by Odell, Robin
The pathologist determined that he had been struck nine times with a heavy implement probably while he lay asleep. There were some curious features at the crime scene. Apart from thumbprints on the bedhead, there were unusual blood patterns on the sheet and a clear palm print on the pillow. The person who left the handprint had distinctive lines on the palm, which when impressed with blood on the pillow formed an “E” shape.
William Nelson was an old soldier and it was surmised that he might have taken an old army mate back to his flat who robbed and killed him. Not much headway was made by detectives until 23 June when a letter was received at police headquarters in Manchester. This was written in code and referred to the murder of William Nelson. A few days later, another communication was received, comprising a detailed plan of “The flat of the late William Nelson”. Clearly the murderer was playing a game with the police.
On 13 August, a man calling himself Frank and plainly drunk, dialled 999 and was put through to police HQ. He taunted officers with the boast, “I did it. Come and get me. . .” The call was traced to a phone booth at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station and minutes later, the caller, Frank Goodman, was in custody.
His fingerprints were taken and found to match those left at the crime scene. Twenty-two-year-old Goodman, an unemployed fitter, said he met Nelson in a pub and the old soldier took him back to his flat. Goodman admitted killing him. He also decoded his message, which amounted to another confession to attempted murder. Two weeks before he killed Nelson, he attacked a man on a train, robbed him and threw him out of the carriage. The victim of this attack was Dennis Cronin who had ended up in hospital with severe head injuries.
A search of Goodman’s home yielded the murder weapon, which proved to be a long, heavy threaded bolt. It was this implement that had left the unusual bloodstains at the scene of William Nelson’s murder. The palm print with its “E” shape impression proved to be a virtual signature as far as Goodman was concerned.
He was charged with murder and appeared at Manchester Crown Court in December 1962. He pleaded not guilty to capital murder but guilty to murder. The distinction lay in changes in the law abolishing the death penalty for most types of murder but the ultimate penalty still applied for capital murder which included killing in the furtherance of theft.
The hearing lasted two minutes and Goodman was sentenced to life imprisonment. The charge of attempted murder was not pursued. Dennis Cronin died of his injuries three years after he had been attacked.
Wedding Night Killer
Basil Laitner was a wealthy solicitor and his wife, Avril, was a medical practitioner. Basil and Avril Laitner celebrated the marriage of their eldest daughter on 24 October 1983 with a reception held in a marquee at their home in Dore, Sheffield, in the UK.
Just hours after the guests had left, the Laitners and their son Richard were stabbed to death. Their eighteen-year-old daughter, Nicola, was raped but otherwise unharmed and was able to give police a description of her attacker. He was a man already known to the police who had escaped custody while attending Selby magistrates court a month previously.
Arthur Hutchinson was charged with alleged offences of rape and theft. During the course of his escape at Selby he had cut himself. This was to prove significant for detectives investigating the murders at Sheffield. Hutchinson had a rare blood group and blood of the same type was found on the bed in the room where Nicola had been assaulted. Also, his palm print was found on a champagne bottle in the wedding reception marquee and, if further evidence was needed of his presence in the house, it was provided by his teeth. He had taken a bite out of a piece of cheese in the Laitner’s refrigerator, leaving an identifiable dental impression.
Forty-three-year-old Hutchinson was a man with a colourful lifestyle. One of a family of eight born in Durham, he had worked as a trainee miner, farm labourer and as an entertainer at circuses and fairgrounds. He had been married twice and had a record of offences involving indecent assault and theft. His life was that of a petty criminal and he was known as a man with a strong sexual appetite.
He tried to evade capture after the murders by keeping on the move, travelling from one northern town to another. He also changed his hairstyle to alter his appearance. The police finally caught up with him at Hartlepool where he was arrested on 5 November 1983. He commented to officers, “I should have stayed in my fox-hole, shouldn’t I?” He denied being at the Laitner’s house and denied the killings.
“The Wedding Night Killer”, as he had been called by the press, was sent for trial at Durham Crown Court in September 1984. He told a fanciful story, relating that he had met Nicola Laitner in a public house in Sheffield two nights before the murders. She invited him back to the house after the wedding reception and he alleged that she willingly responded to his sexual advances. He left at about 11.00 p.m. but returned later because he had left his coat behind. On entering the house, he said he was attacked by Nicola wielding a knife who explained that her parents had been killed by intruders.
Defence counsel claimed that Hutchinson lied repeatedly because he thought it would protect his innocence. Nicola Laitner denied that she had invited him to her home. She said she heard her mother’s screams and then the intruder came into her bedroom and said, “Scream and you’re dead.” He ordered her downstairs and into the marquee where he handcuffed her and committed rape.
The jury took four hours to consider their verdict and decided unanimously that Hutchinson was guilty on all charges. The man in the dock showed no emotion on hearing the verdict. Mr Justice McNeill told him that he was, “. . . arrogant, manipulative, had a self-centred attitude towards life, and a severe personality disorder which is not amenable to any form of treatment.” He sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended that he should serve at least eighteen years.
The apparently lenient sentence provoked fierce headlines in the tabloid press. The Sun led with, “Only 18 Years! Storm as wedding massacre monster gets soft sentence.” The Chairman of the Police Federation described the sentence as “far too low for the atrocious crimes committed”. One question that was not resolved was Hutchinson’s motive. It was suggested that he acted as he did against a wealthy family because he was an individual who had struggled and achieved very little in his life.
“. . . Beyond Good And Evil”
The “Night Stalker” terrorized Los Angeles in 1985, leaving a trail of rape and murder in his wake. His calling card was a scrawled satanic symbol left at the crime scene, denoting that he was a devil worshipper.
In six months, this man had murdered thirteen times and raped eleven other victims. The killer chose suburban locations close to main roads and struck at night when his victims were asleep; a modus operandi that earned him the title of “Night Stalker”. He gained entry to apartments through unlocked windows or insecure doors. He countered any possible resistance by killing male occupants before sexually assaulting their female partners.
The stalker’s killing methods were brutal, including, throat-cutting, multiple stabbing, shooting and mutilation. A number of victims survived and told police of a black-clad intruder with a gaunt face and rotten teeth. He frequently made reference to the devil and told one victim to, “Swear upon Satan that you won’t scream for help.”
Fearful citizens began to arm themselves, buying guard-dogs and installing surveillance equipment. Perhaps because of increased security, the “Night Stalker” travelled to San Francisco in August 1985 and continued his killing there. He kept on the move and attacked a woman in her apartment in a small township south of Los Angeles and shot her partner. By a stroke of luck, his assault victim spotted him leaving the area in a rusting orange-coloured Toyota car.
Identification of this car proved to be the undoing of the “Night Stalker”. It was found abandoned and detectives were able to get fingerprints from it. Within hours, the serial killer was identified from police records as twenty-five-year-old Richard Ramirez. Mug-shots of the stalker soon appeared on televisio
n screens and in newspaper reports.
On 31 August, Ramirez was spotted by an alert member of the public in a liquor store in a Los Angeles suburb. A hue and cry ensued and the killer was chased through streets and gardens before being overpowered by a construction worker. When the police arrived, Ramirez, fearing for his life, asked them, “Save me before they kill me.” He was arrested and taken away as an angry mob bayed for blood. He also said to the officer who arrested him, “Shoot me, man – kill me. I don’t deserve to live.”
It took four years before the judicial system was ready to put Ramirez on trial. In September 1989, he smirked and sneered at the testimony given by some of his victims. He appeared before the court showing his palm on which was marked an inverted pentagram, his symbol of devil worship, and, at times, shouting, “Heil Satan”.
On 20 September, Ramirez was found guilty on various counts; thirteen murders and numerous felonies including rape, sodomy and burglary. Before being sentenced, he told the judge, “I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil, legions of the night breed – repeat not the errors of the Night Prowler and show no mercy.” He received twelve death sentences and life sentences of imprisonment of over a hundred years. He joined the other death row inmates in California’s penal system where no death sentence has been carried out for nearly twenty years. Meanwhile, the “Night Stalker” receives offers of marriage from women who admire his sweet nature.
The Diabolical Lovers
A Belgian couple, Peter Uwe Schmitt and Aurore Martin, conspired to murder each other’s spouses and collect the insurance money.
Their diabolical pact began to unravel with the death in 1995 of Marc Van Beers, Martin’s husband. While the couple were on honeymoon in Corsica, their car went off the road and into a deep ravine, killing Van Beers, while Martin miraculously survived. She claimed to have been thrown clear of the vehicle moments before it plunged into the ravine.
Martin moved quickly to cash in insurance worth £400,000. Her insistence that her husband’s body be cremated raised suspicions. Examination of the body showed that he had been bludgeoned to death before the car went over the ravine. It also appeared that insurance documents had been forged.
Investigators discovered that Schmitt, who was Martin’s lover, had lost his wife in remarkably similar circumstances in 1992. A few months after they were married, Ursula Deschamps lost her life when her car plunged into a canal and she was drowned. Her husband Peter had a remarkable escape when he swam free from the sinking car.
His claim was not without suspicion, chiefly on account of the fact that his clothes were remarkably dry. Schmitt was charged with involuntary homicide and he served two months of a suspended sentence. Meanwhile, he scooped £280,000 from his late wife’s insurance and went to live with his lover, Aurore Martin, in Florida.
The couple, known in the US as the “honeymoon killers”, were extradited to Belgium in 1998. They protested their innocence. They were tried for the murder of Marc Van Beers at a hearing in Brussels. Prosecutors contended that Schmitt was in Corsica at the same time as Aurore and Marc and that he paid to have Van Beers beaten up.
But for Aurore’s insistence on a cremation, they might have got away with this crime. When the circumstances of Schmitt’s wife’s untimely death became known, comparisons were inevitable. In both cases, separated by three years, the spouse was murdered and the body placed in a car. The first sank beneath the water of a canal and the second disappeared over a ravine. And, in both instances, the passenger had a miraculous escape from death.
With insurance payouts totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds, Schmitt and Martin, “the Diabolical Lovers”, went off to live in America and lead a life of luxury. Schmitt had been married a few months when he disposed of his wife, and Martin was on honeymoon when her husband was eliminated. Schmitt, aged thirty-one, was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment and Martin, one year older, was jailed for fifteen years.
Granite Woman And Lover Boy
Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray created sensational headlines in the New York newspapers in 1927 as their trial for murder progressed. They were referred to as “The Granite Woman” and “Lover Boy”.
Thirty-two-year-old Ruth Snyder was trapped in an unhappy marriage to Albert Snyder, thirteen years her senior and a dull, if successful man. Ruth yearned for excitement and her chance came when she met Henry Judd Gray in New York. He was a corset salesman and, like Ruth, was unhappily married.
Ruth and Judd met clandestinely in hotel rooms for nearly two years. This was not quite the life she wanted so she hatched a plan whereby she would be both rich and free of marital encumbrance. Her idea was to insure her husband for a large sum and then murder him.
Judd was, to say the least, apprehensive about the scheme and he turned to drink to ease the pressure Ruth put him under. But she nagged him constantly and when he declined to co-operate she tried her hand at poisoning husband Albert. She failed in these attempts, so kept up the pressure on Judd to fulfil her wishes. “What are you trying to do?” he asked. “Kill the poor guy,” replied Ruth.
Finally, his resolve broke and he agreed to eliminate Albert Snyder whom Ruth had insured for $96,000. On 19 March 1927, fortified with generous doses of whisky, Judd entered the Snyder household and waited in the dark until Ruth and Albert returned from a party. While Albert, the worse for drink, retired for the night, Ruth and Judd engaged in love-making in the spare room where she had thoughtfully laid out the implements of murder, including a heavy sash-weight, chloroform and picture wire.
Once they had sated their sexual appetites, Ruth took Judd into the bedroom where her husband lay sleeping. Taking the sash weight, Judd smashed it down on Albert’s head. He was only stunned and began shouting and struggling with his attacker. Ruth responded by hitting him again with the sash weight. Still he did not succumb, so the chloroform and picture wire were brought into use, and he finally expired.
The deadly duo faked a robbery and Ruth was bound and gagged which was how she was found when the alarm was raised next morning. She told police she had been attacked by a prowler and several items had been stolen. When these same articles were found hidden about the house, suspicions started to form. Judd Gray’s name was recorded in her address book. When the police used the ploy that he had been arrested, Ruth was tricked into a confession.
Under questioning, Ruth said that they had plotted to kill her husband but that she had not struck a single blow. Weak-kneed Judd admitted his part in the plot and said, “She told me what to do and I did it.”
The pair were put on trial in New York in April 1927 and it turned out to be a major attraction. Many celebrities of the day took seats in the public gallery and the press were well represented. “The Granite Woman”, as she was now called, attempted to shift blame on to “Lover Boy”. Judd’s defence played the hapless male card. The poor man was drawn into the spider’s web, weakened by her passionate entreaties. The jury took an hour and a half to bring in a guilty verdict and Snyder and Gray were sentenced to death.
Their appeals were dismissed and while waiting on Death Row, each wrote an autobiography. Ruth Snyder received over 160 offers of marriage from men who clearly wished to bring some excitement into their lives. “Lover Boy” and “The Granite Woman” were executed within a few minutes of each other at Sing Sing Prison on 12 January 1928. The last act in a bizarre case came in the form of a photograph taken of Ruth as she died in the electric chair. This was the work of a newspaper reporter who secretly recorded her moment of death using a camera strapped to his ankle. This was published on the front page of the New York Daily News under the headline, “Dead!”
The Tourist From Hell
John Martin Scripps was an international criminal and opportunist who travelled the world’s airways in search of human prey, earning him the name, “The Tourist From Hell”.
Scripps was jailed for drug offences in the UK in 1987 and 1991 and, on both occasions, managed to abscond from cu
stody. While in Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight he learned the butchery trade and acquired skills that he put to use when he later graduated to serial killing.
In early March 1995, Scripps was staying in Singapore where he befriended a visiting South African, Gerard Lowe, and offered to share a hotel room. As others would find to their cost, Lowe was charmed by the tall, smiling Englishman, and agreed to his proposal to save money.
The next morning, the hotel security guard observed Scripps leaving the hotel carrying a heavy suitcase. Scripps returned, minus the bag, to check out, explaining that Lowe had left earlier. Two days later, dismembered body parts appeared in the sea near Clifford Pier. Scars enabled police to identify the victim as thirty-three-year-old Gerard Lowe and they learned that he had been staying at a hotel in a shared room. It also appeared that large sums of money had been withdrawn from his account using his credit card.
An alert was put out for the smiling Englishman who had travelled to Thailand and was foolish enough to return to Singapore on 19 March when he fell into the arms of waiting police. His luggage contained a stun-gun, hand-cuffs, a hammer and numerous knives. Also in his possession were passports and credit cards belonging to a Canadian mother and son, Sheila and Darin Dalmude.
The Dalmudes had travelled on the same flight as Scripps to Bangkok on 11 March. Their dismembered remains were found in the Phuket area later the same month.
Once in custody, the full extent of Scripps’s criminal activities became evident. In addition to murders committed in Thailand and Singapore, he was believed to have killed a British tourist in Mexico in 1994. His criminal career spanned thirteen years and three continents. He used his mild-mannered charm to offer friendship to people he met on his travels and then resorted to brutal murder to plunder their bank accounts.