MURDERS

 

See Also: ASSASSINATIONS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS; CHEESE Murder In The Lane; EMBASSIES Libyan People's Bureau, Yvonne Fletcher; EXECUTIONS; FOLK TRADITIONS Urban Legends, Sweeney Todd; FORENSICS; THE HOMOCIDAL HOMEOPATH; JACK THE RIPPER; LIBRARIES Joe Orton; LORD LUCAN; REFERENCE WORKS The Oxford English Dictionary; SEX CRIMES & VIOLENCE; THE SUSPENDED BANKER; THE TOWER OF LONDON Richard III

In early 2018 London's murder rate overtook that of New York City for the first time in modern history. It was because of a bout of knife crimes.

 

#

Arsenic Poisoning

##

Arsenic was a by-product on mining. During the 19thC it came to be used in a wide variety of manufacturing processes and was widely available as a rat poison. During the 1840s there was a fashion for women to use it to murder their husbands. It could be passed off as sugar. Following the execution of Sarah Chesham (n e Parker) (1809-1851) it largely passed out of vogue.1

It was also used to commit infanticide. The growth of life-insurance prompted the establishment of burial clubs. A child could be insured for 5 and buried for 1. The difference could be used to feed the surviving sibs. Some women insured their victim-offspring several times over. In order to try to counter the practice an 1850 Act of Parliament banned the life of child who aged under ten being insured for more than 3.

1. Not everyone was dissuaded. Mary Ann Cotton (n e Robson) (1832-1873), a former Sunday school teacher, became Britain's most prolific serial killer.

See Also: CHEMICALS; CLOTH MANUFACTURING & TREATMENT Dye, Poisonous Hosiery

###

The Croydon Poisonings

####

In 1928 and 1929 three members of the Duff family were killed by arsenic poisoning. The murders were never solved.

 

#

The Auto-widow

##

Marie Marguerite Laurient was a striking-looking Parisienne prostitute who had a number of wealthy men as her clients. In 1917 and 1918 she allowed the future King Edward VIII to partake of her charms. She wed Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey, a wealthy Egyptian, who was a decade younger than she was. Their short-lived union proved to be highly dysfunctional. In 1923, while they were staying at The Savoy, she shot her spouse dead.

The princess was put on trial two months later. Her past was not a matter of public knowledge. She had in her possession a number of letters that the Prince of Wales had written to her. A deal was brokered between his aides and the auto-widow. They, with some assistance from figures within Scotland Yard, sought to ensure that she would not be convicted. Whether it was as the result of their efforts or not, she was acquitted of the charge.

Location: The Savoy Hotel, Savoy Court, WC2R 0EZ (red, blue)

 

#

The Brides In The Bath

##

George Joseph Smith was a drifter. During the years 1912-4 he married successively Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham, and Margaret Lofty. He was older, poorer, and less well-educated than all of them. Physically, he was unprepossessing but was very self-confident. He alienated them from their families, extracted their money and then murdered them by drowning them baths.

Burnham s father read a newspaper report of Lofty's death. He noticed parallels between it and his daughter's case. As a result, Detective Inspector Arthur Neil started examining the case.

Smith went to his solicitor in Shepherds Bush to collect Lofty's insurance pay-out. There, he was arrested by Neil.

He was tried for Mundy's murder at the Old Bailey in 1915. The prosecution was led by Sir Archibald Bodkin and the defence by Edward Marshall Hall.

The lack of marks on their bodies made it seem unlikely that a conviction for murder would be obtained against him. However, the pathologist Spilsbury could find no evidence of poison or illness in any of the exhumed corpses. He concluded that Smith had murdered them by sudden immersion while they were bathing. When this was revealed in court the accused blanched visibly.

Up until then forensic medicine had not been well-regarded in by the law courts.

Smith was hanged in 1915,

 

#

The Common Law's Influence

##

Anglo-Saxon society was focused on restorative justice. Thereby, a culture of blood feuds was not encouraged.

In terms of individuals avoiding being murdered England has a low rate for an industrialised country. In the early 1990s it had an annual rate was 1.1 per 100,000 of the population (in Scotland the figure was 5.5). This safeness dates back to at least the 15thC and in part stems both from the early abandonment of the blood feud and from the use of Common Law to settle disagreements.

See Also: FOLK TRADITIONS

 

#

Kieran Kelly

##

Kieran Nosy Kelly (1930-2001) had been a petty criminal in his native Dublin. He enlisted in the British Army but was dismissed for going A.W.O.L.. He worked in construction but became increasingly alcoholic. Mental health issues led to his spending time in Broadmoor Hospital. Following his release, he lived as a derelict.

In 1983 Kelly was arrested for petty theft. At Clapham Police Station he was placed in a cell with William Boyd, a fellow homeless person. A few hours later it was discovered that he had killed Boyd. He was formally interviewed about what he had done. He declared that he had been annoyed by the man's snoring. He went on to state that he had killed other people. The following year he was convicted of Boyd's murder and the 1975 killing of Hector Fisher, another homeless man. He died in prison.

Location: Clapham Police Station, 51 Union Grove, SW8 5QJ

 

#

Stephen Lawrence

##

On 22 April 1993 Stephen Lawrence was murdered.

The Lawrence family were aided by the counsel of Simon de Banya (1960-2013), who worked for Monitoring Group, which provided support and advocacy for the victims of crime and race discrimination.

In 2013 Gary Dobson confessed to having participated in the murder of Stephen.

 

#

Suzy Lamplugh

##

In 1986 Suzy Lamplugh was working for the Fulham branch of Sturgis & Sons. She met a Mr Kipper for a house viewing. She was never seen again.

###

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust

####

Location: The Foundry, 17-19 Oval Way, SE11 5RR

Website: www.suzylamplugh.org

 

#

Douglas Malcolm

##

At the age of sixteen, Derek Malcolm came across a book that his father owned that had an index that referred to a chapter entitled Mr Justice McCardie tries Lieutenant Malcolm ; the chapter itself had been removed from the volume. During the First World War Douglas Malcolm had been on leave from the front when he had learned that his wife, a former actress, had been having an affair with Anton Baumberg, a Russian Pole, whose activities had drawn him to the notice of Scotland Yard. On 14 August 1917 the cuckold went to the lover's lodgings house carrying a pistol and a horsewhip. There, he shot Baumberg four times at close range.

The jury acquitted Malcolm on the grounds of self-defence. It was the first instance in British law of a crime passionel. Fifteen years after the murder, Mrs Malcolm gave birth to young Derek.

 

#

Dennis Nilsen

##

Dennis Nilsen worked in the Professional & Exec Recruitment section of Kentish Town Job Centre. Those whom he interviewed included the writer Will Self.

D.C.I. Peter Jay was the head of Hornsey C.I.D.. He took some bones and strips of skin that had been recovered from Nilsen's drain to David Bowen, a forensic pathologist, who was based at Charing Cross Hospital.

When Nilsen returned home, he was greeted by Jay with the words, I've come about your drains.

Central TV filmed an interview with Dennis Nilsen. The Home Office tried to ban its broadcast on the grounds of copyright infringement because it had not given its permission. The case was heard in the High Court before Sir William Aldous (1936-2018), who as a barrister had specialised in intellectual property. He ruled against the department on the grounds that it would be a public benefit for it to be showed that a mass murderer could appear to be an ordinary, intelligent person.

Location: 23d Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, N10 3AA

195 Melrose Avenue, Cricklewood, NW2 4NA

 

#

Martha Ray

##

In the late 1770s the 4th Earl of Sandwich, as the First Lord of the Admiralty, was deeply involved in the American War of Independence. The singer Martha Ray was the peer s mistress. In 1779 she was shot dead, while leaving Covent Garden theatre, where she had been watching an opera. Her killer was the Rev James Hackman, a young clergyman who had become infatuated with her and whose proposal of marriage she had rejected. He then tried to shoot himself but failed. At the subsequent trial, which was presided over by the magistrate Sir John Fielding, the cleric was convicted. He was hanged. However, his tale was taken up by the new fashion for sensibility. A flood of publications followed in which he was portrayed as the epitome of the doomed young lover.

Location: Bow Street, WC2E 9DD (purple, brown)

See Also: ASSASSINATIONS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS Majestic Targets, His Majesty's Pleasure; OPERA The Royal Opera House

 

#

Harry Roberts

##

The Braybrook Street Massacre occurred on 12 August 1966.

In 2006 Harry Roberts's parole application was turned down.

Location: Braybrook Street, c.W12 0AH

 

#

Lord William Russell

##

In 1840 Lord William Russell was murdered by Francois Courvoisier his valet. The deed was witnessed in silhouette by someone in a house opposite. Courvoisier was naked. The nudity was prompted by the murderer's wish not to have any bloodstains on his clothes.

Location: 16 Dunraven Street, W1K 7FE (blue, yellow)

 

#

Savage Grace

##

In November 1972 Anthony Baekeland killed his mother Barbara Daly Baekeland.

Location: 81 Cadogan Square, SW1X 0DY (blue, brown)

 

#

Suicide

## ###

The Law

####

Suicide was decriminalised by the Suicide Act of 1961. The measure made assisting, aiding, or abetting suicide an offense. In large part, it was promoted by the barrister and Conservative M.P. Sir Charles Fletcher-Cooke (1914-2001), who had been active on the issue for over ten years.

 

#

John Tawell

##

John Tawell was an Attender of Quaker Meetings who was convicted of forgery. He was transported to Sydney. There he worked as a pharmacist and made a fortune. He returned to England but found that he was a social outcast. In 1845 he murdered by poison his mistress Sarah Hart in Slough and returned to London by train. An account of what had happened and a description of him were telegraphed ahead. He was arrested at Paddington Railway Station.

Location: Paddington Railway Station, Praed Street, W2 1HB (red, blue)

David Backhouse 2024