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shyscyberchamber.com
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UNSOLVED CRIMES |
Date
Added |
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Jack the Stripper |
December 2002 |
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A mass
murderer called Jack the Stripper roamed the streets of West London
for 12 savage months. The killer, like the Ripper before him, preyed
on prostitutes. And like the Ripper, he was never caught.
He left his victims naked, with one or more of their front teeth
removed. And perhaps, if one or two of their men customers had come
forward, some of them would still be alive today.
The Stripper's reign of terror began when the body of a pretty, thirty
year old Hannah Tailford was found on the Thames foreshore near
Hammersmith Bridge, in West London, on 2nd February 1964. All her
clothes were missing except her stockings, which were rolled down to
her ankles, and her pants which had been stuffed in her mouth probably
to stifle her screams.
Hannah, small and slim, had come to London from Heddon-on-the-Wall,
Northumberland. She had a wild background and specialized in group sex
sessions. Police found cameras and lighting equipment at her flat, and
she had apparently taken compromising photographs at her orgies.
There was a theory that she might have been killed by someone she was
blackmailing.
Enquiries revealed only that she had last been seen nine days before
her death. And the pathologist reported that she had been pregnant.
The Stripper's second victim, twenty-five year old Irene Lockwood, was
discovered on 8th April on the Thames foreshore at Duke's Meadow,
Chiswick, about 274 miles (300 yards) upstream from where Hannah's
body had been found.
Again, the police at first suspected blackmail as a motive. Then a man
stepped forward and confessed he was the killer. He was able to
describe Irene accurately, and he was charged.
But Jack the Stripper struck again during the trial. The man was
acquitted and returned to obscurity.
The third victim, twenty two year old Helen Barthelemy, was a petite
Scots girl who had worked as a circus trapeze artist and as a stripper
on Blackpool's Golden Mile. Her body was found on 24th March, at
Brentford and gave the police some useful leads.
Unlike the others, the body was found on dry land, in an alley. Her
clothes had clearly been removed after death. Four of her front teeth
were missing and traces of spray paint were found on her body.
Police began a systematic examination of workshops and garages in the
area where spray paint was used, and appealed to the public for help.
The publicity seemed to scare off the killer. There were no more
killings for three months.
The Stripper's fourth victim, thirty year old Mary Fleming, was found
on 14th July, propped up against the garage door of a private house in
Chiswick. She too, was naked, and her body also showed small traces of
spray paint.
The discovery was made at 05.00 by a chauffeur who lived directly
opposite. Painters working overnight at business premises nearby
reported hearing the doors of a vehicle being slammed as it reversed.
A few minutes later it drove off at speed but the men could not read
the number plate because they were behind frosted glass.
Scotland Yard scientist established that the paint found on the
victims was of a type and colour range used by some car manufacturers.
It seemed fairly certain that the bodies had been kept in or near
premises used for car body repairs.
By now terror was stalking the streets of London. Most women refused
to go out alone after dark, and the area's prostitutes walked the
streets in twos and threes.
The fifth victim was discovered under a pile of rubbish in a car park
at Horton Street, Kensington, on 25th November. She had last been seen
alive on 23rd October, and had been dead for about a month. The girl,
twenty year old Glasgow born Margaret McGowan had been involved in the Profumo scandal of the previous year, and had given evidence at the
trial of Stephen Ward. Using the name Francis Brown, she had told how
Ward had sketched her at his flat.
Everyone connected with the Profumo scandal was traced and questioned,
and all were eliminated.
Margaret had been with another prostitute, Kim Taylor, for twenty four
hours before she disappeared. She had drunk about nineteen whiskies
before the two of them went out soliciting together in Portobello
Road.
They were picked up by two men in separate cards, and it was arranged
that all four should meet at Chiswick Green. But Kim and her customer
lost the other car in Bayswater Road, and Margaret was not seen alive
again.
It was nearly a year after Hannah Tailford, the Stripper's first
victim, disappeared and he claimed his last.
She was twenty eight year old Bridget 'Bridie' O'Hara, who vanished
from her home and usual haunts on 11th January 1965. That evening she
visited the Shepherd's Bush Hotel, a pub, and was recognized by
several male acquaintances, who spoke to her. The pub closed at 23.00
and she probably died soon after that.
Her body was found on 16th February behind a small workshop alongside
a busy railway line. She had been strangled and the body had clearly
been stored somewhere and dumped shortly before it was discovered.
As with the other victims, there were traces of paint, plus specks of
oil, suggesting she had been kept near some kind of machinery.
Chief Superintendent John du Rose, who was leading the murder hunt,
marked off a wide sector of west London and sent out hundreds of
detectives to visit every possible garage, workshop and factory that
might have held the body. Police began taking the numbers of
curb-crawling cars, and the drivers were brought in for questioning.
As a psychological ply, du Rose increased the publicity being given to
the case, and dropped hints that he was getting close to being able to
identify the Stripper.
Police discovered a building housing a transformer where the bodies of
Helen and Bridie had been stored. It was close to a paint spray shop,
at the rear of the factory on the Heron Trading Estate in Acton.
Now du Rose concentrated his hunt on the immediate area. But still the
killer eluded the teams of detectives. At first they thought they had
scared him off. But soon it became clear that the killings had stopped
all together.
On a hunch, du Rose began a search through all the suicides,
accidental deaths and jailings in London since Bridie's murder. He
came up with a prime suspect - a forty five year old man who lived in
south London and had worked for a security firm in west London. He had
a can and the paint spray shop was one of the buildings he patrolled.
Shortly after the discovery of Bridies body he had committed suicide,
leaving a note saying he was 'unable to stand the strain any longer'.
To save the feelings of his wife and children, who were quite baffled
by his death, police did not name the man.
Was he really Jack the Stripper? Probably no one will ever know. |
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