June 27, 2025 • 36 mins
Included in tonights podcast are:- Paranormal Murders In The UK
The Witch Craft Pitchfork Murders
Look For Me At Midnight
The Whole Village Was Killed
Bella In The Wych Elm
Hammersmith Ghost Murder
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/deborah-hatswell-bbr-investigations-cryptids-paranormal-unexplained-events--2840337/support.
The Witch Craft Pitchfork Murders
Look For Me At Midnight
The Whole Village Was Killed
Bella In The Wych Elm
Hammersmith Ghost Murder
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/deborah-hatswell-bbr-investigations-cryptids-paranormal-unexplained-events--2840337/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Today I'm sharing the case of the pitch Park murders
killed on Valentine's Stay. In nineteen forty five, Charles Walton
came to a bloody end at a fair farm in
Lower Quinty, a Warwickshire village where he lived. The seventy
four year old farm laborer was known to be slightly
(00:50):
an unusual character, although he was well liked in the
village where he lived with his niece Edie. On February fourteenth,
nineteen forty five, he was trimming hedges on the farm
where he worked for a farm having walked to work
that morning carrying a pitch bark and a slash up,
and the slash up is used for cutting branches, he
(01:11):
will have been laying down hedging. Edith returned on from
work about four pm and was surprised to find her
uncle not at home. His habits were normally as regular
as clockwork, and so after a while she asked a neighbor,
Harry Beasley, if he would help search for him. Immediately
went to the fur and Alfred Potter, Walton's employer, joined
(01:35):
them as they walked a where Potter claimed to have
last seen Charles cutting edges sometime between twelve and twelve
thirty pm. Mister Potter gave at least three separate timestamps
for when he claimed that he'd seen Charles in his
(01:56):
shirts leaves working on the edge cutting. As he said,
he walked home from the Collige Arms pub. Before long
the trio came upon the body of Charles Walton. The
old man had been brutally murdered. He'd been beaten about
the head and faced with his own walking stick, and
there were injuries to his hands and arms where he
had tried to fend off those blows. And then his
(02:19):
throat had been slashed open with his own slash up
which had been buried into his neck with great force.
And finally, a pitch bark had been thrushed into his
neck so powerfully that he completely pinned his body to
the ground, as if to keep his spirit from rising.
(02:40):
A large cross was also carved into his chest, leading
villagers to suspect that Witchcraft was somehow involved in the
savage killing. His pocket watch was missing, and it was
found invariably fifteen years later in his home. Houses had
been unfastened and his slies were undone. His shirt, too
(03:04):
had been unfastened, and many people have claimed subsequently that
a cross had been cut into Charles's chest, perhaps the
source of the witchcraft theory. Despite his employer mister Potter's
claims to have seen him with his shirts leaves rolled up,
child was wearing a short sleeve shirt was found with
(03:24):
his shackyon. Whoever did the deed, was possessed of an
unnatural strength and violence, at least in those terrible fireal
moments of Child's life. Locals were so concerned by the
events that they sent the Scotland Yard and they sent
Inspector Robert Fabian me and Hill where Child's body was found.
(03:47):
As being the subject of strange tales for centuries was
reports of huge black dog stalking a supposedly haunted hill
which appeared from nowhere and no obvious owner was aroure.
In fact, the police inspector saw one of these dogs
near the murdercy before hearing about the legends. He thought
(04:09):
it must be long to a small boy who had
appeared soon afterwards, but as soon as he Spector Fabian
mentioned the dog, the boy ran in terror. In eighteen
eighty five, another boy had seen the black dog and
three consecutive nights before a death in his family, and
that dog was a sort of black shook. On the
(04:32):
final occasion, the dog was accompanied by the apparition of
a headless woman. That boy's name was Charles Walton Charles,
who was found in the fields all those years later.
A few nights after his body was found, the body
(04:52):
of a black dog was found hanging from a tree
close to his home, and it was said by the
villages that Charles had a strange way with animals, and
that he could calm the fastest of dogs, and birds
would fly and land on to his hand. The mystery
(05:13):
has never been sold. Nobody knows who killed George or
who left him there in that way, and somebody does,
and that somebody probably still has relatives in the area.
Today the normal world will have heard of the screaming
Woods of Pluckley, also known as deer in Woods now.
(05:34):
It is said on Halloween night in nineteen forty eight,
locals reported strange lights, sunweyed sounds that were seen and
heard coming from the surrounding woodland. The next morning, a
dog walker who lived locally discovered the bodies of over
twenty people, including several children, lying scattered in piles amongst
(05:58):
the leaf litter. Sadly, they were identified as villagers from
the nearby Mountman's Hill area. Their bodies showed no visible
wounds signs of the struggle, and an autopsy failed to
determine a clear cause of death, which led to the
police labeling the deaths as caused by carbon monoxide poisoning
(06:19):
and closing the investigation, despite the usual symptoms of CMP
not being there on the bodies. In nineteen sixty four,
private investigator Robert Collins was determined to solve the mystery
of the woods. Allegedly, it said a religious cult in
Smarsden could have been responsible for the Halloween massacre. Robert
(06:44):
conducted extensive witness interviews and might have been onto something. Unfortunately,
he died in a tragic car accident in nineteen sixty five.
Was his death coincidence or another murder? Now? In nineteen
ninety eight, fifty years later, on the anniversary of the
(07:05):
mass death, villagers saw an odd spider shaped light covering
over the woods and feared the worst. That night, four
college students who camped in the woods disappeared and we're
never seen again. Oddler. The police investigation was abandoned three
(07:27):
weeks later. I know a couple of cryptid investigators that
have had their own experience in the strange Pullock cly Woods.
Have you have you ever been there? Have you ever
heard of the mystery? And if you have been there
and seen something, I'd love to getting touch and let
(07:47):
me know or murder I'm sharing next. He's one written
by the world of famous psychic researcher Tom Sleemy, which
from my neck of the woods, and it's called Look
for Me at Midnight Now. Tom is very well known
here in the Northwest of England and all across the UK.
He has a number of books that I would urge
you to check out and if you like my content,
(08:09):
you'll absolutely love Tom's Now. In this case, Tom tells
the Hanky Tale of the Axe Man. Now. It all
started in January nineteen seventy seven and two bachelors, twenty
three year old John Wildman, a security guard from Liverpool,
and Nigel Selby, a twenty seven year old librarian from
(08:30):
Birkenhead and the former boyfriend of John's sister Joanne. They
decided to move in together and went to look for
a decent Patchel flat. Both young men were still living
at home and they felt that they's done a better
chance with the ladies if they had their own pad.
After much searching, Nigel spotted a luxurious low rent furnished
(08:54):
at it flat and it was advertising their local rag.
The flat was in a rather goth thick looking house
on Park Road West, right on top of Birkenhead Park. Now.
The two lads looked at the flat and agreed that
although it was a bit glorified and it was just
more of an attic, twenty five pounds a week was reasonable.
(09:16):
We paid the deposit and moved him. John was a
keep fit enthusiast and looked forward to jogging around the
nearby park, and Nigel claimed the little side room off
the open plan lounge and kitchen. As he stood where
he could line the walls with bookshelves. The only mind
of great John Wildman had was some of the old
(09:36):
furniture the landlord had left behind, a rickety dining chair,
a huge ornamentally framed mirror which measured six feet in
height and three feet in width. John had mistaken the
mirror for a doorway at first, as it was mounted
flush against the wall. Nigel liked it. John said it
(09:58):
was too big and great difficulty. He removed it from
the wall. I found had a loose mahogany panel on
its reverse. Took it off and saw a green tinted
mirror of the same dimensions as the one on either side,
and upon looking at it, there were some faint, greasy
(10:19):
looking words, possibly written in lipstick in some foreign language.
Now Nigel was an avid reader of Voltaire and spoke
French fluently, so he knew immediately what the mirrors scrawled
message was. It said, looked for me at midnight now.
(10:39):
Nigel later asked an own female resident downstairs if the
previous occupier of the flat had been French, and he
was told that it had been an old eccentric American
that came from New Orleans named Richard Montford. He died
nearly seven years back, and the flat had been empty
all since. Around this time, John Warner's grandfather passed away
(11:04):
over in Liverpool and the old man left John one
thousand pounding his will tidy sun Back then, John said
he'd use some of the money to get the flag decorated.
He also, would you know, install a waterbed and build
a cocktail bar in the kitchen. John and Nigel and
went to the nearest pub and met a couple of
very attractive ladies in their early twenties named Judy and Holly.
(11:27):
As the scene plays out, I can guarantee it would
have included a curly perm, some high kerta and some
fire pants with his sharpest greasy Nan could iron now.
The girls said they were our students, and pretty soon
Holly made it clear that she liked John, and Judy
kind of lashed onto Nigel and the four of them
sat in a corner chatting and drinking the evening away.
(11:50):
By eleven forty pm, Nigel was discussing his love for
abstract art with Judy, while Holly embraced a drunken John
as they slowly danced Leo Sayers When I Need You
on the jukebox. The lawndlads said there was a locking,
and the girl said they were just going to go
and powder their noses. But they were gone for quite
some time. I concerned, John asked the bar maybe if
(12:12):
she'd go into the toilets if the girls were there.
The toilet was found to be empty. The barman said
he'd never seen the two girls before, or them in
the pub. Or even in the toilets. Then did John
delve into his Geene pockets and discovered that he couldn't
find the keys to the flat, and Nigel discovered that
(12:33):
his set of keys was also missing. When we were dancing,
did those girls no, surely not yet, he said, we've
probably just been robbed. Those girls have had our keys off,
you know. So the two men staggered out of the pub,
both in a livid estate, absolutely through me. That's you
(12:54):
talking about all that money you've got off your uncle,
yoll Nigel, that's what's done it. You turned it in
to victims. They found Judy out called on the floor
of the flat with a gash to her forehead, and
when she came to, she said, a weird looking man
in a hood with two eye holes in a creepy,
smiling slit of a mouth. They'd come out of the
(13:16):
long mirror. He had a cook where his right hand
should have been, and he'd hit her with it. Judy's
accomplice ran into the arms of two policemen on the beat.
In his hysterical state, she said a hooded man brandishing
an ax had tried to kill her, and she too
mentioned the cook he had come with for a right hand.
(13:37):
Ali said she thought the monster had killed a friend
when it had come out of the mirror. The police
thought Ollie had been drinking at first, but then they
wondered if some prankster was behind his weird attack the girls.
The police discovered at a criminal record and they work
on artists, and they were going to robe the boys
that night, and they were charged, and John and Nigel
(13:59):
later moved the flat. When that long mirror started shaking
violently one night, what was haunting it now? Tom said,
I trace the owner of that mirror to a certain
quarter in New Orleans, and I have a sneaking suspicion
there might have been one of the occultists who back
(14:19):
in nineteen eighteen hunted up the demon known as the
Axe Man, a mysterious murderer who killed six people and
injured so many more. And I was vanished into the
night despite a massive police presence. And what happened to
that mirror? And where is it now? Because nobody seems
(14:42):
to know. No UK murder mystery theories would be complete
without the almost eighty year old case of Beller in
the Witch Owl. The discovery of skeleton remains in the
tree were found during April of nineteen forty three my
full local boys who went bird nested in Hagleywood, which
is located just outside of Stourbridge and must One of
(15:06):
the boys then made a very shocking discovery. Robert Hall
of Wolves Coach Stourbridge, told the Coroner in jury. At
midday on Sunday, April the eighteenth, he and three other
lads went bird nesting in the wood. He left the others,
walked off alone and went to the stump of an
old elm tree. Looking in, he saw, to his horror
(15:30):
the top of the skull. He called his friends across
the sea and one of them raped the skull out
of the tree with a stick, and in panic they
put it back again and ran home. When they got home,
one of them mentioned it to the father, who then
telephoned the police. Professor J. M. Webster, who was director
of the West Midlands Forensic Scigns Laboratory, was called to
(15:53):
the scene. The tree trunk was opened out and he
was able to reconstruct the skeleton. He found no evidence
of violence upon any of the bones. However, he did
find part of the garment stuffed deep into the cavity
of the mouth, which might have been the cause of death.
He did not imagine anyone getting into that tree voluntari
(16:16):
whilst the skeleton had been there for at least eighteen months.
With the murder suspected, the police were keen to establish
the identity of the female victim as well as her killer.
A probable description the victim was published by the Hartley
pil Northern Daily Male in the twenty fourth of April
(16:36):
nineteen forty three. The victim's age is estimated has been
between twenty five and farter, most probably around thirty five.
She was five foot in height, with light brown hair,
and she was dressed in a dark blue a mustard
colored striped cardigan and a mustard colored skirt, blue crapes,
(16:57):
old shoes size five and a half. All the garments
were as described as being of poor quality. I know
wedding ring found among the bones was of rolled gold,
probably worth about two and six At the time, despite
hundreds of leads being followed by police and her identity
was not established, the inquest returned the verdicts of murder
(17:20):
by some person or personal unknown, and then in nineteen
forty four the case took an even more perplexing twist
chalked on the wall of an empty premises on Upper
Dean Street, Birmingham, with the words who put Bella down?
The witch Elm, Hagleywood. The Sunday Mirror reports that another
message was chalked previously, and that said who put lou
(17:43):
Bello down the witch Elm? At Hayden Hill Road, Old Hill,
but it was not connected to the case until the
second piece of writing appeared. According to the Evening Dispatch
on the thirtieth of March forty four, the writing was
too high on the wall, have been done by children?
Are boys and the police are inclined to the view
(18:04):
that it is the work of someone coming into the
city early in the morning with farm produce, possibly who
wrote her, But like the victim and a murderer, the
identity of the writer's offer was never uncovered. In a
series of articles in the Birmingham Daily Post in nineteen
sixty eight, Donald mccorbyck takes an extensive look at who
(18:26):
Bella might have been and what might have happened to her.
It was theorized that she may have been a brass
a lady of the night, a scarlet woman, lord by
car to the woods, where she's then met her death.
According to McCormick, the police thought it was more probable
that she was a refugee from the Blitz, for many
(18:46):
people fled from Birmingham when the German air raids came,
and some had been known to shelter in Hagleywood. McCormick
also draws the link to witchcraft because Hagleywood has a
reputation in the horn of witches and always had, and
more compellingly, there is an ancient rite here in the
UK that says that the spirit of a dead witch
(19:08):
could be imprisoned in the hollow of a tree and
then she can't come back, and you know, recab it
anymore in the Villagers. Mister McCormick, however, does not put
much cregence to the motive of witchcraft. He cites a
letter received by the Wolverhampton newspaper in nineteen fifty three
which pro faians the affair is closed and involves no witches,
(19:29):
no black magic, and no moonlit rites. The writer claims
that the victim was a Dutch woman who arrived illegally
in England in nineteen forty one, and that her killer
died of madness. A year later after she was killed,
McCormick explores the theory that Bella was in fact the
Dutch girlfriend of a German intelligence recruiter named Laher, who
(19:53):
had had a lover in Kidderminster before the war and
was fluent in English. German intelligen records tell of an
agent code named Clara who was dropped into the area
between Birmingham and Kidderminster between March and April of nineteen
forty one. There is nothing to say that she was
dropped in Hagleywood, but you know she never again made
(20:18):
contact with the intelligence agency. So who put Bella in
the witch elm? Almost eighty years on now, you know?
And that shocking discovery by those poor boys in the wood.
It seems we're no closer to finding the truth. However,
the newspaper archive does give us a fascinating glimpse into
some of the series and the legends that have trickled
(20:40):
down through the decades of the mysterious Lady of Hagley Wood.
One thing of interest that stood out to me most
You know, everyone has a family named don't man. Let
you guys know me as Debrah hatswell. But when I
was my family don't for my family, I'm w Crossley,
so most of my life my name is in Wi Loom.
(21:01):
So I wanted to know what the origins of the
name Lou Bello was. Ah, what its meaning is. It
seems it is of Italian origin and it means battles
the famous fairy maiden, which I found absolutely fascinating. Now
these days, you know that case would have been solved
really easily using modern forensics and DNA testing. We probably
(21:25):
would know who Bella was. Now we would do genetic DNA.
We would go into Ances Street and try and find
her father or her mother and work back from there.
Somebody back in those days, that cardigan was probably hand
knitted and somebody would know or be able to know
the pattern, because another thing about the UK and Europe
(21:47):
is that a lot of places have their own knitting
pattern and it's a way of knowing where you're from,
especially in places like the Highlands or you know, island.
My grandfather already only ever wore the same kind of
knit jumper. It's a strange thing back in the day, obviously,
isn't it. But yeah, it's a fascinating case in it.
Who put Lou beller in the witch and somebody out
(22:07):
there knows. And the strange thing is she has descendants,
no doubt from maybe brothers or sisters, as does the murderer,
and maybe walking around out there not knowing a link
to the strange case. A Smith ghost murder case of
eighteen oh four set a legal precedent in the UK
(22:28):
regarding self defense, meaning that someone could be held liable
for their actions even if they were the consequences of
a mistaken belief. So towards the end of eighteen oh three,
many people claim to have been seen or even being
attacked by a ghost in the Hammersmith area of London.
The ghost believed by locals to be the spirit of
(22:50):
a man who took his own life. And January the third,
eighteen oh four, a twenty nine year old excise officer
named Francis Smith, a member of one of the Armed
Guard patrols set up in Awaker reports, shot and killed
a bricklayer, Thomas Millwood, mistaking the white clothes of Wilmore's
(23:11):
trade for the shroud of a ghostly apparition. Smith was
found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, later commuted
to one year's hard labor the difference. Now, the issues
surrounding the case were not settled for one hundred and
eighty years, until the Court of Appeal made a decision
in nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the local reports
(23:34):
of the ghost for some context on the murder. Now.
Local people said that the ghost was that of a
man who had died by his own hand the previous
year and had been buried in Hammersmith Churchyard. The contemporary
belief was that people who took their own lives should
not be buried in consecrated ground, as the soul's would
not then be at rest. The apparition was described as
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being a very tall man dressed all in white, but
also said to wear a calf skinned garment with horns
and large eyeglasses at other times, so the witness reports
a very very different anor. Stories about the ghosts soon
began to circulate. Two women, one elderly and one pregnant,
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were reported to have been seized by the ghost on
separate occasions while walking near the churchyard. They were apparently
so frightened that they both died from shock a few
days afterwards. A brewer's servant, almost groom, later testified that
while walking through the church with the companion one night,
close to nine pm, something rose from behind a tombstone
(24:41):
and seized him by the throat. Hearing the scuffle, his
companion turned around, at which the ghost gave me a
twist around and I saw nothing. I gave it a
bit of a push, he said. I hit it with
my fist. I felt something soft, like a great coat.
On the twenty ninth of December, Wlliam Girdler, a night watchman,
saw the ghost while near beaver Lane and gave chase.
(25:05):
The apparition threw off its shroud and managed to escape.
In London, not having an organized police force at the time,
many people set up kind of like a citizen's party,
armed patrols in the hope of apprehending the ghost at
the corner of Beaver Lane. While making his rounds at
ten thirty pm and third of eighteen o four, Gerda
(25:28):
met one of the armed citizens who was also patrolling
the area, and that was the twenty nine year old
Francis Smith. Smith was armed with a shotgun. Smith told
Girdley he was going to look for the ghost, so
they'd set up together at eleven pm at night, just
after eleven, Smith encountered Thomas Millwood, a brick layer who
(25:49):
was wearing what at the time was normal for his
trade or white clothing. He had linen trousers which were
white and washed and very clean, a waistcoat of white
flown apparently knew and very white, and an apron which
he wore around him. Mister Millwood had been heading home
from a visit to his parents and sister, who lived
(26:09):
in Black Lion Lane. According to his sister Anne, the
brick layer left and immediately afterwards she heard mister Smith
challenge him, saying, damn you, who are you? What are you?
Damn you? I'll shoot you, after which Smith shot him
in the left lower jar and killed him Outright after
(26:32):
hearing the short, Girdler and Smith's neighbor, one John Locke,
together with George Stowe, met Smith, who appeared very much
agitated upon seeing Millwood's body, and they advised Smith to
return to his home. Meanwhile, I Constable arrived at the
scene and tuck Smith into custody. Millwood's corpse was carried
to an inn where a surgeon mister Fowler, examined the
(26:54):
body on the six of John and pronounced death to
be the result of a gunshot wound on the left
side of the lower jaw. His small shot about the
size number four, and that I penetrated the vertebrae of
the neck and went into the spinal marrow. Smith was
trying for wilful murder now. The deceased wife, missus Fulbrook,
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stated that she had warned him to cover his white
clothing with a greatcoat, as he'd already been mistaken for
the ghost on a previous occasion. On the Saturday evening,
she said, him and I were at home for her
live with me. He said he had frightened two ladies
and a gentleman who were coming along the terrace in
the carriage. For that. The man said he dared to say,
(27:38):
there goes that ghost. That he said he was no
more of a ghost than he was, and he asked him,
using a bad word, did he want to punch on
the head. I begged him to change his dress. She said,
there's a piece of work about the ghosts, and your
clothes look white, prey. Put on your greatcoat tonight and
that may not run into any day. Millwood's sister testified
(28:03):
that although Smith had called on her brother to stop
or he would shoot. He fired the gun immediately. Despite
a number of declarations of Smith's food character. The chief Judge,
Large Chief Baron, Archibald McDonald advised the jury that malice
was not required for murder, merely the intent to kill.
All killing whatever amounts to murder unless justified by the law,
(28:26):
or in self defense in cases of some involuntary acts
or some sufficiently violent provocation or lauri is just so
long winded in it. Basically, after considering for an hour,
the jury returned the verdict of manslaughter. McDonald informed the
jury that the court could not receive such a verdict
and that they must either find Smith guilty of murder
(28:50):
or acquitting. The jury, then returning the verdict of guilty
and after passing the customary sentence of death, MacDonald said
that he intended to report the case to the King,
who had the power to commute the sentence. The initial
sentencing of hanging, drawing, and quartering was commuted to a
year tired labor. I bet it was just about that
(29:12):
now the used publicity to give in to the case
persuaded the true culprit, the ghost, to come forward. John Graham,
an elderly shoemaker, had been pretending to be a ghost
by using a white sheet to frighten his appentice as
he walked home to pay him back, after the apprentice
had been scaring Graham's children in ghost stories so much
(29:35):
that they wouldn't sleep. Now there's no record of Graham
ever being punished. What an absolute debacle. They seems to
have been beset by a series of calamities. I would
you imagine what's happened is one person has seen this
Graham dressed up as a ghost, and you know it's gone,
and then the next thing, it's got horns and it's fairy,
(29:55):
and you know it's got eyes like spectacles, and that's
kind of what happens in it. Poor man got shot
for nothing, just walking on from work one day after
he'd bince visit his mum and dad. And it took
them one hundred and eighty years to change the law,
which is just mind boggling, isn't it. Now? I couldn't
speak about Hammersmith without mentioning the unsolved mystery of a
(30:17):
series of gruesome murders that's kept London in the dark
for over sixty years. Now. These happened one hundred and
fifty years after The Ghosts was shot. Between nineteen sixty
four and sixty five, a number of female brasses were
brutally killed, and despite intense media interest and one of
the biggest man unts in Scotland yard history, that killer
(30:40):
has never been caught. Now. The mystery serial killer was
dubbed Jack the strip Off due to the way in
which the victims were found undressed in or near the
River Thames. The string of murders, which was originally known
as the Hammersmith Nude murders. They had received significant attention
over the years, with many theories being put forward. At
(31:04):
least six women are officially listed as victims of Jack
the Stripper, but it is thought it could be up
to eight. To this day, no one knows exactly who
the murderer was or how many victims there were. Elizabeth
Fig twenty one and Gwinney Threes twenty two, two women
(31:27):
thought to be the early victims of the killer. Elizabeth
was found out on June seventeenth, fifty nine, five years
before the Jack the Shiper murders started. Her body was
found near the River Thames in Chiswick, and many have
noted the considerable similarities to the latter murders, such as
(31:47):
the location, the method of death being strangulation. Welsh born
Gwyneth was found dead in a rubbish tip four years
later on November eighth, ninety sixty three. Once again, investigators
thought her death may have been an early murder of
Jack The's stripperff due to a body being found near
the River Thames, and she was also strangled. Several other
(32:10):
teeth were also missing when a body was discovered. The
first official victim of the strip off is start to
be Hannah Tailford when she was thirty years old and
had two children. There were many physical similarities between her
and the two earlier possible victims. She was short and
she was slim. Her body was found by the River
(32:31):
Thames in February sixty four. She'd been strangled, several of
her teeth are missing, and her underwear had been stuffed
into her mouth, just like Bella. At first, the police
did not seem to take the case too seriously because
these were working girls, you know, instead putting her death
down to a possible misadventure kind of occupational hazard, as
(32:53):
they say. As little as two months later on in
the April, on that same stretch of river, the body
of twenty five year old pregnant woman Irene Lockeup was found.
She was also petite and she was from Nottinghamshire, and
she was found naked based down in the river. Police
quickly worked out that she'd also been strangled. With the
(33:17):
discovery of another strangled woman, the police began to suspect
they had a serial killer on the loose. Another possible
victim was discovered just weeks later, when twenty two year
old Helen Bartholomeer was found dumped in an alley in Brentford.
Like the other victims, Helen was missing a front teeth,
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which came to be a recognizable trait of the killer.
Hellen's death gave investigators their first piece of solid evidence
when they found flex of paint used in calm manufacturing Honor.
They felt the paint likely came from the killer's workplace,
and therefore focused on nearby businesses. The next victim was
thirty year old Mary Fleming, whose body was similarly discovered
(34:01):
with paint spots on it, but without the advanced technology
we have now, you know, we're unable to use that forensically.
Back then, the front teeth were missing and she had
been strangled and her body was found on clothed Witnesses
also recalled here in a car reversing down the street
shortly before the body was discovered. The body of twenty
(34:23):
one year old Margaret McGowan, who also went by the
name Francis Brown, was found in Kensington in November of
sixty four. She was last seen allied by her friend
fellow brass Kim Taylor, a month before her body was found.
The Scottish woman was a lady of the night like
the other victims, and had worked at the higher end
of the trade with clients including businessmen and politicians. She
(34:46):
testified actually with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice David at
Stephen Wall's trial in the midst of the infamous Perfumo scandal.
Margaret's spend was reportedly with her when the man believed
to be a killer hit her up, meaning she is
able to provide police with a description of the man's car,
thought either to be a Ford Zephyr or a Zodiac.
(35:08):
Now it's believed that a local boxer was responsible for
the crimes, or like most serial killers, he probably would
have started in his early teens and even younger because
they don't just instantly start with murder. It's kind of
an escalation of events that leads to that. When I
hope you've enjoyed what I've brought you tonight. And they
(35:28):
may not be from the case files of BBR, but
there are things that I'm interested in and I thought
that you'd be interested in them too. So if you
like content like this, please subscribe or if it's a
rash are it really helps to grow our channel. I
will be back next week with some more amazing stories
from the BBR case files. Good Night everyone,
Today I'm sharing the case of the pitch Park murders
killed on Valentine's Stay. In nineteen forty five, Charles Walton
came to a bloody end at a fair farm in
Lower Quinty, a Warwickshire village where he lived. The seventy
four year old farm laborer was known to be slightly
(00:50):
an unusual character, although he was well liked in the
village where he lived with his niece Edie. On February fourteenth,
nineteen forty five, he was trimming hedges on the farm
where he worked for a farm having walked to work
that morning carrying a pitch bark and a slash up,
and the slash up is used for cutting branches, he
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will have been laying down hedging. Edith returned on from
work about four pm and was surprised to find her
uncle not at home. His habits were normally as regular
as clockwork, and so after a while she asked a neighbor,
Harry Beasley, if he would help search for him. Immediately
went to the fur and Alfred Potter, Walton's employer, joined
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them as they walked a where Potter claimed to have
last seen Charles cutting edges sometime between twelve and twelve
thirty pm. Mister Potter gave at least three separate timestamps
for when he claimed that he'd seen Charles in his
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shirts leaves working on the edge cutting. As he said,
he walked home from the Collige Arms pub. Before long
the trio came upon the body of Charles Walton. The
old man had been brutally murdered. He'd been beaten about
the head and faced with his own walking stick, and
there were injuries to his hands and arms where he
had tried to fend off those blows. And then his
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throat had been slashed open with his own slash up
which had been buried into his neck with great force.
And finally, a pitch bark had been thrushed into his
neck so powerfully that he completely pinned his body to
the ground, as if to keep his spirit from rising.
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A large cross was also carved into his chest, leading
villagers to suspect that Witchcraft was somehow involved in the
savage killing. His pocket watch was missing, and it was
found invariably fifteen years later in his home. Houses had
been unfastened and his slies were undone. His shirt, too
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had been unfastened, and many people have claimed subsequently that
a cross had been cut into Charles's chest, perhaps the
source of the witchcraft theory. Despite his employer mister Potter's
claims to have seen him with his shirts leaves rolled up,
child was wearing a short sleeve shirt was found with
(03:24):
his shackyon. Whoever did the deed, was possessed of an
unnatural strength and violence, at least in those terrible fireal
moments of Child's life. Locals were so concerned by the
events that they sent the Scotland Yard and they sent
Inspector Robert Fabian me and Hill where Child's body was found.
(03:47):
As being the subject of strange tales for centuries was
reports of huge black dog stalking a supposedly haunted hill
which appeared from nowhere and no obvious owner was aroure.
In fact, the police inspector saw one of these dogs
near the murdercy before hearing about the legends. He thought
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it must be long to a small boy who had
appeared soon afterwards, but as soon as he Spector Fabian
mentioned the dog, the boy ran in terror. In eighteen
eighty five, another boy had seen the black dog and
three consecutive nights before a death in his family, and
that dog was a sort of black shook. On the
(04:32):
final occasion, the dog was accompanied by the apparition of
a headless woman. That boy's name was Charles Walton Charles,
who was found in the fields all those years later.
A few nights after his body was found, the body
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of a black dog was found hanging from a tree
close to his home, and it was said by the
villages that Charles had a strange way with animals, and
that he could calm the fastest of dogs, and birds
would fly and land on to his hand. The mystery
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has never been sold. Nobody knows who killed George or
who left him there in that way, and somebody does,
and that somebody probably still has relatives in the area.
Today the normal world will have heard of the screaming
Woods of Pluckley, also known as deer in Woods now.
(05:34):
It is said on Halloween night in nineteen forty eight,
locals reported strange lights, sunweyed sounds that were seen and
heard coming from the surrounding woodland. The next morning, a
dog walker who lived locally discovered the bodies of over
twenty people, including several children, lying scattered in piles amongst
(05:58):
the leaf litter. Sadly, they were identified as villagers from
the nearby Mountman's Hill area. Their bodies showed no visible
wounds signs of the struggle, and an autopsy failed to
determine a clear cause of death, which led to the
police labeling the deaths as caused by carbon monoxide poisoning
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and closing the investigation, despite the usual symptoms of CMP
not being there on the bodies. In nineteen sixty four,
private investigator Robert Collins was determined to solve the mystery
of the woods. Allegedly, it said a religious cult in
Smarsden could have been responsible for the Halloween massacre. Robert
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conducted extensive witness interviews and might have been onto something. Unfortunately,
he died in a tragic car accident in nineteen sixty five.
Was his death coincidence or another murder? Now? In nineteen
ninety eight, fifty years later, on the anniversary of the
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mass death, villagers saw an odd spider shaped light covering
over the woods and feared the worst. That night, four
college students who camped in the woods disappeared and we're
never seen again. Oddler. The police investigation was abandoned three
(07:27):
weeks later. I know a couple of cryptid investigators that
have had their own experience in the strange Pullock cly Woods.
Have you have you ever been there? Have you ever
heard of the mystery? And if you have been there
and seen something, I'd love to getting touch and let
(07:47):
me know or murder I'm sharing next. He's one written
by the world of famous psychic researcher Tom Sleemy, which
from my neck of the woods, and it's called Look
for Me at Midnight Now. Tom is very well known
here in the Northwest of England and all across the UK.
He has a number of books that I would urge
you to check out and if you like my content,
(08:09):
you'll absolutely love Tom's Now. In this case, Tom tells
the Hanky Tale of the Axe Man. Now. It all
started in January nineteen seventy seven and two bachelors, twenty
three year old John Wildman, a security guard from Liverpool,
and Nigel Selby, a twenty seven year old librarian from
(08:30):
Birkenhead and the former boyfriend of John's sister Joanne. They
decided to move in together and went to look for
a decent Patchel flat. Both young men were still living
at home and they felt that they's done a better
chance with the ladies if they had their own pad.
After much searching, Nigel spotted a luxurious low rent furnished
(08:54):
at it flat and it was advertising their local rag.
The flat was in a rather goth thick looking house
on Park Road West, right on top of Birkenhead Park. Now.
The two lads looked at the flat and agreed that
although it was a bit glorified and it was just
more of an attic, twenty five pounds a week was reasonable.
(09:16):
We paid the deposit and moved him. John was a
keep fit enthusiast and looked forward to jogging around the
nearby park, and Nigel claimed the little side room off
the open plan lounge and kitchen. As he stood where
he could line the walls with bookshelves. The only mind
of great John Wildman had was some of the old
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furniture the landlord had left behind, a rickety dining chair,
a huge ornamentally framed mirror which measured six feet in
height and three feet in width. John had mistaken the
mirror for a doorway at first, as it was mounted
flush against the wall. Nigel liked it. John said it
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was too big and great difficulty. He removed it from
the wall. I found had a loose mahogany panel on
its reverse. Took it off and saw a green tinted
mirror of the same dimensions as the one on either side,
and upon looking at it, there were some faint, greasy
(10:19):
looking words, possibly written in lipstick in some foreign language.
Now Nigel was an avid reader of Voltaire and spoke
French fluently, so he knew immediately what the mirrors scrawled
message was. It said, looked for me at midnight now.
(10:39):
Nigel later asked an own female resident downstairs if the
previous occupier of the flat had been French, and he
was told that it had been an old eccentric American
that came from New Orleans named Richard Montford. He died
nearly seven years back, and the flat had been empty
all since. Around this time, John Warner's grandfather passed away
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over in Liverpool and the old man left John one
thousand pounding his will tidy sun Back then, John said
he'd use some of the money to get the flag decorated.
He also, would you know, install a waterbed and build
a cocktail bar in the kitchen. John and Nigel and
went to the nearest pub and met a couple of
very attractive ladies in their early twenties named Judy and Holly.
(11:27):
As the scene plays out, I can guarantee it would
have included a curly perm, some high kerta and some
fire pants with his sharpest greasy Nan could iron now.
The girls said they were our students, and pretty soon
Holly made it clear that she liked John, and Judy
kind of lashed onto Nigel and the four of them
sat in a corner chatting and drinking the evening away.
(11:50):
By eleven forty pm, Nigel was discussing his love for
abstract art with Judy, while Holly embraced a drunken John
as they slowly danced Leo Sayers When I Need You
on the jukebox. The lawndlads said there was a locking,
and the girl said they were just going to go
and powder their noses. But they were gone for quite
some time. I concerned, John asked the bar maybe if
(12:12):
she'd go into the toilets if the girls were there.
The toilet was found to be empty. The barman said
he'd never seen the two girls before, or them in
the pub. Or even in the toilets. Then did John
delve into his Geene pockets and discovered that he couldn't
find the keys to the flat, and Nigel discovered that
(12:33):
his set of keys was also missing. When we were dancing,
did those girls no, surely not yet, he said, we've
probably just been robbed. Those girls have had our keys off,
you know. So the two men staggered out of the pub,
both in a livid estate, absolutely through me. That's you
(12:54):
talking about all that money you've got off your uncle,
yoll Nigel, that's what's done it. You turned it in
to victims. They found Judy out called on the floor
of the flat with a gash to her forehead, and
when she came to, she said, a weird looking man
in a hood with two eye holes in a creepy,
smiling slit of a mouth. They'd come out of the
(13:16):
long mirror. He had a cook where his right hand
should have been, and he'd hit her with it. Judy's
accomplice ran into the arms of two policemen on the beat.
In his hysterical state, she said a hooded man brandishing
an ax had tried to kill her, and she too
mentioned the cook he had come with for a right hand.
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Ali said she thought the monster had killed a friend
when it had come out of the mirror. The police
thought Ollie had been drinking at first, but then they
wondered if some prankster was behind his weird attack the girls.
The police discovered at a criminal record and they work
on artists, and they were going to robe the boys
that night, and they were charged, and John and Nigel
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later moved the flat. When that long mirror started shaking
violently one night, what was haunting it now? Tom said,
I trace the owner of that mirror to a certain
quarter in New Orleans, and I have a sneaking suspicion
there might have been one of the occultists who back
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in nineteen eighteen hunted up the demon known as the
Axe Man, a mysterious murderer who killed six people and
injured so many more. And I was vanished into the
night despite a massive police presence. And what happened to
that mirror? And where is it now? Because nobody seems
(14:42):
to know. No UK murder mystery theories would be complete
without the almost eighty year old case of Beller in
the Witch Owl. The discovery of skeleton remains in the
tree were found during April of nineteen forty three my
full local boys who went bird nested in Hagleywood, which
is located just outside of Stourbridge and must One of
(15:06):
the boys then made a very shocking discovery. Robert Hall
of Wolves Coach Stourbridge, told the Coroner in jury. At
midday on Sunday, April the eighteenth, he and three other
lads went bird nesting in the wood. He left the others,
walked off alone and went to the stump of an
old elm tree. Looking in, he saw, to his horror
(15:30):
the top of the skull. He called his friends across
the sea and one of them raped the skull out
of the tree with a stick, and in panic they
put it back again and ran home. When they got home,
one of them mentioned it to the father, who then
telephoned the police. Professor J. M. Webster, who was director
of the West Midlands Forensic Scigns Laboratory, was called to
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the scene. The tree trunk was opened out and he
was able to reconstruct the skeleton. He found no evidence
of violence upon any of the bones. However, he did
find part of the garment stuffed deep into the cavity
of the mouth, which might have been the cause of death.
He did not imagine anyone getting into that tree voluntari
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whilst the skeleton had been there for at least eighteen months.
With the murder suspected, the police were keen to establish
the identity of the female victim as well as her killer.
A probable description the victim was published by the Hartley
pil Northern Daily Male in the twenty fourth of April
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nineteen forty three. The victim's age is estimated has been
between twenty five and farter, most probably around thirty five.
She was five foot in height, with light brown hair,
and she was dressed in a dark blue a mustard
colored striped cardigan and a mustard colored skirt, blue crapes,
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old shoes size five and a half. All the garments
were as described as being of poor quality. I know
wedding ring found among the bones was of rolled gold,
probably worth about two and six At the time, despite
hundreds of leads being followed by police and her identity
was not established, the inquest returned the verdicts of murder
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by some person or personal unknown, and then in nineteen
forty four the case took an even more perplexing twist
chalked on the wall of an empty premises on Upper
Dean Street, Birmingham, with the words who put Bella down?
The witch Elm, Hagleywood. The Sunday Mirror reports that another
message was chalked previously, and that said who put lou
(17:43):
Bello down the witch Elm? At Hayden Hill Road, Old Hill,
but it was not connected to the case until the
second piece of writing appeared. According to the Evening Dispatch
on the thirtieth of March forty four, the writing was
too high on the wall, have been done by children?
Are boys and the police are inclined to the view
(18:04):
that it is the work of someone coming into the
city early in the morning with farm produce, possibly who
wrote her, But like the victim and a murderer, the
identity of the writer's offer was never uncovered. In a
series of articles in the Birmingham Daily Post in nineteen
sixty eight, Donald mccorbyck takes an extensive look at who
(18:26):
Bella might have been and what might have happened to her.
It was theorized that she may have been a brass
a lady of the night, a scarlet woman, lord by
car to the woods, where she's then met her death.
According to McCormick, the police thought it was more probable
that she was a refugee from the Blitz, for many
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people fled from Birmingham when the German air raids came,
and some had been known to shelter in Hagleywood. McCormick
also draws the link to witchcraft because Hagleywood has a
reputation in the horn of witches and always had, and
more compellingly, there is an ancient rite here in the
UK that says that the spirit of a dead witch
(19:08):
could be imprisoned in the hollow of a tree and
then she can't come back, and you know, recab it
anymore in the Villagers. Mister McCormick, however, does not put
much cregence to the motive of witchcraft. He cites a
letter received by the Wolverhampton newspaper in nineteen fifty three
which pro faians the affair is closed and involves no witches,
(19:29):
no black magic, and no moonlit rites. The writer claims
that the victim was a Dutch woman who arrived illegally
in England in nineteen forty one, and that her killer
died of madness. A year later after she was killed,
McCormick explores the theory that Bella was in fact the
Dutch girlfriend of a German intelligence recruiter named Laher, who
(19:53):
had had a lover in Kidderminster before the war and
was fluent in English. German intelligen records tell of an
agent code named Clara who was dropped into the area
between Birmingham and Kidderminster between March and April of nineteen
forty one. There is nothing to say that she was
dropped in Hagleywood, but you know she never again made
(20:18):
contact with the intelligence agency. So who put Bella in
the witch elm? Almost eighty years on now, you know?
And that shocking discovery by those poor boys in the wood.
It seems we're no closer to finding the truth. However,
the newspaper archive does give us a fascinating glimpse into
some of the series and the legends that have trickled
(20:40):
down through the decades of the mysterious Lady of Hagley Wood.
One thing of interest that stood out to me most
You know, everyone has a family named don't man. Let
you guys know me as Debrah hatswell. But when I
was my family don't for my family, I'm w Crossley,
so most of my life my name is in Wi Loom.
(21:01):
So I wanted to know what the origins of the
name Lou Bello was. Ah, what its meaning is. It
seems it is of Italian origin and it means battles
the famous fairy maiden, which I found absolutely fascinating. Now
these days, you know that case would have been solved
really easily using modern forensics and DNA testing. We probably
(21:25):
would know who Bella was. Now we would do genetic DNA.
We would go into Ances Street and try and find
her father or her mother and work back from there.
Somebody back in those days, that cardigan was probably hand
knitted and somebody would know or be able to know
the pattern, because another thing about the UK and Europe
(21:47):
is that a lot of places have their own knitting
pattern and it's a way of knowing where you're from,
especially in places like the Highlands or you know, island.
My grandfather already only ever wore the same kind of
knit jumper. It's a strange thing back in the day, obviously,
isn't it. But yeah, it's a fascinating case in it.
Who put Lou beller in the witch and somebody out
(22:07):
there knows. And the strange thing is she has descendants,
no doubt from maybe brothers or sisters, as does the murderer,
and maybe walking around out there not knowing a link
to the strange case. A Smith ghost murder case of
eighteen oh four set a legal precedent in the UK
(22:28):
regarding self defense, meaning that someone could be held liable
for their actions even if they were the consequences of
a mistaken belief. So towards the end of eighteen oh three,
many people claim to have been seen or even being
attacked by a ghost in the Hammersmith area of London.
The ghost believed by locals to be the spirit of
(22:50):
a man who took his own life. And January the third,
eighteen oh four, a twenty nine year old excise officer
named Francis Smith, a member of one of the Armed
Guard patrols set up in Awaker reports, shot and killed
a bricklayer, Thomas Millwood, mistaking the white clothes of Wilmore's
(23:11):
trade for the shroud of a ghostly apparition. Smith was
found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, later commuted
to one year's hard labor the difference. Now, the issues
surrounding the case were not settled for one hundred and
eighty years, until the Court of Appeal made a decision
in nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the local reports
(23:34):
of the ghost for some context on the murder. Now.
Local people said that the ghost was that of a
man who had died by his own hand the previous
year and had been buried in Hammersmith Churchyard. The contemporary
belief was that people who took their own lives should
not be buried in consecrated ground, as the soul's would
not then be at rest. The apparition was described as
(23:56):
being a very tall man dressed all in white, but
also said to wear a calf skinned garment with horns
and large eyeglasses at other times, so the witness reports
a very very different anor. Stories about the ghosts soon
began to circulate. Two women, one elderly and one pregnant,
(24:18):
were reported to have been seized by the ghost on
separate occasions while walking near the churchyard. They were apparently
so frightened that they both died from shock a few
days afterwards. A brewer's servant, almost groom, later testified that
while walking through the church with the companion one night,
close to nine pm, something rose from behind a tombstone
(24:41):
and seized him by the throat. Hearing the scuffle, his
companion turned around, at which the ghost gave me a
twist around and I saw nothing. I gave it a
bit of a push, he said. I hit it with
my fist. I felt something soft, like a great coat.
On the twenty ninth of December, Wlliam Girdler, a night watchman,
saw the ghost while near beaver Lane and gave chase.
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The apparition threw off its shroud and managed to escape.
In London, not having an organized police force at the time,
many people set up kind of like a citizen's party,
armed patrols in the hope of apprehending the ghost at
the corner of Beaver Lane. While making his rounds at
ten thirty pm and third of eighteen o four, Gerda
(25:28):
met one of the armed citizens who was also patrolling
the area, and that was the twenty nine year old
Francis Smith. Smith was armed with a shotgun. Smith told
Girdley he was going to look for the ghost, so
they'd set up together at eleven pm at night, just
after eleven, Smith encountered Thomas Millwood, a brick layer who
(25:49):
was wearing what at the time was normal for his
trade or white clothing. He had linen trousers which were
white and washed and very clean, a waistcoat of white
flown apparently knew and very white, and an apron which
he wore around him. Mister Millwood had been heading home
from a visit to his parents and sister, who lived
(26:09):
in Black Lion Lane. According to his sister Anne, the
brick layer left and immediately afterwards she heard mister Smith
challenge him, saying, damn you, who are you? What are you?
Damn you? I'll shoot you, after which Smith shot him
in the left lower jar and killed him Outright after
(26:32):
hearing the short, Girdler and Smith's neighbor, one John Locke,
together with George Stowe, met Smith, who appeared very much
agitated upon seeing Millwood's body, and they advised Smith to
return to his home. Meanwhile, I Constable arrived at the
scene and tuck Smith into custody. Millwood's corpse was carried
to an inn where a surgeon mister Fowler, examined the
(26:54):
body on the six of John and pronounced death to
be the result of a gunshot wound on the left
side of the lower jaw. His small shot about the
size number four, and that I penetrated the vertebrae of
the neck and went into the spinal marrow. Smith was
trying for wilful murder now. The deceased wife, missus Fulbrook,
(27:14):
stated that she had warned him to cover his white
clothing with a greatcoat, as he'd already been mistaken for
the ghost on a previous occasion. On the Saturday evening,
she said, him and I were at home for her
live with me. He said he had frightened two ladies
and a gentleman who were coming along the terrace in
the carriage. For that. The man said he dared to say,
(27:38):
there goes that ghost. That he said he was no
more of a ghost than he was, and he asked him,
using a bad word, did he want to punch on
the head. I begged him to change his dress. She said,
there's a piece of work about the ghosts, and your
clothes look white, prey. Put on your greatcoat tonight and
that may not run into any day. Millwood's sister testified
(28:03):
that although Smith had called on her brother to stop
or he would shoot. He fired the gun immediately. Despite
a number of declarations of Smith's food character. The chief Judge,
Large Chief Baron, Archibald McDonald advised the jury that malice
was not required for murder, merely the intent to kill.
All killing whatever amounts to murder unless justified by the law,
(28:26):
or in self defense in cases of some involuntary acts
or some sufficiently violent provocation or lauri is just so
long winded in it. Basically, after considering for an hour,
the jury returned the verdict of manslaughter. McDonald informed the
jury that the court could not receive such a verdict
and that they must either find Smith guilty of murder
(28:50):
or acquitting. The jury, then returning the verdict of guilty
and after passing the customary sentence of death, MacDonald said
that he intended to report the case to the King,
who had the power to commute the sentence. The initial
sentencing of hanging, drawing, and quartering was commuted to a
year tired labor. I bet it was just about that
(29:12):
now the used publicity to give in to the case
persuaded the true culprit, the ghost, to come forward. John Graham,
an elderly shoemaker, had been pretending to be a ghost
by using a white sheet to frighten his appentice as
he walked home to pay him back, after the apprentice
had been scaring Graham's children in ghost stories so much
(29:35):
that they wouldn't sleep. Now there's no record of Graham
ever being punished. What an absolute debacle. They seems to
have been beset by a series of calamities. I would
you imagine what's happened is one person has seen this
Graham dressed up as a ghost, and you know it's gone,
and then the next thing, it's got horns and it's fairy,
(29:55):
and you know it's got eyes like spectacles, and that's
kind of what happens in it. Poor man got shot
for nothing, just walking on from work one day after
he'd bince visit his mum and dad. And it took
them one hundred and eighty years to change the law,
which is just mind boggling, isn't it. Now? I couldn't
speak about Hammersmith without mentioning the unsolved mystery of a
(30:17):
series of gruesome murders that's kept London in the dark
for over sixty years. Now. These happened one hundred and
fifty years after The Ghosts was shot. Between nineteen sixty
four and sixty five, a number of female brasses were
brutally killed, and despite intense media interest and one of
the biggest man unts in Scotland yard history, that killer
(30:40):
has never been caught. Now. The mystery serial killer was
dubbed Jack the strip Off due to the way in
which the victims were found undressed in or near the
River Thames. The string of murders, which was originally known
as the Hammersmith Nude murders. They had received significant attention
over the years, with many theories being put forward. At
(31:04):
least six women are officially listed as victims of Jack
the Stripper, but it is thought it could be up
to eight. To this day, no one knows exactly who
the murderer was or how many victims there were. Elizabeth
Fig twenty one and Gwinney Threes twenty two, two women
(31:27):
thought to be the early victims of the killer. Elizabeth
was found out on June seventeenth, fifty nine, five years
before the Jack the Shiper murders started. Her body was
found near the River Thames in Chiswick, and many have
noted the considerable similarities to the latter murders, such as
(31:47):
the location, the method of death being strangulation. Welsh born
Gwyneth was found dead in a rubbish tip four years
later on November eighth, ninety sixty three. Once again, investigators
thought her death may have been an early murder of
Jack The's stripperff due to a body being found near
the River Thames, and she was also strangled. Several other
(32:10):
teeth were also missing when a body was discovered. The
first official victim of the strip off is start to
be Hannah Tailford when she was thirty years old and
had two children. There were many physical similarities between her
and the two earlier possible victims. She was short and
she was slim. Her body was found by the River
(32:31):
Thames in February sixty four. She'd been strangled, several of
her teeth are missing, and her underwear had been stuffed
into her mouth, just like Bella. At first, the police
did not seem to take the case too seriously because
these were working girls, you know, instead putting her death
down to a possible misadventure kind of occupational hazard, as
(32:53):
they say. As little as two months later on in
the April, on that same stretch of river, the body
of twenty five year old pregnant woman Irene Lockeup was found.
She was also petite and she was from Nottinghamshire, and
she was found naked based down in the river. Police
quickly worked out that she'd also been strangled. With the
(33:17):
discovery of another strangled woman, the police began to suspect
they had a serial killer on the loose. Another possible
victim was discovered just weeks later, when twenty two year
old Helen Bartholomeer was found dumped in an alley in Brentford.
Like the other victims, Helen was missing a front teeth,
(33:37):
which came to be a recognizable trait of the killer.
Hellen's death gave investigators their first piece of solid evidence
when they found flex of paint used in calm manufacturing Honor.
They felt the paint likely came from the killer's workplace,
and therefore focused on nearby businesses. The next victim was
thirty year old Mary Fleming, whose body was similarly discovered
(34:01):
with paint spots on it, but without the advanced technology
we have now, you know, we're unable to use that forensically.
Back then, the front teeth were missing and she had
been strangled and her body was found on clothed Witnesses
also recalled here in a car reversing down the street
shortly before the body was discovered. The body of twenty
(34:23):
one year old Margaret McGowan, who also went by the
name Francis Brown, was found in Kensington in November of
sixty four. She was last seen allied by her friend
fellow brass Kim Taylor, a month before her body was found.
The Scottish woman was a lady of the night like
the other victims, and had worked at the higher end
of the trade with clients including businessmen and politicians. She
(34:46):
testified actually with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice David at
Stephen Wall's trial in the midst of the infamous Perfumo scandal.
Margaret's spend was reportedly with her when the man believed
to be a killer hit her up, meaning she is
able to provide police with a description of the man's car,
thought either to be a Ford Zephyr or a Zodiac.
(35:08):
Now it's believed that a local boxer was responsible for
the crimes, or like most serial killers, he probably would
have started in his early teens and even younger because
they don't just instantly start with murder. It's kind of
an escalation of events that leads to that. When I
hope you've enjoyed what I've brought you tonight. And they
(35:28):
may not be from the case files of BBR, but
there are things that I'm interested in and I thought
that you'd be interested in them too. So if you
like content like this, please subscribe or if it's a
rash are it really helps to grow our channel. I
will be back next week with some more amazing stories
from the BBR case files. Good Night everyone,
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