John George Haigh - the acid bath murderer

 Haigh murdered people for money, then dissolved the bodies in acid. He was born on 24 July 1909 in Lincolnshire, but his family moved to Yorkshire.

Haigh’s parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a strict religious sect, although it is unknown whether this had anything to do with his later behaviour. Haigh won a scholarship to attend Wakefield Grammar School, which meant he was a choirboy in Wakefield Cathedral. 

After leaving school, Haigh did clerical jobs. He also married in 1934, but the marriage was short-lived. Haigh turned to fraud, but he was not very good at it. He kept getting caught. His first prison sentence was in November 1934. He was released in December 1935. In 1936, he moved to London, hoping for a fresh start. For a time, he worked as a chauffeur for a young man named William McSwan. Haigh was convicted of fraud again in November 1937. He was released in 1940. He then worked as a fire watcher, alerting the fire brigade when necessary. However, in 1941 he was sent to prison again. He was released in 1943.

It has been suggested that Haigh may have been affected by his experiences during the German bombing, and that is what turned him to murder. Or maybe the third time he was sent to prison, he was determined not to get caught again. This time, Haigh obtained acid from the prison workshop. He also obtained dead mice that prisoners caught. He carried out experiments by dissolving dead mice in acid. It had obviously occurred to him that you could destroy a human body that way.

Haigh foolishly believed that he could not be convicted of murder if there was no body. He was wrong. English law does not require a body to prove murder. Haigh often said that murder could not be proved without a corpus delicti. But he misunderstood the Latin phrase. It does not mean a human body; it means a body of evidence.

This time, after being released from prison, Haigh turned to murder. His first victim was William McSwan, who had employed him previously. The two met, apparently by accident, and renewed their friendship. On 6 September 1944, Haigh lured William to a basement and hit him over the head with an iron bar. He finished off McSwan and placed his body in an oil drum. He then filled it with acid. After two days, William's body had dissolved into sludge, which Haigh poured down a drain.

Haigh told William McSwan's parents that their son had disappeared to avoid conscription. Haigh then persuaded them to employ him as a rent collector. On 2 July 1945, he lured William's father to a basement, where he killed him. His wife arrived about an hour later, and Haigh killed her too. He had two oil drums prepared to dissolve the bodies in.

Afterward, Haigh forged their signatures. He sold their property, and he persuaded people that they had emigrated to Australia. However, Haigh spent huge amounts on gambling and by 1948 he was beginning to run short of money. His next two victims were Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife Rosalie.

On 13 February 1948, Haigh persuaded Dr Henderson to come to a workshop he rented in Crawley, Sussex, by telling him he had an invention to show him. Haigh shot Dr Henderson and placed him in an acid bath. Later, he lured Rosalie Henderson to his workshop. He shot her and dissolved her in acid too. Once again, Haigh forged signatures, allowing him to sell their property. He managed to convince people that the Hendersons had gone to live in South Africa. But Haigh continued his lavish spending, and before long he was running short of money again.

His last victim was Olive Durand-Deacon. In 1949, Haigh was living at the Onslow Hotel in London. Mrs Durand-Deacon was a fellow guest. She was a wealthy widow, and befriended Haigh. She had a scheme to manufacture false fingernails, and Haigh feigned interest. He invited her to come to his workshop in Crawley. On 18 February 1949, Haigh gave her a lift there in his car. When she entered the workshop, he shot her in the back of the head. Haigh placed the body in an acid bath. He then sold Olive's jewellery. He took her Persian lamb skin coat to a dry cleaner.

Haigh then drove back to London. Later, he went back to the workshop and poured out the dissolved body on the ground. But Haigh was becoming careless. The body had not been completely destroyed, and traces of it remained on the ground. Meanwhile, the other residents of the hotel noticed Olive was missing and became concerned. A woman named Constance Lane told the police. They spoke to other hotel residents, and a policewoman, Alexandra Lambourne, was immediately suspicious of Haigh. She persuaded her superiors to check if he had a criminal record. They then found that Haigh had convictions for fraud.

They also discovered that Haigh had a workshop in Crawley. They searched it and found a receipt for Olive's lamb skin coat from a dry cleaner. They also found a recently fired revolver. And they found that Haigh had sold the missing woman's jewellery. Haigh realised the game was up and he confessed to the murder of Olive Durand-Deacon. He also told police about the other murders he committed. However, Haigh hoped he could escape execution by pretending to be insane. He claimed to be a vampire and that he drank the blood of his victims.

The police searched the ground around Haigh's workshop in Crawley. Despite his boast that he had destroyed the body of Mrs Durand-Deacon, traces of it were found, including animal fat, which does not dissolve in acid. Olive had been suffering from gallstones, and a layer of fat surrounded them and protected them from the acid. There were also fragments of foot bones (they probably survived because the body was not completely immersed). Most telling, the police found a denture, which a dentist identified as belonging to Olive.

Haigh went on trial on 18 July 1949. Haigh pleaded not guilty due to insanity. But the jury was most unlikely to accept his plea since he obviously killed people for their money. Nevertheless, the defence called Dr Henry Yellowlees, who said that Haigh was a 'paranoaic'. However, the prosecution lawyer asked Dr Yellowlees if Haigh knew he was doing something punishable by law. Yellowlees was forced to admit that he did. The prosecution lawyer then added 'Punishable by law and therefore wrong?'. Yellowlees had to say yes.

The jury found Haigh guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to death. John George Haigh was hanged on 10 August 1949.

Infamous Last Words

 I quite often read that an infamous murderer said something just before they were hanged, only to find out later that it almost certainly isn't true. Before he was hanged the poisoner William Palmer is supposed to have said 'Are you sure this thing is safe?'. But nobody who was present at his execution ever mentioned him saying that. The story that he did first appeared long after he was dead. Another poisoner called Thomas Neill Cream is supposed to have said 'I am Jack the ...' just before someone pulled the lever and he was hanged. Again, the same applies. The story first appeared in a magazine long after he was dead and nobody who was actually there ever mentioned him saying that. (In any case, he was in prison at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders).

A Video about Blossom Alley, 1923

 I also made a video about an unsolved murder in Blossom Alley, Portsmouth, in 1923.

Last Juvenile Hanged

 In Britain, the last person under the age of 18 to be hanged for murder was 17-year-old Charles Dobel on 2 January 1889. In 1933, the minimum age for hanging was raised from 16 to 18.

Jack the Ripper

I wrote about Jack the Ripper

An Unsolved Murder in Portsmouth, 1923

 A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923. The victim was Mary Frances Pelham, aged 37. According to newspaper reports, she was born in ‘the north of England’. During the First World War, she moved to Brighton and later to Portsmouth. She was separated from her husband. Mary was a kind woman, especially to local children. She was a sex worker, although she also sold flowers. She was known as Brighton Mary.

On 27 January 1923, a neighbour found her dead in bed in her hovel. The unfortunate woman had been strangled with a scarf or handkerchief. She was also stabbed or slashed with a broken bottle. A neighbour had seen Mary with a sailor the previous night. The navy held an identity parade and a woman did pick out one sailor but he had an alibi and was never arrested. The killer was never found.

The public was shocked, not just by the murder but by her living conditions. She lived in Blossom Alley, an alley 300 yards long and only 4 feet wide. Her home was a ‘one-up-one down’. Built in the 18th century it was one room over another joined by a ladder. 

The floors were sagging so the ceiling of the bottom room was 6 feet high at one end and 10 feet high at the other. Five houses shared three outside toilets and one water tap. Following the horrific murder, a great deal of slum clearance took place in Portsea.

Louisa Merrifield

 Louisa Merrifield poisoned a woman with phosphorus. She was born in Wigan, Lancashire, on 3 December 1906. She married her third husband, Alfred Merrifield in 1950. In 1951 they moved to Blackpool.

In March 1953, she was employed as a housekeeper to a 79-year-old woman named Sarah Ann Ricketts, who lived in a house she owned in Blackpool. Both Louisa Merrifield and her husband moved in with Mrs Ricketts.

Mrs Ricketts was so taken with her new companions that she made a will in their favour. They would inherit her house. That proved to be a deadly mistake.

Perhaps Merrifield was impatient to inherit the house. Or maybe she was afraid the old woman would change her will. At any rate, she turned to murder.

Sarah Ricketts had the odd habit of eating jam from a jar with a spoon and drinking rum with it. It’s believed that Merrifield added rat poison, which contains phosphorus, to it. Mrs Ricketts died on 14 April 1953, although a doctor visited her shortly before she died and found her to be healthy. 

Louisa Merrifield did not call a doctor until the next day. He was suspicious and he refused to issue a death certificate. Instead, he phoned the police.

An autopsy was conducted and the body was found to contain poison. Several witnesses told the police that they had seen Sarah Ricketts the day before her death and she seemed normal. She certainly did not seem ill. 

The police found that Merrifield had purchased rat poison from a chemist. (At the time, anyone who bought poison was legally obliged to sign a poisons register). The police also found a spoon with traces of poison, although Louisa had carefully disposed of all the jam jars Sarah Ricketts ate from.

Both Alfred and Louisa Merrifield went on trial on 20 July 1953. On 31 July, Louisa was found guilty and she was sentenced to death. Alfred Merrifield was acquitted, and he was released. Louisa Merrifield was not so lucky. She was hanged on 18 September 1953. She was the third-to-last woman to be hanged in Britain.