-old Anne Kneilands. On 2nd January 1956, under the cover of darkness, Manuel stalked the teenager across a golf course in East Kilbride, near to where he was working for the gas board.

He raped Anne, and attacked her with an iron bar. Police reported that his victim was the subject of a ferocious sexual attack and had been horribly beaten about the head. Because he was a known sex offender, Lanarkshire police questioned Manuel about Anne’s murder. His father, Samuel, said Peter was with him at the time the crime was committed. Faced with this alibi and no other evidence, the case against Manuel was dropped and he was left free to kill again.

On 17th September 1956, he broke into the home of Marion Watt and her daughter Vivienne, in the middle-class Glasgow district of High Burnside. Margaret’s sister Marion was also staying for a visit. Manuel shot the three women in their beds and sexually assaulted the 16-year-old Vivienne. For a while suspicion fell on Marion’s husband, William, who was away on a fishing trip at the time of the killings. Police arrested William Watts, a successful local businessman, and charged him with the murder of his own family. He spent two months in jail before the case was dropped through lack of evidence.

Famous British miscarriages of justice

One of the major contributors to the demise of capital punishment in the UK were several high-profile miscarriages of justice.

Meanwhile, Manuel was locked up at Barlinnie Prison after being convicted of breaking into another house. Manuel resumed his killing spree when he was released from prison at the end of November 1957.

His fifth victim was believed to be Northumbrian taxi driver Sydney Dunn who was shot on 8th December 1957. Piecing together information concerning Manuel’s movements after his execution, police determined that he was on a job hunt in the North East at the time of Dunn’s murder. Although this evidence is not conclusive, it links him to the killing.

Isabelle Cooke was the next to die. The teenager was on her way to a dance and had arranged to meet up with her boyfriend, Douglas Brydon, at a bus stop near her Glasgow home. But she never arrived. Police mounted a hunt, but only found pieces of Isabelle’s clothing which suggested she may have been attacked. Isabelle’s body was not discovered until after Manuel was arrested for his other crimes. He confessed to her murder and led police to the remote spot where he had disposed of her body. She had been strangled with her own underwear.

Early on the morning of New Year’s Day 1958, Manuel broke into the home of the Smart family, in Uddingston, a suburb of Glasgow. Mr and Mrs Smart and their 11-year-old son Michael were all asleep in their beds when Manuel shot them in the head. Having committed the murders, Manuel spent some time in the Smart’s home, going back over several days, feeding their cat and eating the family’s food. The murders of the Smart family proved the beginning of the end for Manuel.

Glasgow's ice cream van wars: The turf war that led to murder

In the '80s the friendly tinkle of the Ice Cream van signalled something much more sinister on the streets of Glasgow

“...there isn’t a lot of torture in these cases and in the main they are relatively quick, what we call blitz attacks, extremely violent and extremely sudden blitz attacks, without actually an awful lot of sexual behaviour accompanied in them.”Professor Laurence Alison, Forensic Psychologist

ANNASutcliffe’s first known attack occurs in the early hours of 4 July 1975 in Keighly. Anna Patricia Rogulskyj is a good-looking divorcee. After an argument with her boyfriend, she has come back to his house. It’s around 1:30 in the morning. But as she bangs on his door, it becomes obvious he’s not in.

As she considers her options, Sutcliffe sneaks up behind Anna. He employs what will become his signature. He first disables her by beating her round the head with a ball-peen hammer. Once she’s stunned to the ground, he lifts up her skirt and goes to work on her with a knife. She is mercifully unconscious as he slashes and mutilates her genitalia and stomach.

Then Anna’s neighbour disturbs him. The dark covers the scene and Sutcliffe manages to reassure the man that all is well. As soon as he leaves, Sutcliffe slinks away.A passerby sees her. She’s rushed to casualty. Doctors work on her for twelve hours. She’s read the last rites.But Anna survives.Six other women would survive Sutcliffe’s attacks. Some would be told they were lucky to be alive. Left physically and emotionally scarred and forever changed, not all would agree.Anna spends the next 33 years alone, behind a barricade of bars, wires and alarms.

After the Anna attack, Sutcliffe returned to his sleeping wife and awoke the next day ready to look for work.

OLIVEOver a month later, on Friday 15 August, Sutcliffe drives his friend Birdsall to Halifax for a few drinks. His eyes lock onto 46-year-old Olive Smelt. The married mother of two is out with her girlfriends for her regular Friday night drinks. Her husband is home doing the childminding.She goes home before midnight. Sutcliffe follows with Birdsall in the car. He leaves his friend and intercepts her in an alleyway. Before smashing her with a hammer he says,

“Weather’s letting us down isn’t it?”

Stunned and grounded, he then slashes at her backside with his knife. But an approaching car prevents him finishing. He returns to Birdsall.Olive never returns to normal.

In September Peter starts regular work as a delivery driver.

TRACYHis third attack is also in August. She will be his youngest victim.On a warm summer’s evening, 27 August 1975, 14-year-old, Tracy Browne is walking to her home in Silsden village. An unassuming Sutcliffe walks past her. He dawdles until she catches him up. Pretending to be a local, he walks by her side for over 30 minutes. Then, just before her home, he pulls out his hammer.She remembers him grunting from the force of the blows.

To this day, I can hear those ugly grunts. But amazingly, I never lost consciousness throughout it all.

The headlights of an approaching car disturb him and save Tracy.

So, so far the harlot hating Sutcliffe has managed to attack a divorcee, a married mother of two and a schoolgirl.

WILMAOn the evening of 29 October Wilomena McCann, or Wilma to her friends, a 28-year-old Scottish mother of four, is drinking heavily. After closing time, she tries to hitch home.Sutcliffe picks her up.He dumps her sexually assaulted and mutilated body close to her home.At 5am, two of her daughters are found sitting nearby at a bus stop. They’re waiting for their mum.

EMILYDuring the 1970s, the British economy reels from global shocks.Many families struggle.Emily Jackson and her husband, Sydney, are close to losing their family home. They’ve agreed she needs to prostitute herself. They’re desperate that their three children don’t realise how much trouble their roofing business is in.Emily now uses the company van to service clients in the streets and car parks of Leeds.But on Tuesday night, 20 January 1976, she gets into the Sutcliffe’s car.Sutcliffe stabs her over 50 times with a screwdriver. Once she’s dead, still enraged, he stamps on her leg.

Sutcliffe’s attacks start to wear him out. He finds it hard to wake up for work. And on 5 March 1976, he’s fired from his delivery job.

MARCELLAIt’s 4am on the morning of 9 May 1976. A prostitute, 20-year-old Marcella Claxton, walks home from a party in Chapeltown. Sutcliffe picks her up and takes her to a field. As she urinates, he hammers her head twice. She’s conscious as he stands over her bleeding body masturbating. Finished, he places a £5 note in her hand and warns her not to call the police.She calls an ambulance.She has 52 stitches. Her wounds heal but she never recovers.

That October, Sutcliffe secures regular lorry driving work.

IRENEIrene Richardson is a 28-year-old prostitute. Like most in her profession, she knows someone is preying on them. But also like most in her profession, she has no choice. She’s close to homeless and so broke that her two children are with foster parents.Sutcliffe smashes her skull so severely it penetrates her brain.His savage stabbing disembowels her.He covers her body with her coat.

After Irene’s death, the press nickname the killer, ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’. But a prostitute killer isn’t considered of general public interest. Media attention soon moves on.

TINAPatricia Atkinson likes to be called Tina and likes to drink. The divorced mother of three is a prostitute who only works from her flat. As all the attacks have taken place outside, she feels safe as she lets Sutcliffe in.He hammers the back of her head. This time, he can’t be disturbed. This time, he uses a chisel. He stabs her six times.

JAYNEOn 26 April, 16-year-old shop assistant, Jayne MacDonald, having missed her bus and having failed to find a taxi, is walking home past a playground.Sutcliffe delivers three quick blows to her head. He drags her onto waste ground. He then repeatedly stabs her to death.

“Prior to that point, the fear, if you like, had been exclusively felt by working prostitutes. But from Jayne McDonald on there was this feeling that no woman was safe.”Henry Matthews, Former Journalist

“My own sisters used to walk around with knives in their bag, in their handbags although they were probably the safest people on the planet from the Yorkshire Ripper. But they had no idea that it was our brother Peter.”Carl Sutcliffe

MAUREENThe public panic has little effect on Sutcliffe. In the early hours of 10 July, it’s only a barking dog that interrupts Sutcliffe and stops him from ending the life of Maureen Long.

JEANOn 1 October, Sutcliffe makes a serious error. He pays Jean Jordan with a brand new £5 note from his pay packet. After killing her, he hides her body. Only later does he realise how incriminating the new bank note could be. He waits a week and after driving guests home from a housewarming party, he returns to the body.Her handbag is missing. Furious and frustrated, he slashes at her decomposing body, creating 8-inch deep post mortem wounds.

“...to try and persuade the police that this was not a Ripper killing; he tried to cut off Jean Jordan’s head.”Henry Matthews, Former Journalist

But his hacksaw can’t cut through and he leaves, now frightened as well as frustrated.

MARILYNOn 14 December he agrees a price with Marilyn Moore. But his first hammer blow doesn’t stun her and her screams set off a dog barking.Patched up at hospital, but still penniless and despite having a hole in her head from the ‘Ripper’, she soon returns to prostitution.

YVONNESutcliffe kills Yvonne Pearson on 21 January 1978. Her body lies undiscovered until March.Ten days later, he hammers 18-year-old Helen Rytka to the ground. He has sex with her as she bleeds. He then stabs her through her lungs and heart.Her twin sister is also a prostitute. She fears the police and doesn’t report Helen missing for another two days.

VERAAfter a ten-week lull, Sutcliffe meets 41-year-old Vera Millward, a Spanish born mother of seven. Vera’s in pain after an operation and has popped out for painkillers. Sutcliffe slashes her stomach so severely that she is disembowelled.Her screams are heard by a father and son visiting the hospital. They ignore them.

The 11 following months of inactivity are because of Sutcliffe’s mother’s declining health. She dies from heart disease on 8 November 1978.

JOSEPHINEOn Wednesday 4 April 1979, Sutcliffe ends his grieving period. Bank clerk Josephine Walker is returning at midnight from visiting her grandparents. He hammers her twice, and then stabs her 25 times.

BARBARAOn 1 September 1979, Bradford student Barbara Leach dies instantly from the first hammer blow. He dumps her stabbed body under a carpet.

Police interview Sutcliffe so many times that work mates nickname him ‘The Ripper’.They are shocked and in disbelief when their colleague, who they always thought of as being a loving husband tells them he’s having an affair.Sutcliffe admits he’s being leading a double life with a lady in Glasgow.

In April 1980, Sutcliffe is arrested.But it is for drinking and driving.His public affair threatens his marriage and his drink driving threatens his livelihood. Things are starting to unravel for Sutcliffe.

MARGUERITECivil servant, Marguerite Walls, is working late on the evening of 20 August 1980. She walks home along well-lit streets. She screams as Sutcliffe hammers her. Having forgotten his knife, he’s forced to strangle her.

UPADHYAHis next two victims survive. His first is in September and is on a visiting Singaporean doctor, Upadhya Bandara

THERESAUnlike Tracy Browne, however, 16-year-old Theresa Sykes doesn’t find her youth a defence or time a healer. She and her family are never the same again after her November attack.

JACQUELINEOn a wet Monday, 17 November, Leeds student Jacqueline Hill passes Sutcliffe eating in Kentucky Fried Chicken. He had sat there when Upadhya Bandara passed by. He left and followed Jacqueline. She is very nearly home when he attacks.He drags her behind some bushes and stabs and stabs. Even her eye is mutilated.

OLIVIA REIVERSOn Friday 2 January 1981 Sutcliffe picks up mother of two Olivia Reivers. By this stage, he’s incapable of being aroused without having first attacked the woman.This time, he will not get the chance.

The Horror begins

Ramirez' first known murder took place on 28 June 1984; his victim was 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, who was viciously sexually assaulted, stabbed and murdered during a burglary in her own home.His second known case occurred nearly 9 months later, on 17 March 1985, when he attacked Angela Barrios, who managed to escape him, and then killed her flatmate, Dayle Okazaki. Not satisfied with these assaults, he also shot and killed Tsai Lian Yu the same evening, which started a media frenzy that saw Ramirez dubbed the “Valley Intruder” by the press.27 March saw the murder of 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara, and his 44-year-old wife, Maxine, in an attack pattern that was to be repeated later by Ramirez: the husband was shot first, then the wife was brutally assaulted and was stabbed to death. In this case, he also gouged out Maxine Zazzara’s eyes.

A full-scale police operation yielded no concrete results, and he repeated his attack pattern on pensioners William and Lillie Doi in April. Over the next two months Ramirez’ attack pattern escalated rapidly, to claim another dozen victims in a frenzy of burglary, assault and brutal violence, complete with Satanic rituals, that drove LA into a panic. A dedicated task force was established, comprising of hundreds of officers, and the FBI stepped in to assist, as the press demanded that the police do more to catch the killer.This relentless media and police pressure, aided with photo-fit descriptions from his surviving victims, forced Ramirez to leave the Los Angeles area in August, and he moved to San Francisco, where he took his first victims, Peter and Barbara Pan, on 17 August. His unmistakeable MO, complete with Satanic symbolism, meant that his “Valley Intruder” moniker was no longer applicable, and the press quickly dubbed him “The Night Stalker”, and each new attack received exhaustive press coverage.Ramirez’ next attack, on 24 August 1985, led to the identification of his stolen car by the victim four days later. After a televised appeal, the car was found, complete with his fingerprints inside, and his criminal record enabled the police to finally put a name to “The Night Stalker”.

Wrong place wrong time

'I reckon it spoiled me suit!’- Gang member Frank Kidnew’s defiant statement to police after being slashed with razors over a hundred timesOn top of gambling and confidence tricks, the gangs made their money wherever they could. Protection money was expected from pubs in order to minimise ‘breakages’. Some gang members would wait outside factory gates on payday to collect a cut of the workers’ wages. After a day of intimidation, gang members would take a taxi home. The driver would of course not expect payment.But as intimidating as the gangs were to the public, it was nothing compared to the violence they meted out to rival gang members.GAMBLING TO GANG WAROne Saturday night in April 1923, Mooney’s gang tried to make a pre-emptive strike on the Park Brigade. They attacked one, Bill Furniss, in his bed. Despite being severely injured from being beaten by hammers, he never reported it to the police. He didn’t want justice, he wanted revenge. The gang wars had started.Two days later one of the Park brigade, Frank Kidnew was leaving a tossing game. He was slashed with razors over a hundred times. Despite being interviewed by the police at the infirmary, he too refused to name names. His concern was only with how the razors and his blood had ‘spoiled’ his suit.So the Park mob retaliated by attacking the main man, Mooney, at his home. Mooney and his crew defended themselves with guns. One attacker was shot in the shoulder. When the police arrived, they found a double-barrel shotgun, a rifle, a revolver, and ammunition. Despite being in a fire-fight that wounded another man, Mooney was simply fined. His fine for possession of firearms was £10.During 1923, Garvin’s gang were in the ascendency. Mooney’s mob imploded.On 18 May 1925, Mooney’s home was again attacked. An elderly bystander was hurt and several attending police officers required medical attention. Only one assailant was caught. Again, there was only a small fine.On Christmas Eve, the Park mob stormed Mooney’s home. They terrorised Mooney, his wife and six children. Mooney escaped by hiding in a cupboard. After this, he fled Sheffield. He would not return for a year.With Mooney’s gang in decline, Garvin could have sat back and enjoyed the spoils. Instead, he became embroiled in a pointless killing that would cost him his empire, and his freedom.

THE PRINCESS STREET MURDERAccounts differ as to what caused William Plommer to be fatally targeted. One source suggests he’d helped a lady rebuff the unwanted advances of a Sam Garvin gang member. Another has Plommer witnessing the Sam Garvin Park Brigade inflict a vicious beating on a Mooney man, Liversidge. After they’d finished, Plommer helped the man to his feet. Local historian JP Bean states that it was, in fact, Plommer helping up a beaten to the floor Sam Garvin man, Wilfred Fowler, which caused offence.Plommer’s helping hand was seen as an insult to the gangster’s wounded pride.Whatever the cause, Wilfred and his brother Lawrence Fowler, along with eight others, tracked Plommer through the streets. More gathered for the final assault. Estimates vary as to how many attacked Plommer. Some suggest six, others twenty. All agree Plommer stood alone.The unarmed Plommer was beaten with pokers, coshes and a piece of lead on a string. He was also beaten with ‘Life Preservers’. These weapons, often chair legs hollowed out and filled with lead, were intended to inflict injury, not death. This time, however, they would not live up to their name.Bleeding heavily, Plommer tried to crawl back home. As he dragged himself through the streets, he was pounded repeatedly. When others came to his aid they found Plommer had severe head injuries and two great wounds resembling bayonet thrusts through his stomach and side.He was taken to the Royal Infirmary. Within minutes, he was dead.

Unhealthy Relationship

“In character she is essentially a chameleon, adopting whatever camouflage will suit and voicing whatever she believes the individual wishes to hear. This subliminal soft sell lured the innocent and naive.”- Brady on Hindley.Hindley was the camouflage Brady needed to kill. Children and teenagers instinctively trusted a woman. Without her, Brady might not have been able to rape and murder in the way he did. One survivor claimed that it was simply an offer of bread and jam by a Hindley that persuaded him to follow the couple to their home. Once inside, however, the boy realised something was wrong and exited through a window. Hindley’s years of babysitting and childminding meant she could reassure and entice children in a way few adults could.

Willing Partner in Crime

On the night of 12 July 1963, 16-year-old Pauline Reade became their first victim. Her parents had bought her brand new white stilettos for the local dance. She never danced in them. Instead, she met Hindley.

Pauline should have been with three girlfriends but their parents had stopped them going on learning that alcohol would be available at the dance.

Hindley targeted the teenager believing there’d be less fuss than over a missing child; some might believe Pauline had run off with a bloke. Also, as Hindley had looked after Pauline as a child, she would be less suspicious of her former protector.

Hindley first said she’d give Pauline a lift to the dance. Once in the car, Hindley asked her to help her find a glove she’d lost on the Moors saying it was a present from Brady and he’d be mad if she’d lost it.

Hindley then drove her up to Saddleworth Moor, in the Pennines. Brady followed on his motorbike. According to Hindley, she remained in the car as Brady went off with Pauline.

Over the next 20 minutes, Pauline was raped, beaten, stabbed and virtually decapitated.Hindley helped bury the body and her stilettos:

“...many, many, many years later, those white stilettos were found, and inside them you could still see the gold writing of the manufacturer, because they were so new – that’s heartbreaking.”Jean Richie, Author

A massive search took place to find some trace of the vanished Pauline. Police and public alike found nothing. Suspicion inevitably fell on her family, friends and neighbours

One of those questioned was the boyfriend of Hindley’s sister, 15-year-old David Smith. An ex-boyfriend of Pauline’s, and living only two doors away from her, he was an obvious suspect. He also had a history of violence. When he was 11 he was involved in a stabbing. He’d also punched a head teacher in the face. David was eventually discounted from the investigation. It would not be the last time he would be accused of crimes committed by Brady and Hindley.

As the police investigation went cold, Brady cooled his relationship with Hindley. She had expected the murder to lock them together. Instead, Brady explored his homosexual side. The distraught Hindley found comfort in the arms, of all people, a policeman, Norman Sutton. When Brady discovered the profession of her new lover, he was amused.

Hindley had multiple occasions to tell her police lover what Brady had done and stop any future killings. She didn't.

John

When Brady asked Hindley round to listen to a music record, she dutifully went. He drew her back in by saying he wanted to kill again.

This time Hindley would be better prepared. She lined the boot of their car with polythene to save cleaning. She packed a shovel, a serrated knife, and a cord. She also bought a black wig to cover her conspicuous blonde hair.

Four months after Pauline, 12-year-old John Kilbride disappeared.

He’d last been seen around the market in Ashton-Under-Lyne. John used to earn pocket money helping stallholders there. Hindley used to buy her nylons there.On 23 November 1963, as it became dark, Hindley asked John if he wanted a lift. He was never seen again.And again, a major search for a missing child was carried out and again no trace was found. And again, suspicion fell on family and friends. At one time, the police investigated whether John’s father was behind his son’s disappearance.

Keith

On Tuesday 16 June 1964, 12-year-old Keith Bennett disappeared whilst on the way to his grandmother’s house. As her house was only a mile away, he’d walk it alone. His bespectacled smiling face would come to be inextricably linked with the Moors Murders. But that day, his NHS glasses were broken.

His disappearance wasn’t noted until the next day, and a massive police search revealed no clues.Hindley had in fact lured him into her car with a request for assistance in loading some boxes. They’d then rendezvoused with Brady on Saddleworth Moor. Hindley said that Brady took Keith to a gully next to a stream. Over the next half hour, he raped, tortured and strangled the 12-year-old boy. They both buried his body there.

Keith Bennett: The Moors Murders first victim

12-year-old Keith was snatched, murdered and buried by The Moors Murderers Brady and Hindley

But Brady, the wannabe master-criminal intent on committing the perfect murder, was taking more and more trophies from his kills. This need to relive the murders through photos and objects would ultimately be the killer’s downfall.In September 1964, Hindley and her grandmother were allocated a new house, 16 Wardle Brook Avenue. Brady moved in with them.

Lesley

On the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1964, ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared on the way from a local fairground in Manchester. Photos of her show a smiling girl with huge dark hair tied back with the style of hair-band fashionable then. Hindley and Brady took their own sick photos of her in her last moments. They also then took photos of each other over her buried body. Their photos were in effect grave markers.

'Don't Mum'

Later Hindley would confess in great detail to the other murders. But with Lesley, Hindley was evasive. This is because Brady tape recorded the girl’s final moments. Lesley tried to stop the pair torturing her to death by calling them ‘mum’ and ‘dad’. Hindley can be clearly and coldly heard telling her to shut up. With 13 minutes of Lesley’s final moments caught on tape, Hindley couldn’t pretend she wasn’t there.

She later said that she was running a bath, in order to remove any fibres from Lesley, when Brady strangled her. Brady stated it was Hindley that did the strangling and that she used a cord to do it. And he added that for some time afterwards, Hindley would like to go out in public and play with the cord as if she was flaunting her secret.When Lesley’s family realised she was gone, there was again a huge police effort. It was bolstered by countless volunteers. But again it unearthed no clues as to her whereabouts:

“I didn’t think anyone would harm her. Because she wasn’t a child that would cheek anybody to be of harm.”Anne, mother of Lesley Ann Downey

There seemed nothing to connect the disappearances of John Kilbride and Lesley Downey. They were different sexes and the locations were five miles apart. And there was nothing to connect the last two with the missing Pauline Reade or Keith Bennett.

The eerie mystery of Ian Brady's unopened suitcases

Just before his death, Ian Brady gave his lawyer two locked suitcases. To this day they have never been opened.

Witness

October 1965 proved the turning point for the police. Myra Hindley’s 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith, arrived at Hyde Police station with a horrific tale of violence.The previous night Hindley visited her sister Maureen and husband David. Hindley said to David that she was afraid to walk home alone at night so he agreed to walk her back. When they arrived at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, she invited him with the promise of some miniature wine bottles.

She gave him some wine and then left. David heard a long, loud scream. Hindley shouted for David to come. David came into their living room to find Brady holding a young man. Brady let him fall to the floor and hit him repeatedly with an axe and then strangled him.

Afterwards, Hindley made them all tea. She joked with Brady about the look on Evan’s face when Brady first struck him.Hindley and Brady joked about the mess, and also told David of other victims buried on the Moors. Concealing his horror for fear of meeting a similar fate, David assisted them with the clean up:

“Hindley was projecting herself as a laughing, gay busy housewife, tidying up a normal domestic scene. She normalised what was grossly abnormal...it helped her to distance herself from the reality and horror of what she was engaging with.”-Dr David Holmes, Criminologist and Forensic Profiler

David walked down the street fearful that the killer couple were watching his exit. As soon as he turned the corner, he ran home to tell his wife and alert the police.

Read more:

How Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors Murderers were caught

Coque de Mi Rey

The extent of Escobar’s crimes will never be fully known or verified. However, vast numbers of people were killed on his command. His particular way of handling any authorities questioning his actions was to bribe them or to kill them, or ‘plata o plomo’, Colombian slang for ‘money or bullets’.

Escobar was believed to have had Medellin drug lord Fabio Restrepo murdered in 1975, in order to take over full leadership of the Medellin Cartel. A decade later, in 1985, the Colombian Supreme Court was studying the constitutionality of Colombia’s extradition treaty with the United States. It was besieged by left-wing Colombian guerrillas from the 19th of April Movement (M-19) and half the court’s judges were murdered. Escobar was thought to have been responsible for this action but this was never proven.

Assassination Attempt

The 1989 bombing of a Bogota security building was attributed to Escobar. A number of American intelligence reports claimed that Escobar‘s cartel was planning to kill President Bush Sr. with a bomb on his visit to Cartegena in 1989, which did not transpire.

Female Narcos: The women of the Sinaloa Cartel

These are the real housewives of the Sinaloa Cartel.

In the early 1990s, Escobar reportedly had Luis Carlos Galan and two other Liberal Party candidates for Colombian president assassinated, as they posed a threat to everything Escobar upheld. A few months later, Escobar had a bomb planted on an aeroplane on which presidential candidate Csar Gaviria was travelling. Avianca Flight 203 was blown out of the sky, killing 110 people.

Escobar apparently caught one of his servants stealing some silverware and the man’s punishment was to be tied up before being thrown into the swimming pool whilst everyone present watched him drown. Throughout its existence, the Medellin Cartel fought its main rival, the Cartel de Cali, with unrelenting death on both sides. It was claimed that the Moncada brothers, business associates of Escobar, were murdered whilst visiting Escobar in his prison, La Catedral.

Included in the list of those killed by Escobar’s influence are many ordinary citizens, scores of journalists, over 1,000 police officers, more than 200 judges, an attorney general and a justice minister.

Read more:

How rich was Pablo Escobar?

terror in the rhine

During his periods of release between prison spells, Kurten was responsible for various sexual assaults, but his first documented murder victim was 10-year-old Christine Klein, who was sexually assaulted and stabbed in her home in Cologne, on 25 May 1913, whilst her parents worked in their pub below her bedroom.Her uncle, who had had an argument with her father, immediately came under suspicion, and Kurten, who returned to the scene of the crime the next day, was enthralled by the horror the killing had invoked in the locals, especially when the sexual assault came to light. Fortunately, the innocent uncle was cleared of the murder, given the lack of evidence, but Kurten followed his trial with interest, whetting his sadistic appetite for suffering in others.Kurten was called up for military service following the start of the First World War, but military discipline did not suit him, and he deserted from his barracks. He was jailed when captured, and remained in prison until 1921, his longest sentence to date, and his rage at this injustice intensified.Following his release from prison, he moved to Altenburg, where he met and married a former prostitute, who had been jailed for the murder of her fiancé. He spent the next four years living a life of relative normality and found work as a moulder (his father’s profession), even becoming active in the trade union.

During his periods of release between prison spells, Kurten was responsible for various sexual assaults, but his first documented murder victim was 10-year-old Christine Klein, who was sexually assaulted and stabbed in her home in Cologne, on 25 May 1913, whilst her parents worked in their pub below her bedroom.Her uncle, who had had an argument with her father, immediately came under suspicion, and Kurten, who returned to the scene of the crime the next day, was enthralled by the horror the killing had invoked in the locals, especially when the sexual assault came to light. Fortunately, the innocent uncle was cleared of the murder, given the lack of evidence, but Kurten followed his trial with interest, whetting his sadistic appetite for suffering in others.Kurten was called up for military service following the start of the First World War, but military discipline did not suit him, and he deserted from his barracks. He was jailed when captured, and remained in prison until 1921, his longest sentence to date, and his rage at this injustice intensified.Following his release from prison, he moved to Altenburg, where he met and married a former prostitute, who had been jailed for the murder of her fiancé. He spent the next four years living a life of relative normality and found work as a moulder (his father’s profession), even becoming active in the trade union.

Kurten enjoyed the mass hysteria and horror enormously, feeding off the press attention, even going so far as to contact a newspaper, on 9 November 1929, with a map detailing the position of the body of his latest victim, Gertrude Albermann, a five-year-old he had stabbed to death two days before, dumping her body under some builders rubble.Kurten’s attacks continued into that winter, and the spring of 1930, but none were fatal, which served only to escalate the horror, as harrowing survivor attacks provided lurid copy for newspapers, an antidote to the growing economic deprivations being inflicted by the Great Depression. Public condemnation of the authorities, for failing to catch the killer, was widespread.14 May 1930 saw the start of a chain of events that resulted in the eventual capture of Kurten. He offered a young unemployed woman, Maria Budlick, somewhere to stay, and took her to his apartment, hoping to have sex with her. When she refused, he agreed to find her somewhere else to stay but, on returning her to the train station, he took her into the nearby forest, where he raped her, then let her go.Initially ashamed, she had no intention of going to the police, but a letter which she had written to a friend about the attack, and intended for her information only, was incorrectly delivered. The recipient called the police, who tracked down Budlick and persuaded her to press charges. She recalled Kurten’s apartment clearly, and returned there with the police on 21 May 1930, where Kurten saw her, and made a quick escape.

Aristocratic Atrocities

He marries Veronica Duncan in March 1963, and they move to Lower Belgrave Street, in affluent Mayfair, a short distance from the Clermont Club. John inherits the Lucan title, becoming the seventh Earl, when his father dies two months later. Veronica, Countess of Lucan as she was now known, gives birth to three children between 1964 and 1970, but suffers severe postnatal depression after each delivery, which is treated with a variety of anti-depressants that compromise her mental well-being over subsequent years (although she continues to care for her children.)Although initially sympathetic to his wife’s condition, Lucan becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his wife’s behaviour and the marriage deteriorates. Mounting gambling debts also add to the pressure and there are reports that he has become violent towards his wife. The marriage disintegrates in 1973, and Lucan moves out of the family home in Lower Belgrave Street and into a garden flat, in Elizabeth Street, nearby.He tries unsuccessfully to get custody of the children, by hiring private investigators to spy on his wife and goads her into violent exchanges on the telephone but, despite his best efforts, she is granted full custody in June 1973. By this stage his debts have mounted considerably, and his acrimony towards his wife is increased further by the fact that she resides in the family home that, if sold, would solve his financial problems immediately. He is reported to have told more than one person that he wanted to kill his wife, to get back his home and his children.

Fearing for the safety of the children, the police break into the house and discover them safely in bed. But they do find the body of Sandra Rivett in a bag in the basement, as well as a length of lead pipe, wrapped in tape, near the front door. Lord Lucan has disappeared, and a search of his nearby flat reveals only that his wallet, passport, driving licence and car keys were all still there.Lucan had, in the meantime, tries unsuccessfully to summon the help of a nearby friend, Madeleine Floorman, and then calls his mother to tell her that Lady Lucan had been injured and instructs her to collect the children from the house. She arrives to find the police already there, and she takes the children home with her.In the meantime Lucan takes another car, which he borrows from a friend, and drives down to the Surrey home of Susan Maxwell-Scott, a close friend, where he tells his own version of the story, which was in stark contrast to his wife’s view of events.He says that he had been passing the house that night when, looking inside, he had noticed his wife struggling with an unknown man, at which point he went to her assistance, letting himself in and going down into the basement, where he slipped in a pool of blood. The man then ran off, and his wife became hysterical, accusing him of hiring someone to murder her. When he tried to help her, she ran away and he realised that it would be best if he left the house.He reinforces this version with a letter to his brother-in-law, Bill Shand-Kydd, whom he had been unable to reach on the phone, in which he emphasises his wife’s mental condition, suggesting that she is suffering from paranoid delusions. He calls his mother again, and she advises that the police are at her home, asking to speak to him. He promises to be in touch the next day.Recognizing the gravity of his position, Lucan leaves Maxwell-Scott’s home at 1.15 am in the borrowed car, and is never seen again. The car is recovered in Newhaven some days later, and the police find a lead pipe similar to the murder weapon inside. The owner of the vehicle receives a note from Lucan in the post, protesting his innocence and putting events down to unfortunate coincidences, stating that his main concern was now to protect the welfare of his children.

"You get two girls for the price of one"Steve Wright, speaking of street prostitutesBBC news online21 February 2008Six weeks, 5 murders, 1 killer. It is an extraordinary set of facts.Wright’s crimes would hold the local community and the wider public in the grip of terror. The press dubbed the Wright the Suffolk Strangler and the murders earn a place in annals of British criminal history. The Ipswich serial murders take place between 30 October and 10 December 2006 when the bodies of five murdered women are discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England.Steve Wright for years has hidden a secret life with themes of sexual deviance, violence and addictive behaviours running through Wright’s chaotic life.A pattern would emerge in Wright’s crimes: after stripping their bodies he would then dump them in the countryside around Ipswich and, in two cases, arrange the bodies in the shape of a cross, before going home, changing his clothes and going to work as if nothing had happened.The bodies are discovered naked, but there is no sign of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennelll, were confirmed to have been strangled. Pathologists cannot conclusive establish a cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls.Two of Wright’s victims would be posed. Annette Nicholls and Annelli Alderton’s bodies are placed in a crucifix pose, with arms outstretched. This troubling feature of Wright’s crimes is something that has never been explained.There were many awful elements of Wright’s crimes for the victims’ families to bear. One of the most tragic was that of Paula Clennell. Following discoveries of the dead women, Suffolk Police issue warnings to women working in Ipswich’s red light area. Under pressure, the 24-year-old Paula would be interviewed by Anglia News, saying the recent murders had made her more wary of getting into cars, but she continued to work as she needed the money. She would later be found naked in woodland. She had been strangled.

A pattern would emerge in Wright’s crimes: after stripping their bodies he would then dump them in the countryside around Ipswich and, in two cases, arrange the bodies in the shape of a cross, before going home, changing his clothes and going to work as if nothing had happened.The bodies are discovered naked, but there is no sign of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennelll, were confirmed to have been strangled. Pathologists cannot conclusive establish a cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls.Two of Wright’s victims would be posed. Annette Nicholls and Annelli Alderton’s bodies are placed in a crucifix pose, with arms outstretched. This troubling feature of Wright’s crimes is something that has never been explained.There were many awful elements of Wright’s crimes for the victims’ families to bear. One of the most tragic was that of Paula Clennell. Following discoveries of the dead women, Suffolk Police issue warnings to women working in Ipswich’s red light area. Under pressure, the 24-year-old Paula would be interviewed by Anglia News, saying the recent murders had made her more wary of getting into cars, but she continued to work as she needed the money. She would later be found naked in woodland. She had been strangled.Observers of Steve Wright’s crimes would comment on some worrying aspects:The forensic awareness he displays in the crimes is considerable. Has he killed before? Did he have an accomplice?Handwriting expert Ruth Myers, who works with the police and the courts, studies letters Wright wrote from prison. She comments how personality types like his are masking behaviour. "They're seething inside but you would never know. They can't control it and have violent outbursts.”

Lucky escape

On 15 October 2001, Anna-Maria Rennie, 17, is waiting at a bus stop on Hospital Bridge Road, Twickenham. The young blonde girl has just had a row with her boyfriend, when Bellfield walks up to her and offers her a lift. She refuses. Enraged he grabs her and attempts an abduction. Fearing for her life she struggles free and escapes just metres from his car.

On 20 March 2002 Rachel Cowles, 11, is walking home from school in Sunbury. Bellfield pulls over and tells her he’s a new neighbour. He offers her a lift, but she refuses. He drives off, spooked by a police car driving in the opposite direction. Rachel realises her lucky escape when she notices that none of her neighbours have a red car fitting the description of the one that Bellfield was driving. Her mother calls the police.

One day later, on 21 March 2002, Amanda Jane (Milly) Dowler, 13, decides she wants some chips and gets off the train one stop early at Walton-on-Thames. Having just called her dad to say she’ll be home in 30 minutes she disappears. It takes six months to find her remains and a further nine years for Bellfield to be found guilty of her murder.

In February 2003 Marsha McDonnell, 19, is heading home to Hampton on the 111 bus after an evening out with friends. After stepping off the bus she doesn’t realise that she’s being followed by Bellfield. She walks along her quiet street and she approaches her front door she is fatally hit over the head with a lump hammer. She dies in hospital the next day.

Later in December 2003 Irma Dragoshi, 36, is waiting at a bus stop in Longford, West Drayton, when Bellfield, showing off to a friend, gets out of the car and attacks her with a blunt instrument. She survives but has no recollection of the incident due to amnesia.

In May 2004 Kate Sheedy, 18, gets off a bus in Isleworth and begins the walk home. She spots a suspicious looking people carrier parked in a side road and attempts to avoid it. As she steps into the road, the car, driven by Bellfield, runs her over. But this is not enough; he then proceeds to reverse over her, leaving Kate with life threatening injuries. She survives.

On 20 August 2004 Amelie Delagrange, 22, a blonde French student, is walking home across Twickenham Green, after missing her bus stop. Following her every move since she left the bus, is Bellfield. He hits her over the head with a blunt instrument and she falls to the ground. Later that night she dies in hospital from her injuries.

First murder

On 4 January 1974, Joni Lenz became one of the few women to survive Bundy’s brutal attacks, but her vicious rape, with a bedpost, caused her massive permanent damage, that was both physically and psychologically traumatic.21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy, a slender, pretty, long-haired law student, was not as fortunate; her disappearance on 31 January 1974 did not initially alarm the police, despite the concern of her parents, but they were forced to review their stance when seven other young female students, all bearing a striking resemblance to one another, disappeared inexplicably over the following few months. The bodies of two of these girls were later identified as Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, who both disappeared on 14 July. Eyewitnesses on the day remembered a strange man named Ted, with an arm in a plaster cast, who drove a VW Beetle.Bundy moved on to Utah, taking another four victims during October and November, one of whom turned out to be the daughter of the local police chief, and no effort was spared to track down the killer.

Utah police noticed that the brutal signature of rape, sodomy and blunt force trauma was similar to the Washington State cases reported earlier in the year, and they sought assistance from their colleagues there, constructing an accurate composite of “Ted” from eyewitness accounts.During this time, Meg Anders, Bundy’s partner of five years, recognised that the description matched that of Bundy, but when she contacted police they were duped by Bundy’s handsome, affable persona, and he was not regarded as a serious potential suspect.

Bundy’s botched abduction attempt of Carol DaRonch from a Utah shopping centre on 8 November 1974 gave police their first major break, providing further corroboration of Bundy’s identity, as well as a blood sample that resulted from his struggle with DaRonch. Debby Kent was not as fortunate, however, and she was killed by Bundy later on the same day that DaRonch had made good her escape.For the following two months no further victims were identified, until Caryn Campbell was brutally murdered in Colorado on 12 January 1975, showing every sign of having suffered Bundy’s gruesome MO.

Police were coming to realise that the Taylor Mountains in Washington State were a favoured dumping ground for Bundy’s victims, and extensive searches uncovered a further three bodies, all victims having died from blunt force trauma. Despite this success, police forces in four states seemed no closer to catching Bundy.

Read more:

The most evil and heinous acts of Ted Bundy

THE TITHEBARN STREET OUTRAGE

‘My husband was murdered for sixpence’ -Alice Morgan

t was an August Bank holiday in 1874. Robert Morgan and his wife, Alice, spent the day on a trip to Birkenhead. They then caught the ferry back across the river. At around 9pm, the couple met up with Robert’s brother, Samuel, at the docks. The three walked up Tithebarn Street and on their way home, popped into a pub in Chapel Street for a nightcap.As they departed at around 9:30pm, it was still light. They were surrounded by Cornermen. One asked Robert if he had six pence for a quarter pint. Perhaps because they were on one of the major seven streets of Liverpool, Robert, felt safe enough to goad them. He said they wouldn’t need to beg if they had a job? Even less wisely, Robert then turned his back on them.Within a few steps, one of the Cornermen delivered a punch to the back of his head. It sent Robert sprawling across the street. Samuel retaliated. He knocked one of the assailants down. The gang whistled for back up. Campbell and Mullen attacked Samuel.A third man began kicking Robert. When he started trying to choke him, Robert’s wife jumped on him. So someone took a running kick at her. She was hit in the ear so hard that she went deaf - the kick to her head was the last thing she ever heard as she would never regain her hearing.

The noise of the fighting drew crowds out of the pubs and families from their homes. But instead of protecting Robert and his family, some encouraged the beating. One woman shouted, “Give him it! Give him it!” Some men decided to join in the activity of kicking a human being like a football. Approximately seven men kicked Robert’s increasingly lifeless body for about 40ft down the street.When Robert stopped moving, the gang fled down one of these side streets. Samuel tackled one but then McCrave pulled a knife. Distracted, and then attacked from behind, Samuel couldn’t stop the gang’s escape.It was said that the police tried to intervene but too late. Robert bled out on the steps of a warehouse. Samuel returned to find an onlooker trying to revive Robert with brandy. But it was all too late.Finally, at 9.50pm, the police took control. A PC Adam Green arrived and escorted Robert to the North Dispensary in Vauxhall Road. The coroner found his body shockingly cut and bruised. What appeared to be a stab wound was identified on the left side of his neck. Samuel set off to capture the assailants.

The Gang Branch out

“...they were like the first Avon ladies...they just sold crocked gear and not cosmetics...”Lorraine Gammon. Author, ‘Gone Shopping’There had been shoplifters before Diamond came on the scene. But no one had ever been as systematic as she was. Through the ‘Elephants’ gang she had a ready resource pool. So she recruited the wives, girlfriends and daughters - and probably mistresses - of gang members. Women like pretty brunette, Florrie Holmes, the girlfriend of a London villain who then followed her partner into crime.Not everybody was a volunteer. But Diamond was a forceful persuader.She targeted those already good at pick-pocketing, or those with good looks that she could train. She then organized this network of around forty females - hence the ‘forty thieves’ nickname - into a series of cells. There were four or five girls to a cell. Each cell would target one shop. They would hit the high street and turnover three or four shops at a time.SHOPLIFTING SPREEThe women wore specially tailored clothes. The coats, cummerbunds, skirts, muffs and hats had large hidden pockets sewn into them. One key innovation of Diamond’s shoplifters was their ‘oysters’. These hoisting knickers were adapted to have extra volume.All the women carried the same type of bag so they could swap empty with full ones. Even if security saw one woman place items in a bag, by the time they’d approached and apprehended her, a criminal colleague had switched with an empty one.What all their tailored tricks of the trade had in common was class. Everything they wore made them look like they were the last sort of woman likely to shoplift.Diamond, ‘like a female general’ made sure everything went to plan. She insisted all her operatives were punctual, well turned out and knew the plan. They arrived by car. The car used would have two features: A large boot into which all the stolen gear could be stuffed; and an even larger engine, so that if they needed a fast getaway, no police car could catch them.

SHOPLIFTING AT SELFRIDGESOnce inside a shop they had a number of techniques. On top of their innocent appearance, they traded on the fact that well to do women of that time were expected to be accorded a great deal of privacy. Sometimes they would create a distraction. One was to pretend to faint or pretend to be struck by illness. Another was to edge towards the exit and inspect an item in the light of a window. With eyes diverted, the many others would go to work. Their most audacious approach was to simply descend like a swarm of locusts. The whole gang of forty would run through the revolving doors of a department store and grab everything to hand. With so many different targets, security was often so shocked and overwhelmed by this ‘dash and grab’ that the women were through the exit by the time they’d reacted.The genuine distractions of the January sales and the inevitable ‘scrums’ meant rich pickings for Diamond’s forty thieves.The items they preferred to steal were small exclusive things like lingerie, silk, leather goods: The higher the value, the better. But they would take everything and anything from designer clothes to furs. Everything taken was quickly rolled, folded and compacted very small and then secreted away.As McDonald says, they could walk into a shop and ‘literally strip it’.Diamond’s crew raided some of the West End’s biggest stores – Debenham and Freebody (now known simply as Debenhams), DH Evans, Selfridges and Whiteleys.The amount they were able to steal was ‘staggering’.With the goods acquired, the ‘Elephants’ gang were a readymade distribution network. And all profits flowed back to Diamond. She sat at the top of a pyramid where a percentage of ever shop-lift was kicked back up to her. And anyone shoplifting on her patch either paid a similar percentage kick-back or they were viciously beaten. Some were even kidnapped until a suitable ransom was paid.SCAMS LTDSuch was Diamond’s success that her face and those of her forty thieves soon became well known. So they simply expanded their patch. They descended on surrounding towns and seaside resorts. An accomplice would drop off empty suitcases at left luggage office in train stations. After a successful swipe, they would return home, suitcase bursting.And they diversified. Other scams included posing as a maid or servants in country piles and grand houses. Using false references, they’d obtain work at places targeted for their valuables. As soon as the new ‘employee’ could, she’d disappear; along with the valuables.Another sideline was blackmail. The prettiest ones lured in their married marks. Once the reputable gentleman was in a disreputable situation, she’d demand payment to keep her lips sealed.

The evolution from a man to a monster

In 1951, at the age of 16, Josef Fritzl left Amstetten and went to work an hour’s drive away at the Austrian city of Linz, some 40 miles away. He became a technical assistant in an engineering company.There, in 1956, Josef Fritzl met Rosemarie Bayer:“She had never had a boyfriend before. He (Fritzl) was the first one...My first impression was good. He was friendly, nice and young...That changed over the years. He became a despot.”Christine Ranner, Rosemarie’s Sister“...he told friends that she would make a good wife, a good housewife, because she seemed to be obedient, accepting of things.”Bojan Panchevski, European CorrespondentLess than a year after meeting Rosemarie, Josef married her. She was just seventeen. The year after first meeting, they had their first child.By September 1963, after seven years of marriage, Fritzl and Rosemarie had three children, two daughters and a son. The family have moved back to 40 Ybbstrasse in Amstetten.

Josef Fritzl’s job was going well. Engineers were in constant demand in the post war years.The shabby illegitimate boy had turned into a confident and authoritative man.His firm then sent him to Ghana for a couple of years. When he returned, his three children were older, and less dependent on him. Unsure of himself, he resorted to violence. One source claims he broke his son’s nose and that the child was often too bruised to be sent to school.ELISABETHOn 8 April 1966, 40 Ybbstrasse saw the arrival of the Fritzl’s fourth child, Elisabeth. The household was by now, ‘increasingly volatile.’Fritzl was back working as an engineer in Linz and reverted to the predatory habits he picked up as a teenager.The industrial city of Linz in the Northern part of Austria, on the banks of the river Danube, had a red light district. There, he ‘could escape the scrutiny of a small town’ and ‘indulge in his sexual interests’. But even paid prostitutes couldn’t satisfy all his desires.HUSBAND, FATHER, BUSINESSMAN, RAPISTOn 6 October 1967 he followed a young mother home. After she’d fallen asleep, he broke in. At knife point, he raped her. Her child was asleep next to them in a cot.Fritzl received just 18 months for the rape at knifepoint of a young mother.He served less than a year.And worse, under Austrian law, unless a crime carries a life sentence, the conviction doesn’t stay on the person’s record. In the eyes of the state, after 15 years, Fritzl had never raped.And as far as Fritzl’s wife was concerned, he was forgiven.She had visited him in the prison. And after release, she never mentioned the incident again.This did not stop Fritzl trying again. Maria Neubauer was attacked by Fritzl as she returned home from work at the local factory. But he failed to get her to the ground and she managed to fight him off. She reported it to the police but Fritzl was never identified.By the end of 1972, the Fritzl family had seven children – 4 girls and 3 boys. Fritzl was a successful professional and a wealthy and respected member of the Amstetten community. Neighbours and colleagues described him as hard-working, polite and affectionate. His predilection for administering corporal punishment to his children was entirely fitting to his time and place.In 1973 Fritzl decided to set up a side business. He purchased Seestern guest house next to Mondsee Lake in Salzkammergut. This three storey hotel had 40 bedrooms. It wasn’t a success;“...when he got financially into trouble, the place caught fire and burnt down...authorities suspected an insurance scam, but never managed to prove anything.”Bojan Panchevski, European CorrespondentIn 1978, Josef Fritzl decided to expand the family home at 40 Ybbsstrasse.He wanted a roof terrace and a new extension with nine new flats for tenants…And planning permission was given for a rather large cellar.Elisabeth Fritzl was now 11-years-old. Her manner reminded Fritzl of himself as a boy. He believed they had a special connection. This belief became an obsession. He spied on her and demanded to know where she was at all times.Elisabeth did have a few close friends, among them, twins – Jutta and Christa Haberci; they used to secretly smoke cigarettes and Christa and Elisabeth used to walk to school together.“We knew that several things in the family were not okay, well, one sensed it, but you didn’t talk about it.”Christa HaberciChrista knew Elisabeth’s father was not a good man. He had a “strictness in the face...sinister eyes, no smile, no kindness.”In September 1981 Elisabeth started a tourism and gastronomy course in Waldegg, a small town 12 miles from Amstetten. She also worked in a petrol station restaurant to support herself.Such independence scared Fritzl. He planned to make sure she could never leave him:“I had to do something. I had to create a place where I could keep Elisabeth, by force if necessary, away from the outside world.”Josef Fritzl

Turning to crime

In the summer of 1988, Erik graduated from Beverly Hills High School and played a number of tennis tournaments before starting at UCLA. It was also the time that the brothers began robbing their friends’ parents. They would break into the homes to take money and jewellery. It was later estimated that they stole in excess of $100,000, enough to have been charged with Grand Theft Burglary, a felony offence.

Erik was stopped for a driving violation in Calabasas when the detective discovered stolen goods in the boot of his car, implicating both the brothers. Irate but with no desire to see his sons in prison, José hired a reputable criminal defence attorney, Gerald Chaleff, to represent Lyle and Erik.

Chaleff worked a deal with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office that if Erik, who was a juvenile and had no previous record, pleaded guilty to all the crimes, Lyle would be absolved. The judge agreed and Erik was sentenced to community service with the homeless and both brothers were assigned to compulsory psychological counselling. In addition, José paid the victims for those stolen items that the brothers had already sold on and could not retrieve.

Probation

Not only was he underachieving academically at Princeton University, Lyle’s ‘I’ll do whatever I like’ attitude had him put on disciplinary probation for damaging pool tables in his hall of residence. He also had his driver’s licence suspended and lost the family’s privileges at their country club in Princeton.

Exasperated with their sons’ behaviour, José and Kitty threatened to cut out the boys from their wills. Kitty, who was undergoing psychiatric counselling, told her therapist on 19 July 1989, a month before she was murdered, that her sons were “narcissistic, lacked conscience and exhibited signs that they were sociopaths”.

In an effort to share some time together as a family and perhaps lessen some of the tension that everyone had been feeling, José and Kitty chartered a boat to go shark fishing with the boys. On Saturday 19 August 1989, a day before the murders, the Menendez family travelled to Marina del Ray, the largest man-made small boat harbour in the world, four miles from Los Angeles International Airport.

The boat’s crew later reported that the Menendez family seemed miserable and non-communicative, with José  fishing from the back of the boat, the brothers keeping to themselves at the front of the boat, and Kitty below deck due to seasickness.

The following is an account of the events surrounding the murder of José and Kitty Menenedez, as pieced together by police investigators and medical examiners. Years later, at trial, Lyle and Erik would paint a very different picture.

On the the evening of Sunday, 20 August 1989, José and Kitty were relaxing in the family room of their extensive Beverly Hills mansion, 722 Elm Drive, eating dessert whilst watching a video. Their sons, Lyle, 21, and Erik, 17, were out for the evening. A teenage girl who lived a few houses down the road from the Menendez family was standing outside her home, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. She noticed a car stop in front of the Menendez house and two men get out. They went to the boot of the car and then towards the house.

Ball-bearing sized pellets

It was Lyle and Erik and they entered the house via the study’s French doors and walked down the hallway towards the family room at the back of the house. José was sitting dozing, with his feet up on the coffee table, whilst Kitty was lying stretched out next to him on the sofa, with her head in his lap. The brothers raised their 12-gauge Mossberg shotguns, loaded with ball-bearing sized pellets, and fired at their parents.

José was shot at twice; the first shattered the glass door behind him and hit him twice in the right arm and the left elbow, effectively keeping him sitting down. The second was a contact shot to the back of his head that blew open his skull and killed him. His body slumped forward with his hands on his stomach and his feet on the floor.

Kitty had managed to jump up and begin to flee before she too was shot, in her right arm and right calf. She fell onto the coffee table but stood up again, long enough for her blood to flow vertically down her leg, before being shot again. She was hit in her right arm, her left breast, which pierced her lung, and her left thigh, from such close range that the force of the shot broke her leg. Not yet dead, Kitty attempted to crawl away but failed.

Alibi

Out of ammunition, the killers ran out to their car to reload, this time with birdshot. Returning to the bloody crime scene, Kitty was killed by a contact shot to her left cheek that shattered her skull. She had been shot four times in her head and ten times in her body, including a shot that had almost severed her right thumb. As a parting gesture, they shot both victims in the left knee before carefully gathering up the spent shell casings. The brothers then drove via Mulholland Drive, in order to get rid of their shotguns and casings into the canyon, then on to a petrol station to throw away their bloodied clothes, before buying tickets for a film at their local cinema to use as an alibi.

Beverly Hills Police Department received a 911 call at 11:47pm on 20 August 1989. It was from a sobbing Lyle Menenedez, reporting that someone had killed his parents. The two-and-a-half minute call was tape-recorded and Erik could be heard shouting in the background. About a minute after the call, Beverly Hills police officers Michael Buktus and John Czarnocki arrived at the Menendez mansion to investigate.

Detective Les Zoeller was appointed as head of the murder investigation and he hastened to the scene of the crime. It was obvious to Zoeller that whilst the family room was dishevelled, nothing had been stolen from the mansion. It also appeared that the victims knew their killer(s) as the house bore no signs of forced entry.

As part of routine procedure, Lyle and Erik were taken in for questioning, although at that point, they were not considered suspects and were therefore not given gunshot residue tests. The police detective supervisor, Sergeant Thomas Edmonds, conducted the questioning, which lasted a mere 20 minutes before being brought to an end due to Erik’s inconsolable crying. During the questioning, Lyle appeared calm and was methodical in his answers, whilst Erik was unable to sit still and was quite distraught.

The following is a blow-by-blow account of their actions on Sunday, 20 August 1989, given by the Menendez brothers to the police.

In the morning, after a late breakfast, they played tennis on the court in their garden, before going inside to watch part of a tennis match on television. They spent the afternoon shopping at the Beverly Centre, a local shopping mall, before returning home.

At around 5pm, they made plans with a friend, Perry Berman, to meet later at a local food festival, called ‘Taste of LA’, in Santa Monica. The brothers left home again at about 8pm, planning to see the new James Bond film, ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989) at Westwood Village cinema. Discovering long queues when they arrived, they went to Century City mall to see ‘Batman’ (1989) instead.

911 call

Following the movie, Lyle and Erik drove to Santa Monica but apparently got lost en route and missed their friend. They called Berman from a public telephone and made further plans to meet him at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills. They then drove home allegedly to collect Erik’s fake ID so that he could buy alcohol when they were at the restaurant. It was then that they discovered their parents had been killed and placed the 911 call.

In their attempts to draw suspicion away from themselves, the brothers told the police some strange things. They said that upon their arrival home, before discovering their parents’ bodies, they noticed smoke in the house and in particular in the family room. Neither Buktus nor Czarnocki, the officers who arrived at the scene minutes after Lyle had placed the 911 call, had noticed any smoke. Lyle told police his mother had been suicidal for the past few years and had been edgy and behaving oddly, whilst Erik suggested possible Mafia involvement in his parents’ deaths.

Dr Irwin Golden, Medical Examiner of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office conducted the autopsies on José and Kitty Menendez on 23 August 1989.

Lyle and Erik held a memorial service for their parents on 25 August 1989 at the Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles. They arrived an hour late and Erik looked uncomfortable whilst Lyle remained calm and controlled throughout. On 28 August 1989, the brothers held a traditional church funeral at the university chapel in Princeton. Faculty fellow, Brendan Scott, conducted the service and Lyle spoke for half an hour, saying how much his parents had meant to him but Erik was too upset to contribute.

With no domineering father dictating their every move, the brothers were finally able to make their own life choices. Lyle became determined to succeed in the business world and dropped out of university, whilst Erik vacillated between continuing at UCLA and pursuing a career in tennis. Whatever they decided, they had no immediate financial worries, as they had been granted José’s personal life insurance policy of £650,000. Only a few days after the murders, the brothers began splashing out on Rolex watches, designer clothes, stereo equipment and expensive cars.

Spending Spree

Claiming to be in fear for their own lives and not wanting to live in the house where their parents had been murdered, the brothers stayed in five-star hotels, hired bodyguards and travelled in limousines. They then rented expensive adjoining apartments in Marina del Ray, Lyle bought a Porsche 911 Carrera and Erik a Jeep Wrangler. By October 1989, they had charged over £90,000 to José’s American Express card.

Lyle began trying to form his own company, called Menendez Investment Enterprises, and flew frequently between California and New Jersey, always travelling business class. The company failed before it even started and Lyle then bought a restaurant, which also lost money.

Erik tried to sponsor a rock concert with a partner at the Palladium, Los Angeles, but the man ran off with $40,000 of his money. He then decided to turn to tennis and hired Mark Heffernan as a private coach. They began travelling extensively, spending on luxury hotels and anything Heffernan suggested, to improve Erik’s game. By the end of 1989 the brothers had spent over £1 million. 

Confession

It transpired that on 31 October 1989, Erik visited his psychotherapist, Jerome Oziel. It was during this meeting that he turned to Oziel and said, “We did it. We killed our parents.” Oziel made Erik call Lyle, who was furious and immediately rushed over to Oziel’s office. The brothers visited Oziel’s office again on 2 November 1989 to discuss the fact that Erik had confessed to Oziel and Lyle threatened to kill him if he told anyone. Although being threatened meant that Oziel was no longer bound by the patient-therapist confidentiality privilege, he chose not to go to the police. Instead he continued to counsel the brothers, making notes and keeping tape recordings of their sessions. These were later taken in by the Los Angeles County courthouse in Santa Monica, as evidence in the first trial.

Panic in the Hollywood hills

Their pimping business had limited success, their first two “girls” managing to escape, after suffering tremendous abuse at the hands of Buono, but Bianchi had, by this time, become accustomed to the additional income. They found a new girl, but an attempt to recruit more punters went disastrously wrong, when they were conned into buying a “trick” list, consisting of names of men who frequented prostitutes, from a prostitute called Deborah Noble, and her friend Yolanda Washington. Enraged by the rip-off, and unable to trace Noble, Buono and Bianchi tracked Washington down on 18 October 1977, beating, raping and strangling her with a piece of fabric, before dumping her body near the entrance of Forest Lawn Cemetery, which they deliberately posed in a grotesque manner. This first killing took their brutal, misogynistic partnership to a new level, and triggered a wave of horrific slayings that held LA in thrall.Their next victim was teenage runaway Judy Miller, who was found in a garden in the Glendale Hills on 31 October 1977. She had also been strangled, and her naked legs were deliberately positioned in a diamond shape. Their third victim, Elissa Kastin, was savagely beaten, raped and strangled, her naked body found close to Buono’s home on 6 November 1977.

Three days later, on 9 November 1977, the nude body of 18-year-old prostitute, Jill Barcomb, was found north of Beverly Hills, showing the same characteristics as the previous three victims. Police began to suspect that they might be dealing with a serial killer, but as the victims had been prostitutes or runaways up to that point, there was little media attention, and no real political will, to address the mounting body count.Then a high school student, 17-year-old Kathleen Robinson, was added to the body count on 18 November, followed by 2 more young victims, 12-year-old Dolores Cepeda, and 14-year-old Sonja Johnson, on 20 November. All were found on various Hillside sites, showing similar injuries, and the stakes were raised exponentially: these were no longer marginal members of society, but vulnerable young victims. The full glare of the LA media was brought to bear on a killer nicknamed “The Hillside Strangler” by sensationalist tabloid media.General panic ensued, naturally, given that the young victims had all been raped, sodomised and strangled, but the fear factor was ratcheted higher when details about the decomposing remains of 20-year-old Kristina Weckler, found on another site on 20 November, were released: the killer had injected cleaning fluid into her, as well as brutalising her. Clearly the killer was refining his sadistic techniques, and the police were becoming increasingly convinced that there were, in fact, two killers working together. During the investigation of Weckler’s disappearance, police interviewed Bianchi, who lived in the same apartment complex as she did, but did not at any time consider him a suspect.Within 10 days, two further victims were discovered; 28-year-old student Jane King, on 23 November, who had been dead for some time, and 18-year-old Lauren Wagner, on 29 November, who had been severely tortured by burning. Wagner’s death, unlike Jane King’s, had clearly occurred after Kristina Weckler’s, and confirmed the police hypothesis about torture techniques being refined by the killers with each new victim.One of Lauren Wagner’s neighbours saw her arguing with two men shortly before her disappearance, giving the police their first real lead in the manhunt. Both men seen had been Latino, with one significantly older than the other, and driving a dark car with a white roof.The last victim in 1977 was 22-year-old prostitute, Kimberly Martin, found on 9 December, but investigators found no further substantial leads as a result of her death. While police were expecting the sort of violent escalation usually associated with serial killers, attacks stopped after Martin, and the next victim was taken more than 10 weeks later, on 20 February 1978; 23-year-old Cindy Lee Hudspeth was found in the boot of her car, which had been pushed over a cliff. She exhibited the signature strangulation marks associated with the Hillside killings. She was also a neighbour of Kristina Weckler, and therefore Bianchi, but this association was not really pursued, and a lack of any further victims caused the Hillside Strangler Task Force to be disbanded shortly thereafter.Kelli Boyd, Bianchi’s girlfriend, had borne a son, Sean, by him, in February 1978. Having tired of both Bianchi’s lifestyle and LA, she decided to return to her parents in Bellingham, in Washington State, in March 1978. Bianchi pleaded to be reunited with her and she relented after 3 months, but stipulated that he had to come to Bellingham, which he duly did in May 1978. For a while Bianchi made a success of family life, taking a job as a security guard and earning the trust of his employers, but the placid way of life did little to assuage his murderous urges, and within six months he was actively seeking new victims. This time, however, he acted alone.On 11 January 1979, two University students suffered the consequences of his urges. Karen Mandic and Diane Wilder, conned by Bianchi into believing they were applying for a house-sitting job, were attacked, raped and strangled and their bodies were dumped in Mandic’s car. Police found a piece of paper in the car, detailing the meeting with Bianchi, and they quickly realised, under questioning, that they had their killer, despite his respectable demeanour. Painstaking forensic analysis of the car and Bianchi’s home tied him indisputably to the murdered students.

Out of the Blue

It was market day in Hungerford, a balmy Wednesday, 19 August 1987. The popular weekly market attracted many people and was an event enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. People came to buy goods, eat in the restaurants and stay at the inns. This Wednesday was no different, with the schools on holiday, many people were taking advantage of the good weather. However, the jovial atmosphere was soon to be shattered and people’s lives changed forever.Savernake Forest, a popular recreational area seven miles from Hungerford, was a favourite haunt of Ryan’s, where he would spend great deals of time pretending to be on army manoeuvres. He liked to think of himself as a soldier, skilled at surveillance without being seen himself. Wearing camouflage outfits, he enjoyed sneaking up on picnickers and watching them without their knowledge, before disappearing again.

FIRST VICTIM

Just after midday, on 19 August 1987, the 27-year-old unemployed Ryan entered a secluded area of Savernake Forest. Here he found Susan Godfrey, 33, an attractive, auburn-haired mother, with her children, Hannah, 4, and James, 2. He spied on them as they ate their picnic lunch, before playing a while.

Preparing to leave for her grandmother’s 95th birthday, Godfrey was packing away the picnic when a grim looking Ryan approached, dressed all in black and pointing a 9mm Beretta pistol at her.

He ordered her to put her children in the car, which she did immediately, strapping them in and telling them to wait there for her, that she would be back soon. Ryan picked up the picnic groundsheet and ordered Susan to walk with him into the woods. Here he shot her 13 times, dropped the groundsheet and returned to parking area. Godfrey’s children watched as he climbed into his car, which was parked next to theirs, and drive away without a word to them. They had heard the sounds of the shots being fired and were terrified.

After some time, young Hannah unbuckled their seatbelts, so they could go in search of their mother.

A fellow park visitor, Myra Rose, found the children wandering around and they told her their mother had been shot. The woman did not believe them at first but agreed to help them find her.

Meanwhile, a police officer had noticed Godfrey’s empty car with open doors and had gone to investigate. In the neighbouring forest he found Godfrey’s body, about 250 feet from her car.

America's 8 deadliest mass shootings since Columbine

Over 20 mass shootings have occurred in the US since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

She was fully clothed but riddled with bullets. Near her body were two groups of German-made 9mm spent cartridges. It wasn’t long before investigators discovered, via ballistics analysis, that her death was connected to those that happened subsequently in Hungerford that afternoon. This had been Ryan’s first victim.

Ryan then went to Froxtield petrol station, where he was watched by Mrs Kakoub Dean, wife of the owner, as he filled up his metallic silver Vauxhall Astra GTE, as well as a five-litre can. She recognised him as a regular customer at the petrol station, but not a chatty or friendly one. Also, he had never before bought so much petrol at one time, making Dean suspicious, so she kept an eye on him.Whilst Dean served another customer, Ian George, Ryan went to the boot of his car and brought out a semi-automatic rifle. By the time Dean looked back at him, he had assumed a shooting position, with the rifle aimed directly at her. She ducked below her counter just as a bullet pierced the safety glass above it and ricocheted through the small shop behind her. George sped off on his motorcycle.

Ryan stormed into the shop and again aimed his rifle at Dean. Terrified, crying and huddled against the wall, she begged him not to kill her. He took no heed of her pleas and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He tried pulling the trigger twice more, but both times the rifle failed to fire.

Dean reported later that when she looked Ryan in the face, it seemed as if he was not even aware of her and was looking right through her. Having failed to kill Dean, Ryan quickly returned to his car and drove off towards Hungerford. Dean called both her husband and the 999 emergency services. The police had already received a report, from George, of an armed robbery in progress at the petrol station and were en route to her.

Resupplying

At around 12:45pm, Ryan arrived at his next destination, 4 South View, a dead-end street in Hungerford, where he lived with his widowed mother. Watched by neighbours, he went into the house and muffled shots were heard. It later transpired that he had shot the family dog, a black Labrador.

Emerging from the house, dressed in a headband and sleeveless flak jacket, Ryan carried a bag filled with food and other supplies. He tried starting his car but to no avail. Angrily, Ryan climbed out of the car and shot five bullets into the boot. He then went back into the house, used the five-litre can of petrol to soak everything he could, and set the house on fire.Into his car, Ryan had packed military clothing, a large amount of ammunition and a first aid kit. He also had several different firearms: a Beretta 9 mm semi-automatic pistol; an M1 carbine semi-automatic assault rifle; and a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle loaded with armour-piercing bullets. He took the firearms, packed the pockets of his flak jacket with ammunition and marched off down the road.

Seeing two of his neighbours, Roland and Sheila Mason, in their back garden, he shot Roland six times and Sheila once, in the head. Both died instantly. Ryan spotted another shocked neighbour, Marjorie Jackson, peering through the window at the dead bodies and shot her as well. She was wounded but managed to call her husband, Ivor Jackson, who worked close by. Whilst she waited for help to arrive, she watched Ryan jog up and down the road, shooting at anything that moved. Another witness reported that Ryan warned several children to get off the street and go inside. It seemed that whilst he was in the midst of a murderous rampage, he still felt the need to protect children.

An elderly neighbour, Dorothy Smith, 77 years old and deaf in one ear, had come out into the street to see what all the noise was about. She shouted at him, saying, “Is that you making that noise? You are frightening everybody to death. Stop it, you stupid bugger!”. Ryan looked at her with extremely vacant eyes and a strange grin, before moving off eastwards along a footpath leading to Hungerford Common. She was inordinately lucky not to have been shot by him.

The Manhunt begins

Lisa Mildenhall, 14, was shot and wounded by Ryan, who had smiled at her whilst she crouched on the ground at her front door, and then shot her four times in the legs and stomach. She scrambled into her house, where she collapsed and her mother immediately called an ambulance. Mildenhall survived the shooting.Kenneth Clements was walking along the footpath with his family, towards South View, when Ryan appeared and shot him once, killing him instantly. Robert, his frightened son, escaped by jumping over a fence into the neighbouring school, whilst the rest of the family literally ran for their lives.

The Hungerford police were already undertaking a manhunt for the killer and a police helicopter spotted Ryan. They warned ground units to set up a roadblock around South View, to stop any drivers entering the area, although they had no idea what Ryan would do next. In an unfortunate turn of events, the police at the roadblock actually sent some drivers directly towards Ryan.Police Constable Roger Brereton rushed to the danger area of South View and Ryan shot at his patrol car 23 times. Brereton was hit by four of the bullets and died in his car. The smiling Ryan shot 11 rounds from his semi-automatic at another car that drove into the street. Its occupants, Linda Chapman and her daughter, Alison Chapman, whilst wounded, both survived. Linda was hit in the shoulder and Alison in the right thigh. Unfortunately, the bullet travelled up into Alison’s lower back, leaving her permanently disabled.

Moving up Fairview Road, Ryan found neighbour, Abdul Khan, 84, a retired restaurateur, mowing the lawn in his back garden. Ryan approached, looked at him and shot him three times. Kahn died later of his wounds. Ryan immediately turned to Alan Lepetit, a coalman who had helped install the Chubb steel cabinet for Ryan’s firearm collection. Lepetit had heard about shooting in his neighbourhood and was hurrying home to check on his family. Ryan shot Lepetit twice in the arm and once in the back as he fled. He survived the attack.

Danger zone

Ryan then shot at an ambulance, shattering its windscreen, as it was trying to reach some of the victims in a narrow lane. Ambulance-woman Hazel Haslett was injured in the arm and the leg by broken glass. Driver, Linda Bright, immediately put the ambulance into reverse and retreated. Access was blocked for the fire engine called to deal with the fire Ryan had started in his own home and which had already spread to three neighbouring properties.

Residents of the area were becoming increasingly worried as they continued to call for emergency help and none arrived. The fact was that they were prevented from entering the danger zone, for fear of being shot themselves. Meanwhile, police were busy getting some people to safety and preventing others from going where they thought Ryan might move to next.

People were frantic to get to their families to see if they were safe and unharmed. Ivor Jackson’s wife, Marjorie, had called him whilst Ryan was aiming a gun at her.

Now, as his colleague, quantity surveyor George White, drove him home to check on his wife, they came across Ryan. He sprayed their car with 11 bullets, Ivor Jackson was shot three times in the chest and once in the head and White was shot too, dying as their car smashed into the police car Ryan had shot at earlier.

Jackson played dead and survived the shooting.He heard what happened next, as Dorothy Ryan, returning home from some shopping, arrived at the scene in her car. She parked behind White’s car and opening the door and looking in, said, “Oh Ivor…” and then hurried up the road. What she found was houses on fire, people lying dead in their gardens and smashed cars lining the street. Dorothy then saw her son with a gun in his hand and called to him, saying, “Stop Michael. Why are you doing this?”. Without replying, Ryan shot his mother twice in the stomach and once in the leg. He walked up to where she lay in the road and, with the gun only four inches from her, shot her twice in the back, killing her.

Despite the police helicopter hovering above him and telling him to lay down his weapons, Ryan merely walked away. The police officers at the scene did not apprehend him at this point, as they were unarmed.

At 1.30 pm specially trained officers from the Tactical Firearms Unit were brought in and local police officers assembled closer to town. After killing his mother, Ryan walked across the school playing field, firing randomly.

Betty Tolladay, 71, had heard loud bangs, and thinking it was children playing with firecrackers, had come out into her back garden to shout at them to keep the noise down. Instead she found Ryan, who shot her once. The bullet entered her groin, smashed the top of her hip, part of her pelvis and the sciatic nerve, before exiting via her back. She managed to drag herself into her house and survived.

Ryan’s next victim was Francis Butler, a 26-year-old accounts clerk, out walking his dog in the Hungerford Memorial Gardens. He was shot three times in the groin and the leg with the AK-47 rifle and died where he fell. Ryan walked past a young boy, Dean Lavisher, without seeming to notice him, but fired at another boy riding past on his bicycle, Dean Cadle, thankfully missing him. Ryan then abandoned his M1 carbine in the Memorial Gardens.

10th victim

Popular cab driver, Marcus Bernard, 30, was en route to visit his wife and newborn son in the local hospital. When he slowed down to see what was happening, Ryan shot him in the head with the AK-47 and he died instantly. Bernard was the tenth fatality on that bloody Wednesday. Witnesses report that at this point, Ryan seemed disgusted with the rifle and threw it onto the ground. Changing his mind, he retrieved it and carried on walking, away from town.

Along the way, Ryan shot and wounded a man, who was pulled to safety as Ryan moved closer in order to shoot him again. A car drove towards Ryan and he shot both occupants. The man, Douglas Wainwright, hit twice in the chest and once in the head, died instantly but his wounded wife, Kathleen Wainwright survived. It transpired that they were the parents of the police officer who had run all the checks on Ryan when he had applied for a modified licence, to own more powerful firearms.

Yet another vehicle drove into the area and once again, Ryan shot at it, hitting the driver, shattering his jaw, bursting his tongue and missing his spinal cord by two millimetres. He was John Storms, 49, a washing machine engineer who had been called out to Hungerford Park Farm on business. Bob Barclay, a local builder and nearby resident, risking his own life, bravely ran out and dragged Storms from his car, managing to half crouch and half run with Storms into the safety of his garden. Storms survived the shooting.

Prime Minister

By this stage, the press had heard of the killing spree and arrived in the area, taking photographs of the dead and wounded, and unethically gaining access to some of the victims’ houses, by saying they were crime scene personnel. Their pictures were a grim account of the trail of destruction and death that Ryan had left in his wake. It was calculated that during the most intense period of Ryan’s rampage, he had killed an average of one person per minute.

The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was on holiday in Cornwall at the time, was notified of the events and kept informed via a special phone line from Downing Street. The press helicopters were in the way of police trying to track Ryan and this allowed him to get away again.

Paying no attention to the police or the press, Ryan seemed oblivious to anything other than his hell-bent mission to kill everyone in his path. Eric Vardy, a carpenter and van driver for Norland Nursery College, was on his way with passenger, Steven Ball, to a builders’ supplier. As they drove up Tarrants Hill, their windscreen was shattered by a spray of bullets and Vardy was hit twice, under the chin and in the torso. He later died of shock and haemorrhage from the bullet wound to his neck.

Ryan then walked into Priory Road, where he found Sandra Hill, 22, driving her red Renault 5, with the window down and the music blaring. He took aim and killed her with a single bullet to the chest. Crossing the street, shooting as he went, Ryan strode towards 60 Priory Road, the home of Victor and Myrtle Gibbs and blasted open the front door with his semi-automatic rifle. The wheelchair-bound Myrtle was totally vulnerable and Victor threw himself across her to protect her from the crazed gunman. Ryan fired at them and Victor died instantly, whilst Myrtle died later in hospital.

Having created a ‘fort’ for himself in the Gibbs’ home, Ryan fired at neighbouring houses, injuring a man at number 62 and a woman at number 67 Priory Road.Ian Playle, a 34-year-old clerk to the Justices at Newbury Magistrates Court, had brought his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young children, Richard and Sarah, to Hungerford on a shopping trip. As they drove down Priory Road, Ryan shot at their car and Playle died from a single bullet wound to the neck from the Beretta. His wife and children were unhurt. George Noon, 67, was standing in the garden of his son’s house, 109 Priory Road, when Ryan shot him in the shoulder and the eye, but he survived.

Going Back to School

Shortly before 2pm, Bert Whatley, a Priory Road resident, watched as Ryan, walking slowly, with his head down, entered the John O’Gaunt Secondary School, which was closed for the summer holidays. It was the same school he had attended more than a decade before.

Chief Inspector Lambert had sent Sergeant Paul Brightwell and his team of eight officers from the Tactical Firearms Unit to investigate the school, unaware that this was indeed the exact location of the killer. They were armed with .38 Smith and Wessons, which were no match for Ryan’s arsenal.Four and three quarter hours after the police had first been informed of Ryan, he was finally spotted at one of the school’s third floor classroom windows at 5.26 pm. He threw his Kalashnikov out of the window, leaving him with only his 9mm Beretta and ammunition. Brightwell immediately informed his superior and Hungerford was declared safe for the waiting ambulances and fire engines to move in to the former danger zone. Police surrounded the school building and Brightwell worked to establish communication with Ryan and ultimately to persuade him to surrender.

Negotiation

During the next 90 minutes, Brightwell and Ryan held a long and detailed conversation, during which Ryan seemed quite lucid, calm and easy to talk to. At one point, he claimed to have an Israeli fragmentation type hand grenade, which seriously worried the police. He continually asked about his mother and how she was. Brightwell answered that he did not know at the time but was attempting to find out, and continued to persuade him to drop his weapons and come outside.

Ryan said he would not exit the building until he had news of his mother’s condition.Some of the things Ryan shouted out the window to Brightwell were, “Hungerford must be a bit of a mess”; “If only the police car hadn’t turned up. If only my car had started”. He also wanted to know if his dog had been found and if they had located his M1 carbine and its magazine, as he didn’t want the children to find it and hurt themselves.

At another point, close to the end, he said, “I wish I had stayed in bed”.

End of the destruction

At 6.45 pm he said, “It’s funny, I killed all those people but I haven’t got the guts to blow my own brains out”.

He then asked the time and was silent for a while. At 6.52 pm, Brightwell heard a single muffled shot from the classroom. The police were not certain if Ryan had shot himself or just fired off a round. They flew the police helicopter past the window, but could not see in to the classroom. One of the Tactical Firearms Unit climbed onto the school roof and with a mirror on a long pole, managed to see into the classroom at last. Ryan was lying slumped in the corner, near a window, apparently dead.The rest of the unit entered the room and checked that he was not wired with explosives as a booby trap. In his right hand, tied to his wrist with a bootlace, was his Beretta pistol. It was confirmed that Michael Robert Ryan had fatally shot himself at 6.52 pm on Wednesday, 19 August 1987, with a single gunshot to the head. The bullet had passed through his skull and shattered his brain. The horrific Hungerford Massacre was finally over. Ryan had killed 16 people, including his mother, and wounded 15 others.

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Slaughter on a warm summer's day: The Hungerford Massacre

Marie-Therese first takes Victoria to Paris, France. There she uses Victoria to fraudulently access child-benefit. Required to send her ‘daughter’ to school, Victoria only attends half the time. Marie-Therese has started abusing Victoria.But the authorities threaten action over Victoria’s non-attendance. So after five months, Marie-Therese flees with Victoria.

In April 1999 they arrive in Ealing, West London.Victoria speaks no English.Between 26 April and 7 July, Marie-Therese visits social workers 14 times trying to secure housing support. Victoria is with her on seven visits. One staff member thinks her dishevelled appearance is akin to a child on an ‘Action Aid poster’. But sometimes applicants present themselves as worse off than they are to secure sympathy and money.This is the first chance to save the life of Victoria. There will be eleven more.

That June, Esther, a distant relative of Marie-Therese’s, anonymously rings Brent social workers saying she fears Victoria’s being abused. She’d seen Victoria soon after her arrival and so later notices a new scar. Marie-Therese explains Victoria fell on an escalator. Esther’s suspicious. So she visits them and is shocked to see how much weight Victoria has lost. Esther makes another call to Brent to check on progress and is reassured. A non-professional, non- specialist member of the public has noticed abuse and raised the alarm. Nothing is done.

In early July, Marie-Therese moves them into the Tottenham, North London flat of her new boyfriend, Carl Manning, a bus driver in his late 20s. She secures work so leaves Victoria with a child minder and her children. One of them, Avril, becomes so concerned over Victoria’s mounting injuries, she takes her to hospital. Following a two hour examination the doctor points along Victoria’s thigh:

Doctor: Do you know what these marks are?’

Avril:    No

Doctor:  These are cigarette burns

But the following morning, a senior consultant diagnoses scabies, an infectious disease that causes rashes on the skin. It’s accepted that Victoria’s been scratching herself because of scabies and the injuries are self-inflicted.

Marie-Therese takes Victoria home. Later that month, she’s admitted to North Middlesex Hospital suffering from scalding to her head and face. Marie-Therese explains Victoria tried to get rid of the scabies by holding her head under scalding water. The injuries are horrific.One thing shines through the appalling facial disfigurement the photos record. Victoria is still smiling. And nurses take to her as she recuperates and give her a pair of pink wellies to play in. Her twirling figure down the wards entrances everyone.

But nurses note a change when Marie-Therese arrives. They record the relationship is more like ‘master and servant’ rather than ‘mother and daughter’. Other notes record a belt buckle mark on her body. Once, Victoria is so frightened when Marie-Therese arrives, she wets herself.And during her fortnight hospital stay, social services never once ask Victoria what happened. Marie-Therese takes her back. Doctors now believe Victoria is being abused but mistakenly think the police and social services are also aware of this. A Police Constable is assigned to check up on Victoria. But PC Karen Jones doesn’t visit because she fears catching scabies from the furniture. And no health visitor makes a follow up visit after Victoria’s hospital admission.As they’re now living with Carl, they’re considered the problem of his council, Haringey. Her assigned social worker is Lisa Arthurworrey. She’s just qualified with only 18 months experience. She needs to be closely supervised. She isn’t.

In August, Lisa makes her first of two visits to Carl Manning’s flat. The flat’s better than many she sees. It’s neat, clean and Victoria’s well presented. Lisa doesn’t speak to Victoria, however, or address the fact she’s not receiving education.

Lisa’s second visit, in October, is just days after Carl starts forcing Victoria to sleep in the bath every night. Fear and the beatings mean she’s become incontinent. She soaks the sofa on which she sleeps. So Carl makes her go to bed in a bin liner in the bath. Her hands are tied and then she’s tied into it. So she sleeps in her own excrement in a room without heat or light. It’s now winter.They place food on a plastic plate. But her hands are tied.“Victoria could only eat by pushing her face into the plate like a dog might, except of course, dogs aren’t normally tied up in black bin liners.

'Neil Garnham QC (Counsel to the Inquiry)In November, Marie-Therese rings Haringey social services hysterically alleging Carl’s sexually assaulted Victoria. Three days before, Lisa told her they’ll only get better housing if Victoria’s at risk. Marie-Therese turns up at social services with Victoria. And her alleged abuser, Carl. When it’s explained to Marie-Therese that before she’ll receive her new council flat, Victoria will need to be examined, and Carl arrested, she withdraws the allegations. Haringey decide to arrange another meeting rather than investigate. There are 15 actions that Lisa should next do and she does them. She rings, writes, leaves messages and even tries to visit after work, in her own time. All are ignored.For the remaining four months of her short life, Victoria is on her own. She is starved and tortured daily.

Marie-Therese takes her to church where she says Victoria’s condition has been caused by devils.

On 24 February, Marie-Therese takes Victoria to church again. A member of the congregation sees Victoria and insists she’s taken to hospital.

On 25 February 2000, with no successful contacts made with Victoria, Haringey close the Victoria Climbié case.“Complete Appropriate Paperwork. Then NFA”Management instructions to Lisa regarding Victoria. ‘NFA’ stands for No Further Action.That afternoon, at 3:30pm, in a London hospital, doctors declare an eight year old girl dead.

California Killer

The seven confirmed Californian Zodiac victimsFour men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted by the Zodiac between December 1968 and October 1969. Of the seven attacked, five died in the Californian cities of Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco.On 20 December 1968, a local resident, Stella Borges, found a young couple next to their parked car on a gravel area next to Lake Herman Road, Benicia, California, a few moments after they had been killed. They were Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and her boyfriend, David Faraday, 17. Jensen had been shot in the back as she was trying to escape, and Faraday had been shot once in the head and died before regaining consciousness. It later emerged that a witness had seen two cars parked on the gravel area but had not noticed any occupants.The next murders linked to the Zodiac Killer occurred around midnight on 4 July 1969 in the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course, Vallejo, California. Only four miles from the Lake Herman murder site, the killer pulled up next to the couple in their parked car and shot them with a 9mm Luger handgun. The victims were 19-year-old Michael Renault Mageau, who survived gunshot wounds to the face, neck and chest; and his girlfriend Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, who was pronounced Dead On Arrival at the hospital.A mere 40 minutes later, on 5 July 1969 at 12:40am, Vallejo Sheriff’s Department received an anonymous phone call from a man claiming responsibility for the Blue Rock Springs shooting, as well as for the Lake Harman Road murders six months earlier. The call was traced to a public phone booth at a petrol station close to both Ferrin’s home and the Vallejo Sheriff’s Department.

7 serial killers who taunted the police

The Zodiac Killer sent countless mocking letters to the police which included specific details about his crimes and difficult-to-solve ciphers

Taunting the Police

A month later, on 1 August 1969, three local newspapers received almost identical letters regarding the shootings. The letters gave details of the ammunition used and the wounds and positions of the victims, information which had never been officially released. The letters were signed with a symbol of a circle overlaid/intersected by a cross. Each letter also had a separate sheet, with a message of 360 characters, printed in cipher, in which the author of the letter claimed his identity was hidden. Each editor received only a third of the message.The message:“Dear Editor, I am the killer of the 2 teenagers at Christmas at Lake Herman and the Girl last 4th of July. To prove this I shall state some facts which only I & police know.Christmas1. Brand name of ammo Super-X2. 10 shots fired3. Boy was on back, feet to car4. Girl was lying on right side, feet to West4th of July1. Girl was wearing patterned pants2. Boy was also shot in knee3. Brand name of ammo was Western.”The letters contained the demand to be printed on the front page of the newspapers, with the threat of further killings the next weekend if this was not heeded. The weekend killing spree did not take place and the letters were eventually printed, in the hope that they may help the police investigation of the murders.

Shortly afterwards, on 4 August 1969, another letter was received by the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, in which the author began, “Dear Editor, This is the Zodiac speaking”. The press and the police pounced on the name. The reign of the Zodiac Killer had begun.Californian code experts, Donald and Betty Harden, cracked the code, except for the last string of 18 letters, on 8 August 1969, a week after the cipher had been sent with the first letters. Disappointingly, the cipher did not contain the Zodiac’s identity, as he had promised, but instead, an explanation of why he killed.The de-coded cipher read (with original misspellings) :"I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THE I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI."On 27 September 1969, Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, were enjoying a picnic on the shores of Lake Berryessa when they were approached by a man wearing an executioner-type hood, sunglasses to hide his eyes, and a symbol on his chest bearing a circle intersected by a cross. The man pointed a gun at them and, explaining he was an escaped convict, demanded money and their car. Using pre-cut strips of clothesline, the man forced Shephard to tie up her boyfriend and then he bound her wrists. The man then drew out a knife, stabbed the couple and left. He walked back to where the couple had parked their car and drew the circle and cross symbol on the car door, writing below it “Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 6:30 by knife”.A local resident and his son were fishing nearby, heard the couple’s screams for help and alerted the park rangers. Shephard was still conscious when County Sheriff Deputies arrived at the scene and was able to give them a detailed description of the man who had attacked them. Both Shephard and Hartnell were taken immediately to hospital. Shephard lapsed into a coma in the ambulance and died two days later, whilst Hartnell survived the brutal attack.

The Napa County Sheriff’s office received a call at 7:30 pm, from a man admitting to the Lake Berryessa attack. The call was traced to a public telephone at a local car wash. When police arrived, they found the receiver still off the hook and were able to lift fresh fingerprints, but these were never matched to a suspect. Napa County Sheriff Detective Ken Narlow was assigned to the case and worked on it until his retirement in 1987.On 11 October 1969, cab driver Paul Lee Stine, 29, was at an intersection in San Francisco, when a man got into his cab and asked to be taken to Presidio Heights. Once at the destination, and without preamble, the man drew out a 9mm firearm and shot Stine once in the head, killing him instantly. He took Stine’s wallet and car keys, and tore off a piece of Stine’s shirt. With the fabric, he calmly proceeded to wipe his fingerprints off the cab and then walked off towards the Presidio base.At 9:55 pm, whilst the crime was in progress, three teenage witnesses, who were across the street, called police. Officers arrived minutes later and conducted a thorough search of the surrounding area, but to no avail. The Zodiac had struck again and vanished. However, a police artist worked with the teenage witnesses to create an identikit of the killer, who was a white male, estimated to be 35 to 45 years old. Detectives Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong of the San Francisco Police Department were assigned to the case.Three days after the Stine murder, on 14 October 1969, the Chronicle newspaper received a letter from the Zodiac, with a threat of shooting school children. In the envelope, as proof that he was the killer, was a piece of the fabric that had been torn from Stine’s shirt.At 2:00 am on 22 October 1969, the Oakland Police Department was called by a man claiming to be the Zodiac and demanding that one of two high profile lawyers appear on Jim Dunbar’s television talk show later that morning. Not wanting to take any risks, police arranged for one of the lawyers, Melvin Belli, to appear on the show. Dunbar requested that viewers keep the lines open and someone claiming to be the Zodiac, and saying his name was Sam, called a number of times. Belli agreed to meet the man, who never showed up at the determined time and venue. Police eventually traced subsequent calls made to Belli, to the Napa State Hospital, where they had a mental patient named Sam.On 22 October 1969, the Zodiac sent a second cryptogram, this time consisting of 340 characters. On 9 November 1969, the Zodiac sent a seven-page letter claiming that he had been stopped and spoken to by two police officers a mere three minutes after he had shot Stine. He continued to literally ‘get away with murder’ and seemed to enjoy taunting the police with this fact. On 20 December 1969, Belli received a letter from the Zodiac, asking for his legal help. Included with the letter was another piece of the fabric torn from Stine’s shirt.The five suspected Californian Zodiac victimsOn the night of 22 March 1970, Kathleen Johns, 22, was going to visit her mother in Petaluma, California. Johns was seven months pregnant and had her ten-month-old daughter in the car with her. On Highway 132, near Modesto, Johns noticed the car behind her flashing its lights and sounding its horn. Worried, she pulled off the road and the car behind her followed suit. The man told Johns that one of her rear tyres was wobbling but that he could tighten it. She gladly allowed the man to help her and he drove off. When Johns pulled back onto the highway, the tyre came off completely and Johns veered to a halt. The man reversed back to her and offered to drive her and her daughter to the nearest service station.Little suspecting that the man had in fact loosened her tyre and caused the whole calamity in the first place, Johns once again accepted his offer of help, and climbed into his car. The first service station was closed but then the man kept making excuses that the other service stations they passed were the wrong ones. Johns began to fear him and nervously sat in his car whilst he drove around the back streets of the rural area for nearly three hours.Eventually Johns managed to escape when the man stopped at an intersection. Clutching her baby daughter, she leaped out of the car, ran into a nearby field and hid. The man turned off his headlights and waited silently in the car for about five minutes. He then turned his lights back on and drove away.Johns managed to stop a passing motorist, who took her and her daughter to the Patterson police station. Here she saw the identikit of the Zodiac and confirmed him to be the man who had abducted her. The Patterson police went in search of Johns’ car and they found it completely burned out and still smouldering. The Zodiac had returned to destroy any evidence of his presence.It transpired that this was the last time anyone saw the Zodiac killer in person, but his letter writing continued for quite some time after that. On 20 April 1970, the Chronicle newspaper received a letter, which included a 13-character piece of code as well as the plans for a bus bomb. It began “This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is --“ followed by a 13-character code, and was signed off with the crossed-circle symbol. In the letter, the Zodiac claimed to have killed 10 people to date. On 28 April 1970, the Chronicle received a greeting card from the Zodiac threatening to place a bomb on a bus and also asking for Zodiac buttons to be made. “I would like to see some nice Zodiac butons [sic] wandering about town. Every one else has these buttons like [peace symbol], black power,… etc. Well it would cheer me up considerably if I saw a lot of people wearing my buton [sic].”A letter to the Chronicle on 26 June 1970 contained another code and a road map of the Bay Area, with a stylised clock face, incorporating the crossed circle Zodiac symbol, drawn on the summit of Mount Diablo. The Zodiac stated in the letter that he was becoming increasingly angry with the people of the San Francisco Bay Area, as they had not complied with his wish to have them wear Zodiac buttons. He threatened to kill a busload of school children in retaliation for his wishes not being met. The map and the clock were clues to where the bomb was being stored.On 24 July 1970, a short note was sent to the Chronicle, referring to the abduction of Johns and the burning of her car, signed with a very large crossed-circle. On 26 July 1970 a letter arrived about the tortures the Zodiac’s slaves would endure in the afterlife. On 5 October 1970, the Chronicle received a postcard with a collage of pictures, through which had been punched 13 holes, representing the 13 lives the Zodiac claimed to have taken. In this communication, he warned police that he had not slowed down his ‘pace’ of killing and bragged that they would never catch him.On 27 October 1970, a Halloween greeting card addressed to Paul Avery, arrived at the Chronicle, in which the Zodiac apologised for not sending another cipher. It was signed with the crossed circle and a large ‘Z’ but in addition there was a creepy symbol made of 13 eyes and the words ‘Peek-a-boo, you are doomed’. Around this time, Kathleen Johns received a similar card from the Zodiac. Taken as a direct threat, the card sent to Avery made front-page news in the Chronicle on 31 October 1970. As a direct result of this, an anonymous letter was sent to the Chronicle, urging police to investigate a murder in Riverside, a few years before, which had many similarities to the other Zodiac killings.Avery took action and visited the Riverside police to read through their evidence on the case, including the letters sent after the murder. He arranged for a meeting of the detectives from Napa and San Francisco counties to compare the details of the crimes and the possible Zodiac link. Handwriting experts confirmed the handwriting to be the same in all the letters but police investigators remained sceptical. When Avery’s story was printed in the Chronicle on 16 November 1970, the Riverside murder made the news four years after the crime had been committed. The Riverside Police Department’s official position, as of 1998, was that Bates was not a Zodiac victim.On Sunday 30 October 1966, Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old student, was murdered near the library parking lot of the Riverside Community College, San Francisco. The killer had disabled her lime green Volkswagon by removing the distributor coil and condenser, and disconnecting some wires. He had waited for Bates to return to her car from the library, shortly before it closed at 9:00 pm. When Bates’ car would not start, the man went over to offer her help. He tinkered with the engine for a while and then, saying he couldn’t fix it, offered her a lift.He managed to lure her into a dark driveway between two empty houses, owned by the College. Here they spent approximately an hour and a half, during which time no one is certain what happened. Bates’ dead body was later found, covered with large knife slashes, three across her chest, one across her back, and seven across her throat. Police determined the murder weapon to be a small knife with a blade approximately 3.5 inches long and 0.5 inches wide. The neck wounds were so brutal that they had severed her larynx, carotid artery and jugular vein, and nearly caused her decapitation. Bates had also been beaten, choked and slashed about the face but she had not been raped or robbed.Two separate witnesses had heard a terrible scream at around 10.30pm, and then a more muted scream, immediately followed by the sound of a car starting. This matches the coroner’s estimated time of death as around 10.30pm. The fact that Bates had spent over an hour in a dark driveway before she was heard screaming, suggested to police that she knew her attacker. They surmised he might have been an ex-boyfriend, a spurned suitor or someone connected to Bates.A month later, on 29 November 1966, Riverside police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise were posted carbon copies of an anonymous typed letter. It was entitled ‘The Confession’, with a by-line of the word ‘BY’ followed by 12 underscores, and claimed responsibility for the Bates murder, warning that she was not the first and would not be the last. At least one of the details in the letter had not been made public, leading police to believe it was genuinely from the Bates’ killer. They found a single fingerprint on the envelope but it was never matched to a suspect. It could have been from the author of the letter or a postman or a policeman. Opinion regarding the author of the letter changed over time, with some doubting it was from the Zodiac Killer.“I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game. This letter should be published for all to read it. It just might save that girl in the alley. But that’s up to you. It will be on your conscience. Not mine. Yes I did make that call to you also. It was just a warning. Beware… I am stalking your girls now.” - Anonymous 'confession'On 30 April 1967, exactly six months after her death, Cheri Jo’s father, Joseph Bates, as well as the Riverside police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise were sent nearly identical copies of another letter. Two of the letters were signed with a symbol resembling a ‘Z’, joined with a ‘3’. The letters read as follows, “Bates had to die. There will be more.” Once again, one fingerprint was found on the letter, but it was never matched to a suspect.

Four months after Avery’s article in the Chronicle about the Bates murder, another Zodiac letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times on 13 March 1971. In it, he credited the police for making the link with the Bates killing but reminded them that “they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there”.On 22 March 1971, Avery received another Zodiac letter, this time taking credit for the disappearance of Donna Lass, 25, a nurse from Lake Tahoe, California. She had been missing since 26 September 1970, when she left work around 2:00 am.The following morning her uniform and shoes, covered in dirt, were found in a paper bag in her office. Her apartment was clean and tidy and her car was found parked outside. Her body has never been found. The letter was made of a collage of lettering and adverts and seemed to give clues to the crime scene. However, when police investigated, they discovered what appeared to be a grave but all they found in it was a pair of sunglasses.On 13 November 1972 the Vallejo Times-Herald ran a story that said the murders of a young couple nearly a decade earlier had been the work of the Zodiac. On 4 June 1963, high school seniors Robert Domingos, 18, and Linda Edwards, 17, were shot and killed on a beach near Lompoc, California. It seemed to investigators that the couple had initially been bound but had managed to free themselves and the killer had shot them in the back and chest as they were trying to flee. He had then placed their bodies in a nearby shack and set it alight, although it did not burn down.Following the letter to Avery in March 1971, the Zodiac kept silent for almost three years. On 29 January 1974, the Chronicle received a letter in which the Zodiac signed off “Me = 37, SFPD = 0”, indicating that his murder count had reached 37 and the San Francisco police still had not caught him. A further three letters were sent to the Chronicle, on 14 February 1974, 8 May 1974, and 8 July 1974 but it was debated that the author had been the Zodiac. A further four years passed until a letter arrived on 24 April 1978, which was first thought to be from the Zodiac but three months later experts declared it as a hoax.Amongst all the suspects over the years, police only seriously investigated one of them, Arthur Leigh Allen (18 December 1933 – 26 August 1992), who maintained his innocence throughout. A friend of Allen’s had suspicions about him and reported this to the Manhattan Beach Police Department in July 1971. Allen was a convicted sex offender and police had enough circumstantial evidence against him to justify three search warrants. On 14 September 1972, they searched his home and found weapons and explosive components. They searched his home again on 14 February 1991 and on 28 August 1992, two days after his death. None of Allen’s handwriting, fingerprints or DNA testing on the letters, matched that of the Zodiac but he was never ruled out as a suspect.The San Francisco Police Department declared its Zodiac investigation inactive in April 2004. The reasons given were an overbearing caseload pressure and limited resources to dedicate to the Zodiac, but the case remained open in other jurisdictions.The New York Zodiac crimesAt 3:00 am on 9 March 1990, New York restaurant worker Mario Orozco, 49, was on his way home through Brooklyn. He was followed by a young man in a maroon beret, who suddenly appeared from the shadows of a cemetery and shot Orozco in the back with a 9mm zip gun (a crude, improvised handgun). The man wrapped a note, which read “This is the Zodiac”, around the gun and left it on the pavement next to Orozco, who survived the shooting.At 3:00 am on 29 March 1990, German Montenesdro, 34, was drunk and wandering the streets of East New York, on his way home. A young man started following him and without warning, fired at him. Whilst Montenesdro lay wounded, the young man searched his pockets, leaving the money but taking the passport.On 31 May 1990, World War II veteran Joseph Proce, 78, was enjoying a late night stroll in the Queens area of East New York. At around 1:30 am, he was approached by a man wanting water. Being cautious, Proce refused and the man shot him, leaving a disconcerting handwritten note next to the body before leaving. Proce died in hospital on 24 June 1990.These murders had been preceded by a letter to East New York’s 17th Precinct, on 17 November 1989. It contained a large hand-drawn circle, divided into sections representing the signs of the zodiac. The letter read:“This is the Zodiac.The First Sign is dead.The Zodiac will Kill the twelve signs in the BeltWhen the Zodiacal light is seen?The Zodiac will spread fearI have seen a lot of police inJamaica Ave and Elden Lane butyou are no good and will not getthe Zodiac.Orion is the one that can stopZodiac and the Seven Sister.”The murders were followed up with letters, in the same style as the previous Zodiac communications, but these ones said ‘All shot in Brooklyn’. NYPD officers tried checking open cases to see if any were connected to the new Zodiac letters. However, this proved a difficult task.Chief of Detectives, Joseph Borelli, called together detectives from different New York precincts, in order to share information on the cases. Borelli’s team worked on ‘Operation Watchdog’, confident they would finally catch the Zodiac killer. The story leaked to the press and once more, members of the public were worried about the Zodiac killer in their midst.On 21 June 1990, Larry Parham, a homeless man was sleeping on a bench in Central Park, New York City. Waking up, he saw a man standing over him, who, without saying a word, shot him in the torso with a .38 pistol and walked off into the park. The following day, the New York Post newspaper received a letter, filled with symbolism, astrological references, a list of victims and details of their deaths.It seemed that whilst there were many similarities between these crimes and the Zodiac killings years before, police were never convinced they were the same man. However, copycat or not, New York was still in the grips of a series of crimes committed by someone claiming to be the Zodiac. The New York police immediately began a manhunt for the killer.Heriberto ‘Eddie’ Seda, 22, lived with his mother and half sister, Gladys ‘Chachi’ Reyes, in East New York. Somewhat of an enigma, outwardly Seda was handsome, neat and tidy but he didn’t work, had no friends, and didn’t date girls. He had dropped out of high school at age 16, after being suspended for carrying a weapon. He would get money by putting plastic bags into the coin slots of vending machines and pay phones, returning a few days later to extract the coin-filled bags.Deeply religious, Seda regularly attended church, devoting his life to God and making his mother proud. It turned out however that he hated his sister, who was everything he wasn’t, and he regularly abused her, both mentally and physically. The abuse only stopped around 1989. Seda spent most of his time in his bedroom, pursuing his hobbies, which included reading about violence, guns and serial killers. He idolised Ted Bundy but his ultimate hero was the Zodiac killer because he had outwitted the police and never been caught. Seda had compiled scrapbooks of his favourites and his latest project was the New York Zodiac.In his bedroom, Seda kept a substantial collection of ammunition and homemade explosives and weapons. Included were several zip guns, which enable the changing of barrels, and therefore the ability to use different calibre bullets, thus complicating the matching of ballistics. In his twisted mind, Seda felt untouchable and protected by ‘the magic’ but he also felt that he was pushing his luck and he would have to be careful. His fingerprints were on police file and if he were arrested for anything else, police would know he was the New York Zodiac. He decided to stop killing.After a number of months with no Zodiac attacks, NYPD’s Operation Watchdog Zodiac task force was reduced from 50 to 18 police officers. Seda waited a year before he attacked again and concentrated his attacks to the Highland Park area, New York.On 10 August 1992 Patricia Fonti, 39, met a good-looking man near the Highland Park reservoir and they began chatting. After a while, they walked down to the shore of the reservoir, where at 1:30am the man shot Fonti with a .22 zip gun. She put up a fight, which resulted in the Zodiac stabbing her over 100 times. Fonti died at the scene.On 4 June 1992 Jim Weber, 42, an unemployed construction worker was shot in the buttocks in Highland Park. On 20 July 1992 mental patient Joseph Diacone, 40, was shot outside Highland Park at 11:35 am and died from his wounds. On 2 October 1992 Diane Ballard, 40, was shot whilst sitting on a bench in Highland Park. She survived. The NYPD did not connect these crimes as they were busy dealing with so many random acts of violence in their city.On 10 March 1994 police arrested Seda outside his apartment building, after finding him in possession of an illegal zip gun. He was polite and cooperated with the police. The evidence laboratory incorrectly labelled his gun, enabling Seda to walk free a week later.On 10 June 1994 a white man was shot in Highland Park with a .22 calibre zip gun but the incident went unreported. On 1 August 1994 the New York Post received another Zodiac letter. It had a list of new victims, an odd totem pole code and the line “sleep my little dead how we loathe them”. When the New York Post printed the story, New Yorkers were once more in the grip of fear about the Zodiac killer.

Fantasy turns to reality

On Sunday, 29 June 2003, the two teenage boys set out from Altrincham, Greater Manchester. They met up at Trafford shopping centre, where Mark casually told John he needed to pick up a knife. Mark withdrew money from the cash machine, they went into a shop and Mark told John to select a knife. He chose a six-inch Sabatier and Mark paid for it. Mark later told police that letting John select the knife would somehow make his death easier for him.Mark apparently began to feel sick and dizzy and the boys sat down for a rest. He was having disturbing visions of what he was about to do and that was to stab his friend to death. Mark tried telling John how he was feeling, saying that he “might have to do something” that day. John knew what it was but remained silent.The boys then walked to a wooded area nearby and it was here that Mark told John he would have to stab him. For over an hour, Mark held the knife close to John’s body, saying, “You have to let me do it”. Mark says, “I was not in control. I did not even feel like me. I put the knife to his stomach and pressed down on it. The knife went into him and he started bleeding through his top. I hugged him as I did not want to hurt him. Then I put the knife into him again.”

The boys then returned to Altrincham. Here they went to a MacDonald’s restaurant to buy a Coke before heading towards Goose Green, a fashionable area of Altrincham. It was here that they entered a deserted alleyway. John seemed determined to go ahead with the suicide/murder that he did not use the pre-determined ‘6969’ code for aborting the plan.Mark told John he was his best friend before plunging the knife into John’s stomach. John shouted at Mark to stop and started to scream in pain. Mark tried to get the younger boy to calm down and be quiet so as not to attract attention. Mark reported to police later that he had not felt in control at that point but, determined to complete his secret mission, had plunged the knife once more into John’s body.Shortly before 8pm on 29 June 2003, police received a phone call from Mark. He told them that his best friend had been stabbed by an unknown attacker, in a deserted alley, off the main street in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.Police and an ambulance arrived a few moments later and John was rushed to Wythenshawe Hospital in a critical condition from stab wounds, one of which had damaged a kidney and his liver. Following emergency treatment, John survived the attack and remained in hospital for a week.

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The boy who incited his own murder

A child capable of murder

"I squeezed his neck and pushed up his lungs, that's how you kill them."- Mary Bell to Norma Bell, her co-defendant in the double murder of two young children."When Kids Kill" by Jonathon PaulThere are many things which make the horrific aspects of the crimes committed by Mary Bell over the summer of 1968 in the slum area of Newcastle stand out: principally that the killers were children themselves who murdered younger boys.In what is one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th Century, Mary Bell is just 10 when she starts her murderous activities, strangling four-year-old Martin Brown and three-year-old Brian Howe in separate incidents in Scotswood, Newcastle. Her potential for violence was well known in the local area, although no-one appears to suspect the true depths of her deviant nature.In May, Martin Brown’s lifeless body is discovered in an abandoned house. Though there is no conclusive proof, it is thought that Mary is alone when she kills Martin. It was one day before her eleventh birthday.

Two months later, on 31 July 1968, Mary, this time along with and her neighbour and accomplice, Norma Bell, Mary would murder again. The victim is three-year-old Brian Howe. After a walk with the pair, Brian is found on wasteland in nearby area that locals call the Tin Lizzy. This time there were disturbing signs and clues to the killers' identities. Mary Bell had carved an crudely shaped "M" into his Brian’s stomach with a razor. Cuttings from his hair are found in the surrounding area.The two young killers break into a local nursery after Martin’s death and leave macabre messages about the murder. The daubings use childish language and writing, “We did murder martin brown - We murder, watch out. I murder so that I may come back”.When two young boys befriend and later kill toddler James Bulger in Liverpool, 25 years later, comparisons would be made between these child killers and Mary Bell.

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The UK's scariest killer children

Pizza, Socks and Rubbish

Never before had a missing pizza, grey sock and 293 tonnes of domestic rubbish played such an important part in a murder investigation. But this was all the police had to go on when 25-year-old landscape architect Joanna Yeates went missing on 17 December 2010.

Joanna Yeates was born in 1985 in Ampfield, Hampshire. The perfect daughter, she had just moved with her boyfriend Greg Reardon into a beautiful ground floor flat in the upmarket area of Clifton in Bristol. Having recently graduated with a postgraduate diploma in landscape architecture, she had an amazing future ahead of her. Christmas co-incidentally happened to be her favourite time of the year.

Living above Joanna and Greg was their landlord Chris Jefferies. Described “as an eccentric pillar of society” he was a retired 65-year-old English teacher. Also a member of the local neighbourhood watch group, it was alleged that Jefferies had seen three people, including Joanna, leave her flat the night she disappeared. He would go on to play a key part in the hunt for the killer.

Joanna and Greg’s next door neighbour was Vincent Tabak, a 33-year-old Dutch national. Described as an “introverted loner” as a child, he had grown up in Uden, Holland. After gaining his masters degree and later a PhD in engineering he moved to the UK. He worked in nearby Bath and lived with his girlfriend, Tanja Morson. The events on the night of 17 December would change his life forever.

Christie the Killer

Christie's first known victim was killed sometime in 1943: 21-year-old Ruth Fuerst, an Austrian girl whom he was having an affair with at the time, whom he impulsively strangled during sex, and then buried in the communal garden at Rillington Place. Excited by the ultimate power thrill that the death of his victim had afforded, he took great care in planning his next attack, on 32-year-old neighbour, Muriel Eady. On 8 November 1944, he invited her around, claiming to be able to cure a recurring chest ailment with a special inhaler, which actually contained carbon monoxide; once she was rendered unconscious he strangled her whilst raping her, and she died during the process. She too joined Fuerst in the back garden.

In 1948, Timothy Evans and his wife, Beryl, moved into Rillington Place, and shortly afterwards Beryl gave birth to a baby girl, Geraldine. Evans had an IQ of 70, and was easily suggestible, although he also possessed a violent temper. His learning difficulties made it hard for him to hold a steady job, and when, a year later, Beryl found herself pregnant again, she feared that they would not be able to support another child.Christie claimed that he had some knowledge of abortion, illegal in the UK at that time, and offered to assist the couple. Beryl became Christie’s third victim, incapacitated, strangled and violated as per his modus operandi, on she died on 8 November 1948 as a result of his intervention. He persuaded Evans that her death had resulted from septic poisoning, from the various other abortion remedies that she had tried up until that point, and convinced him not to go to the police. Instead, he was despatched alone to stay with his mother’s sister in Wales, with Christie claiming that he had found a young couple willing to look after baby Geraldine. She was never seen alive again.Evans’ mother, puzzled by the mysterious disappearance of Beryl and the baby, confronted Evans and, on 30 November, unable to maintain the charade any longer, he went to the police in Merthyr Tydfil. Wishing to protect Christie, he confessed to accidentally killing Beryl himself, by giving her abortion pills, and then disposing of her body in a sewer drain. Police in Notting Hill duly investigated, and found nothing, and Evans was questioned more intensely a second time, at which time he changed his story and implicated Christie in Beryl’s death.A thorough search of Rillington Place, on 2 December 1949, revealed the bodies of Beryl and baby Geraldine hidden in the washhouse in the back garden. Geraldine still had a man’s tie around her neck, which had been used to strangle her.Further questioning caused Evans to change his story a number of times, which included a confession to having strangled Beryl over mounting debts, but this may have been due to the limitations of his mental abilities and the strenuous police interrogation. Christie was also questioned, but managed to convince police that he had no involvement. With careful coaching from Christie, wife Ethel also corroborated his version.Evans went on trail at the Old Bailey on 11 January 1950, and his ineffective defence team failed to follow up on a number of inconsistencies in the testimony offered by Christie and his wife; indeed, Christie was a key witness for the prosecution, and his positive impression on the jury was instrumental in Evans being found guilty. Evans continued to maintain his innocence, and attempted one appeal, but he was hanged on 9 March 1950.Following the trial, Christie’s hypochondria grew steadily worse, and he became depressed and lost a considerable amount of weight. He lost his job at the post office, and found it difficult to maintain a job over the next few years. Around 12 December 1952, Ethel Christie disappeared mysteriously, and Christie told neighbours that she had gone back to Sheffield, while relatives were told that she had become too ill to communicate with them, although he continued to send gifts marked as coming from both of them. He had, in fact, strangled Ethel, and placed her body under the floorboards in the parlour. Christie also began treating the house with strong disinfectants, when neighbours remarked on the increasingly bad odours that were coming from the Christie house.Christie’s next victim was 25-year-old Rita Nelson, a pregnant prostitute who was persuaded by Christie that he could assist her with a termination, and who suffered the same fate as Beryl Evans on 19 January 1953. Her body was placed in an alcove that existed behind a cupboard in the kitchen.26-year-old Kathleen Maloney, another prostitute, was gassed, strangled and raped in February 1953. She joined Nelson, in the alcove behind the cupboard, the next morning.Christie's final victim, 26-year-old Hectorina McLennan, was similarly gassed, strangled and raped, then also stashed in the alcove. Christie then papered over the cupboard that concealed the alcove, but could do very little about the increasingly bad odour coming from the three decomposing bodies. He finally moved out of Rillington Place on 20 March 1953, defrauding the family who took up residency, by taking 3 months rent money from them, when he was not authorised by the landlord, and they were forced to move out within 24 hours.

Hell in Hampstead

On 1 July 1982, Duffy and Mulcahy attacked and raped a woman close to Hampstead Station in London’s Hampstead village. The assault gave the two psychopaths a taste for terrorising women in similar scenarios and for the next twelve months women were assaulted across London and the outer counties. In all, eighteen women were raped near various train stations as well as in an area close to Duffy's Kilburn house.The police set up an urgent workshop to try to find the perpetrators, called ‘Operation Hart’ which was the largest investigation to take place in the UK since the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry a few years before.In autumn 1983 the attacks suddenly stopped. Police later found out that this coincided with Duffy’s separation from his wife.Early in 1984 the attacks began again, this time in West London and North London. The police had no evidence to link the crimes and were unsure as to whether they were committed by the same man, or two different individuals.Then, in July 1985, three women were raped on the same night, all in the Hendon and Hampstead area. Duffy and Mulcahy were pulled in for interrogation, but were eventually released. However, in August 1985, due to a bout of domestic violence at his home when he attacked his wife, Duffy was arrested.

He was interviewed and eventually added to the ‘Hart’ computer system as one of many thousands of men being investigated. Unfortunately Duffy was far down the list of suspects. Mulcahy, who was Duffy’s accomplice in the rape attacks, was also questioned and eventually released.At this time a new concept in crime investigations evolved with the innovative ‘Psychological Offender Profiling’.Professor David Canter from Surrey University was called in to aid the police investigation and it was his ‘profiling’ system which made its debut during this particular case. Canter drew up a list of seventeen personality and characteristic traits, including environmental clues that the offender may display. When Duffy was finally caught it transpired Canter was proved correct with at least twelve of these traits.In September 1985, a woman was attacked in Barnet. The description of the attacker fitted Duffy and the police pulled him in for questioning and placed him in an identity parade. However, the victim, still traumatised from the assault, failed to pick him out.Mulcahy was also questioned but eventually released. It was to be a grave mistake, costing the lives of several women.On 29  December 1985, Alison Day, aged 19, was dragged off a train at Hackney station by Duffy and Mulcahy and repeatedly raped. She was then strangled with a piece of string.This was the first time the victim had been killed. Police further stepped up their search for the attacker. The death of Day changed the attacker’s moniker from the Railway Rapist to the Railway Killer. There was still no evidence at this time to suggest that two men were carrying out the attacks.In the spring of next year the two men attacked another helpless young victim. Fifteen-year-old Maartje Tambozer was abducted from Horsley station in East Surrey on 17 April 1986. After being raped and strangled, the teenager’s body was set on fire, most likely as a grisly attempt to destroy any evidence.Less than a month later, on 12 May 1986, Duffy was arrested near North Weald station after been found carrying a knife. However, there was not enough evidence to charge him and he was released - only to kill again six days later.On 18 May 1986, the victim was local TV presenter Anne Locke, 29, who was abducted as she alighted from her train in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire.

At a public house in Kensington, Haigh chanced upon former employer 'Mac' McSwan again. Mac was happy to see him and took Haigh to see his parents. During the friendly reunion they told Haigh of their recent investments in property. This information was to seal their fates. After socialising with Mac for several weeks, Haigh carried out his plan on the 9 September 1944.In Haigh's diary, he claimed that he had a sudden need for blood so he hit McSwan over the head with a blunt instrument. Then he slit his throat. He says, "I got a mug and took some blood, from his neck, in the mug, and drank it."Haigh later found a 40-gallon barrel in which to put McSwan’s body and then filled it with sulphuric acid. He described in his confession how, when the body was finally submerged in liquid acid, the fumes overwhelmed him and he had to go outside. Later he covered the drum and went home to sleep, leaving his former employer and friend to dissolve into a liquid sludge. It was during the night that he supposedly suffered from more surreal and blood-filled nightmares.The next day the remains of McSwan were little more than cold liquid and lumps which Haigh disposed of down a drain. Knowing that he had killed someone and removed all traces of them gave Haigh a feeling of euphoria.Haigh managed to convince McSwan’s parents that their son had gone away to avoid conscription. He even sent fake postcards to them from Scotland pretending to be their son. However, Haigh’s main concern was to acquire the rest of the McSwan assets.The next murder would be committed with the addition of new equipment to deal with dissolving bodies. A stirrup-pump, DIY tin face masks and even a bath tub made of steel, painted to make it more resistant to corrosion, were all employed by Haigh in his obscene workshop of death.The McSwan MurdersAccording to a police statement, before Haigh hit upon his plan to cruelly dispose of the remainder of the McSwan family, he also murdered a middle-aged woman from Hammersmith.The McSwans disappeared on 2 July 1945. They were killed in a similarly tragic way to their son. Haigh hit them first, killing them and then claimed to have drunk their blood, before dissolving them in acid baths.After informing the McSwans' landlady that the couple had gone to America, Haigh had all of their mail forwarded to him, including Mr McSwan's pension. He then set about forging their son’s signature on a Power of Attorney form. By forging a deed on a property owned by Mrs McSwan and appropriating it into a false name, Haigh managed to make nearly £2000 from selling the property. That, along with securities and sales of possessions, totalled £6000.For a while Haigh managed to swindle people through a variety of scams, including posing as a liaison officer dealing with patents and setting up fake branches in several towns. It was also around this time that he later claimed in a police confession that he had killed and disposed of a young man called Max from Kensington. 

Haigh’s spoils from the McSwans were running out fast and the evil sociopath needed money from new victims. This time he chose a more worldly couple, Dr Archibald Henderson, 52, and his wife, Rose, 41, who were selling their home.Cultivating a relationship with the couple, based on a shared passion for music, Haigh encouraged them to reveal information about their properties.Renting a storehouse on Leopold Road in Crawley, London, Haigh moved his possessions from Gloucester Street and began setting up his obscene workshop once again. This time he ordered three carboys of sulphuric acid and two 40-gallon drums without tops.On 12 February 1946, he drove Dr Henderson to Crawley and shot him in the head with the doctor's own revolver. He then left the body in a storeroom and set off to get Mrs Henderson. After some reluctance she was driven to the storehouse. Haigh shot her from behind and after trussing up both her and her husband’s bodies, left them overnight. Haigh later claimed to the police that he drank blood from both of them.Haigh dissolved both bodies in acid but this time the grisly act did not erase all traces, as Mr Henderson’s foot was left intact. This did not seem to bother Haigh too much, as he dumped all the remains including the foot in the corner of a yard. The psychopath by now felt immune to being captured.Efforts to maintain the impression that the Henderson’s were still alive were methodical and time consuming. Haigh even forged letters by Rose Henderson, writing a lengthy letter to her brother. After selling their properties and possessions he acquired around £8000 in total. Showing a sickening contempt for his victims he even gave his girlfriend Barbara some of Mrs Henderson’s clothes to wear.Unexpectedly, Rose Henderson’s brother Burlin was prepared to go to the police. Haigh managed to convince him that the couple had emigrated to South Africa on the grounds that Dr Henderson had carried out an illegal abortion.As an indication of Haigh’s depravity and sociopathic tendencies, he even planned on visiting the mother of a recently deceased school friend whom he had spotted in the obituaries section of a local newspaper.No doubt Haigh had intentions to dispose of the grieving mother and misappropriate any possessions he could. His plan was foiled when the frail woman unexpectedly died herself.

Haigh’s money once again started to run out, mainly due to gambling and expensive tastes which included staying at an upmarket hotel. While there he had socialised with a wealthy elderly woman, Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon, and thought up murderous plans to dispose of her.In June 1948 Haigh claimed that his car was stolen but the Lagonda was found smashed at the foot of a cliff. Less than a month later, an unidentified body was found nearby. However, the police decided that the two incidents were unrelated. Haigh denied having anything to do with the body, even after his arrest.Haigh had told girlfriend Barbara that he wanted to collect the car insurance and even took her to the spot where the Lagonda had been written off. It was then that she began to become suspicious of her soon-to-be husband.In the meantime, despite having killed Mrs Durand-Deacon, his money was running out again and he needed to pay off loans. Even although he tried to invite other people out to his Crawley den of death, no-one took him up on his offer.Also, Rose Henderson’s brother was once again causing problems for Haigh by insisting that the police locate his sister due to a death in the family. Haigh realised that he would have to silence him too.Before Haigh could carry out his callous intentions, he was arrested. His first comment to the reception officer when he first arrived at Lewes prison was, "This is the result of doing six people, but not for personal gain". Haigh then confessed to everything.

John Taylor and his crimes

On the evening of 26 November 2000, Leeds teenager Leanne Tiernan, 16, was on her way home when she disappeared. Studying for her GCSEs, Tiernan had been shopping for Christmas gifts in the city with her friend, Sarah Whitehouse. The girls had shared a bus ride into the suburb of Bramley and parted near Whitehouse’s home. Tiernan then continued alone towards her own home but never arrived.John Taylor had been lurking in the woods, waiting for a likely victim. It turned out to be Tiernan. As she walked alone along the unlit path known as Houghley Gill that she frequently used, Taylor grabbed her from behind. Whilst there were no eyewitnesses, it was later reported that someone had heard a stifled scream. Taylor put his hand over her mouth, blindfolded her and led her to his house. There he tied her hands behind her back and during the course of a sexual assault, strangled her with a scarf and a plastic ligature.Tiernan’s parents, Michael Tiernan and Sharon Hawkhead, were divorced and her father was away on holiday at the time. When Tiernan did not return home from shopping, her mother immediately reported her missing to the police. She described her daughter as happy, confident, streetwise and never having gone missing before.

Police InvestigationDetective Superintendent Chris Gregg of the West Yorkshire Police led the investigation into Tiernan’s missing person case. A week after her disappearance, investigators reconstructed Tiernan’s last movements. Her sister Michelle, 19, and friend, Sarah Whitehouse, wearing the same clothing as Tiernan and Whitehouse had on 26 November, followed the same route home. Unfortunately this did not produce any further clues. Tiernan’s parents both made emotional appeals to the public for any assistance they may provide in the search for Leanne. There were several reports of possible sightings of Tiernan, which police investigated, but to no avail.Complicating the police search was the fact that the area in which Tiernan had disappeared consisted of vastly varying terrain. There were more than 700 houses, open areas, woodland, canals, drainage shafts and wells. Police conducted an extensive house-to-house inquiry and the search eventually grew enormous, involving uniformed officers, operational support, the dog section, the mounted section, underwater search and air support.On Monday, 20 August 2001, nine months after she disappeared, Leanne Tiernan’s body was discovered near Otley on the border of North and West Yorkshire, 16 miles from her house and several miles from the scene of the crime. A man, out walking his dog in Lindley Woods near the Warren Point car park, stumbled across her body, wrapped in a floral duvet cover and buried in a shallow grave. It transpired that a few days before the body was discovered, a retired couple had seen a man carrying a large floral-patterned bundle from the boot of his car into the woods.Inside the duvet cover, Leanne’s body had been wrapped in green plastic bin-liners, tied with twine. Covering her head was a black bin-liner, held in place with a dog collar tied tightly around her neck. Her hands had been bound together with cable ties and around her neck were more cable ties and a scarf.The post mortem examination concluded that the degree of decomposition of the body was inconsistent with burial in the ground for the full nine months since Tiernan’s disappearance. Investigators were therefore hopeful that enough forensic evidence would be present to lead them to the killer. Police officers, forensic and scientific experts conducted a fingertip search of the dense woodland where Tiernan’s body had been buried and expanded this to cover an area of 20,000 square metres.Leanne Tiernan’s funeral was held on Friday, 28 September 2001, a day after what would have been her 17th birthday. The service was held less than a mile from where she disappeared and close to her home, at the Sandford Methodist Church in Bramley.About a hundred people packed into the small church, where Tiernan had been baptised, whilst other mourners had to stand outside and hear a relayed version of the service, led by Sister Janet Durbin. Deaconess Durbin said, “Leanne was a normal, happy, fun-loving teenager, half child and half young lady.”Amongst those in attendance were Tiernan’s mother Sharon Hawkhead, her sister Michelle, her friend Sarah Whitehouse, and Detective Superintendent Chris Gregg. The private burial took place at the nearby Hill Top Cemetery.Animal DNADuring their investigation, the West Yorkshire police learned that Taylor had often been seen hunting small animals in Lindley Woods, where Tiernan’s body was discovered and he was placed on their list of suspects. Forensic investigators found dog hairs on Tiernan’s body and needed further information. The dog hair DNA sample was sent to a university in Texas, which had developed a DNA profiling technique for pedigreed pets. The university produced a partial profile for a dog but unfortunately police were unable to link this to Taylor, as the dog he owned at the time of Tiernan’s murder had subsequently died. This was the first time dog DNA had been used in a British criminal case.The knitted scarf found around Tiernan’s neck contained human hair in the knot. Initial conventional DNA tests of the hair roots failed, so forensic experts used Mitochondrial DNA testing. Using these results, they managed to create a DNA profile from the minute amounts of DNA inside the hair shaft and it was a match to Taylor.

The man who shook a city

Most of the killings by so-called ‘Jack’ were perpetrated in a public place at night. The victim’s throat was always cut, after which the body was subjected to abdominal mutilations. It is believed that many of the victims were strangled in order to silence them, although a letter supposedly written by the killer and sent to the Metropolitan police alludes to one victim ‘squealing’.It is now accepted that the slayer also had a degree of surgical or medical skill due to the manner in which organs were removed from the bodies. Although the name and number of the Ripper’s actual murders are still open to debate, it is generally accepted that he carried out five attacks, two of which were executed on the same night.

Mary Ann Nichols (43), killed 31 Aug 1888Mary was born Mary Ann Walker on 26 August 1845. She was also known as ‘Polly’ and had married William Nichols, a printer’s machinist. They had five children. Mary was a known heavy drinker which most likely contributed to the breakdown of her marriage. Nichols continued to pay Mary an allowance of five shillings a week until it was reported she was living with another man. She later spent time in the workhouses and lived off her earnings as a prostitute.Mary is the first acknowledged 'Ripper' victim. Her body was found by two workmen in front of a dimly lit gated stable entrance in Buck’s Row (now Durward St) at around 3.40am on Friday, 31 August 1888. Nichols had been savagely attacked across the throat exposing her vertebrae and also repeatedly stabbed in the stomach. Her abdomen was cut open, exposing her intestines, with two small stabs in the groin area.Annie Chapman (47), killed 8 Sept 1888Annie, born Eliza Ann Smith in 1841, appeared to have had a reasonably promising upbringing, brought up by George Smith, of the 2nd Regiment Life Guards and Ruth Chapman. In 1869, she married a coachman called John Chapman and moved to Berkshire where they had three children. Tragically their only son was born disabled while their first daughter died of meningitis at twelve. The third and middle child, Annie Georgina, fared better when she joined a travelling circus and went to France. Annie and her husband eventually parted company.In 1886 Annie was living in Whitechapel with a man who made wire sieves. She was soon known as Annie ‘Sievey’ and for a few years lived on an allowance of several shillings from her estranged husband John. When the allowance stopped following her husband’s death, Annie’s live-in partner soon left her. It was after this that she became depressed and lived in lodging houses. She took to work selling flowers and doing crochet, but was tempted to earn much needed money through casual prostitution.Chapman, a small, blue-eyed brunette, was also known as ‘Dark Annie’ and in poor health at the time of her death due to TB and syphilis. She was discovered about 6am on the morning of Saturday, 8 September 1888. Her body was found near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Whitechapel. She had been completely disembowelled and her intestines thrown over her right shoulder in a macabre manner. Her uterus and a portion of her navel flesh were also missing. As with the other Ripper killings, her throat had been slashed.What was startling about this murder was that it had taken place in the emerging dawn light and while many people living in a house at the back of the yard were milling about. There was only one escape route, a narrow passage through the building which workmen used. Yet despite all this activity no-one saw or heard anything.

Elizabeth Stride (45), killed 30th Sept 1888Elizabeth was born Elisabeth Gustafsdotter in Gothenburg, Sweden and became a prostitute early on in her home country, before moving to England. She was registered by the Gothenburg police as a prostitute and was treated twice for venereal disease. In 1865, she tragically gave birth to a stillborn child, a year before she moved to London to work as a domestic. On 7 March 1869 she married a carpenter John Stride and the couple kept a coffee shop in Poplar, East London. The couple had separated by 1877 and Liz was admitted to the Polar Workhouse.Elizabeth, nicknamed ‘Long Liz’ was 44 at the time of her death and was killed on the night of the "Double Event" that also saw the murder of Catherine Eddowes. Liz’s body was discovered at 1am on the Sunday morning of 30 September 1888. She was found on the ground in Dutfield’s Yard (now Henriques St) in Whitechapel.Her throat had been cut, but strangely there were no other mutilations apart from what appeared to be an attempt to slice off her ear. It was most likely that the killer was disturbed. A steward of an adjoining club discovered her body.Some historians have argued that because Stride did not suffer the same mutilations as the other victims, she was not attacked by the Ripper. But despite this departure, the murder of Stride does bear other similarities to the Ripper’s pattern such as date, time and type of site.Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (46), killed 30 September 1888Catherine Eddowes was born one of twelve siblings in Wolverhampton. Her mother died from TB when she was thirteen and her father died a year later. Catherine met a Thomas Conway and had a daughter, Annie, by him and later two sons. They remained together for twenty years before separating.Eddowes met her final partner John Kelly in a Whitechapel lodging house. They stayed together for seven years until her death. It is likely that she kept her ‘casual’ prostitution a secret from Kelly, because on the day before she died she announced she was going to see her married daughter. After parting from Kelly around 2pm on the Saturday, the day before her death, she managed to procure enough money to get drunk and was later arrested by the City police. She was kept in a cell until sober before being released at around 1am.The last sighting of her was made by men leaving a pub in Mitre Square. She was seen talking to a male figure around 1.30am.Catherine’s body was found in the early hours of Sunday morning at around 1.45am in a dark quiet area of Mitre Square. This was the only killing to take place in the City of London, even though it was a short distance from the Whitechapel boundary.Reflecting the usual pattern of the killer’s grisly trademarks, her throat had been cut and her abdomen ripped open. She was completely disembowelled. Like Annie Chapman before her, her intestines had been gouged out and placed over her right shoulder. Eddowes also had facial mutilations and her uterus and left kidney were missing. The latter was to eventually reappear in a macabre attempt to taunt the police.

Mary Jeanette Kelly (25), killed 9th November 1888Not a great deal is known about Mary Kelly apart from hearsay and nuggets of information from Joseph Barnett, a man who had lived with her. She was said by friends to be a talented and creative creature from Ireland, but whose family at one stage had moved to Wales when she was young. From there Kelly left for London in 1884 and found work in an affluent West End brothel. It is alleged that she was invited by a client to France, but quickly returned having adopted the more French sounding name of Marie Jeanette Kelly.Her body was found on the morning of Friday, 9 November 1888, the day after the Lord Mayor’s celebrations. Her landlord had sent his assistant, Thomas Bowyer, to collect the rent as she was several weeks behind. At 10.45 am, when Bowyer first knocked on the door of 13 Miller’s Court, Dorset St in Spitalfields, there was no reply. He then peered through a broken pane.Kelly’s body, which was lying on the bed, was horrifically mutilated. Her throat had been slashed and her face severely ripped. The chest and abdomen were cut open and many of her internal organs had been removed, some strewn about her. Flesh had been carved from her limbs while her heart was missing, possibly thrown and burned in the fireplace. Neighbours had heard a solitary scream during the night suggesting she had been killed around 4am. It was later discovered that the victim had been pregnant.

This is a stick up. I’m a desperate man.

Michael Gregsten is a 36-year-old research scientist at the Road Research Laboratory at Langley, near Slough. Michael is married and he and his wife Janet have two boys, Simon, eight, and Anthony, nearly two.But Michael is having an affair with his 22-year-old lab assistant, Valerie Storie. Their relationship started over a mutual love of car rallies, music and theatre. It had quickly stopped being platonic.One Tuesday after work, Michael picks up Valerie in his Morris Minor and drives her to the Old Station Inn for a drink. Later, at around 9pm, the pair drive to a nearby cornfield in Dorney Reach by the Thames in Buckinghamshire. Once they think they’re away from prying eyes, they have sex.It’s not known for how much of the next 45 minutes they are unobserved.

But they abruptly stop when someone taps on the driver’s window. After the sound, comes the sight of a gun. And then a Cockney voice says;“This is a stick up. I’m a desperate man. Open the back door and let me in.”Valerie tries to make Michael drive off, but frightened they couldn’t get away without injury, Michael lets the man in.The man takes the keys from Michael and sits in the back seat. The bottom of his face is covered with a handkerchief. With that, and the darkness, it’s difficult to identify what he looks like. His words are distinct enough though:“If you do as I tell you, you will be all right”His intentions are, however, far from clear. He forces the couple to drive further into the field.They then sit there for about an hour:“Why is he in a field that’s relatively isolated; isolated enough for a courting couple to be able to have sex? I think the most likely suggestion was that he was driven there by someone else or drove there and his car broke down...There were enough isolated houses locally that one might think he was there because he was burglarizing houses...and whoever had brought him there had left without him. There had been some disagreement? Or the car that he personally drove to get there had broken down and he was looking for some other way to get back?But crucially we’ve got some opportunism here. We’ve got some opportunistic criminal behaviour being displayed by someone who was not used to being in control of two people who were at his mercy.“David Wilson, Criminologist

opportunist

The gunman then orders Michael to drive to London:“He said he was hungry – he knew a place where he could get some food... They had to stop at a milk bar...They had to stop for more petrol. And the ride took them all over the place, with this man chatting all the time. He said he’d...just done a five-year stretch in prison - he’d been on the run for four months - he hadn’t eaten for two days. And this carried on for a number of hours, until eventually he said;‘I need a kip. I’m tired – I need to kip.’And he repeated the phrase two or three times.”John Eddleston, AuthorHe orders them off the main road - and then back onto it.DEADMAN’S HILLThe couple try to offer him money. But he won’t leave them.At around 1.30am they’re driving south on the A6. He orders Michael to pull into a lay-by at Deadman’s Hill:“The gunman is clearly wondering what he should do with these two people that in effect he’s kidnapped...So he decides that he’s going to tie up Valerie Storie. He asks for Michael Gregsten’s tie, and for some rope, which is in the boot...There’s enough to tie up Valerie Storie’s arms, but not enough rope to tie up Michael Gregsten.”David WilsonBut then the man notices a bag in the car:“...he asked Gregsten to pass it over. Gregsten made the move towards the bag to pass it over - and two shots rang out.”John Eddleston, AuthorTwo bullets rip through the back of Michael Gregsten’s head killing him instantly:“This, for me, reveals a lack of understanding, a lack of insight. That kind of spontaneous behaviour that often you find with some offenders who aren’t particularly skilled or sophisticated.”David Wilson“The first thing Valerie said was,‘You’ve shot him, you b******! – Why have you done that?’He replied;‘He moved too quickly. He spooked me, he frightened me. It was an accident – I didn’t mean to do it.’He then said, a couple of times; ‘Be quiet – I’m thinking’ – but he pronounced the word, ‘finking’, as a Cockney would, so twice;‘Be quiet, I’m finking; be quiet, I’m finking.’John Eddleston 

Valerie is now trapped in a car with a killer. She tries to build a rapport with him. She hopes to avoid the fate of her lover. The man tells her to call him ‘Jim’.“He then – again...the opportunism – he then decides that he would like to kiss Valerie Storie. She refuses. He uses the gun to threaten her.And he rapes her.These are very opportunistic behaviours. These aren’t planned behaviours. Nothing about the A6 murder seems to me to be characterised by planning and organisation.”David WilsonA passing car’s headlights illuminate the man’s face. Does he notice she’s seen him clearly? Is ‘Jim’ worried she’s could identify him as the murderer?He orders her to drag Michael’s body out of the car. She begs not to but at gunpoint, she does.Michael’s body is dumped by the side of the road:“Surprisingly...he asked Valerie to show him how the car worked: How the gears worked; what the pedals were for; how to start the car - which is strange - because later on, of course, Hanratty’s name comes in the frame. He’s an accomplished car driver and car thief.”John EddlestonIndeed, when the engine cuts out, ‘Jim’ has to ask Valerie to show him how to get it going all over again.Valerie is just 22-years-old. She has seen her married lover, her boss, shot dead in front of her. She has been raped by his killer.She has then been forced to give him driving lessons.She just wants it all to be over.And then he fires.Valerie feels the first two shots. She falls to the ground.She lies motionless. Still he shoots another three times.“She has the foresight to stay lying perfectly still, and the assailant believes that she’s dead. He gets into the car, and he drives off. But as he does, the gears are screaming and screeching – he’s not accustomed to driving, certainly this particular model, a Morris Minor.”John EddlestonValerie lies in shock. She’s been shot through the chest and the spine.She’s been through six hours of hell.Now she’ll lie bleeding in a lay-by for another three.