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Kill Total: |
7 |
Kill place: |
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Kill date: |
1959-1965 |
Victim(s): |
Hannah Tailford
Irene Lockwood
Helen Barthelemy
Mary Fleming
Margaret McGowan
Bridget O'Hara
Gwynneth Rees |
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Date of Birth: |
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Marital Status: |
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AKA: |
Nude Murders |
Occupation: |
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Seventy years after "Jack
the Ripper" murdered and disembowelled prostitutes in
London's East end, a new generation of prostitutes
learned to live with the ever-present fear of a lurking
killer.
This "Jack" carried no
knife, but he was every bit as lethal (claiming seven
victims to the Ripper's five) and possessed of far
greater longevity (operating over nearly six years,
compared to the Ripper's 10 weeks). At the end of the
case, both killers shared a common attribute: despite a
wealth of theories and assertions, neither "Jack" was
ever captured or identified.
17th June 1959,
prostitute Elizabeth Figg, 21, was found floating in the
Thames, dressed only in a slip, her death attributed to
strangulation. As with many old unsolved cases there is
a discrepancy, another report says They stumbled across
the body of a woman, sat up against a small willow tree,
her blue and white striped dress torn open to reveal her
breasts and some scratches on her throat. She had been
strangled.
8th November
1963, Four and a half years passed before discovery
of the next victim, with the skeleton of 22 year old
Gwyneth Rees unearthed during clearance of a river
Thames-side rubbish dump. She was last seen getting into
a van on 29th September 1963.
The cause of death was
difficult to ascertain, and homicide investigators later
tried to disconnect both murders from the "Stripper"
series, but today the better evidence suggests that
these were practice runs, the early crimes committed by
a killer how had yet to hit his stride.
2nd February 1964,
Thirty year old Hannah Tailford was the next to die, her
naked corpse discovered in the Thames by boatman.. Her
stockings were pulled down around her ankles, panties
stuffed inside her mouth, but she had drowned, and the
inquest produced an "open" verdict, refusing to rule out
suicide, however improbable it seemed.
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9th April 1964, 20 year old Irene Lockwood was
found naked and dead in the Thames, floating 300 yards
from the spot where Tailford was found. Another drowning
victim, she was four months pregnant when she died.
Suspect Kenneth Archibald confessed to the murder later
that month, then recanted his statement, blaming
depression. He was subsequently cleared at trial.
24th April 1964,
Helen Barthelmy, age 20, was the first victim found away
from the river, her naked boy was discovered near a
sports field in Brentwood, four front teeth missing,
with part of one logged in her throat. Traces of
multicoloured spray paint on the body suggested that she
had been kept for a while after death in a paint shop
before she was dumped in the field.
14th July 1964, 30 year old Mary Fleming was
discarded, nude and lifeless, on a dead-end London
street. Witnesses glimpsed a van and its driver near the
scene, but none could finally describe the man or
vehicle with any certainty. Missing since 11th July,
Fleming had apparently been suffocated or choked to
death - as opposed to strangled - and her dentures were
missing from the scene.
25th November 1964, Margaret McGowan, 21, had
been missing a month when her nude corpse was found in
Kensington. Police noted the familiar traces of paint on
her skin, and one of her teeth had been forced from its
socket in front.
16th February 1965,
The last to die was 27 year old Bridget O'Hara, last
seen alive on 11tg January 1965, her body found hidden
in some shrubbery on the Heron Trading Estate in Acton.
Her front teeth were missing, and pathologists
determined that she had died on her knees. The corpse
was partially mummified, as if from prolonged storage in
a cool, dry place.
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Despite appeals to
prostitutes for information on their "kinky" customers,
police were groping in the dark. Inspector John Du Rose
suggested that the last six victims had been literally
choked to death by oral sex, removal of the teeth in
four cases lending vague support to the hypothesis. A
list of suspects had supposedly been narrowed down from
20 men to three when one of those committed suicide,
gassing himself in his kitchen and leaving a cryptic
note: "I cannot go on." It might mean anything - or
nothing - but the murders ended with the nameless
suspect's death, and so police seemed satisfied,
although the case remains officially unsolved.
Who was the Stripper? Suspects range from a deceased
prize fighter, Freddie Mills, who committed suicide in
1965, to an unnamed ex-policeman, but Du Rose favoured a
private security guard on the Heron Trading Estate, his
rounds including the paint shop where at least some of
the victims were apparently stashed after death. The
only "evidence" of guilt is the cessation of similar
crimes after the suspect's suicide, but numerous serial
killers have "retired" once they achieved a certain body
count. The best that we can say for Scotland Yard's
solution is that it is plausible…but unconfirmed.
Someone, possibly still alive may have a macabre set of
teeth as an ornament, possible still in the London area,
do you know JACK THE STRIPPER ?????
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