The Case of Jean Townsend

Summary

In this episode, Cherry and Morgan discuss the unsolved murder of Jean Townsend in 1954. They provide background information on Jean and her job as a manageress at a costume-making firm in London. The hosts also mention their plans for the year, including attending CrimeCon UK and True Crime Fest. They then delve into the details of Jean's murder, including her attendance at a pyramid party and her last moments before her body was discovered. The conversation covers witness accounts, similar cases in the area, and the investigation's focus on American servicemen. The hosts discuss the possibility of a cover-up and the involvement of a family member in the crimes. The episode concludes with the closure of the case and the mention of other unsolved murders in the same area. This episode discusses a series of unsolved murders in the same area, highlighting the need for further investigation. The conversation explores the possibility of a connection to Air Force bases in the vicinity and speculates on the killer's movements. The hosts discuss the challenges of tracing potential serial killers and the chilling thought of the killer's mobility across different countries. The episode concludes with a lighthearted segment on a dumb criminal who went skinny dipping in a store aquarium.

Takeaways

• The murder of Jean Townsend in 1954 remains unsolved, despite extensive investigations and witness accounts.
• Witnesses reported seeing men with American accents in the area, leading to speculation about the involvement of American servicemen stationed nearby.
• Similar cases of unsolved murders of women occurred in the same area during the same time period, raising questions about a potential serial killer.
• The case remains open, and the files have been reviewed multiple times, but no definitive suspects have been identified.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Plans for the Year
05:46 Background of Jean Townsend
06:34 Pyramid Party and Jean's Last Moments
10:15 Discovery of Jean's Body
11:43 Witness Accounts and Similar Cases
21:28 Bloodstained Clothing and Suspects
28:06 Vigilante Patrols and Speculation
32:47 Closure of the Case and Unsolved Murders
40:41 Unsolved Murders in the Same Area
41:19 Possible Connection to Air Force Bases
42:27 Speculating on the Killer's Movements
43:30 Tracing Potential Serial Killers
44:45 Possibility of Killings in Other Countries
45:51 Chilling Thought of the Killer's Mobility
46:35 Dumb Criminal: Naked Swim in a Store Aquarium

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Episode Transcript

(00:37):
Happy New Year and welcome to crimePedia, a crime podcast, a true
crime podcast this week hosted by meCherry alongside my very good friend, the
lovely Morgan. Hello Cherry, howare you. I've missed you. I've
missed you too. We've had areally good breakover Christmas in New Year and
it's been really good to get researchin some new episodes for this year coming,

(01:00):
and we've had a nice break withfamily. It's been really lovely,
good, good, good. Yes. I feel like it's been quite a
while since we've been together, soit's nice to be back in action and
recording and doing some more cases foreveryone. Yeah, we've got a good
year lined up this year of placesthat we're going to be visiting. I'm
going to be in America later thisyear and you're going to be in England

(01:23):
later this year, so we've gotquite good, quite good set of stuff
to do. We're going to bein crime Con UK in London, so
make sure you come and see usin September. Go and visit crime Con
dot com at UK for more informationabout that. Because it's a new venue
this year, it's a new layout, it's going to be absolutely brilliant there's
some great stuff going on, somereally really good speakers this year. I

(01:47):
always say every year crime Con getsbetter and better and better, and I
think this year is going to beone of those years. It's going to
be a really really good year thisyear. So Morgan's coming over for that
one, and then I'm going tobe in Arkansas in September in August for
True Crime Fest, so again anotherbrilliant event which is a very victim of
family focused event which is raises moneyfor some brilliant causes, and that's put

(02:09):
on by All the Lost Girls,which is a brilliant charity that we both
work for and I'm really looking forwardto being there too. So it's going
to be a good year this year. I think twenty twenty four is going
to be a really good year.Yeah, I'm excited. It should be
a lot of fun. It shouldwe should have a lot of great cases
that we're going to cover, Soit's going to be a good year for

(02:30):
us. Yeah. So this week'scase is a case that I found over
Christmas actually, whilst I was researchingsome some murders in the London area and
this came this one came up,and this week's case is the case of
Gene Townsend. What if I wereto tell you that five murders and four

(02:55):
attacks all took place in a smallarea of London, all with very similar
ems, and all with witnesses reportingvery very similar information, You'd think that
they were all related, right,and that it would be easier to puin
down a perpetrator. Well you'd bewrong, because all of those to this

(03:16):
day are still unsolved. This iscrime Pedia and we're going to start twenty
twenty four with the case of GeneTownsend. Okay Morgan, So Jean Mary
Townsend was born on the eleventh ofMarch nineteen thirty three. She lived at
home with her parents and her familyhome was ninety two Bempton Drive in South

(03:40):
rice Lip now South Ricelip is inthe London borough of Hillingdon. And she
was the manageress of a woman's departmentin Leicester Square. It was a firm
that was theatrical and film costume makersand that was in Irving Street. And
this is in the West end ofLondon. Obviously, if you don't know
London very well or England very well, the west end of London is the

(04:01):
very theatrical part of London. It'swhere everybody wants to go and perform.
It's where all the good stage showsare, and it's a really kind of
busy and that's the only way Ican describe It's a very theatrical part of
London. She was described as ayoung woman with a very respectable reputation.
She was described by the director ofthe company to be a sweet girl,

(04:25):
very intelligent, very charming. Shewas also described as as being a friend
of stage and screen stars. Soshe was somebody who would act with discretion.
She wasn't somebody who was very loudand would attract a lot of attention
to herself. She was very quiet, She very rarely drank alcohol whilst at
social engagements, and she was justa very trusted member of staff and a

(04:49):
lovely young woman is the best wayto describe her. On the fourteenth of
September nineteen fifty four, she attendeda function known as a pyramid party.
Do you know what that is?I have no idea what a pyramid party
is. No, So I hadno idea either, and so I googled
a pyramid party. Now, basically, you know those schemes that you have

(05:13):
we have pyramid schemes here in England, and it's a scheme where yees,
So it's basically the same thing,but instead of doing it away, you
basically hand each other cash. Soshe would host a party and everybody at
the party would hand her a certainamount of money and then it goes down
like a pyramid scheme. So thefirst person starts the party, they invite
four guests and then they all givethose guests will give them money. Then

(05:36):
the next person invites four guests tothem and those four guests give them money
and it goes up like that.So this is a good way to make
cash fast. And this is whenthe pyramid party. I know it's crazy.
Wait wait, what are they givingthem money for for nothing? It's
for nothing because it's a way foryou to make money quick. If you

(05:57):
attend these parties, you're only givingout twenty dollars, say to the person
that party you're going to, Buteverybody else is giving that person twenty dollars
too, So the next party thatyou go to you only have to give
out twenty dollars. So you actuallyrecouping money quite quickly. But as it
goes down the line, obviously youdon't earn so much money. This is

(06:18):
the dumbest thing I've ever heard inmy life. This is well apparently,
yeah apparently, but I mean Iwas approached by somebody who asked me to
do a box scheme where you buya in quote air quotes a box basically
buy this box for like one hundredpounds and then you sell on the box
to somebody else for like one hundredand fifty and then they buy the box.

(06:38):
And I was like, this doesn'tmake sense. I don't what am
I buying a box off? Andthey were like, well, it's just
a it's a you know, it'sa fake box, just a I was
like, well, that doesn't makesense and I'm not powering with my money.
But people do they do it.They do these pyramid schemes all the
time. Well yeah, I know, I mean I understand, like,

(06:59):
like how work, and I understandwhy, Yeah, would get into it,
right, Yeah, But to goand say like with the box,
like here here's a box, buyit for one hundred dollars. Now you
go and sell it for one hundredfeet That makes sense, But then this
whole of like Okay, we're goingto party and the whole person of the
party is for you to give thehost money and then then you go and
you do your host and your party. Yeah, give you money, you

(07:23):
money. Yeah, And people arelike, oh, this is a good
idea. First off, why wouldn'tyou just say, well, screw go
into a party, I'm just goingto host my own parties and never go
to anyone else's party. Well,yeah, exactly. There are obviously there
are people that probably would have donethat and thought about that, but technically,
morally you're supposed to if you're goingto be within this, you were
supposed to attend other people's parties andyou were supposed to give them money like

(07:45):
they did you. So yeah,well, I mean it's it's believed that
this particular party was being hosted byher. This was her party, and
it was time for her to obviouslytake the money. And now she was
known to regularly attend these parties,so this is something that people knew that
she did. She caught the lastCentral Line train which returned to South Ricelip

(08:07):
later in the evening that evening,and around eleven forty five pm, she
was seen leaving South ry Slip stationnow to head home. It was only
zero point eight miles, so itwould have been like a less than twenty
minutes, maybe about an fifteen toeighteen minute walk from the station to her
home. Now, she was seenI've given you the map and to have
a look at She was seen walkingalone along Victoria Road, which would then

(08:31):
have taken her into Whitby, intoWhitby Road and then into Benton Drive,
which is her home. So youcan see there's this big, long straight
in Rice Lip, and you cansee obviously when I was looking at it,
I'm looking at it from now,and things are a little bit different
than they were back in nineteen fiftyin the nineteen fifties, but you can

(08:52):
see the same road is still there. It's still the same kind of layout.
So she got from the station asshe walked along Victoria Road, have
been walking to Whitby Road and thenonto Bempton Drive. Now the problem with
that is she never actually made ithome. Her body was discovered the following
morning at around seven am. Nowthere are many reports that will say a

(09:15):
milkman found her, but then thereare other reports that will say a groundsman
who was going to cut the thicketdown of the area was the one that
found her, So it depends.At the time, it was an area
of waste ground to the side ofVictoria Road at the junction with Angus Road,
so you can see to when youlook at the map, you can
see that there is actually a churchthere now. It's the site of Saint

(09:39):
Gregory, the Great Catholic Church,which opened in nineteen sixty seven. So
you can actually see exactly where thewaste ground was and that is where her
body was found. Oh yep,okay, I see it. Yeah,
so you can see it. Sothat was where her body was found in
that area, which was wasteland atthe time. So you can see she's

(10:01):
not far from home at all.And the station is on was on Victoria
Road as well well. Is no, the station is the station is down
is off of Victoria but that's theway she would have walked from the station
to Victoria Road, the Victoria Roadhome, and that was where our body.
Yeah, I see the Yeah,so it's not far. You can

(10:24):
see it's not very far from home. And I find that really sad that
she was almost very very almost home. M So Scotland Yard recalled in.
Yeah, a guy called Detective SuperintendentRichardson was in charge of the investigation and
the post morton was carried out bya home office pathologist called Professor Donald tea

(10:46):
Now. He stated that she hadbeen strangled with her own scarf, which
was a black and gold silk scarf. He estimated time of death to be
around midnight, and it was reportedthat despite various items of her clothing being
remo moved, they didn't believe thatshe had been sexually assaulted, whether that
was because the person didn't have timeor had been disturbed, but the clothing,

(11:11):
which is a really interesting part ofthis is that the clothing that was
taken off of her, which washer underwear and her stockings, had been
carefully folded in a neat pile nextto her body. Oh okay, which
is yeah, it's very interesting.It's not something that we usually hear in
an attempt, in an attack,a sort of situation like this. Her

(11:35):
clothes were said to be damp withrain, her black gold striped scarf that
she had been strangled with actually stillwound around her neck when she was found,
and she was wearing black velvet courtshoes and stockings and they had been
pulled off. But the police believethat actually they thought that there had been
no assault as such, and thatactually those stockings and shoes had come off.

(12:00):
She was being pulled through the thicketsinto the wasteland area. Okay.
So Jean's father was a post officeengineer, and he called the West End
costumers where she worked to find outwhere she was the next morning to say
that she hadn't come home. Waseverything okay? And they did say,
well, no, she left lastnight and as far as we knew,

(12:22):
she was on her way home.So he then called police and then that's
how they were able to identify her. So I think she didn't actually get
identified until about midday on the daythat she was found. But as word
got out about Jean's murder, localwomen started to come forward to police with
details of events leading up to Jean'smurder. A lady called Jacqueline Cliff reported

(12:45):
to police that she had been accostedin a phone box at ten thirty pm
on the night before the murder bytwo men. One of the men had
an American accent and drove an Americanstyle station wagon. The other man,
she described, was wearing an Americanuse uniform. She said that this second
man was also aged about thirty witha very high forehead. So I had

(13:09):
a look at that to see itwas interesting that there was an American in
the area. I found that therewas actually a base, which we'll talk
about in a minute. There wasa base close, so that would explain
why there would be Americans in thearea. A lady called Brenda Thompson lived
at home with her parents in WestmeadRoad. Now this overlooked the area where

(13:30):
Jeane was killed. She had beenin bed that night when she heard a
woman's scream, so she got upand went to the window. And at
that time, the lights didn't turnoff in the streets until about midnight.
It wasn't midnight yet, so whenshe looked out, she could see the
street, she heard the screen,but couldn't actually see anything. So she
called her dad to come up andlook with her, and they both stood

(13:52):
at the window looking out and listeningfor a little while. After a few
minutes, they heard two men arguing. One man appear to have an American
accent, and it seemed that oneof the men was really agitated and the
other one was trying to calm himdown. Okay, Now, Brenda had
told police that on the previous eveningshe had walked past the waste ground where

(14:13):
Jeane was found, and that twomen had tried to stop her, but
she managed to get away from themand get straight home because she literally just
across the road. Now, anotheryoung woman came forward, a lady called
Joan Garla. She reported being strangledby a man late that late at night
on Victoria Road the Saturday before themurder. So this is all all of
these things. All these women arecoming forward in this same area. They're

(14:35):
all talking about being being accosted bytwo men, and all of them have
said one of the men at leasthad an American accent. They're coming This
is they're coming forward after the fact, right, Yes, they come forward
after Jeane was found. Yeah,yeah, So this wasn't these weren't reported
to police prior? No, okay, because well there's all these like,

(15:01):
if there's all these potential or allthese attacks in this area, why isn't
there Well I think I think sheI think, yeah, I think I
think it was Brenda. It hadonly happened the night before. It was
a night before the murder, soshe hadn't had time to go to the
police yet. It was only whenIt's only when she saw all the police
outside she went, she went forward, Brenda Tom Yeah, yeah, it

(15:24):
was Brenda. It was Brenda thatlived across the road. She she that
only happened the night before, SoI can understand that now, lady,
the Jacqueline Cliff lady that had happened. I think it was the night before
the murder. Again, so thishas all happened in like a couple of
days. So I don't think thesewomen have had a lot of a lot
of time to actually come forward.It was only Joan. Joan was the

(15:50):
one that was a week before,and she had actually reported it. So
Joan said that she had been walkingalong. She'd been walking along Victoria Road
and these two guys, a manhad sort of stopped her, but it
was traveling behind her. She stoppedand said, look, why are you
following me? And he grabbed herand then tried to strangle her. So

(16:14):
she fought back away from him andapparently scratched his face and pulled off some
buttons from his outfit. She describeshim as wearing a brown coat with Gabardine
trousers. Gabardine. I don't knowif they're actually still a thing nowadays.
But I remember my grandparents talking aboutGabardine trousers. It's a make of trousers
which is very tough and durable,and it's usually it's usually used to make

(16:37):
suits or uniforms, trousers work wherethat kind of thing. And she says,
Joan says that this guy grabbed holdof her and she managed to manage
to try and get away. Now, interestingly, at the same time as
Jean's murder, the police were actuallyinvestigating the death of a lady called Ellen

(17:00):
Arlin. Now, Ellen Carlin hadbeen strangled with the piece of her own
clothing a week before Jean's murder,and they were actually investigating this at the
same time when they found Jean's body. Now, she was found on her
bed in her bedroom, partly dressed, and she had a stocking tied round
her neck and a towel left overher face. The cause of death was
asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation. Now, police found two packets of American cigarettes

(17:25):
and some American whiskey bottles in herroom. Witnesses came forward to say that
she had been seen with an AmericanAir Force sergeant on the night that she
died. Shortly after her murder,police appealed to speak to a taxi driver
who was thought to have picked upEllen with a man in the West End
of London that night. On thenight she was killed. The taxi driver

(17:48):
was actually traced and he said thathe had indeed picked up Ellen and a
fair haired American man from Piccadilly andhad taken them back to Pimlico where she
lived, on the fourth of septemand they had both gone into Ellen's flat.
So the taxi driver was really good, actually gave a really good detailed
description of this man. He wasdescribed as baby faced, with fair hair

(18:10):
and cold blue eyes, aged aroundtwenty two to twenty four, with smooth
skin. So I'm guessing, Imean, usually a serviceman would have to
have clean shaven face, wouldn't he, So that would fit with what they're
so far hearing. They've said thathe is stocky, wearing a dove gray
gabardine trousers with small checked sports coatwith patch pockets and a plain shirt and

(18:32):
tie. So that was interesting.And I think I've just mixed these two
ladies that I think I've mixed upJoan with the next lady that I'm going
to tell you about it was Doris. Several weeks after the murder, a
lady called Doris was attacked by aman who she described as being about thirty
now. She describes him as havinga high forehead. This is the lady
that scratched him and had the buttons. He was following her for some distance

(18:56):
along the road. He then attackedher after she stopped and asked him why
he was following her. He triedto strangle her, but she fought back
and tore the buttons clean off hisoff of his top. The next day,
she returned back to where she wasactually attacked and picked up the buttons

(19:17):
in tissue and took them to thepolice and gave them an account of her
attack and gave them the buttons.But unfortunately, nothing ever came of that
of that reporting. So we've gotlike four or five women here that are
all describing a very similar situation.They're describing to one or two men.

(19:40):
They're describing an American accent. They'redescribing this guy with this high forehead,
and they're describing this certain type ofclothing. These men seemed to always be
wearing a certain type of clothes.Now, on the twentieth of September nineteen
fifty four, it was reported thatpolice were handed some bla boodstained clothing.

(20:02):
They were handed to a firm ofcleaners, and the cleaner lady said that
the man had a badly scratched face. The guy had visited this cleaning firm.
It was a pair of Gabardine trousersand a blood stained shirt. Now,
the woman who took it was abranch of cleaners in South rice Lip
by the underground station. This washanded into them less than thirty six hours

(20:25):
after Jeans Townsend. Jean Townsend's bodywas found, So the manageresss of this
office said, on Thursday afternoon,a man with a high forehead and an
American accent came into the office incivilian clothes and gave us a red check
shirt with bloodstains on both sides ofthe front. He also handed in a
pair of gray Gabardine trousers with bloodstainson the front of both legs. The

(20:48):
trousers were torn. He had scratcheson his eye and his cheek, and
they were fresh. And I saidto him, where have you been in
a scrap? And he said,so again, we've got somebody else coming
forward now with this high, fourheaded American accent guy wearing She said there
he was wearing gray Gabardine trousers,but one of the other ladies said they

(21:12):
were dove blue. So I'm thinkingthat sounds like pretty similar, sounds like
a similar guy, and that soundsto me like the same guy that was
with Yeah, the same guy thatwas with Ellen that went back to Ellen's
flat, because the taxi driver saidhe had a checked checked shirt on,
didn't he and he had Gabardine trouserson. Yep, yep, Well it

(21:40):
has to be yeah, I agree. The manager said that he was about
twenty four to twenty six, hada high forehead, and was stockily built.
However, the man was later tracedand the police said that they were
certainly he had no connection with themurder. You're killing me, nope.
Researching this, I was like,yes, definitely him, They've got him.

(22:03):
Definitely him, Definitely him. Andthen it came back that actually the
police had traced him and they haddone their inquiries and that he wasn't He
wasn't the man that they were lookingfor. Come on, I know,
I was. I know, Iwas so I was so disappointed that because
I really thought when I was researchingit, I really thought we had him
then for a minute. I mean, at the time of the attacks,

(22:25):
there was an there was an RAFbase. It wasn't one that you fly
in and out of. It waslike a static RAF base and that was
stationed at South rice Lip. Andon the thirtieth of September nineteen fifty four,
it was reported by police that everyone of the forty five thousand American
airmen in Britain were to be questionedby detectives in connection with Ellen Carlin's murder.

(22:48):
Now they are starting to kind ofput Ellen's murder and sort of linking
it to Jean's murder, but itkind of is they're very focused on Ellen
for whatever reason. And it wassaid that detectives were going to be helped
by the US Air Force and thatthey were going to be also helping with
the investigation with these guys, andalso the Office of Special Investigations were going

(23:11):
to be part of this as well. That's really all I could find about
this whole operation to identify to speakto forty five thousand American m and I
mean that's a lot of people tocover. That's a lot. And also
it made me think, well,okay, how often are these m and
in and out? You know whatif they were only here stationed for like

(23:34):
a week or something and then theywere off again, how do you is
it forty five thousand in total thathave been there or is that who's there
at the moment? What you know, how do you police that? Well,
here's the thing, So the's Iwas just why as you're telling us,
I was just looking u up.So this is the US Air Force

(23:55):
South Rice Lib Right, So thatwas actually where the uh it was actually
a hospital. So is it ahospital at the base. So not only
do you have people that are stationedthere, but you have people that are
are being coming in and out tothe hospital. Yeah, so we're talking
we're probably talking more than forty fivehundred. So you got to look at

(24:17):
who who's actually stationed there, whoactually is being treated at this hospital or
was being chased the hospital at thetime. So how many people does that
are you gonna be looking at now? Yeah? So yeah, with the
hospital, you can have someone inand out in a day or two or
a week or two. Yeah,you know, chances are if they're stationed

(24:38):
there. Yeah, you're gonna havepeople transition out in and out all the
time. But you're not. Youdon't have a huge turnover. No,
you know, constantly. No,And you should. I mean they should
have records of who was based Theyknow which which platoons and which which groups
are coming in and out. Theyshould know who was based there at the

(25:02):
time because over that period they shouldthey should have reports of who's who.
Now, there was a lot ofthere was a lot of suspicion locally that
it was a big cover up bythe American Armed Forces that one of theirs
had been murdering or you had beenattacking women. And what they had done

(25:23):
is they had actually got him andshipped him out before any bad press could
come on the American Air Force inthe area, because obviously that would be
it would be bad press. Youknow, army and forces, they do
get bad press on downtime. Imean they're great when they're at war,
but you do get a lot.Oh you know, they're out on a
night out. They all get abit drunk, they'll get a bit feisty.

(25:45):
It happens. It happens. It'sa group of young men that are
let loose for the weekend and thingsthings go on, you know, and
so there were there was a lotof speculation that perhaps this had been a
cover up and it had actually havebeen an American Forces, you know,
RAF, or an army army personnelthat had done this, but it was

(26:06):
it was kind of that was local, the local thing that people thought,
I mean, even vigilantes started makingnightly patrols along the South Rice Slip the
stretch from South r Slip Station upto Biddeford Street Biddeford Road in Ricelip,
Manor. Now this was a routethat went up Victoria, up Victoria Road,
past the area where Jane was murdered, and that actual road became known

(26:30):
as Murder Mile, so people inthe area would actually refer to that as
Murder Mile. The patrols were organizedby a former Army NCO, a guy
called I can't remember what his namewas, but he was forty nine.
He had a seventeen year old daughter, and he put together this patrol squad
and it was volunteers, about fourteenmembers. All of them were fathers of

(26:52):
teenage girls, and they were unarmed. Obviously, they would start their patrol
each night at and they continued rightthe way through the morning until one am.
And that was when it was thoughtto be quite busy out when you
know, when people were out andabout and they were drinking and stuff like
that. And he said, thepatrols do not see girls home. Our

(27:14):
job is to make sure that noone is molested. I'd think, oh,
that's you know, that's the dadsgetting together, you know and doing
that. Well, I started tolook into other cases if there are anything
similar, and there were some similarreports of some murders of young women I
have to mention, but there's nota lot of information about it online,
but it is mentioned on places likeReddit, and it is mentioned in some

(27:37):
other forums that I was in.In in West Germany, there were a
few murders that were very similar tothose of Gene Townsend and Ellen. They
were almost in fact, they werealmost identical, which is quite scary.
They were also in West Germany inthe early nineteen fifties, close to US

(27:59):
military base. Is there's not alot of evidence to back this up,
although there is talk about it online, and so I thought it would be
it would be bad if I didn'tmention it. So if you do see
that when you're looking into this case, you'll know what I mean. So,
there were a few women that hadbeen left at the side of the
road, that had been strangled withtheir own clothing, all in the west
of Germany. And we're talking postwar, so we're talking about a lot

(28:22):
of there's a lot of this kindof stuff going on. Unfortunately, there
were quite a lot of murders aroundthis time. I couldn't actually find a
lot of information about those, inparticular to get individual details. It's just
mentioned as a group of women.Now at her inquest on the nineteenth of
October in nineteen fifty four, ittook the jury fifteen seconds to decide that

(28:45):
Gene Townsend had been murdered. Itwas that obvious obviously. I'm glad,
Yeah, me too, I'm gladit wasn't a suicide, you know,
ruled a suicide or something like that. So it was that the police had
taken over six hundred statements during thecourse of the investigation, and the police
actually did a reconstruction on Jean's murder. They believed from what they had pieced

(29:07):
together from witness statements and from investigationon that night, was that two men
had been in or near Victoria Roadon the night of the fourteenth September,
and that one of them was perhapsnot thinking about murder, but just like
a sexual assault. The police saidthey thought that as Jean passed them,
that made I mean, she waslike six minutes from home something stupid like

(29:30):
that. One of the men hadgrabbed her and then dragged her into the
waste ground to stop her from screaming. He had tightened the scarf around her
neck, but actually he had doneit too much and she had died.
The other man was waiting on thepavement to warn his friend if anyone was
coming, and then apparently the manwhen he came back out again. That's

(29:52):
the discussion that Brenda and her dadheard of him panikin and the other guy
trying to calm him down. That'swhat they've pieced together from those from that.
Unfortunately, there's no definite murder suspectfor Jean's case. In fact,
there's no definite suspect for any ofthese women that have come forward. There's

(30:12):
nothing. Even Ellen's murder, there'sno definite suspect for it. There was
a guy who had admitted to killingEllen, but it came out that he
was lying and it wasn't him.So after twenty eight years after her murder,
the case had gone cold. Nowpolice announced that they had actually had
a number of anonymous phone calls sayingthat they should be reviewing the files on

(30:34):
the case and that they were veryinterested in what the caller had to say.
Now, as a result of thatinformation, they were confident that no
American servicemen were involved in the killingand that there was no link between Jean's
murder and any other crime which couldbe taken to meant that they had been
given very specific information about Jean's murder. Okay, so let me let me

(31:02):
say this. So so they saidthat it was not a serviceman. Yeah,
and I just this might be areason why. So I I was
looking this up and I came acrossthis website like memories from us USAF South

(31:22):
Rust Slip, Rice Slip, andI found this. This was interesting,
right, So this was someone whoposted that said between nineteen fifty four and
nineteen fifty seven, our family livedin pem in Pembroke Road, Rice Slip,
while my my father was stationed atus AF high Wickhamham. Yeah,
I think that's how to pronounce it. That is yet. Okay, So

(31:47):
the US the United States Air ForceBase at South Rice Slip was then was
then headquartered for the US third AirForce, and and so they continued.
They said that they would they werepretty go down to south the South Rice
Lip Base for medical and dental examinationsat the hospital, but they would also

(32:08):
have movies there. There was alibrary, a post exchange in the commissary
at chapel and that they would havesporting events there. So we got to
remember that not only do you haveservicemen who are in the area and be
stationed at South Ricelip, but thenyou also have servicemen in the family that
are in the area that are stationedelsewhere elsewhere. So the keyword is family,

(32:31):
right, So maybe it worn't aservicemen. Maybe it was a you
know, an older team family member. Yeah, son, family member who
was involved in this. Yeah,that's really interesting. So you so is
it possible that they know that itwas like okay, well yeah it wasn't.

(32:51):
It wasn't this servicemen that did it, but it was this yeah lieutenant's
son or whatever. Yeah. Havethey been given yeah, have they been
given extra information. Mm hmm,Well, I mean that's why they're they're
they're sure it wasn't a serviceman,you know, maybe yeah, maybe that's
why. Maybe that's why they're sureit wasn't And they're saying that they don't

(33:13):
believe that he had anything to dowith an American. But I mean that's
strange because the witnesses are all sayingthat they that the person that they saw,
the person they heard speaking, hadan American accent. So that's quite
interesting that they the police are actuallyconvinced that it's not an American serviceman.
But I mean, does that meanthat it was it was a service or

(33:35):
it was a man that just wasn'tit was just an American man? Maybe?
Yeah, I think in which case, like you say, a family
member, an American family member,because they've all mentioned this American accent.
Yeah, and you're a mile awayfrom south to South Rice Lip yeah base
at the time. Yeah, Imean it makes sense. I mean,

(33:59):
why would someone make it up andmultiple people make up an American accent or
an American Yeah. Well Jean's mother. Her mother was called Lillian. She
was interviewed by the Daily Mail innineteen eighty two, and this was really
I thought this was really strange.I don't know if it's been taken out
of context, but she's quoted assaying I never really got over her death.

(34:20):
A clairvoyant told me. Whoever didit was far away across water.
But now it's nothing to me.I'm not vindictive. I don't know why
they should reopen the case. Now, another twenty three years would pass before
the case would be reviewed again bya freedom of information request. In two
thousand and five, a former neighborand school friend of Jean So, this

(34:40):
guy that knew her, a guycalled Red Hargrave, wanted to access the
police files for the case. Now, this had been fifty one years that
had elapsed since this had happened,and the files have been moved to the
National archiv in Q. Now weknow about this because we've submitted requests to
the National Archiving Queue many a time, and many a time they've actually been

(35:01):
refused to us too. And againin reg Hardgraves case, the request was
refused. Now a hearing had beenheld behind closed doors. And this is
what happens when you do send inone of these requests. They have to
look at the case look at whyyou want to look into it. They
look at all the stuff that's inthe cases, and they deem whether or

(35:22):
not that information should be given outto the public. Now, this hearing
had been held behind closed doors regardingthe freedom of information requests by reg Hardgrave,
and during this information information was presentedthat Gene's clothing had been re examined
in the nineteen nineties with the aimof obtaining DNA evidence for the Forensic Science

(35:42):
Service. Now, sadly, theseresults proved nothing of value. It was
also disclosed during this tribunal hearing thatwhilst the files were substantial, there were
a number of items missing from thefiles, and that the tribunal ruled then
that the files must remain closed.So Jean's case basically has stopped there.

(36:07):
Now. Since Jean's murder, therehave actually been other murders in the area.
A lady called Diana Sutty was foundstrangled in Green Lane, which is
Leavistock, green Hemil Hempstead. Shewas killed on Friday the seventh of September
nineteen fifty six. Muriel Maitland shewas killed in nineteen fifty seven near Heathrow
Airport, which is a few milesfrom Rice Lip, so they believe that

(36:29):
one could be linked. And thenin June nineteen seventy one, another woman,
a girl called Gloria Brabooth, wasmurdered a long murder mile the same
place, about half a mile fromwhere Jeane Townsend was found, and her
murder is also unsolved. So tothis day, all of those attacks,
Ellen Carter's murder, Jean's murder,Gloria Booth's murder, all in the same

(36:52):
area, and all are unsolved.That is insane. That's a lot,
isn't It's a lot of women inthe same area, from like nineteen fifty,
nineteen fifty four right the way throughuntil nineteen seventy one, all in
the same area. I hope that'snot too screechy for you, but I'm
getting kind of passionate about this.That is that is a lot for this.

(37:19):
I mean, it's a small copse, isn't it. It is similarly
at the time, Yeah, itis a small community. And I just
y, I looked at this andI was like, Wow, that's a
lot of that's a lot of murders, all women, all killed in similar
situations, all in roughly the samearea, in like a twenty year nearing

(37:40):
a twenty year period. That isreally really crazy. I thought you'd find
that interesting because these aren't these lady'snames, aren't names that I think are
linked together that we've heard of alot. I've never heard of Gene Townsend.
I'd never heard of these other ladies. And I find that really strange

(38:02):
that this isn't. Nobody's looking intothis more. I know it's a long
time ago. I understand that,but I do find it strange that nobody's
trying to link these people. Youknow, we've got nineteen fifty four,
we've got all of those, We'vegot all of those women. We've got
Ellen's like murder, which is definitelya murder. We've also got all the

(38:24):
women that came forward Jacqueline, We'vegot Brenda, We've got what was the
other lady called Joan came forward,All these different women coming forward to say
that somebody had tried to attack them. And then again, you've then got
Jean's murder. Then you've got Diana'smurder, Neurial Maitland's murder, Gloria Booth's

(38:45):
murder. I mean, that's alot of women in similar circumstances in the
same area. I think it's toocoincidental to not be looked at. Yeah,
Gloria Booth was a mile from yeah, gen Yeah. Crazy. I
feel like this is one of thosecases where you need a big map up

(39:07):
on the wall and you need tohave the pins in it to look and
at that time, and when we'retalking the fifties, that's quite that's quite
a substantial, quite a substantial amountof women that's been lost, but to
this day and a lot they're allstill I bet a a lot of them
are right there around that that theUS Air Force base, right, yeah,

(39:30):
or there. There's multiple bases inarea. I mean you have yeah,
you have another RF actually uh anRAF station right across the tracks from
that south is Yeah. Yeah,there's a bunch in this area. Yeah.
Well it's close, isn't it.Closer like the airports, it's near

(39:51):
London. It is very essentially,it's very essentilly based, isn't it.
I mean, yeah, you're RAFstation Northol, which is just across the
track. You've got that one thereas well, and that's really close to
where she was. I mean,it's crazy, isn't it. I just
I thought you'd just find this areally interesting case. And I thought that
maybe other people might find it interestingto look into because there's so much that

(40:14):
there's so much to look into ofall these different I was trying to put
the similarities all together, and theyare very very similar in m O.
All of these attacks and all ofthese all of the murders that actually did
occur, and the attacks that occurred, they're all very very similar, I
think. I mean, if itwas a serviceman or family member of someone

(40:35):
who's surface, I couldn't imagine thatthe murders that occurred in fifty four would
be done by the same person thatyou know that killed Glorio seventy one.
But then you don't know, becauseif they were younger, you don't know.
I mean, that's true, ifthey were young men, if they

(40:57):
were in their early twenties in nineteenfifty four, If they're in their early
twenties, they're only going to bein their forties. Come in a nineteen
seventy like that little message I readwhere the guy was stationed with his family
there from fifty four to fifty seven. He ended up being stationed there from
sixty five to sixty eight. Sothey are yeah I again, yeah,

(41:22):
yeah, a lot of the familymembers like if your dad was in air
Force, yeah, I mean,you're going to grow up and you want
to be like your dad, soyou're going to be in the air Force.
So what's the chances that you endup back in the same area,
I mean lunch in this area.So yeah, obviously this one person ended
up back there. And I thoughtabout this, and I thought, how
could I trace and see? Yeah, I mean, it would be a

(41:42):
mission to try and trace all thepeople that were serviced, that were based
there that then moved on. Werethere any other similar death? I mean,
but if you try, and ifyou try and google and look into
female strangulation deaths using items of theirown, there are thousands of cross the
world. And of course you don'tknow that these people went back to America.
They could have been stationed anywhere elsein the world. So it's very

(42:06):
difficult to It would be a mammothtask to look at each individual's set of
people that were based there at thetime and then see where they went next
and see if there's any murders ofthat similar nature. It would take a
team of you years to do.But I bet you anything if they did
do that, I bet you theywould find that somewhere there were similar murders

(42:30):
to these, because I think thisguy's moved around. He's obviously not been
caught here, so I think he'smoved around and tried it elsewhere. What's
to say he didn't go to Canadanext, and you know, and murder
women in the same way in Canadaor France or Germany or you know,
anywhere. It could be anywhere inthe world. Yeah, that's a scary

(42:54):
thought that really, I thought thatwas quite chilling, the fact that this
person could have then got on aplane, seemingly doing the normal job that
they do, moved to a newarea and had a fresh new set of
victims again, knowing that they wouldn'tbe very long before he'd be back out
of there again. So, Chara, actually, I was just thinking about

(43:14):
this, So, I mean,I mentioned earlier about it possibly not being
serviceman but might been a family member, and that got me thinking about about
Joseph DiAngelo, right, the GoldenState Killer, who was a son of
a US Army sergeant. And Iknow at one point that he was stationed

(43:37):
in West Germany and while there heI mean, he was abused by his
father and he actually witnessed his sisterbeing raped. So it got me thinking
about this. It's like, well, maybe it was a son of a
serviceman who you know, had hadbeen abused or you know, felt and

(44:00):
have used in Possibly this is away for him to kind of he's acting
out in a way to kind ofgain some sort of control over his life
or feel some sort of power.Because if you have an overbearing father,
you don't really have control over yourlife and you kind of feel like you're
being being held down and you don'thave you really don't have a whole lot.

(44:23):
So maybe it was a son andthis is just this way to kind
of feel something I don't know.Well, that's a really valid I mean,
that's a really valid point because ifyou say, like this kid must
maybe was likely late teens, maybeearly twenties, could have had an American
accent, could have been obviously fromAmerica. Station over here with family.

(44:46):
Dad is the serviceman, not theson, and that actually, yeah,
he's the one that's got the issueand the problem with this. I mean,
it would be very interesting to havea look and see who was stationed
at the base in this time,and which sort of company they were with,
and then where they went afterwards,and then to see that, say,

(45:06):
I don't know, we go withlike a company went to Germany to
see whether anything like this happened.We know that there are there were talks
of it online that there were somegirls that had been murdered in very very
similar situation to Jane that were foundoutside of the road in West Germany in
the fifties. So could it bethat one of the platoons or one of
the companies were sent from here tothere and that these things carried on and

(45:30):
then wherever they went from there.I mean, it would be a huge
task to do, but it wouldbe very interesting to get information like that,
which obviously we wouldn't be able toget, but it would be it
would be interesting to see who whichcompanies were based there at that time,
where they went, and I wouldn'tbe surprised if that was the case,

(45:50):
if that actually this was a serviceman'schild or you know, family members that
I mean, especially in the caseof Joseph DiAngelo, that makes a lot
of sense. So you I thinkthat's a really really valid point. If
you if we go and we lookat like serial killers throughout the seventies,
A lot of them in the seventieseighties, a lot of them were the

(46:14):
sons or daughters yea of US militaryservice. Yeah, and you know,
because you have you know a lotof these you know that their parents,
their dads had you know, foughtin World War Two. They might have
been fought fought in Korea. Alot of these men and women came back
with with PTSD, which was notknown nearly as well as it is now.

(46:39):
And so they had really traumatic childhoodsbecause they they have they have parents
who are struggling themselves and and alot of times they're taking out their struggles
on their children. So it,yeah, to me, it's very possible,

(47:00):
very I think is a really pointa son or sons. What's scary
though, if you think about it, though, is going back to the
witness who said they heard two twovoices mhmm, the thought that it it
was two people to like minded peoplethat that could have been doing this together

(47:21):
for whatever reason. So it isit is it two sons of servicemen who
are acting out and they're like,you know what, let's let's do something.
You know, let's let's let's let'sgo and let's you know, it's
I don't know if their their planwas to kill, but it's like,
let's go out and find some girls. And then it's yeah, it's funny

(47:45):
that you should mention that, becausesomething I didn't mention while we were talking
was that during the autopsy of Gene, the pathologist actually mentioned that he was
really surprised that she didn't have moreinjuries than she had. It was it
was discussed beween him and police thatshe didn't actually have any defense wounds on
her body other than the wounds ofstrangulation. So that then also kind of

(48:08):
goes in with the two person theoryin that what if somebody was holding her
hands or holding her and the otherperson was strangling her. Again, that's
quite worrying that it's two people,but that kind of then adds to there.
And then we also know that Brendaheard the two people arguing that night

(48:30):
at that time after she heard awoman's scream, So it's also kind of
slotting together, isn't it. It'sa crazy, crazy case, and of
course to this day it's still completelyunsolved. Well, we know that,
I mean it's possible that two peoplewere involved. I mean, it's happened
before. We've had cases where there'sbeen two people that have have been you

(48:54):
know, complicit, possibly have beencomplicit in the they the murders or whatnot.
So but it's it's so scary thatthat that to think that you have
two people that that are in thesame wavelength, that have the same mindset,
that kind of meet and they're like, Okay, well we you know,

(49:14):
let's do this together as as ateam or whatever it might be.
Yeah, I don't know, Ikind of feel I kind of feel like
I kind of feel like it mightmight have been a an older child of
a serviceman or woman. I thinkthat's I think it's very fad. Yeah,
I think that's a really valid point. I think that's yeah, definitely

(49:35):
worth looking into. Yeah yeah,well yeah so that, Yeah, it
was a really interesting case. Thisweek is one of the ones I think
that we could probably go down arabbit hole for hours and hours and hours
on this one, if not probablylonger. So yeah, so that's this
week's case. Well, thank youvery much for that, And I really
enjoyed this one. And with that, how about we line in the mood.

(50:00):
As we always do. We liketo do a little thing we call
dumb criminal. Hey, dumb dumbhead, use a real jackass, the
first one of twenty twenty four,So the very first dumb criminal. Let's
hear it. Come on, tellme who's stupid today. Look, Cherry,

(50:20):
some people out there they like todo things like skinny dip, and
that's fine, right, okay,and go and if you have a pool,
you can go skinny dip and you'renot bothering anyone. Or if you
have a little pond, maybe youwant to just you know, let that
cold water, you know, tickleyour balls a little bit. Whatever it
might be. It's fine. Butthere are certain places that you should not

(50:45):
skinny dip. Oh yeah, definitelyanybody or little creatures. Oh no,
you definitely don't want to do that. The other place you don't want to
do is you don't want to doit at a bath pro shop in Alabama.
Okay, so I know you guysdon't at a bas pro shop.
So bath pro shops here in theUnited States are these huge like fishing.

(51:08):
Yeah, so it's like a fishingwell, it's an outdoor shop, right,
fishing. They have hunting stuff.But they're known because these bath outdoor
shops they have these huge, likegiant aquariums and like waterfalls. Yeah.
Yeah, So a man decided,after crashing his car outside of a bath

(51:30):
pro shop in Alabama, that hewas going to strip down into his birthday
suit, get completely naked, andplunge into the giant aquarium inside of the
store, okay, in front ofevery naked Yes. So he was a
forty year old man. He dida cannonball leap into the aquarium and then
stood under a waterfall. Now hewould stood on the waterfall until police arrived,

(51:53):
when he would he would then leavethe water to yell at two officers.
Then he dove back into the aquarium, just back for offices, just
back for swim. He eventually climbedover the side of the quarium and fell
onto the concrete floor below. That'swhen police would apprehend him. So he
faces now several charges included including publiclewdness, the soorty conduct, and criminal

(52:16):
mischief. So they said that theman he was underneath the waterfall for about
five minutes before the police arrived.So I hope he had a good time
and he enjoyed his little skinny dipinside the bath prot God, what a
thing to do? Like what butwhy would you even think about that?
I don't know. I'm just gonnago in there and just go for a

(52:37):
swim naked. Well you know what, my year knew me that that's what
that's what he was thinking. Yeah, stopping, you're a year off.
Well, I'm off skinny to him? What a strange one one idiot.
If you've got a dumb criminal forus, we would love to hear it.
We would love to hear dumb criminals. You can send him through just
You're can to either email us.We didn't mind, so it's easy.

(52:59):
It's just Cherry at crimepedia podcast dotcom or Morgan at Crimeplia podcast dot com,
or you can send it over onlike Instagram or something like that.
Just send us over your dumb criminalsand we'll be happy to read them out
on the show. Brilliant. Well, we will be back next week.
Thank you for joining us, HappyNew Year to you, and thank you
for supporting our little podcast. We'llbe back next week with another episode from

(53:22):
Morgan next week, So for now, be nice and bye passsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss