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The Hammersmith nude murders is the name of a series of six
murders
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
in
West London
West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary.
The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...
, England, in 1964 and 1965. The victims, all
prostitutes
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
, were found undressed in or near the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
, leading the press to nickname the killer Jack the Stripper (a reference to "
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...
").
Two earlier murders, committed in West London in 1959 and 1963, have also been linked by some investigators to the same perpetrator.
Despite "intense media interest and one of the biggest manhunts in
Scotland Yard's history" the case is unsolved.
Forensic evidence
Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts".
H ...
gathered at the time is believed to have been destroyed or lost.
Victims
Elizabeth Figg
Figg was found dead at 5:10am on 17 June 1959 by police officers
on routine patrol in
Duke's Meadows,
Chiswick, on the north bank of the River Thames. The park had a reputation as a
lovers' lane
A lovers' lane is a secluded area where people kiss, make out, or engage in sexual activity. These areas range from parking lots in secluded rural areas to places with extraordinary views of a cityscape or other features.
"Lovers' lanes" are t ...
, and prostitutes were known to take their clients there.
Figg's body was found on scrubland between Dan Mason Drive and the river's
towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
, approximately west of
Barnes Bridge. Her dress was torn at the waist and opened to reveal her breasts; marks around the neck were consistent with strangulation. Figg's underwear and shoes were missing, and no identification or personal possessions were found. A
pathologist
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in t ...
concluded that death had occurred between midnight and 2:00a.m. on 17 June.
A
post-mortem
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
photograph of Figg's face distributed to the press was independently recognized by her roommate and her mother.
Extensive searches of the areaincluding the river bedfailed to find Figg's underwear, black stiletto shoes, or white handbag. A police official theorized that she had been murdered by a client in his car, after removing her shoes and underwear, and that these and her handbag had then remained in the car after the body was disposed of at Duke's Meadows.
The proprietor of a pub on the opposite side of the river to where Figg was found said that on the night of the murder he and his wife had seen a car's headlights as it parked in that area at 12:05a.m. Shortly after the lights were switched off, they heard a woman's scream.
Gwynneth Rees
The body of Welsh-born Gwynneth Rees was found on 8 November 1963 at the
Barnes Borough Council household refuse disposal site on Townmead Road,
Mortlake
Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many cen ...
. The dump was situated from the Thames towpath, and approximately from Duke's Meadows.
Rees was naked except for a single stocking on her right leg, extending no further up than the ankle. She had been accidentally decapitated by a shovel which workmen had been using to level the refuse.
Hannah Tailford
Tailford was found dead on 2 February 1964
on the Thames
foreshore
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...
below Linden Housethe
clubhouse
Clubhouse may refer to:
Locations
* The meetinghouse of:
** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
** In the United States, a country club
** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club
* A ...
of the
London Corinthian Sailing Club
The London Corinthian Sailing Club is based on the river Thames at Hammersmith. Its activities include Dinghy sailing and racing on the river, and yachting in the Solent and further afield, as well as an active social side including 'Club Nights' ...
west of
Hammersmith Bridge
Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough ...
. She had been strangled, several of her teeth were missing,
and her underwear had been stuffed into her mouth.
Irene Lockwood
Lockwood was found dead on 8 April 1964 on the foreshore of the Thames
at Corney Reach, Chiswick, not far from where Tailford had been found. With the discovery of this third victim, police realized that a serial murderer was at large. Lockwood was pregnant at the time of her death.
Helen Barthelemy
East Lothian-born Barthelemy was found dead on 24 April 1964
in an alleyway at the rear of 199 Boston Manor Road,
Brentford. Barthelemy's death gave investigators their first solid piece of evidence in the case: flecks of paint
used in car manufacturing. Police felt that the paint had probably come from the killer's workplace; they therefore focused on tracing it to a business nearby.
Mary Fleming
Scottish-born Fleming was found dead on 14 July 1964
outside 48 Berrymede Road, Chiswick. Once again, paint spots were found on the body;
many neighbours had also heard a car reversing down the street just before the body was discovered.
Frances Brown
Brown, a native of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, was last seen alive on 23 October 1964 by a colleague who saw her get into a client's car; on 25 November her body was found in a car park on Hornton Street,
Kensington.
She had been strangled. The colleague was able to provide police with an
identikit picture and a description of the car, thought to be a grey
Ford Zephyr
The Ford Zephyr is an executive car manufactured by Ford of Britain from 1950 until 1972. The Zephyr and its luxury variants, the Ford Zodiac and Ford Executive, were the largest passenger cars in the British Ford range from 1950 until their re ...
.
Brown had testified as a witness for the defence, along with
Christine Keeler and
Mandy Rice-Davies
Marilyn Rice-Davies (21 October 1944 – 18 December 2014) was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Mi ...
, at the trial of
Stephen Ward
Stephen Thomas Ward (19 October 1912 – 3 August 1963) was an English osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair, a British political scandal which brought about the resignation of John Profumo, the Sec ...
in July 1963.
Bridget O'Hara
Irish immigrant Bridget "Bridie" O'Hara was found dead on 16 February 1965 near a storage shed behind the Heron Trading Estate,
Acton.
She had been missing since 11 January. Once again, O'Hara's body turned up flecks of industrial paint which were traced to an electrical transformer near where she was discovered. Her body also showed signs of having been stored in a warm environment. The transformer was a good fit for both the paint and the heating.
Investigation
Chief Superintendent John Du Rose of
Scotland Yard, the detective put in charge of the case,
interviewed almost 7,000 suspects.
In the spring of 1965, the investigation into the murders encountered a major breakthrough when a sample of paint which perfectly matched that recovered from several victims' bodies was found beneath a concealed
transformer
A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...
at the rear of a building on the Heron Factory Estate in
Acton. This factory estate faced a paint spraying shop. Shortly thereafter, Du Rose held a news conference in which he falsely announced that the police had narrowed the suspect pool down to 20 men and that, by a process of elimination, these suspects were being eliminated from the investigation. After a short time, he announced that the suspect pool contained only 10 members, and then three. There were no further known Stripper killings following the initial news conference.
According to the writer
Anthony Summers
Anthony Bruce Summers (born 21 December 1942) is an Irish author. He is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and has written ten non-fiction books.
Career
Summers is an Irish citizen who has been working with Robbyn Swan for more than thirty years befo ...
, Hannah Tailford and Frances Brown, the Stripper's third and seventh victims, were peripherally connected to the 1963
Profumo affair
The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler be ...
. Some victims were also known to engage in the underground party scene in addition to appearing in
pornographic
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, movies. Several writers have postulated that the victims may have known each other, and that the killer may have been connected to this scene as well.
Suspects
Kenneth Archibald
On 27 April 1964, Kenneth Archibald, a 57-year-old caretaker at the
Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club, walked into
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...
police station and voluntarily confessed to the killing of Irene Lockwood.
Archibald was charged with the murder and stood trial at the
Old Bailey in June 1964. When asked to plead, he retracted his confession and pleaded not guilty. There was no other evidence to link him to the crime and on 23 June 1964, he was found not guilty by a jury and acquitted by the judge,
Mr. Justice Neild.
Mungo Ireland
For Du Rose, the most likely suspect was a Scottish security guard called Mungo Ireland, whom Du Rose first identified in a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
television interview in 1970 as a respectable married man in his forties whom he codenamed "Big John". Ireland had apparently been identified as a suspect shortly after Bridget O'Hara's murder, when flecks of industrial paint were traced to the Heron Trading Estate, where he had worked as a security guard.
Shortly after this connection was made, Ireland committed
suicide by
carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...
, leaving a note for his wife that read: "I can't stick it any longer", and finished, "To save you and the police looking for me I'll be in the garage". Whilst seen by many as a strong suspect in the killings, recent research suggests that Ireland was in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
when O'Hara was murdered, and therefore could not have been the Stripper. Crime author Neil Milkins said the killings stopped after Ireland's death and the police task force set up to catch the killer was reduced and finally disbanded. Milkins, who wrote the book Who is ''Jack the Stripper?'', was an investigative consultant for the BBC documentary ''Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer''; "On the morning that Ireland’s body was found, he had been due to appear before Acton Magistrates Court to face a charge of failing to stop his car after being involved in a road traffic accident," said Mr Milkins. "Did Ireland commit suicide to save facing Acton magistrates over a trifling motoring charge or did John Du Rose push him over the edge with his press statements?" The Scotland Yard Serious Crime Review Group re-investigated the Hammersmith murders between 2006 and 2007 which resulted in a new conclusion. A statement read: "The circumstantial evidence against Mungo Ireland is very strong and it was the view of the officers conducting the most recent review of this case that he was most likely to be responsible." Although Ireland's work records indicated he was in Scotland on the night of O’Hara's disappearance, Scotland Yard believe it is possible that these may have been falsified.
Freddie Mills
In 2001, reformed gangster Jimmy Tippett, Jr. claimed that, during research for his book about London's gangland, he had uncovered information suggesting that British
light heavyweight boxing champion
Freddie Mills
Frederick Percival Mills (26 June 1919 – 25 July 1965) was an English boxer, and the world light heavyweight champion from 1948 to 1950. Mills was tall and did not have a sophisticated boxing style; he relied on two-fisted aggression, relen ...
was responsible for the murders.
According to Tippett,
Kray-era gangsters, including
Charlie Richardson
The Richardson Gang was an English crime gang based in South London, England in the 1960s. Also known as the "Torture Gang", they had a reputation as some of London's most sadistic gangsters. Their alleged specialities included pulling teeth ...
and
Frankie Fraser
Frank Davidson Fraser (13 December 1923 – 26 November 2014), better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. , had long suspected Mills of being the murderer.
Mills had previously been linked with the murders by Peter Neale, a freelance journalist from
Balham, south London, who told police in July 1972 that he had received information, in confidence, from a serving
chief inspector
Chief inspector (Ch Insp) is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police (CIP).
Usage by country Australia
The rank of chief inspector is us ...
that Mills "killed the nude prostitutes". He also said that this was "common knowledge in the
West End. Many people would say, 'Oh, Freddie did them in...'"
Mills was found shot dead in his car,
apparently by suicide, in July 1965.
The suggestion that Mills was the Hammersmith nudes murderer originated with gangster Frankie Fraser, who told it to policeman Bob Berry, who told ''
The Sun'' crime reporter Michael Litchfield. Fraser claimed that the story was confessed by Mills, to Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent John Du Rose, and told by Du Rose to him; but when Du Rose published his autobiography which touched on the 'Hammersmith Nude Murders', there was no mention of Freddie Mills with regard to this case. The claims have since been dismissed. Peter McInnes put the allegations to the investigating officer, who stated that Mills had never been a suspect during the investigation.
Metropolitan Police officer
David Seabrook
David Seabrook (19 December 1960 Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire – 18 January 2009 Canterbury, Kent) was a British crime writer and journalist.
Life
Born in 1960 at Hemel Hempstead, David was the only child of Leslie Frank Seabrook (an insur ...
, in his book ''Jack of Jumps'' (2006), wrote that a former
Metropolitan Police detective was a suspect in the opinion of several senior detectives investigating the case. Owen Summers, a journalist for ''
The Sun'' newspaper, had previously raised suspicion about the unnamed officer's involvement in a series of articles published by the newspaper in 1972, and ''Daily Mirror'' journalist Brian McConnell followed a similar line of inquiry in his book ''Found Naked and Dead'' in 1974. He was also considered by Dick Kirby, a former Metropolitan Police detective, in his book ''Laid Bare: The Nude Murders and the Hunt for 'Jack the Stripper (2016), in which Kirby referred to him only as "the Cop".
Tommy Butler
In their book ''The Survivor'' (2002), Jimmy Evans and Martin Short allege the culprit was
Superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
of the Metropolitan Police's
Flying Squad
The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbreviat ...
. Butler died in 1970.
Harold Jones
The
Crime & Investigation
Crime & Investigation (stylized as Crime + Investigation) is an American pay television channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The cha ...
channel's ''
Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook'' put forward the theory in 2011 that the killer could have been
Harold Jones, a convicted murderer from
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. Jones killed two girls in 1921 in his home town of
Abertillery
Abertillery (; cy, Abertyleri) is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area ...
. Because he was 15 at the time, he was not liable for the
death penalty and instead received a life sentence. He was released from
Wandsworth prison in 1941, at the age of 35, for exemplary behaviour. He is believed to have then returned to Abertillery, and visited the graves of his victims. By 1947, Jones was living in
Fulham, London. All the Stripper murders had similar features to his early murders, with no sexual assault, but extreme violence, inflicted on the victims. Due to poor record-keeping, he was never considered as a possible suspect by the police. Jones died in Hammersmith in 1971.
The Welsh writer Neil Milkins, in ''Who was Jack the Stripper?'' (2011), also concluded that Jones was the perpetrator.
While researching Jones for his book ''Every Mother's Nightmare'',
Milkins had traced the murderer's movements: "
turned up in Fulham in the late 1940s calling himself Harry Stevens, and stayed at that address in Hestercombe Avenue until 1962, at which point he disappeared again. I came across the Jack the Stripper case on the internet and realised that in the same three years Jones' whereabouts remained unknown – 1962 to 1965 – a number of prostitutes had been murdered in the same west London area."
In January 2019 the possible involvement of Jones was re-examined in the 90-minute documentary ''Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer'' broadcast on
BBC Two. Criminologist Professor
David Wilson and an investigative team, including former detective Jackie Malton and forensic psychologist Professor Mike Berry, use contemporary policing techniques such as
geographic profiling Geographic profiling is a criminal investigative methodology that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence. By incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods, it assist ...
and
offender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrator ...
to see if the crimes of Jones the boy can be measured against those of the London killer. There are many similarities.
In the media
The murders have been the subject of several television documentaries:
* ''
Great Crimes and Trials'' documentary series – "The Hammersmith Murders" episode, first broadcast in the UK by
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...
in 1993.
* ''