Torrey Pines State Beach Murders

More than thirty five years after, a notorious murder remains unsolved.  What is more disconcerting, is that another murder took place on the same beach six years later, and everything about both murders was the same.  Yet, it took Police many years to link the murders, then declared that they believed they knew who the killer was, but both crimes were committed by different assailants.  A fact that is not shared by many.  The first crime concerned 15 year old Cheerleader Barbara Nantais and her 17 year old boyfriend Jim Alt.  It was in 1978 that they and two other friends went to the beach, and stayed there overnight.  The other couple stayed in the car at a carpark around two hundred and fifty yards away from their campsite.  Jim and Barbara stayed on the beach.  Whilst they slept, a predator pounced.  He used a heavy piece of wood to smash Jim`s skull in.  Then he attacked Barbara in the most appalling manner.  What was strange was that she was not sexually assaulted.  But what else hi did was truly sick.  She was stabbed and strangled, had sand forced down her throat, had knife wounds around her genitalia and had one of her breasts mutilated.  

    It was the following morning when incredibly, Jim stirred.  He was not dead.  He could not see because his eyes were swollen shut, he groped around but kept grabbing sand.  He could not feel Barbara.   Survival instinct kicked in and somehow he managed to stagger and crawl in the direction of the car to alert the other couple.  The young man at first, could not recognise the blood spattered man calling for help, then saw it was Jim, due to his long blonde hair.  Police were summoned to find Barbara grotesquely murdered.  Jim was taken to hospital and lapsed into a coma for a couple of weeks.  The cops at first thought Jim was responsible and his injuries were self inflicted!  Duuuuhhhh!!!!!!!!  Jim had to have a metal plate inserted into his skull and have much of one side of his face reconstructed.  Police were never able to find any suspects.  Jim Alt cannot move on until the killer is apprehended.

    Fast forward six years to 1984 and to 14 year old Claire Hough, who was staying with her grandparents.  She quietly left the house, late one night, taking a boombox with her.  She stopped to buy cigarettes at a late night store, and that was the last she was seen of, until her body was found on Torrey Pines Beach.  She had not been raped but strangled, throat slashed, stab wounds around the genitalia and one of her breasts had been severed.  This case ran cold until DNA tests on cigarette butts found near the body.  The tests revealed the DNA of three women and two men.  Police revealed that they were ready to arrest a man late this year for the crime.  He was a forensic scientist with the Police, but this man had not been involved in the investigation of Claire`s murder.  They also declared that a convicted sex offender who had died in a boating accident in 2011 was also involved, but there was no link between the murders of Barbara and Claire.  There were newspaper claims that Police were linking them but now they were not.  There has not been any explanation of why these men were named.  It was wondered why Claire went out late at night, but taking a music player and buying cigarettes tells you plenty.  She was off for a rendezvous on the beach with friends.  Who did the DNA belong to?  Three women and two men.  What is incredible is that these individuals have never come forward.  Why not?  What do they have to fear?  It would certainly answer some forensic questions, but after thirty years of silence, I call that complete and utter cowardice.  They have really shown how much their friend really meant to them.  Nothing.

    The cigarettes can put somebody at the murder scene, but a suspect will have a good answer.  He walked past that spot, and discarded the cigarette he was smoking, earlier in the day or night.  He is being accused simply because he walked past a spot where a body was dumped later.  Look at the facts; the girls were 14 & 15, both had stab wounds around the genitalia, both had sand forced down their throats, both were not sexually assaulted, and both had mutilations of the breast.  Is it conceivable that the exact area has two sets of killers doing exactly the same crime?  Profiler John Kelly believes it was a soldier who had probably seen combat in Vietnam and seen and committed atrocities, as he did not hesitate in what he had done.  Was it a man with a grudge to women?  A jilted soldier?  There is a very large military presence in the area with a number of military bases.  Plus, many men returning from Vietnam settled there.  My thoughts on this are that the conflict in Vietnam ended in 1973 and the murders were in 1978 and 1984.  What was he doing before the first, and before the second?  I do not believe in the "cooling off period" I think killers commit their crimes simply because they want to.  Much more has to come out into the public realm before I would reconsider my verdict that the same man committed both murders.  The Police should declare what they know before accusing deceased people of murder.  You can suspect them of it but to declare them killers before a court trial can decide, smacks of desire to get the cases closed.

Joseph Menconi - French Gangster

Joseph Menconi is a Corsican gangster currently serving a long prison sentence but his record and reputation puts firmly in the top echelons of French crime.  There is no "Two Way Stretch/Wrong Arm of The Law" Sellers/Cribbins/Jeffries comic Underworld that some people like to favour, with this man.  The ability to carry out armed hold-ups gains you a reputation quickly, in the Underworld, and Menconi arrived with a bang in 1991, with a bank robbery.  Unfortunately for him, he was apprehended but was blessed with a mere five years prison time.  As it is with criminals, did he go straight when released?  Did he hell?  it was straight back into heavy crime and an assault on an armoured car in 1997, in Nice.  But soon after, he committed murder, killing a soldier who was trying to get too friendly with his girlfriend.  Back to jail he went on remand but escaped soon after, joining forces with another Corsican villain.  They hit another armoured car on December 26th 2000, getting away with the equivalent of 6.3 million Euros.

    Never one to shy away from conflict, he was thought to have been involved in a number of bloody Underworld feuds.  He has a particular penchant for escaping from prisons.  In 2003, he actually managed to escape from solitary confinement, and then, to add insult to injury, he simply walked out of the prison gate whilst other inmates created a disturbance.  He was recaptured just over three weeks later.  Reminds you of that scene in "Midnight Express" when Billy Hayes is seen to walk out of the prison gate dressed as a guard, except it never actually happened like that.

Lewiston, Idaho, Unsolved Murders

Another case highlighted by M. William Phelps in his "Dark Minds" TV series, features a number of murders and disappearances in 1982 linked to a local theatre in the town of Lewiston in Idaho.  The first concern was when Jackie Miller,18, and her step-sister Kristina Nelson, 21, went to a late night store to purchase some items.  They never returned.  Their mother searched but after time, called in the Police, who conducted a wider search.  The journey to the store would have taken them past a place they were both very familiar with; the Lewiston Civic Theatre.  They were both avid amateur actresses, working on various local productions.  A man was spotted going into the theatre, but he too, mysteriously went missing.  This man was 35 year old Steven Pearsall, like they, an amateur actor and also a musician.  But Steven was known to all as a very gentle,unassuming man, who had no maliciousness in him whatsoever.  It was inconceivable to picture him as a man of violence, but the mystery was his disappearance.  It did not bode well for him.  But it turned out that another man was there.  A man liked by some but disliked by others.  He admitted being there that night, and that Steven had been there as well, but claimed he hurt himself and went for a lie down in an office, and fell asleep.  He then claimed to have awoken the following morning.

    The case ran cold but some events did come to light.  In 1981, Kristin David, 22, vanished on a bicycle ride from the town of Moscow to Lewiston, a ride she had made many times.  She too, was part of the theatre.  So there was a connection to four disappearances; the theatre.  It was March 1984, and a young lad was on a roadside collecting tin cans, when, after the wind had blown his hat off, and he chased after it, he came across a skull.  It was on a hillside thirty miles outside of Lewiston.  A search by Police discovered two sets of remains.  Police thought they were the remains of Jackie and Kristina.  They were right.  A length of rope was found with them.  It was thought to be the same kind of rope used in the theatre.  Another connection?

    Phelps dug into the "Person of Interest`s" background.  This man had been interviewed twice by Police but now refused to take a polygraph and sought protection of a lawyer, stating he was refusing to talk to cops anymore.  This man had seemingly left a very dirty trail.  In 1979, 12 year old Christina White had vanished.  She was suffering from some sunstroke during a particularly hot day, and called her mother.  She advised Christina to bathe herself with some water and come home.  She would be watching out for her.  But Christina never arrived home.  She had vanished.  The last person to see her was "The Person of Interest."  He even offered to help in the search for her and was even trying to advise Police on where to look.  Was he trying to divert them away from where her body lay?  Christina was never found.

    But in 1972, a 17 year old girl, Antoinette, had argued with her boyfriend and stormed off along a beach one night, in Santa Cruz.  The next day, her body washed up on the beach.  She was nude.  Death was by drowning and Asphyxiation, so cops surmised it was suicide, as she had made suicidal comments before.  Seems tunnel vision is not the sole prerogative of British cops!  Then why was she naked?  Did she think, "Right, I am going to top myself but I must get completely undressed first?"  Yeah right.  But it does not stop there.  Police in San Jose received a call at 5.am, two days after the body was found, saying that somebody was trying to break into the Willow Glen mortuary!  Who did the cops nab carrying a torch and knife?  The "Person of Interest."  He pleaded to a reduced charge.  The only body in the mortuary, was that of Antoinette.  Why do you  break into a mortuary, carrying a knife?  What was he planning to do?  Then, fast forward to 1987, and a woman named Claudette was discovered dead in her home.  Police deduced it was an overdose suicide.  Who found her?  Only the "Person of Interest."  Is this man so unlucky to have death stalking him?  Or is there much more to him?  With Steven Pearsall not being found, there is always the lingering doubt that he may be the guilty man.  But many, and the Police also, believe he was a victim too.  He was thin and not very strong looking, mild mannered and no troublemaker.  A perfect patsy for a killer. Providing his body never surfaces.  There has been no proper evidence linking the P.O.I. to the crime and so cannot be named.  To this day, Phelps said he has done nothing to help the investigation or prove his innocence.  A terrible tale that hopes one day will be resolved.

Source; Dark Minds.

Cocaine Smuggler Foiled By Fuel

It is not everyday that a drug smuggler hands himself into Police but Stephen Powell, from Guiseley, near Leeds, did so.  He told the desk cop that authorities had something of his - £63 million of drugs.  He was part of a plot to smuggle into the UK £160 million worth of Cocaine, but the plot fell apart in the Atlantic Ocean.  Police found a satellite phone, enabling Powell to keep in contact with his yacht, The Makayabella, as it crossed the Atlantic from the Carribean.  But the smugglers were not to know that a multi-agency task force was keeping track of the yacht.  Authorities from the UK, Ireland, France and Venezuela were involved.  But the yacht was stopped in the Atlantic and the occupants arrested.  Powell had a motorboat called Sea Breeze, which ran out of fuel on the way to meet the yacht and was rescued by the RNLI.  The boat was taken to Rosslare, then piloted  to Pwllheli in North Wales.  Powell left his boat there and went to a Police station in Leeds.

    Powell, who had a window cleaning service, was jailed for sixteen years, whilst the others arrested on the boat faced charges in Ireland, and three others from West Yorkshire are on bail as the investigation goes on.  Powell was a gambling man, who got involved after his business collapsed, the Judge declared before sending him down via a video link to the prison he was being held in.  Question; how does a window cleaner get the money for a yacht and a motorboat?  Will this be looked at by the Asset Recovery Agency?  Only time will tell.  Source; Bradford Telegraph & Argus.

Killer Trucker - John Robert Williams

It was a person watching a TV programme about an unsolved murder that resulted in the arrest of two killers and the start of a possible serial killer case.  This person found that details in the show matched details of a murder a cousin of theirs was bragging about.  It resulted in the arrest of John Robert Williams , a truck driver, and his girlfriend Rachel Cumberland.  It was the case of Nikki Hill, who was found shot in the head with a handgun, and in the back with a shotgun.  Miss Hill, 20, had disappeared from a casino in 2004.  Williams was charged with kidnapping and murder, and jailed for life plus twenty years.  Cumberland took a plea to manslaughter and received twenty years.

    Now investigators were delving into unsolved murders that involved interstate highways, truck stops and prostitutes.  Williams is incarcerated in a supermax unit at Parchman Prison in Mississippi.  Now both were being interviewed about other murders, with Williams claiming to have killed 37 women!  Was this just boasting or was he coming clean?  There had to be some detail that could positively link him to a particular crime.  And he did provide it.  He said he had murdered a prostitute from Toledo, Ohio, and had dumped her body in a parking lot, ten miles outside of Indianapolis.  There was such a murder.  That of Buffie Rae Brawley, 27, from Portland, Oregon.  He gave a description of a tattoo on her.  It contained the name "Ebony" the name of Buffie`s daughter.  She had duct tape tied around her head, had suffered blunt force trauma and had been strangled.   Asked why he decided to kill her, the response was "she knocked on his truck window!"

    An investigator from Texas, told of Williams confessing to him of killing a woman and throwing her off a bridge in Texas.  There was such a case.  The murder of Casey Jo Pipestem, a 19 year old Seminole Indian from Oklahoma City.  At present, it is unknown if Williams will be charged with the murders of Buffie and Casey Jo, but the murder of Casey Jo could result in a death sentence for Williams.  He is a suspect in two other unsolved murders.  That of Jennifer Hyman from Oklahoma City, whose nude body was discovered below a railroad bridge going over the Tallahatchie River, by an engineer.  The other is that of Samantha Patrick, found in Yukon, Oklahoma, twelve miles west of Oklahoma City.

    Sometimes I get messages from people claiming that my facts are wrong.  Everything I put is in the public domain.  The information here was gleamed from Murderpedia and from Discovery ID documentary "Killer Truckers."

The Murder of Claire Tiltman - Solved

It is very gratifying to read that a notorious unsolved murder has finally been closed and the perpetrator put behind bars.  The murder of Claire Tiltman in January 1993, was such a case.  Claire had just turned sixteen when she was brutally attacked in an alleyway, close to her home, in Greenhithe, Kent.  Her case ran cold for two decades, despite an extensive manhunt by Kent Police.  Many potential suspects were interviewed but there was nothing to tie any man into the case.  The investigation eventually ran cold, getting cold case reviews every couple of years, but all came to nothing.  Until a man convicted of two violent attacks on women, made a comment to a fellow inmate about attacking a girl who had just used a pedestrian crossing.  He had the information passed onto Police, who checked into the two attacks the convicted man had carried out, but there were no crossings where the attacks occurred.  But it did raise the question in the case of young Claire.

    This man was former milk man Colin Ash-Smith, sentenced to three life sentences for two horrific attacks on two women.  The first victim was abducted, raped and Ash-Smith tried to then murder the young mother in a quarry.  Then in 1995, two years after Claire`s murder, Ash-Smith stabbed 22 year old Charlotte Barnard fourteen times,but miraculously, she survived, like the first victim.  Police found journals in his home detailing what he would like to do to women.  Violently.  He also had an extensive collection of various types of knives.  He admitted to Police he liked to go out for late night walks armed with a knife, looking for victims.  He was questioned about the murder of Claire but his mother provided him with an alibi, which much later turned out to be false.  His father was jailed for perverting justice in 1997, after he admitted destroying a particular knife the Police wanted to examine.  The mother later said that neither she, her husband or son had anything to do with the murder of Claire.  

    Then the information from the inmate sparked fresh interest in the murder of Claire.  They already had Ash-Smith`s journals on how he planned his attacks, describing himself as "an animal" and how he hated women and "was not a doormat."  He was convicted just days ago for Claire`s murder and jailed for a minimum of twenty one years.  Considering his history, he should have received a whole life sentence, showing just how dangerous he is to women.  The sad part of this saga, is that both of Claire`s parents died before before justice was served.  Both the Tiltman and Ash-Smith families knew each other, which makes things worse.  But let us look at the facts.  He had a huge collection of knives.  Does that not ring alarm bells?  His mother lied for him about the night of the murder - Police are considering whether to prosecute her.  Then his father deliberately destroying a knife so Police could not examine it, resulting in jail for him.  That says much.

    The murder of Claire Tiltman was long considered to have been committed by serial killer Robert Napper, by amateur sleuths, due to the extensive number of wounds inflicted, but now the truth is out and a very dangerous man is back inside.  Astonishingly, he was being considered for parole, despite 3 life sentences!!!!  Napper has been put in the frame for at least 8 murders by one amateur sleuth, including Penny Bell and Jean Bradley, but this is on account of the ferocity of knife wounds. There are killers, known as "commuters" by profiler David Canter, killers who travel to locate victims.  Sounds unreal does n`t it.  But the greater the distance between the killer and victim, the more chances he has of getting away with it.  And it is very uncomfortable to acknowledge that there are freaks out there who just simply want to kill.

Mexico - Narco State

Have any of you watched the Sky News special about civil war erupting in Mexico?  Why is this happening?  The answer; drugs.  The Mexican drug cartels are running amok with assistance from corrupt cops and military personnel.  The very people who are supposed to be stopping these criminal organisations, are actively helping them in their crimes and are also killing anybody who stands up to them.  Now the people are fighting back and have formed vigilante armies and are setting up prisons where they incarcerate cartel members and other criminals.  The difference between the vigilantes and the cartels, is that the vigilantes are not carrying out mass Nazi-style exterminations.  Mass graves are being unearthed all over a mountain range.  The victims , men, women and children, were slaughtered for not kowtowing to them.  Daring to refuse to take orders from bandits.  In ten years, more than 120,000 people have been murdered.  More than 27,000 are still missing.  As the reporter put it, "These people are suffering for our wild parties!"  This is all because the movement of narcotics from South America has for some years now, been straight through Mexico, onto the USA and Europe.

    After watching this, would the pro-drugs wankers make their way to the areas of Mexico ran by the vigilante groups and explain to them that they have gotten it all wrong, and drugs are nowhere as bad as the nasty authorities would have us believe.  Would you expect to see the Marks` and Fieldings of this world venturing their way there to fight the corner of the pusher and the addict?  Not a chance!  Out there, Marks would not have the protection of the British Security Services.  That is the strangest thing about Marks.  He has, according to, admitted he was an informer for the Security Services, yet you never hear anybody slagging him off, that he was grassing people up to the very people the so called "Counter Culture" allegedly despised; the Governments` spooks.  Yet Marks, like many criminals who go into autobiography, suffers from enormous memory lapses.  These activities never made it into his book.  This would obviously mean that he was given licence to import drugs provided he kept providing information.  Marks let his "Mr Nice" mask slip twice.  One, he complained that a DEA agent had it in for him.  My god, could it have been for the reason that all he ever did was import drugs?  Did Marks think he was above the law?  Secondly, going into prison, the food was not the Cordon Bleu standard he was used to.  Ah diddums!  He had to eat slop with the rest of the peasantry.  You poor bastard!   An interesting comparison is Paul Grimes and John Haase.  They all slag Grimes for what he did.  That is, make a stand against drugs.  Yet, it emerged that Haase was an informer for quite some years, yet do we hear people screaming that Haase is "A fucking grassing bastard!"  It seems not.  Funny that.

The Unsolved Murder of Lisa Hession

Delving back into the unsolved files brings up the case of 14 year old Lisa Hession, attacked and strangled on Saturday December 8th 1984, as she walked home alone, from a party.  Her body was discovered just before midnight in Rugby Road, Leigh, just hundreds of yards from the family home.  Her mother, Christine, reported her missing when she failed to reach the family home, but within a very short space of time, she received a call from Police to make her way to Leigh Infirmary.  It was there that Mrs Hession had the awful responsibility of formally identifying her deceased daughter.  Police reported that some of her clothes were disturbed, suggesting a sexual motive.  She had a black mark around her neck, suggesting some kind of ligature, and that she had a black eye, meaning the assailant stuck her first before carrying out his murderous assault.  Police launched a huge manhunt but eventually it ran cold, being given sporadic reviews, but in 2011, Police believed they may be on the verge of a breakthrough.  Thanks to advances in DNA technology, they were now swabbing men throughout the Leigh area, so it was clear that they were able to get DNA traces from Lisa, and hopefully get a match.

    But it seems there has been no positive match.  This case and others like it would bolster the need for a compulsory national database, ensuring that the guilty never gets away with serious crime.  Of course the wankers from civil liberties and human rights would be crying into their cornflakes every morning, but that shows what they truly feel about victims.  If you have nothing to be afraid of, then there is no problem.  I have no objection.  Is it not about time the victims of murder came first, and if a national database catches the killer, then so be it.  Nobody is above the law.

Public Executioner - Is It An Exciting Job?

You do not hear much about the hangmen of Great Britain, although much always centres around Albert Pierrepoint.  But reading a recent article in a crime magazine written by a former prison officer who worked around jails in the condemned cell, it confirmed my long held belief that the executioner who took over the number one spot from Pierrepoint, Harry Allen, enjoyed what he did.  The recent film about Pierrepoint, starring Timothy Spall, tried to humanise the hangman.  But my opinion on Allen was first formed many years back when he told his story to a Sunday newspaper, after there were calls for the Conservative Government of the time, to reintroduce the rope.  The way he described it, it gave the impression that he enjoyed his job.  He passed judgement on two cases - Derek Bentley and James Hanratty - that he was involved in.  He was assistant to Pierrepoint on hanging Bentley and said he deserved to die.  I was never aware that hangmen were also judge and jury.  I wonder what Allen had to say when in 1993, a pardon or partial one was granted to Bentley, after suppressed evidence came to light.  Namely, the evidence of PC Claude Paine, who was never called to give evidence because he was not prepared to lie through his teeth like all the others.  I bet Allen kept his mouth firmly shut on that.

    In regards to Hanratty, people can scream "DNA" but I wonder how his semen found it`s way on to the panties of the victim.  Could it have had anything to do with Hanratty`s offer to supply blood, saliva and semen, in order to prove his innocence?  He gave a false alibi but his second alibi was proven to be true.  He had been in a bed and breakfast  in Rhyl, in North Wales, but his downfall was his alibi witnesses were honest, law abiding people.  Which was in total contrast to the prosecution witnesses, thieves, liars, police informers, all paragons of truth and honesty.  I could go on endlessly about this case but will leave it there.  My view is, and one I openly expressed on one of my Criminology courses, was that Hanratty was fitted up all the way to the gallows, and on to Allen in the Execution Chamber.

    The prison warder told of how Allen kept telling him and his colleagues "anecdotes" on the people he helped hang.  He loved it.  Legendary crime reporter "Black Prince" Nicholson said that Allen loved the publicity.  I was under the impression that it was a very grim job, but it is nice to know that executing people can be fun!!!!  Pierrepoint tried to keep it low key.  One old hangman, Robert Baxter, was censured by the Home Office, after it was discovered he was touting for business.  Baxter assisted John Ellis in the execution of Edith Thompson and hanged Guy Browne for the murder of PC George Gutteridge, another controversial case.

The Bowler Hat Murder

This sort of case that Sherlock would have sunk his teeth into; the only clue was a bowler hat.  Yet, it led to the arrest, conviction and execution of a killer.  It was Christmas Eve 1938, when Jeweller Ernest Key was discovered in the rear of his shop in Surbiton, Surrey.  He was blood spattered and unconscious, but died on the way to hospital.  The attack on him was extremely savage, with him receiving more than thirty stab wounds around the neck, head and face.  The motive to Police was obvious; robbery.  The only clue Police had was a Bowler hat found at the murder scene.  The hat was examined by leading Pathologist Eric Gardner, who gave opinions as to the owner, from the size of the hat and strands of hair inside.  Then Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury arrived to take over.

    Police soon discovered the owner of the hat.  It belonged to Bill Butler, aged 29, who lived in Teddington, Middlesex.  He was married with two children but was currently unemployed.  Butler had a criminal record for house breaking and on top, Police discovered that he had attended a hospital, after the murder, to receive treatment for cuts to his hands.  He gave hospital staff a false name, Charles Jackson, and a false address.  His explanation for the cuts was that he had been using a wood chopping machine.  Within weeks, Butler was arrested, but now claimed the injuries were caused by being knocked down by a motorcyclist.  His explanation for the false name and address was to avoid costs - this was pre-NHS.

    His trial at the Old Bailey began on February 15th 1939, where he ran a defense of self defense, and so said he should have been charged with Manslaughter.  The problem here is that Mr Key was stabbed thirty plus times.  How can you deflect that?  Did Mr Key repeatedly throw himself at the knife deliberately?  Believe that and you believe in Santa Claus.  The Jury certainly did not and convicted him of murder.  He was executed at Wandsworth Prison on March 29th 1939 by Tom Pierrepoint.  Reports say that the newspapers exaggerated the part in the case of Eric Gardner, in regards to the hat, but if it had been Spilsbury examining the hat, no doubt the reviewers of the case would have been shouting from the rooftops about how wonderful and truly brilliant Spilsbury was, and would have been nothing more than they expected.

Pair Jailed For Carrying Firearms

A recent case here in Bradford was that of two men sentenced to a total of thirteen years for possessing illegal firearms.  Everything started on June 10th, this year, when the two were chased through the Great Horton district by Police.  The duo, in a Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4, were pursued by Police, but stopped the vehicle outside Southmere Primary School in Great Horton, fleeing on foot but were detained by Police.  The Mitsubishi was searched, with a haul consisting of a sawn off shotgun, cartridges, balaclavas and gloves being discovered in a bag.  A further firearm was discovered hidden in a tree at the rear of Ali`s home.  The two men were arrested were Zulfiqar Ali, 33 of Listerhills, Bradford and Jordan Farooq, 24, of Great Horton, Bradford.  Ali received seven and a half years and Farooq, five and a half years.  Both had numerous previous convictions.  Ali had 11 convictions and Farooq, 12.

    The case was sparked by suspicious officers on a routine patrol resulting in firearms being recovered, and if you carry them, you go down.  But regular readers will know this is simply not true some times.  I have harped on about it a few times but when a grandmother goes down in Liverpool for allowing loan sharks to leave stuff in her attic - a gun and ammunition - but somebody else can stand up in court and admit two serious firearm offences for which he is NOT facing charges, you have to ask yourself, why?  Why is possession of an illegal firearm an automatic five years prison, yet does not apply to certain people?  Why are they so special?  No doubt your conclusions are the same as mine!

Back on Track Once Again.

Due to numerous problems with the PC that have now been sorted, I can get back to what I love doing.  Much has happened over the last week or more.  A man holds up his hands on a New York street and gets jumped from behind by a cop and ends up strangled - yes, I have seen the footage.  Then a man in Ferguson, Missouri, dies fleeing from a cop and is shot eight times!  It was some days before it was revealed (over here) that twelve shots were fired in total and the distance was over 140 feet!  What questions does that raise?  Plenty.  Was the cop in question, a marksman?  This is not the world of films and television where a cop hits a suspect over fifty yards away, running, with one shot.  Naturally, such a situation would bring out the white supremacists in support, but with all the protests going on throughout the US highlighting how black people feel about being arrested by the Police and ending up dead, one wonders how Law Enforcement can weather the storm.  True, there will always be those who will exploit a situation for no other reason than mayhem, but there were genuinely protesting.  According to reports , the National Guard were drafted in.  Ah yes, the National Guard!  You could join them in the 60`s and early 70`s and avoid the Vietnam draft.  (I had to get that in!)

    We did have one incident over here, just like the one with the young lad with a ball bearing gun.  We had some wanker pointing one at people in the street and thinking it was funny.  Police did not think so.  Nor did the people who found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun.  In the media uproar that followed, one apologist said that the Police and media over-reacted.  Really?  Has this fucker ever had a firearm pointed at himself for a laugh?  If an armed patrol had come across him and he raised it in their direction, then he would be asking to be shot.  We have constant armed patrols in this city, and many a time you can see them getting food from Morrisons and Asda.  Whilst on delivery, I came across armed officers who pulled a car over, but as the guy was not spreadeagled on the floor, I realised it was just a traffic stop. Would anybody in their right mind, cause bother when cops have a gun on their hip?  This may sound contradictory in regards to what I put earlier, but there is right and wrong.  My opinion is that the incidents in the US were wrong but in regards to the young lad who was shot waving a ball bearing gun - I believe he was just 12! - could it have been handled better?  My US readers might want to offer their opinions, so feel free to comment.

Killer Truckers

This will be a prelude to a series of posts on killer truck drivers who are serial killers.  It has been recently revealed that there are more than five hundred unsolved murders linked to the Interstate network throughout the United States.  An Oklahoma Crime Analyst, Terri Turner, was looking into seven unsolved murders, and found all were found very close to Interstate highways, and so put out a request from all Police agencies on unsolved homicides, linked to major roads.  Law Enforcement was not prepared for the outcome.  The FBI became involved and solved twenty murders attributed to a couple of individuals.  Both were truckers.  It has been said that there are twenty five incarcerated serial killers who are truckers.  One of the most infamous is Keith Hunter Jesperson, convicted of eight murders but has boasted of killing up to 160!  He became known as "The Smiley Face Killer."

    Most of the victims are prostitutes, who frequent the truck stops.  There, at the orders of their pimps, they pester all the truckers for business.  Even schoolgirls have been forced into these truckers rest stops by their "caring and loving" pimps, whose only concern is for money.  Would they care if one of their girls was murdered?  Of course he would.  There would be a drop in money in his pocket.  These girls are known as "Lots Lizards" by drivers but a group are fighting back by informing authorities of anything suspicious they see.  This has resulted in young women being taken away from this lifestyle by authorities.  But these killers are only a very tiny proportion of the truckers that operate throughout the USA.  There have been a number of murders of drivers, victims of robbery.  No doubt, some junkie desperate for money for a fix.  The reason prostitutes are killed in high numbers are because, quite simply, they are throwaway victims.  

The Murder of Kathleen Heathcote

Shop Assistant Kathleen Heathcote, 21, had traveled from her home in Mansfield, to her boyfriend`s home in Selston, some six miles away.  She vanished on 21st November 1963, some 400 yards from her home.  Some of her belongings were found scattered on some waste ground.  During the hunt for Kathleen, a Constable recalled finding a car stuck in mud on the waste ground and that he gave a lift to the driver, to a garage.  This man was 22 year old Ronald Evans, an Electrician at a nearby Colliery.  Police decided to search his home and found some of Kathleen`s possessions.  Confronted with this, Evans confessed to killing her.  He said that on that night, he had been out drinking and spotted Kathleen making her way home.  He stopped his car and attacked her, despite it raining - hence the car getting stuck in mud.  He physically attacked her first, beating her unconscious, then he raped her.

    But now Kathleen started stirring and groaning, so he put her in his car, intending he claimed, to take her to a hospital - oh what a considerate and thoughtful rapist!! - but she kept groaning, so her dragged her to the boot and put her in.  Then he found he was stuck, but a Police car pulled up and the driver gave him a lift to a garage.  He stayed away from the car all night, returning the next day.  By now, Kathleen was dead.  Then a tow truck appeared to pull the car out.  Evans then nonchalantly drove home with Kathleen still in the boot.  He waited until his wife and his mother went out to bingo, then he drove out to High Peak in Derbyshire and to the Ladybower Reservoir.  He then removed all her clothing and dumped her in the water.  Frogmen later recovered her body.  Evans appeared at Nottingham Assizes in March 1964 and was convicted of murder.  As it did not constitute a Capital Crime under the 1957 Homicide Act, he was sentenced to "life" imprisonment but served just eleven years, being released in 1975.

     Was that the last of Ronald Evans?  No, it was most certainly not!  His first move was to relocate himself, moving to Bristol.  Then Bristol suffered a string of sex attacks, leading the press to dub the assailant "The Beast of Bristol" but it was the bravery of an undercover Policewoman acting as a decoy.  Evans attacked her but she fought back, and colleagues were quickly on him.  He was sentenced to nine years for the assaults plus the remainder of his "life" sentence, however long that was meant to be.  Back then, life sentences were a joke, and it is only now that real sentences are being handed out, much to the horror of the professional apologists.  I know I go at Liberty and the Prison Reform Trust, hammer and tong, but you will NEVER hear them scream from the rooftops about victims, and at the end of the day, if you cannot do the sentence, then do not commit the crime.

Robert Lee Willie - Evil Killer & Rapist

When you read about a person being executed in the United States, you wonder just how bad their crimes have been, and upon researching the killer, you usually find they have left an appalling trail of death and destruction behind them.  it is difficult to fathom how anybody can plead for clemency for the condemned person when you discover just what they truly are.  Robert Lee Willie was one such person.  He went to the chair at Angola Prison, Louisiana, on December 28th 1984, for the abduction, rape and murder of 18 year old Faith Hathaway.  His co-defendant, Joseph Jesse Vaccaro, saw the light and made a plea bargain to avoid the chair also.  After sentencing, the trail of destruction he left became known.

    Faith Hathaway was walking home in the early hours of May 28th 1980, when she was snatched off Mandevile Road by Willie and Vaccaro.  She was blindfolded and driven to a quiet area of Washington Parish in Louisiana.  She was raped and then stabbed 17 times by her abductors.  She was due to enlist in the Army.  Then eight days later, Willie struck in a lovers lane, abducting at gunpoint a Madisonville couple and forced them to drive to Alabama.  He stabbed and shot 20 year old Mark Brewster, then tied him to a tree. Somehow he survived but ended up paralysed from the waist down.  When he went on trial for the murder of Faith, he and Vaccaro blamed each other but he was condemned to the chair.  Then, when on trial for the attack on the young couple, he taunted them by blowing kisses to his 16 year old victim and when Mark Brewster was helped into the witness box, he kept making throat slitting gestures to him.  The sort of attitude that endears killers to people who campaign for them on death row.  Like with the Prison Reform Trust and Liberty in this country, NO victim is as important as the offender!  Willie also confessed to the murder of a drug pusher, along with his cousin Perry Taylor.  Taylor admitted manslaughter and received 21 months prison.  The victim was Dennis Hemby, who was killed near to Covington and the pair stole $10,000 worth of marijuana. 

    In the chair, Willie told the parents of Faith "That killing is wrong" but it did not stop him.  A story was that his father, John Willie, serving a 27 year sentence for manslaughter, battery and rustling, wired up the chair for the prison, the year before, but this has been shown to be untrue.  He himself said that his son deserved to die for what he had done to Faith Hathaway.  Enough said.

Double Charge!

The use of the Electric Chair in the USA was seen as the answer to dispatching condemned people successfully, rather than have to rely on a prisoner convulsing on the end of a rope or being decapitated by too long a drop.  The chair was first used in 1890 and the unlucky recipient was William Kemmler, who had to receive two charges of electricity.  The second ran for four minutes and his body was so hot he had to left for some hours for the body to cool down.  More mishaps happened until it was generally regarded as being right.  Charles Becker, notoriously corrupt New York cop, had to receive THREE jolts before he died!  Then in 1984, this cropped up yet again.

    The condemned man was Alpha Otis Stephens, sentenced to die in 1974.  He murdered a building contractor execution style.  In Jackson, Georgia, in December 1984, he was strapped in the chair and declining a last statement, he received a two minute burst of 2000 volts.  The doctors waited for a number of minutes before they were allowed to step into the death chamber.  Upon inspection, Stephens was found to be still breathing.  Jail Warden Ralph Kemp declared that the execution was not complete and another charge of electricity should be used. He received 2000 volts again for two minutes.  This time he was pronounced dead.  Did Stephens receive the full voltage for two minutes, or was there a problem with the chair?  Prison officials said they were satisfied it worked properly, but the mystery is how he survived for ten minutes after such a massive jolt to his body.  Stranger things have happened.

Hurrah! Another Pusher Gets Sent Down!

Sorry for the recent absence but now I am back in the frame and to start off with, a local story involving one of my pet subjects; the conviction of a pusher.  This time it is 29 year old Imran Novsarka, who received three years four months for possession heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply, possessing heroin and crack cocaine, and conspiring to smuggle mobile phones into a prison.  His bedsit was raided by Police, where they discovered £7,000 worth of heroin and crack, plus £6,000 in cash.  His defence was that he was very heavily in debt to loan sharks, and so started selling drugs in order to pay them off.

   His Barrister said that Novsarka was simply a man on the bottom rung of the criminal drugs ladder, and was therefore being used by various parties.  The Recorder (Judge) was not convinced by this argument, stating that he was found with considerable cash and a quantity of illegal drugs and so set his sentence at 40 months.  In the last couple of years, dozens and dozens of pushers have been convicted and jailed in the Bradford area, and hopefully, the Police will keep up the pressure.  Contrary to what the apologists would say about legalisation, so far the Police are showing the public they are not wavering on this matter, and if they catch you, you are going down.  Good!

Richard Speck - Mass Murderer

I remember many years ago watching the Charles Bronson film "10 To Midnight" about a pathetic looking loser who in reality was a serial killer.  After reading about the case of Richard Speck, I wonder if this case inspired the film.  The main scene features a slaughter of some nurses in a hospital but one hides under a bed.  Sounds very similar to the Speck case.  Strangely, these were the only murders committed by Speck.  The murders happened in the early hours of Thursday, July 14th 1966 at a nurses hostel in Chicago. A Filipino nurse named Corazon Amurao screamed for help from her balcony, which brought two uniformed cops rushing into the hostel.  They could not comprehend the scene they encountered.  Eight nurses lay dead.  All had their hands tied behind their backs, all had been strangled or repeatedly stabbed.  Autopsies revealed no rapes had taken place but one victim had been sexually assaulted.

     It was after midnight when Miss Amurao answered a knock at the door, and found herself face to face with a gunman.  He then quickly rounded up all the nurses in that particular dormitory, cut sheets with a knife he had on him and tied them up.  He assured them they would not be harmed.  All he wanted was money.  Then another three nurses arrived and they were quickly tied up.  He also took all monies from them.  Suddenly, the intruder decided to take a girl into another room, then he took another.  The nurses heard a cry.  Miss Amurao tried to rally the other nurses to try and get free and try to over power the intruder but the others thought he was not being violent.  She chose not to find out if he was not violent.  She rolled out of sight under a bed.  The intruder was coming and going for the next couple of hours, but by 5am an alarm clock rang, and that was when she came from under the bed to be greeted with a scene of horror.  She started screaming....

    Miss Amurao gave a very detailed description of the intruder, who had left plenty of fingerprints.  She remembered a tattoo on his arm with the words "Born to raise hell" and the way he tied knots when binding his victims, suggested to cops he was a sailor.  Close by was a labour exchange that saw plenty of seamen go through it.  They soon had his name Richard Speck.   Nearly a week later, at Cook County Hospital, a man was brought in with slashed wrists.  He was examined by a Psychiatrist who saw the tattoo and remembered details given by Police, so he gave them a call.  Speck was now in custody.  He was given in-depth examinations by medical experts, whilst Police carefully researched his background. It was not pretty.  He had married a girl of 15, had a child but they split up.  He was drinking heavily and taking Seconal and Amytal pills that gave hallucinations.  The previous year - 1965 - he attacked a girl with a knife, in Texas, earning a spell in jail, but when released on parole, he vanished.  He was fond of telling people of all the women he claimed to have bedded, but to them all, he was just a "Walter Mitty" character.

    He travelled back to Illinois to stay with relatives. This was in April 1966.  Coincidentally, a barmaid called Mary Pierce disappeared.  She worked in a bar Speck drank in, and that Speck had tried to show an interest in her.  Later, her body was found in a hog house, located behind the bar she worked in.  This makes Speck a prime suspect but it seems that there was nothing to link him to it.   Then he was involved with a nurse but she gradually found him to be slightly strange in that he was a gentle person with her but was full of hate for society.  He also talked of wanting to kill his former wife.  Significantly, the only nurse he abused, was said to have resembled his former wife.  Speck was sent down forever.  Why did he do it?  Was it prove that he really was a somebody.  It is true that when he had a gun and his victims were all tied up, he had total control of not just one woman but a group of them.  This wanting control shows, in my view, a completely and socially inadequate man who could only achieve with a weapon and installing fear.  Yes, a real man.

Fred and Rose West PT2

This is more of an update to my previous post on Britain`s most loving and caring parents.  More details keep emerging about the guilt of Rose West, equally as her husband.  So this is to comment on various points.  The evidence of Caroline Roberts, a former nanny, was crucial in showing that far from being complicit in the murders, she was more the dominant one.  Despite the assertions of various Psychologists that Rose went along with events to please her man and was easily manipulated.  Just like Myra Hindley and Karla Homolka.  Yeah right.  It was revealed that a few years before her near murder at Rose`s hands, Caroline was sexually assaulted at the age of 13 by an elderly man.  Yet, the Police disbelieved her and sympathised with the man.  She lost faith in the authorities.  The attitude of cops in "Life on Mars" to sex crimes was already in place in real life.  Fred raped her and then begged her not to tell Rose.  Strange for a "domineering" man to be frightened to death of his wife.  Caroline eventually escaped with her life, and decades later gave vital evidence in court.

    Both Wests came from incestuous families, brought on by their parents.  Fred was "initiated" by his own mother at 12, and his father showed him to screw sheep!!  Another woman survived being them.  This was Kathryn Halliday.  She was a lesbian and was brought for sex sessions with Rose, but when both Wests started going on about bondage and such, she decided it was time to get out.  Kathryn passed away this year from cancer. Despite coming from such backgrounds, I believe everybody knows right from wrong, and they should have known it but I believe they chose to ignore it.  She continues to protest her innocence but to do what she did, you have to a Psychopath.  

    But, as with other notorious cases, this one has attracted conspiracy theories.  This one involves witchcraft and sacrificial rites, involving wealthy and influential people.  Personally, I think it is a load of bollocks.  The claims never have any solid proof to back them up, only coincidence or perceived coincidence.  The Wests were providing victims for occultists to sexually abuse then sacrifice them ritually.  Some of the bodies had toe or finger digits missing, with them found near the bodies.  An occultist trait.  Yes, no doubt a method to really instigate fear is to do something like that.  If you can mutilate, killing should be easy.
That area was supposedly a hot spot for covens and diabolists.  No doubt many women danced naked around fires, goats and chickens regularly slaughtered, and pre-pubescent girls were laid upon an altar for all the men to take turns with.  Of course, the Wests were never members of a coven because they were working class, only middle and upper class were allowed in.  How the hell(!) did these conspiracy theorists know that?  Fred spoke about others that he was not going to name.  This means powerful and wealthy people.  Crap!  I believe they were part of a paedophile ring.  Fred obviously received threats from these powerful people about keeping his mouth shut, and so hung himself to keep the secret.  So, of course it was not about that his life would not be worth living in prison, and with him out of the way, at least one would go free.  One of his brothers` hanged himself.  He was alleged to have been involved in some of his brothers` crimes, and so hanged himself to protect the "powerful" people or was threatened.  He was facing multiple rape charges.  Read that again.  Multiple rape.  He was going down good style, knowing that unless he got complete segregation, his time in prison, like his brother, would have been dangerous.  There will always be people ready to believe any conspiracy theory, because, ultimately, they need something to cling to.  Many explanations are far too simple for them to comprehend.  Sad.

Highwaymen MC

Another look at a 1% bike club.  This time it is the Detroit based Highwaymen MC, whose history stretches back to 1954 when it was another motorcycle club.  It was in the sixties that it was evolving into a OMG and joined a list of like clubs mentioned in a book brought out in 1966.  Over the decades, it has expanded into a number of states, such as Alabama, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Florida.  I have come across similarly named clubs in other states but obviously, they must not be connected.  Their power base has always the Motor City of Detroit.  They have, like many other OMGs, been subject to prolonged Police and FBI investigations into criminal activities.  They were investigated in the 1970`s, 1980`s and 2007.  Those probes saw members of the club jailed for attacks and bombings on the clubhouses and homes of rival bikers.

    2007 saw local and federal authorities arrest dozens of Highwaymen and associates for a number of offences such as racketeering, murder for hire, trafficking drugs, vehicle theft and fraud.  This sweep also netted four allegedly corrupt cops, who were all later jailed.  One Highwaymen, Randell McDaniel, was arrested for running a chop shop - over here in the UK we call it "ringing" - and was convicted of running a criminal enterprise, a chop shop, theft of vehicles and possession of a controlled substance.  I believe it was Marijuana and Vicodin.  All this went down after evidence was presented to a Grand Jury in 2008.  One problem many OMGs have is rivalry and inevitably, violent confrontations with other clubs, usually over turf and drug distribution.  The Highwaymen have had confrontations with the Iron Horsemen.  Looking at a Detroit forum, one person stated that cops were more prepared to go after the HMMC but ignore the IHMC, despite they having no hesitation at shooting at cops.  They were already involved in one such incident.  There will be a post soon about this club, and as ever, any member of a OMG reads my posts about their club, they are entitled to a right to reply.  As long as it is not abusive.

Jimmy Tibbs - A Reappraisal

I have just acquired the autobiography of famous boxing trainer Jimmy Tibbs, and he gives his side of the story about him getting a ten year sentence.  This came about with a war between the Tibbs family and the Nichols family and their associates.  Mr Tibbs does raise interesting questions about the trial and conviction of him, his brothers, father and some friends.  Credit where it is due, he puts his hands up to what he did and that he deserved to get put away.  But he and his family were not the only offenders.  The feud started when George Tibbs, then 65, was battered by one of the Nichols brothers, who was in his early twenties.  He admits to the incidents of wounding one of the Nichols Brothers with a shotgun, the attack on Len Kersey, and other incidents.  But he raises the point about why nobody was accountable for slashing the throat of his brother, Bob, who nearly died.  Then there was a car bomb that almost killed himself and his young son.  Just exactly who was responsible for that?  

    He openly admits that all these incidents were tit for tat retaliations, not part of a gangland war.  It was a war.  But not an Underworld war.  He said he would do anything when family is threatened or attacked.  The attack on Len Kersey was supposedly for calling them "Pikeys" but he says it was a part of the ongoing tit for tat.  He acknowledges why Commander Bert Wickstead used them as a way of sending a message to the Underworld that warfare will not be tolerated, but was unhappy about a number of things in the Police investigation.  His outrage was the fifteen year sentence handed to his father for "Perverting Justice" but I have not seen any explanation in books about what he was supposed to have done.  He questions why the Nichols Brothers and their associates were never charged over their crimes, but they were.  Over the years, there have been claims that they were going to take over the East End.  I remember one quote as   "....by gun, knife, boot and hatchet"  On a documentary about the Great Train Robbery, former top cop Frank Williams talked about organised crime "...we had problems with the Krays, the Richardsons and later, the Tibbses"

    A couple of books mentioned that the Krays never crossed them up.  Maybe it was because they were a family that would take no shit from anybody and would fight fire with fire if threatened.  Or was that something invented to bolster the perceived image of the Tibbs family.  I certainly knew of a couple of families like that.  They were not villains but tough people who were not pushed around.  One family consisted of five brothers, all hard men, two were seriously hard.  So I can understand where he is coming from on that point.  But he eventually became not only a top trainer, with world champions around him, but a very respected trainer around the world.  What has been written about the Tibbs family concerns the case presented in court - they were the villains of the peace whilst the Nichols` were the victims.  He disputes a number of points in the case against him.  Attempting to run down the Nichols` in his car.  A gun had been left with his prints on it and so went back, slap bang into a load of Police.  Not going to do you much good trying to kill somebody with plenty of Police witnesses.

    Why have I written this post?  Everybody is entitled to a right to reply, and although he has not asked for it, he says he is sick of the incorrect assertions of him and his family.  He says it in his book and in interviews.  His life has been totally dominated by training young men to be world champions, hardly the actions of a "hardened gangster"  and so I put up this post for his side of the story, a story he has now left behind for decades.

Jerry Thompson - Evil Rapist and Killer

Between the mid 1920`s and mid 1930`s, this era was known in the USA as the "Age of Sex Crime."  It threw up numerous vicious and sadistic killers.  Jerry Thompson was such a person.  The end of the road came for him on June 17th 1935 when the body of a young woman was found in a cemetery in Peroia, Illinois.  The victim`s underwear was found nearby.  It had been ripped from her.  She was identified as 19 year old Mildred Hallmark, a waitress at a cafe who had been reported missing after she left work.  The autopsy revealed that she had been raped and then strangled.  Police issued an appeal for information to the public and several women spoke out about being offered lifts in a vehicle by a good looking young man.  He then drove them to secluded locations and attacked them.  he threatened them with violence if they did not comply.

    Police now knew they had a serial rapist on the loose.  he already had one dead victim.  Could there be more?  They made a much wider appeal using the media.  Any women attacked, could come forward and total discretion would be exercised.  They were not prepared for what was to come.  More than fifty victims came forward.  All told the same story of the good looking young man in a car, offering them lifts.  He threatened them with violence if they resisted, and indeed, a number of them were repeatedly punched to show he meant it.  A number of victims were dragged off the streets.  Resistance and screams were silenced by violence.  If that was not enough, after the attacks, he would force them to pose for pictures he took, promising them that their names would appear in the newspapers and everybody would know they were rape victims.  Some were threatened with having the pictures sent to family and friends.  These threats ensured the rapist got away with it and the victims simply had to live their horrific experience.

    Then, one day, at a dancehall, a girl was introduced to a young man.  She was certain that she had met him before, which he said they hadn`t.  She was now certain he was her assailant.  His name was Jerry Thompson, a man in his mid 20`s.  Police tried to find this Jerry Thompson, without success, but decided to visit Mildred`s father.  Yes, he knew Jerry Thompson.  He worked in the same factory and was also a neighbour.  Mildred would never have gotten into a strange car, but if she knew the driver....  Police now believed they were onto her killer.  Taken in for questioning, he denied being a killer or rapist.  One of his victims positively identified him in a line up.  Thompson also failed a Polygraph.  One detective came in and threw the shredded under garment of Mildred`s at Thompson, who then broke down and confessed.  He gave her a lift, then drove to the cemetery where he tried to have sex with her.  She resisted so he struck her and then started choking her.  Then he got her into the rear of the car and raped her.  Then he claimed, he discovered she was dead, so he dumped her body and drove off.

    A warrant was issued to search his home.  They found masses of evidence.  Piles of photographs of his victims, plus a very detailed diary of all his attacks.  He had been carrying out his assaults from the age of 16.  He was also engaged.  The case against him was clear cut and he went to the chair on October 15th 1935.  Why did he do it?  Sorry, but I do not have the time for Freudian explanations.  There can be any number of reasons, but he had no hesitation in attacking young women, both physically and sexually.  He had no problems holding down a job.  As for his looks, nowadays, you have some lawyer saying, "Look at this man.  Does he NEED to rape?"  Yes, particularly if the women express no interest in him.  It is a case of "How dare they reject ME?"  They have such a high opinion of themselves and are such egomaniacs that any "affront to their manhood" has to met with sexual violence.  I am not a Psychiatrist or Psychologist but I do look at the world with my eyes open and a simple method of explanations.

Ronald True - Thank God For Class Bias!

This post was prompted by one of my regular readers in regards to the use of the Mental Health Act to manipulate it so you can commit whatever crimes you want and be allowed to get away with it.  Sadly, this has gone on for many decades.  Child killer John Straffen may have been subnormal but he still managed to work out how to escape from Broadmoor, and killed children just to "get back at the Police."  Sounded like a man who was not quite as retarded as they thought.  Or how about one man condemned for some murders but diagnosed as insane by three Psychiatrists.  The Prison Doctor, an ordinary quack, said he was not insane but in total control of his faculties.  Also, the killer was working class.  So he hung.  

    Now let us look at the case of Angus Ronald True, whose mother married into a very wealthy family.  He murdered a prostitute, was convicted, but reprieved because helpfully, three Psychiatrists diagnosed him as insane.  No doubt about it, he had severe mental problems, but they did not hinder him in his role as a con man, thief and fraudster, and ultimately, killer.  Also, his remarks to a witness showed that he was trying to slow down the discovery of a dead person, and give him more time to escape.  But another trial that had just ended had thrown a political spanner in the works.  That of Henry Julius Jacoby.

    True was born in Manchester in 1891 and was educated at Bedford School.  His family found him jobs working overseas due to his increasingly bizarre behaviour.  During World War One, his erratic behaviour did not stop him being accepted into the Royal Flying Corps but he had become addicted to morphine and this led to him being discharged the following year.  His family had arranged for him to visit the USA in 1912 and in 1917.  He married Frances Roberts on his second trip there, where she bore him a child.  They returned to the UK where his family gave him an allowance to live on.  Over time, his behaviour worsened and he decided to leave his wife and child.  He continued to live on the allowance his family provided.  He supplemented this with acts of petty theft and fraud.  It was in March 1922, that he had been frequenting a 25 year old shop girl and prostitute named Olive Young.  He had spent the night with her on a couple of occasions but found him a bit strange and also discovered money missing.  She refused to see him again, but he plied with messages and eventually she relented, letting him stay the night with her.  It was the wrong decision.

    The following morning, he was leaving her flat in Finborough Road, Earls Court, when he encountered her maid.  He told her not to disturb Olive as they had been together all night.  The maid found her naked, with a dressing gown cord wound tightly around her neck and a towel forced down her throat.  He was quickly arrested and charged with murder.  His trial took place in May 1922 at the Old Bailey.  His defence was one of insanity.  Sir Richard Muir led for the Crown and cited the M`Naghten rules stating that as long as a person knows right from wrong, he is not insane.  He was convicted and sentenced to death.  Home Secretary Edward Shortt ordered a medical examination and three Psychiatrists declared him insane, prompting a reprieve.  But Henry Jacoby, an 18 year old working class pantry boy, had just been executed for the murder of Lady White in a London hotel.  Jacoby was a simpleton, though not as bad as Derek Bentley, showing that very feeble mental issues does not automatically grant a reprieve.  They were both working class also.  Lady White was a titled lady, Ronald True came from a wealthy family.  Of course class never came into it!!!!!!!  True was packed off to Broadmoor and died in 1951.

Miles Giffard - Parent Killer

The killing of parents seems to be a bit of a sport in the USA with numerous accounts of children going off the rails and killing them or manipulating a lover to do the deed for you.  Here, we have had Jeremy Bamber and Brian Blackwell amongst the best known.  There was a case in the 1950`s in which the spoilt son of a well to do couple objected to being told what to do with his life and who he could date.  Miles William Giffard was the 27 year old son of Charles and Elizabeth Giffard, a successful couple who resided in St Austell, in Cornwall.  Their son was the complete opposite; a total failure.  Serving in the Navy, then trying real estate and law but showing an interest, he lived off his parents.  Then the problem struck.  Miles had begun a relationship with Gabrielle Vallance, but unfortunately Charles Giffard did not approve of her, and Miles was told to end the relationship, whether he liked it or not.  Miles confided to Gabrielle that the only answer he could see was to get rid of them both.

    November 7th 1952 saw Miles phone Gabrielle to say it was probable that he would be able to travel to London, to see her, for the weekend.  He said he would call her back to say if he was definitely going.  That evening, he put his plan into action.  As his father was putting the car into the garage, Miles walked in clutching a metal pipe and then proceeded to repeatedly beat his father over the head.  Thinking he was dead, he then turned and went into the house to give his mother the same.  He attacked her in the kitchen, smashing in her skull.  Calmly, he picked up the telephone and called Gabrielle to say that his father was letting him use the car and he would be with her.  Going back into the garage, Miles was shocked to see his father still alive.  He turned to go and check on his mother.  She too, was still alive.  He returned with a wheelbarrow, placed his mother in it and then took her to a nearby cliff edge, and tipped her over it.  He then did the same with his father.

    Miles now made his way to London to see his sweetheart.  Whilst there, he confessed to her what he had done.  However, the next day the bodies were discovered and Police quickly traced Miles in London.  There were clothes stained with blood inside the car.  He was arrested and charged with double murder.  His trial took place in early February 1953 in Bodmin, in front of Mr Justice Oliver.  He ran a defence of insanity, and evidence was produced to show that Miles had been seen by a Psychiatrist as a boy and it was determined that there was mental instability.  His father was shown to be repressive and very overbearing.  A doctor referred to him as "a waster" and a Psychiatrist tried to convince a Jury with Freudian explanations for Miles` actions, but they were not swayed.  He was convicted and sentenced to death.  He was executed at Bristol Prison on February 24th 1953.  Thirty years before, he could have been sentenced to Broadmoor, like Ronald True, as class distinction was still very rife, but this had seriously waned by the 1950`s ans so despite evidence that he had mental health issues, he swung.

The Wolf of Moscow

The notion that nearly all serial killers are located in the USA, although probably the majority are, they are certainly all around the world.  More revelations about serial killers operating in the former Soviet Union are emerging.  We have had the "Red Ripper" "The Terminator" and The "Chessboard Killer" and I feel inclined to include Stalin and that hero of the left, Lenin.  But around the time of these two "heroes," Moscow did have a serial killer operating between 1921 and 1923.  A killer that was called "The Wolf" by the Police after Police found twenty one bodies of men.  All had been securely bound and put inside burlap sacks and then  simply dumped on waste ground in Moscow`s Shabolovki district.  Police had found a possible clue because most of the victims were discovered on Thursdays and Saturdays.  There was a horse market on Wednesdays and Fridays, so it was reasonable to assume that the victims were people who attended the market.  But they were unable to proceed beyond this deduction.

    But what led to the downfall of the killer was local gossip amongst the traders on the market.  They thought that it was strange that trader Vasili Komaroff was a man who hardly bothered to take horses to the market but he had a good stream of customers leaving with him.  This gossip reached the ears of the authorities.  Vasili Komaroff was a pleasant and seemingly gentle horse trader who owned some stables in Shabolovki.  Despite his gentle nature, enquiries revealed that Komaroff had a violent temper that exploded often onto his family.  Police decided to raid his stables and during a thorough search, a body in a burlap sack, tied up, was discovered buried in a pile of hay.  Both Komaroff and his wife were arrested and taken in for questioning.

    Komaroff confessed to the crimes, saying that he believed he had killed more than thirty men.  He led Police to another five bodies, and said that he had also dumped a number of bodies in the Moskva River.  They were never found.  He was charged, along with his wife, with the murders and both were convicted in June 1923.  Both were sentenced to death, and retribution was swift.  They were both executed by firing squad on June 18th 1923.  What was never made clear was the motive.  There did not seem to be one.  This brings to mind the not often reported fact that on his way to the chair, Bundy was asked , Why?  His reply was "Because I wanted to."  Is it too much for society to contemplate that there are many people who kill simply for no reason?

Grandmother Jailed For Drug Haul

A Liverpool grandmother received an eight year jail sentence when a stash of drugs worth at least £1,000,000 plus a firearm and ammunition was found in her loft.  Maria Mellor, 53, had her home in Toxteth searched after Police received a tip off.  Their visit clearly ruffled the woman.  A search of the loft found a substantial amount of drugs.  Five and a half kilos of heroin, valued at between £218,000 to £323,000, 316 grammes of crack cocaine valued at just over £31,000 and a class C drug, TTMPP, 78,000 tablets valued at between £480,000 to £780,000.  In addition, a revolver was discovered along with 337 rounds of ammunition.

    Also charged with her, was her nephew, 37 year old James Shields, whose DNA was found on the gun.  Mrs Mellor claimed that she was forced to hide things for loan sharks, after running up a debt, due to the extortionate interest rates that loan sharks charge. (Are they any different to the plethora of pay day loan companies we see advertised all the time?)  She had to resort to this drastic measure after having her benefits stopped.  But possession of so much drugs and an illegal firearm and ammunition, are charges that will not go away.  Mrs Mellor was given four years for the drugs and another four years for the gun and bullets.  James Shields received five years for illegally possessing a firearm.  What is strange is that despite possession of a firearm is an automatic prison sentence, there are people who can stand up in court and admit to not only possessing an illegal weapon, but walking about with it loaded, and willing to use it, yet bizarrely, do not face charges.  Funny that!

A Pause For My Thoughts

I thought it would be nice to have a quick break from the mayhem of life to give some reflections on my thought processes and what has led me to my stand on law and order.  My initial interest in crime was sparked at 16 by reading John pearson`s "Profession of Violence" about the Krays.  Then I started following newspaper reports on crimes and started reading more true crime books.  The interest has always been there over the years but it really exploded over the last 12 years or more - I did a couple of courses on criminology.  Now with the Internet, all you need to find out is there at the click of the mouse.

    But how has crime affected me over the years?  There was a rape of a young girl by two men in the town in 1978.  I knew who one of them was, but not personally.  Police launched a dragnet which caught them.  Then there was a thug regarded as a "top legend" and "proper hardman" by jailbird Michael Peterson - "Bronson" - who lived across the road from me.  This thug twice in one night, tried to smash his way into my parents home, to attack my father.  Some family members raced there but it was when my brother-in-law and an elder brother turned up, that was when the cowards of the Ellesmere Port Police turned nasty.  They refused to arrest this thug, because according to them, "they had not seen him do anything" but when these two turned up, they knew that this thug was on a one way trip to hospital if either gotten hold of him.  They were repeatedly threatened for doing nothing!  Police instigated a cover up to protect this thug.  Then I discovered that this troublemaker was a notorious Police informer.  No wonder they bent over backwards to protect him!  Much later, one night, my father was walking the dog and this thug thought "here`s my opportunity" but when he saw my elder brother - the hardman of the family - this "proper hardman" lost his bottle.  Oh dear, no weapons, no Police buddies, what am I going to do? He did absolutely fuck all.  He kept his mouth shut!  Then one day, my B-I-L stopped his truck, got out and confronted this "legend" who responded by COWERING!  He is frightened to death of my B-I-L`s two elder brothers.  This thug committed numerous acts of violence that would have had anybody else doing a long stretch in jail.  He has many beatings over the years from the real tough nuts in the town.  One of my B-I-L`s brothers got a grip of this "hardman" and warned him that if he ever hurt my father, he was going to put him into the ground!  Needless to say, he shit himself!  And as for that clown in prison, his claims about this "legend" has produced laughter and ridicule.

    On a personal level, before I moved to Yorkshire, I had two cars stolen, cars vandalised and numerous attempts to burgle my home.  You could see the climbing marks on the 6 foot high brick wall separating my home from a school next door.  I had all the windows and the door very securely bolted.  On this level, it is difficult to listen to professional apologists making every excuse for a car thief and burglar.  Car thieves also liked to bring Police into chases around the streets where I lived.  Usually late at night, when a car come screaming up the street, and the squealing of tyres, you knew it was to get the Police to come after them.  And these were not wide streets!  If they had killed somebody, which they would have at speeds they went at, or crashed, then as long as they were not hurt, then it would have been "So what!" 

    Yes, I can go from supporting the Police, to hating them.  My view is, if you are guilty, then you are guilty.  But every Police force will have it`s unscrupulous officers.  Even if it is hardened villain, if he has not done it, then he is innocent.  Sounds such a simple philosophy but it is mine.  One topic that I will never compromise on, and that is drugs.  When you have witnessed destruction and death through these substances, you can do nothing but despise the legalisation wankers.  As one Counsellor I know commented, "These people do not want to know the ugly side of drugs.  They do not want it in their homes or lives!"  Especially if it meant putting their hands into their own pockets to pay for an addict`s fix.  And if they were made criminally responsible for an addict.  I hate everything the so-called "Counter culture" of the sixties and early seventies stood for, except for the music - I am a classic rock fanatic.  I have posted it before, but it is hypocritical to despise "Capitalists" yet openly embrace the ultimate Capitalist - The Pusher.  When all that pushers want is money, what does that make them?  Do they care if you live or die?  No!  So long as you are giving them money, so what!  I wonder how many pushers or "brothers & sisters" of the "Counter culture" amassed fortunes courtesy of the rock stars and other showbiz people wanting to "Turn on, tune in, drop out!"  Share and share alike or "I want money! Lots of it!"  Not hard to work that one out.  This, dear readers, are just a few of the workings of my mind and the view I have of the world.  With my eyes open!

Charles Becker: Downfall of New York`s Crookedest Cop PT2

Carrying on with the career of Lieutenant Charles Becker, it was in 1912 that gambler Hertman Rosenthal opened the Hesper Club West 45th Street, and upon it`s opening night, Becker made a personal call on Rosenthal.  The request was a basic "So what are you offering me?"  However, Rosenthal refused to toe the line, telling Becker that this club had the approval of Tim Sullivan.  Becker backed off.  For a while.  Soon Sullivan was seriously ill and unable to issue orders, so Becker came back to Rosenthal and demanded money.  Rosenthal started doing the unthinkable.  He stood up to Becker, who responded by having a multiple killer named Jack Rose, to work inside the club and skim some of the takings.  Rose was a fearsome gangster, but again, Rosenthal refused to pay protection.  Then he started complaining about the extortion attempts to Tammany Hall, and in particular, Becker.

    Becker was now under pressure from the Commissioner to shut down the Hesper club, which he did.  He also kept a man in the premises to make sure it did not reopen.  Rosenthal was bitterly angry and took a very drastic step; he went to see the District Attorney Charles Whitman, a very politically ambitious man and the man instrumental in the downfall of Becker. July 15th 1912, Rosenthal met Whitman and told what he knew about Becker, and promised to have a Grand Jury convened.  He left Whitman`s office and stayed in a cafe, but news of the visit to Whitman had spread like wildfire.  At 2.00am, he was told by a waiter that somebody wanted to speak to him outside.  There, he saw four men.  Shots rang out and he collapsed in the street.  One gunman walked up to him and calmly shot him in the head, then they fled in a car.  Soon the street filled up with people as news of the shooting spread.  Police were supposed to have chased the getaway car but lost it.  Whitman was to allege that Police allowed it to escape, a charge taken up by the media.  However, there were witnesses.  These were discovered by an investigation run by Whitman.  The number of the getaway car was traced to a taxi service.  The car had been leased to Jack Rose, one of Becker`s hired thugs.  The car had been driven by Bill Shapiro, a petty villain. Witnesses also named two men seen hanging around the cafe, Harry Vallon and Bridgey Webber.  Vallon had sent the message to Rosenthal.  So Whitman had these two Chinatown opium pushers arrested.

    Rose surrendered to Whitman, and told him where to find Shapiro.  Shapiro remained silent, so Whitman offered a deal; immunity for all four if they would tell all.  Facing a possible death sentence, Shapiro gave Whitman everything he knew and named the four gunmen.  Louis Rosenberg, Frank Cirofaci, Jacob Seidenschmern and Harry Horowitz.  Webber, Rose and Vallon were all incarcerated together in the notorious Tombs prison and so had the opportunity to rehearse a story for the court.  Becker, who had an airtight alibi for the murder, was charged by Whitman with murder and the testimony of the three, was enough to have Becker convicted and sentenced to death.  Whitman used this conviction to gain entry to the Governor`s mansion, being politically ambitious.  The execution of Becker was a botch job.  First off, he was not properly strapped in the chair, and then it took three bursts of electricity to dispatch him.  Was he guilty?  Opinions are divided, but an overly ambitious man used three men who would have done anything to spare themselves from the same fate as Becker.  Becker`s wife remained bitter towards Whitman throughout her life, claiming he had her husband executed to further his career.  Whatever, it did nothing to stem the flow of corruption throughout the NYPD.

Charles Becker : The Downfall of New York`s Crookedest Cop PT1

The New York Police Department has had deep rooted corruption fight through it`s history; the blatant links to the political side of old New York, Tammany Hall, up to the Knapp Commission in the early seventies.  But it was way back in time that political office dictated how police operated and indeed, which criminals they allowed to flourish.  The time of Tammany Hall, and especially a cop named Charles Becker, a Lieutenant in the Manhattan Borough.  His beat was known at that time as Satan`s Circus, or nowadays as Times Square.  The area had plenty to recommend it, casinos, hotels, restaurants, theatres, etc but it also had a very ugly side.  Gangs, prostitutes, street gambling, all paid their dues to the local precinct house and to the politicians in charge.  Failure to toe the line resulted in police raids and pressure, or even intimidation, in order to bring the required fees.  

    Becker was a very powerfully built man who was born in Sullivan County, New York, and moved to the city in 1888.  He had various jobs, a barman in the Bowery area, a bouncer, in which his huge build and the fact that he was very tough, make him a man to avoid trouble with.  Naturally, this line of work brought him into contact with criminals, including political ones.  Monk Eastman, a vicious gangster and killer, and Tim Sullivan, a senator who controlled all corruption in Manhattan.  It was Sullivan who helped Becker join the NYPD in 1893.  For a few years, Becker`s violent nature led to complaints about brutality and arresting people for no reason.  He accidentally shot a bystander whilst in pursuit of a burglar, then tried to show that the victim was a criminal, which backfired on him and resulted in a short suspension.  Then in 1898, he was hailed as a hero for jumping into the Hudson River to save a man, but soon the man revealed that Becker paid him to do so.  The department decided to punish him by sending him to the worst district in the whole of the city, the 16th Precinct, The Tenderloin District, or Satan`s Circus.  Becker had arrived.

    In 1907, Becker was promoted to Sergeant by the Police Commissioner.  The effect this had was to make him the bagman for his boss, the Captain.  He collected all the graft payoffs, and was on a very nice cut, amounting to thousands of dollars a year.  Then a specialist squad was formed to take on gangs running rampant throughout Manhattan, with Becker running one team.  They met fire with fire, with considerable success, so it was decided that the squad could now concentrate on the illegal street gamblers and gambling dens.  But Becker decided otherwise.  Why crackdown on them when they could pay him for the privilege of operating.  He did not compromise.  You paid up or else.  There were allegations of resistant gamblers being killed.  His influence over the Tenderloin was now immense.  Becker was raking in so much cash that he needed help to collect it.  He brought in gangsters to help out.  Jack Zelig, a killer who was now running  the gang of Monk Eastman, after he was shot to death outside a bar.  Zelig was assisted by his men, with one of them having a terrifying reputation, resulting in no complaints or late payments.  He was a back breaker by the name of Harry Horowitz, or "Gyp the Blood" and he gave many demonstrations in bars, dens or clubs of what happened if you did not fall into line.

    But the downfall of Becker began in 1912, when a man named Hertman Rosenthal refused to play ball with Becker.  Rosenthal was the proprietor of a club called The Hesper, and it was opened with the express permission of Tammany Hall and Big Tim Sullivan, but later, events with Sullivan, led to Becker flexing his muscles, and to a murder, the consequences leading Becker to the electric chair.