Jack the Stripper
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Jack the Stripper was the nickname given to an unknown serial killer responsible for what came to be known as the London "Nude" Murders (also known as the Hammersmith Murders or Hammersmith Nudes case), from 1964-1965.
His victimology was similar to that of his legendary namesake, Jack the Ripper. He murdered six prostitutes, whose nude bodies were discovered in various locations around London or dumped in the River Thames.
According to Anthony Summers, two of his victims - Hannah Tailford and Frances Brown, respectively the Stripper's third and seventh victims - were peripherally connected to the 1963 Profumo Affair. Also, some victims were known to engage in an underground party and pornographic movie scene; several writers have postulated that the victims may have known each other, and that the killer may be connected to this scene as well.
Like the Jack the Ripper killings, the Stripper's reign of terror seemed to cease on its own, and there were few solid clues for police to investigate. Though his identity remains unknown, crime writer Donald Rumbelow notes that the killer could have been a young man who committed suicide in South London at the time the murders ended. This main suspect, who was also a favourite suspect of Inspector John Du Rose, a famous London homicide detective who was put in charge of the case, was a security guard on the Heron Trading Estate in Acton, whose rounds included a paint shop where one of the bodies was alleged to have been hidden after the crime. Though there was never any hard evidence to link him to the crimes, his family found his suicide inexplicable, and his suicide note cryptically said only that he was "unable to take the strain any longer." It is also possible this unknown suspect's suicide was used as a way for the real murderer to disappear: with the main suspect dead and an end to the murders, it made sense to assume the dead man was the killer, and so the police would stop their search.
A recent book also named British light heavyweight boxing champion Freddie Mills as the killer, although this has not been substantiated.
The Alfred Hitchcock movie Frenzy is loosely based on the case. [1].
[edit] References
- Murder Was My Business by John Du Rose (Mayflower Books, St Albans 1973) is the autobiography of the cop who investigated the nude murders, and includes chapters on many of his famous cases.
- Found Naked and Dead by Brian McConnell, (New English Library, London 1974) is solely about the nude murders, and follows the Du Rose line on the suspect.
- The Survivor by Jimmy Evans and Martin Short (Mainstream, Edinburgh 2001) is the ghosted gangland memoirs of Jimmy Evans, who claims top cop Tommy Butler was Jack the Stripper. The case isn’t proved.
- A new book with a new suspect has just been published. Jack of Jumps by David Seabrook (Granta May 2006) does not name the suspect but states that he is an easily identifiable disgraced cop. The suspect is named in a review of the book by Stewart Home entitled Put Up or Shut Up: David Seabrook at the Last Chance Saloon. In his review, Home strongly disagrees with Seabrook's conclusion.[2]
[edit] Trivia
- Macabre recorded a song titled "Jack the Stripper" contained on the Murder Metal album, as a hidden track.
- Nekromantix psychobilly song "Jack the Stripper" is also about the actual Jack the Stripper.
- Black Sabbath has a short instrumental called "Jack the Stripper" before the song "Fairies Wear Boots"
- Luke Haines recorded a song called "Freddie Mills is dead" which mentions Mills' alleged link to this case.
