The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes (14 page)

Over press photographs of Meiwes sitting smoking in a restaurant with a bottle of wine on the table, came news that he was planning to write a book and was considering film offers. When the cannibal entered prison he became a vegetarian, supported the agenda of the Green Party and helped fellow inmates by writing letters for them.

The prosecution lawyers maintained that Meiwes was guilty of murder and appealed against his sentence. A re-trial was ordered and the cannibal was served his just desserts when a court sitting in Frankfurt in May 2006 found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Eager To Please

A young Eskimo hunter, called Aligoomiak, killed a tribal chief so that his uncle could take possession of the rival’s wife. He left a trail of death in his flight from the Mounties before ending up as a victim of “Neck-Tie Bill”.

An Eskimo tribe called Cogmollocks lived in the wilds of northern Canada, on Herschel Island inside the Arctic Circle. Their life was hard and conditions tough and unforgiving. They were skilled hunters and had a reputation for violence among themselves in inter-tribal disputes. White traders and missionaries were not welcomed and periodically ended up dead.

In 1922, a Cogmollock chief was killed in a dispute over ownership of a wife. The widow was taken by one of the dead man’s rivals, Pugnana, which left another contender dissatisfied. Tatamangama resolved to eliminate the man who had snatched his prize away. He enrolled his eighteen-year-old nephew, Aligoomiak, as the assassin.

During a hunting expedition with fellow tribe members, Aligoomiak bided his time and killed Pugnana with a single shot. The young man’s uncle took his dead rival’s wife and possessions and moved into his igloo. He rewarded Aligoomiak by giving him a new rifle and the death of Pugnana was reported as an accident.

When news of the death reached the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, an officer was despatched to Hershel Island to investigate. By bribing a few Eskimos to speak out, he established the broad facts of Pugnana’s death. As a result he arrested both Aligoomiak and his uncle and set off to take them to the nearest trading post, which was a long and arduous journey through blizzards and involved living off fish
and seal meat. However, when they reached their destination Aligoomiak killed the policeman and the trader manning the post.

Several months later the Mounties finally got their man when Aligoomiak, who had vowed to kill any white man who crossed his path, was once again arrested and charged with murder. At the end of 1923, after an epic journey of four thousand miles, a party consisting of a judge and several court officials arrived at Hershel Island from Edmonton. The group also included a hangman, William Brown, better known as “Neck-Tie Bill” whom the judge had brought along in case he was needed.

Aligoomiak put up a strong defence against the charge of killing the policeman who he said planned to eliminate him rather than bringing him to justice. His aim, he claimed, was to incapacitate the officer. Both Aligoomiak and his uncle were found guilty and sentenced to death. They were then handed over to “Neck-Tie Bill” and on 1 February 1924 the two Eskimos were hanged.

Will You Kill Me?

Late on the night of 10 June 1919, Sutton Police Station in the UK, received a call from a local resident reporting that he had found a man near his house who appeared to have been stabbed. On their way to the scene, officers stopped a young man in the street and questioned him. The answers he gave were not convincing and when he offered them money to let him go as he had a train to catch, he was assured of closer attention.

The injured man had sustained several stab wounds but was still alive. He was taken to hospital and the young man was conveyed to the police station. They each had a story to tell. Seventeen-year-old William Adams said he had encountered the man on the Thames Embankment. He was down on his luck and sixty-year-old George Jones offered him food and shelter. Jones told him that he could not afford to pay his income tax and said that life was not worth living. He said to
Adams, “I’ve done you a good turn. Now you do me one. Will you kill me?”

No doubt surprised by this request to commit murder, Adams answered, “I would if I had the pluck.” By arrangement, he subsequently met Jones and they went by tram to Tooting and then walked towards Sutton. Adams had another man with him, called Charlie Smith, a completely mysterious character who, despite the best efforts of the police, was never traced. The trio stopped by a field in Sutton and Jones repeated his earlier request saying, “I want to die. God help me, I want you to kill me.” He pressed into Adams’ hand a shoe-maker’s awl and said, “Stab me,” adding, “The best way is in the neck . . .”

Jones had prepared himself for the end by taking off most of his clothes and lying on the ground. Adams stabbed him three times in the neck and again in the stomach. None of the wounds were fatal and Adams tried to drag Jones to a nearby pond, presumably to drown him, but found his victim too heavy. Smith, apparently, was an observer of all this but not an active participant. Eventually, Jones was relieved of what little money he had on him and was abandoned to his fate.

George Jones, who had convictions for burglary and housebreaking, took three days to die in hospital. During that time, he made a dying declaration. He said that he had met Adams but could not understand why he wanted to stab him: “I have done nothing to him,” he said. He confirmed the presence of the mysterious Charlie Smith.

William Adams was tried for murder at Guildford Assizes. The jury found him guilty but, possibly believing him to be feeble-minded, added a recommendation to mercy. The sentence of death passed on him was commuted to life imprisonment by the Home Secretary.

CHAPTER 5

Justice Delayed

Several high-profile murder cases have been solved in recent times after having lain dormant for long periods. This has been due to a combination of factors such as the re-examination of crime-scene evidence under cold-case reviews and the benefits of groundbreaking advances in DNA technology.

The murder of elderly Hilda Murrell in 1984 made big headlines but lapsed into an investigation mired in conspiracy theory. The solution which emerged eighteen years later from a cold-case review aided by DNA evidence, proved to be a killing as a result of a bungled burglary.

The death of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992 also seized the headlines. The investigation into her murder faltered on bungled procedure and was finally resolved in 2008 after a cold-case review, again aided by DNA evidence, pointed the finger of guilt at a man already convicted of rape and murder.

Thirty-two years was the time delay in solving the murder of eleven-year-old Lesley Molseed in 1975. This was another high-profile case which led to a miscarriage of justice when Stefen Kisko was wrongly convicted of murder and served fifteen years imprisonment before his innocence was established. The forensic sample collected at the crime scene, which proved Kisko’s innocence, ironically, also led to the identification of Ronald Castree as the real killer after a further fifteen years had lapsed.

The elements of delayed justice in such cases serve many purposes, not least in demonstrating that crimes will be pursued resolutely for the benefit of society. There is also the benefit of closure for the families of victims and satisfaction for those working in the many disciplines charged with implementing investigative procedures.

More important than capturing the guilty perhaps, is freeing the innocent. The processes involved are often very similar. In the case of “The Cardiff Three”, new developments in DNA techniques applied to crime-scene evidence collected nine years previously irrevocably confirmed their innocence. This was vindication after they had been released from prison sentences based on unsafe convictions. A bonus for the judicial system was that a re-examination of the original evidence led, via the national DNA database, to identification of the murderer. This process took thirteen years.

While DNA has become an indispensable part of the crime-scene matrix, there are other powerful factors at work that serve the cause of justice. One of these is the nationwide scope of the news media and the part played by public information. Television programmes such as Britain’s “Crimewatch” and “America’s Most Wanted” stir memories of things seen and heard which can provide vital investigative clues. Eighteen years after he had murdered his family, John List was recognized by a member of the public from a description broadcast on US television. Thus was the murderer of five brought to justice.

Another American fugitive from justice was Ira Einhorn who remained on the run for twenty-five years. He was tracked down in Europe due to the vigilance of the international justice system. He too eventually faced the consequences of his crime. Ronald Jebson was on the run for thirty years before he was brought to book for the “Babes in the Woods” murders. Jebson was a dangerous paedophile with a string of offences but it took investigators three decades to put all the pieces in place and secure a confession.

Sometimes the truth emerges too late to confront the perpetrator. The murder of Rita Sawyer in 1970 was solved twenty-nine years later by a cold-case review of DNA evidence which established the killer’s identity. Although investigators had solved the case, they failed to bring the murderer to justice. He defeated them by dying before he could be confronted with his guilt.

Freeing the innocent is not always possible due simply to the passage of time. The young soldier convicted of killing Nellie Trew in 1918 was wrongly judged and, over eighty years later, a fresh analysis of the evidence showed that another man was the likely murderer. While such cases alter nothing, they show that the drive to achieve justice, no matter how long delayed, is an unending and worthwhile quest.

No Conspiracy

The murder of seventy-eight-year-old Hilda Murrell in 1984 raised a storm of controversy alleging involvement of British intelligence services and a cover-up. The reality of the elderly rose-grower’s death, when it was revealed eighteen years later, proved to be rather more mundane, although no less tragic.

Hilda Murrell was a spinster who lived on her own near Shrewsbury and was well known for her successful participation in local and national flower shows. The fact that she was an active campaigner in CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) won her a reputation as being mildly eccentric.

On 21 March 1984, she was abducted from her home and, three days later, her partly-clothed body was found six miles away on Haughmond Hill. She had been repeatedly stabbed and there were semen traces on her body. Police discovered that her telephone had been tampered with and the initial presumption was that she had been killed by a burglar in a crime that had gone tragically wrong. This view was supported by evidence that her house had been systematically searched and there was evidence of a struggle having taken place.

When the dead woman’s involvement in anti-nuclear campaigning came to light, conspiracy theories began to emerge. Speculation increased when it was learned that her nephew had served with naval intelligence during the Falklands War. Theorists had a field day with the idea that the elderly lady was killed by agents looking for hidden documents about the sinking of the Argentine battleship,
General Belgrano.

The inquest into Hilda Murrell’s death concluded that the most probable cause was hypothermia. In December 1984, the Coroner returned a verdict of unlawful killing and West Mercia police stuck to their view that she had been the victim of a random burglary.

Speculation about the death of the rose-grower continued over the ensuing years and became something of a cause célèbre. New developments in DNA testing were to be applied
to forensic traces collected at the crime scene. Questions were asked in Parliament and the Home Secretary acknowledged that new DNA tests would be carried out.

In April 2002, West Mercia police launched a cold-case review in the hope of clearing up the unresolved matter of Hilda Murrell’s death. Apart from the DNA evidence, the police had fingerprints and a footprint that had possibly been left by the killer.

This intensive re-examination of evidence led the police to Andrew George, a thirty-seven-year-old labourer who, at the time of the murder, was sixteen years old. Semen traces at the crime scene matched George’s DNA profile. He was arrested in June 2003.

George was tried for murder at Stafford Crown Court in April 2005. He protested his innocence. The prosecution argued that he broke into Hilda Murrell’s home and was disturbed when she returned. She was a feisty women, despite her age, and probably grappled with the intruder. After sexually assaulting her and attacking her with a knife, he drove to the spot where her body was dumped. The DNA match proved George’s guilt and the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. He was distraught and abusive when the verdict was announced. Mr Justice Wakerley sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Pleased at the outcome and vindicated in their original assessment, West Mercia police acknowledged that the case would have been solved more quickly had modern DNA techniques been available at the time. As it was, it was open to the free rein of wild conspiracy theories which consumed acres of newsprint.

Kill, And Kill Again

The murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in the UK in July 1992 was finally solved in 2008 when a serial rapist and murderer confessed to the crime. This followed a controversial police investigation involving a false accusation and bitter recriminations.

Twenty-three-year-old Rachel Nickell was walking with her young son on Wimbledon Common on 15 July 1992 when she was subjected to a frenzied knife attack. Her assailant stabbed her forty-nine times before getting clean away. She was found dead with her two-year-old son clinging to her body.