The Crime Book Big Ideas Simply Explained

CASES

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