John Robinson - Hanged by a matchstick

 On Friday, 6 May 1927, a man deposited a trunk at Charing Cross Railway Station in London. By Monday, 9 May, the trunk was beginning to stink. Staff alerted the police and when the trunk was opened, it was found to contain several paper parcels. They contained parts of a body. The murderer had cut off a woman's head, arms and legs and then wrapped them and the torso in parcels and placed them in the trunk. The woman had suffered blows to the head but she had died of asphyxiation. 

However, the murderer was inept. Some items of clothing were also found in the trunk. They were traced to a Mrs Holt, who suggested they had been stolen some time before by a Mrs Rolls, who she had once employed as a cook. 

It turned out that Mrs Rolls was actually Minnie Bonati, aged 36. She was separated from her Italian husband and she was a sex worker. 

The police appealed for information. A taxi driver remembered collecting a man with a heavy trunk outside a block of offices in Rochester Road in London. He drove the man to Charing Cross Railway Station. 

Two vital clues were found in the trunk. A teatowel had a label with the name 'Greyhound' stitched onto it. It was traced to the Greyhound Hotel in Hammersmith, London. A woman named Mrs Robinson worked there and police found her husband, John, had an office in Rochester Road.

Unfortunately, neither the taxi driver nor the railway employee could identify John Robinson. However, the police found a tiny but vital clue. In a wastepaper basket in Robinson's office, they found a bloodstained match. It was found to be the same blood type as Minnie Bonati. At first, Robinson denied all knowledge of the murder but he could not explain how the bloody match got there. 

Eventually, Robinson admitted to killing Bonati but he claimed it was an accident. According to him, she visited his office, and she became abusive and demanded money. He pushed her over, and she hit her head and died. He said he panicked and dismembered the body. Not surprisingly, the police did not believe him. 

Nor did the jury. A pathologist said the injuries to her head were not sufficient to kill her. Bruises on the victim's chest suggested that Robinson knelt on her and he may have suffocated her. On 13 July Robinson was found guilty of murder. He was hanged on 12 August 1927.

Herbert Rowse Armstrong

 Herbert Rowse Armstrong was the only British solicitor to be hanged for murder. He was born in Devon, England, on 13 May 1889. He qualified as a solicitor in 1895, and he moved to the small town of Hay-on-Wye in 1906. In 1907 he married a woman called Katherine and they had three children. Armstrong served in the British army during the First World War, and he reached the rank of major. After the war, he returned to being a solicitor. 

By all accounts, Armstrong was dominated by his wife, Katherine. For instance, she would not allow him to smoke, except in one room and never outdoors. However, Katherine became mentally ill. In July 1920 Armstrong persuaded her to make a will leaving all her money to him. 

Then in August 1920, she was admitted to an asylum. She was released in January 1921. Unfortunately, she then became physically ill and she died on 22 February 1921. At first her death was ascribed to natural causes, but she had actually been poisoned with arsenic. Armstrong wrote in his diary 'K. died'. Perhaps he grew tired of her controlling ways but he also benefited financially from her death. 

Later that year, a rival solicitor in the town, Oswald Martin, received a box of chocolates. He did not eat any of them himself but a guest did and became violently ill. The chocolates were examined and it was found that arsenic had been injected into them from the bottom. 

On 26 October 1921 Armstrong invited Martin to tea. When Martin arrived selected a buttered scone and handed it to his guest, saying 'excuse my fingers'. Shortly afterwards, Martin became violently ill. His father-in-law was a chemist and he suspected Martin had been poisoned. He sent a sample of Martin's urine to be examined it was found to contain arsenic. It was now obvious that Armstrong was trying to kill his business rival. 

The police began investigating. Armstrong kept inviting Martin to tea. Fortunately, Martin kept thinking of excuses to refuse.

On 31 December 1921, Herbert Armstrong was arrested for attempted murder. The police discovered that Armstrong possessed a considerable amount of arsenic, which he had divided up and placed in 20 paper packets. The body of his wife, Katherine, was exhumed and was found to contain arsenic. On 19 January 1922, Armstrong was charged with her murder. The trial began on 3 April 1922. 

The defence claimed that Katherine committed suicide by swallowing arsenic. But a doctor testified that it would have been impossible for her to rise from her bed, just before she died and obtain the arsenic. She was too ill. A nurse testified that Katherine said, 'I am not going to die am I? Because I have so much to live for, my children and my husband'. It was obviously murder, not suicide. 

Armstrong claimed that he used arsenic to kill weeds but he could not satisfactorily explain why he had sachets of arsenic. He was asked why he put arsenic into paper packets. Why didn't he simply pour arsenic from the original container onto the roots of weeds? Armstrong replied, 'I really do not know. At the time it seemed the most convenient way of doing it'. It seemed more likely that he kept sachets of arsenic to poison people.

Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Katherine and he was sentenced to death. Herbert Rowse Armstrong was hanged on 31 May 1922.

The Shark Arm Case, Sydney

 The Shark Arm Case happened in Sydney, Australia, in April 1935. Fishermen caught a 14-foot-long live tiger shark. It was put on display in Coogee Aquarium but at about 5 pm on 25 April 1935 (Anzac Day) the shark regurgitated a tattooed human arm. The arm was well preserved and it had a tattoo of two boxers. It had a rope tied around its wrist. A medical examination showed it had been cut off, not bitten off. The shark had eaten the arm at least 8 days before. Clearly, this was a case of murder, not an accidental death. But where was the rest of the body?

A man named Edwin Smith recognized the description of the tattoo and told police the arm might belong to his brother James. He had gone missing weeks before. The police were able to obtain fingerprints from the hand and they confirmed that it did belong to James Smith. He was a construction worker and a boxer. He was 40 years old. His wife had reported him missing on 8 April 1935.

Police found out that James Smith had last been seen drinking with a friend called Patrick Brady. Afterward, they went to a cottage hired by Brady. The owner of the cottage said that a mattress and a tin trunk had gone missing. The police thought that Brady murdered James Smith and placed his body in the tin trunk. Perhaps one arm wouldn’t fit so he cut it off and tied it to the trunk. He then dumped the body in the sea but a shark swallowed the arm.

The police also found evidence that James Smith had worked for a man named Reginald Holmes. Holmes was a wealthy boat builder but he was also involved in drug smuggling. He admitted Smith had worked for him. However the two men had fallen out and, the police believed, Smith had been blackmailing Holmes. He was killed to silence him.

On 16 May 1935, the police arrested Patrick Brady. Then on 20 May Reginald Holmes was arrested. He now told police that Brady killed Smith. He said Brady brought the severed arm to his house and tried to blackmail him with it, threatening to kill him too if he did not pay a sum of money.

However, on 12 June Reginald Holmes was found shot in his car. Without his testimony, there was not enough evidence to convict Patrick Brady. He was brought to trial in September 1935 but Mr Justice Jordan directed the jury to acquit him. Patrick Brady was formally acquitted on 12 September 1935. He died in 1965.

 

Gordon Cummins - The Blackout Ripper

 Gordon Cummins was a serial killer in Britain in 1942. He was known as the Blackout Ripper because he killed women during blackouts. During the Second World War, all lights had to be hidden to avoid helping enemy bombers. 

Windows were covered to prevent lights in buildings from shining out, and the streets were unlit. That was known as the blackout. Of course, the blackout provided many opportunities for crime, and as a result, it became much worse. 

Gordon Frederick Cummins was born in York in 1914. His parents were middle-class. Cummins went to school till he was 16 and then went to college in Northampton till he was 18. However, Cummins was a lazy student. He was fired from his first job for laziness. He joined the RAF in 1935. However, Cummins was known as a fantasist who told tall tales. He was not popular with his peers. In 1936 he married a young woman named Marjorie Cummins.

In the early morning of 9 February 1942, the body of a woman was found in an air raid shelter in Marylebone, London. She had been strangled with her scarf and then dumped in the air raid shelter. The woman’s handbag was found near the scene, but it did not yield any clues.

The unfortunate woman was identified as Evelyn Margaret Hamilton, aged 41. She was a pharmacist from Newcastle. She worked as a shop manager in Essex. Unfortunately, she had lost her job. Evelyn managed to get another job in Grimsby, and she was staying in London on her way to her new position. She was last seen alive in a cafe, and the police believed she was attacked while she was walking back to her boarding house. At first, they thought it was a robbery that went wrong.

On 10 February 1942 another crime was discovered. Evelyn Oatley, aged 35, was found dead in her apartment in Soho. Evelyn was a sex worker. She met Cummins and took him back to her home. Her throat had been cut with a razor, and the body had been slashed. A blood-stained can opener was found on the bed. It had been used to mutilate the body. Fortunately, the police found a fingerprint.

The third victim was Margaret Lowe, aged 42. She was also a sex worker. It is believed she was murdered on 11 February 1942 in her flat in Gosfield Street off Tottenham Court Road. However, her body was not discovered until 13 February. She had been strangled and stabbed multiple times. The pathologist Bernard Spilsbury described the mutilations as ‘quite dreadful’. Once again, the police found fingerprints.

The fourth victim was Doris Jouannet. She was last seen alive on 12 February 1942, and her body was found the next day at her home in Paddington. She had been strangled with a scarf and then mutilated.

On the evening of 13 February, Cummins attacked a woman named Mary Heywood in Picadilly. He met her in a bar and persuaded her to come with him to another pub for a drink. However, in a dark street, Cummins tried to strangle the woman. Fortunately, a young man heard a commotion and went to help. Cummins fled the scene and in his hurry, he left behind his gas mask and haversack, which had his name and air force number.

The RAF confirmed that the gas mask belonged to an airman called Gordon Cummins. The police arrested him for the assault on Mary Heywood, and on searching his living quarters, they found belongings of the murder victims. The police also found that Cummins’ fingerprints matched those found at the crime scenes.

Cummins denied the murders and claimed that another serviceman had stolen his gas mask and committed them. Not surprisingly, the jury did not believe him. Cummins was tried for murder. On 28 April 1942, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Gordon Cummins was hanged in Wandsworth prison in London on 25 June 1942, during an air raid. 

A Few Facts to Keep You Hanging Around

 On 24 November 1740, William Duell was hanged for murder. He was taken to the surgeons and laid out to be dissected, but he regained consciousness (in those days, hanging killed by strangulation rather than by breaking the neck). Duell had his sentence commuted to transportation.

In 1803, a man named George Foster was hanged for the murder of his wife and child. An Italian named Galvani had recently made a dead frog's legs move by touching them with a wire carrying an electric current. Surgeons experimented with the dead body of Foster. When his arms and legs were touched with electrified wires, they moved. When his head was touched, an eye opened.

On 20 March 1809, Mary Bateman was hanged in York for murder. Afterwards, people paid 3 pence (a significant amount of money at that time) to see her dead body. It was very popular and about 2,700 people paid to see it. Later, her body was dissected by surgeons.

Crime During the Second World War

 In Britain, the Second World War created new opportunities for crime. The crime rate rose by 57% between 1939 and 1945. The blackout meant all indoor lights had to be hidden by dark curtains or other means. Street lights were switched off or dimmed, so German planes could not spot British cities from the air. But the dark streets also encouraged burglary. German bombing meant looting became widespread.

In 1940, the death penalty was introduced for looting, although nobody was actually executed. Bombed buildings were often looted, especially shops. People also stole rings and other valuables from dead bodies. They also stole from the living. In London, people used the Underground stations as bomb shelters. Thieves would wait till people fell asleep, then steal their bags. There were also pickpockets operating among the crowds.

Another crime was fraud. People were given some compensation if they owned a house and it was bombed. Some people falsely claimed their house had been bombed. Because so many houses were being damaged or destroyed, it was initially difficult to process claims. However, the government began checking more carefully in 1941. A man named Walter Handy had claimed to have been bombed 19 times. He was given a 3-year prison sentence. The murder rate also increased by 22% in Britain during the Second World War.

Franz Muller

 Franz Muller, a German, was the first person to murder someone on a train in Britain. Muller was born on 31 October 1840. He became a tailor. In 1864, he was living in England but he struggled to make a living.

At that time, trains were divided into carriages, without connecting corridors. On 9 July 1864, a train was travelling between two railway stations in North London, Fenchurch Street and Hackney. It arrived at 10.11 pm. Two men entered a carriage and they immediately spotted blood. They called the guard who also saw blood. He found a stick, a beaver skin hat and a bag. The carriage was sealed and it was sent for examination.

At 10.20 pm a train was travelling in the other direction when the crew spotted the body of a man lying by the track. The man was still alive but he died of head injuries the next day. He was identified as 69-year-old Thomas Briggs, a chief bank clerk. Mr Briggs had been beaten and thrown off the train. Whoever killed him had stolen his gold watch and chain, but failed to take £5 (a large sum of money at that time) from his pocket. 

Thomas Brigg’s relatives identified the bag and the stick found in the carriage but they did not recognise the hat. 

It seems that in his hurry, the attacker had taken the wrong hat, leaving his behind. He also failed to search the victim’s pockets.

A jeweller named John Death said that a man with a German accent came to his shop on 11 July, two days after the murder and sold him a gold watch chain (but not the watch). The chain was identified as belonging to the victim. A reward of £300 was offered for anyone who gave information leading to the arrest of the murderer.

A cabdriver named Jonathan Matthews didn’t hear about the murder until nine days after it happened. Matthews said he didn’t read newspapers, as they were expensive). He knew Franz Muller, and he became suspicious. Muller had given his youngest daughter a box from Death’s jewellers. Matthews took it to the police. Fortunately, he also had a photo of the suspect. The police took the hat found in the carriage to Muller’s landlady. She confirmed that it was his. He had foolishly left it behind and taken the victims.

Muller had boarded a ship to the USA on 15 July but two policemen boarded a faster ship and they arrived in New York before Muller. When the ship carrying Muller arrived, they went on board and arrested him. Among his luggage they found Thomas Brigg’s watch and his hat (although it had been altered, it was still identifiable). Muller was then extradited to stand trial in Britain.

The trial began on 27 October 1864. Muller denied being on the same train as the victim but the jury did not believe him. Muller was sentenced to death and he was hanged on 14 November 1864.