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200 INTRODUCTION The bludgeoned skull The acquittal of In the US, prime Dr Hawley Crippen of a Neanderthal man murderer Daniel suspect Lizzie Borden is hanged at M’Naghten on the found in a cave in grounds of insanity is acquitted of the axe Pentonville Prison, Northern Spain is the sets a legal precedent murder of her father London, for the murder earliest evidence in English law. and stepmother. of his wife, Cora. of murder. 430,000 YA 1843 1892 1910 1762 1879 1905 1914 French cloth merchant Domestic maid Kate In England, the In Paris, an all-male Jean Calas is executed Webster, known as Stratton brothers are jury cites “unbridled for the murder of his eldest the Dripping Killer, convicted through fingerprint evidence, female passion” son, who was about to is executed in when acquitting convert to Catholicism. London for murdering and executed. Madame Henriette Caillaux of murder. her employer. H omicide is the killing of committed by an accomplice Cold-blooded killers one person by another. during a felony. By contrast, in the Outside the criminal justice Although not all homicides UK, first degree murder involves system, criminologists classify are murder, every murder is a premeditation, while second degree violence as being “reactive” or homicide. Yet while homicide may murder occurs in the heat of the “instrumental” in nature. Reactive be tolerated, or even championed, moment, with a clear intent to kill violence is hot-blooded, happens such as state-approved executions, but an absence of prior planning. spontaneously, and characterizes murder is always condemned. It is most homicides. The murders usually defined as “the unlawful The case of woodworker Daniel detailed in this chapter are killing of a human being with M’Naghten in London in 1843 set a instrumental: cold-blooded, malice aforethought.” precedent for “not guilty of murder premeditated, and goal-driven. by reason of insanity.” In English Their motivations differ widely, Murder by degree law, this can only occur if the from profit (the Stratton brothers), The law distinguishes between defendant is able to clearly prove sexual gratification (the Black different types of murder, and these that “at the time of the committing Dahlia murder), to revenge vary across legal jurisdictions. The of the act, the party accused was (Roberto Calvi). degree of prior intent is critical. In labouring under such a defect of the US, most states distinguish reason, from disease of the mind, Historically, many middle- and between premeditated murder; an as not to know the nature and upper-class women have been intention to commit serious bodily quality of the act he was doing; spared conviction for murder due to harm that results in murder; a or if he did know it, that he did false assumptions about femininity killing that results from extreme not know he was doing what was and violence. The most shocking recklessness; and a murder wrong.” Most US states have a case was that of Madame Caillaux, similar law regarding sanity. caught red-handed for premeditated

MURDER CASES 201 Elizabeth Short, Charles Whitman Mark David Chapman Former football star known as the Black carries out the Texas shoots John Lennon O.J. Simpson is tried Dahlia, is murdered Towers Massacre, the and dismembered first mass shooting dead in New York. for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her in Los Angeles by on a US campus. an unknown killer. friend Ron Goldman. 1947 1966 1980 1995 1948 1969 1993 1996–97 Sadamichi Hirasawa is In California, the Two 10-year-old boys In the US, rival found guilty of the cultlike Manson become the youngest hip-hop stars Tupac Family carry out nine convicted murderers Shakur and Biggie Teigin Incident, a mass poisoning committed murders over a in British history for Smalls are killed by a bank robber in five-week period. the murder of in separate drive-by downtown Tokyo. James Bulger. shootings. murder in early 20th-century death row before his acquittal. Although the number of victims France but acquitted because it The Japanese artist Sadamichi in such killings are higher than in was assumed that women could Hirasawa, who was widely thought single, double, or triple homicides, not control their emotions. Similarly, to be innocent in the Teigin Bank they are invariably regarded as the trial of American axe murderer murder case, died behind bars single events by the general public. Lizzie Borden was governed by the without his name being cleared. In contrast to a serial killer, a spree belief that a lady was incapable of Even being acquitted, however, killer does not return to the routine slaying with a hatchet. However, leaves a stain on the character of of their daily life, only to strike such attitudes did not protect the person accused – particularly again at a later date. Typically, 19th-century London maid Kate when the defendant is a celebrity, spree killers either never reoffend Webster – who murdered her such as O.J. Simpson. or, having crossed the line, wealthy employer – nor Lindy continue to murder until they are Chamberlain, whose unexpectedly Mass murderers killed or apprehended. calm reaction to her baby’s Mass murders are considered a disappearance led to her wrongful separate category and involve four Technological advances in the conviction for stabbing the child or more victims killed in the same field of forensic sciences – from to death in Australia in the 1980s. place: the Texas Towers Massacre DNA fingerprinting to forensic and the Teigin Incident are facial reconstruction – are allowing The social stigma and harsh examples of this type of crime. investigators to reopen closed and legal penalties resulting from a unsolved cases. These advances wrongful murder conviction can The Manson Family tend to be also make it increasingly difficult devastate the life of an innocent characterized as “spree killers” – for guilty people to walk free, and person. Former US Marine Kirk alienated individuals or groups correspondingly, for an innocent Bloodsworth spent nine years on who embark on a deadly rampage. person to remain behind bars. ■

202 AC“SNAMSUEON,KULISINKUGEAGLAULYN”CLEAR THE NEANDERTHAL MURDER, 430,000 YEARS AGO IN CONTEXT S ome 430,000 years ago, high Modern forensic techniques were in the Atapuerca Mountains used to study the angle of the two LOCATION of northern Spain, a lethal fractures at the front of Cranium 17, Atapuerca Mountains, assault was committed. The and recreate impact trajectories. The northern Spain victim, a young adult Neanderthal, results supported the murder theory. received two blows to the head, THEME just above the left eye. These were collecting – their dead far earlier Earliest known murder made by the same implement, but than was previously thought. from different angles, suggesting Scientific analysis of the victim’s AFTER two separate, deliberate strikes. skull, which included a CT scan 5000 bce In an early Neolithic and a 3D model, led researchers to settlement in southwest At some point after his or her conclude that the owner of Cranium Germany, 500 people – babies, death, the victim’s corpse was 17 had not died as the result of an children, and adults – are dropped down a 13-metre (43-ft) accident, but by violence inflicted killed and cannibalized. vertical shaft into a pit within a by a fellow Neanderthal. It may cave complex. The remains lay represent the first case of murder 392–201 bce In Ireland, two undisturbed until an international in human history. ■ men are tortured and killed as team of archaeologists discovered part of a ritual sacrifice and the site – dubbed the Sima de los their bodies dumped in a peat Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) – in 1984. bog. Their mummified remains are found by workmen in 2003. Historic revelations The victim’s skull – known as c.367 ce At Vindolanda, Cranium 17 – was found smashed a Roman fort near Hadrian’s into 52 fragments, among more Wall in Britain, a 10-year-old than 6,500 bones belonging to at child is killed by a blow to the least 28 early human individuals head and buried in a pit in unearthed from the underground a barrack room floor. The cave. It is not clear how the bodies skeleton is discovered in 2010. ended up there, but it is believed they may have been deliberately deposited in the pit after death. This suggests that early humans began burying – or at least

MURDER CASES 203 WOPEFIRTJHPUESTTHTRIEACTSEEWDORD JEAN CALAS, 1761 IN CONTEXT O ne October night in 1761, brink of converting to Catholicism, Marc-Antoine Calas was and that his father must have killed LOCATION found hanged in his father him to prevent this. Jean Calas was Toulouse, France Jean’s textile shop. Deep in debt, arrested by the authorities, along the Frenchman was believed to with four other suspects. THEME have killed himself. His untimely Wrongful execution death was a personal tragedy for A gruesome trial his family, but as Huguenots The Toulouse magistrate asked BEFORE (Protestants) living in a resolute witnesses to come forward. Their 1673 American colonial settler and unforgiving Roman Catholic testimony was merely hearsay, but Rebecca Cornell dies in an country, their problems had just in 18th-century France, that was accidental house fire. But her begun. Crowds gathered and accepted as evidence. Calas’s case son Thomas, with whom she suspicion ran rampant: it was said went to an appellate court, which did not get along, is hanged that Marc-Antoine had been on the voted to convict and condemn him. for her murder after hearsay is The sentence called for Calas to be offered as evidence at his trial. It would seem that fanaticism interrogated under torture, in the is angry at the success of hope that he would confess and AFTER reason, and combats it ever implicate his four co-conspirators. 1785 Anna Göldi, a Swiss more furiously. But Calas steadfastly protested his maidservant to a physician, is Voltaire innocence. He was then broken on accused of witchcraft by her the wheel, strangled, and burned. employer (and rejected lover) and executed. In 2007, the Soon after, the philosopher Swiss parliament declares the Voltaire took up Calas’s case, case a miscarriage of justice. believing he had been wrongly executed. In a press campaign, 1922 In Australia, Colin Voltaire convinced many that the Campbell Ross is hanged for judiciary had allowed prejudice the murder of a 12-year-old girl. against Huguenots to influence the The case is re-examined using verdict. After a three-year crusade, modern forensic techniques, Calas’s conviction was overturned. ■ and Ross is posthumously pardoned in 2008. See also: Sadamichi Hirasawa 224–25 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65 ■ The Dreyfus Affair 310–11

204 IRNNEOSATASGNOUINTIYLOTFY BY DANIEL M’NAGHTEN, 1843 IN CONTEXT I n 19th-century England, it had for centuries been accepted LOCATION in law that some criminal London, UK defendants should not be held responsible for their actions THEME because of mental “defects”. The Botched assassination courts also made a distinction between criminals who knew right BEFORE from wrong, and those who did not. 1800 James Hadfield tries to But in 1843, a case challenged the shoot Britain’s King George III status quo and saw the formation at a London theatre. He is tried of a new standard for evaluating for high treason, but acquitted the criminal responsibility of those on grounds of insanity when defendants pleading insanity. doctors give evidence on his mental state. He spends the Mistaken identity Daniel M’Naghten was almost rest of his life in a hospital. On 20 January 1843, Scottish certainly suffering from paranoid woodworker Daniel M’Naghten schizophrenia. His trial was a AFTER set out to assassinate Britain’s landmark in that it established a 1954 Monte Durham, a young Tory Prime Minister, Robert Peel, legal definition of criminal insanity. man with a history of mental in London. With murderous intent, illness, is convicted of he approached a man whom Guilty but insane housebreaking in Washington, he believed was Peel walking At M’Naghten’s trial the defence D.C. The appellate court finds towards Downing Street, site of the lawyers called nine witnesses who that he is not criminally government’s headquarters. He testified that he had been acting responsible because he is was, in fact, Edward Drummond, “suspiciously” and had paranoid mentally ill, broadening the Peel’s secretary. M’Naghten calmly delusions. The accused admitted defence beyond one of drew a pistol and fired at point- his plan to murder Prime Minister knowing the difference blank range into Drummond’s back. Peel after being “driven to between right and wrong. It He was apprehended by a nearby desperation by persecution.” is later reversed. police officer before he could fire a During the police interrogation, second shot. Drummond died a few M’Naghten claimed to have been days later, and M’Naghten was hounded by the ruling Tories who charged with his murder.

MURDER CASES 205 See also: Jeffrey Dahmer 293 ■ The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln 306–09 ■ The Assassination of John F. Kennedy 316–21 followed him everywhere and The M’Naghten Rule wanted to murder him. The prosecution argued that, in spite Defendant is presumed to be sane of what they called his “partial insanity”, M’Naghten was capable His or her legal Defence shows that the of knowing right from wrong. representatives establish a defendant did not However, the jury found him not defence that proves he is guilty on grounds of insanity, and understand the crime or he was sentenced to spend the rest not sane know right from wrong of his life in a mental asylum. Verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity The murderer’s acquittal caused a huge outcry: even Queen Victoria, who herself had been the victim of assassination attempts, voiced her displeasure. There had never been such a high-profile case that accepted insanity as a defence. Legal tests be sane, and for a plea of insanity can be found not guilty by reason of Unable to disregard the volume of to be accepted, it must be proven insanity if they know the difference public and royal discontent, the that the defendant has a mental between right and wrong, but government asked a panel of judges defect or disease and was not cannot stop themselves from to answer a series of questions aware that what they were doing committing a criminal act. about the law of insanity as applied was wrong. The rule is still used in the M’Naghten trial. Their today in many countries. In the US, In almost all cases, a verdict of responses established a specific the rule has been modified by some not guilty by reason of insanity test – known as the M’Naghten rule states to include an “irresistible leads to a sentence at a mental – to be applied by a jury in an impulse” provision. A defendant health institution for an indefinite insanity case. The rule holds that a number of years – even life. ■ criminal defendant is presumed to Hospitals for the criminally insane Lunatic asylums housed Britain’s Institutions for the criminally Bridgewater State Hospital in insane murderers until 1863, when insane have existed since the southern Massachusetts has Broadmoor, the first high-security early 19th century. In Britain, they been the subject of numerous psychiatric hospital, was founded. were established by the Criminal controversies for inmate deaths, Lunatics Act of 1800 to prevent inmate abuse, and overuse of the criminally insane from being restraints by hospital workers. housed in regular prisons and asylums; however, they soon On the other hand, staff are gained a reputation for poor also at risk. Stephen Seager’s treatment and bad conditions. Behind the Gates of Gomorrah Institutions for the criminally gave a damning account of the insane ostensibly operate just like chronic violence committed by a other mental health facilities, but, small number of patients that he in fact, they often endanger witnessed when working as a patients and staff. In the US, psychiatrist at California’s Napa State Hospital.

206 GLWEAAAVRVENEKINAGTHTEORINE THE DRIPPING KILLER, 1879 IN CONTEXT T he last time Henry Porter I chopped the head from the had seen his Irish friend body with the assistance LOCATION Kate Webster, she had just Richmond, Surrey, UK been released from jail for larceny. of a razor which I used to cut Six years later, in March 1879, she through the flesh afterwards. THEME visited him at his west London Profit-motivated murder home, looking smart in a silk dress. Kate Webster Now called Mrs Thomas through BEFORE marriage, Kate explained that she Meanwhile, at 2 Mayfield Cottages, 1809 In England, Mary had inherited a house in affluent Richmond, Mrs Julia Thomas’s Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch, Richmond, Surrey, but wanted to neighbours were becoming is hanged for the murder of sell it and its contents. Did Henry anxious. The 55-year-old had not Rebecca Perigo. She is one know of a property broker? Henry been seen for two weeks, although of the first criminals to be introduced her to John Church. her maid, Kate, was still around. publicly dissected. On 18 March, a fleet of vans arrived Kate then enlisted Henry’s son, at the house, hired by John Church 9 August 1849 Maria Robert, to help her carry a box from to buy Mrs Thomas’s furniture for Manning, a Swiss lady’s maid, her Richmond home to the railway £68. When asked who had made and her husband Frederick kill station. He was not concerned the arrangement, the removal men Maria’s lover Patrick O’Connor when, en route, she dumped the said “Mrs Thomas”, and gestured and bury him beneath their box into the River Thames. towards Kate, who hurried away kitchen floor. They are caught and caught a train to Liverpool. a few days later, tried, and Shocking discovery executed on 13 November Unfortunately for Webster, the box Church realized that the “Mrs 1849 in London. washed up downstream a day later, Thomas” with whom he had done where it was spotted by a coal the deal was an impostor. He called AFTER porter as he crossed a bridge. the police, who searched the house 1977–78 Scotsman Archibald Hoping it might contain stolen Hall, dubbed “The Monster goods, he fished it out and opened Butler”, murders four people it up. Inside was a disembowelled while in service to members female torso and two legs wrapped of the British aristocracy. He in brown paper. Horrified, he is sentenced to life in prison. contacted the police, who quickly linked the grisly find to a severed human foot recently found nearby.

See also: Lizzie Borden 208–11 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65 MURDER CASES 207 Anthropological criminology During the 19th century, pseudoscience (theories and methods that were wrongly regarded as scientific) dominated academic debate in Europe and the US. Among these was Italian physician and criminologist Cesare Lombroso’s theory of anthropological criminology. Misappropriating Darwinistic ideas, Lombroso argued that criminals were evolutionary throwbacks to primitive man, and could be identified by physical characteristics, such as gangly arms, a sloping forehead, jug ears, facial asymmetry, and so on. Kate Webster came under similar scrutiny during her trial, with middle-class onlookers and the media commenting on her strong, “unfeminine build”, without considering that this may have developed as a result of a life of manual labour. By the early 20th century, Lombroso’s ideas had been discredited. and found blood stains, charred Hangman William Marwood carving knife, and razor, she finger bones in the hearth, and a used his newly perfected “long drop” butchered the body, burning large copper laundry vessel clogged with technique, in which the neck was sections of it in the kitchen. human fat. Scotland Yard learned broken instantly at the end of the fall, that Webster had fled to Ireland, to execute Kate Webster. Kate divided Thomas’s body and she was arrested there. On parts between a Gladstone bag 2 July, she stood trial for murder at was at home preparing for a service and the box she later hurled into the Old Bailey. The revolting details at the local church and waiting for the river. Rather than trying to of the crime emerged over six days Kate to assist her. However, Kate avoid capture, Webster took to of witness testimony. came back late from the pub, and wearing her late employer’s clothes, so Julia was delayed. assuming her identity, and selling Webster entered the service of Thomas’s possessions. Some Julia Thomas in January 1879, but When Julia returned from the reports even said that Webster had relations between them soon service, the two women argued. boiled Thomas’s body and made became strained. Julia was critical Kate claimed that in a fit of drunken money selling the fat as dripping to of the work of her heavy-drinking rage she pushed Julia down the local pubs. True or not, this story maid, and a month later, she fired stairs, then strangled her to death led many to dub her the “Dripping her, giving her a few weeks’ notice. with her hands to prevent her from Killer”. Webster was found guilty On the afternoon of 2 March, Julia screaming. Using a meat saw, and hanged on 29 July 1879. ■

208 IN CONTEXT WLMTAIONOZHODZTAKIHCGEEKAABRVNSOEFAROHXDREEETRNY DATE AND LOCATION Massachusetts, US LIZZIE BORDEN, 1892 THEME Unproven murder by a family member BEFORE 1497 Giovanni Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, is stabbed multiple times and dumped in Rome’s River Tiber. Rumours implicate rival families, political enemies, and Borgia’s own brother, but the crime remains unsolved. AFTER 1996 On December 26, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey goes missing and a bizarre ransom note is found on the stairs of the family home in Colorado, US. She is later found strangled in the basement. Although no charges are filed, people speculate that her own parents are the killers. O n a hot August day in 1892, an assailant rained 19 blows on the back of Abby Borden’s head with a hatchet before delivering 11 more to the face of her husband, Andrew, as he lay sleeping. A medical examiner later surmised that the couple had been killed roughly two hours apart. At 6:15 that morning, the Bordens’ live-in maid, Bridget (“Maggie”) O’Sullivan arose to gather firewood from the basement of their home at 92 Second Street, Fall River. Ten minutes later, Abby came into the kitchen, and by 7am, she had been joined at the breakfast table by her husband. Soon after, Andrew’s youngest

MURDER CASES 209 See also: O.J. Simpson 246–51 ■ Jack the Ripper 266–73 daughter, Lizzie, arrived, wearing a The Borden home at 92 Second I’m going to burn this old blue dress. Abby asked Bridget to Street in Fall River. Andrew was a [dress] up, it is covered wash the downstairs windows, rich man but chose not to live in the with paint. then headed upstairs to change the wealthiest part of the city, opting to Lizzie Borden pillowslips in the guest bedroom. live closer to his businesses. suggested that she should try to At 9am, Andrew left to run Around 11:10am, Bridget heard find Abby, Lizzie said she thought some errands; when he returned, Lizzie call out to her: “Maggie, she had heard her return. With Mrs around 10:30, Bridget heard him come quick! Father’s dead. Churchill in tow, Bridget decided to struggling to unlock the main door, Somebody came in and killed him.” check upstairs. As soon as her eyes and hurried to assist. She saw that Bridget rushed downstairs to find were level with the landing, she the spring lock had been fastened, Lizzie standing in the rear hallway. saw Abby’s bloodied corpse lying and heard Lizzie laughing upstairs. She told her that Andrew’s face down in the guest bedroom. murdered body was in the sitting Andrew went into the sitting room and asked her to go find At 11:45, the first wave of police room, and the maid continued her Dr Seabury Bowen. Unable to locate officers descended on the house work. Lizzie came down the stairs him, Bridget soon returned. and began to search it. They noted and spoke to her father. Bridget no signs of forced entry or burglary. overheard her say that Abby, In the meantime, the Bordens’ The front and cellar doors were Lizzie’s stepmother, had received neighbour, Mrs Adelaide Churchill, locked and, although there was a note from a sick friend and had had come by to see what all the blood on the victims, ceiling, and ❯❯ gone to visit her. Bridget moved on fuss was about. She found Lizzie to the dining room to wash the distraught and tried to comfort her. incapacitated in a sudden and windows there, and was joined by Lizzie explained that she had been unexpected attack. Neither Lizzie, who started ironing some in the barn when she had heard a Andrew nor Abby Borden had clothes, chatting as she did so. groan coming from the house. On sustained defensive injuries. entering, she had found her father The nightmare begins dead on the couch. When Mrs In Andrew’s case this was to Feeling tired and nauseous, Bridget Churchill asked about Abby, Lizzie be expected, because he was told Lizzie she was going to take a told her that she was out visiting a sleeping when he was attacked. nap, and headed up the back stairs friend. Shortly after, when Bridget Abby, however, was cleaning to her room. Lying on her bed, she the guest bedroom, and appears heard the City Hall bell chime 11. Defensive wounds to have been attacked on the side of the bed farthest from the When a victim of violence is doorway. It seems likely that attacked they invariably raise either Abby’s assailant sneaked their hands reflexively to deflect up on her, or she was killed by or protect themselves from the someone she knew, who took blows. The resulting injuries to her by surprise and struck her their appendages are known with the hatchet. as “defensive wounds”. In a homicide investigation, a rule of thumb is that an absence of defensive wounds indicates the victim was unable to defend themselves – whether because they were bound, drugged, or because they trusted their attacker and were immediately

210 LIZZIE BORDEN Murder 2 A Venerable Citizen and His Aged Wife Hacked to Pieces Murder 1 Live-in maid Bridget opens front door to in Their Home Abby Borden Andrew Borden at Fall River Herald goes upstairs to clean a bedroom between 9am and approximately 10:30am 10:30am She is struck with a Bridget hears Lizzie walls, there was none anywhere hatchet to the side of Borden laughing upstairs else. Bridget let an officer into the cellar where he came across a box her head by an as she opens the door containing two axes, one plastered unseen assailant Andrew Borden lies with blood and hair, and a recently Abby turns and falls down on the couch in the broken hatchet-head caked in ash. face down on the floor, living room for a nap. causing major contusions Lizzie claims she removes Lizzie was questioned by Deputy Marshal Fleet about her to her face his shoes movements. She said she had The killer sits on Abby’s Andrew is assaulted with a intended to spend the morning hatchet and is struck 10 ironing clothes. When her father back and delivers 19 had come home tired, she had direct hits to the back or 11 times around taken off his shoes while he napped the head, causing on the sofa. She had gone to the of the head barn for 15–20 minutes to look for fatal injuries lead to make fishing weights. And Abby Borden’s body she had not seen Abby leave to is found at around Lizzie Borden raises “visit her sick friend”. An officer 11:30am by live-in the alarm at 11:10am, inspected the barn to confirm maid Bridget and Lizzie’s alibi. It was humid and neighbour Mrs Churchill when she calls for windless that day; given the stifling the maid, having heat in the barn, he doubted she found her father dead had spent as much time as she had claimed in there. The absence of footprints in the heavy dust supported his theory. Arrest and acquittal On 11 August, Lizzie was arrested for the murder of her parents. Her alleged motive was that she suspected her father of writing her out of his will in favour of her stepmother. At first, it seemed as if the case might not go to trial, as at the inquest, it was reported that

MURDER CASES 211 a passing peddler had spotted a to the evidence raised by The Bordens’ side door, marked V, woman walking from the yard to the prosecution: her window of was unhooked from 9:30–10:30am. the side door of the house, seeming opportunity, the hot, dusty Could an outsider have crept in, axed to support Lizzie’s alibi. Secondly, barn, at least 30 inconsistent Abby, hidden for more than 90 minutes, a doctor from Harvard Medical statements, and the burning of the then emerged to kill Andrew? School attested that the blood and blue dress. However, two crucial hair on the axe belonged to a cow. pieces of evidence stand out: immediately after ascending the Lizzie was the only person to have stairs. And although Lizzie insisted Suddenly, though, there was a stood on the landing while her she had removed her father’s shoes reversal in Lizzie’s fortunes. A stepmother lay dead in the guest as he dozed on the sofa, in the prison matron claimed to have room, a scene that Bridget and crime scene photo he is still overheard her saying “Emma, you Mrs Churchill had come across wearing them. ■ have given me away, haven’t you?” to her older sister during a visit. Moreover, Lizzie’s best friend told the inquest she had seen Lizzie burning a blue dress in the kitchen stove days after the slayings. This was sufficient to bring a murder charge against her. Lizzie Borden’s trial began in 1893. On 20 June, after just 90 minutes’ deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Lizzie used her inheritance to buy a house on the affluent side of Fall River. She died there in 1927. The Bordens’ unsolved murder remains a source of fascination. Many theories – some potentially possible, most just laughable – have been proffered as to who killed them, how, and why. Those who believe Lizzie was the culprit point Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden was a bureau pushed against it is 32-year-old unmarried woman viewed as evidence of the latter. living with her wealthy but She was certainly a habitual miserly father and his second thief. While he was alive, her wife, prominent residents of Fall father managed to protect her River. Accounts of her character from prosecution, but later, she range from “kind Sunday School was accused of shoplifting teacher active in local charities” a painting. The matter was to an “ill-tempered kleptomaniac settled out of court. who decapitated Abby’s cat because it was annoying her.” The jury acquitted Lizzie on the grounds that the evidence Rumours have surfaced that against her was mainly Lizzie engaged in incest, whether circumstantial, but most likely consensual or not, with her uncle also because the Victorian John Morse and her father – the mindset could not comprehend locked door leading from her that an upper-class spinster bedroom to Andrew’s with a could commit such a brutal act.

FINGERPRINTING ALONE HAS PROVED FEASIBLETO BE BOTH INFALLIBLE AND THE STRATTON BROTHERS, 1905



214 THE STRATTON BROTHERS IN CONTEXT Until the arrest of Alfred Street while she walked to work Stratton I had not been able to on the morning of 27 March. The LOCATION brothers were arrested and on London, UK find any fingerprints that I 31 March Stanton picked them tried which agreed with the out of a police line-up of 16 men. THEME Fingerprint evidence print upon the cash box. The police also interviewed Detective Inspector Alfred’s girlfriend, who said he had BEFORE borrowed stockings from her, and 1902 Burglar Harry Jackson is Charles Collins Albert’s girlfriend, who claimed he the first man to be convicted had arrived home that day with of a crime in the UK using Colour on Deptford High Street. unexplained money. The evidence fingerprint evidence. Police On the morning of 27 March 1905, against the brothers was highly find his prints on a windowsill their assistant arrived to find circumstantial, but when their in a London home that had Thomas dead in the parlour with prints were taken, Alfred’s matched been robbed. terrible head injuries. Ann was the thumb print on the cash box. found unconscious in the bedroom; A master stroke AFTER she had been beaten around the During the trial, the prosecution 1911 Murderer Thomas head, and died a few days later. A counsel explained the new science Jennings is the first person tin cash box lay near her body; of fingerprinting to the jury. In his in the US to be convicted on after a search, police found two testimony, Detective Inspector fingerprint evidence. masks made from stockings. Collins of Scotland Yard showed an enlarged photograph of Alfred 2014 Police in Utah solve the Detectives wrapped the cash 1991 murder of 78-year-old box and took it to Scotland Yard’s Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten Lucille Johnson when they Fingerprint Bureau, which had co-led the police investigation. He had match fingerprints on Lego been established four years earlier. been on the Belper Committee (1900), bricks with those of a man On examination, they determined which recommended that criminals’ who played with them as a that the fingerprint was left by a fingerprints be taken and classified. child while his father, John thumb. It was compared to the Sansing, killed Johnson in victims’ prints, those of the police an adjacent room. at the crime scene, and more than 80,000 others on file at the bureau, W hen brothers Alfred and but there was no match. Albert Stratton robbed and murdered the The tipping point husband and wife who managed The police searched for witnesses. a paint shop in south London in A milkman saw two men leaving 1905, they left something behind: the shop at the time of the murders, an oily fingerprint on an emptied but he was unable to identify the cash box. This evidence became Strattons. A breakthrough came on the cornerstone of the case against 31 March when another witness, them, and paved the way for further Ellen Stanton, told police that she development of fingerprint analysis. saw the two brothers running across the top of Deptford High A brutal robbery Elderly couple Thomas and Ann Farrow lived in an apartment above their shop Chapman’s Oil and

MURDER CASES 215 See also: John Leonard Orr 48–53 ■ The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ Colin Pitchfork 294–97 Stratton’s thumb print alongside Fingerprinting Three types of fingerprints can the thumb smudge on the cash box, be recovered from a crime scene. and pointed out 11 characteristics Although it has been known Patent prints can be made by that agreed in the prints. since 200 bce that each person’s blood, grease, ink, or dirt, and fingerprints are different from are easily visible to the naked The defence counsel, Mr Rooth, every other person’s, Sir William eye. Latent fingerprints are not attempted to cast doubt on James Herschel, a British visible – they are impressions fingerprinting as a scientific magistrate in India during the secreted on a surface or an technique, and on the reliability of 1850s, is credited with the first object by sweat and oil on the the work carried out by Collins’s systematic use of fingerprints for skin surface. Plastic prints, department. Rooth argued that the identification. In 1891, English which are visible to the naked print taken at the crime scene did scientist Sir Francis Galton eye, are 3D indentations that not match the one taken while developed Herschel’s findings. occur when a finger touches a Alfred Stratton was in custody. soft, malleable surface. Galton devised an efficient In a stroke of genius, Collins system that allowed fingerprints Although fingerprinting has offered to take the prints of a jury to be matched against each stood the test of time, since the member to show the court that other. He discovered that every 1990s, several court cases have differing amounts of downward person has a different pattern of challenged their interpretation. pressure could account for the ridges and valleys on the pads Tests have found a margin of deviation. The jury was convinced of their fingers (and on their error, and there have been “false by his scientific demonstration and toes) that do not change with positives” – two prints can be took less than two hours to deliver time and will even grow back similar enough to fool experts. a guilty verdict. The brothers were in their original form if the digit In 2002, a US federal judge ruled later sentenced to death. It was the is damaged. In his classic book that fingerprint witnesses can first murder conviction in the UK Finger Prints (1892), Galton no longer tell juries that two based on fingerprint evidence. referred to the lines, ridges, and prints are a “definite match”. shapes of fingerprints as “little Fingerprinting may soon be The high-profile media coverage worlds in themselves.” replaced with DNA tests. caused one drawback: criminals became aware of the precautions The Henry system, used in most countries today, classifies they had to take to avoid detection fingerprints by four basic patterns – the arch, the loop, the whorl, by this new forensic tool. ■ and the composite. It is named for Sir Edward Richard Henry, who founded the Scotland Yard Fingerprint Bureau in 1901. The up-to-date professional ARCHES LOOPS WHORLS COMPOSITES criminal now seeks to prevent produce a wave- curve back on form circular or are a combination the leaving of telltale prints by like pattern. themselves to spiral patterns. of arches, loops, covering the fingertips with Tented arches rise form a loop shape. and whorls. thin india-rubber, gold-beater’s to a sharper point. skin, or silk finger-stalls. The Mirror

216 BTTHHEEEANNSKTUOSGOPOEDGNRISTEE’ASTHOAVSER. DR CRIPPEN, 1910 IN CONTEXT I n February 1910, music hall featured traces of a poison that singer Cora Crippen vanished. Crippen had bought shortly before LOCATION The wife of Dr H.H. Crippen, his wife’s disappearance. London, UK she was last seen at a small party at their home on 31 January. Meanwhile, the ship’s captain, THEME Asked about Cora’s whereabouts, who had been following the case, Uxoricide (wife killing) Dr Crippen said that she had spotted the couple on board and returned to the US, their birth sent a wireless telegraph to BEFORE country, and died unexpectedly. England to alert the authorities. 29 bce In an attack of intense Cora’s friends were suspicious, and British police caught a faster ship jealousy stirred by his sister, convinced London’s Scotland Yard to Quebec and arrested the couple Herod the Great, King of Judea, to investigate. When interviewed, on their arrival. Crippen was found kills his beloved second wife Crippen admitted that his wife had guilty of his wife’s murder and and members of her family. not died; rather she had left for the hanged in November 1910. ■ US with her lover, Bruce Miller. He 1871 In London, scholar and had lied out of embarrassment. translator the Reverend John Selby Watson kills his wife On the run Crippen and La Neve stood trial by beating her over the head A few days later, Crippen fled with together. She was acquitted, and he with the butt of a pistol. his young mistress Ethel La Neve, protested his innocence to the end. In who was disguised as his son. 2007, DNA tests on “Cora’s” remains AFTER They boarded the SS Montrose, suggested the victim was male. 1935 London doctor Buck destined for Canada. The police Ruxton strangles his partner searched his home and discovered and kills the maid who sees a human torso – head and limbs him do it. The bodies are missing – under the cellar floor. A dismembered before he travels pathologist was unable to identify by car to a Scottish ravine to the sex of the body, but concluded dispose of the remains. that it was Cora’s, based on a scar she was said to have. The body also 2002 American Scott Peterson murders his pregnant wife. He See also: Lizzie Borden 208–11 ■ O.J. Simpson 246–51 is later convicted for her death, and that of their unborn son.

MURDER CASES 217 TIOAAWFWKAMEISLNYLDTOTRHWHIEVNAEPTNLHABACYDE MADAME CAILLAUX, 1914 IN CONTEXT G aston Calmette’s Le Figaro Henriette shot Calmette at point was not the only Paris blank range. Afterwards, she told LOCATION newspaper with doubts police: “Since there is no more justice Paris, France over the integrity of Joseph in France… I resolved that I alone Caillaux. The left-wing politician would be able to stop this campaign.” THEME (and former French prime minister) Crime of passion was dogged by allegations of had, in fact, been an act of “passive corruption. But no other journal aggression” against a potentially BEFORE could match the zeal shown by restless husband. It certainly 1859 US politician Daniel Le Figaro’s right-wing editor, who stalled Caillaux’s public career, Sickles shoots dead his wife’s led a smear campaign against him. and quashed any realistic chance lover. He stands trial, but is of a life beyond his marriage to the acquitted on grounds of In December 1913, Calmette woman who claimed to have risked “temporary insanity”. threatened to publish love letters all to restore his reputation. ■ exchanged between Caillaux and 1906 Albert Lemaître, a his second wife, Henriette, while French racing driver, shoots he was still married to his first wife. his wife after she files for On 16 March 1914, Henriette went divorce. After an unsuccessful to the newspaper’s offices and shot attempt at suicide, he is tried Calmette six times; he died later. and acquitted of what is deemed a crime of passion. During her testimony at her trial, Henriette Caillaux skilfully AFTER evoked the prevailing image of a 1955 London nightclub woman as a creature of emotions. hostess Ruth Ellis shoots and The all-male jury was convinced kills her faithless lover. Her that she had shot Calmette without family unsuccessfully attempt premeditation or criminal intent – to have her murder conviction that when she pulled the trigger on reduced to manslaughter on the Browning pistol she was a the grounds of provocation. temporary victim of “unbridled She is the last woman in female passions”. Perhaps her crime England to be executed. See also: Phoolan Devi 46–47 ■ O.J. Simpson 246–51

SHE WAS BDVEREAY GAROOUKD LTOOHIKIFNAGUWIRILTH THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, 15 JANUARY 1947



220 THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER IN CONTEXT O n a winter morning just She knew I was bashful and after 10am, Betty liked to see my face turn LOCATION Bersinger went for a walk crimson. She would say, Los Angeles, California, US next to a vacant lot in a southwest Los Angeles suburb. She stumbled ‘We ought to go out dancing THEME upon a disturbing scene. Lying together.’ But she was Unsolved murder next to the pavement at West 39th a nice girl. Street and South Norton Avenue – Bob Pacios BEFORE an area in Leimert Park known as 27 July 1943 Ora Murray is lover’s lane – was the mutilated Education, the letters “BD” had beaten to death and left near body of a naked woman. The been carved into her thigh – the clubhouse at Fox Hills Golf discovery, on 15 January 1947, led however, the authenticity of this Course, Los Angeles. the Los Angeles Police Department claim is still debated. to launch the largest manhunt in 4 May 1932 Lilly Lindeström the city’s history. LAPD homicide detectives Finis is found dead in her apartment Brown and Harry Hansen arrived in Atlas, Sweden. The killer The body had been cleanly and scoured the crime scene, but drains her blood, causing the severed at the waist, drained of not before the press had arrived case to be known as the blood, bathed, and positioned with and taken photographs. However, “Vampire murder”. the lower half 30 cm (1 ft) away from despite the extent and severity of the upper half. The victim’s the injuries, the woman’s body had AFTER greenish-blue eyes were open, and been carefully scrubbed clean, so 17 January 1996 Amber her hands were positioned by her there was little physical evidence to Hagerman, nine, is abducted head, with the elbows bent. Her be found. The victim was identified while riding her bike. Her body legs were wide apart. Rope burns by her fingerprints as 22-year-old is found four days later. marked her wrists, ankles, and neck, while her arms, left thigh, 26 April 1999 British and right breast all featured deep journalist Jill Dando is shot lacerations. Each corner of her outside her home in Fulham, mouth had been cut, creating the London. Barry George is chilling impression that she was wrongfully convicted for the smiling. According to a report murder, and is later acquitted. archived by the University of Southern California’s College of Elizabeth Short Elizabeth Short, known as “Beth” drinking in September 1943, and by her family and “Betty” by her a judge ordered her to return to friends, grew up in Medford, Medford. Instead, Short went Massachusetts. Her father, who back to Florida. built mini-golf courses, abandoned the family soon after the Great Short told her friends that Depression. Short suffered from she and Gordon were engaged asthma so at 16, her mother sent to be married. Gordon, however, her to Florida, hoping that the was killed in August 1945, less weather would improve her than a week before the end of health. There, Short met Air Force World War II. That year, Short officer Matthew Gordon Jr. In returned to Medford, but soon 1943, at 19, she went to Vallejo, became restless. In 1946, she California, to live with her father, moved to Los Angeles. After but left his care that same year Short’s murder, Gordon’s and moved to Santa Barbara. She wedding announcement – to was arrested there for underage another woman – was found among her possessions.

MURDER CASES 221 See also: The Dripping Killer 206–07 ■ The Manson Family 230–37 ■ Jack the Ripper 266–73 ■ Harvey Glatman 274–75 Six days later, at dawn on Wednesday, 15 January, a black luxury sedan driven by an unidentified driver briefly parked next to a vacant lot in Leimert Park. By late morning, Elizabeth Short’s body had been discovered. aspiring actress Elizabeth Short. A collection of evidence in the Black Mysterious letters The detectives surmised that she Dahlia case, including Short’s birth On 21 January, the city editor of had been killed elsewhere and certificate and one of the threatening the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, then driven to the vacant lot. letters written by the person claiming Jimmy Richardson, received a Dr Frederick Newbarr, the chief to be “The Black Dahlia Avenger”. phone call from a man claiming coroner for LA County, ruled that to be Short’s killer. The caller the cause of death was a brain news with her mother in a letter congratulated the paper for its work haemorrhage due to concussion, dated 2 January 1947. It was the on the case, but suggested that it combined with blood loss arising last correspondence Phoebe Short may have run out of material. The from the lacerations to her face. received from her daughter. caller offered his assistance – he told the paper that he was going Last movements On Thursday, 9 January, Short to turn himself in, but wanted the Beginning in May 1946, Short had returned from a trip to San Diego police to keep chasing him. He for several months rented a room with Robert “Red” Manley, a told Richardson to “expect some at a Hollywood home behind the 25-year-old married salesman she souvenirs of Beth Short in the mail.” Florentine Gardens nightclub, and had been dating. He dropped her worked as a waitress. Short had off at the Biltmore Hotel, where she On 24 January, a US Postal made contacts with a few people in was to meet her visiting sister. Service worker came across a the movie business, including Mark Short, wearing a black tailored suit manila envelope featuring words Hansen, her landlord, who, besides and matching suede high heels, and individual letters cut and co-owning the nightclub, also part- was seen using a lobby telephone pasted from the pages of a owned cinemas. Short’s close and then leaving the hotel on foot. newspaper. On it was written “Los friend, actress and model Ann Toth, She headed south on Olive Street Angeles Examiner and other Los ❯❯ told police that Short was promised and walked five minutes to the a role in Florentine Gardens’ Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge where She’d come into our drug burlesque revue. Short shared the patrons recalled seeing her stop by, store frequently. She’d usually as if she were looking for someone. wear a two-piece beach costume, which left her midriff bare. Or she’d wear the black lacy things. Arnold Landers Sr

222 BLACK DAHLIA Angeles Papers. Here is Dahlia’s belongings. Letter to follow.” Inside Elizabeth Short is murdered by were Short’s birth certificate, social a heavy blow to the head security card, photographs, and an address book embossed with the Her face is slashed from ear to ear and her arms, name Mark Hansen. thighs, and right breast are lacerated Three more letters were Her body is severed at the waist, drained of blood, received from a person identifying and carefully washed as the “Black Dahlia Avenger”. The first was handwritten in ink on a Short’s body is transported to a vacant lot between postcard and declared “Here it is. Coliseum Street and West 39th Street Turning in Wed., Jan. 29, 10 a.m. Had my fun at police. Black Dahlia The two halves of her body are placed a short distance apart Avenger.” The second letter, again with her intestines positioned under her buttocks in cut out letters, stated “Dahlia Killer cracking – wants terms.” Her corpse is posed in a sexually degrading manner with However, on 29 January, a third her arms raised above her head and legs spread letter indicated the killer’s change of heart. Cut-and-pasted Body found by Betty Bersinger newspaper letters formed the message: “have changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified.” Front page news Early in the investigation, LAPD investigators interviewed more than 150 men as potential suspects. Ann Toth told detectives that Mark Hansen had tried to seduce Short, but had been rejected. With a plausible motive, Hansen became the number one suspect. Next, police recovered Short’s handbag and a shoe from the top of a waste bin 3 km (2 miles) from Don’t try to find the Short girl’s murderer because you won’t. Unidentified caller

MURDER CASES 223 Chief suspect Robert “Red” Manley embraces his wife Harriet at the police station shortly after his release. He had an affair with Short soon after his wife gave birth to their first child. where Short’s body was found. The Unsolved enigma believed the Black Dahlia killer had items had been wiped clean with The murder investigation slowed struck again. The LAPD launched petrol, erasing any fingerprints. until the summer of 1949, when another manhunt, this time probing Mark Hansen identified the 36-year-old Louise Springer, a both murders, but concluded that handbag and shoe as belonging to beauty shop worker, was found the cases were not related. Short but denied using the address garroted in the back seat of her book bearing his name. No charges husband’s car on West 38th Street, Despite the long investigation, were brought against him, though, one block from where Short’s the Black Dahlia murder remains and he was released. Attention remains were discovered. Many unsolved. Many attempts have turned to Robert Manley. He was since been made to profile the officially named as a suspect, and, killer. Experts generally believe that in interviews, initially denied the killer was medically trained, knowing Short before changing his male, and craved the limelight. story. However, after twice passing polygraph tests, he was released. One remarkable feature of the Black Dahlia case was the number For several months, the murder of people – around 500 – who dominated the front pages of voluntarily confessed to Short’s newspapers as the media murder. The vast majority of them sensationalized the life and death were deemed to crave notoriety and of Elizabeth Short. Following the all were discounted. Experts have established practice of assigning also expressed doubts about the high-profile female murder victims authenticity of the letters sent by a floral nickname, the papers called the so-called “Avenger”, suggesting her case the “Black Dahlia murder” that they were a ploy to sell more on account of Short’s preference for newspapers. Today, the Black black clothing and for the dahlia Dahlia murder remains the most she wore in her dyed black hair. perplexing unsolved case in the history of the LAPD. ■ Staged and posed murder scenes Some criminals deliberately public, it can also serve a killer’s alter crime scenes to confuse own fantasies. The Black Dahlia forensic investigators. This murderer placed Short’s body in practice is known as “staging”. a sexually degrading pose, much This differs from “posing”, like Jack the Ripper’s signature which is when a killer places posing, which represented the corpse in a specific position, complete control and humiliation marks something on a body, even after death. or takes a souvenir, such as a piece of jewellery or clothing. An However, these practices offender might cover the face, assist criminal profilers, because wash the victim’s hair or body, they often provide insights into or tie ligatures using a unique the characteristics, mindset, knot. While posing can be a and behavioural patterns of the message to the police or to the criminal that can help police to link a series of crimes together.

224 TWWCHHAEEESLMALFRIIRCTNIAIFGSLOHTSRT…WMENAEIIDSNTGOSNO SADAMICHI HIRASAWA, 1948 IN CONTEXT O n 26 January 1948, a man A man claiming to in his mid-40s wearing the be a health official LOCATION armband of a municipal Tokyo, Japan official entered a suburban branch visits a bank of Teigin (Imperial) Bank in Tokyo. in Tokyo THEME He told the staff he was an Mass poisoning epidemiologist from the Tokyo He offers liquid cyanide Metropolitan government who had to 16 people, 12 die. BEFORE been sent by the US occupation 1871 In Brighton, England, authorities to inoculate them The poisoner escapes with Christiana Edmunds buys against an outbreak of dysentery. cash and cheques chocolates from a confectioner, Police track down laces them with strychnine Each of the 16 bank employees sourced from a local chemist, and customers present took the pill Sadamichi Hirasawa and returns them to the shop. and several drops of liquid the man through a business card Many people fall ill after eating offered. Soon, they were writhing the chocolates, including a on the floor in agony. Stepping and arrest him four-year-old boy, who dies. around their dying bodies, the man plundered the bank, taking all the Hirasawa pleads AFTER money he could find: a paltry innocent at the trial, 1982 In Chicago, six adults ¥160,000 (about £5,300 today). and a 12-year-old girl die after but is convicted taking Tylenol. Bottles of the Manhunt for a poisoner and receives the painkiller had been removed Had all of the victims poisoned with from stores and pharmacies, the cyanide compound died, this death penalty laced with cyanide, and then would have been the perfect crime, returned to the shelves by an albeit not a very lucrative one. unknown hand. Miraculously, though, four escaped death and were able to provide a description of the perpetrator. This was the third time in recent months that a lone man had used poison to rob a bank. In the first incident, he had offered staff a fake business card with the name

MURDER CASES 225 See also: The Dreyfus Affair 310–11 After Hirasawa’s death, his adopted son, Takehiko (right), fought to secure a posthumous retrial. Takehiko died in 2013, but his father’s lawyers urged other relatives to continue the battle. “Jiro Yamaguchi”, while in the the poisoner, and more than By the time of his trial in 1950, second he had produced a genuine ¥100,000 – the origins of which Hirasawa had attributed his entire card – that of Shigeru Matsui of the Hirasawa would not disclose – confession to coercion and mental Ministry of Health and Welfare, was discovered in his possession. illness. He was sentenced to die, Department of Disease Prevention. but instead spent 32 years on death Cleared by alibi, Matsui told police Arrested on 21 August 1948, row until he died of pneumonia at that he had exchanged 92 of his Hirasawa protested his innocence. age 95. It is thought that no cards. Fortunately, he made a note Soon after, however, he offered a Japanese politician would order of the time and location of the confession in which he admitted to his execution because there was exchange on the back of the cards committing four prior bank frauds. widespread doubt about his guilt. ■ he received. Using this data, police He later retracted his statement. tracked down and cleared 62 of the card recipients. A further 22 were investigated and excluded from the investigation. One recipient, an acclaimed artist named Sadamichi Hirasawa, stood out as suspicious. He was unable to provide the investigators with the card Matsui had given him as he said he had been pick- pocketed. Nor could his alibi be confirmed. Also, two surviving witnesses identified Hirasawa as Sadamichi Hirasawa Sadamichi Hirasawa was a national exhibition, providing Japanese painter distinguished by a solid start to his career as a his use of tempera – a fast-drying professional artist. His works egg-based mixture that had been were selected to appear in the the most common form of paint Imperial Art Exhibition on 16 until the advent of oils during consecutive occasions. the Renaissance. He was born in Tokyo in 1892, but when he was However, after World War II, five, the family moved to Otaru on his work became less popular. Hokkaido. Determined to become Following his murder conviction, a painter, Hirasawa joined the art his work was largely dismissed club at Otaru junior high school. in Japan as being that of a Even at this young age, many degenerate criminal. During his claimed he was already better decades in prison, Hirasawa than his teacher. When he was 22, passed the time working on a his painting Ainyu Woman Drying legal quest to exonerate himself, Kelp won a prize at a prestigious making hundreds of drawings and writing his autobiography.

226 IN CONTEXT IIUTVRHIHNRCAOUTAVUSTIEMUGIOAHBONLTEFAESALNMNDAANY LOCATION Austin, Texas, US THE TEXAS TOWER MASSACRE, 1966 THEME Mass shooting BEFORE 1897 In Borneo, Malaysia, a man called Antakin discovers his wife is having an affair and runs amok, stabbing people at random; 15 victims die. AFTER 1999 Two male students go on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Colorado. In less than 20 minutes they kill 13 people and maim 21 others. 2011 In Norway, Anders Breivik shoots 69 people at an island youth camp hosted by the country’s Labour Party. 2012 Adam Lanza shoots 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. A t approximately 11:30am on 1 August 1966, engineering student Charles Whitman entered the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin dressed as a maintenance man. He hit the “27” button on the lift and waited calmly as it rose to the highest floor. He exited, pulling a hand truck behind him. On it was a footlocker containing an arsenal of weapons and a cache of supplies. He lugged the truck up four flights of stairs to the foyer of the observation deck, where he was greeted by receptionist Edna Townsley. Two strikes with a rifle butt knocked her unconscious. Whitman dragged her body behind

MURDER CASES 227 See also: The Murder of John Lennon 240 ■ The Assassination of John F. Kennedy 316–21 An M-1 carbine, a sawn-off shotgun, knives, and a machete were among the stash of weapons Whitman took to the clock tower (right). His rampage was America’s first mass college shooting. a couch and left her for dead. The police were called just four County Sheriff’s deputies, and Brandishing two rifles, he muttered minutes after Whitman began his citizens bearing hunting rifles. a polite “hello” to Cheryl Botts and killing spree, and were quickly at Twenty minutes after Whitman had Don Walden as they came in from the scene. One officer took cover killed his first victim, the people the observation deck; the couple behind a columned stone wall, but 70 metres (231 feet) below him were thought he was there to shoot Whitman sighted him in the space beginning to return fire, and he pigeons. After they left, Whitman between the columns, and shot him was forced to seek refuge behind built a makeshift barricade at the with deadly accuracy. Active police the thick walls of the observation entrance to the reception area. As officers in Austin were soon ordered deck. Whitman was able to a family group climbing the stairs to converge on the campus. They continue shooting through the from the 27th floor approached it, were joined by a number of off-duty tower’s waterspouts, but his range he shot and killed two of them and officers, Texas Rangers, Travis was drastically reduced. ❯❯ wounded two others. Everything was now in place. Whitman walked Charles Whitman he began to study mechanical out onto the observation deck and engineering at the University of laid out his weapons. Charles Joseph Whitman was Texas at Austin, and married born in Florida in 1941. Although a year later. In 1963, he was Killer in the sky a good provider, his father was recalled to Camp Lejeune to At 11:48am, shots started to ring a disciplinarian who beat and finish his five-year enlistment. out across an area that spanned berated his family. Charles was There, he was court-martialled the length of five city blocks, a polite and intelligent child for keeping a personal firearm accompanied by clouds of gun who at the age of 12 became one on base, and other infractions. smoke billowing from the clock of the youngest Eagle Scouts in Despite this, he received an tower. The first victim was a Boy Scout history. In high school honourable discharge in 1964. student who was eight months he was a popular student, but Returning to the University of pregnant: she fell to the ground and experienced medical problems. Texas, he started studying when her boyfriend tried to help her, architectural engineering and his body was pierced by a bullet. After graduation, Whitman did temporary jobs. By 1966, he joined the Marines, where he was abusing amphetamines and Whitman then picked off other earned several medals and a suffering severe headaches. students and staff members who Sharpshooter’s Badge. In 1961, were walking around the campus. Several were killed outright, while the injured fell incapacitated or hurried for cover. He then trained his sights on a street that ran along the western edge of the campus, killing or wounding more people. Hundreds of tourists, pedestrians, and shop assistants witnessed the carnage as they hid behind trees, cowered under office desks, or, if they had been hit, played dead.

228 THE TEXAS TOWER MASSACRE As a police marksman struggled coordinated plan, the men decided Charlie could plug the eye out to target Whitman from a small to surround the sniper on the deck. of a squirrel by the time he plane near the tower, the sniper When Crum’s rifle discharged was sixteen. turned around and fired at him, accidentally, drawing Whitman’s Charles Whitman Sr causing the plane to circle away. attention to the northwest corner, Martinez began to unload his mother, killed in her apartment. Meanwhile, three policemen – police revolver at him. McCoy Whitman had covered both bodies Ramiro Martinez, Houston McCoy, raised his 12-gauge shotgun and with sheets and left handwritten and Jerry Day – decided to storm fired twice at Whitman, blasting notes beside them. But it was the clock tower. As they raced his head and neck full of buckshot. Whitman’s own suicide note, towards it they were joined by The officers checked the body for typed and handwritten at 6:45pm armed civilian Allen Crum, a identification and learned the name on 31 July, that would offer the most bookstore manager and former of the man who had terrorized the serviceman whom they deputized town for more than 90 minutes. immediately. The four men entered the building and took the lift to the In the immediate aftermath of top floor. Working without a the attack, investigators traced Whitman’s movements that day. From his shooting range atop the They found two more victims of his tower, Whitman had a bird’s-eye view crazed behaviour: his wife, who of the campus and, given the lack of had been stabbed to death in the rapid-response law enforcement teams, early hours of the morning as she plenty of time to kill and maim. slept in the couple’s bed, and his

MURDER CASES 229 clues to his state of mind. Among At a press conference after the Brain damage and other things it said: “I don’t really shootings, Ramiro Martinez (left) and criminal violence understand myself these days. I the other three police officers who had am supposed to be an average confronted Whitman showed a The Whitman case is arguably reasonable and intelligent young diagram of their haphazard strategy. most notable for being one of man. However, lately (I can’t recall the first in which evidence of when it started) I have been is known today as an “active brain abnormalities could be a victim of many unusual and shooter”, and the event led to an definitively linked to violent irrational thoughts. I talked to a overhaul of police procedures. behaviour. After he was Doctor once… and tried to convey Special Weapons and Tactics gunned down, Whitman’s to him my fears that I felt come (sic) (SWAT) teams were formed body was transported to the overwhelming impulses. Since then nationwide, and these have morgue, where the top of his I have been fighting my mental swooped into action in the many skull was removed with a turmoil alone… to no avail.” similar atrocities that have taken bone saw. When his brain was place in the decades since 1966. ■ removed, the examiner noted After stating that he intended to a tumour, roughly the size of a kill his wife, Whitman continued: After my death I wish nickel in diameter, sprouting “I don’t want her to have to face the that an autopsy would be under the thalamus, which embarrassment my actions would performed on me to see is crucially involved in surely cause her… I truly do not awareness and consciousness. consider this world worth living in, if there is any visible and am prepared to die, and I do physical disorder. Most importantly, the not want to leave her to suffer alone tumour compressed the in it… Similar reasons provoked me Charles Whitman amygdala – a set of neurons to take my mother’s life…” located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe that play In addition to his wife and a key role in the processing of mother, Whitman killed 14 people emotions. Three decades prior in cold blood and wounded 31 to Whitman’s rampage, US others that day; most of the neuropathologist Paul Bucy casualties occurred in the first 20 and German psychologist minutes. Before the shooting, US Heinrich Klüver had police had no policies in place for discovered that fearlessness, responding to an attack by what dampened emotion, and a propensity to overreact were all associated with damaged amygdala in monkeys. Their findings provided a viable explanation for Whitman’s seemingly senseless violence.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR HELTERSKELTER THE MANSON FAMILY, 1969



232 THE MANSON FAMILY IN CONTEXT It was fun tearing up the Tate that included some of the religious house… people were running ideas he studied in prison, Manson LOCATION soon established a group of mostly California, US around like chickens with female followers. their heads cut off. Early followers THEME Tex Watson While living in Berkeley, California, Cult death plots Manson met a 23-year-old college famed director Roman Polanski graduate named Mary Brunner, BEFORE on 9 August 1969. On the house’s who later gave birth to Manson’s 1955 Jim Jones founds the front lawn lay the bodies of coffee son, Valentine Michael. Manson Peoples Temple cult, which fortune heiress Abigail Folger and moved into Brunner’s home and ends with the mass murder- Wojciech Frykowski, a financier soon 18 other women were sharing suicide of 918 people in and actor. In the driveway, Steven the property. Among them was Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. Parent, a teenager, was found shot 19-year-old hippie Leslie Van to death in his car. Houten, who later played a AFTER significant role in the “Family’s” 1986–89 Believing that he has The crime appeared senseless, Los Angeles murder spree. magical powers, drug dealer and police were baffled as to the Adolfo Constanzo and his motive, with some speculating the Towards the end of the summer followers kill over 25 people in deaths were part of a satanic ritual. of 1967, Manson and some of his Mexico as human sacrifices. The next night, however, a wealthy followers piled into a converted couple, the LaBiancas, were school bus and travelled the 1989 Leader Jeffrey Lundgren butchered in similar fashion in the country, partying and doing drugs. orders his followers to murder nearby Los Feliz neighbourhood. Among the women who joined the Avery family – for showing Manson was 19-year-old Susan “disloyalty” to the cult – on his Initially, the second murders Atkins, a California native. Kirtland, Ohio, farm. were believed to be the work of a copycat. By the end of the summer Charles Manson wielded a spiritual 1997 The 39 members of the of 1969, however, the killers would and sexual influence over the Family, Heaven’s Gate cult commit be exposed as the followers of cult- most of them young women. He would mass suicide in the belief that leader Charles Manson. sleep with the women, then offer them this will grant them entry to to other men in exchange for favours. a passing UFO. Free love prophet Two years before the murders, T he naked, bloody body of Manson was a 32-year-old aspiring actress Sharon Tate was musician who had spent half of his sprawled across her living life in prison for theft and other room floor, a cross slashed into her crimes. Following his release on eight-month-pregnant belly. The 21 March 1967, he moved to San 26-year-old movie star had been Francisco where he established stabbed 16 times. A rope around himself as a spiritual guru. Manson her neck connected her to the body was charismatic, with an almost of 35-year-old celebrity hairstylist hypnotic ability to manipulate. Jay Sebring. On the front door of Preaching a free-love philosophy the house on Cielo Drive, just north of Beverly Hills, the word “PIG” was written in Tate’s blood. The bodies of Tate, Sebring, and four others were discovered by the housekeeper in the rented home of

MURDER CASES 233 See also: The Wild Bunch 150–51 ■ Ted Bundy 276–83 ■ The Assassination of Rasputin 312–15 In late spring 1968, Manson formed Manson and allowed the group to I gave myself up to him and a brief friendship with Beach Boys’ stay. He spent up to $100,000 in return for that he gave me singer Dennis Wilson. While Wilson (£390,000 today) in money, food, and back to myself. He gave me… was driving around Southern clothing for them. Wilson was California, he picked up two of impressed with Manson’s musical faith in myself. Manson’s followers, who were talent and the two wrote a few Susan Atkins hitchhiking, and brought them to songs together. Wilson also his house. One of the followers was introduced Manson to music 20-year-old Patricia Krenwinkel. contacts, including Doris Day’s son, record producer Terry Melcher, who The next day, when Wilson owned the home rented by Tate and returned to his home following a Polanski. Melcher, however, did not recording session, Manson met him advance Manson’s career as much in the driveway. Inside, a dozen of as Manson had hoped. Soon, Manson’s followers occupied the Manson’s violent tendencies and ❯❯ house. Wilson was fascinated by The Manson family was a group Steve “Clem” Grogan with no real organizational structure. was a ranchhand, drug user, Manson’s magnetic personality was at the core of every relationship that drew and friend of the family, people into the group. convicted in the LaBianca and Shea killings. Mary Brunner was Linda Kasabian was Lynette “Squeaky” an accomplice in the Hinman an accomplice in the Tate- Fromme kept a vigil outside killing. She was the first woman LaBianca murders. Her remorse the courthouse, although in the family to bear one of led her to testify against she was not involved Manson’s children. Manson. She described the in the murders. murders in detail. Leslie Van Houten at 19 was the youngest Tex Watson was family member involved Manson’s crazed right-hand man. A former honour student, in the murders. he led the killings at Cielo and Waverly. Bobby Beausoleil Charles Manson Patricia Krenwinkel murdered Gary Hinman during was devoted to Manson. a drug deal. He was not a family She participated in the Tate- LaBianca killings. She stabbed member but regularly hung out with Manson. Abigail Folger dozens of times. Sandra “Blue” Good Susan “Sexy Sadie” Ruth Ann Moorehouse wanted to be at the Tate Atkins first met Manson at a was 16 when she ran away murders. She carved a cross house party in 1967. She was with Manson. She was charged into her forehead in support with the attempted murder involved in eight of of Manson at his trial. the murders. of Barbara Hoyt.

234 THE MANSON FAMILY volatile personality began to make In December 1968, Manson visited Spahn Ranch was the perfect location Wilson uncomfortable. Wilson a friend who played him the for Western films – such as Duel in abandoned both the group and the recently released Beatles’ White the Sun (1946) – with mountainous house, and in August 1968, Manson Album. Manson became obsessed territory and plenty of open land. The and his followers were evicted by with the group. He believed that Manson Family lived there until 1969. the authorities. their songs contained hidden messages that warned the Family who would be spared by hiding The group moved to the of an impending disaster. Manson out in Death Valley. The Manson deteriorating remnants of a believed he knew what this Family began preparing for the Western movie set in the San disaster would be. impending apocalypse, which the Fernando Valley called Spahn cult leader had termed “Helter Ranch. The owner allowed them to Helter Skelter Skelter”, after the Beatles’ song. stay on the ranch in exchange for On New Year’s Eve 1968, as the doing chores. While at the ranch Family gathered around a campfire Initially, Manson’s vision was to the group became closer and at Spahn Ranch, Manson warned release an album like the Beatles started calling themselves the members of the Family that racial had, with subtle lyrics that would “Manson Family”. They lived a tensions between black and white trigger chaos. In early 1969, the communal life, regularly engaging Americans were growing, and that Family left the desert and moved to in orgies and dropping LSD. African Americans would soon rise a home in Canoga Park in order to up in rebellion across the country. monitor racial tensions in Los The Family was based at Spahn He claimed that the whites were Angeles and write songs for their Ranch for much of 1968 and 1969, doomed due to a split between supposedly world-changing album. and their numbers continued to racist and nonracist whites. grow. Charles “Tex” Watson, a By June, when the apocalypse college dropout from Texas, joined Manson also told the group that failed to materialize, Manson the group, as did Linda Kasabian, the Beatles were sending messages started to tell the Family that he a 20-year-old single mother with a about the race war to the Family, had to lead the way. He needed 16-month-old daughter. to show the nation how to start

MURDER CASES 235 “Helter Skelter” by killing wealthy On the evening of 8 August 1969, I’ve done nothing I’m ashamed white people and framing African Polanski’s wife dined at her of. Nothing I couldn’t face God Americans for the crimes. favourite restaurant, El Coyote, with Folger, Frykowski, and with. I wouldn’t kill a bug. On 25 July, Manson sent Family Sebring. Tate was just two weeks Charles Manson member Bobby Beausoleil, a young away from giving birth and had rock musician, along with Brunner complained that day about Polanski The murder sent shockwaves and Atkins to the house of delaying his return from London. throughout the community, but Manson’s acquaintance, Gary At around 10:30pm, the four friends Manson was displeased. The panic Hinman. Manson believed Hinman returned to Tate’s rambling house failed to ignite the race war that he had money that they could steal to overlooking Benedict Canyon. had predicted. fund an underground bunker. Deadly night The next evening, the four After being held hostage for two Just before midnight, Watson, killers, Leslie Van Houten, and days, however, Hinman still refused Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Kasabian 18-year-old Steve “Clem” Grogan to give up the money. Angered, drove to the house. In the driveway, went with Manson to the home of Manson slashed Hinman’s ear off Watson shot and killed 18-year-old Leno LaBianca, a wealthy 44-year- with a sword. On Manson’s orders, student Steven Parent who had old supermarket executive. The Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to been visiting the caretaker in the Family entered the property on death. One member of the group guesthouse. While Kasabian Waverly Drive in Los Feliz, Los wrote “political piggy” in Hinman’s waited in the car, the others broke Angeles. Manson roused the blood on the wall of his home. They into the house and slaughtered all sleeping LaBianca from the living also drew a Black Panther symbol four occupants. room couch at gunpoint. LaBianca’s on the wall, hoping the police wife, Rosemary, was forced into the would believe that the murder was The bodies were discovered at living room, and pillowcases were committed by a member of the 9:15am the next morning by Tate’s put over the couple’s heads. They black nationalist organization. maid, Winifred Chapman. The were told that they were being carnage sent her screaming into robbed, but would not be harmed The ruse was unsuccessful. On the street for help. A neighbour if they cooperated. 6 August, Beausoleil was arrested called the police. When the police for the murder while out driving arrived at the scene, they reported Manson then left, instructing Hinman’s car. Two days later, seeing looks of terror on the Van Houten and Krenwinkel to Manson declared that it was time victims’ faces. They were unable follow Watson’s orders. Watson had to begin “Helter Skelter”, and told to save Tate’s unborn child. been told to kill the LaBiancas. He them to start at the house currently stabbed Leno more than a dozen occupied by Roman Polanski. caseworker deemed him times with a chrome-plated aggressively antisocial. He bayonet and carved the word “War” Charles Manson was sent to a minimum-security onto his bare abdomen. Van Houten institution in October 1951 and and Krenwinkel were told to kill Born to 16-year-old Kathleen paroled in May 1954. Rosemary LaBianca, who was Maddox in Cincinnati, Ohio, stabbed 41 times in the back and Charles Manson had a grim In 1955, Manson married buttocks. Krenwinkel also wrote upbringing. Shortly after hospital waitress Rosalie Jean “Rise” and “Death to pigs” on the Manson’s birth, Kathleen went Willis and the couple had a son, walls in the LaBiancas’ blood. ❯❯ to jail for robbery and he was Charles Jr. After Manson was sent to live with relatives in sent back to prison, the couple West Virginia. As a teen, divorced. He was paroled in Manson committed a string of 1958, but soon returned to petty crimes, robbing liquor prison after attempting to cash stores and stealing bikes. After a forged cheque. Manson was he robbed two grocery stores, released in March 1967, and aged 13, he was sent to a boy’s moved to San Francisco, where school. Despite having a high he established his cult. IQ, Manson was illiterate and a

236 THE MANSON FAMILY California, near the Family’s new hideout at Barker Ranch. Lutesinger snitched, and informed detectives that Susan Atkins had also been involved in the murder of Hinman, for which her boyfriend was already doing time. Meanwhile, on 16 August, in an unrelated case, the sheriff’s office raided Spahn Ranch, which they suspected was the main base of an auto theft ring. Susan Atkins was arrested, and Manson, Watson, and a follower named Bruce Davis killed Spahn Ranch-hand Donald Shea, because they believed he had reported them to the police. In jail on car theft charges, Susan Atkins told another inmate about her participation in the Tate and LaBianca murders. The inmate reported the claims and Atkins not only confessed to the crime, but agreed to testify against the others if the death penalty was dropped. Sharon Tate starred in Roman Despite the similarity of the crimes, Family trials Polanski’s 1967 movie The Fearless the Los Angeles Police Department Manson, Krenwinkel, and Atkins Vampire Killers, and married him in (LAPD) did not initially connect the were each charged with seven January 1968. Exactly 17 months later, Hinman, Tate, and LaBianca cases. counts of murder and one count the actress and model was murdered. of conspiracy. Because Van Houten The sheriff’s department was had only participated in the On the refrigerator door, she handling the Hinman case, and the LaBianca killings, she was charged incorrectly spelled out “Healter LAPD believed the Tate murder to with two counts of murder and one Skelter”. The killers then left the be related to drugs. Investigators of conspiracy. Kasabian, who blood-soaked scene. in each of the three cases found waited outside during the killings themselves at dead ends, partly Around 10:30pm on 10 August, due to the lack of communication They haven’t made Rosemary LaBianca’s son Frank between the authorities involved. atonement to any one of Struthers returned from a camping However, the Manson Family’s trip and found Leno LaBianca’s crime spree continued, and would my family members. boat on the drive. Suspicious, he provide the police with major leads. Debra Tate called his sister and her boyfriend. The men entered the house to find Kitty Lutesinger, girlfriend of the LaBiancas’ bodies. Bobby Beausoleil, was arrested for burning machinery in Death Valley,

MURDER CASES 237 Entering the courtroom in August 1970, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten all sport crosses they have carved into their foreheads. and fled the Ranch after the and his followers. As the trial 1972 when the death penalty was murders, was granted immunity concluded, with closing arguments abolished in California. Manson in exchange for her testimony. pending, Van Houten’s defence followers Bruce Davis and Steve lawyer, Ronald Hughes, Grogan were convicted in 1972 for The trial began on 15 June 1970. disappeared during a weekend trip. the murders of Hinman and Shea. On the first day of testimony, His body was found months later. Manson appeared in court with a In 1971, Manson followers cross carved into his forehead. In The trial concluded in January Catherine Share, Lynette Fromme, the days that followed, the other 1971. Manson, Atkins, Van Houten, Dennis Rice, Steve Grogan, and Family members at the trial – and Krenwinkel were found guilty Ruth Ann Moorehouse were including the female defendants – of all 27 counts, and sentenced to convicted for plotting to kill followed suit, wearing the mark. death. In a separate trial in 1971, Barbara Hoyt – a former Family Watson was also found guilty and member – to prevent her from Throughout the trial, Atkins sentenced to death. The sentences testifying at the trial. Hoyt, and her codefendants attempted were commuted to life in prison in Kasabian, and another former to disrupt proceedings. They sang Family member Paul Walker all songs Manson had written as The psychology of cults testified against Manson. Share they were led in and out of the later claimed that Manson had courtroom. Atkins giggled, Contrary to stereotypes, threatened to harm her if she did snickered, and shouted insults. 95 per cent of the people who not testify on his behalf. Family members loitered around join cults are psychologically the courthouse and held vigils sound. Personality is also not a For decades after the killings, on the sidewalk. Later, Manson major factor in cult membership. Manson remained in the news, and his codefendants all shaved Those who join cults do so in giving interviews from prison. their heads. response to individual and His case remains unique because circumstantial needs: a desire to he never actually killed anyone Their tactics did little to affect belong, a search for answers to himself; instead, he used his the trial’s outcome. The prosecution life’s big questions, or an powers of persuasion to convince argued the motive of the killings attraction to the insular, his followers to do so. ■ was to trigger Manson’s race war, structured aspect of cult life. with the case hinging largely on figures are usually incredibly the testimony of Kasabian. The Cult leaders play the most charismatic and manipulative, defence, meanwhile, rested after important role in recruiting and and therefore exert significant three days without calling a single retaining members. These influence over cult members. witness, which angered Manson Leaders encourage the group to embrace a collective identity, often ordering group activities, such as prayer, manual labour, and orgies. Members follow rules set by the leader, who often forbids outside interaction. This makes it hard for them to leave, as they become isolated from support systems outside of the cult.

238 GAODTINMGYO’BSABY! THE DEATH OF AZARIA CHAMBERLAIN, 17 AUGUST 1980 IN CONTEXT M ichael Chamberlain’s I am here to tell you that you account of his wife’s can get justice even when you LOCATION distress on realizing that Uluru campsite, Northern their baby daughter Azaria had think that all is lost. Territory, Australia been taken by a dingo did not Michael Chamberlain match her calm demeanour when THEME she was interviewed by police. Accused parents As they surveyed the couple’s campsite in the shadow of Uluru BEFORE (Ayers Rock), they felt that 1665 Anne Greene, an English something did not add up. servant girl, is hanged for the murder of her baby, conceived Shreds of evidence of clothing on the ground nearby. during rape. She insisted that The police developed their own The absence of a body did nothing the child was stillborn. theory. They posited that Lindy, to make them doubt this version of sitting in the front seat of the family events. The empty outback was the AFTER car, had held her daughter Azaria in perfect place to hide a small body. 1999 Sally Clark is falsely her lap and stabbed her with a pair convicted of murdering her of scissors until she died. This The police ignored evidence two infants after “expert” explained blood found on the car’s that did not support their theory. testimony on the improbability dashboard, and the shredded bits Other campers had heard a dog of two successive “cot deaths”. growl, and there were paw prints, dog hairs, and drag marks in and 2015 Purvi Patel is sentenced around the tent. Furthermore, to 20 years by an Indiana court Michael was a pastor and they after her “miscarried” 24-week had no motive for killing the baby. foetus is found in a dumpster. A dingo in Australia. While attacks on humans and livestock have led to culls, their “vulnerable” status and ability to deter predatory foxes have led to calls for dingoes to be reintroduced.

MURDER CASES 239 See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 The Chamberlains hold a picture of Azaria after the first coroner’s inquest declares their innocence in 1981. State police rejected the verdict, and pushed for Lindy’s conviction. Tests run by the court’s forensic as “foetal haemoglobin”, a young In the years following Azaria’s scientist Joy Kuhl endorsed the baby’s blood, in the family car was disappearance, several serious police view and, on 29 October revealed through improved dingo attacks were reported, some 1982, Lindy was convicted of her scientific testing to actually be a of which were fatal. In 1998, on daughter’s murder and imprisoned. mixture of milk, copper oxide, and Fraser Island, off the coast of Michael, the court found, had been other chemicals spilled in the Queensland, a father snatched his an accessory after the fact, helping vehicle during manufacture. infant daughter back as she was his wife to conceal her crime. He Furthermore, a “bloody” handprint being dragged away by dingoes; was freed on bail. on a scrap of baby clothing, which three years later, nine-year-old had damned Lindy in 1982, turned Clinton Gage did not survive his Doubts were later cast on the out not to be blood at all. mauling on Fraser Island. conviction by the chance discovery of a baby’s jacket outside a nearby Once the idea that Lindy had dingo den in 1986. Consequently, killed her daughter had been Lindy Chamberlain was released established, all facts related to on “compassionate” grounds. In the case appeared to support 1988, the convictions against her a guilty verdict. The seeming and her husband were overturned, impartiality of forensic analysis but even then an ugly question was in fact skewed to suit the mark remained. It was not lifted preconceptions of the investigators. by a fresh inquest in 1995, which Both police and the public judged returned an inconclusive “open” Lindy for the “unnatural” way she verdict on Azaria’s death. reacted. These views were unjust but deeply entrenched. It took Not until 2012 was a coroner other dingo attacks and new satisfied that the child had been forensic evidence for the courts to killed by a dingo – the crucial completely exonerate the couple. ■ evidence that Kuhl had identified Dingo in the dock No longer will Australia be Australia’s native wild dog, the able to say that dingoes are dingo, has never been considered harmless – dingo attacks on not dangerous. livestock mean farmers label them Lindy Chamberlain- a pest. At the time of Azaria’s disappearance, however, there were Creighton no recorded cases of dingoes hurting children. Perhaps the Australian public preferred to believe that a mother had killed her baby rather than that a part of Australia’s national identity – the dingo – was something to fear.

240 UOBI INNWGTEAGIASLERSIMTTKRHISLNOLOMEBDEOBTDOHYDEY THE MURDER OF JOHN LENNON, 8 DECEMBER 1980 IN CONTEXT W hen Mark David Fans pay homage to Lennon at the Chapman fired bullets Dakota Building. News of the murder LOCATION into John Lennon’s back led to an international display of grief; New York City, US on 8 December 1980, he not only at least three fans committed suicide destroyed an icon of his generation, in response to his death. THEME but also announced the arrival of a Celebrity stalker new kind of murderer: the celebrity with a .38-calibre pistol. As the killer. As a child in the Deep South, doorman took Chapman’s gun, the AFTER he was mesmerized by the Beatles, killer did not try to escape. Instead, 1981 John Hinkley Jr enrols but would later turn against them. he sat and waited for police to arrive at Yale in order to stalk actress at the scene. Lennon was rushed to Jodie Foster on campus. Fixated on fame hospital, but was declared dead On 30 March, he attempts to Chapman had an unstable identity within 15 minutes of his arrival. assassinate US President and was plagued by chronic Ronald Reagan as a “love feelings of worthlessness. At a low Chapman said he shot Lennon offering” to Foster. point, in 1977, he attempted suicide to achieve notoriety. He was in Hawaii, but failed to end his life. diagnosed as psychotic. In June 1989 Robert John Bardo 1981, he pleaded guilty to murder, shoots actress Rebecca Chapman became obsessed and was sentenced to 20 years to Schaeffer after stalking her with Beatles frontman John Lennon life. He remains behind bars. ■ for three years. after reading his biography. At the time, he was also heavily influenced 1995 Yolanda Saldívar stalks by J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Tejano singer Selena in a bid Rye, and came to see Lennon as a to take over the running of “phony”. For months, he stalked the her fan club. Selena fires her, star in New York City. and Saldívar kills the singer on 31 March. In December 1980, he finally made a move, ambushing Lennon 2004 Nathan Gale, a fan of as he returned to the Dakota the band Pantera, murders Building from a recording session. several people at a heavy metal Chapman shot Lennon five times concert. He is upset at the news that the band is splitting. See also: Madame Caillaux 217 ■ The Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls 254–57 ■ The Assassination of John F. Kennedy 316–21

MURDER CASES 241 DHWAOGAHSATOIHTNHOISSALTSDTMHSYEIEON?NUGWT?TYHOOOU THE MURDER OF ROBERTO CALVI, 17 JUNE 1982 IN CONTEXT I n 1975, Roberto Calvi became offshore enterprises. He transferred the chairman of the Banco billions out of Italy, inflated the LOCATION Ambrosiano, a Catholic bank prices of shares, and took out a London, England founded 75 years earlier to serve fortune in unsecured loans. In 1978, moral and religious organizations. his activities came to the attention THEME Its main shareholder was the of the Bank of Italy, who began to Mafia hit Vatican Bank. This connection led investigate him. Calvi to be called “God’s Banker”; BEFORE however, his actions as the bank’s Calvi was convicted, given a 1957 In New York, Albert chairman were decidedly not holy. four-year suspended sentence, and “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia released on bail. Close to $1 billion is murdered in his barber’s Calvi made a number of shady (£1.6 billion) in debt, the bank owed chair on the orders of mobster moves: siphoning money to fund a huge sum to the Sicilian Mafia. “Don Vito” Genovese. political parties; securing a The Banco Ambrosiano collapsed controlling interest in the Banco in June 1982, and that month, Calvi 1980 Philadelphia crime boss Cattolica del Veneto; and creating disappeared from his flat in Rome. Angelo Bruno is murdered and stuffed with dollar bills on the There was the Vatican, the His body was found eight days orders of his own consigliere, Mafia, Freemasons, and later, hanging from scaffolding Antonio Caponigro, following a under London’s Blackfriars Bridge. dispute about the meth trade. politicians. This trial is… just The banker had belonged to the a part of all of these stories. P2 Freemasons, frati neri (black AFTER friars), and the name of the bridge 1986 Chicago Outfit boss Luca Tescaroli did not escape notice. Initially ruled Rocco Infelice orders the a suicide, prosecutors came to murder of Anthony Spilotro, believe that the Mafia had killed who runs the Outfit’s business Calvi to stop him revealing details in Las Vegas, and his brother. of their dealings – or those of freemasons, politicians, and other 1990 Lucchese family member powerful groups. Five suspects Anthony DiLapi moves to were charged in 2005, but were California to escape the mob, acquitted due to lack of evidence. ■ but is found and gunned down on Anthony Casso’s orders. See also: Bernie Madoff 116–17 ■ The Sicilian Mafia 138–45 ■ The Beer Wars 152–53 ■ The Assassination of Rasputin 312–15

242 IIRNWONWAOS,CAEONNNDTDIEWATAHS KIRK BLOODSWORTH, 1984 IN CONTEXT I n 1984, 23-year-old former Kirk Bloodsworth holds a photograph US Marine Kirk Bloodsworth of Dawn Hamilton, the young girl he LOCATION was arrested and charged was wrongly convicted of sexually Rosedale, Maryland, US with the sexual assault, rape, assaulting, raping, and murdering and murder of nine-year-old Dawn in August 1984. THEME Hamilton. The girl’s body was Wrongful conviction found in a wooded area of a park in Rosedale, Maryland, near her home. BEFORE 1950 Briton Timothy John Bloodsworth was arrested Evans is convicted of the based on the testimony of an murders of his wife and anonymous caller, who told police daughter and is hanged. An that she saw him with the victim. inquiry held 15 years later Two other witnesses made positive determines that the killer was, identifications during a line-up. in fact, Evans’s co-tenant, However, they had been instructed John Reginald Halliday. not to watch television – news AFTER The Innocence Project for new evidence – such as a 1987 High school sophomore successful DNA test – to back Tim Masters is convicted Founded in New York in 1992 up the victim’s claim that there of killing Peggy Hettrick by two civil rights lawyers, the was a miscarriage of justice. from Fort Collins, Colorado. Innocence Project is a not-for- A judge orders that Masters profit legal organization that DNA testing was first be released immediately when works to exonerate wrongly introduced as a crime-fighting DNA evidence implicates convicted prisoners through the technique in 1989. As of early the victim’s boyfriend. application of DNA testing. The 2016, 340 people convicted of Innocence Project also works to serious crimes in the US have advocate for major reform of the been exonerated through DNA criminal justice system. testing and about half of them have received some financial Despite the name of the compensation for the time they group, self-confessed innocence spent in prison. Twenty of the is not in itself a legal basis upon inmates whose convictions were which to overturn a conviction. ultimately overturned had been Instead, it is normally necessary sentenced to death.

MURDER CASES 243 See also: Colin Pitchfork 294–97 If it could happen to me, it July 1984 – The body of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton is found in could happen to anybody. a park in Rosedale, Maryland. Kirk Bloodsworth August 1984 – Police arrest and charge Kirk Bloodsworth, a former US marine. reports about Bloodsworth featured March 1985 – A jury convicts Kirk Bloodsworth of widely at that time – because it Dawn Hamilton’s murder. He is sentenced to death. could affect their ability to recall July 1986 – Maryland Court of Appeals overturns the conviction, exactly who they had seen. They stating that prosecutors withheld evidence. They order a retrial. did not listen, and both witnesses April 1987 – A second jury convicts Bloodsworth of murder. saw Bloodsworth on television before the line-up. Although no He is sentenced to two life terms in prison. direct evidence connected him April 1992 – Baltimore County prosecutors release evidence from to the crime, Bloodsworth was convicted of rape and first-degree Bloodsworth’s trial for sophisticated new DNA testing. murder and sentenced to death. May 1993 – A California lab reports that a semen stain on the In 1986, the Maryland Court of victim’s underwear could not have come from Bloodsworth. Appeals overturned Bloodsworth’s 25 June 1993 – The FBI accepts that the semen found on the conviction, finding that the prosecution had illegally withheld underpants could not have been produced by Bloodsworth. evidence that might have cleared him from the defence. They ordered 28 June 1993 – Kirk Bloodsworth walks out of the a retrial, but Bloodsworth was House of Correction in Jessup, a free man. convicted again and sentenced to two life terms. Working in the prison library, Bloodsworth spent the next seven years trying to prove his innocence. In 1992, he read about a new technique – DNA fingerprinting. Hoping that DNA found at the crime scene might rule him out as the killer, Bloodsworth motioned the court. His tactic worked. In 1993, test results proved that the DNA evidence did not match Bloodsworth’s genetic profile and he was set free. ■

244 UANNPAACRTAOLLFELED EVIL THE MURDER OF JAMES BULGER, 12 FEBRUARY 1993 IN CONTEXT O n Friday, 12 February 1993, CCTV footage stamped 3:42pm two-year-old James Bulger shows James Bulger trustingly holding LOCATION was with his mother the hand of one of his killers. Thompson Merseyside, England Denise at Bootle Strand shopping and Venables took the two-year-old on mall in Merseyside, England. At a 3-km (2-mile) walk to his death. THEME 3:42pm, she was buying food in Child killers a butcher’s shop, while James who called for the boy over the PA waited by the door. The toddler system. Although they issued a BEFORE was led away to a gruesome death description of James and the outfit 1954 In Christchurch, New by two 10-year-old schoolboys, he was wearing, the boy was Zealand, Pauline Parker, 16, who tortured and killed him on nowhere to be found. At 4:15pm, and Juliet Hulme, 15, murder the local railway tracks. Bulger called in the local police. At Pauline’s mother Honorah. 5:30pm, when the shopping centre After paying for her goods, closed for the day, James was still 1968 In two separate Bulger turned around to find her missing, and Merseyside police incidents, 11-year-old Mary Bell son gone. Panicking, she enlisted launched a major search operation. strangles to death two little the help of security staff at the mall, boys, ages three and four. AFTER 1999 Lionel Tate, age 12, beats six-year-old Tiffany Eunick to death in Florida. 2001 Brothers Derek and Alex King, ages 12 and 13, beat their father to death with a baseball bat and then set their house on fire, in Florida.

MURDER CASES 245 See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ Lizzie Borden 208–11 ■ The Stratton Brothers 212–15 ■ The Death of Azaria Chamberlain 238–39 The biggest clue to James’s what James had been wearing. These are the ugly disappearance came from the Venables, on the other hand, manifestations of a society CCTV cameras, which showed the became hysterical under police that is becoming unworthy two-year-old leaving the butcher’s interrogation. On 19 February, he shop. Tracking his movements on confessed to the murder of James of that name. video, the police also spotted him Bulger, and on 20 February, both Tony Blair on the top floor, apparently suspects were arrested for the following two boys. In the final abduction and murder. Neither The evidence mounted against sighting on the footage – the last boy could explain their motive. them. While their lawyer argued image of James alive – it was the boys were too young to be held apparent that one of the boys was Children on the stand legally responsible for their actions, holding James’s hand, as the trio The trial of the two young killers a child psychiatrist testified that headed towards the Leeds and rocked the nation. A small platform they knew the difference between Liverpool Canal. Even with this was brought into the courtroom so right and wrong. Now age 11, information, however, the police that the boys could see out of the Thompson and Venables were old still could not find James. dock. As the country followed the enough to be charged, and on 24 proceedings with bated breath, a November the two were found Kidnap becomes murder damning case against Thompson guilty and jailed for eight years. Two days later, a young boy rushed and Venables emerged. into Walton Lane police station in a The sentence was increased panic. He had found a body, severely Bulger’s blood was found on twice, but Thompson and Venables mutilated, on the railway tracks one of the boy’s shoes, while the were released on parole in 2001. ■ only a few minutes from the police bootprints of the other matched station. James Bulger, it seemed, bruising on Bulger’s face. A witness was no longer a missing child: he came forward to claim that the boys was now a murder victim. After had tried to abduct her son that identifying the body as James, same day, and the court heard how, the police turned their attention to in his police interview, Venables finding their two prime suspects had admitted to thinking about – the young boys from the video. pushing a child into traffic, so that They had a lucky break when a local the murder seemed accidental. woman was able to identify them as troublemakers who often visited The age of responsibility her shop, and named them as Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. In the mid-20th century, the charged with committing a courts ruled that the age of criminal offence, but in some Thompson and Venables were responsibility should be based countries their parents can be taken into custody, but the police on a child’s emotional, mental, held responsible for their crimes found it hard to believe that they and intellectual maturity. and the children may then be were capable of killing. The two Different countries set their own taken into care. boys were only 10 years old, and ages of responsibility. In the UK, James’s injuries were many and that age is 10, while in other The UK considered raising terrible. Nonetheless, the police European countries it is 15. In the age of responsibility in 2014 questioned the two suspects. In the US, the age of responsibility – a move opposed by James the course of these interviews, the varies between states and Bulger’s mother. Had he been boys’ crime was slowly revealed. ranges from age six to 11. murdered a few months earlier, when Thompson and Venables Thompson remained eerily calm Lawbreakers under the age were under the age of 10, they during questioning, but slipped up of responsibility are treated would not have been tried or with a too-detailed description of differently. They cannot be punished by the courts.

I’M AFRAID KSTHOIISLMMLEANDMWAILEYL O.J. SIMPSON, 12 JUNE 1994



248 O.J. SIMPSON IN CONTEXT Nicole Brown Simpson at the Once both of the victims were premiere of her husband’s movie Naked identified, detectives went to LOCATION Gun 331/3: The Final Insult on 16 March Simpson’s Rockingham estate, Brentwood, Los Angeles, 1994. She and O.J. had reconciled where they discovered a white California, US following their divorce in 1992. Ford Bronco marred with bloodstains. Without a warrant, THEME pulled over his head, exposing a but claiming that he feared for Celebrity defendants torso riddled with stab wounds. Simpson’s safety, Detective Mark The neighbour flagged down a Fuhrman scaled the estate’s walls BEFORE passing patrol car and soon the and let his team in. During his 2 December 1954 Boxing apartment on South Bundy Drive walk around Simpson’s house, promoter Don King guns down was swarming with detectives. Fuhrman discovered a bloody an alleged robber at his illegal glove, which was later determined gambling house in Cleveland. The gruesome crime was not to be a match to one discovered typical for the affluent Brentwood at the murder scene. DNA testing 12 October 1978 Punk rocker neighbourhood. But the murder revealed that the blood on the Sid Vicious stabs and kills his investigation took on a frenzied glove came from both Nicole girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. pace when police learned the dead and Goldman. He is charged with murder, woman was Nicole Brown Simpson, but dies of a heroin overdose the ex-wife of football star turned Later, three drops of Simpson’s before trial. actor O.J. Simpson. blood were found near the gate of his home, from an open wound on AFTER Background to tragedy Simpson’s hand. The discovery of 22 January 2001 Former On the night of her murder, Nicole the glove, plus the blood evidence NFL player Rae Carruth is had dined at the restaurant at both scenes, was enough for an convicted of conspiracy to Mezzaluna with her mother and arrest warrant to be issued against murder his pregnant girlfriend, children. Nicole’s mother phoned Simpson for double murder. Cherica Adams. the restaurant at 9:35pm to report that she had left her spectacles Dramatic surrender 14 February 2013 Oscar behind. Nicole then made a call While his lawyers negotiated a Pistorius, a paralympic runner, herself, asking her waiter friend, planned surrender on 17 June 1994, fatally shoots his girlfriend, Ron Goldman, to bring the glasses Simpson fled. Longtime friend and Reeva Steenkamp. to her home that evening. Goldman fellow football player Al Cowlings finished his shift about 9:50pm, and picked him up in his white Ford O n the front doorstep of an headed to Nicole's. Just over two Bronco and drove Simpson up and apartment in Brentwood, hours later, both were found dead. down the freeway. Intermittently, Los Angeles, a barefoot O.J. put the gun against his head woman in a black dress lay face and threatened suicide. down in a pool of blood. Beside her the remains of a 25-year-old man I’m absolutely, l00 per cent, were tangled in the bushes. At not guilty. about 12:10am on 13 June 1994, a neighbour stumbled onto the O.J. Simpson ghastly tableau. He had found the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Both victims had been dead for some time. The deep slash wound on Nicole’s neck left her nearly decapitated. Goldman’s shirt was