Blossom Alley - an unsolved murder in Portsmouth

 A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923.

Mary Wilson - the last woman sentenced to death in Britain

 Although Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain the last woman to be sentenced to death was Mary Wilson in 1958. 

Mary was born on 11 June 1889. She married a chimney sweep named John Knowles in 1912 He died in August 1955. Early in 1956 she married a painter and decorator named John Russell but he died early in 1957. At first, the two men were believed to have died from natural causes but later they were found to have been poisoned. 

In June 1957 Mary married Oliver Leonard. He soon fell ill and died on 3 October. 

A doctor ascribed his death to heart failure, although the truth is Mary poisoned him. On 28 October 1957 she married a fourth man, Ernest Wilson but he lived for only a short time after the wedding. He too, was poisoned. He died on 12 November 1957. At first his death was ascribed to natural causes.

However, people who knew Mary were suspicious. It was not just that her husbands kept dying; it was also the cheerful way she dealt with the deaths. It’s said that at her last wedding reception, Mary was asked what to do with the leftover sandwiches she said they would still be fresh for his funeral. (Such brazenness is common among multiple murderers. They often seem to think they will never be caught). Police began investigating and they exhumed the bodies of Oliver and Ernest.

She was convicted of poisoning two of her husbands, Oliver Leonard and Ernest Wilson with phosphorus, which was found in rat and beetle poison. She was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because of her old age (She was 68). The remains of her two other husbands, John Knowles and John Russell were exhumed and found to contain poison but it was felt there was no point in having another trial. 

Mary Wilson, the merry widow of Windy Nook died in prison in 1963.

Leopold and Loeb - murder in Chicago

 Nathan Leopold, aged 19, and Richard Loeb, aged 18, killed a 14-year-old boy in Chicago in 1924. Both were from rich families, and both were very intelligent. They excelled academically. Loeb graduated from the University of Michigan at age 17. Leopold was studying law at the University of Chicago and planned to study at Harvard Law School. Both seemed to believe they were superior beings, above ethics and the law. The two committed petty theft just for thrills before progressing to murder. They planned to commit the perfect murder. They didn’t. In fact, it was an incompetent crime, and they were easily caught.

The unfortunate victim was Bobby Franks, aged 14. On 21 May 1924, Leopold and Loeb hired a car. They chose a victim at random. Driving along, they saw a boy walking home from an after-school baseball game. Bobby didn’t know Leopold, but he knew the Loeb family. The murderers lured him into the car. They gagged him then hit him, repeatedly over the head with a chisel. Bobby suffocated on the gag.

They threw the chisel out of the car. It was found and handed in to the police. Leopold and Loeb then stripped the body and hid it in a culvert by a railroad. They poured acid over his face to make identification harder.

They sent a letter to the family of Bobby Franks saying he had been kidnapped and demanding a ransom of $10,000. In fact, Bobby was already dead. 

The body of Bobby Franks was discovered the next day, 22 May. Nearby, the police found a pair of glasses. They had an unusual hinge which allowed them to be traced to a certain optometrist. He had only made three prescriptions for that type of glasses. One of them was Nathan Leopold. He claimed he must have dropped them from his jacket pocket in the area when he was bird watching some days before. But it had been raining for days before the body was found and the glasses were dry. The police asked Leopold to demonstrate how the glasses could have fallen from his jacket pocket, but no matter how he bent over the glasses did not fall out. 

At first Leopold claimed he had driven with his friend Loeb to Lincoln Park, Chicago. Loeb confirmed his alibi. However, Leopold had typed notes for students at his law school. One still had the notes and the typeface was found to match the type on the ransom note sent to Bobby Franks’ family. Also, the Leopold family chauffeur made a statement that the car the murderers claimed they had driven around all day on 21 May had not left the garage that day.

Faced with the evidence, Loeb broke down and confessed. When he was told that Loeb had confessed, Leopold confessed too. They both blamed each other for the actual killing. Both denied any sexual assault took place.

The two were interviewed by ‘alienists’ as psychiatrists were then called. Neither showed any remorse for the crime.

The trial began on 21 July 1924. The killers were defended by the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow. They pleaded guilty, but Darrow pleaded with the judge not to impose the death penalty. 

He made a speech lasting two days. In the end, the judge did not sentence the two to death on the grounds of their youth. Instead, he sentenced them to life imprisonment plus 99 years for the kidnapping.

Richard Loeb was killed by another inmate in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958. He died of a heart attack in 1971, aged 66.

Styllou Christofi - the mother in law from Hell

 Styllou Christofi was the second-to-last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was born in Cyprus about 1900. In 1925 she was accused of murdering her mother-in-law by shoving a burning piece of wood down her throat. However, she was acquitted.

Her son Stavros moved to Britain. He worked as a wine waiter. He married a German girl called Hella and they lived in Hampstead, London. The couple had three children. In 1953 her Styllou went to live with her son and daughter-in-law. 

However, the two women did not get on at all. They argued constantly. Matters came to a head in 1954. Hella announced that she was going to take her three children on a holiday in Germany. She made it clear to Styllou that she wanted her gone by the time she returned to Britain. 

But Styllou had other plans. In the evening of 29 July 1954 she walked up to Hella and hit her over the head with a heavy ash pan from a boiler. She then strangled Hella with a scarf. Christofi removed Hella’s wedding ring. She then dragged the dead body into the back garden. In a futile attempt to destroy the evidence, she poured paraffin over it and set it on fire.

A neighbour saw Christofi standing by the fire but he thought it must be a mannequin. Later, Christofi ran into the street and approached a couple in a parked car. She said ‘Please come. Fire burning. Children sleeping’. The couple found the fire. The fire brigade were called and when they saw the burning body they called the police. 

Christofi claimed she was woken by male voices and had seen a man in the garden by the fire. She claimed she attempted to douse the fire with water. Not surprisingly, police did not believe her and they arrested her for murder.

While she was awaiting trial a doctor examined her and stated that in his opinion, she was insane. The defence team urged Christofi to plead not guilty because of insanity but she refused. Perhaps she was too proud. 

Christofi went on trial on 25 October 1954. She was found guilty and she was sentenced to death. Styllou Christofi was hanged on 15 December 1954. 

Belle Gunness

 Belle Gunness was a Norwegian-American murderer of the early 20th century. It’s not certain how many people she killed but the motive for murder was financial gain.

She was born in Norway on 11 November 1859. She was one of 8 siblings. Her father was a stonemason. 

Belle migrated to the USA in 1881. Her birth name was Brynhild but she began calling herself Belle. In 1884, she married a man named Sorenson. The two ran a candy store, which was not successful. It burned down and they claimed insurance money. The couple had four children. Sadly, two of them died, supposedly of acute colitis, although they may have been poisoned. Both children had life insurance. As well as her two surviving children, Belle had an adopted daughter called Jennie Olsen. 

Sorenson died in 1900 and Belle collected a large amount of insurance money. His death was ascribed to natural causes but he may have been poisoned.

Belle moved to La Porte, Indiana. In April 1902 she married a man named Peter Gunness. The two had a son. Unfortunately, Peter died in December 1902, supposedly, when a meat grinder fell off a shelf onto his head. At the time, it was decided that his death was an accident. However, Belle gained a large amount of insurance money after his death.

Belle began advertising in newspapers. She described herself as a ‘rich, good-looking widow’. She claimed she owned a large farm and she was looking for a man to marry.

The advert was soon answered. A number of men travelled to Belle’s farm, where they disappeared.  Belle persuaded them to hand over their savings to her. It’s not known how Belle killed her victims. She probably poisoned them. The bodies were buried on the farm.

In 1906, Belle murdered her adopted daughter, Jennie Olsen, aged 16, and buried her body on the farm. Jennie was probably killed because she suspected the truth. Belle told her neighbours that the girl had gone away to school. 

In 1907, Belle employed a farmhand named Ray Lamphere. She later fired him. Belle claimed that Lamphere threatened her life. 

Then, on 28 April 1908 Belle’s farmhouse burned down, killing her three children. The body of a woman was found in the burned ruins, but it was missing its skull. It’s not certain if the dead woman was Belle Gunness.

The farmhand, Ray Lamphere, was arrested for the murder of Belle Gunness and the three children. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of arson. Lamphere was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He died in December 1909.

The relatives of missing people told the sheriff of their suspicions that Belle had killed them. Digging began and the searchers found the body of Belle’s adopted daughter, Jennie Olsen. The bodies of 11 people were found buried on the Gunness farm. Unfortunately, most were too badly decomposed to be identified.

What happened to Belle Gunness is not known. Did she perish in the fire or did she fake her own death?

George Joseph Smith - the brides in the bath murderer

George Joseph Smith is known as the ‘Brides in the Bath’ murderer. He married women bigamously, insured them, and then drowned them in the bath. 

Smith was born in Bethnal Green in London on 11 January 1872. His father, Thomas Smith, was an insurance agent and the family was reasonably well off.  When he was 9 years old George Joseph Smith was caught stealing. Smith was sent to a reformatory for 7 years. 

In the 19th century, reformatories were established as an alternative to sending children to prison. In them, discipline was very harsh but boys were supposed to be taught a trade to help them live useful lives when they left.

However, it seems such a severe punishment embittered Smith and left him with a deep resentment of society when he was an adult. He certainly wasn’t reformed.

Like many murderers, Smith had a record of stealing before he turned to murder. He persuaded a woman, who worked as a domestic servant, to steal things for him. However, he was caught in 1896 and sentenced to a year in prison.

After he was released from prison, he used stolen money to open a bakery shop. In 1898, he married Caroline Thornhill. Eventually, his business failed, and he persuaded his wife, who was a servant, to steal from her employers. She was caught and imprisoned, while Smith disappeared. However, when Caroline was released, she spotted Smith by accident, and she called the police. Smith was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to two years in prison. 

Smith then began bigamously marrying women. He would persuade them to give him his savings and then he would disappear. Smith found it easy to find victims because, at that time, many men had emigrated to North America and Australia, hoping for better lives. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a shortage of eligible bachelors. 

Some women were very keen to get married, as life for a single woman was harder then than it is now. There were far fewer career opportunities for women and not having a husband made life difficult. No doubt, Smith could be charming when he wanted and he beguiled several women.

Eventually, Smith turned to murder. In 1910, he met a woman named Bessie Mundy in Bristol. She had inherited a considerable sum of money from her father. Bessie was in her 30s and, no doubt, was very keen to get married. 

Smith married her using a false name, Henry Williams, in Weymouth. However, Smith could not steal her fortune because her father had left it in the hands of trustees. (Perhaps he feared, rightly, that his daughter was naive and might be cheated out of her fortune). 

However, Bessie did have a relatively small amount of money of her own. Smith persuaded her to give it to him, after which he disappeared. He wrote Bessie a letter accusing her of giving him an STD. It was a pointlessly cruel accusation. 

Attitudes to sex and STDs were, of course, very different in the early 20th century and making such an unkind and shocking accusation shows that Smith was a vicious man.

Unfortunately, Bessie met Smith again in 1912 in Weston-Super-Mare. It was probably by accident that she saw him again. She spoke to Smith, who claimed it was all a misunderstanding. He thought it best to leave her when he found he had an STD, as he didn’t want to infect her. He also claimed he had been looking for her for a long time. Unfortunately, Bessie believed him. Sadly, Bessie was probably a gullible woman.  

The couple moved to Herne Bay in Kent. Smith realised that he could not steal Bessie’s fortune as it was held by trustees, as long as she was alive. However, if she made a will leaving it all to him and then died, he would inherit it. He could not obtain her money except by killing her. So Smith persuaded Bessie to make a will in his favour. He thought of an ingenious (and horrendous) way to murder Bessie and make it look like an accident. Smith went to an ironmonger and purchased an iron bath. He also sought out a doctor and told him Bessie had suffered an epileptic fit, although Bessie said she had only suffered headaches. 

On 12 December 1913 Bessie drowned in the bath. It’s thought that Smith grabbed her legs and pulled them upwards. The unfortunate woman’s head was submerged and the water rushing into her nostrils caused instant unconsciousness. Smith then held her until she drowned. There were no injuries to the body and no signs of a struggle. 

Smith summoned the doctor who found Bessie on her back in the bath with her legs protruding over the edge. 

The doctor assumed it was an accident, Bessie, he thought, had suffered a fit and had drowned in her bath. Subsequently, Smith inherited her fortune. 

Incredibly, Smith then took the iron bath back to the ironmonger and asked for a refund. He also arranged the cheapest possible funeral for Bessie. Such callous behaviour was likely to alienate people. If Smith had any sense, he would have tried to appear distraught over the death of his wife. In some ways, Smith was a very stupid man. Smith inadvertently left one vital clue. 

Bessie was clutching a bar of soap tightly in her hand when she died. The doctor noted that and later it was a useful piece of evidence against Smith.

Nevertheless, having got away with murder and made a great deal of money, Smith was bound to try it again. In 1913, he met a 25-year-old woman named Alice Burnham. He married her in November. Alice had some savings and Smith insured her life. 

Smith took the unfortunate woman to Blackpool and they stayed in a boarding house owned by Mrs Crossley. Once again, Smith summoned a doctor for his wife, claiming she was suffering from headaches. Smith drowned the unfortunate woman in a bath. Smith discovered the victim, and an inquest found that Alice accidentally drowned while having a fit. Smith inherited some money from her. He also pocketed her life insurance money. Once again, Smith shocked and alienated people by refusing to spend more than the bare minimum on a funeral. Mrs Crossley, who owned the boarding house, was suspicious of Smith but could not prove anything. An inquest was held but it found that Alice had drowned accidentally. 

The next victim was Margaret Lofty. Smith met her in Bath in 1914 and he persuaded her to marry him. This time, he called himself John Lloyd. Once again, Smith insured the woman and he persuaded her to make a will, leaving all her money to him. 

The couple married on 18 December 1914 and went to stay in a boarding house in London. On her wedding night, Smith called a doctor and told him his new wife was ill. Smith then told the landlady he was going to buy some tomatoes for his wife’s supper. 

On returning, he rang the doorbell. That was odd because he had a key. Smith had probably already drowned his wife but he wanted the landlady to know he was going out and when he returned. No doubt he hoped that when the death was discovered, the landlady would think Smith’s wife had drowned while he was out. 

However, this time, Smith’s luck ran out. The two previous deaths had been reported in local newspapers but this time the death of a woman on her honeymoon made it into the national press. The News of the World reported the story in some detail. Luckily, Mrs Crossley, the landlady of a boarding house in Blackpool where Smith murdered a previous victim, read it. So did Thomas Burnham, the father of Alice Burnham, whom Smith murdered in 1913. Both of them were struck by the similarities in the death of Margaret Lofty in December 1914 and that of Alice Burnham in 1913. Both suspected that  ‘John Lloyd’ was Smith using a different name. They urged the police to investigate. 

The police did. They quickly found that the last victim, Margaret Lofty, had been insured only three days before she died. She also made a will leaving everything to her husband, just hours before she died. They also found out that Alice Burnham had been insured shortly before her death.

The police waited for Smith to claim the insurance money for his last victim, Margaret Lofty. When he did, a detective asked him if he was John Lloyd. Smith said he was. The detective then asked if he was George Smith. At first, Smith denied it but eventually he was forced to admit it. He was arrested on a charge of bigamy.

The police then found that a similar suspicious death had taken place in Herne Bay, Kent, in 1912. It was the first victim, Bessie Mundy. However, the police could not explain

why there were no signs of a struggle or injuries on the bodies. 

Surely if Smith grabbed a woman’s head and held it underwater, she would have struggled desperately? The brilliant pathologist Bernard Spilsbury provided the answer. If someone grabbed a woman’s legs and pulled them upward, her head would be submerged and she would instantly lose consciousness. 

A nurse volunteered for an experiment. She lay in a bathtub and a man pulled up her legs. As Spilsbury predicted, she almost instantly lost consciousness. The brave woman had to be revived by a doctor. Nevertheless, the police could now prove how Smith had drowned his victims, with no signs of a struggle. It was also remembered that the first victim, Bessie Mundy, was tightly gripping a bar of soap in her hand when she was found. If she had suffered a fit, her hand would have relaxed and let it go. It was evidence that the loss of consciousness must have been sudden. Smith was charged with murder, and he went on trial on 22 June 1915. Not surprisingly, he was found guilty and he was hanged on 13 August 1915.

George Chapman

 George Chapman was born in Poland on 14 December 1865. (His real name was Severin Klosowski). He trained to be a barber-surgeon. He married in London, but he later left his wife. He moved to London probably in 1888. Klowoski was a barber in London. He eventually started calling himself George Chapman.

Chapman lived with women whom he called his wives, although he was already legally married. He physically abused his ‘wives’. He also poisoned three of them. The first victim was Mary Spink. Chapman gave up barbering and leased a pub. However, his ‘wife’ fell ill and died on 25 December 1897. 

Her death was ascribed to natural causes (many people died of diseases with symptoms similar to poisoning in those days, so it was often possible to poison someone without arousing suspicion). 

The second victim was Bessie Taylor. While Chapman was the landlord of a pub, he employed her as a barmaid, and she moved in with him. She, too, was abused by Chapman. She, too, fell ill and she died on 13 February 1901. Unfortunately, her death was thought to be due to a disease. 

Chapman’s third victim was Maud Marsh, whom he employed as a barmaid. He persuaded her to move in with him. However, Maud’s family did not trust Chapman. Maud fell ill in 1902. Her mother suspected her daughter was being poisoned, and when Maud died, the doctor refused to issue a death certificate. An autopsy showed that Maud had been poisoned with antimony. The bodies of the first two victims were exhumed, and they too were found to have been poisoned.

Chapman went on trial for murder on 16 March 1903. Not surprisingly, he was found guilty and he was hanged on 7 April 1903. 

It’s not clear why Chapman poisoned women. Maybe he grew tired of them and decided it was a convenient way of getting rid of them. Maybe he also got some satisfaction from poisoning people.

It has been suggested that Chapman was Jack the Ripper. However, there is no evidence to link Chapman to the Whitechapel murders. The murders he committed were different. Jack the Ripper killed strangers by cutting their throats and then mutilating them. Chapman married women and then poisoned them. Furthermore, at the time of Jack the Ripper, Chapman was only 23, which makes him younger than the man eyewitnesses saw.