The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes

by Odell, Robin

  A Leg Of Pork

  On 23 November 1776, Cheshire farmer Newman Gartside was out on his land checking the boundaries. At a local beauty spot with a stream running close by he noticed something floating in the water. He fished it out and determined that it was a woman’s garment stained with blood.

  Helped by the young lad with him, he delved further into the water and to their horror retrieved a woman’s head. A constable was sent for and further searches were made, resulting in the discovery of more body parts including an arm and a leg. These appeared to have been disarticulated with some skill.

  The question everyone was asking as the news of the discovery spread concerned the identity of the woman. A shopkeeper from the nearby village of Astbury volunteered the information that a young woman dressed in blue had been in her shop. She knew her as Annie Smith, a singer of ballads who was supposed to perform at Congleton Fayre on 20 November but failed to turn up. The fact that copies of ballads had been found among the clothing dredged up from the stream, along with the body parts, confirmed the identification.

  Gossip and various theories tended to focus on Sam Thorley, a man in his fifties who was thought by some to be simple-minded and observed to have a quick temper. He was also a butcher. More information came in from public sources including the discovery of blood on a stile leading to a cottage where Thorley had once lodged. One of the locals took on the role of sleuth and visited widow Hannah Oakes who lived in the cottage.

  The widow related that Thorley had visited her on the night of the murder, furiously knocking on her door. He was wearing his trademark butcher’s apron and his clothes were wet. He explained that he had fallen in the stream. From the folds of his apron, he produced a joint of meat, which he put on the kitchen table, declaring that it was a piece of pork. He urged Hannah Oakes to cook it straight away. She demurred, believing that it looked “off”.

  Thorley reappeared at the cottage the next day when he cooked the meat himself and sat down to eat it. The result was that he fetched it up, confirming the widow’s opinion that it was indeed “off”. She did not throw it away but kept it in store to render it down for the fat.

  The amateur sleuth, now hot on the trail, examined the remains of the meat and thought it had the shape of a human leg muscle. A surgeon who scrutinized the flesh determined that it was of human origin.

  Thorley appeared at an inquest held in Congleton Town Hall when Hannah Oakes, the star witness, retold her story. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Sam Thorley and he was arrested and taken into the cells at Chester Castle. After spending four months in custody he was brought before the Chester Assizes in April 1777 and made a confession that sealed his fate. He said that he had been told human flesh was similar in taste to pork and decided to put theory into practice.

  Thorley was sentenced to death and was hanged before a large crowd on 10 April 1777. Part of his punishment was that his dead body would be hung from a gibbet. The butcher, in death, provided carrion for the crows.

  Not A Friend

  John Tawell survived transportation to Australia as a young man where he established a successful business and returned to England as a man deserving respect. He aspired to be a Quaker and adopted The Friends’ form of dress. He had a house in Berkhamsted, married and gave to charity.

  But the would-be Quaker had a secret; he had made Sarah Habler his mistress. He set her up with lodgings in Paddington in London and he paid her maintenance. For her part, Sarah did everything to protect Tawell’s reputation. She changed her name, cut herself off from her friends and family and moved from place to place. In due course, however, she became pregnant and thus an embarrassment to her lover.

  Tawell decided to eliminate his mistress by getting her to drink stout laced with poison. In September 1843, Sarah, now living in Slough, was taken ill but survived. He made another attempt to kill her in January 1845 and prepared an elaborate alibi for himself. He was seen in a businessman’s club in London and made a show of leaving his overcoat there. His next move was to make a dash to Paddington railway station where he took a train to Slough. He took some stout for Sarah, having laced it with prussic acid (cyanide), made a brief visit and hurried back to London by train. He arrived in time to retrieve his overcoat from the club at about 9 p.m., no doubt congratulating himself on having an alibi that placed him in London at the time Sarah Habler was succumbing to poisoning.

  Unfortunately for him, a person wearing Quaker dress was seen leaving Sarah’s house shortly before she was found dead. This description was telegraphed to the stationmaster at Paddington who related it to the police. Detectives observed his arrival by train from Slough and followed him to a coffee shop and thence to his lodgings.

  When he was questioned the next day, Tawell denied having been in Slough and said he had not left London. His lies were easily disproved and he was arrested, the first murder suspect to be detained by means of a telegram. Enquiries showed that Tawell had bought a quantity of prussic acid on the morning of the murder from a chemist in Bishopsgate.

  A post-mortem examination confirmed that Sarah Habler had been poisoned with prussic acid. Tawell’s rather inadequate defence was that the poison had come from eating apples, the pips of which contained cyanide. He then claimed that she had taken her own life. A guilty verdict was returned at his trial for murder and he was sentenced to death.

  He left a confession in which he stated his motive for poisoning Sarah was his constant dread that his association with her would become known and damage his exemplary character. He was executed in March 1845.

  A Dying Declaration

  Louisa Jane Taylor married a man considerably older than herself and became a widow at the age of thirty-six. In the spring of 1882, she moved into rented accommodation but was soon in trouble over rent arrears. As she sank deeper into debt, she visited friends who lived in Plumstead in south-east London.

  Mary and William Tregillis were both in their eighties and Mary was not in the best of health. Louisa asked if she could stay with them while she sorted out her life following the loss of her husband. She intimated that she had come into money and planned to move into a new house.

  The quid pro quo was that Louisa would act as nurse to Mary and indeed she slept in the same room as the old lady whom she called mother. About this time, Louisa began buying supplies of sugar of lead (lead acetate), a poisonous substance that also had a medicinal use in the treatment of skin rashes.

  The purchases of sugar of lead coincided with a deterioration of Mary Tregillis’ illness. Suspicion of Louisa also began to grow in William Tregillis’ mind when he noticed that some of their possessions had disappeared. More significantly, the debt-ridden Louisa had designs on his pension money.

  With his wife’s health declining, Tregillis decided to call in the doctor who had been in regular attendance but now began to suspect poisoning. He involved the police and Louisa was asked some serious questions once it was known she had been buying sugar of lead from the local pharmacist.

  On 10 October 1882, as Mary Tregillis was too ill to attend the magistrate’s court, the proceedings were held in the sitting room of her home. Directing the focus of attention at Louisa she said, “I was always in good health till she came.” Two weeks later, she was dead. In the meantime, Louisa had been charged with attempted murder and robbery.

  Louisa Taylor, now charged with murdering Mary Tregillis, was tried at the Old Bailey in December 1882. The victim’s deathbed statement was allowed in evidence and it was clear from this that she had been given white powder in her medicine every night. When she complained that the medicine made her throat burn, she was told it was good for her.

  Having heard the evidence, the jury retired and came back within twenty minutes to deliver a guilty verdict. Mr Justice Stephen, describing Louisa Taylor’s crime as a “treacherous murder”, sentenced her to death. Still maintaining her innocence, she was executed at Maidstone on 2 January 1883.

  Slept Like A Bab
y

  Twenty-five-year-old Gerald Thompson worked as a toolmaker at a factory in Peoria, Illinois. Between November 1934 and June 1935, he committed sixteen rapes and possibly more. His technique was to pick up lone women and drive them out into the countryside. He kept his victim captive in his car by ensuring she received an electric shock if she touched the door handles. When he was ready he cut the victim’s clothes off and tied her to the front of the car where he raped her. He took photographs of himself with the victim by means of a camera equipped with a self-timer.

  In June 1935, rape turned to murder when Thompson picked up Mildred Hallmark as she waited at a bus stop near Peoria. It was a wet night and he offered her a lift. He drove to Springfield Cemetery where he parked his car intending to embark on his usual rape routine. But he had reckoned without his victim’s fierce resistance. She fought him off and in the struggle he beat her and stabbed her. He left her, raped and dead, in the cemetery.

  Peoria was shocked at this latest outrage and an anonymous tip off from an earlier rape victim led investigators to Thompson. He lived with his grandmother and a search of his room revealed the scope of his activities as a practised rapist. Detectives found a horde of obscene photographs featuring Thompson with his various victims. There was also a diary in which he had recorded the identities of the women he assaulted, together with descriptions of what had taken place. Blood-stained clothing was discovered which irrefutably linked him to the murder of Mildred Hallmark.

  Following his arrest, there was an outburst of public anger and mobs demonstrated in Peoria threatening to string him up. Prior to his trial, Thompson had to be moved to a secret location to ensure his safety. There was extensive press coverage of his trial and his boast made to a friend that he averaged better than one rape a week for a year was revealed. He was also alleged to have said that after killing Mildred, he “slept like a baby”.

  Thompson’s trial at Peoria was a formality. The evidence against him, most of which he had provided, including a confession, ensured his conviction. He was sentenced to death and the only question was whether he would reach the electric chair before the lynch mobs got their hands on him. The man who liked to confine his victims with electricity felt the full force of the massive charges sent through his body when he sat in the electric chair at Joliet State Penitentiary on 15 October 1935.

  “We Shall Overcome”

  Stanley “Tookie” Williams was a former Los Angeles gang leader and convicted murderer who spent twenty-four years in Death Row at San Quentin Prison. He won international recognition for his stand against violence and was judged by many to have earned redemption.

  “Tookie” Williams was co-founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles in 1971. Gang members were blamed for scores of killings in urban wars disputing control of the streets and drug business. He was convicted of killing a store clerk during a robbery in 1979 and, several days later, of killing three people in a motel robbery. He strongly protested his innocence but was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

  While on Death Row, he campaigned against gang culture and wrote children’s books aimed at deflecting gang membership. He also appealed against his sentence, steadfastly maintaining his innocence, although he refused to apologise for crimes that he said he did not commit.

  His execution, when it came in December 2005, had all the elements of a ritual. Williams’s final appeal for clemency was refused by the Governor of California on 12 December on the grounds that without an apology there could be no redemption. The decision was received with fury in some quarters and concern was reflected around the world. A popularly expressed view was that if Williams did not merit clemency, what did clemency mean in California? The man on Death Row, in an interview with a news agency, retained his serenity, and said that fearing the end would not benefit him.

  As the time of execution drew near, unprecedented numbers of people gathered outside the gates of San Quentin Prison, singing “We Shall Overcome”. Even at this late hour, further appeals were made and rejected. Some protesters held up a banner featuring an image of California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and bearing the message, “Stop me before I kill again”.

  Nearly forty witnesses assembled in the death chamber as Williams received the lethal injection. At 12.35 an announcement was made to those mounting a silent vigil that “Tookie” Williams was dead. There were cries of “Long live Tookie Williams” and quieter suggestions that the rejection of clemency in this case was a moral failure.

  Identity Thief

  When a reclusive millionaire was found murdered in his north London home, the evidence pointed to identity theft as a motive. The investigation led to the first murder trial in Britain to be covered by a secrecy order on the grounds of national security.

  Eighty-four-year-old Allan Chappelow lived in a dilapidated house with an overgrown garden in Hampstead. He was a scholarly man and writer, regarded locally as a harmless eccentric, not least because of his habit of riding a motorcycle in his dressing gown.

  Concerns over his safety began to grow in May 2006 when there were reports that his bank accounts were being unlawfully accessed. When he did not respond to calls, the police became involved with what they thought might be a missing persons enquiry. It became known that when Chappelow returned home on 1 May after a visit to the USA, he found that the door of his house had been forced open and that mail had been stolen.

  On 14 June, the police entered his home and discovered his body, which was lying under a four-foot-high pile of papers. He had been severely beaten about the head, with injuries inflicted by a heavy instrument. There was a great deal of blood spatter and his clothes were covered in wax burns, suggesting that he might have been tortured for information. The body was badly decomposed and it was believed Chappelow had been dead for three weeks.

  Enquiries revealed that from mid-May until the middle of June, systematic attempts had been made to access the dead man’s accounts using information gleaned by theft of mail delivered to his home. Twenty thousand pounds had been transferred out of one of his bank accounts.

  The postman recorded a brief encounter he had with a Chinese person at Chappelow’s house who had quizzed him about the mail he was delivering. The man was forty-six-year-old Wang Yam, a British subject born in China. Yam, made a bankrupt in 2006 with debts of over £1 million, lived with his girlfriend in a house two streets away from Chappelow’s home. It seemed that the couple were behind with the rent and were facing eviction. Yam had set up an e-mail account in Chappelow’s name at an internet café which he then accessed from his flat. Aware that a police investigation was gaining momentum, he fled to Switzerland.

  Yam had graduated from a university in China and taken a lecturing post in Beijing. He became involved in the pro-democracy movement which alienated him from the Chinese government. He fled the backlash by escaping to Hong Kong where he was accepted as an asylum seeker in 1992 and later became a British citizen.

  Following his extradition from Switzerland, Yam was charged with murder, theft and fraud, which he denied. His story was that a gang had murdered Chappelow and they had passed on to him the credit cards and bank details so that he could steal from the dead man’s accounts. Forensic examination of the cigarette butts found at the crime scene established that the DNA on them was not Yam’s.

  He was tried at the Old Bailey in April 2008 when the Home Secretary ruled that most of the evidence would be heard in secret. This was because of Yam’s background as a Chinese dissident when he worked as an informer for MI6. The jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder but he was found guilty of fraud. At his second trial in January 2009, he was found guilty of killing Allan Chappelow for the purpose of stealing his identity. Yam claimed that he had been framed. In a criminal case that made legal history, he was sentenced to a minimum of twenty years in prison.

  Puppet Master

  On New Year’s Day 2008, fourteen-year-old Stefanie Rengel was stabbed to death outside her
home in East York, Toronto. She was in the family home with her brother when she was lured outside by a nineteen-year-old youth acting on instructions from his girlfriend. He stabbed Stefanie six times and left her dying on the snow-covered ground.

  The instigator of the killing was a fifteen-year-old girl who could not be named because she was regarded as a youth offender. In March 2009, her boyfriend, referred to as DB, appeared in court to answer charges of murder. He pleaded guilty and was duly convicted.

  The girl who had orchestrated the killing was tried as a youth offender and throughout the initial proceedings was referred to as MT. The prosecution case was that she was obsessively jealous of Stefanie whom she had never met, but regarded as a rival. Over several months, she used all her powers of persuasion to coerce her boyfriend to kill Stefanie. She pestered him with telephone calls and text messages until he finally gave in and agreed to do her bidding. In one message MT said simply, “I want her dead” and she turned the screw further by threatening to “block” DB “until you kill her”.

  The defence argued that MT suffered from a body-image disorder which made her anxious and insecure. She was obsessed about her appearance, believing she was fat, ugly and unattractive. Her insecurities, it was said, made her anxious about her self-image and she saw threats in others who she viewed as rivals. A forensic psychiatrist testified that she had a borderline personality disorder.

  In March 2009 MT was convicted of first-degree murder. In further court proceedings in July, she read a tearful statement apologising to the family of the dead girl and admitting full responsibility for what had happened. Stefanie Rengel’s mother made a moving victim-impact statement concerning the violent death of her young daughter. Her poignant words about her grief made a powerful impression on the public.

  On 28 July, MT appeared in court to face her sentence. At issue was whether she would continue to be treated as a youth offender, in which case she would receive a lesser sentence than if she was sentenced as an adult. The prosecutor argued for an adult sentence. He said that MT had calculated the murder over several months and he dismissed the extenuating circumstances that the defence had proposed.