Judy Garland (1922-1969)
This small
run down terraced house in London, was the final home and place of death of
Hollywood legend Judy Garland (1922 – 1969)
In the mid 1930’s Garland became
one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and is considered as one of the greatest
singers of all time. Garland was also one of the biggest recording artists and
starred in some of Hollywood’s most famous musicals “The Wizard of Oz”, Meet me in St Louis
and A Star is Born”. Though
Garland achieved great success in her career, she sadly never achieved the same
within her personnel life. Garland was married five times and had three
children, one being actress / singer Liza Minnelli.
Throughout her life she battled addiction of prescription drugs and alcohol.
She also ran into financial problems, forcing her to do lengthy tours to pay
off her debts. Garland was a famous child star and came to fame by starring in
many films with fellow child actor Mickey Rooney. During
her early days the studio doctors would give her pills to prevent her weight
gain, so she could still give the appearance of being a young girl. While
playing the young girl Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, Garland was a well-developed 16
year old. To disguise this, the costume department designed a tight-fitting
corset-type device to give her a more child-like figure. While filming in April 1947, Garland suffered
a nervous breakdown and was placed in a private sanitarium. The studio went to great lengths to prevent
this becoming a news story so they could protect one of their most valuable
assets. She was able to return to complete filming, but in July she
undertook her first suicide attempt.
On the 22nd June 1969, Garland was found dead in
the bathroom by her fifth husband Mickey Deans. The coroner’s report stated
cause of death was "Self- overdose of barbiturates.
(Sleeping pills) The overdose had been unintentional and that there was no
evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Her autopsy showed that there
was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue, which indicated
that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one
dose. Her death certificate stated that her death was accidental, though the
coroner did comment “she had been living on borrowed time owing to cirrhosis”
At her funeral fellow Wizard of
Oz co-star Ray Bolger (Scarecrow) commented "She just plain wore out." Her most famous
song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” was played at her funeral. Judy Garland had just
turned 47, twelve days before her death.
Violet Shenton (1911-1967)
Violet Shenton (56) was the Landlady at 304 Holloway Road, London. The property was rented by Joe Meek who was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter. His best-remembered hit is the Tornados' "Telstar"
His commercial success as a producer was short-lived, and Meek gradually sank into debt and depression. Meek became obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, particular he had an obsession with Buddy Holly claiming the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams.
His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. Upon receiving an apparently innocent phone call from Phil Spector, Meek immediately accused Spector of stealing his ideas before hanging up angrily.
Meek's homosexuality (illegal in the UK at the time) put him under further pressure; he had been convicted of "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1963 and fined £15. The hits had dried up and Meek's depression deepened. Meek then planned his suicide.
In the morning of Friday, February 3, 1967, Joe Meek, was in his studio with his studio assistant Patrick Pink. Meek burned several letters and other documents in the bathtub and finally handed a note to Pink saying "I'm going now. Goodbye." Pink, however, didn't understand this note's meaning. For a while Meek messed around in the control room with some recordings he had made with Pink the evening before. He sent Pink for Violet Shenton, the landlady. Usually the two of them were on good terms, so there's no reason to believe that taking her life was a planned act. When she arrived at the studio, Meek picked up a quarrel with her, as short-tempered as pointless, probably about the rent. Finally Meek shot his landlady with a shotgun. Mrs. Shenton fell down the stairs and landed in front of Pink's feet. Meek receded into the control room, disappeared from Pink's sight and reloaded. A few seconds later Joe Meek turned the shotgun on himself.
Violet Shenton was
survived by her husband and her daughter.
Joe Orton (1933 - 1967)
Joe Orton (34) was an English playwright and author. His
public career was short but prolific, lasting from 1964 until his death three
years later. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused
audiences with his scandalous black comedies.
Orton met Kenneth Halliwell (41) at RADA in 1951 and moved into a flat with him and began a writing partnership. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton and of independent means, having a substantial inheritance. They quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers.
In January 1959, they began to remove books from several local public libraries and modify the cover art before returning them to the shelves. A volume of poems by John Betjeman was returned to the library with a new dust-jacket featuring a photograph of a nearly naked, heavily tattooed, middle-aged man. The couple decorated their flat with many of the prints. They were eventually discovered and prosecuted in May 1962. They were both found guilty on five counts of theft and malicious damage, admitted damaging more than 70 books, and were sentenced to prison for six months and fined £262.
Orton and Halliwell felt that that sentence was unduly harsh and said they only received a prison sentence "because we were queers" However, prison would be a crucial formative experience for Orton, the isolation from Halliwell would allow him to break free of him creatively. Orton used his time in prison to concentrate on his writing, stating that "prison affected my attitude towards society. Before I had been vaguely conscious of something rotten somewhere, prison crystallised this" Orton became very successful and his plays very popular. His biggest success was his play "Loot" which played in London's west end and Broadway.
Halliwell had felt increasingly threatened and isolated by Orton's success, and had come to rely on anti-depressants and barbiturates. Orton met a friend in a Chelsea pub and told him that he had another boyfriend and wanted to end his relationship with Halliwell, but did not know how to go about it. Halliwell started to become more irratic and sought medical help.
The last person to speak to Halliwell was his doctor, who arranged for a psychiatrist to see him the following morning. He spoke to Halliwell three times on the telephone. The last call was at 10 o'clock. Halliwell took the psychiatrist's address and said, "Don't worry, I'm feeling better now. I'll go and see the doctor tomorrow morning."
On 9 August 1967, Halliwell bludgeoned 34 year-old Orton to death with nine hammer blows to the head, and then committed suicide with an overdose of 22 Nembutal tablets washed down with the juice from canned grapefruit. Investigators determined that Halliwell had died first, because Orton's sheets were still warm.
Halliwell left a suicide note that referred to the contents of Orton's diary as an explanation for his actions: "If you read his diary, all will be explained, especially the latter part. This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity, the diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging in public lavatories and other casual sexual encounters.
In 1987 a film was made about their relationship called
"Prick up your ears" the original title was actually a quote from
Orton that he considered using called "Prick Up Your Erse", erse
being a pronunciation of arse." The film starred Gary Oldman as Orton and
Alfred Molina as Halliwell. Orton met Kenneth Halliwell (41) at RADA in 1951 and moved into a flat with him and began a writing partnership. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton and of independent means, having a substantial inheritance. They quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers.
In January 1959, they began to remove books from several local public libraries and modify the cover art before returning them to the shelves. A volume of poems by John Betjeman was returned to the library with a new dust-jacket featuring a photograph of a nearly naked, heavily tattooed, middle-aged man. The couple decorated their flat with many of the prints. They were eventually discovered and prosecuted in May 1962. They were both found guilty on five counts of theft and malicious damage, admitted damaging more than 70 books, and were sentenced to prison for six months and fined £262.
Orton and Halliwell felt that that sentence was unduly harsh and said they only received a prison sentence "because we were queers" However, prison would be a crucial formative experience for Orton, the isolation from Halliwell would allow him to break free of him creatively. Orton used his time in prison to concentrate on his writing, stating that "prison affected my attitude towards society. Before I had been vaguely conscious of something rotten somewhere, prison crystallised this" Orton became very successful and his plays very popular. His biggest success was his play "Loot" which played in London's west end and Broadway.
Halliwell had felt increasingly threatened and isolated by Orton's success, and had come to rely on anti-depressants and barbiturates. Orton met a friend in a Chelsea pub and told him that he had another boyfriend and wanted to end his relationship with Halliwell, but did not know how to go about it. Halliwell started to become more irratic and sought medical help.
The last person to speak to Halliwell was his doctor, who arranged for a psychiatrist to see him the following morning. He spoke to Halliwell three times on the telephone. The last call was at 10 o'clock. Halliwell took the psychiatrist's address and said, "Don't worry, I'm feeling better now. I'll go and see the doctor tomorrow morning."
On 9 August 1967, Halliwell bludgeoned 34 year-old Orton to death with nine hammer blows to the head, and then committed suicide with an overdose of 22 Nembutal tablets washed down with the juice from canned grapefruit. Investigators determined that Halliwell had died first, because Orton's sheets were still warm.
Halliwell left a suicide note that referred to the contents of Orton's diary as an explanation for his actions: "If you read his diary, all will be explained, especially the latter part. This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity, the diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging in public lavatories and other casual sexual encounters.
John Howlett (23) Graham Allen (27) Stephen Sinclair (20)
Dennis Nilsen was an ex-Police officer and civil servant. He was also known to have killed 15 young men between 1978 and 1983. Only eight of the victims were ever identified. Only three of the victims had a permanent address at the time of their murder. The remaining victims largely were vagrants, runaways and male prostitutes.
Nilsen's murders were committed in two North London addresses in which he alternately resided throughout the years. His victims would be lured to these addresses and all were murdered by strangulation, sometimes accompanied by drowning.
Inside Nilsen's home, the victims were usually given food and alcohol, then strangled—usually with a ligature, either to death or until they had become unconscious. If the victim had been strangled into unconsciousness, Nilsen would then drown the victim in his bathtub, his sink, or a bucket of water before observing a ritual in which he would bathe, clothe and retain the victims' bodies inside his residences for several weeks or, occasionally, months. He would typically bathe the victim's body, apply makeup to any noted blemishes, and then dress the body in socks and underpants. He would then drape the victims' arms around him as he talked to the corpse. With most victims.Nilsen would engage in intercural sex where he would place his penis between the body’s thighs and thrust to create friction with his victims' bodies, he repeatedly stated to investigators he had never penetrated his victims, because his victims were "too perfect and beautiful for the pathetic ritual of commonplace sex". In several instances, Nilsen would use the bodies for company and talk to the victim's body as it remained in a chair or on his bed. He stated to being emotional as he marveled at the beauty of his victims' bodies. With reference to one victim, Nilsen said the "body and skin were very beautiful", adding the sight "almost brought me to tears" Nilsen’s confessed that after his usual ritual of bathing the body, Nilsen would also lay the body upon his bed, applied talcum powder to the body, then arranged three mirrors around the bed before himself lying naked alongside the dead youth. Several hours later, he would turn the head towards him, before kissing the youth's body on the forehead and saying, "Goodnight, then fell asleep alongside the body.
After a period of time when the bodies became in such a state of discomposure, Nilson was forced to dismember the corpse. He would boil the heads, hands and feet to remove the flesh off these sections of the victims' bodies. He would then wrap parts in plastic bags and store them in either a wardrobe, a tea chest or within a drawer located beneath the bathtub. He would then dispose of the remains via burning upon a bonfire, or flushing the remains down the toilet. Nilsen eventually was the cause of his own downfall and capture. He wrote a letter of complaint to estate agents complaining that the drains were blocked, (Due to him disposing of human remains) and that the situation for both himself and the other tenants at the property was intolerable. The following day, he refused to allow an acquaintance to enter his property (the reason being he had begun to dismember the body of Stephen Sinclair on the floor of his kitchen).
On 4 February 1983, a Dyno-Rod employee, who responded to the complaint by Nilsen regarding the drains, opened a drain cover at the side of the house. He discovered the drain was packed with a flesh-like substance and numerous small bones. He reported his suspicions to his supervisor, however, no assessment was made until the following morning, by which time the drain had been mysteriously cleared. This aroused the suspicions of the drain inspector and his supervisor. After discovering some scraps of flesh and four bones in a pipe leading to Nilsen’s flat, both men immediately called the police who, upon closer inspection, discovered further small bones and scraps of what looked to the naked eye like either human or animal flesh. These remains were taken to the mortuary where the pathologist advised Police that the remains were indeed human, and that one particular piece of flesh he concluded had been from a human neck bore a ligature mark.
Upon learning from fellow tenants, that the tenant of the top floor flat from where the human remains had been flushed was one Dennis Andrew Nilsen, and that he worked in a job center in Kentish Town. Police waited outside until Nilsen returned home from work. When Nilsen returned home, Police told him they had come to enquire about the blockage in the drains from his flat. Nilsen asked why the police would be interested in his drains and also asked if the officers were also health inspectors. The Police officers requested access to his flat to discuss the matter further. The three officers followed Nilsen into his flat, where they immediately noted the odour of rotting flesh. As Nilsen queried further as to why the Police would be interested in his drains, to which he was informed the blockage had been caused by human remains. Nilsen feigned shock and bewilderment, stating, "Good grief, how awful!" The Officer in charge replied: "Don't mess about, where's the rest of the body?" Nilsen responded calmly, admitting that the remainder of the body could be found in two plastic bags in a nearby wardrobe, from which the officers noted the overpowering smell of decomposition. The officers did not open the cupboard, but asked Nilsen if there were any other body parts to be found, to which Nilsen replied: "It's a long story; it goes back a long time. I'll tell you everything. I want to get it off my chest. Not here—at the police station". He was then arrested and cautioned on suspicion of murder, before being taken to the Police Station. As he was escorted to the police station by Detective Chief Inspector Jay, Nilsen was asked whether the remains in his flat belonged to one person or two. As Nilsen stared out of the window of the police car, he replied, “No, 15 or 16, since 1978"
That evening, a Detective Superintendent Chambers accompanied Peter Jay and Professor David Bowen to the flat, where the plastic bags were removed from the wardrobe and taken to the Mortuary. One bag was found to contain two dissected torsos—one of which had been vertically dissected, and a shopping bag containing various internal organs. The second bag contained a human skull almost completely devoid of flesh, a severed head, and a torso with arms attached but hands missing. Both heads were found to have been subjected to moist heat.
A further search for additional remains revealed the lower section of a torso and two legs stowed in a bag in the bathroom, and a skull, a section of a torso, and various bones in the tea chest. The same day, Nilsen accompanied police to another address, where he indicated the three locations of the rear garden where he had burned the remains of his victims. When questioned as to why the heads found had been subjected to moist heat, Nilsen confirmed he had frequently boiled the heads of his victims in a large cooking pot on his stove in order that the internal contents would evaporate, thus removing the need to dispose of the brain and flesh. Nilsen recalled that the putrefaction of these victims' bodies would make this task exceedingly vile; he recalled having to fortify his nerves with whisky, and his having to grab handfuls of salt with which to brush aside maggots from the remains. Often, he would vomit as he dissected the bodies, before wrapping the dismembered limbs inside plastic bags before carrying the remains to the bonfires. Nonetheless, immediately prior to his dissecting the victims' bodies, Nilsen would still engage in masturbation as he knelt or sat alongside the corpse. When Police questioned him as to the motive of why he did it. He simply replied,
"I'm hoping you will tell me that". When asked if he had any remorse for his crimes, Nilsen replied: "I wished I could stop, but I couldn't. I had no other thrill or happiness".
On 3 November 1983 Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 25 years. It is considered that he will never be released.
The property is currently for sale, and has attracted lots of interest despite its history.
Dennis Nilsen was an ex-Police officer and civil servant. He was also known to have killed 15 young men between 1978 and 1983. Only eight of the victims were ever identified. Only three of the victims had a permanent address at the time of their murder. The remaining victims largely were vagrants, runaways and male prostitutes.
Nilsen's murders were committed in two North London addresses in which he alternately resided throughout the years. His victims would be lured to these addresses and all were murdered by strangulation, sometimes accompanied by drowning.
Inside Nilsen's home, the victims were usually given food and alcohol, then strangled—usually with a ligature, either to death or until they had become unconscious. If the victim had been strangled into unconsciousness, Nilsen would then drown the victim in his bathtub, his sink, or a bucket of water before observing a ritual in which he would bathe, clothe and retain the victims' bodies inside his residences for several weeks or, occasionally, months. He would typically bathe the victim's body, apply makeup to any noted blemishes, and then dress the body in socks and underpants. He would then drape the victims' arms around him as he talked to the corpse. With most victims.Nilsen would engage in intercural sex where he would place his penis between the body’s thighs and thrust to create friction with his victims' bodies, he repeatedly stated to investigators he had never penetrated his victims, because his victims were "too perfect and beautiful for the pathetic ritual of commonplace sex". In several instances, Nilsen would use the bodies for company and talk to the victim's body as it remained in a chair or on his bed. He stated to being emotional as he marveled at the beauty of his victims' bodies. With reference to one victim, Nilsen said the "body and skin were very beautiful", adding the sight "almost brought me to tears" Nilsen’s confessed that after his usual ritual of bathing the body, Nilsen would also lay the body upon his bed, applied talcum powder to the body, then arranged three mirrors around the bed before himself lying naked alongside the dead youth. Several hours later, he would turn the head towards him, before kissing the youth's body on the forehead and saying, "Goodnight, then fell asleep alongside the body.
After a period of time when the bodies became in such a state of discomposure, Nilson was forced to dismember the corpse. He would boil the heads, hands and feet to remove the flesh off these sections of the victims' bodies. He would then wrap parts in plastic bags and store them in either a wardrobe, a tea chest or within a drawer located beneath the bathtub. He would then dispose of the remains via burning upon a bonfire, or flushing the remains down the toilet. Nilsen eventually was the cause of his own downfall and capture. He wrote a letter of complaint to estate agents complaining that the drains were blocked, (Due to him disposing of human remains) and that the situation for both himself and the other tenants at the property was intolerable. The following day, he refused to allow an acquaintance to enter his property (the reason being he had begun to dismember the body of Stephen Sinclair on the floor of his kitchen).
On 4 February 1983, a Dyno-Rod employee, who responded to the complaint by Nilsen regarding the drains, opened a drain cover at the side of the house. He discovered the drain was packed with a flesh-like substance and numerous small bones. He reported his suspicions to his supervisor, however, no assessment was made until the following morning, by which time the drain had been mysteriously cleared. This aroused the suspicions of the drain inspector and his supervisor. After discovering some scraps of flesh and four bones in a pipe leading to Nilsen’s flat, both men immediately called the police who, upon closer inspection, discovered further small bones and scraps of what looked to the naked eye like either human or animal flesh. These remains were taken to the mortuary where the pathologist advised Police that the remains were indeed human, and that one particular piece of flesh he concluded had been from a human neck bore a ligature mark.
Upon learning from fellow tenants, that the tenant of the top floor flat from where the human remains had been flushed was one Dennis Andrew Nilsen, and that he worked in a job center in Kentish Town. Police waited outside until Nilsen returned home from work. When Nilsen returned home, Police told him they had come to enquire about the blockage in the drains from his flat. Nilsen asked why the police would be interested in his drains and also asked if the officers were also health inspectors. The Police officers requested access to his flat to discuss the matter further. The three officers followed Nilsen into his flat, where they immediately noted the odour of rotting flesh. As Nilsen queried further as to why the Police would be interested in his drains, to which he was informed the blockage had been caused by human remains. Nilsen feigned shock and bewilderment, stating, "Good grief, how awful!" The Officer in charge replied: "Don't mess about, where's the rest of the body?" Nilsen responded calmly, admitting that the remainder of the body could be found in two plastic bags in a nearby wardrobe, from which the officers noted the overpowering smell of decomposition. The officers did not open the cupboard, but asked Nilsen if there were any other body parts to be found, to which Nilsen replied: "It's a long story; it goes back a long time. I'll tell you everything. I want to get it off my chest. Not here—at the police station". He was then arrested and cautioned on suspicion of murder, before being taken to the Police Station. As he was escorted to the police station by Detective Chief Inspector Jay, Nilsen was asked whether the remains in his flat belonged to one person or two. As Nilsen stared out of the window of the police car, he replied, “No, 15 or 16, since 1978"
That evening, a Detective Superintendent Chambers accompanied Peter Jay and Professor David Bowen to the flat, where the plastic bags were removed from the wardrobe and taken to the Mortuary. One bag was found to contain two dissected torsos—one of which had been vertically dissected, and a shopping bag containing various internal organs. The second bag contained a human skull almost completely devoid of flesh, a severed head, and a torso with arms attached but hands missing. Both heads were found to have been subjected to moist heat.
A further search for additional remains revealed the lower section of a torso and two legs stowed in a bag in the bathroom, and a skull, a section of a torso, and various bones in the tea chest. The same day, Nilsen accompanied police to another address, where he indicated the three locations of the rear garden where he had burned the remains of his victims. When questioned as to why the heads found had been subjected to moist heat, Nilsen confirmed he had frequently boiled the heads of his victims in a large cooking pot on his stove in order that the internal contents would evaporate, thus removing the need to dispose of the brain and flesh. Nilsen recalled that the putrefaction of these victims' bodies would make this task exceedingly vile; he recalled having to fortify his nerves with whisky, and his having to grab handfuls of salt with which to brush aside maggots from the remains. Often, he would vomit as he dissected the bodies, before wrapping the dismembered limbs inside plastic bags before carrying the remains to the bonfires. Nonetheless, immediately prior to his dissecting the victims' bodies, Nilsen would still engage in masturbation as he knelt or sat alongside the corpse. When Police questioned him as to the motive of why he did it. He simply replied,
"I'm hoping you will tell me that". When asked if he had any remorse for his crimes, Nilsen replied: "I wished I could stop, but I couldn't. I had no other thrill or happiness".
On 3 November 1983 Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 25 years. It is considered that he will never be released.
The property is currently for sale, and has attracted lots of interest despite its history.
Gareth Williams 1978 – 2010
Gareth Williams (32) was a mathematician and employed by GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) which
is the British intelligence
agency responsible for providing signals
and information to the British government and armed forces.
GCHQ carefully
selects and recruits from Oxford / Cambridge University’s to help intercept and
decode communications. GCHQ is famed for its role in the
breaking of the German Enigma codes in WWII.
While working
for GCHQ, Williams was seconded
to work for SIS (Secret Intelligence Service - MI6) reasons for this has never been
made public due to national security, but it is known Williams attended Black
Hat and DEF Con(Computer security conferences), and therefore believed to be working
on Computer hacking and was one of a team of intelligence
officers working on behalf of US and UK hacking networks. Williams had recently
qualified for operational deployment, and had worked with U.S. National Security Agency and FBI agents. He was then moved from his flat and put
into a government safe house for protection in London’s wealthy Pimlico area. Williams
became unhappy working for SIS and requested to leave and return to
GCHQ as he disliked the "rat race, flash car competitions and post-work
drinking culture". SIS reluctantly agreed
that he could leave and return to GCHQ in September 2010.
After
colleges noted he had been out of contact for several days, Police visited Williams
home during the afternoon of Monday 23 August 2010, as a "welfare
check" a common procedure for Intelligence officers. After Police failed to contact him, and received
no reply from his flat, the Police gained entry to Williams flat. At first they could not find any trace of him
or any evidence of any disturbance in the property, infact it was extremely
tidy. It wasn’t until they checked the bedroom's en-suite bathroom; they found
a North Face luggage holdall curiously placed in the bath. On closer inspection
Police noticed that something was inside the bag, but it was padlocked from the
outside.
After Police gained access they were shocked to find inside the decomposing naked remains of Gareth Williams. Police were baffled as to how the body got inside the bag. The inquest later found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated. An expert brought in to examine the bag in which William’s body was found; it concluded Williams could not have locked it. A police spokesperson stated that: "If he was alive, he got into it voluntarily or, if not, he was unconscious and placed in the bag. There were no signs of Gareth struggling to get out. He was found in a peaceful foetal position. “I believe the bag was placed in the bath to let bodily fluids run down the plug hole.”Although it was midsummer, the heating in the flat was turned up full, which meant decomposition would be fast and potential forensic clues lost. A doorknob, which could have revealed forensic clues, had been removed and was missing. Mr William’s iPhone was wiped and no DNA or fingerprints were found anywhere in the flat.
After Police gained access they were shocked to find inside the decomposing naked remains of Gareth Williams. Police were baffled as to how the body got inside the bag. The inquest later found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated. An expert brought in to examine the bag in which William’s body was found; it concluded Williams could not have locked it. A police spokesperson stated that: "If he was alive, he got into it voluntarily or, if not, he was unconscious and placed in the bag. There were no signs of Gareth struggling to get out. He was found in a peaceful foetal position. “I believe the bag was placed in the bath to let bodily fluids run down the plug hole.”Although it was midsummer, the heating in the flat was turned up full, which meant decomposition would be fast and potential forensic clues lost. A doorknob, which could have revealed forensic clues, had been removed and was missing. Mr William’s iPhone was wiped and no DNA or fingerprints were found anywhere in the flat.
When on hearing about his death, the U.S. State Department asked that no details of Williams work should emerge at the inquest. The
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, immediately signed a Public-interest immunity certificate authorising the withholding from the inquest of details of William’s
work and U.S. joint operations. The American CIA then stated it would carry out their own investigation,
even though Williams was a British citizen and his death occurred in the UK.
The British
Police was then instructed to carry out a re-investigation and to re-examine
the evidence. A subsequent Metropolitan
Police re-investigation concluded that William’s death was now "probably
an accident. Police leaked details to the press regarding Williams personnel
life saying, Williams had visited a
number of bondage websites and his flat contained £20,000 worth of women's
clothing including a women’s wig, implying he was a Transvestite. Police also
stated that his former landlady in Cheltenham, said how one night he had awoken
her and her husband, screaming for help. Apparently he had managed to tie
himself to his bed, and required assistance in releasing himself. The testimony was that Williams had claimed at
the time that he had done it just to see if he could free himself and that he
promised not to try this again.
But the coroner found in a narrative verdict that Williams death was "unnatural
and likely to have been criminally mediated". The coroner was
"satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully",
though there was insufficient evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing. The coroner concluded that another
party placed the bag containing Williams into the bath, and on the balance of
probabilities locked the bag. No evidence was found around the Bath as it had
been cleaned. The coroner was critical of SIS for failing to report Williams
missing for seven days, which caused extra anguish and suffering for his
family, and led to the loss of forensic evidence. Williams family believe that crucial
DNA was interfered with and that fingerprints left at the scene were wiped off
as part of a cover-up by the authorities. The coroner rejected suicide, interest
in bondage or cross-dressing, or "auto-erotic activity" being
involved in Williams death. She
said his visits to bondage websites only occurred intermittently and were not
of a frequency to indicate an active interest. The coroner condemned leaks about
cross-dressing as a possible attempt at media manipulation. The coroner was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), who failed to tell the senior investigating officer before the inquest began of the existence of nine memory sticks and other property in William’s SIS office that had been removed. SO15 also failed to take formal statements when interviewing SIS officers. The coroner said the possible involvement of SIS staff in the death was a legitimate line of inquiry for the police. The finding by Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox prompted another reinvestigation by the Metropolitan Police lasting a further 12 months which officers were given unprecedented access to serving MI6 staff after strong criticism at the inquest of the spying agency's actions following the death of Mr Williams. But a senior Scotland Yard officer announced that despite a re-examination of all evidence and the investigation of new leads, no definitive answers had been obtained as to the cause of Mr William’s death. The most probable scenario was that he had died alone in his flat as the result of accidentally locking himself inside the bag. According to a lawyer representing the Williams family, “he could not have locked the bag from the inside, meaning a “third party” must have done it”.
cross-dressing as a possible attempt at media manipulation. The coroner was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), who failed to tell the senior investigating officer before the inquest began of the existence of nine memory sticks and other property in William’s SIS office that had been removed. SO15 also failed to take formal statements when interviewing SIS officers. The coroner said the possible involvement of SIS staff in the death was a legitimate line of inquiry for the police. The finding by Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox prompted another reinvestigation by the Metropolitan Police lasting a further 12 months which officers were given unprecedented access to serving MI6 staff after strong criticism at the inquest of the spying agency's actions following the death of Mr Williams. But a senior Scotland Yard officer announced that despite a re-examination of all evidence and the investigation of new leads, no definitive answers had been obtained as to the cause of Mr William’s death. The most probable scenario was that he had died alone in his flat as the result of accidentally locking himself inside the bag. According to a lawyer representing the Williams family, “he could not have locked the bag from the inside, meaning a “third party” must have done it”.
Relatives believe his death have been linked to his work
at MI6, and that fingerprints, DNA and other evidence was wiped from the scene
in a deliberate cover up. The family’s lawyer revealed that he was
banned from grilling an MI6 agent during the original inquest. He said he was
prevented from asking a key questions of Mr Williams’ line manager (known only
as Agent G) – on how secret service officers could have entered his apartment.
“I was told it was contrary to national security.” American CIA and SIS stated
they would not release any information regarding their own inquiries. Police have stated the case is now closed. No further information will
be released.
The Williams
family continue in their fight to find out how their 32 year old Son died, and
who is responsible.
Margaret Elizabeth Lofty
1876-1914
(Bessie
Mundy 1879 – 1910 and Alice Burnham 1888 – 1913)
On the evening of 18 December 1914, John Lloyd told the Landlady
of the house that he was going out to buy some tomatoes for his wife's supper
whilst she took a bath. On his return he and the Landlady found Margaret
Elizabeth Lloyd (née Lofty), aged 38, dead in her bath. The Doctor pronounced
death at the scene and attributed it to accidental death that she must have
fainted and drowned in the bath.
In January 1915, Detective
Inspector Arthur Neil from
Scotland Yard received a letter from a Joseph Crossley, who owned
a boarding house in Blackpool, England. With the
letter were two newspaper clippings: one was from the News of the World dated
before Christmas, 1914, about the
death of Margaret Elizabeth Lloyd (née Lofty), who
died in her lodgings in Highgate,
London. The other clipping contained the report of a coroner's inquest dated
13 December 1913, about a woman named Alice Smith (née
Burnham), who died suddenly in a boarding house in that seaside resort while in
her bathtub. She was found by her husband George Smith. Alice and her new husband were
honeymooning at a seaside boarding-house in Blackpool when she drowned in the bathtub
while her husband was supposedly out getting eggs. The letter, dated 3
January, was written by the landlord on
behalf of Alice parents who both expressed their suspicion on the striking
similarity of the two incidents and urged the police to investigate the matter.
On receiving the letter Inspector Neil visited the house
where Margaret Elizabeth Lloyd (née
Lofty was found dead. After examining the bathtub, he thought it was rather
small for someone to drown in. But if Mr Smith the newlywed man in Blackpool
and Mr Lloyd were the same man, how could he have drowned the women in the tub,
without leaving marks of violence on their body? Margaret had only a small bruise on her elbow.
Neil ordered for the bodies to be exhumed to determine whether the women had in fact drowned. They had turned to renowned pathologist Bernard Spilsbury for advice.
Neil ordered for the bodies to be exhumed to determine whether the women had in fact drowned. They had turned to renowned pathologist Bernard Spilsbury for advice.
After experimenting with the very same bathtub
Margaret Lofty died in, he determined how it might have happened. He stated:
“With honeymoon
playfulness Smith would enter the room where his bride was already in the bath,
admire her naked beauty, bend over her fondly, still murmuring endearments,
hold her feet. Suddenly, he would tug her feet upward, jerking her head at the
end of the bath, below the water, so that in a few moments she would be drowned
with no bruises on the body or other signs of assault or resistance. Effective.
Actually, you can see why he stuck to his system”.
Smith was arrested and questioned. Authorities
quickly determined that George Joseph Smith and Robert Lloyd were indeed
the same man. Upon his
arrest being published in the press, a police chief from Kent read the story and told
the London police about another death of 31 year old Bessie Mundy, which was
strikingly similar to the other two.
On investigation it was revealed that George
Joseph Smith had a sinister past and was a conman and bigamist. His only legal marriage
was to Caroline Beatrice Thornhill, a domestic servant, in 1898. Smith
persuaded her to steal from her employers. Caroline served time in prison as a
result, and implicated her husband, who got two years for his role in the
thefts.
After George Smith’s release, Caroline thought it
wise to put a few thousand miles between herself and her estranged husband, and
so she left the UK for Canada. She never filed for divorce, however. Smith remained legally married to her for the rest
of his life, so none of his numerous other marriages were legal.
Smith wasn’t good-looking man with a big ginger moustache,
but had the ability to charm like any good con artist. A year after his
marriage to Caroline, Smith bigamously married another woman. He cleaned out
her savings account and then deserted her.
Between 1908 and 1914, he married no fewer than
seven additional women, usually under an alias, and deserted most of them after
a short time, sometimes only a matter of days — but not before he helped
himself to their possessions and bank accounts. Smith then decided it would be
easier to dispose of his wives instead of deserting them to avoid any retribution.
Bessie Mundy (31) married Smith in August 1910, but
he left her after persuading her to give him £150 in cash. On the way out the
door, he accused her of giving him a venereal disease.
Eighteen months later, Bessie ran into Smith on the
street. Somehow, the charmer got his ex to forgive him and resume their
relationship. In fact, Smith wanted to get his hands on Bessie’s £2,500
inheritance, but it was in trust and he couldn’t touch it.
After their reunion, the couple drew up mutual
wills, naming each other as beneficiaries. Bessie willed her husband £2,579.
Less than a week later, she was mysteriously dead.
Smith rented a house for them in Herne Bay and had
a new cast-iron bathtub installed. Tragically, Bessie drowned in the bath. Her
husband said he’d been out buying dinner and returned to discover the body. Since
Smith claimed his bride suffered from epilepsy and that she’d had a seizure the
day before she died, it was easy to believe she’d simply had an unfortunate
accident.
In spite of his newfound wealth, Smith had Bessie
consigned to a pauper’s grave and even returned the slightly-used bathtub for a
refund.
His second murder was Alice Burnham (25), who was
making a good living as a nurse. Smith married on November 4, 1913, and became
her widower on December 13.
Alice and her new husband were honeymooning at a
seaside boarding-house in Blackpool when she drowned in the bathtub while he
was supposedly out getting eggs.
Smith, who claimed she had a weak heart, had
insured her life for £500. She too was buried in a pauper’s grave.
Finally was Margaret Elizabeth Lofty. On the
afternoon of her murder, 18 December 1914 Margaret Lloyd had visited her
solicitor in Islington and made a will in favour of her husband. That same
evening she was found dead in her bath. On the day of her funeral when the
hearse drew up, Smith told the undertaker "I don't want any walking, get
it over as quick as you can", after the funeral was over he was heard to
say: "Thank goodness, that's all over."
When Smith went to trial, it was only for the
murder of Bessie; British law didn’t permit him to be tried for multiple
murders in one go. However, the prosecution wanted to bring evidence in the
Lofty and Burham deaths into the trial, arguing that they indicated a criminal
“system.”The judge allowed it, setting a precedent that would be used in later criminal cases.
Pathologist Spilsbury demonstrated to the jury his murder theory using Bessie’s actual
bathtub with using a female police officer in a bathing suit. It
worked all too well: she lost consciousness immediately and they had to drag
her out of the tub and perform artificial respiration to revive her.
With that demonstration the jury only took 22mins to find
him guilty. Smith stated at his trial
that “I’m not a murderer, but admit I’m a bit peculiar”
He was then sentenced to death. On the morning of his
execution at Maidstone Prison, 13 August 1915, George Joseph Smith was a wreck.
With death staring him in the face, he was led quickly – and shakily – to the
scaffold and positioned onto the trapdoor where the hood was placed over his
head. As hangman Ellis placed the noose around his neck, Smith cried out loudly,
‘I’m innocent!’ He never confessed to the murders of three innocent women, who
were desperate for love but were met instead with cruel and untimely deaths.
Caroline Thornhill, Smith’s legal wife, returned to
Britain for his trial. She married a Canadian soldier the day after his
execution.
The case became famously known as the “Brides in the Bath Murders” For some years Smith’s effigy was exhibited in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame
Tussauds Waxworks
in London, along with the actual
bath he killed Margaret Elizabeth Lofty.
Jane Jeary (1846-1864)
Jane Jeary (18) worked and lived as a Chamber maid in the
Lion Tavern, Islington London.
Jeary was considered as a pretty young girl, who was popular
with friends and liked by staff and customers.
Fredrick Charles Bricknell (23) had also been working at
the Lion Tavern for the past 2 years as an Under-Waiter. Bricknell was regarded
as a quiet young man who did his job well.
Bricknell had secretly become infatuated with his fellow
worker Jane Jeary. It was noted by other staff in the Tavern they seemed at one
time quite fond of each other. The Barman Henry Keeble stated “I frequently heard him speak about Jane
saying “she was all the world to him; that he was very fond of her”—“she
appeared to be very fond of him at one time, but that 'might have been some
eight or nine months ago—she had not seemed to be interested in him since”.
It
is believed that Jeary’s change of attitude towards Bricknell was due to his unexpected
proposal of marriage to Jeary, which she declined, saying she was walking out
with another man. Bricknell
took the news very badly and staff noticed the change in his manner, he was
unhappy and was in a low melancholy state.
One
evening Jeary came home into the Tavern with her cousin. She sat down with him
in the Tap room and asked Barman Henry Keeble to join them for a drink. Keeble not
wanting Bricknell to feel left out invited Bricknell to also join them for a
glass, but Bricknell declined saying “No; that is the man that has broken my
peace of mind"—pointing to the man sitting next to Jeary, not knowing he
was Jeary’s cousin.
On
the night of 8th July 1864 at 11.15pm, loud screams were heard from upstairs
from Jeary’s room. Barman Henry Keeble ran
upstairs only to be confronted by Bricknell on the second landing. Bricknell
was holding a knife in his hand—he was holding the handle with a
handkerchief round the handle and the blade downwards—there was blood on it.
Keeble went into Jane Jearys room to find her lying on her face. Keeble picked
her up, and held her. Bricknell said "It
is all right, Mr. Henry; I have done it, and here is the knife" Keeble
said he held Jane, but she did not speak; her frame quivered just once,
and then went silent and still, that was all—there was a great deal of blood
upon her person; it came from her left breast. Keeble then said to Bricknell, "You
scoundrel, come down stairs"—“I brought him down stairs, and gave him in
charge of a gentleman at the bar and went to summon the Police”.
When the Police came, Bricknell confessed straight away he
was responsible “She is the only girl that I ever have liked, and, poor girl,
she has got it; I hope she will die" "I would rather she was dead
than anyone else should have her" "I did do it; I loved the girl, and
that is the reason I have done it"
Bricknell was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was
hanged outside Newgate Prison (Old Bailey) straight after his trial on 1st
August 1864, less than 4 weeks from the date of the murder.
Within Bricknell’s possessions, Police found a solitary key,
which belonged to a box in his room. When Police opened the box, they found a
portrait of Jane Jeary.
Gemma McCluskie (1983 – 2012)
Gemma McCluskie (29) was a British television actress. She
was a regular cast member in the popular
BBC soap-opera East Enders, in which she played the
character Kerry
Skinner. She also had a part in the series called No Sweat.
Gemma lived in an East London flat, with her Mother
Pauline and Brother Tony. Her Mother and Father separated many years ago. Gemma
was also a carer for her Mother who was in hospital suffering from a Brain
tumour and required 24-hour care after
contracting MRSA.
On the 1st March 2012 Gemma McCluskie went missing. Her
last known sighting was on the evening at 8pm of her going into a kebab shop.
Family and friends became increasingly worried of her disappearance as it was
totally out of character not to let anyone know of her whereabouts.
Friends and fellow actors tweeted about her disappearance
in hope of getting any information about her. After
4 days on the 5th March, family and friends gathered at the local pub
“The Bird Cage” to organise a hunt and campaign to find missing Gemma. Brothers
Tony and Danny with the help of their cousins started a campaign with the
Twitter hashtag "#FindGemma" and a planned search. Gemma's brother
Tony was extremely upset and concerned over his sisters disappearance, posing
for photographs with an appeal poster and texting her, pleading for her to get
in touch.
Over a 100 people spread out from the east and south of London attempting to
discover information related to Gemma's disappearance, but nothing was found.
Police became suspicious of her unexplained disappearance,
due to the lack of any sightings or any CCTV evidence from when she was last
seen, suggesting she was on her way home.
On the 6th March 2012, Police released the
shocking news that a headless torso had been recovered from Regent's Canal.
Police would only confirm that the torso was of a woman and would not confirm
any link to the missing actress Gemma McCluskie. Police then questioned Gemma’s
friends and started to hear a different story regarding her family life, particularly
about the relationship with her brother Tony.
On the 9th March, Police announced that the body found in
the Canal had been formally identified as Gemma McCluskie due to DNA and a
distinctive tattoo.
The next
day, 10th March 2012, to everyone’s astonishment, the Brother of Gemma, Tony
McCluskie (35) was arrested and formally charged with her murder of his own
sister and remanded
in custody. Police
become suspicious when they heard of a turbulent relationship between the
sister and brother. When Tony sent her a text message he signed off one message
with “love ya xxx.” Police analysed
his messages and discovered it was the only time he had ever told his
sister he loved her.
Tony McCluskie spent most of the time in his room,
smoking up to 15 cannabis joints and drinking up to ten pints of lager,
fortified with shots of tequila, every day.
He became obsessive and full of
resentment over living with his ‘hugely popular and outgoing’ sister. Tony regularly
subjected his sister to savage beatings and mental torment while out of his
mind on powerful skunk cannabis.
A friend of Gemma’s told the Daily
Mirror, “She suffered more than 20 years of sickening abuse at the
hands of her brutal drug addict brother and lived in permanent fear of the
jealous thug who had terrorised her since she was a child. “She was petrified of him.
"He
would beat her and mentally torture her, calling her all kinds of awful things.
"She
would wear sunglasses because of the black eyes and I saw bruises up her arms
where he attacked her.”It was like he felt he owned her and he tried to control
her. The abuse had gone on ever since she was a kid. In 2004 we went out and
she had black eye and she said Tony did it. "When she saw how horrified I
was she changed her story and said she had been joking but I knew it was true. The
way he was with her just wasn’t right. I used to say to her, ‘He’s not your
boyfriend, he’s just your brother.’"It wasn’t natural.
When we went out clubbing Tony would ring and ask where
she was.
“She would say, ‘Don’t tell him I’ve been here.’ She didn’t want him to know
she was somewhere meeting boys.
He
was very controlling and jealous. “When he came out with us he used to hold her
next to him really close."He acted like a possessive boyfriend and he
didn’t want anyone else to have her. He hated her seeing boys. Gemma said “He’s permanently stoned.’”
6 months later on the 10th September, police also found a
head in the same stretch of canal; it was later confirmed from dental records to
be the head of Gemma McCluskie.
On 28th September, Tony McCluskie, finally accepted
responsibility for the death of his Sister but denied murder.
The trial began on 14th January 2013 at
the Old Bailey. During the trial the jury heard about Tony McCluskie being
a heavy drinker and dependent on drugs. Also how abusive he was to his sister and
that the siblings frequently argued. Witness’s stated on 1st March 2012 they overheard Gemma ringing her brother to tell him she
was sick of his cannabis habit and he would have to move out. When she arrived
in the afternoon she discovered he had left the bathroom taps running and
flooded the bathroom. Neighbours heard her sobbing before hearing Tony
repeatedly shouting: ‘I’m sorry Gemma; I must have been out of my mind.’
It
was alleged that later the argument escalated. He stated he grabbed her by the wrists after she attacked him with a
Knife, but claimed he had no further recollection of his actions. The Coroner
reported her death was caused by being struck several times over the head with
a blunt instrument. He then spent several hours dismembering her body using a meat cleaver and
a knife to hack it into 6 pieces. The next day CCTV footage showed him taking a suitcase containing her remains in
a Taxi to dispose of in Regent's Canal.
Tony McCluskie initially admitted
manslaughter but denied murder, citing a 'loss of control'. However, on 30th
January 2013, he was found guilty of her murder and jailed for life with a
minimum 20 years before being considered for parole.
Gemma’s Mother Pauline, was given the tragic
news of Gemma's death while recovering in hospital. She said she can’t forgive him
for taking Gemma away and she has refused to respond to his letters. “She’s
devastated at losing Gemma who meant the world to her and she cries every day.
The
family were completely split and sat in different parts of the
court during the trial, after Tony’s father Anthony stated he would stand by
his son, though this dramatically changed when he visited him in
prison. In a TV interview, the Father expressed disbelief that his son showed no remorse for the brutal attack and has refused even to mention his Sister's name since he
was jailed. “I initially stood by his son, but today I have blocked
the inmate's calls from prison because he has "never said sorry".
"I
was so shocked by his attitude and how he was with me. He came into the
visiting room with a swagger and I started asking him questions 'Why did you
discredit your sister? Why did you tell all those lies? The QCs turned you
inside out...' and he kept still denying it”.
The
Father said in the interview “If you'd just got life in prison, you'd be on
your knees. But with him there were no tears, nothing, (he was) so cold. He showed
no emotion when he was jailed. It would be "very hard to ever forgive him,
I've lost two children really, but I’m finished with Tony now."
Gemma’s
mother Pauline has surprisingly moved back into the flat where Gemma was brutally
murdered and her body dissected by her brother.
The
Daily Mirror reported that a friend said: “Lots of people find it hard to
understand how she can go back in that flat after what happened in there, but
it’s her home and she says it makes her feel close to Gemma to be in the flat.”
but she will never forgive her killer son.
Gemma McCluskie's funeral was held on 30th November
2012 at St. Monica's Church, Hoxton Square, and buried
at the City of London Cemetery.
Brian Cherry (1961-2004)
Nisha Sheth (1973-1993)
Richard Loudwell (1944-2004)
Peter Bryan (23) was born in London on 4 October 1969, his parents were immigrants from Barbados, and was the youngest
of seven children. He left school aged 15 and obtained employment working on a
clothes stall in a market. At the age of 23 he started to work as a shop
assistant for the Sheth family who run a clothing business called Omcar on the fashionable
kings Road Chelsea. The shop was run by the owner’s daughter, 20 year old Nisha Sheth. While
working at the shop, Bryan had fallen for Nisha but was sacked after being
caught stealing clothes.
A
week later on 18 March 1993, Bryan returned to get his revenge. He
walked into the shop and knocked Nisha's 12 year-old brother Bobby to the floor
and then battered Nisha over the head with a claw hammer as she chatted on the
phone. Nisha was dead before the ambulance arrived. An hour later Bryan, high
on cannabis, jumped from the third floor balcony of a building in Battersea in
an apparent suicide attempt. He survived and admitted the manslaughter of Nisha
on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Bryan was diagnosed with paranoid
schizophrenia and
was locked up in the Rampton maximum security psychiatric unit at Her Majesty’s
Pleasure (an indefinite sentence given for serious
offences based on insanity, where there is a great risk of re-offending and a serious
threat to the public and themselves)
After eight years, mental health experts decided
he was rehabilitated enough so he could re-join the community under
supervision. The Home Office is thought to have
objected but was overruled. Bryan was released into the care of an
inexperienced social worker who had no training in mental health and a
psychiatrist who had never worked with a convicted killer. In a damning report
into the case, authors found that while living in the community Bryan also
indecently assaulted a 17-year-old girl. The report said it was 'seriously
concerned' that despite the allegation, no attempt was made by the hostel or his
social worker to contact the Home Office at the earliest opportunity. Following
the alleged indecent assault, Bryan was moved 'for his own safety' from the
hostel after being threatened by the girl's family.
He was then treated
as a care in the community patient at Newham General Hospital, but on February
17, 2004, it was agreed Bryan could leave the ward as much as he wanted. His social worker applied for his
transfer to low support accommodation believing he was no longer a threat, but Bryan
went straight to a DIY shop where he bought a new claw hammer, Stanley knife
and a screwdriver.
Brian Cherry, 43, lived in a ground floor flat, East
London. He was described as a 'nice man, lonely with few friends', but somehow
became friends with killer Peter Bryan.
One of Brian Cherry’s
few friends; Nicola Newman (19) possessed a key to Brian’s flat. At around
7.15pm Nicola Newman entered the flat. Peter Bryan then emerged from the living
room bare-chested and holding a knife to announce: 'Brian is dead.' 'She
naturally did not believe him and tried to look into the room,' when she saw Mr
Cherry lying naked on the floor and could see one of his arms on the floor
clearly separated from the rest of his body.' Newman quickly run out and called
the Police.
When the Police arrived
they were confronted by Bryan standing in the hallway in the dark with
bloodstained hands, jeans and trainers. In the kitchen officers noticed a small
amount of meat in a frying pan next to an open tub of Butter. The meat frying
in the Pan was part of Mr Cherry's brain. More brain tissue and hair matted
with blood was heaped on a plate next to a knife and fork on the draining
board.
Bryan told officers
he had killed Mr Cherry after the victim opened his door and then said: 'I ate
his brain with butter, it was really nice.' He later added: 'I would have done
someone else if you hadn't come along. I wanted their souls.'
Mr Cherry's skull had
been smashed open with at least 24 blows from the claw hammer and his head had
been partly sawn off. Bryan had also had hacked off his right leg and both
arms. Blood was spattered around the living room and three blood-stained knives
were strewn around the floor. The severed left leg was partly sawn and partly
fractured. At the top of the right left the muscle had been completely divided
and superficial sawing of the bone had commenced.
'The pathologist
concluded the defendant had been interrupted before he could complete the
amputation of that limb.' Bryan later admitted 'I used the Stanley knife to cut
them off and some other kitchen knives but I had to stamp on them to break the
bone.'
While being held at
Pentonville jail before his trial, he told a member of staff that he was
'comforted by the smell of blood' and added: he wanted to kill a warder and eat
his nose. Prison officers had to use riot shields when unlocking his cell in
case of attack.
Bryan was finally
admitted to Broadmoor maximum security hospital on April 15, 2004, and kept in
a cell. But yet another blunder meant doctors believed he had 'settled' and
could be transferred to a medium risk ward. This costly mistake gave Bryan the opportunity
to kill yet again. His third victim was Richard Loudwell, 60, who was awaiting
trial for the murder of an 82-year-old woman and was also a patient on the same
ward.
On April 25,
2004, Mr Loudwell was 'happy, cheering and laughing. At
around 6.10pm staff heard two bangs coming from the dining room. Despite nine staff being on duty the dining room was unattended,
which was later criticised that closer observation should have been kept on a
patient such as Bryan, but staff was unaware or knew little about him.
Mr
Loudwell was found lying on the floor next to a table and chair. His face was covered in blood and there
was a strangulation mark around his neck. Though still alive, He died on June 5, from broncho-pneumonia caused by severe brain injuries. When Bryan was found he admitted he had
tried to strangle Mr Loudwell with a piece of cord but decided to smash his head into the floor.
When interviewed by
Psychiatrist Dr Martin Lock, Bryan told him 'I get these urges you see. I've
had these urges ever since I saw him (Loudwell). He's the bottom of the food
chain, old and haggard. He looked like he'd had his innings. 'I was just
waiting for my chance to get at him. I wanted to kill him and eat him. I didn't
have much time. If I did I'd have tried to cook him and eat him.' 'I felt
excited when I attacked him. I wanted to shag him when he was alive and also
when he was dead. 'I wanted to cook him but there was no time, nor was there
access to cooking equipment. I considered eating him raw.'
Asked if wanting to
eat people was normal, he replied: 'Of course it's normal. Cannibalism is
normal. Arms and legs taste like chicken.' “Cannibalism has been here for
centuries. If I was on the street I'd go for someone bigger, you know, just for
the challenge.” The human body is a natural food source and it makes me
stronger.” He then named another patient as his next target and added: 'It's
something like a ritual. I want to kill eight people and be known as a serial
killer.'
Bryan then told the
doctors that he would be released into the community again, despite killing
three people. Psychiatrist Dr Martin Lock, who carried out a series of interviews
with Bryan, said he was 'the most dangerous man I have ever assessed.' He then told
the Psychiatrist: 'You look like a brainy chap and you are quite slim. I think
I could take you.' Then smiled.
The court heard 'He
is at his most deadly when he is able to present himself as entirely calm and
settled. It was advised that Bryan should die behind bars. Judge Giles
Forrester told Bryan: 'You had the urge not only to kill but also to eat the
flesh of your victims. 'You experienced feelings of power and invincibility.
Not only that but you gained sexual excitement from the act of battering your
victims to death. "You
killed on these last two occasions because it gave you a thrill and a feeling
of power when you ate flesh."
'The earlier
treatment at hospital did not cure your disease and there is no reason to
believe a hospital order now will do what it failed to achieve back in 1994. 'It
is clear that you can appear calm and cooperative while harbouring bizarre
psychotic beliefs.'
Bryan was finally
given a whole life sentence and that he will never be released. He is now a patient
at Broadmoor maximum
security mental Hospital.
A second
report also published by NHS London, describing the events leading up to Bryan’s
third victim Loudwell, was even more critical of Broadmoor Hospital, but confirmed
that no disciplinary action was to be taken against any staff.
The
family of Bryan’s first victim 20 year old Nisha Sheth, were distraught.
The Mother Rashmi Sheth said: It is terrible he should never have been
released. He shouldn’t even be alive. We are paying taxes to keep him alive.
This brings back all the memories. It reopens the whole story and we are a family who are just trying to get on with our lives.
This brings back all the memories. It reopens the whole story and we are a family who are just trying to get on with our lives.
Andrea Dykes
(1972-1999)
John Light (1967-1999)
Nik Moore
(1968-1999)
On the
evening of 30 April 1999, Julian and Andrea Dykes with their friends John Light
and his partner Gary Partridge, all took a train from Colchester to London to
see the ABBA musical Mamma Mia. Andrea and Julian Dykes had been married in
August 1997. The couple had chosen John Light as best man at their wedding and
as a future godparent as Andrea was 4 months pregnant. The trip to London was there
way of thanking him. They also met up with friend Nik Moore who already lived
in London.
Before the show the group decided to have a drink in the nearby Pub called
the Admiral Duncan, situated in the heart of London’s Soho district in Old
Compton Street and is largely used by the Gay community.
Due to it
being a Friday evening, the pub was very full with office workers and theatre
goers. At approx 6.37pm patrons noticed an unattended bag. Mark Taylor who was
the pub manager was alerted. Just as the bag was being investigated it
exploded. The bag contained a pipe bomb containing 1,500 nails.
Three people were killed and over 70
seriously injured. Andrea Dykes (27) who was four months pregnant, John Light (32), and Nik Moore (32).
Andrea’s husband, Julian (26), survived but received serious shrapnel injuries
and burns. In his statement he said:
"I remember an enormous rush of air and an orangey flash of light.
Then I was on fire. I did not see the other four." "I was waving my
hands trying to put myself out. I was somehow outside the pub and I was wet, I
believe someone had poured water over me. I cannot remember anything after the
bomb."
Julian Dykes did not learn of the deaths of
his wife and friends until three weeks after the attack.
Gary Partridge who was injured in the blast and John Light’s partner
said “We were all in good humour and chatting. We were all very happy, when all
of a sudden I saw an orange flash of light I cannot remember where it came
from. I instinctively ducked and covered my face and head..." It appeared
to be very calm for a few seconds, and then I heard people beginning to shout
and scream. When I found John, I realised he was soaked in blood. His hair was
all burnt.
Professor Gus McGrouther, professor of plastic surgery at University
College Hospital, who treated some of the survivors, said the injuries were
worse than those seen in IRA attacks and among war victims.
On the same evening as the blast, Police arrested 23 year old David
Copeland. When they went to his address Copeland calmly opened the door and
said "Yeah,
they were all down to me. I did them on my own." He showed them his room,
where two Nazi flags were hanging on a wall, along with a collection of
photographs and newspaper stories about bombs. During police
interviews, he admitted being a neo-Nazi, and talked of his
desire to spread fear and trigger a race war. He told police,
"My main intent was to spread fear, resentment and hatred throughout this
country; it was to cause a racial war. I would have bombed the Jews as well if
I'd got a chance."Copeland was also responsible for planting bombs in
Brixton and Brick lane, both largely ethnic communities. Although at first it was believed
that these were race-hate attacks, police profilers had issued a warning that a
gay bar could be the bomber's next target and started to warn Gay pubs..
Another pub in the area had displayed a poster warning customers to be
alert.
Copeland was
attempting to stir up ethnic and homophobic tensions by carrying out a series of bombings. On
Thursday 29 April, CCTV footage from Brixton was given wide publicity after an
image of the suspected bomber was identified on it. A work colleague of
Copeland recognised him and alerted police about an hour and 20 minutes before
the bomb in the Admiral Duncan exploded.
Copeland tried
to plead Diminished responsibility but it was rejected. He was convicted of
three murders and three offences of planting bombs on 30 June 2000 and given
six life sentences, one for each of these offences. His original minimum
sentence was 30 years, but at a hearing at the High
Court, Mr
Justice Burton increased Copeland's minimum sentence
to 50 years, stating this was "necessary for the protection of the
public". Copeland's release will not occur
until 2049 at the earliest, when he will be 73 years old. It is considered that
he will never be released.
Aftermath:
Inside the
Admiral Duncan there is now a memorial chandelier with an inscription and a plaque in the bar to memorialise those killed in the blast and
the many that were injured. Several were very seriously and a number of people
lost eyes or limbs.
5 years later, the barman David Morley (37) who was badly hurt but survived the blast
was fatally attacked by a group of youths near Waterloo Station in London on the 30 October 2004. The
attack garnered widespread media coverage as a fatality of a violent trend
known as happy slapping.
Four youths,
15 year old girl, Chelsea O'Mahoney, with Reece Sargeant (21), Darren Case (18)
and David Blenman (17) were all arrested. The attack on Morley was one of eight that the
group carried out. After
attacking Morley, Chelsea O'Mahoney, decided to finish Morley off by kicking
him two or three times in the head, "like a football." Morley had
suffered 44 injuries, including five fractured ribs. He died of a haemorrhage
from a ruptured spleen and
fractured ribs. The pathologist said
the injuries were more consistent with those seen after a car accident or someone
who had fallen from a great height. After this attack the group continued to
attack three more people.
Though they
had been prosecuted for murder, the jury returned a verdict of only
manslaughter.
On 23 January 2006, 15
year old Chelsea O'Mahoney was sentenced to an 8 year custodial sentence and
her co-defendants to 12 years each. O'Mahoney had been described as a "child of
heroin addicts" with a "particularly chaotic and fragmented
life". The other members of the gang were described as "immature and
vulnerable to peer pressure"
Eliza Barrow (1863-1912)
In 1909 Miss
Eliza Barrow, a well-to-do 47 year old spinster, moved into the four room top
floor flat where her landlord Frederick Seddon (40) occupied the ground floor
with his wife Maggie (34) and their five children and elderly father.
Frederick Seddon,
the area supervisor for an insurance company, had
an obsession with making money; he also ran a second-hand clothes business in
his wife's name and also speculated in
real estate. To increase their income he and his wife advertised to let out the second floor of their London home.
Eliza
Mary Barrow, responded to this advertisement, moving in with her ward Ernest George Grant, the eight-year-old nephew of her
friend, on 26 July 1910. Previously she had shared lodgings with her cousin,
Frank Vonderahe, but she hoped the new arrangement with Seddon would be
cheaper.
As soon as
Eliza Barrow moved in, Seddon made some quick calculations of her wealth and
advised her that in return for a small annuity and the remission of her rent,
he would agree to manage her business accounts. Eliza was
quickly persuaded by Seddon to sign over to him a controlling interest in all
her savings and annuities, including £1,500 of India Stock, and her properties
in Camden Town, in return for which he would take care of her for the rest of
her life and allowing her to live in his home rent free. The Seddon's even
invited Eliza Barrow, and her young ward to holiday together at Southend.
On
their return from Holiday, Seddon sent his daughter to buy a three-penny packet
of flypaper from the local chemist. (Fly-paper is
an early pest control device that
traps flies, made of paper coated with extremely
sticky fragrant glue containing poisonous Arsenic).
Eliza
Barrow began to suffer from agonising stomach pains. The local doctor was
called, who prescribed morphine. On 9 September he visited her again, but by
the following Monday her condition had deteriorated. However, she refused to go to hospital
thinking she would be better off being looked after by the Seddon’s
She
was confined to her bed with
constant diarrhoea and vomiting. The top floor of the house stank so badly that
the Doctor advised the Seddons to hang sheets soaked in carbolic around the
sick room. On 13 September, Seddon convinced
Eliza to make a will, which she dictated and was executed
by Seddon, while witnessed by his wife.
At
6:15am on the 14 September, while being looked after by Mrs.Seddon, 47 year old
Eliza Barrow died. Seddon went to the doctor, who issued a death certificate
without even seeing the body, claiming that he was unable to attend due to
overwork brought on by an epidemic current in the area at that time.
Though Eliza
Barrow was a wealthy woman, Seddon arranged for her burial in the cheapest
public grave possible and even accepted a commission of 12 shillings from the
undertaker for the business. He also stood to inherit all of Eliza Barrow’s
wealth.
Immediately
after the funeral Frederick
Seddon and his family left for Southend for another
fortnight's holiday.
While away, Seddon
forgot that all burials including Eliza Barrow’s would be published in the
register of the local newspaper. By
chance Frank Vonderahes, who was Eliza’s cousin, would come across the article.
He was shocked to learn about his cousin’s sudden death. He also became suspicious knowing of Eliza’s
wealth, and puzzled as to why she had been buried in a common grave and not the
family vault in London’s Highgate Cemetery.
Vonderahes went
straight to confront Seddon as to why no one was informed of Eliza’s death or
invited to the funeral.
Seddon's
explanation to Vonderahes
was that Eliza Barrow's family was rude to his
daughter during an earlier visit and he was not prepared to allow his family to
be treated in the same way again, and that if Barrow's family missed the
funeral it might teach them better manners for the future.
Vonderahes
was shocked and angry at Seddon’s answer. He then told him he would take over possession of Eliza’s estate, but Seddon replied
that nothing was left as he had paid the substantial funeral expenses and the
cost of Eliza’s ward, Ernest Grant's upkeep himself.
Vonderahe
went straight to the police and voiced his suspicions.
Police
interviewed Seddon and was surprised at his arrogance towards them. This made
them start an inquiry and ordered an exhumation of Eliza's body. After tests were carried out, Pathologists
found the body contained fatal amounts of Arsenic and recorded - Death by Poisoning.
Seddon and his wife
became the chief suspects in what was by now a murder inquiry and both was arrested and charged with murder.
During their trial
at the Old
Bailey the prosecution, led by the Attorney General,Sir Rufus Isaacs, proved that Seddon’s daughter had
previously bought a large amount of flypaper, which contained the Arsenic that
killed Eliza Barrows. The prosecution suggested that the poison used had been
obtained by soaking the flypaper in water and then given to Barrow by Seddon to
drink.
If found guilty, Seddon would be facing the death penalty. But Seddon thought
he had a cunning plan to save him from the Gallows. Seddon was a
former Freemason and believed this would protect him as all Judges and Lawyers
were also Freemasons. He believed that no member of the Brotherhood would condemn
another to his death and he would be found not guilty.
(Freemason’s is a controversial, secretive men-only society
concerned with moral and spiritual values. Its members are taught its strict
principles with secret rituals. Freemasons recognise each other by using coded signs
or by wearing rings which bears the Freemason symbol. Freemasons have included many
famous members over the years, including Royalty, Judges, Police and other high
ranking members of the establishment. Over the years this has raised suspicions
of impartiality and accusations of biased deals and sentencing by the law courts).
Seddon’s
defence council was confident he and his wife would be acquitted due to lack of
evidence, but Seddon insisted on giving evidence in his own defence though being advised
against it by his own Counsel.
It was claimed that Seddon turned the jury
against himself through his arrogant and condescending attitude towards the
court. Also by his ridiculous claim that Eliza Barrow might have drunk water
from the dishes underneath the flypaper that had been placed in her room.
Despite a fierce
battle from his defence team they were unable to save him and the jury found
him guilty of murder, but acquitted his wife (who did not give any evidence) of
any involvement in the murder.
On being asked by
the Clerk of the Court if he had anything to say before sentencing, Seddon replied at length and appealed directly
to the judge, a brother Mason and in the name of 'The Great Architect Of The Universe' to overturn the jury’s guilty
verdict. He then gave the Freemason First Degree sign, (Sign of Grief and
Distress, begging for mercy). The judge, Mr Justice Bucknill, himself a
prominent Freemason, said, with some emotion:
“We both belong to the same Brotherhood, and
though that can have no influence with me this is painful beyond words to have
to say what I am saying, but our Brotherhood does not encourage crime, it
condemns it." "It is not for
me to harrow your feelings – try to make peace with your Maker”.
Seddon was stunned
that he had been condemned by a fellow member of the Brotherhood. He then replied
that he had already made his peace with his Maker. Mr Justice Bucknill then
pronounced the sentence of death.
While
awaiting his execution, Seddon still pinned his hopes that being a Freemason
would give him a reprieve from the highest level, but no reprieve came.
Seddon was
hanged by Hangman John Ellis at Pentonville Prison, just a short walk from his
home, on 18 April 1912 with over 7,000 people assembled outside. The crowd
would undoubtedly have been larger, were it not for the fact that news of the
sinking of the Titanic three days earlier.
After his execution
his widow, Margaret Ann Seddon, returned to Liverpool where she married
James Donald Cameron on 4 November 1912, less than 7 months after her husband's
execution. Later she moved with Cameron to the United States, taking her five
children with her.
Victims – unknown
(1900-1903) The Finchley Baby Farmers
Before the
welfare state was introduced in England, Victorian women who fell pregnant
outside marriage were usually shunned by family and society. Most women were
married by their late teens. Girls as young as 16 were found suitors and
married off to avoid scandal and becoming a financial burden. A scandal within
a family could also prevent other siblings from finding suitors.
Sex
education was nearly non-existent for young girls and for most their first introduction
to sex would be on their wedding night. Women who became pregnant through rape were
also shunned. Convictions for rape were rare, especially if it was committed by
a family member. Rape within marriage was not considered illegal, if a woman
denied her husband sex, gentle force could be applied.
Women had few choices
at a time when even orphanages might refuse to take a child born out of wedlock. Women who fell pregnant were either forced
to marry the father (as the man would be expected to do the honourable thing) or
spend their lives in work houses. It was also common for young girls to be sent
away to relatives until the baby was born and then given up for adoption.
Some figures suggest that half of all
babies born in Victorian London died before they were one. Burials were
expensive and barely a week went by without police finding a little dead body
abandoned in a railway carriage, or left on the banks of a canal.
In 1899, Louise Masset
(33) was tried for the murder of her young son Manfred, whose body was found,
battered and strangled in the ladies' lavatory at Dalston Railway Station. She later
confessed she only did it because she was so deeply ashamed and concerned about
the derogatory names which would be aimed at her son due to him being illegitimate.
She stated that he had already been a target of abuse and that she killed him
out of mercy and compassion. Louise Masset was found guilty and hanged on
January 9, 1900.
Adoption agency’s
were run by women known as Baby-Farmers. Legitimate Baby-Farmers provided a much-needed service for pregnant
unmarried women in Victorian and Edwardian times. These were usually run from private
homes called Lying-in homes, where unmarried pregnant women could stay before giving birth.
These women were
often servant girls who were forced to 'farm' out their illegitimate child to
avoid scandal and keep their jobs. Employers would sometimes pay for the
service, especially if a member of the household or the employer were the
father. Once the young
girl gave birth, the baby would be taken away from the mother. She would then leave
and return to her employer and the episode would be forgotten and never spoken
of again.
Amelia
Sach (30) and Annie Walters (37) were Mid-wife’s and decided to open a
"lying-in" home in East Finchley, London. Around 1900, Sach began to advertise in the
local papers under the name Nurse Thorne: Skilled nursing. Home comforts. Baby
can remain.' Meaning that babies "could be left", and took
money for adoptions. The clients, judging from the witness accounts, were
mostly servants from local houses who their employers were keen for the matter
to be resolved discreetly so they could return back to work as soon as possible
and avoid any inconvenience to her employer.
Once
the child was born, Amelia Sach would offer to arrange an adoption; assuring
her clients that for £25, their offspring would start a new life with a
'well-to-do lady'.
The Baby
farming industry became increasingly competitive. After a while the two women
found it increasingly difficult to find family’s willing to adopt and keeping
the babies for any length of time was eating into their profits. They then
decided it would be more profitable to just dispose of the babies and keep the
adoption money.
Annie
Walters was a highly
disturbed 54-year-old midwife. She removed the babies from the lying-in home
and took them back to her lodgings. There she would drug them and during the
night she would wander the streets looking for somewhere to dump the bodies.
Annie Walters asked her
landlady if she could bring baby’s back for one-two nights before it would be adopted. After
numerous baby’s were brought back to her lodgings, the Landlady took an
interest in a baby boy, but like all the previous ones, two days later the boy
had gone. When the Landlady asked what happened to the baby boy, Walters told
her that the adoptive parent was a widowed lady in Piccadilly, who was
delighted and the baby was now finely dressed in 'muslin and lace'. On 15 November,
Walters brought home another baby, telling the Landlady ‘this one is going to a
coastguard's wife at South Kensington.'
Her actions had
aroused suspicion with the Landlady who wasn’t sure if she was telling the
truth. She was also aware of previous cases reported in the press of
Baby-Farmers who disposed of children. She then raised her concerns with her
husband who happened to be a Police officer. Police was then placed outside to
watch the house and follow Walters.
On November 18,
Walters left the house and was followed to Kensington Station. She was followed
into the ladies’ lavatory where she was discovered with a dead infant in her
arms, his hands clenched, his tongue swollen and lips purple and
black. The victim was the four-day-old son of Ada Charlotte Galley, a
servant who had recently given birth at Claymore House.
Sach and Walters were
arrested for murder.
Walters admitted
having given the child chlorodyne, a lethal but widely available mixture of
chloroform, cannabis and opium, originally used as a treatment for cholera. Walters
was probably addicted to it herself, telling the arresting officer: 'I never
killed the baby; I only gave it two little drops in its bottle, the same as I
take myself.'
At first Amelia Sach denied ever knowing Annie Walters, but Police
found the existence of the telegrams to Walters telling her to come to Claymore
House to collect the babies. This was enough to prove her role in the crime and
was charged as an accessory. Police
stated they believed an unknown number of babies were murdered this way,
possibly dozens, maybe even more.
In January 1903 the two
women stood trial at the Old Bailey. Both pleaded innocent
The trial
became a sensation and was reported as far away as Australia. Newspapers highlighted how babies
were being discarded and questioned the society’s morals of how young women
were being forced to go to Baby-Farmers. Two weeks after Sach and Walters were arrested;
nine children were found starving to death in a house not far away. The elderly
woman in charge had received £30 to care for each child but kept the money for
herself.
The
Press continued with daily reports denouncing the 'horrible and extensive
traffic in babies' and their 'unwomanly callousness'. This may have swayed
the all-male jury who quickly convicted them.
Amelia
Sach and Annie Walters were both found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
A local campaign tried to have their sentences
commuted to life believing that society played a part in the death of children.
This was rejected by the Home-Office.
On 3
February 1903 Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became the first women to be hanged
at Holloway prison, by Hangman Henry Pierrepoint. Their execution was the only
double hanging of women to be carried out in modern times. Sach and Walters were executed
together on a newly built scaffold in the yard of Holloway Prison. It was
the last double hanging in Britain.
Soon after went the
trade in Baby-Farmers. The Children and Young Persons Act was introduced where
it was required all foster parents had to be registered.
When police searched
Claymore House they found 300 items of baby clothing in Amelia Sach's
bedroom.
Sach and Walters were
two of seven baby farmers who were executed between 1871 and 1908, often
following sensational trials.
Jack
McVitie (Died
1967 - Age unknown)
More commonly known as “Jack the Hat”, was a notorious
criminal from London of the 1950s - 1960s. He is
posthumously famous for triggering the imprisonment and downfall of the notorious East End gangsters, Ronnie and
Reggie Kray (aka the Kray Twins). He had acted as an enforcer and hitman for the Kray's gang known as "The
Firm", though he never was a member, he was used to carry out odd jobs and
do the occasional bit of GBH (grievous bodily harm) to keep someone in line. He
basically operated as a freelance robber.
The nickname “Jack
the Hat" is said because
of a Trilby hat that he wore to cover up his hair
loss. McVite was very self conscious about it and would never let be seen
without his trade mark trilby hat. It was claimed he even wore it in the bath.
McVitie was a typical East End villain. He stood six feet
two, and was a strong hardened criminal with a lengthy prison record. Even other
villains were said to be weary of him and thought he was trouble. Though he was
nice to kids, he treated women very badly, once throwing one out from a moving
car breaking her back because she accused him of being bald.
In 1967 Ronnie Kray paid
McVitie £1,500 in advance to kill ex-friend and business partner Leslie Payne
amid fears that Payne was about to inform the police of his criminal
activities. McVitie and a friend, Billy Exley, set off to shoot Payne, but were
unsuccessful. Exley, the driver, suffered from heart trouble and McVitie was
now heavily dependent on alcohol and drugs. Exley started to lose his nerve and
started shaking. Arriving at Payne's home, McVitie hammered loudly on the front
door, but his wife opened the door to tell them "He's not in,"
McVitie and a relieved Exley quickly left.
McVite’s mistake was instead of repaying the money back to
the Krays for the unfinished work; he refused, and kept it for himself. Due to
his drug addiction and erratic behaviour, McVitie got drunk and staggered into a
club and threatened to wreck the place. The owner happened to be Billy Foreman
a good friend of the Kray twins. This was another strike against McVitie. The
final straw came when he brandished a sawn-off shotgun at the owners of the
Regency Club after being refused entry for being drunk. Unfortunately for
McVitie the owners were associates of the twins and paid them for protection.
By this time Ronnie and Reggie were seriously upset by his actions and heard he
was shouting out bad things about their mother, who was idolised by her devoted
sons. Due to McVitie disrespecting their authority, the Krays felt they had no other
option than to get rid of him; otherwise they would lose respect from the community
and be thought as a soft touch.
On 29 October 1967, McVitie was invited
to a party in Stoke Newington with several of his underworld associates not
knowing the Krays had secretly arrived at the party first and had spent an hour
clearing away guests.
As McVitie entered the room, Reggie Kray walked up to him
and raised a 32. Semi-automatic pistol to his head and squeezed the trigger
twice, but the gun failed to go off. Ronnie, his face red and eyes bulging was
screaming at McVitie. Reggie was now grappling with McVitie, pushing and
shoving him across the room towards a window that opened onto a garden. McVitie
tried desperately to escape and squeeze through, but only got his head and
shoulders outside, before the twins grabbed his legs and pulled him back
inside. His famous hat now gone, McVitie was standing in the room, sweat
pouring down his face, looking terribly afraid."Why are you doing this,
Reg?" he shouted. Ronnie Kray then shouted to his twin brother "Kill
him, kill him!" now! and held out a butcher’s knife.
Reggie grabbed the butcher’s knife and plunged it into
McVitie's face and eye, then driving it deep
into his neck and twisting the blade, he then repeatedly stabbed McVite over
and over again into the chest and stomach causing his
liver to come out, (which later they had to flush down the toilet). Finally
McVite fell to the floor where Reggie’s final thrust of the knife went through McVitie’s
throat and impaled him into the wooden floor.
When McVitie was finally dead, his body was wrapped in
some bedding and carried from the room and placed in a car. Ronnie Kray told
his gang members to get rid of it and leave the body somewhere south of the
Thames in a rival gang’s area; hoping blame for the killing would be laid at
their door.
The body was left in a car near a church called St
Mary's, in Bermondsey south London. When the Krays heard this they realised it
was just around the corner from where one of their associates lived and thought
police would link it to him. They contacted their brother Charlie, who drove
across London and made arrangements with two other gang members to move the
body and dispose of it elsewhere. To this day the body of Jack “the Hat” McVitie
has never been found.
Former Gangster “Mad Frankie Fraser” who knew the Krays
and McVitie, spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences,
including torturing people by removing their teeth with pliers and using
an Axe. He said “McVitie was a nasty piece of work. I can well understand why
Reggie killed him, He got what he deserved”
There were many rumours over the years as to where the
body was hidden. Many thought the body was dumped in newly laid concrete of a
new fly-over being constructed in Bow East London at the time.
Following McVitie's murder, the Krays and several other
members of their gang were finally arrested by the Scotland Yard police
officers who had been watching their exploits for years. At the Old Bailey on 4
March 1969, both were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with
a recommendation that they should each serve a minimum of 30 years.
When sentencing the judge said: "In my view, society
has earned a rest from your activities, take them down."
Ronnie Kray was also convicted for the murder of rival
gangster called George Cornell
who was shot dead in the Blind Beggar Pub, Whitechapel in 1966. Owing to the
intimidation of witnesses to the shooting from the Kray gang, the Barmaid who
testified against him was given a new identity, one of the first to enter the
witness protection programme.
The Krays' elder brother Charlie, together with Firm
member Freddie Foreman, who helped move the body were found guilty of being
accessories to McVitie's murder and sentenced to 10 years.
Freddie Foreman aka 'Brown
Bread Fred (Brown Bread - cockney rhyming slang for Dead) was also was
involved in the "security express robbery" of 1983, which at the time
was the largest cash robbery in the UK. For his part he received 9 years in
prison.
Over 30 years later, in an interview for
a TV documentary, Freddie Foreman admitted to throwing McVitie's body from a
boat into the sea at Newhaven. He also confessed to the murders of other gangsters,
such as Frank “Mad Axeman”Mitchell and
Tommy "Ginger" Marks in revenge for shooting his brother in the legs
as a punishment. Foreman did originally stand trial for these murders in the
1960’s but was acquitted.
Police reviewed the case after his
confession, but decided not to press charges as it would not be in the public’s
interest.
Charlie Kray was released from prison in
1975 after serving seven years, but was sentenced again in 1997 for conspiracy
to smuggle cocaine worth £69 million in an undercover drugs sting. He died in
prison of natural causes on 4 April 2000.
Ronnie Kray was eventually
certified insane and transferred to Broadmoor Security Hospital where he
died from a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 61.
Reggie was released from
prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before his death
from cancer.
On his release he did his first interview in 30 years.
Regarding the McVitie murder he said “McVitie pushed me into the murder and
that on the night. I had "a lot of frustration in me and anger, probably
more anger that night than any other night of my life".
When asked did he have any regrets for what he did he
said:
"I did not
regret it at the time and I don't regret it now. I have never felt a moment's
regret."
The Kray twins with older brother Charlie were all buried
together along with their Mother Violet and Reggie’s wife Francis, who committed
suicide at the age of 23 in 1967.
Michal Mazur (1984-2011)
Michal Mazur was a 27 year old Polish national from a
small town in Poland, studying international relations at London Metropolitan
University.
Michal
Mazur went missing on the evening of 10th January 2011. He
was last seen spending the evening eating and drinking with fellow
students on a night out. But the next day there was no trace of
him.
Mazur's
frantic girlfriend had raised the alarm with police, telling them she could not
contact him. At first police was not alarmed, as students are known to go off
on trips or go back to their native country’s at short notice, but they reassured
his girlfriend they would look into it and try to trace him.
Police
made enquires and retraced his movements on the night he went missing. After
talking to some of the students on the night out, they confirmed that Michal
Mazur left the pub with two other students, a male and a female. The male was quickly
identified as Emlyn Evans-Loude, 26, a fellow student studying at the
same university who Mazur only met the day before. They said the three of them left
and was going back to Evan-Loude’s flat to drink some vodka and listen to his sound system which
was wired to his laptop. Evans-Loude told other students he was a DJ.
Police
then tried to contact Emlyn Evans-Loude, but he also could not be found.
Police now concerned about the welfare of both men, managed to trace the female
who went back with them to the flat. She stated they were drinking and listening
to music. After a while she decided to leave and stated they were both Ok at
the time she left.
Eight days later, Emlyn Evans-Loude was found to be in Paris,
France. He realised that everyone was looking for him and sent emails to his
girlfriend, his parents and the police explaining what had happened.
He stated that on the night after the girl left, a row
broke out between Mazur and himself. He stated he asked Mazur to leave, but he
refused. He claimed that Mazur then become very violent and attacked him. “Muzur grabbed me
in a headlock and started to strangle me”. He said he picked up a weights bar and
hit Mr Mazur to get him off. He claimed that Mazur had tried to suffocate him,
and was forced to defend himself and Muzur had died in the ensuing struggle. He said “it was self defence, I had no choice
otherwise Mr Muzur would have killed me”.
On receiving the email, at 4.15pm on January 19, 2011, Police
went to Evens-Loude flat in Leytonstone East London. After they gained entry
they noticed a smell. They found the decomposing body of 27 year-old Michal
Mazur who had been trussed up in tarpaulin and dumped in the airing
cupboard.
Police advised Emlyn Evans-Loude to return give himself
up. He eventually returned from Paris but went to his parent’s house in Devon,
but Police were already waiting for him and arrested him at St David's Railway
station in Devon.
Emlyn Evans-Loude was an intelligent man who came from a respectable
middle-class, responsible family. He received a very good education as his
parents were both teachers. His version of events was thought to be factual,
especially as nothing was known about the Polish student.
It wasn’t until the autopsy revealed the extent of Michal
Muzur injury’s Police became suspicious of Evans-Loude.
Michal Muzur had suffered around 30 severe fractures to his skull, face
and neck. He had been hit
over the head with a dumb-bell and a chair. Police soon realised
that Evans-Loude’s version of events did not match up to the Pathologists
report.
Police started to interview students from Metropolitan
University. All who knew Michal Muzur claimed he was a gentle decent person who
was never violent and helped other students. He was very popular with everyone.
Evans-Loude claim that Mr Mazur was violent and attacked him was not believed
by anyone who knew him. Students, friends and family all said he was a
hard-working, kind student who was never aggressive in anyway. Police didn’t
find one person who had a bad word to say about him.
On Saturday 22 January Evans-Loude admitted being guilty
to manslaughter claiming self defence, but when he went on trial at the Old
Bailey on November 8, 2011, the prosecution rejected his plea and charged him
with murder.
The evidence at the trial revealed that Evans-Loude had a
violent past and used drugs. He had assaulted a former girlfriend by breaking her jaw after drinking and been caught with cocaine. The girlfriend was scared of him and refused to press
charges, so he was only cautioned for drugs.
It was soon discovered from witnesses that on the night
of the murder Evans-Loude mad frantic phone calls to friends begging for
help. He told Robert Scott, who he
barely knew:
"I
need some help with something. I have done something very, very wrong, and if
you could call me that would be awesome. I would be prepared to pay upwards of
a thousand pounds just for a phone call.” He added: "I have kind of got
something in the house that I need to get rid of and I don't know what to do
with him."
One call he made he left a message stating "I've got a
stiff in my house and I don't know what to do with him." He told another
friend, Jack Fenton: "I will be honest with you; I have got a dead Polish
bloke in my flat and need to bury him in Epping Forest. I'm
not used to this shit," he added he would offer him "whatever money
you need.”
He then spent hours listening to music on the internet,
playing an online computer game called Tribal Wars and sending flirty text
messages to girls as well as asking his
girlfriend for pictures of her in her underwear. He also contacted a prostitute,
all while Michal Mazur's bloodied body lay in front of him on his living
room floor.
At the trial the jury also heard Evans-Loud in the week
that followed, bought a car, researched sites to dump the body and attempted to
clean the flat. He then visited his girlfriend in Leicester.
Under pressure from the prosecution as to why he did it,
he broke down and cried as he told jurors: "I beat him to death
- I was not in control. I lost it."
On December 30,
the jury convicted him of murder by unanimous verdict.
On sentencing the judge Martin Stephens told
Evans-Loude:
"No
one who has had to sit through the evidence in this agonising case could fail
to be shocked and appalled by what they heard. The attack that you launched on
your innocent victim was of such ferocity that it is hard to comprehend how one
human being could do that to another. Mr Mazur had sustained around 30 severe
fractures. You left your victim bleeding and broken on your living room floor
to die. I
have watched your own parents suffer the agony of this trial up there in the
public gallery."
Emlyn Evans-Loude, 27, was sentenced to life imprisonment
for killing Michal Mazur and must serve a minimum of 17 years. He will not be considered
for parole until 2027 at the age of 44.
Kerim
Fuad QC, defending, said: "Quite why such an intelligent man who comes
from a respectable and responsible family, conducted such a brutal and
relentless attack, we may never know. This was a spontaneous outburst of
violence."
The Prosecution said: “This was a particularly callous
murder and there was no evidence that he acted in self-defence, as he claimed. “Our
thoughts are with Michal’s family at this difficult time and we hope this
successful prosecution comes as some comfort to them.”
Mr
Mazur's father said: 'The death of my son has impoverished many people. He was
an older brother to many of his colleagues at university.
His mother, a nurse for 32 years, said: “We
are from a small town and were proud of his achievements. I will never understand
what led to the anger which resulted in my son's death, but I hope his killer
would one day be able to repair and change his life'.
Police immediately carried out a manhunt and soon identified a suspect named as 25 year old Matthew Quesada who lived locally. Quesada was spotted jumping over the back gardens from his girlfriend's flat before getting into a waiting car and speeding off.
Alan Smith (1948 – 2011)
On March 26, 2011, Alan Smith (63) a former Bus driver, went
out with his partner to meet his daughter and son-in-law for lunch to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.
They decided to go to a local cafe. While he was waiting
inside for his family to arrive, a man walked in with his young daughter. Alan Smith
noticed the child she was upset and crying. The man took his daughter to a sink
to wash her hands. After a few minutes when the crying did not subside Alan Smith
approached the man to ask if everything was alright. Expecting the man to say something
like “she fell over” or had a minor mishap, Alan was confronted with “What's it
to you a? What's it got to fucking do with you? “Fuck
off and mind your own business.” Alan Smith said “sorry, I was only asking to see if
the little girl was alright”
The
man then tried to push past a waiter to get into the kitchen, but the waiter
blocked him from doing so, telling him he wasn’t allowed in the Kitchen. He
then tried to use the cafe's phone, but again was stopped by the waiter.
Alan
Smith and the staff of the cafe were taken aback by his irrational behaviour.
Meanwhile Alan Smith’s family entered the cafe and asked what’s going on, which
Alan replied I’m not sure and explained that he saw the young girl crying and
just asked if she was all right, when her father lost it.
The
man asked to borrow a phone from another customer. He was then overheard saying
'I need the piece' as he stood glaring at Mr Smith and his family.
After
hearing the word “piece”, Alan Smith realised he could be talking about a
weapon and though he thought it could be just a bluff to scare him, he thought it
better if he eat elsewhere to avoid any confrontation, so he decided to go to
another cafe just further up the road.
As
they walked off the man shouted out: 'you see-You-I'll see you.' He then stormed
off with his daughter 'humiliated and angered' by what happened.
Bent
on exacting revenge' he then ran to his girlfriend's home to drop off his
daughter and grab a weapon. With a knife concealed up his sleeve, he then raced
back after the Smith family and saw them just as they entered a second diner -
the Roma cafe.
Just
as Alan Smith and his family sat down, the man walked in and started a
'frenzied and wordless' attack, stabbing Mr Smith in the head and body.
'The
defendant repeatedly lunged at Mr Smith across the table hitting him at least six
times.
His
daughter Estelle Jenkins screamed and tried to get between her father and his
attacker, Mr Smith struggled up from the bolted down table before falling to
the floor where he kicked out in a vain attempt to stop the onslaught. The man only fled when the victim's son-in law threw
a chair at him, halting the attack.
Though
it was only 4mins from the attack to the arrival of Paramedics and Police, Alan
Smith's life ebbed away. An air ambulance landed in the middle of the high
street, the doctor had to perform emergency heart surgery on a cafe table that
formed a 'make-shift operating table. ‘Sadly they could not save him and he died
from his wounds, three of which were fatal.
Police immediately carried out a manhunt and soon identified a suspect named as 25 year old Matthew Quesada who lived locally. Quesada was spotted jumping over the back gardens from his girlfriend's flat before getting into a waiting car and speeding off.
A
day later Quesada who had shaven off his distinct Afro style hair and changed
his clothes was arrested along with his mother Victoria Passley-Quesada inside
her car in south London.
As
they searched him they found he was in possession of a British passport, flight
details for that day's flights to Sao Paulo in Brazil, along with a holdall.
Police reacted just in time to stop Quesada from fleeing the country and avoiding
a lengthy extradition.
When questioned by Police, Quesada just said ‘no comment’
to every question. The CID officer started to get frustrated and angry, saying:
‘You killed an innocent man.’ Why? Again Quesada just replied no comment’.
Matthew Quesada was charged with murder. The prosecution told
the Old Bailey jury Quesada accepts he stabbed Mr Smith but the issue will be
his state of mind at the time. Quesada said he wasn’t
responsible for his actions due to his mental state. The court heard he was
obsessed with violent films especially the Jason Bourne movies.
His
mother Passkey-Quesada, 54, of Purley, Surrey, was also charged with aiding and
abetting for hiding her son from the police, looking up flights, and helping
him in his bid to escape.
His
girlfriend Maria Brigette, 26, was charged with updating him on the police
investigation. Both denied assisting an offender.
Quesada had tried to play the system, by
claiming he was mentally ill and that the killing was manslaughter. His defence
was dismissed by the jury but not before Smith’s family had to endure a
four-week trial in which they had to relive the events by watching the CCTV of
the attack.
On
the 14th June 2012, the jury took just three hours
to find Matthew Quesada, guilty of the murder of Alan Smith. Without a flicker
of emotion he heard the jury’s guilty verdict. Quesada was sentenced to
life imprisonment with a minimum of 26 years.
As
the verdict was read out, members of Mr Smith's family whispered
"yes" and broke down in tears.
All through the trial Quesada’s girlfriend Maria Brigette was laughing and smiling. She didn’t take it
seriously. Even when the judge was summing up she was laughing. But when she
was made to stand up and was found guilty, she broke down and started crying. Lucky
for Bridgette she was given a nine-month suspended jail sentence due to
her daughter, but ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
Quesada's mother, Victoria Passley-Quesada, 54 was
acquitted of the same offence. Even though she admitted she witnessed Quesada
burning his blood stained clothes, she stated she knew her son could be violent
and was afraid of him.
Det
Ch Insp Steve Meechan said: "Alan Smith was a well-meaning man who simply
wanted to inquire about a distressed child.
"He
paid for his concerns with his life. Not happy with verbally abusing Mr Smith,
Quesada went on to carry out a frenzied and unprovoked attack on a defenceless
man. "His actions have left a family grieving for a loving father who had
simply left his home for a meal. We hope that today's result will bring them
some comfort after everything they have had to go through."
The family of Alan Smith said in a statement:
"Since the 26th March 2011, no words can express the
devastation that this murder has had on our family, and all those who had the
privilege to know Alan.
"He was a
wonderful Partner, Father and Grandfather, who was kind, caring and would do
anything for anyone.
"Alan was cruelly taken from us in front of his
family whilst celebrating his daughter's birthday.
"We would like to say thank you to the medical staff
who gave their utmost to try and save Alan's life, the police who investigated
his death and our legal team.
"As a family we will try to continue with our day to
day lives; but we fear that we will never fully come to terms with our tragic
loss."
It is still not known as to why Matthew Quesada decided
to kill Alan Smith, who lost his life for simply being concerned for the welfare
of an upset little girl.
Julie McKinley (1969-2010)
06.20am, on New year’s day 2010, Police received an
emergency phone call.
The caller said to the operator: 'You are taping this right?- Yeah? - You will find there's a
dead body at this address”. (The caller gave an address in Finsbury Park north
London).
The caller then
said, “but be careful because there are four children asleep there as well,
okay?” and hung up.
At first Police considered the possibility of a hoax from
a drunken reveller due to the New Year’s celebrations, but soon realised the
address given had a previous past of police attendance.
On arrival at the address, Police got no reply and used a
battering ram to break in.
As police entered the flat they found there was no lighting
because the electricity meter was out of credit. As they navigated the house in
darkness they entered the first bedroom.
Inside were found three children aged four, six and eight
sitting quietly on a bed. The eldest looked at the
police officers and pointed to another bedroom "she's in there".
As police entered the second bedroom
they discovered the naked body of a woman lying in the bed next to a baby boy asleep
in the cot. The covers were
pulled up to her neck and she was lying on her back with her head on a pillow.
The police noticed marks on the neck. Officers quickly checked for signs of
life, but none were found and was soon apparent that the body had been deceased
for a while. The body was identified as 40 year old mother of four Julie
McKinley.
Police immediately
put out a search for her missing husband, 47 year old Ronald Tyler. At 5.06am CCTV cameras captured Tyler
vaulting a wall and walking away from the area to buy himself some Beer.
Ronald Tyler was well known to police,
who had only been released from prison two months earlier after previously
attacking his wife.
Julie McKinley and Ronald Tyler had a turbulent relationship that was marked by domestic violence and
disputes. She had reported her husband to police 24 times during their
16 year relationship. Only four ever
made it to court while the other 20 were not pursued after she withdrew the
allegations. In January 2004 she claimed
Tyler had punched her in the stomach and throttled her until she momentarily
blacked out. She obtained a non-molestation order later that month which was
renewed for 12 months on March 16, 2004. Two months later she withdrew the
complaint and they were reconciled.
In April 2006 she
made another complaint and Tyler was convicted of using threatening or abusive
words or behaviour. He was made subject to another non-molestation order in
April 2008 following another attack and in November 2008 was convicted of
common assault.
He was given a
suspended prison sentence but the following year was convicted of breaching the
non-molestation order. He told his wife 'If you stop me seeing my kids I will
finish you off.' Tyler was jailed for a year on July 28, 2009, but
was released from jail just three months later.
Despite the constant rows, the heavy drinking and bouts
of domestic violence, she decided to give him one last chance, if only for the
sake of their four children. The
couple were reconciled and he moved back into the family home in Finsbury Park,
north London.
Tyler remained on the streets for another two days
drinking heavily before being recognised by police in
a park and arrested. He immediately confessed although he
said he claimed not to remember the attack. Ronald Tyler was charged with murder of his wife Julie McKinley
and stood trial at the Old Bailey on 11th August 2010.
During the trial the jury heard that on the afternoon December 30, Julie took the
children to her friends New Years Eve party down the road from the family
home. Tyler returned home from the pub to find the house empty. Tyler
called his wife 36 times to find out where she was, but as she was only
down the road she either didn’t take her phone or switched it off to avoid
Tyler turning up and causing a scene. When they returned just after midnight,
Tyler had been drinking and was angry. He told her he had been 'worried sick.'
He said he even went searching for you
and the kids and had left a note reading: “I have gone looking for you. You
should have phoned me”. Your phone has been turned off.' The pair
both fuelled by drink started to argue as Julie McKinley said she was sick of his jealousy.
Tyler claimed
that his wife had punched him during the argument. He said he tried to let her calm down but added: 'When I
was on the bed she just tells me my son is not mine.
'She said
"Why do you think your name isn't on the birth certificate?" Tyler confessed he lost it when she said that and grabbed
her by her throat in a bid to shut her up. Tyler said they began to struggle,
during which time Julie's legs had slipped off the bed and noticed she was no
longer moving.
He then told police he put
her legs back in the bed, and covered her with the duvet because he thought she
might have been cold.
“She could say a lot of horrible things when
she was drunk.'I wasn't thinking anything. All I know is I strangled her. When she was unconscious I then tucked her in bed, pulling
the covers up to her chin”.
Mr Tyler then kissed his
children goodbye, and fled the flat leaving their toddler asleep in the cot
beside his dead wife, and their three other daughters alone and asleep in the
next room.
Tyler told the
jouriors he did not care if he was convicted of murder, “'I deserve to be in
prison for the rest of my life. If I had the balls to take my own life I would
do it so I could be with her.”
It was later confirmed that Tyler was the father and named
on the birth certificate.
Prosecutor
Michael Shorrock QC said Tyler was 'obsessively jealous' of his wife and had a
violent temper particularly when drunk. The
pair had been in a "tempestuous" relationship for more 16 years,
married for three, and often came to blows over his drinking and excessive
jealousy. Jurors heard evidence that Ms McKinley knew how to push his buttons.
Tyler was also diagnosed with alcohol dependency and a
personality disorder, which would make him liable to 'outbursts of intense
anger or behavioural explosions.'
The court heard that since 1971 Tyler had amassed 44
separate convictions, 14 of which were for violence. He also admitted domestic
abuse in three previous relationships.
On 23 August 2010, Ronald Tyler was cleared of murder,
but convicted of manslaughter on the basis of provocation.
Before sentencing the Judge said ' in my judgement there
was not extreme conduct on the part of the deceased, she was no threat to you,'
'In particular there had been verbal abuse in the past in the course of
arguments, including the suggestion you were not the children's father. 'The
deceased was vulnerable; she was naked in bed and had little chance of
defending herself. 'As you told the jury sometime you do not know your own
strength. You held the power in the relationship and the deceased frequently
relented and took you back after your violent and threatening behaviour. ‘This
offence took place with the children in the flat and your baby in the room.
'You regained your self control extremely quickly; you kissed your children
goodbye and then left to get alcohol and stayed on the streets drinking.
'You didn't call the emergency services until the early
hours of the morning when you thought the children would be waking up to find
their mother dead.'
Therefore due to your history of violence and that you pose a significant risk of "serious harm"
to members of the public, in particular "any female you are in a
relationship with".
I sentence you to serve an indeterminate sentence for
public protection (IPP) with a minimum term of eight years before parole. He will
be let out only if he is no longer considered a risk to the public.
Detective Inspector Colette Smyth who led the
investigation said:
"Whilst it is not known what Tyler's children may
have seen or heard that night, what is certain is that the consequences of his
actions will live with them forever.
As always our thoughts are with the children and their
relatives. I would urge any victim of domestic violence to come forward to
police and break the cycle of abuse."
Despite a long history of violence, Tyler went to
London’s Appeal Court to challenge the eight-year “minimum term” he must serve
before he can apply for parole.
Mr Justice Eder noted the intense remorse shown by the
47-year-old and concluded that the eight-year term was “manifestly excessive”,
cutting it to six years.
The terms of Tyler’s IPP sentence mean that, once the
six-year minimum expires, Tyler will still only be freed if he can convince the
Parole Board the danger he poses to the
public has passed.
Freddie Mercury (1946 –
1991)
Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) was a British singer-songwriter, musician,
and record producer, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of “Queen”, one
of the most successful bands of all time. As
a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals.
As
a songwriter he composed many hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody" voted as the
greatest song of all time. In addition to his work with Queen, he also had a
solo career, and occasionally served as a producer and musician (piano or
vocals) for other artists.
In the early
1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he had met
through guitarist
Brian May (lead guitarist of Queen). He lived with Austin for
several years in Kensington, London. In
the mid-70s, the singer had an affair with a male American record executive. In December 1976, Mercury decided to tell his
girlfriend Mary Austin of his sexuality, which ended their relationship. Mercury
moved out of the flat they shared together but then bought Austin a place of
her own so she could live nearby to him. Mercury and Austin remained close
friends throughout his life until his death. Mercury referred to her as his
only true friend he ever had. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said “No one could
ever replace Mary, the only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody
else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe
in each other, that's enough for me.
By 1985, he
began a long-term relationship with an Irish hairdresser called Jim Hutton (36)
who moved in with him and worked as his Gardner. Mercury would often distance
himself from Hutton during public events to keep his relationship from the
press. In
October 1986, The
Sun newspaper claimed Mercury had "confessed to a string of
one-night gay sex affairs." and broke the story that Mercury had his blood tested for HIV/AIDS at a Harley Street clinic. A reporter questioned Mercury about
the story at Heathrow Airport as he was returning from a trip to Japan. Mercury
denied he had a sexually transmitted disease and claimed he tested negative for
HIV.
Despite the denials, the British
press pursued Mercury, fuelled by Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance,
Queen's absence from touring, and reports from former lovers to various tabloid
journals. Rumours about Mercury's health were rife.
At the 1990 Brit Awards visibly
frail Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest
of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
He was then routinely stalked by
photographers, while the daily tabloid newspaper The Sun featured a series of
articles claiming that he was seriously ill; notably in an article from
November 1990 which featured an image of a haggard looking Mercury on the front
page accompanied by the headline "It's official – Freddie is seriously
ill" However, Mercury and his inner circle of colleagues and friends,
continually denied the stories.
Mercury retired to his home
in Kensington. His former partner and friend, Mary Austin, started to
visit him on a daily basis.
On 22 November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to
his home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, the following
announcement was made to the international press that Mercury was indeed
infected with HIV/AIDS.
Some criticised Mercury’s statement suggesting that Mercury he could have
made a contribution to AIDS awareness by speaking earlier about his situation
and his fight against the disease, but Mercury stated he kept his condition
private to protect those closest to him. Brian May confirmed in a 1993
interview he had informed the band of his illness much earlier.
According to his partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS
shortly after Easter of 1987.
Hutton lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life and nursed him
during his illness
Near the end of his life, Mercury was starting to lose his sight, and
his deterioration was so overpowering he could not get out of bed. Due to
his worsening condition, Mercury decided to hasten his death by refusing to
take his medication, and just continued taking pain killers.
Freddie
Mercury died at the age of 45 at his home
on the evening of 24 November 1991, a little over 24 hours after issuing
the statement. The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting
from AIDS. Mercury's close friend and ex-partner Mary Austin phoned
Mercury's parents and sister to break the news of his death. His partner Jim Hutton said Mercury
died wearing the wedding band that he had given him.
On 27 November, Mercury's funeral service was held ay Kensal Green
cemetery attended by only 35 of his close friends and family. Mercury was
cremated and in accordance with Mercury's wishes, Mary Austin took possession
of his ashes and buried them in an undisclosed location. The whereabouts of his
ashes are believed to be known only to Mary Austin, who has stated that she
will never reveal where she buried them.
In his will,
Mercury left the vast majority of his wealth, including his home and recording
royalties, to Mary Austin, and the remainder to his parents and sister.
He left
£500,000 each to his Chef and personal assistant and £100,000 to his driver.
Mary Austin
continues to live at Mercury's home, Garden Lodge, with her family. The
twenty-eight room Georgian mansion in Kensington is set in a quarter-acre
manicured garden surrounded by a high brick wall, which was originally picked
out by Austin for Mercury to live in. In his will, Mercury left the
property to Austin, rather than his then partner Jim Hutton, saying of her,
"You would have been my wife and it would have been yours anyway”. Mercury
was also the godfather of Mary's oldest son, Richard.
His partner
Jim Hutton who was present at his bedside stated in his book, “watching Freddie die was indescribable. As they
lowered him back onto his bed, there was a deafening crack.” ‘It sounded like
one of his bones breaking ... he screamed out in pain and went into a
convulsion. He was dosed on
morphine and wet himself. I knew that if he woke up and saw that there’d be
blue murder, so I changed his underwear and while I was putting his boxers on I
knew he’d gone, he stopped breathing. I got a mirror to check his breath and
that was it. He died.
In 1990 Hutton
was also tested HIV-positive but he didn't tell Mercury for nearly a year afterwards. When asked
if he was the one who infected Mercury? He replied ‘Who knows?'
Hutton was left £500,000 in Mercury’s
will. Hutton claims that Mercury had verbally stated that he should stay at
Garden Lodge after his death but nothing was signed and Mary gave him three
months to leave the property. This “devastated” him and he went “absolutely
crazy”. Using the £500,000 that Mercury had left him he went on holiday, bought
a house in Shepherds Bush and built a home in Ireland. He said “In all honesty,
my only thought was ‘How long have I got to live anyway?’ ” When asked if there was
any jealousy between Freddie's ex-lovers? (Hutton and Austin) ‘Hutton said “I
suppose if I were another woman I might have felt that. Mary loved Freddie,
but, I'm sorry, Freddie didn't reciprocate. When asked if he felt betrayed that
Freddie only left him £500,000? ‘He said No, I feel betrayed by the people he
left in charge of carrying out his wishes.' Jim and Mary never spoke again.
Jim
Hutton died aged 60, from a form of lung cancer on New Year’s Day in 2010. He had then been living with HIV for over 20 years.
He was buried in his native Ireland.
The outer walls
of Garden Lodge have
become a shrine to Mercury following his death, with mourners
paying tribute by covering the walls in graffiti messages. Three
years after his death it
was reported the wall outside the house has become London's
biggest rock 'n' roll shrine". Today fans continue to visit to pay
their respects, with messages in letters appearing on the walls, though it is constantly
cleaned off and has now protective plastic coverings installed to help prevent graffiti.
Krystyna Janina Skarbek (Christine
Granville) 1908-1952
Maria
Krystyna Janina Skarbek (known as Krystyna) was born in Warsaw in 1908, the
second child of Count Jerzy Skarbek and Stephania Goldfeder, the daughter of a
wealthy Jewish banker. Although fragile‐looking and slender, she had a tomboyish nature and spent much of
her time riding horses on the family’s country estate. Krystyna inherited the
self‐assuredness, patriotism and fearlessness of her famous Skarbek ancestors.
She could be extremely persuasive, selfless and fiercely loyal, but was equally
capable of cold calculation and even ruthlessness, especially when her or
others freedom was threatened.
Krystyna
attended a convent school, but while she was attending mass she set light to
the priest’s cassock with her candle to test his faith. After being expelled
from the convent, Krystyna was expected to become a society girl, living a life
of leisure frequenting Warsaw’s salons and was even voted one of Poland’s most
beautiful girls in a nationwide beauty contest.
Krystyna
got a lot of attention from men throughout her life, though mostly was unwanted,
she would sometimes use it to her advantage. Not only did she have beauty and
her slim and graceful figure, but also possessed a hypnotic personality with an
ability to charm anyone. When it came to relationships she never seemed to take
them seriously and had numerous casual affairs and would soon discard them when
they tried to get too close or restrict her freedom. It was quoted that
Krystyna’s only true love of her life was her native Poland.
Her
father’s death in 1930 left her future uncertain as his extravagant lifestyle
had exhausted the family’s fortune. To support herself she took an office job
above a Fiat garage, but she was soon taken ill and diagnosed with lung
scarring caused by the exhaust fumes. The family doctor suggested mountain air
to improve her condition, and she took to skiing at the popular winter resort
of Zakopane, high in the Tatra Mountains. For all her aristocratic breeding, Krystyna
was no snob: she preferred simple living with unpretentious people, and soon
endeared herself to Zakopane’s close‐knit community.
At
only 18 she married a wealthy young businessman called Karol Getlich, though it
gave her financial security, it was short‐lived. Krystyna soon realised that marriage was too restricting, they
divorced soon after.
While skiing down a dangerous slope, Krystyna lost
control and was saved by a giant of a man who stepped into her path and stopped
her descent. Her rescuer was Jerzy Giżycki, a brilliant, moody, eccentric, who
came from a wealthy family in Ukraine. Jerzy Giżycki was 20 years her senior
and she found him exciting. At fourteen he run away from home, worked in the United
States as a cowboy and gold
prospector and eventually became an author travelling the world in search of
material for his books and articles. He impressed Krystyna with all his story’s
of his adventures especially his passion for Africa and told her that he hoped
one day to return there. Krystyna later said of Giżycki: "He was my
Svengali and taught me so much for
so many years.
On 2 November 1938, Krystyna and Giżycki married in
Warsaw and accepted a diplomatic posting to Ethiopia, where he served as
Poland's Consul General. Everything was going well for the couple until
September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
Both
determined to defend their country they immediately left for London. On arrival
Krystyna immediately began trying to pull whatever strings she could to help
save her native Poland from the Nazis. She first contacted Frederick Voigt, a political journalist at the
BBC who she’d met several years earlier. This led to an introduction to Foreign
Office adviser Sir Robert Vansittart.
Krystyna
offered her services to go back into Poland and work for the Secret
Intelligence Service as a SOE (Secret Operations Executive). At first she wasn’t
taken seriously, but she had already considered every detail of her plan:
posing as a journalist based in Budapest, she would cross Slovakia and ski over
the Polish border to Zakopane, where she could rely on help from her friends
there. Once she’d opened a courier channel, she could begin to deliver
propaganda material for the Polish networks to distribute, and bring out
whatever intelligence they had for London. All she asked for was the chance to
prove herself.
George
Taylor, who now headed the Balkan SIS, said in a memo “First impressions were
very favourable and she is a very smart looking girl, simply dressed and
aristocratic. She is a flaming Polish patriot. She made an excellent impression
and I really believe we have a PRIZE”.
SIS
(Section D) was set up to find novel ways of sabotaging Germany’s war efforts.
These included spreading anti‐Nazi propaganda across occupied Europe, using agents in neutral
countries to distribute it. German propaganda now controlled all news,
effectively cutting Poland off from the outside world.
Now working as British secret agent, she said goodbye to
her husband Giżyck, who was considered too old to sign up, and she flew out on
21 December 1939.
For
all Christine’s enthusiasm and determination to succeed, this would be a
difficult and dangerous mission. Hungary was supposed to be a neutral country,
but its government had recently accepted Slovakian territory offered by the
Nazis and was more likely to cooperate with Germany than the Allies.
On
arrival in Budapest, Krystyna was met by Hubert Harrison, who handled Section
D’s Polish contacts while posing as Balkan correspondent for the News Chronicle; and Jozef
Radziminski, a former Polish intelligence agent who would act as her assistant.
Using the cover name of “Madame Marchand”, she quickly found a flat and
immediately began making plans to get into Poland.
In
February the mid of winter, stubbornly ignoring all advice she managed to
persuade Olympic skier Jan Marusarz, now working for the Polish consulate, to
act as her guide. Temperatures had dropped to ‐30°C and snow in the mountains
was several metres deep. As she made her way through she passed bodies that had
been frozen to death, but she carried on and finally managed to get into Poland.
Enlisting
the help of some old friends she set off to begin criss‐crossing
the country gathering information and making new resistance contacts. Krystyna was
shocked how much her country had changed under the Nazis, witnessing the daily
hardships her countrymen faced under the brutal occupation and executions.
While travelling back on a train to Budapest, the train was stopped and searched by
the Gestapo. They were doing a thorough search inspecting travel documents and searching
all luggage.Christine
sat quietly expecting the worse, knowing if searched they would find all the
secret documents she had wrapped in a box and would mean all most certain
death. As she looked around the carriage she considered throwing the documents
out the window, but risked being seen by other passengers. Her only other
option was to jump from the train. Just as she considered her options a German
Officer sat down directly opposite her. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
She then asked the Officer “I wonder if you could help me? I have some Tea I
smuggled for my poor mother in this box, would you be a darling and hold it for
me so I won’t get in trouble?” The German officer said “Of course my dear and
laughed” Christine successfully returned to Budapest she submitted a long
report to London.
Once
in Budapest she then faced with an unexpected problem. Her assistant Radziminski,
like many other men, had become infatuated with her. After she refused his
proposal of marriage he set out to make a grand romantic gesture. Radziminski jumped
off the city’s Elizabeth Bridge, but hadn’t realised the Danube river was
frozen and hit a wall of solid ice breaking both his legs. Feeling humiliated,
he then attempted to shoot himself, but lost his nerve at the last moment and shot
himself in his broken leg. Unimpressed with Radziminski actions, Section D ordered
him to hobble back to London immediately.
Krystyna
was determined to go back into Poland and make more contacts. One of these was Andrzej
Kowerski, a fellow Pole. Kowerski lost a leg in a shooting accident before the
war, but didn’t stop him and joined the Polish motorised division. In 1939 he
was responsible for smuggling dozens of Polish soldiers and allied prisoners of
war over the Hungarian border. Most importantly of all he was able to get Polish
Pilots over to England to fight in the Battle of Britain, who without would
have been lost. Kowerski and Krystyna began working more closely and began an
affair. This only seemed to strengthen their dedication to their work and to
each other and soon made a formidable team.
Krystyna
crossed into Poland again in June and visited members of her family in Warsaw,
including her Jewish mother. Afraid for her safety, Krystyna begged her to leave
the country but her mother refused and was determined to stay and carry on her
work teaching French to young children. Her mother would later be arrested for failing to register as a Jew and imprisoned.
As
Krystyna and Andrzej crossed into the Polish boarder their good luck ran out.
They were both caught by Slovakian guards, who threatened to hand them over to
the Gestapo. Unflustered, Krystyna refused to disclose anything during several
hours of brutal interrogation, and eventually persuaded her captors to take the
money she was carrying and let them both go. A cool head and quick thinking had
saved them but they were now known to the Slovak police, making any further
trips very dangerous.
Now
with no money things were becoming difficult. Unable to communicate with London
their work was becoming more dangerous every day. Both had become well known to
the Hungarian police and their Gestapo counterparts, who stepped up
surveillance of their movements. Both knew it was only a matter of time before
they would get caught so Krystyna continued to push hard. After a fourth trip
into Poland in mid‐November she became seriously ill with flu. Despite their devotion
to the cause and each other, they could not hope to carry on for much longer
and knew it was only a matter of time before they would be caught and executed
for being Spies.
The
inevitable police raid came in the early hours of 24 January 1941. After
several fruitless hours of interrogation the Gestapo were anxious to start using
more brutal methods of questioning, but Krystyna was able to interrupt the
investigation by playing on her recent illness. Knowing her time was running
out she bit into her tongue so hard, she gave the impression that she was
coughing up blood.
The
Gestapo immediately stopped the interrogation terrified she was infected with
TB. She was sent to the prison hospital and underwent a chest X‐ray,
which horrified her doctor: with no idea about her previous lung scarring from
exhaust fumes at a previous job. The Doctor concluded that she was seriously
ill and arranged for her and Kowerski’s immediate release as they were both deemed
to be contagious.
Although
still under surveillance, both of them were able to slip away and sneak into
the British embassy. The Embassy issued them with new passports, but they first
would need British names to protect their future identity. Krystyna become
“Christine Granville” and Andrzej Kowerski decided on “Andrew Kennedy”:
although made up on the spur of the moment, both would keep these names for the
rest of their lives.
Christine
was hidden in the boot of the embassy’s car as it crossed over the Yugoslav border;
there she joined Andrew who drove his battered Opel to continue their journey
to Belgrade. Over the coming days they had to endure horrendous driving
conditions and suspicious border guards but they eventually reached Istanbul in
neutral Turkey, where the British consulate welcomed them.
While
in Turkey Christine found her husband had taken a Polish posting to the Gambia
and was now desperate to see her again. Christine asked London to consider
sending him over, and he arrived in Istanbul in March. Although she knew their
marriage was dead she mentioned nothing of her relationship with Andrew. Christine
reluctantly broke the news, telling him that she wanted a separation. Gizycki
was distraught and embittered; he left and later immigrated to Canada.
After
leaving Turkey, Christine and Andrew endured a long and dusty excursion through
Syria and Jerusalem to report to SOE’s Cairo headquarters in May 1941. Though they
hadn’t expected a heroes’ welcome, they were mystified by the icy reception
they received. There was a simple reason for it: the Polish government‐in‐exile
in London had just ordered all ties with Polish operatives to be stopped claiming
they had been penetrated by German intelligence.
This
meant that the British SOE would not send either Christine or Andrew back to
the Balkans. Polish officer Peter Wilkinson had the unenviable job of breaking
the news. Having just arrived himself Wilkinson was blunt to the point of
rudeness (something he later regretted) then took the precaution of putting both
of them under surveillance.
Christine
was in disbelief and handed over microfilms she’d brought from Hungary as
evidence of the importance of her sources, which clearly showed the build up of
German forces in advance of the imminent invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa), but this was ignored. When
Winston Churchill heard of this he sent the info to Stalin to warn him of the
invasion, but Stalin dismissed it and threw it in the bin believing it was a
plan by Churchill trying to put a wedge between Russia and the Balkans. Russia
would pay a serious price for Stalin’s error in losing over 4.5 million lives
in the battle.
Having
put their lives on the line for their country, they were now suspected of being
double agents and Gestapo informers. Furious at their treatment they complained
to the British SOE’s Balkan staff who felt uncomfortable about the situation,
but explained the British were committed to working with the Polish government
and didn’t want to upset them.
Christine
and Andrew were kept on the SOE payroll but she soon found herself with little
to do apart from lounging in the sun at the Gezira Sporting Club and
socialising with her new friends at SOE’s HQ. She turned down the offer to
become a cipher clerk – it seemed too much like office work – but took a
wireless operator course, thinking it would be useful skill if another mission
came her way. Meanwhile Andrew also found it intolerable and parted company with
Christine to become a parachute instructor for SOE recruits (despite his wooden
leg he insisted on jumping with every group). After completing her wireless
training Christine also gained her parachute “wings” at the RAF base in Haifa.
By
1944, Cairo had become a gilded cage. Though most would have been happy being
paid to live a life of socialising and relaxing, Christine had “a positive nostalgia for danger” and was miserable without
a chance to meet it.
By
March 1944 D-Day was insight as the allies got ready for the Normandy landings.
Christine was frustrated and wanted to be a part of it. Christine went to see Patrick
Howarth, one of her closer friends in SOE’s Polish section and proposed that
she be sent back to Hungary as a wireless operator. However, Christine's reputation,
charm and powers of persuasion were now well known and was easily spotted by
Howarth's commanding officer, who surmised that she had had done enough and the
war was over for her.
Still
not deterred, Christine waited. After D‐Day a vacancy arose, after a courier had been arrested in
Montélimar, and they needed a replacement urgently. Like many of her class in
Poland Christine spoke perfect French and having wireless skills too made her a
natural choice which SOE could not refuse.
She
was quickly briefed and given false identity papers in the name of Jacqueline
Armand. Her codename would be Pauline.
She
parachuted near Vassieux south-eastern France in the early hours of 7 July. The
landing left her bruised and had smashed the handle of her revolver. She said “that
was no great loss, I hated loud bangs, attempts at pistol instruction I failed
miserably as I would always shut my eyes before pulling the trigger”. She much
preferred to use grenades or her commando knife as a silent killer, which she always
had strapped to her thigh. Once when captured she was told to raise her hands
above her head only to reveal she had a grenade in each hand. Her captors
quickly ran and she escaped.
When she
landed she hid her parachute and hid in some bushes. Solders saw the plane go
over and started to search the area with Dogs. Christine laid still until an Alsatian
Dog sniffed her out. The Dog went up to Christine, who calmly put her arm around
the Dog and cuddled it. When the solders called for the Dog it went back
without giving her away.
She joined
Francis Cammaerts the leading SOE agent who was responsible for the resistance
groups sabotaging German communications
in occupied France. Cammaerts put Christine
second in command. After a tour meeting hundreds of French guerrillas, they suffered
relentless bombing attacks from German aircraft. Weeks before the people of the
Vercors had defied the Nazis and proudly declared their territory a new French
republic, but more than 10,000 well equipped enemy troops swept into the area to
reclaim it. On the 14 July 1944, realising
they were trapped in a burning hotel and convinced they were about to die, Christine
and Cammaerts laid in each other’s arms. Cammaerts stated in an interview “the
Bombers were flying so low I could see the Pilots faces. I saw one come down
and release the Bomb which just missed our Bedroom and hit the top of the roof
burying itself in a bank on the otherside of the wall. I said to Christine, “they
just don’t want us to die!” Cammaerts and Christine got out of the Hotel just
before it was completely destroyed. Somehow they narrowly escaped the terrible
massacre that followed by hiking their way out, covering 70 miles in just 24
hours.
A
day later, Christine set off on her own to the Italian border using her famous
persuasion to make them change sides and hand over their arms. One of her
victories was the fort at Col de Larche, a 2000 foot high stronghold surrounded
by dense larch forests. Although bloodied and bruised after a day’s climb to
reach the garrison, she convinced its 200 Poles, who were forced to work for
the Nazis, to disable their mountain guns and desert their posts. She also
enabled several special forces teams to join up with Italian partisans and
prevent German advances by blowing up the roads and bridges around Briançon. Such
episodes soon gained Christine respect among her male counterparts, but the
next would make her a legend.
News arrived
that three top British agents had been arrested at a roadblock at Digne, one
being her boss Francis Cammaerts.
Commanders were reluctant to attempt any rescue stating it was far too dangerous
to sacrifice many lives for three agents. All resources must be put on the
invasion. Christine could not stand by knowing Cammaerts and the other two
agents would most certainly be executed. Christine cycled 40 kilometres on her
own to the Gestapo HQ. She presented herself to Albert Schenck, a French
liaison officer working with the Germans. She had nothing to bargain with, so she
calmly sat down and declaring herself a British agent (knowing that telling
them this she risked being immediately shot), she warned them of an allied
invasion from the south was imminent. She said to Schenck “you have a choice; you
could either cooperate with me or you will be handed over to the mob after the
invasion. Schenck started to visible shake and spilt his coffee
It
was a desperate gamble, but amazingly it paid off. After three hours of
negotiations they accepted Christine’s offer in return of a guarantee of
protection and 2 million francs in return for the three prisoners’ lives. The prisoners
were released just hours ahead of their scheduled execution. Francis Cammaerts would be in debt to
Christine for the rest of his life contributing to her story years later in
many interviews so her reputation would never be sullied by the media.
Returning
to Cairo she took a job at Middle East headquarters, and after some discussion
SOE agreed to continue paying her until December 1945, just before it was due
to disband itself.
With
the war now over Christine often half‐jokingly talked of the “horrors of peace” and she clearly dreaded
the prospect of life without the adventure, camaraderie and sense of purpose
that war had given her.
Now
alone and with no work prospects, she now faced an uncertain future. Christine
discovered that her mother had died in prison after being arrested by the
Nazis, and with Poland now under Russian occupation she knew she could never return
home.
Now
stateless, she became a British citizen in December 1946. She was awarded the George Medal and an OBE (Order of the British Empire) she
had already been awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
Some
of her friends were now worried about Christine’s situation and encouraged her
to join Andrew, now living in Germany, but despite their unique and unbreakable
bond she never pursued the idea of settling down and living a home life.
Christine’s
pride and independence would also effect any chance of finding financial
security: she gave no reason for refusing to accept a house left to her in a
friend’s will, and she also turned down the chance of a government post because
she thought it was only offered to her because of her SOE career.
Instead
she drifted through a string of menial jobs, including switchboard operator and
Harrods shop assistant, but in 1947 with her new British passport, it enabled
her to escape the miseries of war torn London and travelled to Kenya, where she
met an old friend from Cairo days.
The
sun and open spaces did her good, and it made her even more determined to
travel.
Christine took a job as a stewardess on the New Zealand cruise liner MV Ruahine in May 1951 and joined its maiden
voyage from Southampton to Wellington. One of the staff rules demanded that
staff wear their wartime decorations, which made Christine feel uncomfortable
and an object of curiosity seeing a woman with three of the highest awards to
be ever bestowed upon anyone. Christine received much attention from
passengers, though this caused a certain amount of resentment between other
crew members.
For
the final time in Christine’s life she would experience the unwanted attention
from a forty three‐year‐old Irishman, Dennis Muldowney. Muldowney who was a pathetic and
lonely figure who had joined the Merchant Navy in 1948 after his wife had
divorced him on the grounds of cruelty. It soon became clear that Muldowney had
become infatuated with Christine and wanted to be at the centre of her life,
whatever the cost. To be rejected by the most glamorous and sophisticated woman
ever to enter his humdrum life was enough to drive him insane.
As
Muldowney's possessiveness grew she did her best to put some distance between
them, but in April 1952 he responded by taking a job as a porter, near her
Kensington hotel. Christine hated domestic chores and would always stay in
hotels to avoid housework and having to cook. Christine finally decided to fly
to Belgium on Monday 16 June to meet up with Andrew: it would give her a break
before her next hostess job and hopefully shake Muldowney off. On Sunday night
she returned to the Sherbourne Hotel after meeting friends. Moments later
Muldowney followed her through the front door and up to the landing. One of the
hotel workers in the lounge heard Christine and Muldowney talking, and then
there was a sudden scream. With no warning Muldowney had suddenly produced a
dagger and stabbed Christine in the chest. The staff immediately overpowered
him but she was dead from shock and haemorrhage
within seconds.
Krystyna
Skarbek aka Christine Granville died aged 44.
Muldowney
was arrested for murder and at the trial concluded that he was a fantasist but
showed no signs of serious mental disturbance, he refused any defence. At the
Old Bailey on 11 September in a rambling and unrepentant final letter he
elevated his relationship with Christine as to that of Antony and Cleopatra,
but asserted that she had “asked for what she got”.
Muldowney
was hanged at Pentonville prison on 30 September 1952. His final words were “To
kill is the final possession,”
Although
other women agents grabbed post‐war headlines and became the subjects of biographies and films,
Christine’s story had remained largely unknown to the public. Consequently she
attracted far more respect and acknowledgement in death than she ever
experienced during her lifetime;
Christine
has been suggested as the inspiration for the Vesper Lynd character in Ian
Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino
Royale, published in 1953. In a biography of Christine, it was noted that
Christine’s father used to call her “Vesperale”; it’s easy to see how
Christine's hypnotic charm and spirit of adventure would have spurred any
novelist’s imagination.
In
a book: The Life of Ian Fleming it
stated that Fleming and Christine met at Bertorelli’s restaurant in London's
Charlotte Street, and quoted from a letter that Fleming wrote “I see exactly
what you mean about Christine, she literally shines with all the qualities and
splendours of a fictitious character. How rarely one finds such types.”
Christine’s
burial at St Mary’s Cemetery, Kensal Green was attended by two hundred mourners.
The grave is
unremarkable except for the shield of the Black Virgin of Czestochowa above the
headstone.
Andrew
Kennedy (Andrzej Kowerski) was devastated on hearing of Christine’s murder and
was never the same again. He never married and died of cancer in Munich 1988,
aged 78. Respecting his wishes, his
ashes were laid to rest at the foot of Christine’s grave with a smaller plaque
bearing Andrew’s name.
In
1971 the Shelbourne Hotel came under new management, while clearing out the
storerooms, they found Christine’s untouched possessions, her trunk, her SOE
wirelesses, and her deadly commando knife. Inside the trunk was an oil painting
of her. It was to have been a gift she was taking to her longtime lover, fellow
war hero, and closest friend Andrew. The portrait, in which she’s wearing
pearls and her family Skarbek signet ring, today hangs in the Polish Institute
and Sikorski Museum in London.
Winston Churchill
said of Christine Granville “she was my favourite spy”
Frankie Howerd died of heart failure at the age of 75.
Due to the long standing feud with Hoaerds sister Betty, Chris Byrne was not happy with the fact that extra words inscribed on the headstone prevented Heymer’s name being added to it prompting Byrne to say ‘If Dennis was to be buried with the man he loved, it seemed he had to be buried as a pauper in an unmarked grave.
Francis
"Frankie" Howerd (1917– 1992)
Frankie Howerd was one of Britain’s best loved comedians. He was an
English stand-up and comic actor whose career, spanned six decades.
Frankie
described himself as “lightly educated”, and attended secondary school at
Shooters Hill Grammar School in Eltham. Despite the fact that he suffered from
acute shyness, he was drawn to drama and performing from an early age. Even as
a teenager, he dreamed of becoming a professional actor, but his early
ambitions were thwarted when he failed the entrance audition for RADA. He found
work as an office clerk instead, and was paid the princely sum of £1.35 per
hour for his first position.
When World
War II broke out in 1939, Frankie was drafted into the army. Ironically,
joining the armed services helped him to further his dreams of acting, for
during the course of the war, he was given the opportunity of entertaining his
fellow men with his comedy routines. After the war, he managed to break into
radio, and began broadcasting in December 1946 on the BBC Variety Bandbox
programme, along with several other ex-servicemen. As well as his radio shows,
he also performed in revues, clubs and pantomime.
His
reputation gradually grew. He made his television debut in 1952, in a
three-part series called 'The Howerd Crowd', written by fellow British comedian
Eric Sykes. Sykes’s writing was an important contributing factor to Frankie’s
success, and he wrote a great deal of his comedy material throughout the 1950s.
In 1954, he
landed his first feature film role in a movie called 'The Runaway Bus', in
which he co-starred with Petula Clark. Frankie’s subsequent movies included
'The Lady-killers' (1955), Jumping for Joy' (1956), The Great St.
Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) and two Carry on Films – Carry on Doctor (1967)
and Carry on up the jungle (1969).
He was
reportedly beginning to acquire a reputation among TV producers for being
difficult to work with due to him being a perfectionist
and plagued by insecurities. Frankie began to fall prone to serious
bouts of depression, culminating in his suffering a nervous breakdown in the
early 1960s. As well as his depressive mental
state, led him to seek resolution through a series of different methods. Howerd started to wear an ill fitting Toupee
to cover his hair loss which he would wear all his life and would never be seen
without it.
Throughout
his career, Howerd hid his homosexuality which would have been potentially
career-destroying as acts between consenting males was illegal until 1967. He was reportedly quite
promiscuous in his youth and was said to be quite bold in his sexual advances.
1958, he met
Wine Waiter Dennis Heymer at the
Dorchester Hotel while dining
with Sir John Mills; Howerd was 40 and Heymer was 28. Heymer became his lover as
well as his manager, and stayed with him for more than thirty years, until
Howerd's death. However, the two had to remain discreet as Howerd feared being
blackmailed if anyone beyond his immediate circle found out. In private,
Frankie was uncomfortable with his sexuality; he allegedly once said “I wish to
God I wasn’t gay”. Heymer said “People were shocked to realise he was gay. The
problem was he thought too much of other people's feelings and not enough of
his own."
When they went abroad, Howerd and Heymer were able to behave like a
proper couple - but as soon as they got back to Britain, Heymer felt compelled
to resume his straight-laced role as Howerd's personal manager. Heymer stated “At
the beginning I was hidden away when anyone of note that came here. I was
hidden away from his sister and his mother for a long time."
Mr Heymer's role was to look after and support a man who was insecure
and tormented about being gay. But
despite this, Howerd was dangerously promiscuous, says Heymer. "Being gay
and promiscuous was dangerous and heartbreaking for me, I must be honest. His
mother said to me, ‘you stay with him the whole time and don't let him out of
your sight'. She knew there was something dodgy about him." And that's
what Heymer did; accompanying the comedian almost everywhere he went. But when
Howerd wasn't pursuing attractive young men, he was often deeply depressed. He
was under a psychiatrist the whole time. “I think he wanted to have been normal
and have kids." says Heymer. One of Dennis's jobs was to drive Howerd on a
Friday to see his psychiatrist who would ply him with LSD over the weekend. On
a Monday he would pick him back up.
In the 1960s
British popular humour underwent a huge change and cutting edge comedy acquired
a far more satirical and political tone from university graduates like Peter
Cook and Dudley Moore, who produced witty satirical shows like 'That Was The
Week That Was' and 'Beyond The Fringe'.
Comedians
like Frankie Howerd based their repertoires on plentiful sexual innuendoes, and
comic figures like mothers-in-law and seaside landladies, but this kind of
comedy now seemed somewhat passé and old-fashioned.
Frankie felt
very discouraged by this change. Indeed, at one point, he reportedly became so
utterly disillusioned with show business that he considered abandoning his
chosen profession altogether and opening a pub instead.
In 1962, he
attended the Evening Standard Awards, where high-flying comedians Peter Cook and
Dudley Moore were also among the invited guests. Peter Cook opened a nightclub
in London called “The Establishment Club”, (considered as the first ever comedy
club) which was intended to provide a platform for the top satirical stand-up
comedians of the day.
To Frankie’s amazement
he was invited by Peter Cook to appear there. Frankie’s set at The
Establishment Club was incredibly successful; so much that he was invited to
appear on 'That Was The Week That Was', which was, at that time, one of the
most popular shows on TV. Moving back into TV in such a high-profile manner
rekindled public enthusiasm for Frankie. His new-found popularity was
consolidated by a new series, called 'Frankie Howerd', which aired on the BBC
between 1964 and 1966.
Despite the
fact that Frankie’s first foray into situation comedy had proved to be
something of a disaster, it was a sitcom series that would soon bring him the
greatest TV success he’d ever known. Frankie starred in a new television series
called 'Up Pompeii', first broadcast in 1971, in which Frankie starred as a
toga-wearing slave called Lurcio, who served his master, one Ludicrus Sextus,
in ancient Rome. 'Up Pompeii' gave Frankie the chance to skilfully reprise his
particular brand of comedy, thickly laced with stock phases, such as “titter ye
not” and “Ooh yes, missus”, double entrendres and plentiful sexual innuendo.
The TV series was a massive success, and re-established him as one of the
leading lights of British comedy.
The rise of
“alternative” comedy during the late 1970s and early 1980s made Frankie’s
humour look and seem old hat once again but Frankie was not destined to die in
obscurity. Right at the end of his life, he was “rediscovered”, and promptly
became extremely popular with a whole new generation of student audiences, who
sported T-shirts, emblazoned with slogans such as “Frankie Says”…and “Titter Ye
Not”.
In 1991
during a Christmas trip up the River Amazon Howerd
contracted a virus. He started to suffer respiratory problems. By April his condition deteriorated
and was rushed to London's Harley Street Clinic,
but was released to rest and enjoy Easter at home.
Howerd also owned
a second home in Somerset where he spent most of his time when not in London. He
decided to spend some time there to help him recuperate and get away from
London.
On Easter
Sunday 19 April 1992, Frankie’s sister Betty came to visit as she did most
weekends to see how he was. The consultant came to see him and he seemed to be
fine. Howerd read the papers with his
sister and then telephoned his TV producer Trevor
McCallum about new ideas
for his next show. After talking for a while he unexpectedly said to Trevor “I have been difficult, I know, and I am sorry about
that - Well, I’m just going to have a little lie down before I do the
journey in the car to Somerset.” Howard went into the lounge for a nap telling his
sister Betty to make sure she woke him up at 4pm. Dennis was upstairs in bed
with a bad back. At 3.30pm Betty heard a noise and opened the door to check on
him and found Howard on the sofa looking very poorly and mumbling. Betty shouted
out for Dennis who came rushing down and tried to revive him. Despite frantic attempts to
resuscitate him Dennis was unsuccessful. Betty told him to “stop, why
can't you just let him go peacefully?" The ambulance arrived to find
Frankie Howerd was dead.
Frankie Howerd died of heart failure at the age of 75.
Howerd died
one day before fellow comedian and friend Benny Hill. News of the two deaths
broke almost simultaneously and some newspapers ran an obituary of Howerd in
which Hill was quoted as regretting Howerd's passing, saying "We were
great, great friends". The quote was released by Hill's agent, who was not
aware that Benny was already dead.
The funeral
was arranged by Howerd's sister Betty. At the funeral TV Producer Trevor McCallum, who was the last person who spoke to
Howard, said “The laughter did not die with Howerd. He thought it funny that Central
Television’s had just spent £500 on a new toupee for him and said. He’s just
got buried in it. ‘There’s £500 worth of props going down that hole’.”
Frankie
Howerd was buried in the graveyard at St. Gregory’s Church in Weare, Somerset.
'The flat in Kensington was to be sold and the proceeds split between
his partner Heymer and Howerd's sister Betty.
When Betty went round to see it after Frankie's death, it had already
been stripped bare. Heymer had taken absolutely everything belonging to
Frankie, without any discussion with Betty. Betty was extremely angry. This was
the start of a bitter dispute between Betty and Heymer.
Howerd split
his £1.2million fortune between them, with Heymer given the option of buying
out Betty's share of Wavering Down, which he did.
Dennis Heymer’s
wishes was when he died he wanted to be buried with Frankie.
When the
headstone on Howard’s grave was erected, Heymer noticed the words had been
changed and got upset. He accused Betty of changing the words on the
gold-coloured headstone so that Heymer's name could no longer be added to it
when he dies.
Betty said "It's
not true; the headstone originally just had one line saying 'Francis A.
Howard', so I asked the stonemason to add another line saying 'Known as Frankie
Howerd'.
"It had
nothing to do with Heymer. I bought the headstone and I can do what I like with
it."
Dennis Heymer continued to live in the country house in Somerset that he and Frankie Howerd shared together. After Frankie died Chris Byrne (42) moved into the property with Heymer. According to Heymer the pair met Chris Byrne as a 17-year-old when they were in London. They took the teenager under their wing as an adopted son. Byrne moved in with Heymer who stated 'Chris and I became lovers after Frankie Howerd died. We still are - but now he is my career and partner. In the past 16 years, Chris has only been away from my side for 14 days and gives me all the love and care anyone could ask for.
Dennis Heymer continued to live in the country house in Somerset that he and Frankie Howerd shared together. After Frankie died Chris Byrne (42) moved into the property with Heymer. According to Heymer the pair met Chris Byrne as a 17-year-old when they were in London. They took the teenager under their wing as an adopted son. Byrne moved in with Heymer who stated 'Chris and I became lovers after Frankie Howerd died. We still are - but now he is my career and partner. In the past 16 years, Chris has only been away from my side for 14 days and gives me all the love and care anyone could ask for.
Heymer and
Byrne entered into a civil partnership so he could legally inherit the
four-bedroom cottage.
Byrne stated “The
civil ceremony protects us legally with the property that Frank left Dennis and
with my inheritance,” “It’s not a romantic relationship, but it’s a caring one.
I look after Dennis because he’s very frail now.” Byrne would then stand to
inherit everything in Heymer’s death including all Frankie Howerds possessions.
The civil partnership would also mean he could avoid inheritance tax on
Howerd’s estate, including his country home at Wavering Down, Somerset.
Betty said
“Its ridiculous, especially as Byrne, only met Howerd in a bar nine years
before he died stands to inherit it all.
Chris Byrne's
reply was ‘How would Betty know how gay men live their lives? I used to go
round to Wavering Down when Frankie was ill in the evening and help wash him
and put him to bed. Just because Betty wasn't there at the time doesn't mean it
didn't happen. ‘After Frankie died, Dennis was treated like dirt and Dennis
doesn't forget things like that.'
Betty stated
“The last time I spoke to Dennis Heymer was when he phoned her and said
"I've had a moment of light and I realise now that you have always been
jealous of me." I just said "OK Dennis. If it makes you happy to
think that, feel free to do so." I don't really care what you think any
more.' Betty stated it was Heymer's
drinking that caused much more of a problem."He drank anything and
everything. But he hid it. Frank and I would tear up the floorboards looking
for his alcohol supply. We never found it." It is a claim backed up by
Byrne, himself a former alcoholic who in an interview at the time stated
"Dennis is an alcoholic who often hid his alcohol from Howerd.”He has
checked into rehab on a number of occasions and still tries to hide alcohol
from me now."
In 2008
Heymer and Byrne set up the Frankie Howerd OBE Trust at Wavering Down House
with Heymer the President and Byrne the Chairman. They opened the house up as a
museum to visitors and hosting events with tribute bands with the proceeds
going to charity.
The small
museum devoted to Frankie’s life and work become a tourist attraction; on show was
his toupee, false teeth with personal photos of
Howerd with Liberace, Danny La Rue, Liz
Taylor and Richard Burton. On show was a teapot bought by Bette Davis which was
used to gently steam Howerd's toupees to give them a little lift.
One photo of Howerd is him sharing a joke with Prime Minister Edward
Heath who throughout his life was a point of speculation about his sexuality as
he never married and became a gay icon.
Frankie was also a favourite with the Queen Mother. Once at a variity
evening Howerd and Heymer were arguing with each other when she said to them “When
you two Queens have stopped arguing, this old Queen would like a Dubonnet.”
On 15 May
2009, Frankie Howerd's former partner
Dennis Heymer died of cancer aged 79 in
the home that he and Howerd had shared. Heymer
wishes were carried out and was buried in the same grave as Frankie Howerd in
an Egyptian-style coffin (Heymer
and Howerd both believed they lived past lives in Ancient Egypt) with 18 personal items from the couple's time
together. It was reportedly planned that one of the items was Howerd's famous
toupee. 'The Egyptian coffin was bought a long time ago and being buried in it
was something that Dennis had always wanted.
After his death Chris Byrne was left all Howerd’s possessions including 38 diaries that
have yet to be released.
Due to the long standing feud with Hoaerds sister Betty, Chris Byrne was not happy with the fact that extra words inscribed on the headstone prevented Heymer’s name being added to it prompting Byrne to say ‘If Dennis was to be buried with the man he loved, it seemed he had to be buried as a pauper in an unmarked grave.
Upset that
Heymers name was not to be added to the grave, Byrne ordered Heymer’s
Egyptian-style coffin to be exhumed. He spent £3,000 on a new plot, 4ft away,
plus a heart-shaped memorial containing the inscription: ‘Dennis Heymer died
May 15, aged 79. “Reunited with old
friend Frankie Howerd OBE, his
late partner. May the Angel ring out, rest in peace. From your civil partner,
Chris Byrne.”
Byrne told
the Daily Mail: ‘It’s not the same - there is a gap between them now - but it
was the best I could do. At least their names can be together on one stone and
Dennis’s grave does not have to go unmarked.
Betty has
never been a fan of Bryne. When she heard Byrne was touting Howerd’s diaries
around potential publishers, she said bluntly: ‘I do not believe Frankie ever
kept a diary. I cannot recall ever seeing a diary, or Frankie writing in one. ‘I
was very close to Frankie… and I don’t know who Chris Byrne is. I’ve never met
him and I would bet my life that Frankie didn’t know him either, or if he did
meet him, he didn’t know him very well. He didn’t attend Frankie's funeral and
wasn't mentioned in his will, which I would have expected if he was suppose to
be such a close friend of Frankie’s.
In 2007 Chris
Byrne was elected a Parish councillor.
In 2008 he was in the news dubbed by the Daily Mail as Britain’s biggest
whinger after filing 130 complaints costing taxpayers £160,000 against four
councils in 18 months. It was reported he made at least one complaint against
every member of the councils - a total of 41. He was suspended from his duties.
After
Heymers death in 2009, Chris Byrne has decided not to hold any more open days
and concerts at Wavering Down as a mark of respect.
In 2010
Byrne put the property on the market for £450,000, half the original asking
price hoping to speed up the sale.
He is
giving whoever buys the property first option to snap up the impressive
4,000-item Frankie Howerd memorabilia collection. They will also be given the
chance to buy a 33 per cent share of the Howerd estate, including royalties,
which is believed to yield an annual income of £18,000.
Byrne stated he now has a new partner
and has expressed his wish to “move on”
Linah Keza
(1983-2013)
At 4.30 am on
the 31st July 2013 loud screams were heard coming from a first floor
flat in Leyton East London. Neighbours immediately
phoned the police. One of the neighbours was so concerned he went to the flat
and began banging on the door.
The neighbour
heard a woman from inside pleading for help and screaming “Please kick the door
in, kick the door in”. Realising the woman could be in danger and could not
wait for the police; he started to kick in the door. As he did he was soon
aware that someone had their back against the door to prevent him from getting
in. The neighbour looked through a glass panel on the door and saw a man with
his arm around a woman’s neck.
Finally the
door broke in and he was confronted by a man. As he looked down he could see a
woman lying on the floor by the bedroom door in a pool of blood, beside her was
a little girl hanging on to her crying, shouting “Leave Mummy alone, leave Mummy
alone”.
The neighbour
asked the man what he was doing and told him “if you want to fight someone, you
should fight me” hoping this would draw him away from the injured woman and
child on the floor. The bloodstained man confronted him as if to fight him, but
just walked past him and ran out of the building.
The neighbour
tried to help the woman, but there was no pulse. The little girl was still clinging
onto her, crying and visible shaking. Police and paramedics soon arrived and
discovered that the woman had been viciously attacked. They pronounced the
woman dead at the scene.
On searching
the flat, police noticed that a panic button had been installed, usually only given
to people who are considered at risk and registered with police and social
services.
The deceased woman
was identified as 29 year old Linah Keza. The little girl clinging to her was her
three year old daughter Holly.
Linah Keza
was a Rwanda-born pastor’s daughter who came to the UK more than 10 years ago
and graduated from the University of Wolverhampton. Linah was a tall beautiful
woman and was encouraged by friends to enter the Miss Africa contest. This led
to a career as a professional model and dancer with AMC model agency.
In 2009, the then
25 year old Linah Keza met a 34 year old Ugandan-born security guard called David
Gikawa at a traditional Rwandan dancing session, telling her he was a club
promoter. They soon began a relationship, but within weeks Linah noticed he was
showing signs of being possessive. Their relationship quickly became troubled from
an early stage due to Gikawa becoming jealous and controlling over her. Linah fell
pregnant but was unable to tell her family in fear she would be disowned for
having a child outside marriage. She described the relationship as ‘on and off’
and said it began to go really downhill after the birth of their daughter Holly
in 2011. Linah wrote in the statement that Gikawa was controlling, possessive
and used to drink heavily. ‘He controlled me financially as he had an income
and I wasn’t working,’ she said.
Gikawa would always remind Linah
by telling her ‘I have to do everything for money and for food.” He also controlled
how she dressed and wouldn’t allow her to wear shorts or anything that he
thought was too revealing.’
She continued: ‘He would call me
nasty names such as prostitute and said that I couldn’t do anything without
him. ‘When we would argue he would come
very close to my face and shout at me, I became very frightened.’
Over the next 2 years Police were
called to a number of domestic abuse incidents at the flat where they lived.
The first outbreak of violence
took place on 3 March 2011.
Gikawa smothered Ms Keza with a
pillow and punched her. “He pushed me onto the bed and put a pillow over my
head,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t breathe. He began punching the pillow, I thought I
was going to die and I was petrified.’
Linah managed to call the police
and gave an account of what had happened. She told officers that she felt scared
and isolated and that her partner was controlling and manipulative.
In April 2012, one of Ms Keza’s
friends dialled 999 after he abducted her from a club in Manor Park East
London. When officers arrived at her home they arrested Gikawa but he was later
released without charge.
She gave numerous witness
statements about the attacks and said she was ‘petrified’ that he was going to
carry out his threats to murder her. She told Police how Gikawa was armed with
a sharpened kitchen blade and had boasted about killing any man she went out
with.
"The
police just told Linah to try and talk to David and to sort their problems.
Linah pleaded for help saying 'I don't want him here, I don't want him next to
me, I am really so scared of him'." She told officers that the abuse was
getting worse and that she had nowhere to go because her parents were in Rwanda,
but Police didn’t take her complaint seriously.
Linah feared
she was trapped within the relationship. Linah would later tell her sister "I don't know how I can get out of this
relationship'... my life is in danger'. I am dead meat. I don't know how I am
going to survive'." She
told her how she was a ‘prisoner in my own house’ and believed he was stalking
her.
During one attack Gikawa dragged Linah
through her flat and threw her to the ground. She told police that he tried to
push her head against a scalding radiator before going to the kitchen to get a
knife. He then pinned Linah
to the floor and forced the blade into her mouth. Gikawa shouted at her ‘Tell me you love me or I’ll kill you,’ Linah replied
‘I love you, I love you’, and she begged him to let her go.
Linah complained again to the
Police and filled out a risk assessment form and got a restraining order
stating: ‘I am making this application because I believe that I will be at risk
of significant harm if the respondent is not ordered to stop immediately. ‘I
am petrified of him and I don’t want a life of violence any more. ‘I just want
to be able to live a normal and safe life with my daughter.’
A few days
before her death her friend visited her to see if she was OK, but while he was
there Gikawa turned up harassing her and repeatedly driving past her flat.
Linah told her friend James to leave the flat because David is here and she
feared for his safety. Gikawa started throwing stones at the window, so they
called the police. The Police arrived to escort James downstairs only to find
his car was slashed.
Gikawa was again arrested, but
released the following day.
Gikawa was ordered not to go
anywhere near the flat or have any contact with Linah. Her flat was fitted with
a panic button and the locks were ordered to be changed for her safety, unfortunately
this was not done in time as Gikawa would use his spare key to gain access during
the early hours of 31st July.
Her brother Ivan tried to phone
her on the morning of 31st July, but got no answer on her phone. He
decided to go round to check on her, only to find Police at the scene. When he
identified himself to Police, he was then told the tragic news of his sister’s
death.
Police believed David Gikawa was
responsible for Linah Kerza’s death and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Knowing he was a wanted man with nowhere
to run, Gikawa handed himself into Police. Gikawa
denied any abuse had taken place and said he never did anything to her. He claimed Ms Keza was depressed and had threatened
to stab herself and self-harm.
A post-mortem
examination gave the cause of death as stab wounds to the chest and back. She
was stabbed with such force the knife handle broke off and found at the scene
of the crime. The blade of the knife was still in Linah’s body resulting in her
death.
In April 2014
Gikawa stood trial at the Old Bailey. With overwhelming evidence, Gikawa was
found guilty.
Judge Michael
Topolski told Gikawa: ‘You have
been convicted on the clearest evidence of the brutal murder of a wholly
innocent woman.
"It was
not a loss of control, but a loss of temper, and an act of calculated, jealous revenge
on an innocent woman whose life you had made a fearful misery."
"You
stabbed her three times. The third, and probably final, stab wound was in her
back.
"The
evidence was that it would have required the use of severe force - the point of
the knife broke off, and remained inside her body," he added.
Ms Keza was described as a
devoted mother who was inseparable from her daughter and "vital" part
of the community who was compassionate and ambitious.
She wanted a fresh start and to be free from
fear, threats and control. But you were motivated by jealousy and stabbed her
to death in her home.
"You did
all this in front of a young child."
‘There is only but one sentence
that I must pass upon you and that is life imprisonment.
‘I also have to determine how
many years you must serve before you can even be considered safe to be released
into the community. You may take it that that period of time will be very
substantial indeed.
Gikawa was
sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve a minimum of 21 years before
being considered for parole Due to the nature of the horrific attack it is unlikely
he would ever be released.
Ms Keza’s family sat quietly as
the verdict was announced but broke down in tears outside the court.
Judge Topolski also commended the
brave actions of Ms Keza’s neighbour Gideon Bello who went to investigate after
he heard her screams. ‘I wish to give a public commendation to Mr Bello for his
extraordinary bravery in the circumstances,’ he said ‘He couldn’t possibly have
known what was on the other side of that door. ‘Therefore Mr Bello will receive
a financial reward.
After the
trial the Metropolitan Police was alerted by the Independent Police Complaints
Commission than an inquiry would be carried out over fears they could have done
more to protect the victim. It has
served misconduct notices on four Metropolitan Police Service officers, which
advises them their conduct is being investigated.
Linah Keza’s body was taken back to
her homeland of Rusororo, Kigali, Rwanda where she was buried. Her daughter Holly now lives there with
her family.
David Gikawa
has never showed any remorse for the killing Linah Keza.
Destiny had a troubled history, especially through her teens dealing with her sexuality. She was very close to her Mother who supported her throughout but then suffered severe depression following her Mother’s death. Destiny was also a nephew of Paul Hill who was one of the Guildford Four, wrongfully convicted and served 15 years for the IRA pub bombing in 1975.
Destiny was well known to many people in the Camden area and was regarded as a ‘character’ by those who knew her. She was close to her father and two brothers, who she contacted regularly, and she had a love for the finer things in life and appreciated beautiful things.”
Destiny was trying to turn her life around and trying to make ends meet. She decided to turn to prostitution, knowing her looks and the attraction of being a transsexual could earn her quick and easy money.
Destiny advertised herself on web-sites and magazines such as Loot as a “pre-op transsexual”, who was "fully functional" and "very well endowed".
Her brother Lyndon Samuels was very concerned and warned her of the dangers of selling her body, but Destiny ignored him and was tempted by the potential earnings that could help her get her life back on track.
On the 5th of November while she was with her brother, she got a call on her mobile phone from a potential client requesting to have a sexual encounter with her.
Destiny agreed and gave him her address for him to visit her flat. Destiny then had to ask her brother to wait outside in the street while she entertained her client. Though her brother wasn’t happy about the arrangement he felt he had no choice and reluctantly agreed.
While outside he saw a man walk into Destiny’s flat. After a period of time he then noticed the same man leaving. Presuming Destiny had finished, he then went back inside the flat.
On entering he found Destiny half-naked on the bed with her arms tied behind her back with stockings. Unable to get a response from her he quickly called for an ambulance and police.
The paramedics tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead before they could get her to hospital. A post-mortem examination gave cause of death as manual and forcible compression to the neck. She had been strangled with a pair of her tights.
On examining the crime scene police noticed a coat hanging on the back of the bedroom door which didn’t belong to Destiny or her brother. The murderer had left it there in his hurry to get away. This gave police vital evidence and also a description as to what he was wearing. With a description from the brother, police started to look through CCTV footage which captured a black male donning a pair of black gloves before entering her flat.
With a full description of the suspect, Police started tracing Destiny’s mobile phone calls. On the evening of her death she received a call from a Leon Fyle, a 22 year old unemployed male from Catford South London.
Fyle’s mobile phone data revealed not only calls to Destiny, but he had made several other calls to pre-operative transsexual women. Police traced the signal which led detectives to house in Lewisham.
Fyle telephoned Destiny on the evening after he responded to a sex website. He then travelled across London for the arranged sexual encounter.
Having availed himself of her services, Fyle then turned on Lauren and strangled her, before leaving with her mobile phone, some jewellery and £350 in cash.
He then travelled by bus to Kings Cross, where he spent £250 of the money on two further prostitutes.
With the phone data, DNA and the coat he had forgotten to retrieve from the back of the bedroom door, Police now had enough evidence to arrest him.
Fyle was arrested a week later on the 12th November 2009.
When interviewed, Fyle refused to speak and only answered “no comment” to all questions during police interviews.
Fyle was charged with murder and stood trial at Snaresbrook crown court in September 2009.
Though he failed to give any statements or refused to give any co-operation when arrested, Fyle now realised the evidence against him would clearly prove that he visited Destiny’s flat on the night she was murdered and that he arranged to have sex with her. Fyle protested his innocence admitting he did visit Destiny and paid her £150 for sex, but denied murder - claiming that she was still alive when he left her flat.
Leon Fyle was found guilty of murder, but he would later appeal against his conviction which was quashed by the Court of Appeal which ruled his original conviction “unsafe”.
Police and Destiny’s family were devastated by the Court of Appeals decision and feared, that Destiny’s killer would go free, but the Appeal Court ordered a retrial to be held at Southwark Crown Court. Destiny’s family were disheartened knowing they would have to go through another lengthy trial and sit through all the harrowing evidence of how Destiny lost her life.
In August 2010, Leon Fyle was found guilty for a second time and this time sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 21 years before being considered for parole.
It was revealed that Fyle was a frequent user of prostitutes, at the time of Destiny Lauren’s death he was out on licence for burglary. Fyle also had previous convictions for attempted robbery and assault with intent to rob. He had spent time in a young offenders institute for wounding with intent to cause GBH following an attack on a previous sexual partner.
Detective Inspector Liz Baker of the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command said: “The murder of Destiny Lauren was brutal and pre-meditated.”
“Her life was abruptly ended when she met Leon Fyle, a young man she had never met before, who murdered and robbed her in her own home.
“Fyle has not shown one shred of remorse for this callous act nor for the suffering he has inflicted on Destiny’s family and friends.” putting Destiny's family and friends through the trauma of a second trial," she added.
“I hope today’s verdict can go some way to ease their pain.”
A friend of Destiny said “She was well-known face in London’s gay and transgender scene. She was so likeable, she was just natural, just herself, she always made you laugh.”
Since 2009 Leon Fyle has protested his innocence and no motive for the murder has ever been established.
Destiny Lauren (1980-2009)
Destiny Lauren 29, was born Justin Samuels. At the age of 17, and supported by his family, Justin decided to start a new life as a woman calling herself Destiny Lauren. Very few people knew or suspected that Destiny was a pre-operative transsexual due to her feminine looks.
Destiny had a troubled history, especially through her teens dealing with her sexuality. She was very close to her Mother who supported her throughout but then suffered severe depression following her Mother’s death. Destiny was also a nephew of Paul Hill who was one of the Guildford Four, wrongfully convicted and served 15 years for the IRA pub bombing in 1975.
Destiny was well known to many people in the Camden area and was regarded as a ‘character’ by those who knew her. She was close to her father and two brothers, who she contacted regularly, and she had a love for the finer things in life and appreciated beautiful things.”
Destiny was trying to turn her life around and trying to make ends meet. She decided to turn to prostitution, knowing her looks and the attraction of being a transsexual could earn her quick and easy money.
Destiny advertised herself on web-sites and magazines such as Loot as a “pre-op transsexual”, who was "fully functional" and "very well endowed".
Her brother Lyndon Samuels was very concerned and warned her of the dangers of selling her body, but Destiny ignored him and was tempted by the potential earnings that could help her get her life back on track.
On the 5th of November while she was with her brother, she got a call on her mobile phone from a potential client requesting to have a sexual encounter with her.
Destiny agreed and gave him her address for him to visit her flat. Destiny then had to ask her brother to wait outside in the street while she entertained her client. Though her brother wasn’t happy about the arrangement he felt he had no choice and reluctantly agreed.
While outside he saw a man walk into Destiny’s flat. After a period of time he then noticed the same man leaving. Presuming Destiny had finished, he then went back inside the flat.
On entering he found Destiny half-naked on the bed with her arms tied behind her back with stockings. Unable to get a response from her he quickly called for an ambulance and police.
The paramedics tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead before they could get her to hospital. A post-mortem examination gave cause of death as manual and forcible compression to the neck. She had been strangled with a pair of her tights.
On examining the crime scene police noticed a coat hanging on the back of the bedroom door which didn’t belong to Destiny or her brother. The murderer had left it there in his hurry to get away. This gave police vital evidence and also a description as to what he was wearing. With a description from the brother, police started to look through CCTV footage which captured a black male donning a pair of black gloves before entering her flat.
With a full description of the suspect, Police started tracing Destiny’s mobile phone calls. On the evening of her death she received a call from a Leon Fyle, a 22 year old unemployed male from Catford South London.
Fyle’s mobile phone data revealed not only calls to Destiny, but he had made several other calls to pre-operative transsexual women. Police traced the signal which led detectives to house in Lewisham.
Fyle telephoned Destiny on the evening after he responded to a sex website. He then travelled across London for the arranged sexual encounter.
Having availed himself of her services, Fyle then turned on Lauren and strangled her, before leaving with her mobile phone, some jewellery and £350 in cash.
He then travelled by bus to Kings Cross, where he spent £250 of the money on two further prostitutes.
With the phone data, DNA and the coat he had forgotten to retrieve from the back of the bedroom door, Police now had enough evidence to arrest him.
Fyle was arrested a week later on the 12th November 2009.
When interviewed, Fyle refused to speak and only answered “no comment” to all questions during police interviews.
Fyle was charged with murder and stood trial at Snaresbrook crown court in September 2009.
Though he failed to give any statements or refused to give any co-operation when arrested, Fyle now realised the evidence against him would clearly prove that he visited Destiny’s flat on the night she was murdered and that he arranged to have sex with her. Fyle protested his innocence admitting he did visit Destiny and paid her £150 for sex, but denied murder - claiming that she was still alive when he left her flat.
Leon Fyle was found guilty of murder, but he would later appeal against his conviction which was quashed by the Court of Appeal which ruled his original conviction “unsafe”.
Police and Destiny’s family were devastated by the Court of Appeals decision and feared, that Destiny’s killer would go free, but the Appeal Court ordered a retrial to be held at Southwark Crown Court. Destiny’s family were disheartened knowing they would have to go through another lengthy trial and sit through all the harrowing evidence of how Destiny lost her life.
In August 2010, Leon Fyle was found guilty for a second time and this time sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 21 years before being considered for parole.
It was revealed that Fyle was a frequent user of prostitutes, at the time of Destiny Lauren’s death he was out on licence for burglary. Fyle also had previous convictions for attempted robbery and assault with intent to rob. He had spent time in a young offenders institute for wounding with intent to cause GBH following an attack on a previous sexual partner.
Detective Inspector Liz Baker of the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command said: “The murder of Destiny Lauren was brutal and pre-meditated.”
“Her life was abruptly ended when she met Leon Fyle, a young man she had never met before, who murdered and robbed her in her own home.
“Fyle has not shown one shred of remorse for this callous act nor for the suffering he has inflicted on Destiny’s family and friends.” putting Destiny's family and friends through the trauma of a second trial," she added.
“I hope today’s verdict can go some way to ease their pain.”
A friend of Destiny said “She was well-known face in London’s gay and transgender scene. She was so likeable, she was just natural, just herself, she always made you laugh.”
Since 2009 Leon Fyle has protested his innocence and no motive for the murder has ever been established.
Hallam Tennyson (1920-2005)
Hallam Tennyson was a BBC Radio producer / Author and was
also the great-grandson of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.
In his early life he worked
as a journalist. He joined the BBC World Service in 1956, but his love
of drama he started working as a radio producer and then becoming assistant
head of drama. His own radio play “The Spring of the Beast”, was
broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He later went on to become head of drama at The Sound
Company.
He had a distinguished academic career having been
educated at Eton and Oxford, but while at prep school he developed an
inferiority complex about his intellect after being bullied.
He always thought his two elder brothers were cleverer
than him and once described himself as "the runt of the litter."
At the beginning of the war he registered as a
conscientious objector, but still joined an Ambulance Unit and spent two years
away from England amongst the fighting in Egypt, Italy and Yugoslavia.
He had a particular gift for languages and a
determination to study. He could speak fluent French, Italian and Serb-Croat.
Later in his life he even mastered Bengali and was also learning Japanese.
At 20, he told his parents that he was homosexual and
said that they were "shocked and horrified". He said that his
great-grandfather, the famous Victorian poet laureate, would have disapproved
of his sexuality, however, rumours that the poet laureate was also in a
homosexual relationship have always been rife.
With his parents concerned by his sexuality, Hallam
arranged to see a therapist who told him “It was just a phase; if he married a
woman he would be cured.” Hallam then felt increasingly under pressure to continue
the family line after tragically losing both his brothers (Penrose and Julian), who were both killed in their
early 20s in the Second World War,
leaving him with a deep sense of loss.
After the war he rejected what he
regarded as a privileged upbringing and went to live in London's East End. As a
committed socialist, it was there that he met and fell in love with Margot
Wallach, a young, beautiful Jewish refugee girl from Nazi Germany. They were
married in the autumn of 1946. In July 1947, Hallam and Margot left
for India spending three years in Bengal, working on a rural development program, helping to sink wells and build self-reliant
communities.
While working in India, Hallam and Margot got to know Mahatma Gandhi well, spending several
months living in his ashram. The work and philosophy of Gandhi had a deep and
enduring influence on both Hallam and
Margot.
Margot was aware that Hallam was homosexual but still
went ahead with the marriage. Hallam said “"I
explained it to her, but she said she didn’t mind. Looking back, we were
terribly rational about it.” He and his wife Margot nevertheless had
satisfactory sexual relations, and they had two children a son and daughter who
both went on to have successful careers.
However, Hallam continued to engage in homosexual
relationships while married and lived in an open relationship with his wife.
On returning to England, Hallam embarked on living as a writer publishing two novels
and a collection of short stories. Meanwhile Margot started to suffer from
regular periods of depression and mental illness. Hallam and Margot moved to Hertfordshire with his friend
from Eton, Peter Benenson (British lawyer and founder of Amnesty
International), with his wife Margaret, and their children, all sharing a large
farmhouse. This now extended family was able to provide support during Margot's
illness.
In 1971, Hallam decided he could no longer deny his homosexuality. He
became a champion of gay rights, campaigned on behalf of gays in prison and
worked for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Hallam finally felt he had to divorce Margot after 25
years of marriage, he said: "I needed to express my homosexuality in a
more open way, I needed more freedom. He said he could do nothing to alter his
sexuality any more than he could change the colour of his eyes. I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to sex, though
he still regarded his marriage to Margot as a “tremendously happy marriage and our sexual relations were adequate. Indeed, my
wife thought they were more than adequate." Although no longer living together, Hallam and Margot remained close friends until her death in Highgate 1999. He was
at her bedside when she died.
In 1984, he wrote his autobiography, “The
Haunted Mind”, an exploration of his complex personality in
which he listed a string of homosexual liaisons.
This caused a considerable stir when serialised in a Sunday paper. After
the publication he received a letter from a male fan, 13 years his junior
called Kevin.
Kevin and Hallam lived together in a flat. After their
relationship came to an end they both carried on living together, but Hallam would
regularly take other men back to his flat 2-3 times a week. Hallam knew this
was a dangerous practise picking up strangers, as he wrote that he was spat at, assaulted and robbed during his hunt for
companionship. He also said that it did cause such a waste of time, instead of
spending hours haunting public lavatories, I might have read several books as
long as War and Peace — I might even have written one."
Though now 85, he was a fit man and would pass for a man
much younger due to his active life, a passionate Tennis player.
At 11.20pm on the 21st December, his former
partner Kevin returned back to their north London flat to discover the naked
body of Hallam Tennyson.
Hallam was found dead with serious head injuries and
multiple stab wounds with a knife still plunged into his neck. Paramedics were
called, but Hallam was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police stated that it was a “difficult investigation. Mr
Tennyson was openly homosexual and lived a "colourful" life engaging
with men up to three times a week".
Officers guarded Mr Tennyson's home while forensics
officers conducted searches. Neighbours said Mr Tennyson was a very fit man for
his age who looked more like 45 than 85".
His former partner Kevin gave the police some names that
he thought may help police with their investigation."
On the 29th December, a 44 year old man was
arrested for questioning, but was later released.
To date no one has ever been charged with his murder of
Hallam Tennyson and the case remains unsolved. In 2006, police renewed their
appeal for any information.
Police were questioned if this could possibly be a
"Hate crime" due to him being Gay? Detectives say they are keeping an
open mind about the circumstances surrounding his death and the case remains open.
Hallam’s family were "absolutely devastated" by
his loss and by the circumstances of his horrific death. Hallam Tennyson
enjoyed a very close relationship with his children and grandchildren because
they all shared his love of drama.
Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers on
0800-555111.
Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh (1999-2014)
Shereka Marsh
was a 15 year old girl described as "smart,
graceful, vibrant, kind, loving, gentle, warm and very much alive with all the
energy and enthusiasm of a typical teenager".
Shereka attended Urswick School
in Hackney, East London. She was a perfect student and bestowed the title of Prefect,
which included representing her school at official events and receiving dignitaries
who visited the school.
She was studying and preparing
for her upcoming GCSE’S and planned to go on to do a business degree.
On the morning of Saturday 22nd
March 2014, Shereka went to Westfield shopping centre to buy some presents, one
being a pair of expensive Nike Trainers, a gift for her boyfriend’s birthday. Once
she completed her shopping she went straight to her boyfriend’s house to surprise
him with his birthday presents.
Shortly before 4.00pm, Police received an emergency call from an address
in The East Way, in Hackney Wick.
On arrival they found the body of a young female in an upstairs bedroom,
which appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound. Paramedics and London’s Air
Ambulance quickly attended, but the girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
The girl was later identified as 15 year old Shereka Marsh.
The Police
arrested a 15 year old boy, thought to be the deceased’s boyfriend. On his arrest at the house, the boy told officers “it
was an accident" and exclaimed: "Am I going to hell?" and:
"My girl died on my birthday."
On searching
the house the Police found a handgun hidden under a pillow in the boy’s bedroom.
The 15 year old boy (who cannot
be named for legal reasons) was questioned by Police as to what happened. The
Boy stated at the time of
the shooting, that he and his girlfriend Shereka had been holding the gun to
feel the weight of it, and they were sitting side by side on the bed when it
accidently went off. He stated that he or Shereka never pulled the trigger, “the
gun went off on its own. We were both holding it and it just went off. I
only found the gun yesterday. We were looking at it and it went off. I didn't
know it was going to go off... Shereka screamed “you've just shot me”. “I
didn't even pull the trigger."
The boy was
remanded in custody and charged with murder.
At the trial
the defence portrayed the boy as an innocent victim who by chance came across a
discarded gun, and while showing it to his girlfriend, it accidently went off tragically
killing her.
But the prosecutions
forensic evidence disproved his version of events. The bullet that killed
Shereka came from a Beretta 7.65mm self-loading pistol. The bullet had gone
through her wrist and neck before lodging in her left shoulder causing
"significant internal bleeding".
A firearms
expert found that the gun was probably fired directly in front of her from one
and a half feet away from Shereka's hand. Tests showed that the Gun would not
go off without the trigger being pulled. It would take a “concerted effort” to
fire the weapon.
The prosecution
then showed the jury two pictures of him posing with handguns and knives taken
from his mobile phone, one of which was pointing at the person who took the
photograph.
With the
over-whelming evidence against him, he then dramatically changed his story and
admitted in court that he had been standing in front of her, waving it around
with both hands, not thinking it was loaded.
The boy
demonstrated in the witness box court how he was “waving” a gun in front of his
girlfriend when it “accidentally” went off. He recreated the moment he killed
her by holding his hands together and pointing his fingers towards jurors from
the witness box.
Police also produced
forensic evidence on the Gun, and confirmed it was same Gun that had been fired
in a gangland shooting, which a
car passenger was seriously injured,
just days previous.
When
confronted with this evidence, the boy admitted that he lied about finding the
Gun and that he was looking after it for someone. When asked “who gave him the
Gun?” He refused to tell the court saying “I’m no Snitch” At that point there
were gasps in the court.
Prosecutor
Jonathan Rees QC said: “You intended to shoot her didn’t you? She was scared
enough to raise her hand and put it between the muzzle of the gun and her
neck.”
The boy replied:
“No sir, she was not.”
He insisted
he had never quarrelled with Shereka and had no reason to harm her. She was my
girlfriend. I loved her.”
The jury cleared the boy of
murder, but found him guilty of manslaughter. He was also found guilty of
possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
At sentencing the Judge said "the circumstances that he had
the gun and ammunition in the first place were in the context of "violent
gang confrontation".
The judge told the teenager,
"Having come into possession of the gun and ammunition plainly in the
context of being asked to look after it... you then got it out, and I have no
doubt at all you pointed it at Shereka and pulled the trigger to frighten her,
and you shot her dead."
“You have lied
persistently”.
It was then
revealed by the court that the teenage boy had a criminal past. In sentencing the
Judge took into consideration that the teenager had a history of violence
including convictions for two attempted robberies at the age of 12, one armed
with a screwdriver.
He had been
excluded from school three times including once which a teacher described as
“unparalleled violence not seen before.” And a text message found on his phone referring
to "shanks" showed he had been involved in another violence incident.
On the 27th
October 2014, the Judge Charles Wide QC, imposed a nine year sentence and added
a five year extension due to his violent past. He told the Court that the boy “posed
a high risk to members of the public of significant harm.”
In an impact
statement read to the court by Shereka’s mother Shyrine, said that whilst her friends and family members felt anger
and contempt for her daughter's killer, she felt sympathy, adding: "He can
never celebrate and enjoy a happy birthday ever again
because from now on he will be haunted by the memory of what happened on his
15th birthday."
She added: "Shereka has been
robbed of the life to which she would have been a great success at. She would
have been a valuable member of society. But sadly those dreams will never reach
fruition."
The gifts which Shereka bought
for her boyfriend’s birthday were returned to her family, still in their
wrappings unopened.
Christopher (Chrissie) Azzapardi (1989 – 2012)
Christopher Azzapardi
was born in 1989. As a young boy Christopher was abused by his Mother and taken
into care by social services. He would later be brought up by his Grandfather
and would leave home at the age of 17.
Christopher
decided to become transgender, changing his name to Chrissie and started living
as a woman in a first-floor flat in Finsbury Park, London. Very few people were aware that Chrissie was infact
Transgender due to her feminine looks and long bright red hair.
Chrissie was
due to have gender reassignment surgery, having undergone assessments in
February. She had everything to look forward to in life, although her state of
mind at that time was, on occasions, up and down. She had a Doctor’s
appointment on 1st May, but failed to attend.
During that
week no one could contact her, but Chrissie was an independent person so no one
suspected anything wrong.
It wasn’t
until the following week people became concerned that she could not be
contacted. Neighbours soon noticed the
build up of mail and a strong smell coming from her flat.
Police finally
called at the flat on Monday, 4 June 2012, to concerns for the welfare of Chrissie.
When Police gained access to the flat they found Chrissie’s body lying on the bed with her face covered with a pillow.
Pathologists
were unable to determine the cause of death at the scene as the body was in a badly
decomposed state, but confirmed the body had been lying there for some weeks.
The post-mortem found that Chrissie had suffered multiple
stab wounds of which two were to the chest, giving the cause of death as a stab
wound to the heart.
Police then immediately
released the information and confirmed it was now a murder investigation and
appealed for any witnesses.
At a press briefing the police stated:
"The
killing was swift and brutal, it is likely she fought back to save her life but
was very quickly overwhelmed. The killer then left her while she lay on the
bed, dead or dying. In all probability, she knew her killer and she allowed him
into the premises”.
Forensics at
the scene found crucial evidence including fingerprints and a full DNA profile on
the pillow and the cardigan Chrissie was wearing, even though the killer went
to considerable lengths to clean the scene of any evidence.
Police found Chrissie’s
mobile phone and focused on examining the phone records. The last call was on
the 29th April. Police soon traced the last caller to a 27 year old
male called Romy Maynard, who lived with his girlfriend and their child on the
same street. Text messages were exchanged between Maynard and Chrissie in which
they arranged for Maynard to go to Chrissie’s flat.
Maynard was
arrested for questioning. He stated that he only knew Chrissie by visiting her
flat to sell her some cannabis. He stated when he left she was absolutely fine.
On checking
Maynard’s background, Police found out that Maynard had visited the local
hospital the day after the murder with a fractured right hand. He told police
that he got into a fight and had punched somebody two days before.
Forensic
tests confirmed Maynard’s fingerprint was found in the kitchen on a Toaster and
his DNA matched the one found on the pillow and Chrissie’s cardigan, as well as
a small bloodstain on the duvet of the bed that Chrissie was lying on. His palm print was
also found on the headboard above the bed.
On January 30, 2013, police charged Romy Maynard
with the murder of
Chrissie Azzapardi and was remanded in custody.
Maynard went on trial at London’s Old Bailey on 7th
October 2013. Maynard
pleaded not guilty.
At the trial Maynard
said he only visited Miss Azzopardi a few days before her murder to sell her
cannabis, at a time when his hand was bleeding following the fight. He denied
visiting her on the day of her murder and claimed someone else must have been
responsible.
The prosecution stated that Miss Azzopardi was killed on
the night of Sunday 29th April 2012. Maynard was linked to the victim and
the scene by phone records as well as DNA and fingerprint evidence.
Mark Heywood
QC, prosecuting, said “the victim had been stabbed twice in the chest. He
covered her face with one of the pillows from the bed, either to finish his
work or perhaps to avoid her stare in death."
The court heard that Maynard described himself as a lady’s
man perfectly free to have other relationships other than the one he had with
his girlfriend.
It was believed that Maynard was unaware that Chrissie
was transgender and that his intentions was to have sexual contact with her,
only to find out the truth of her nature causing him to attack and kill her.
On 18 October 2013, the jury convicted Maynard of murder.
On sentencing the Judge said: “What your
motivation was, only you know”, “She can’t tell us because you killed her and
you have refused to tell the court”.
‘What followed was a brutal and what must have been for
her a terrifying and sustained attack with a knife, repeatedly stabbing her.
‘There were two identifiable penetrations of the heart, and a number of cuts on
the cardigan she was wearing. ‘Some of them must have been while she was
helpless on the bed with you holding her down, directly into where her heart
was and with a pillow over her face.’
“Anyone reading this is forgiven for thinking it must have had something
to do with her transgender nature.”
“You made it patently clear in the witness box you think of yourself as
a lady’s man, perfectly free to have other relationships other than the one you
already had.
Judge Charles
Wide QC said though he could not be sure, but suggested Romy Maynard killed
Chrissie Azzopardi after having some sort of sexual contact before discovering the
truth that she used to be male causing him to attack her. “Many people will
think that’s what happened, but we will never be sure”.
Maynard was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum
of 18 years before being considered for parole.
Maynard, who had denied murder, showed no emotion as he was led away to
the cells, but waved to family in the public gallery.
Miss Azzopardi’s Grandfather Joseph, who raised her until
she left home at 17, said in an impact statement: “We miss Chrissie
dreadfully. I will never get over what has happened to Chrissie”.
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