Inhalt

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S NOTE

PREFACE

THE LIST - THE 100 DEADLIEST BRITISH SERIAL KILLERS

REFERENCES

AUTHOR'S NOTE

A comprehensive list of sources used in the research for this book can be found at the conclusion.

PREFACE

In 2018, Radford University estimated that England had produced 145 serial killers in its (very long) history. There have, unavoidably, been all manner of killers from England through the centuries. You might actually be surprised in this book though by how many Scottish serial killers make the list too. Scotland clearly punches above its weight when it comes to serial killers. Wales hasn't (thankfully) produced many serial killers but a smattering of rather nasty Welsh killers do make the list - including of course that infamous Bullseye contestant. We'll also see a few Irish killers on this list - or at least those that qualify for a British serial killer list.

While an eclectic and often terrifying gaggle of killers have been produced in Britain down the centuries it is still a very safe country to live in. The United States for example, which has a much shorter history than Britain, has produced nearly 3,000 serial killers according to Radford University. Britain, pound for pound, hasn't produced nearly so many.

FBI Investigator Robert Ressler is often credited with coining the term serial killer. The term only really entered the general lexicon in the 1980s. The FBI generally states that one must kill three people to qualify as a serial killer. There must also be a gap between each killing. A bomber, for example, is a mass murderer or terrorist as opposed to a serial killer. According to the Crime Classification Manual, a serial murderer is defined as 'three or more separate events in three or more separate locations with an emotional cooling off period in between homicides'. This classification is very flawed though because, according to its strict criteria, Dennis Nilsen (who murdered at least a dozen men) is not a serial killer.

It is often said that serial killers fall into four distinct groups. Visionary, Mission-oriented, Hedonistic and Power/Control. Visionary serial killers are the ones who, when captured, say that voices in their head told them to do it. They believe they had some divine or mystical mission to murder people. Peter Sutcliffe (aka The Yorkshire Ripper) was an example of this type of killer. Sutcliffe (who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia) said that God told him to kill prostitutes.

Another Mission-oriented serial killer would be Steve Wright. Wright became known as The Suffolk Strangler after he murdered five female prostitutes in eastern England in 2006. The source of his descent into madness seems to have been his alcohol and gambling addictions - which left him bankrupt and suicidal. Wright clearly had a grudge against sex workers and wanted to kill as many as possible.

The Hedonistic serial killer will murder purely for their own pleasure. The gratification can come from the financial rewards of killing (like stealing money and valuables from victims) but the main motivation for this sort of killer is sexual satisfaction. Power/Control serial killers get their biggest thrill from the dominant feeling they get from killing someone. You could say that Dennis Nilsen was both a Hedontistic killer and a Power/Control killer. The modus operandi of many infamous serial killers matches the Power/Control theory. Many killers will handcuff or tie their victims up and even torture them. They love the feeling of having someone helpless and completely at their mercy.

Most experts think the theory that serial killers are 'bad seeds' who were born bad is a myth. You can't be born bad. Environments and experiences turn people twisted and bad - not genetics. A large number of serial killers had unhappy childhoods. There are exceptions to this of course but many serial killers had an awful start in life. In many cases they experienced grim poverty or suffered abuse - or in many cases experienced both of these factors.

It is by no means completely universal but a common thread between many serial killers often seems to be a dysfunctional relationship with their mother. It seems to a recurring pattern too that many serial killers were beaten and verbally abused by strict fathers. The 1988 publication Sexual Homicide, Patterns and Motives said that 70% of families who raised a serial killer have had a history of alcohol abuse.

Studies have indicated that serial killers do not have natural emotions like fear and anxiety. As a consequence, serial killers need to do something extreme to experience any feelings at all. Between 30% to 40% of serial killers display abnormal brainwave patterns. Most serial killers have criminal convictions from the time before they killed. Sexual offences and robbery are the most common early offences for serial killers. Many serial killers begin their life of crime as thieves and rapists.

It is often suggested in studies that the desire to kill is something that has been bubbling away beneath the surface for a while. Serial killers do not suddenly wake up one day and decide to go and kill someone. It is usually something they have thought about for a while and maybe even planned in their mind. The strange thing about serial killers is that a number of them have a superficial charm. They can often blend into society and seem ordinary. When the horrors at 25 Cromwell Street were dug up, neighbours of Fred West were astonished to learn that their friendly neighbour was a serial killer.

Thankfully, the chances of you walking past a serial killer in the street or encountering one in real life are slim to say the least. There really aren't that many of them compared to the general population - especially in Britain. In the book that follows you will see that British serial killers have come in all shapes and sizes. We've had urbane fraudsters, Victorian graverobbers, female killers, killers who were never caught, and even what you might describe as a British version of Ted Bundy. Be warned that some of the details in this book are not for the squeamish but I hope each entry in this book is approached with tact and sensitivity - despite the subject matter.

The purpose of this book is really to tell the tale of many lesser known serial killers. Everyone has heard of Fred West, Jack the Ripper, and Dennis Nilsen, and all of these infamous killers will feature in the book, but there are dozens of other British serial killers you've probably never heard of. Hopefully you will enjoy (if that is the right word) reading more about them in this book. Many British serial killers are not terribly well known because they were overshadowed by more famous killers like Jack the Ripper or Peter Sutcliffe. As we shall see though, these killers were formidable and fascinating in their own right.

In the profiles of the killers that follow we will not only hear about their crimes but do our best to understand why they were driven to kill and see what happened to them afterwards. Serial killers kill for all manner of reasons. Radford University's research suggested that 31% of serial killers murder for financial reasons. Others are simply sexual sadists or just addicted to killing. Occasionally, as we shall see, there are even killers with no obvious motive.

So, without further delay, let's begin our countdown of the 100 most chilling British serial killers. Dim the lights, settle down in your favourite chair, and we will begin our deadly centuries old trawl through the mad, bad, and thoroughly dangerous to know British killers down the ages...

THE LIST - THE 100 DEADLIEST BRITISH SERIAL KILLERS

(100) GRAHAM YOUNG (Years Active 1962-1971, One Victim, Two Other Suspected Victims)

Graham Young was born in Neasden in Middlesex on the 7th of September 1947. As a youth he became obsessed with poisons and chemicals and decided to conduct some experiments of his own. The unwitting guinea pigs in these experiments were his own family. Young's usual method was to lace drinks like tea with thallium and antimony. Thallium can affect your nervous system, lung, heart, liver, and kidney if large amounts are eaten or drunk for short periods of time. Temporary hair loss, vomiting, and diarrhoea can also occur and death may result after exposure to large amounts of thallium for short periods. Young began poisoning his stepmother, father, and sister in 1961. He managed to obtain potentially dangerous chemicals from a chemist by pretending to be older than he actually was. Soon, everyone around Graham Young seemed to be suffering from dreadful stomach pains - even including some pupils at his school.

The family began to have suspicions about Graham Young but they couldn't find any firm evidence and he naturally denied everything (Young actually blamed his sister). When his mother died it was put down to a medical complaint. Graham (of course) took the chance to slip some poison into food at his mother's funeral. By now, suspicions about Graham Young and his activities were spreading beyond the family. One of his teachers (who found poisonous chemicals in Young's desk) suspected he was up to something dangerous. The police became involved and Young was found to have thallium and antimony in his possession. He confessed to secretly administering poison to his family and a school friend. Young was sent to Broadmoor - where he was the youngest inmate for many years. He was charged with killing his stepmother.

Graham Young spent nine years at Broadmoor. It is alleged that he may even have killed someone at Broadmoor by extracting poison from laurel bush leaves in the gardens. When he was released from Broadmoor in 1971, Young soon went back to his old ways. He somehow managed to purchase antimony potassium tartrate and thalium from a chemist. While attending a storekeeping course in Slough, Young poisoned a man named Trevor Sparkes more than once. Sparkes did not die but he was violently ill from his ordeal. Graham Young then secured a job at John Hadland Laboratories in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. Broadmoor provided him with a reference but - amazingly - did not inform John Hadland Laboratories that Young was a convicted poisoner! One of Young's duties at the lab was to push the tea trolley around. Talk about a recipe for disaster! You can probably guess what happened next.

Very soon a mysterious 'bug' at the lab had everyone coming down with dreadful stomach pains. It was later established that Young would actually poison people as a way of gaining promotion. Bob Egle died as a result of poisoning and Ron Hewitt left the firm after falling ill. As a consequence of this respective death and departure, Graham Young was promoted to head storeroom clerk. Young would keep diaries of his activities and keep abreast of how his various poisonings were affecting the victims. If anyone was rude to him he would give them a dose of poison and then note how much he was enjoying their discomfort. Young next poisoned two men named David Tilson and Jethro Batt with thallium. They both survived but suffered dreadfully. Their hair fell out and they were bedridden and deeply ill.

Fred Biggs, a 56-year-old local councillor, was the next victim. Biggs worked part time at the lab and had his tea poisoned by Young. He died as a result of the poisoning. Biggs was poisoned so badly that his skin started to peel away. By now the staff at John Hadland Laboratories had become very suspicious of Graham Young. They had deduced two very salient things. The first was that this violent and mysterious stomach bug had only began swirling around when Graham Young joined the firm. The second thing they deduced was that Graham Young never seemed to be affected! That was more than a little suspicious.

The police did a (long overdue) check on Graham Young and found out about his storied history as a prolific poisoner. They searched his home and found that he had a very large stash of poisons. They also found his diaries in which he'd written copious notes about who he had poisoned and what effects the chemicals had on them. Graham Young knew the game was up now and confessed. He even confessed to murdering his late stepmother. Graham Young was highly intelligent but deeply disturbed. The police found that his room was full of swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler.

Young was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, four counts of administering poison with intent to injure and four counts of administering poison with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He (rather preposterously) plead not guilty and tried to claim that his diary was not real but simply a fantasy novel he was writing. This defence was predictably hopeless and he was sentenced to life in prison. Young is generally credited with at least three murders but poisoned about 80+ people. Who knows how many people he might have killed if he'd stayed in society for a few years longer.

It is said that in prison Young became a friend of Ian Brady. Graham Young died in prison in 1990 at the age of 42. The cause of death was a heart attack. A brilliant 1995 film called The Young Poisoner's Handbook was loosely based on Graham Young. The version of Young depicted in the film though is more likeable than the real person. In 2005, a Japanese schoolgirl was arrested for poisoning her mother with thallium. She had become obsessed with the story of Graham Young after watching The Young Poisoner's Handbook.

(99) SARAH DAZLEY (Years Active 1842, Three Victims)

Sarah Dazley was born in Potton, Bedfordshire in 1819. She was an attractive woman who never had any shortage of male admirers. At the age of nineteen she married a man named Simeon Mead and they later settled in the village of Tatlow in Cambridgeshire. The couple had a son in 1840 who they named Jonah. When he was only seven months old though, Jonah died rather suddenly. Not long after this, Simeon Mead also died after falling ill.

Sarah married again - this time to twenty-three year old William Dazley. The marriage was obstreperous though and William was said to have struck her during altercations and arguments. Sarah apparently told friends that she would kill any man who raised a hand to her and she was true to her word. William Dazley soon fell ill with violent stomach cramps. He was then given pills by the doctor and seemed to be recovering. Ann Mead, the teenage daughter of Sarah's late husband, was also living there and helping out.

At some point though Sarah Cazley told friends that she was not happy with the treatment her poorly husband was receiving so was going to get some new medicine. She claimed she would get something from the village but in reality was just planning to make up her own batch of deadly pills. No prizes for guessing what happened when William started taking the pills supplied by his wife. He soon expired. There was no post-mortem because in those days people didn't tend to live for very long anyway.

Sarah took up with a new man at this point but he broke off the engagement when his friends and relatives told him about Sarah Dazley's history. They told him how her son, husband, and second husband had all suddenly fallen ill and then died. That was, they felt, all more than a little on the suspicious side. It was an open secret that more and more people thought that Sarah had bumped them off. These whispers obviously reached those with authority and the Bedfordshire coroner ordered the exhumation of Sarah's second husband William to test this theory.

The whispers turned out to be true. William had died of arsenic poisoning. Sarah fled to London but was arrested there and brought back home for a trial. Sarah's defence was certainly creative. She claimed that her second husband William had murdered her first husband and son so they were out of the picture and he could have her all to himself. Sarah said when she found out about this she killed William in revenge. To the surprise of no one, this defence did not fly very far in court and no one believed it. A jury didn't take very long to find Sarah guilty.

Although she was not charged with the murder of her infant son the judge comment at the trial that Sarah must be heartless indeed to kill her own child. It seemed fairly obvious that Sarah Dazley had killed all three of the relatives. Sarah Dazley was hung on the 5th of August 1843 outside Bedford Gaol. A crowd of about 10,000 turned up to watch. Legend has it that one of the interested spectators was the man who had (wisely in hindsight) broken off his engagement to Sarah. The strange thing about the case of Sarah Dazley is that there was no evidence she was impoverished or in debt. Money was not a major motive in these murders. It seems as if Sarah just wanted to get rid of her husbands (and son) so she could constantly move onto a new man.

(98) NEVILLE HEATH (Years Active 1946, Two Victims, One Other Suspected Victim)

Neville Heath was born in Essex in 1917. Heath had a fairly normal background and joined the RAF in 1937. However, his military career was constantly gridlocked and interrupted by the fact that Heath was a petty criminal and completely unreliable. He'd frequently fail to show up for duty and was involved in all manner of dodgy sidelines - including theft and forgery. These crimes eventually earned him a stint in a borstal. Heath was a fairly handsome man who was good at coming up with fake identities and creating a fictitious character to inhabit. Because of his confidence and charm he became something of a ladykiller - quite literally in this case.

Heath had what you might describe as a colourful and eventful time in World War 2. He served in the middle-East but was court-martialed for going AWOL. He then absconded to South Africa and joined the air force there. In the end he earned another court martial for wearing medals that he hadn't won in combat. Neville Heath was plainly a man obsessed with the art of deception and appearances. Heath was married with a son but his wife got a separation on the grounds of desertion. Her husband was never around and never provided much in the way of support.

When the war ended, Heath devoted his time to romancing and conning women. He would add titles to his name to impress them. He would pretend he was an RAF Group Captain or an officer in the army. These deceptions seemed to work as he impressed the families of the women he met. Heath also used a battery of assumed names. Heath took up with a woman named Yvonne Symonds - who he pretended was his wife (though she wasn't). This didn't stop him from pursuing other women though. In 1946, Heath was at a hotel in Notting Hill Gate. He went out and ended up dancing with a woman named Margery Gardner.

Margery was 32 and a film extra. She was found dead in Neville Heath's room the next day. She was restrained and naked on the bed and had been severely whipped and then suffocated. Her nipples were almost bitten off. It is believed that all these injuries were inflicted while she was still alive. Meanwhile, Heath had taken a train to Worthing to see Yvonne Symonds - whom he had agreed to marry. Given that Margery Gardner had been found dead in Heath's hotel room it was pretty obvious that the police were now going to want to talk to him. Heath was well aware of this and told Yvonne about the murder (which was in the newspapers by now).

Heath told Yvonne that he'd lent to his room to Margery and a gentleman and that this gentleman must have murdered her. That was a blatant lie. Neville Heath had murdered Margery. Heath contacted the police and told them the same fictitious story he had told Yvonne. After his this, Heath took a train to Bournemouth and checked into a hotel under the name of Group Captain Rupert Brooke. While in Bournemouth, Heath met a 21 year-old woman named Doreen Marshall and persuaded her to dine with him that evening in the hotel lounge. After that evening ended, Doreen vanished apparently without trace. The manager of the hotel where Doreen was staying reported her disappearance to the police. He knew that she had dined at another hotel before she vanished. This was obviously the hotel where Heath (masquerading as Group Captain Rupert Brooke) was staying.

Heath had been seen dining with Doreen so he was now deemed suspicious and told by the manager of his hotel that he ought to see the police and tell them anything he knew. It didn't help matters for Heath that his image was now on wanted posters in London in connection to the death of Margery Gardner. Heath nonetheless went to the police and told them he had last seen Doreen in Bournemouth Gardens. Neville Heath was eventually doomed though by Doreen's parents. They had come down to join the search for her and bumped into 'Group Captain Rupert Brooke' in the police station. They were pretty sure he was the infamous Nevile Heath - wanted on suspicion of murder.

The police detained Heath and when they search his possessions they found a diamond studded whip. This was the whip that had been used on Margery Gardner. The game was finally up for Neville Heath and he was taken to London to face the music. The body of Doreen Marshall was found in Branksome Dene Chine. Her throat had been slashed and one of her nipples bitten off. The mutilation of the body was very severe and disturbing and there was ample evidence of sexual assault.

Heath tried to plead insanity at his trial but doctors insisted he was perfectly sane and simply a sexual sadist and killer. Neville Heath was hung on the 16th of October 1946 at Pentonville Prison. He had a large whisky before he went to the gallows. It transpired that another woman had previously been tied up by Heath in a hotel room but had a lucky escape when her screams alerted hotel staff. Heath is suspected of a third murder but so far this has proved impossible to verify. It seems highly plausible though that the victim tally of Neville Heath could be higher than the record books state.

(97) THE CROYDON POISONER (Years Active 1928-1929, Three Victims)

In 1928 and 1929, three members of a fairly well to do Croydon family were apparently poisoned. However, the mystery of who was behind the murders was never actually solved.

The first to die was 59 year-old Edmund Duff. Duff used to be the High Commissioner for Nigeria. He had eaten a dinner of chicken and potatoes (many accounts of this case believe the poison was put in the beer he drank with his meal) and soon after began complaining that he felt sick and was suffering from cramps. The stomach ailment of Edmund Duff rapidly got worse and he suffered from diarrhoea and escalating pain. A doctor was called out but Edmund expired that same night. Dr Binning, who tried to treat him, was rather suspicious of the circumstances of this sudden ill health and didn't rule out poisoning.

Ten months later Edmund's sister in law Vera Sydney also died in similar circumstances. She fell ill after eating her lunch of soup and died in near identical fashion to Edmund. Vera's death was put down to a gastric complaint. Her mother and the family cat had partaken in some of the soup and fell ill too but they both recovered. A month later Vera's mother Violet Sydney wasn't so lucky and also died. You can probably guess what happened. That's right. She had just eaten when she was overwhelmed by dreadful stomach pains and a feeling of sickness. An examination after her death found no obvious reason for why she had died.

The surviving relatives were by now understandably suspicious of these sudden deaths and demanded that a more thorough investigation should take place. They kicked up sufficient fuss for exhumations to take place and - sure enough - that familiar true crime villain arsenic was found to be the culprit. But who was the poisoner? That was the most pressing question facing the authorities. The case literally became like a game of Cluedo at this point. Everyone was a suspect at first. All the maids and servants had to be ruled out and all the surviving relatives had to be investigated.

The police found some weed killer in the house but deducing who purchased this weed killer or whether it could have been used as a poison was no easy task. It was generally established that the first victim was killed through beer, the second through soup, and the last via some medicine she was taking. This meant that the killer had to have access to all three people and also have a motive to kill them. Well, believe it or not, no one was ever charged with the murders. The police simply didn't find sufficient evidence to build a case against anyone. There was a main suspect though. This was Edmund's wife Grace.

The general theory is that Grace had fallen in love with another man and wanted to get rid of her husband. That did pose the question though of why Grace killed the other relatives - an act which would surely attract more suspicion. The police visited the home of Grace's brother and found that he had rat poison and weed killer in the house. Did he conspire with Grace in these murders? The police obviously didn't think so because they ruled him out of their enquires. The same could not be said of Grace. The police always suspected that she did it but they simply couldn't prove it beyond doubt. At the inquest into the deaths Grace was questioned and said nothing that incriminated her. Grace died in 1973 at a ripe old age. She was always suspected of being The Croydon Poisoner but no charges were ever brought against her.

(96) THEODORE JOHNSON (Years Active 1981–2016, Three Victims)

Theodore Johnson was born in Jamaica in 1954. In 1980 he moved to England with his wife Yvonne and worked in a garage. The couple lived in Wolverhampton. In 1981 the couple got into a violent argument as they were about to go to church. An altercation ensued and Johnson hit his wife over the head with a vase. He then pushed Yvonne to her death from the balcony of their ninth floor flat. Surprisingly, Theodore Johnson was only convicted of manslaughter. The judge at the trial raised a few eyebrows for saying that Johnson had been provoked because his wife had a temper and was always nagging him. The judge didn't put it in those precise terms but that's more or less what he was trying to say.

Theodore Johnson spent eleven years in prison and went back to Wolverhampton upon his release. He then began a relationship with a woman named Yvonne Bennett. The couple moved to London and had a child together. However, things turned sour because Yvonne Bennett started having an affair with another man. Theodore Johnson did not take this very well at all and began following Yvonne Bennett around and harassing her. In 1993 he strangled Yvonne Bennett to death using a belt.

At the Old Bailey trial, Theodore Johnson pled guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was sent to a secure mental hospital. Now, you might think that was the end Theodore Johnson's story. He was a double killer in a secure mental institution. Case closed. Sadly though, there was a tragic coda yet to come. In 1994, Johnson was permitted to have some escorted parole and later do a City and Guilds course. During this time he met a woman named Angela Best. In 1997, Theodore Johnson was released by a mental health tribunal and told that he was not allowed to have a relationship with a woman unless he notified the authorities. Well, guess what? Johnson didn't tell the authorities about Angela Best and kept her a secret.

The couple had a long relationship but Best decided to end it when she found about Johnson's past convictions. In December 2016, Angela Best went to visit Theodore Johnson one last time to help him with some documentation he needed for a visit to the Jamaican Embassy. Theodore Johnson struck her several times with a hammer and then strangled her to death with a dressing gown cord. He then threw himself in front of a train at Cheshunt railway station. He survived but lost an arm and hand as a result of throwing himself in front of the moving train.

Theodore Johnson was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the murder of Angela Best. He was now a triple killer. The sentence, after an appeal, was later increased to 30 years. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it seems reasonable to suggest that Theodore Johnson should never have been released in the first place - let alone twice. The sister of Angela Best said of Theodore Johnson after the trial - "This convicted murderer tried to play the system as he has successfully done two times before. He used ‘diminished responsibility’ as the cause of his murderous actions. This time, however, by eventually pleading guilty to murder 12 months after his arrest he has shown in all cases he was clearly of sound mind. He knew exactly what he was doing when he plotted and executed the horrific murder of our beautiful and beloved Angela."

(95) MICHAEL DOWNS (Years Active 1963-1988, Three Victims)

Michael Downs was born in 1944. Downs joined the army as a young man as part of his national service. In 1963 he won the British Empire Medal for Gallentry for trying to save a drowning man. Downs served in the Middle East and in 1963 was also convicted of killing a taxi driver in Benghazi. You might say that Downs had gone from hero to villain in no time at all. The incident was classified as manslaughter and Downs was sentenced to six months in prison. That was a preposterously light sentence but the army had obviously protected him somewhat and didn't seem to take the death of a Libyan taxi driver that seriously. Despite the army mitigating the gravity of what Downs had done it was apparent from this incident that he was perfectly capable of murder.

Life out of the army was not easy for Michael Downes. You might say that he was dismal failure in civvie street. He had a spell as a cab driver but was often unemployed and became a burglar and thief. He would do much worse things than this in the end though. The marriage of Michael Downes ended in 1977 after he was arrested for burglary. This all seemed to tilt him into a dangerously alienated state of mind. In January, 1978, Downs murdered 64 year-old widow Catherine Weaver at the Nook Rest Home in Blackpool. Weaver had cancer and only weighed six stone. Downs had broken in very early in the morning and stabbed her in the back and chest. He then finished off the victim by strangling her with a washing line. It is believed that Downs sexually assaulted the victim as there was evidence that he had dragged her into another room.

Twelve thousand local men were questioned and fingerprinted by the police as part of their investigation into Catherine's shocking murder but there was no sign of an early breakthrough. In fact, the police couldn't seem to find the killer at all. Downs was an unusual killer because it would be ten years before he struck again. It is very unusual (though not unheard of) for killers of the type that Michael Downs was to have such a long gap between murders. If you had met Michael Downs in real life you would probably have no idea he was a killer. He was said to be amiable and friendly. His main hobby was talking on his CB radio.

It seems there might have been a chance to catch Downs circa 1980. A local police officer became suspicious of Downs because a woman had told him that she once scared off an intruder at her house who wore a green coat. The police officer started looking at men as he went around the area and he noticed that Michael Downs was always wearing a green coat. The police officer must have known too that Downs was a petty thief who had burgled houses. What the police in Blackpool apparently didn't know though was that Downs had stabbed a taxi driver to death in Benghazi in 1963. If they had known that they might have viewed him with considerably more suspicion than they did at the time.

It is believed that the police spoke to Downs in 1980 but nothing came of this. In January 1988, Downs murdered 70 year-old Gabriella Morris at her Little Bispham guest house. She had been sexually assaulted, stabbed, and strangled with a clothes line. The murder was almost identical to that of Catherine Weaver a decade before. Downs knew Gabriella Morris because in his job as a delivery driver he used to take laundry from her guest house. There are accounts of this case which state that Downs actually raped Morris several years before but worse a mask to disguise his identity.

Michael Downes was careless enough to leave fingerprints in the guest house when he murdered Gabriella Morris and the police didn't take long to find a match given that Downs was a local petty criminal already on their files. Downs confessed to the two murders once he was in custody. In 1989 he was sentenced to life in prison. Downs pleaded not guilty to the two murder charges but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The jury only took fifty minutes to find him guilty of both murders.

(94) PAUL BRUMFITT (Years Active 1979–1999, Three Victims)

Paul Brumfitt was born in 1956. Brumfitt was a pretty unusual serial killer because his murders took place in different countries. The deaths seemed to be a result of a rage he couldn't control. Brumfitt had a raft of criminal convictions dating back to 1968 but he graduated to murder in 1979. After an argument with his girlfriend, Brumfitt went on a terrifying rampage. He strangled 59-year-old shopkeeper Sidney Samuel in Tilbury and then fled to Denmark on a ferry. Brumfitt then strangled to death a 40-year-old bus driver named Teddy Laustrup in Esbjerg. He was arrested and sent back to England to stand trial at the Old Bailey.

Brumfitt pled guilty to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but was given three life sentences nonetheless. Amazingly though, Brumfitt was released from prison in 1994. The authorities believed that he no longer posed any threat. That would turn out to be a massive mistake to say the least. In 1999, Brumfitt picked up a prostitute in Bradford's red light district and murdered her. He set light to the body in his builder's yard. The victim was nineteen year-old Marcella Ann Davis. At the time, Brumfitt was working for Dudley Council as a gardener. His parole officers were obviously not keeping a close enough eye on Brumfitt because they hadn't seemed to notice that he was a regular visitor to the red light district.

Brumfitt is believed to have raped some of the prostitutes before the police finally put two and two together and decided he might be a plausible suspect in the murder of Marcella Ann Davis. Brumfitt denied the charges at first but eventually confessed. Davis had been identified by dental records and a set of keys that were found among her ashes in the scrapyard where Brumfitt burned her body. At his 2000 trial, Brumfitt was convicted of murder. He was also charged with two counts of rape. He was found guilty of one rape charge and acquitted of the other. The authorities faced a lot of hard questions in the aftermath of this tragic case and a review was launched.

When it came to Paul Brumfitt, they had clearly taken their eye off the ball. "Apart from the massive cost of police investigations," said the West Midlands chief constable Edward Crew, "it seems inconceivable that a man who has previously been convicted for a litany of offences since 1968, including two counts of manslaughter and wounding for which he re ceived three life sentences, can still be allowed to wander around the streets." The police described Paul Brumfitt as a very shrewd and calculating man. When he was in prison in the 1980s, the authorities and experts really believed that Brumfitt was sorry for his crimes and a completely reformed man. Sadly, that wasn't the case at all.

(93) MARY ELIZABETH WILSON (Years Active 1955-1957, Four Suspected Victims)

Mary Elizabeth Wilson was born Mary Elizabeth Cassidy in 1889 in Catchgate, Stanley, County Durham. In true crime circles she is known as The Merry Widow of Windy Nook for murdering her husbands. Mary Elizabeth Wilson was a most unlikely serial killer in appearance. She looked like your average run of the mill granny. Her first marriage was in 1914 to a man named John Knowles. The lived in a place called Windy Nook - hence her nickname. Knowles died in 1955 and Mary married again - this time to John Russell. However, Russell died less than two years into the marriage. Mary Elizabeth Wilson had naturally picked up a modest little financial windfall from the death of two husbands in the space of only a couple of years.

In 1957, Mary entered her third marriage when she got hitched to a retired man named Oliver Leonard. This marriage lasted all of twelve days before Oliver Leonard suddenly died. Husband number four was a 76 year-old man named Ernest Wilson. Ernest Wilson was dead within a year of marrying Mary Elizabeth Wilson and Mary happily inherited his house and money. Now, you might think that all these husbands suddenly dropping dead would have attracted more suspicion but apparently the cause of death in each case was cited as natural causes. The medical authorities certainly didn't seem to suspect anything.

The downfall of Mary Elizabeth Wilson was her gallows sense of humour. You might say that Mary rather shot herself in the foot with her own morbid wit. What activated suspicion in her was the jokes she dispensed after these family tragedies. When her third husband died, Mary joked that the sandwiches at the funeral should be saved for the next one. After Ernest Wilson died, Mary is said to have joked to the undertaker that she should get a discount for giving him so much business! This led to much local tittle tattle and innuendo about Mary and the police got involved and eventually exhumed the bodies of two of her husbands. The bodies were found to contain phosphorus. It seems they had been killed by large doses of insect poison.

The day of the planned exhumations, Mary seemed unphased and told the local newspaper - "I am not worried about what they are saying. I can go to the blessed sacrament - I am a Catholic - tomorrow. I take no notice of the tittle-rattle. It is all jealousy. I am not worried at all about what is going on." Despite her (obviously mislaced) optimism and bluster, the 66 year-old Mary was arrested and charged with murder. Mary Elizabeth Wilson always seemed far too cheerful to be a genuine grieving widow and that obviously led to her capture. As far as serial killers go, she was a terrible actor.

The prosecution at the trial found it rather difficult to prove a financial motive for the murders because Mary's husbands were not rich men in the least. In a way that made her crimes worse. She simply seemed to have developed an addiction to killing husbands - despite the somewhat paltry financial benefits these murders netted. Maybe she was simply another one of those serial poisoners who just liked going to funerals. Mary was initially sentenced to death at the trial but this sentence was then downsized to life in prison after an intervention by the Home Secretary. Mary Elizabeth Wilson died in prison in 1963. She was in her early seventies when she passed away.

(92) MINNIE DEAN (Years Active 1889-1895, Three Victims, Other Suspected Victims)

Williamina "Minnie" Dean was born in Scotland in 1884. At some point she moved to New Zealand and lived with two children. Minnie claimed to be a widow but actual evidence for this is scant. In 1872, Minnie married Charles Dean. The couple dabbled in various things like farming but money was tight and life was not easy. To make money, Minnie turned to taking in unwanted children who were up for adoption. This was known as Baby Farming. Baby farming flourished in this era because it was considered to be a great sin in society for an unmarried woman to have a child. As a consequence there were always plenty of unwanted illegitimate babies who needed care until a permanent home could be found for them.

There were soon a number of cases where infants and children under Dean's care died of illness or vanished. Local whispers soon began to suspect her of foul play. One of the problems with Baby Farming in New Zealand was that those who took in children didn't have to keep official records of who they had taken in. This obviously meant that it was difficult to keep track of deaths and disappearances. Sadly, while most of the women who took in children were kind and dutiful there were some awful cases around the world of women who saw Baby farming strictly as a means to make money and viewed the children and infants as expendable if they cut into profit margins. Tragically, Minnie Dean was of this notorious and awful ilk.

In 1895, a woman approached Minnie Dean and demanded to know where her granddaughter Eva was. Dean had been looking after Eva. However, although clothes belonging to Eva were found at Dean's house there was no sign of the child. Minnie Dean was arrested on suspicion of murder and her garden was dug up. The garden had

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Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.10.2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-9635-0

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