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. 

Edward Pritchard - the Human Crocodile

 Edward Pritchard was a poisoner. The press dubbed him the Human Crocodile. He was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, on 6 December 1825. His father was a naval officer. At the age of 21, Edward became an assistant surgeon. In 1851, he married Mary Jane Taylor, a woman from a wealthy family. The couple moved to Hunmanby in Yorkshire. They had 5 children. 

However, Pritchard had a reputation for being a liar. He was also a womaniser. In 1858, he moved with his family to Glasgow. Pritchard continued womanising. Then, in 1863, a servant girl named Elizabeth McGirn died in a fire at his home. Strangely, the girl had not attempted to escape; she was found lying on a bed. Nothing was ever proved, but it’s possible Palmer drugged her and then started the fire. Perhaps Pritchard made her pregnant, then decided to kill her to get rid of her. 

In 1865, Pritchard poisoned his mother-in-law, Mrs Taylor, and his wife. Pritchard’s wife, Mary Jane, fell ill, and her mother moved in to nurse her. Mrs Taylor fell ill and died on 28 February 1865. Her daughter died on 18 March 1865. A Dr Paterson, who attended the sick woman, refused to sign a death certificate, so Pritchard signed one himself.

However, someone (probably Dr Paterson) wrote an anonymous letter to the police accusing Pritchard of murder. The bodies of both victims were exhumed and were found to contain antimony. The police also discovered that Pritchard had purchased large amounts of poison shortly before the two women died.

Pritchard was charged with murder, and he went on trial in July 1865. He was found guilty and he was hanged in front of a large crowd in Glasgow on 28 July 1865. 

It was the last public execution in Glasgow. (Public executions were banned in Britain in 1868).

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. 

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 Briggs ’ 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 boarded 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.

Henri Landru - Bluebeard

 Henri Landru persuaded rich women to marry him. He took their money then killed them and disposed of the bodies. He was called Bluebeard because he was like a character in a French fairy tale. 

Henri Landru was born in Paris on 12 April 1869. Like other murderers he had a history of crime before he turned to murder in 1915. He was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud in 1900. It was the first of many sentences.

Landru placed adverts in the ‘Lonely Hearts’ pages of a Paris newspaper using a false identity. Landru was completely dishonest and callous but he could also be charming. 

After meeting a suitable rich woman Landru promised to marry her and persuaded her to give him her life savings and valuables. He then invited her to come to his villa in a village near Paris. 

It’s not known how Landru killed his victims. He may have strangled them. It’s believed he dismembered the bodies and burned them in a stove. When women disappeared their families were naturally suspicious but they did not know Landru’s real name. 

Landru’s first victims were a woman named Jeanne-Marie Cuchet in 1915 and her teenage son Andre in 1915. They were followed by nine others. 

Landru’s downfall began when on or about 1 September 1917 Landru murdered a woman named Celestine Buisson having pocketed her savings. Landru went on to murder three more women. However in 1919 Madame Buisson’s sister saw Landru in Paris and recognised him. She followed him into a shop and heard him order a china dinner service to be delivered to his home. The sister informed the police. 

From the shop they obtained the address where Landru was living (under a false name). When he was arrested Landru was found to be carrying a notebook which contained details about missing women.

The police searched Landru’s villa and found many fragments of bone and teeth among ashes. Witnesses said they had sometimes seen black smoke coming from his chimney. The police also found clothes and papers belonging to his victims. Landru went on trial on 21 November 1921. He was accused of the murder of 10 women and one teenage boy. On 30 November he was found guilty of 11 murders and he was sentenced to death.

Henri Landru was guillotined on 25 February 1922.

In 1947 Charlie Chaplin starred in a film called Monsieur Verdoux. It was inspired by the case of Henri Landru. 

Fritz Haarmann - the Butcher of Hanover

 Fritz Haarmann was a German serial killer. He was born in Hanover on 25 October 1875. At school, he was a low-ability student. At the age of 15, Fritz was sent to a military academy but he was soon discharged after showing symptoms of epilepsy. Fritz then worked in his father’s cigar factory. 

Haarmann began luring boys to secluded places then sexually abused them. He was soon arrested but he was diagnosed as ‘incurably deranged’. He was detained in a mental asylum but in 1897, he escaped to Switzerland. He returned to Hanover in 1899. 

He was conscripted into the army in 1900. He later claimed that he enjoyed his time in the army but he was discharged from the army on medical grounds as he had mental health problems.

He was awarded a pension but it was not enough to live on. So Haarmann turned to stealing. 

In 1914 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison but he was released in 1918. Despite his criminal record, he became a police informer. 

He also became a murderer. His first victim was a 17 year old boy named Friedel Rothe who was killed in October 1918. Later Haarmann the police caught Haarmann in bed with a 13 year old boy. He was sentenced to 9 months in prison. 

On his release in 1919 he met a man named Hans Grans. The two began a relationship and Grans later became an accomplice. 

The pair met boys at the railway station and lured them into Haarmann’s home, where they were killed, dismembered and thrown into the River Leine. Haarmann sold the boys' clothes. 

The second murder was in February 1923 and many more followed. Haarmann claimed he strangled boys by biting their throats. However, inevitably people began to find human remains in the river. In May 1924 children found a human skull on the banks of the river. A pathologist said it was the skull of a young man and it had been cut from the body.

Meanwhile people had, of course noticed the large number of teenage boys who were disappearing in Hanover. In the following weeks three more skulls were found. Children also found a sack of bones near the river. Eventually the police dredged the river and they found hundreds of human bones. Haarman was a suspect because of his previous offences against boys and he was placed under surveillance. Two undercover policemen saw him arguing with a 15 year old boy. 

Foolishly, Haarmann himself went to two other officers and demanded they arrest the boy for travelling with forged documents. The boy told the police he had been staying with Haarmann for several days and that the adult had sexually assaulted him several times. 

The police arrested Haarmann and searched his apartment. They found the walls and floors were bloodstained. Haarmann claimed the bloodstains were from animals he had butchered and sold. But the police also found large numbers of clothes and other personal effects. 

The police placed the clothes on display in the police station and the relatives of the missing boys were invited to look at them to see if they could identify them. Many of the clothes were indeed identified as belonging to missing youths. Eventually Haarmann confessed to the murders, although he claimed he couldn’t remember how many boys he had killed. In the end the police were able to identify 27 victims. 

The trial began on 4 December 1924. Haarmann was convicted of 24 murders, he was acquitted of 3 of them. He was sentenced to death. 

His lover Hans Grans was also put on trial. He was also found guilty of being an accomplice and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.  

Fritz Haarmann was executed by guillotine on 15 April 1925. Haarman’s head was preserved for research. It was finally cremated in 2014. 

Marcel Petiot - the deadly doctor

 Dr Marcel Petiot was a French doctor who killed 27 people. Petiot was born on 17 January 1897. Like many murderers, Petiot had a history of petty crime before he started killing people. At the age of 17 he robbed a post box. In 1916 he was conscripted into the French army. However, Petiot showed many signs of mental illness. In July 1919 he was discharged from the army with a disability pension. 

Despite that, he was able to study medicine under an accelerated education programme for war veterans, and he qualified as a doctor in 1921. Petiot practiced medicine in Villeneuve.

Marcel Petiot became mayor of Villeneuve in 1926. In 1927 he married and they had a son the next year. Following many accusations of stealing he was suspended as mayor in 1931. He later resigned and in 1933 he moved to Paris. He purchased a building in Rue Lesueur. 

In 1940 the Germans conquered France. The German army occupied northern France, including Paris. From November 1942 they occupied the whole country. Dr Petiot thought of an ingenious way to make money. Many rich people were desperate to escape from occupied France. Dr Petiot offered to arrange to smuggle them out of France to South America in return for a large sum of money. 

He told them they would need a vaccination against malaria or some other infectious disease. He told them that, as a doctor, he could give them the vaccination himself.

When the victim arrived at his surgery, Petiot told them he would give them the required vaccination. Instead, he injected them with cyanide. When the victim was dead, Petiot would dispose of the body with quicklime or he burned them in a stove. 

Dr Petiot killed people during 1942 and the early months of 1943. In May 1943, Petiot was arrested by the Gestapo and held on suspicion of helping people to escape from France. However, he was released in December 1943. Why they released him is not certain but Dr Petiot soon returned to killing people. 

His crimes came to light on 11 March 1944. Black smoke was pouring from a chimney of a house in Rue Lesuer. A neighbour called the police. The police phoned Dr Petiot, who promised to come to the building. Thinking a chimney must be on fire the police called the fire brigade. Firemen who entered the building discovered human remains burning in a stove. When Dr Petiot arrived, he informed the police that the dead bodies were those of traitors. The police allowed him to go. Petiot promptly disappeared. 

Dr Petiot was arrested on 31 October 1944. He claimed he was a member of the resistance and that all the people he killed were collaborators. 

However, the police could find no evidence that he had ever been part of the resistance. Dr Petiot went on trial on 19 March 1946. On 4 April he was convicted of 26 murders. 

(He was acquitted of one of the murders he was charged with though it is very likely he was guilty). Marcel Petiot was guillotined on 26 May 1946.