All articles in True Crime
9th February, 2016 in True Crime, Women in History
Unsolved murders of women in Victorian London
When discussing unsolved murders of women in late Victorian London, most people think of the depredations of Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Murderer, whose sanguineous exploits has spawned the creation of a small library of books. But Jack the Ripper was just one of a string of…
19th January, 2016 in True Crime
London police opening fire: 1983 to now
Few incidents are more emotive than when armed London police officers open fire and kill or seriously wound a suspect. Why is this? First, it’s unusual because British police officers are not routinely armed; second, because of the often criminal background of the shot person, it…
13th January, 2016 in True Crime
The ‘Acid Bath’ murders
John Haigh was a dangerous man to know. If you were a friend of his, and rich, the chances were you ended up with a bullet in the back of your head and your body dumped into a vat of sulphuric acid. His theory was if there was no body, then there was no crime, and he got awa…
21st December, 2015 in True Crime, Women in History
London’s Victorian murderesses
Of the six murderous women featured in Bad Companions, perhaps one feels most sympathy for the servant girl, Eliza Fenning. Not only could she read and write, she was described as young, petite and pretty and she was engaged to be married. She worked as a cook for the Turner fami…
21st December, 2015 in History, Society & Culture, True Crime
The year of the Ripper
Capitalism is in crisis. Riots sweep through London and protesters occupy famous public spaces. An Old Etonian prime minster struggles to steer the country through an economic depression while vast sums are spent for the Jubilee celebrations of an elderly queen. There are concern…
21st December, 2015 in Local & Family History, True Crime
Graffiti of the East End
One night in 2013, graffiti appeared on a shop doorway in the East End of London. Not just any old, random doorway though. A public perception of what Jack the Ripper looked like appeared on the front of 29 Hanbury Street. The address was made famous when Annie Chapman’s body was…
21st December, 2015 in True Crime
Fitted up: The Mitcham Co-op murder
On a dark autumnal night in 1962 three young men arrived at the Tooting Co-op building in a grey Austin Cambridge. Two of the men, brandishing guns, held up the cashier, while the other one, also armed with a Luger pistol kept lookout. A Co-op worker named Dennis Hurden happened…
18th December, 2015 in True Crime
Jacob Isenschmid: Jack the Ripper suspect
For many Ripperologists Jacob Isenschmid is a promising suspect for the Whitechapel murders. As a butcher Isenschmid would often be seen walking around Whitechapel in the infamous leather apron. Throughout his life many friends, family members and eyewitnesses remarked that Isens…
18th December, 2015 in True Crime
The victims of Jack the Ripper
Eleven separate murders, stretching from 3 April 1888 to 13 February 1891, were included in a London Metropolitan Police Service investigation and known collectively as the ‘Whitechapel murders’. Opinions vary as to whether these murders should all be linked to the same…
18th December, 2015 in True Crime
Jack the Ripper and the tabloid press
Initially the term ‘tabloid’ was used to describe a small, easily digestible tablet produced by the London pharmaceutical manufacturer Buroughs Wellcome & Company, who would later become GlaxoSmithKline. The first record of it being attributed to the easily digestible fo…
17th December, 2015 in True Crime
Medical detectives: Pioneering forensic pathologists
In spite of the current obsession of television producers portraying forensic pathologists as willowy blondes, aged twenty-five, this macabre occupation was dominated during the last century by a handful of mostly middle-aged or elderly men of all shapes and sizes, some of whom b…
17th December, 2015 in True Crime
Escape from Broadmoor
On the face of it things haven’t changed much at Broadmoor over the years. There’s still the moaning about patients having it too cushy, allegations of inappropriate relationships between patients and staff or the staff generally being too lax. The hospital celebrated its 15…