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This drama-documentary series takes us back in time to the most shocking and surprising murder cases in London, England's history. Nicholas Day guides us into the world of the killer as we see how police ingenuity and early forensics helped bring them to justice.
2017
The first episode examines the horrifying discovery made in a trunk at the left luggage office of Brighton Train Station on a hot summer's day in 1934. Two days later, a similar case was found in Kings Cross Station, London. A major police investigation began that would take an unexpected turn in the search for a murderer.
When police investigated the disappearance of wealthy widow, Olive Durand Deacon, in early 1949, they could not have imagined the gruesome confession told to them by the man they had brought in for questioning.
The murders of two teens along the River Thames leads to one of Britain's most massive manhunts and ultimately to the capture of Alfred Whiteway.
In 1955, London nightclub manager Ruth Ellis confesses to the murder of her abusive lover, then becomes the last woman to be executed in Britain.
2015
In 1849, a man suddenly disappeared in Bermondsey. The discovery that he had been brutally murdered enraptured the press and the public. Even Charles Dickens was totally engrossed in the story of the sinister Marie Manning.
At the time of Jack The Ripper, London was home to some of the most terrible individuals the city has ever seen. One of the very worst was the elusive Borough Poisoner, George Chapman.
Having killed his wife and buried her in the basement, Dr Crippen believed he had escaped on a ship to Canada. But the police managed to hunt him down and bring him to account for his terrible crime.
George Smith had many aliases. He needed them for his many wives who he would soon murder in order to claim the inheritance. Catching this chameleon would be a gargantuan challenge.
2016
Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were in love but the young couple were convicted for murdering Edith's husband. The case would shock this changing society and highlight the horror of the death penalty.
It was WWII and London was rocked by the Blitz. In this blacked out city another terrible danger lurked in the shadows. A serial killer was on the loose.
As Europe recovered from the damage of WWII, soldiers made their way home from the front line. One man however brought back all the savagery and brutality of the fighting.
John Christie killed at least eight women during the 1940s and 1950s, including his wife. Hear more about his shocking crimes in this two-parter.
WWI veteran John Christie later turned to a life of crime and killed at least eight women. Hear how his murderous spree ended at the gallows.
2019
Peter Manuel was a Scottish serial killer who killed at least eight people between 1956 - 1958 around the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. Manuel had prison for a string of sexual attacks but on his release it didn't take long for his psychopathic behaviour to escalate. He fell under the police's radar several times but each time was let go, free to kill further. Manuel's parents would always give their son an alibi. His father especially would go to great lengths to protect him from justice. When he was finally tracked down and arrested for the murder of a family, who he shot dead in their own home, Manuel sensationally defended himself in court. But it would be his mother's testimony which would prove to be crucial to the outcome.
Born in 1832 the story of the Black Widow is a tale of classic Victorian murder. Cotton travelled around the north east of England marrying lonely men getting them to take out life insurance and then murdering them. Arsenic was her preferred means of killing. Once dead she would cash in their life insurance. It was not only her husbands who were the victims, she is also thought to have murdered 11 of her children/step children too. Thanks to the endeavour of a man called Thomas Riley, Mary Ann Cotton was finally brought to justice and hanged for the murder of her final victim, 10 year old Charles Edward Cotton.
Dr Ruxton was an Indian born physician. He lived a quiet, respectable life in Lancaster but had a violent jealous streak. He had accused his wife of infidelity for years but in September 1935 Ruxton's jealousy got the better of him. He beat, strangled and stabbed her to death then did the same to the housemaid who witnessed the killing. Ruxton dismembered the bodies to remove identification marks and dumped them across the border in Scotland. Local police were dumbfounded as to who the bodies were, the press had a field day but still no one could identify the two bodies. It was a scrap of newsprint used to wrap the body parts in that was identified as a publication only available in Lancaster. The police soon honed in on Ruxton.
Three police officers were murdered in Shepherds Bush on Friday 12th August 1966 by Harry Roberts and two others. After the killing they went on the run and a huge manhunt ensued. One assailant was captured within hours, the second was found 4 days later in Glasgow but Roberts hid in Thorley Wood near Bishop Stortford and used his army training to survive for three months until he was finally arrested. The notion that someone had killed several policemen shocked the public and attracted a lot of press attention. As the act of murder happened six months after the death penalty had been suspended, many people called for it's return. Two of the assailants died in prison but the gunman, Harry Roberts was released after spending 48 years behind bars.
2019
We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper. The most famous serial killer in history, the man who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel - and got away with it. In this two-part Murder Maps special, we re-examine those notorious crimes. We reveal how the story we know today was shaped by the sensationalist press of 1888. And we strip back decades of rumour and misinformation to reveal the true lives of the five women slain. With contributions from world renowned Ripper expert Donald Rumbelow and writer Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five - the only book to tell the lives of the victims, these documentaries are the true story of the Whitechapel Murders as never heard before.
We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper. The most famous serial killer in history, the man who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel - and got away with it. In this two-part Murder Maps special, we re-examine those notorious crimes. We reveal how the story we know today was shaped by the sensationalist press of 1888. And we strip back decades of rumour and misinformation to reveal the true lives of the five women slain. With contributions from world renowned Ripper expert Donald Rumbelow and writer Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five - the only book to tell the lives of the victims, these documentaries are the true story of the Whitechapel Murders as never heard before.
In December 1910, the murder of three City of London Police officers and the wounding of two others was, and continues to be, one of the largest multiple murders of police officers on duty carried out in Great Britain. The three officers – Sergeants Bentley and Tucker and Constable Choat - were shot dead whilst trying to prevent a burglary at a jewellers in Houndsditch on the evening of the 16th of December and this incident and the events surrounding it formed the precursor to the famous Siege of Sidney Street in January 1911.
The First World War took the lives of countless soldiers on the front line. But one man in Paris too old for combat saw this as an opportunity. Henri Landru targeted the lonely and vulnerable women left behind by the war. He seduced them with promises of marriage and lured them to houses outside Paris where the women vanished. With the police uninterested in investigating the disappearances, two women took it upon themselves to pursue Landru. This episode tells their story. How they tirelessly gathered evidence against the killer. How they pestered the authorities to investigate. And how they made sure Landru finally faced justice for his crimes.
Herbert Rowse Armstrong went down in history as The Hay Poisoner. Convicted in 1922 of murdering his wife with arsenic, he was the first and only solicitor to be hanged in the UK. But was he guilty? Was he a cunning poisoner, or was he a grieving husband wrongly accused? Much of the evidence against Armstrong was circumstantial and the scientific testimony remains disputed. In this episode we examine both sides of the case and ask whether the British justice system made a terrible mistake.
Amelia Dyer was perhaps the most prolific killer in British history. She earned a living through murder, and her victims were babies. There was a grim trade which flourished in the Victorian age. In a time when unmarried mothers were shamed and shunned, giving up children to a 'baby-farmer' was often the only option. Dyer promised mothers that for a fee, she would adopt the babies and raise them as her own. In fact, she neglected and murdered them. In this episode we tell the shocking story of Dyer and of Evelina Marmon, one of the desperate young mothers she deceived.
Cleveland, Ohio was a notorious city in the 1930s. The Great Depression had hit it hard. Crime and corruption were rife. And there was a serial killer on the loose. This episode investigates the unsolved murders committed by the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The Butcher killed at least twelve men and women, dismembering their bodies and scattering them across the city. Few of the victims were ever identified and nobody was brought to justice. But as this episode reveals, the investigation of legendary lawman Eliot Ness did have a suspect, a man whose identity has remained a secret for decades.
It was a crime which shocked Britain. In 1878, a widow was killed in her own home - and the killer was her own servant. This was a murder which struck at the heart of Victorian society, at the sanctity of the home and the rigid divides between the classes. For the young Kate Webster did not only kill and dismember her employer - she stole her clothes, her property and her identity. And to the Victorians that was almost more monstrous than the murder itself.
Here we reveal how the notorious killer Mary Pearcey began an affair with her victim's husband, how she inserted herself into the family's life.
Nicholas Day
Himself - Host
