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" between 1964 and 1965 (also known as the "Hammersmith murders" or "Hammersmith nudes" case).

His victimology - and even his nickname - was similar to Jack the Ripper's. He murdered six — possibly eight — prostitutes, whose nude bodies were discovered around London or dumped in the River Thames. The victim count is ambiguous because two of the murders attributed to him did not fit his modus operandi.

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[edit] Murders

His confirmed victims, prostitutes Hannah Tailford, Irene Lockwood, Helene Barthelemy, Mary Flemming, Margaret McGowan, and Bridget "Bridie" O'Hara, were all found in similar conditions. They were killed by asphyxiation, strangulation or drowning. All were found naked, except with stockings. Some of the bodies had been stored near intense heat, and there were flecks of paint on four of the corpses. It is believed that some of the killings were committed using a ligature, possibly one fashioned from the clothing of the victims - a persistent belief is that the victims actually suffocated on the penis of their murderer, but that has been dismissed as "a fairytale". [1][2]

The two uncertain cases, prostitutes Elizabeth Figg and Gwyneth Rees, were manually strangled, but both were found naked except for their stockings with their underwear lodged in their throats. Both were found in the Thames. Their deaths were dismissed by the police as unfortunate because they were well known with the police and were jailed several times for poncing and theft.

[edit] Investigation

Chief Superintendent John Du Rose of Scotland Yard, the detective put in charge of the case, interviewed almost 7,000 suspects. He then held a news conference, falsely announcing that the police had narrowed the suspect pool down to 20 men. After a short time, he announced that the suspect pool contained only 10 members, and then three. The Stripper did not kill any more after the initial news conference.

According to the writer Anthony Summers, two of his victims — Hannah Tailford and Francis Brown, 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 might 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. Crime writer Donald Rumbelow notes that the killer could have been a young man who committed suicide in south London. This main suspect, who was also one of Du Rose's favorite suspects, was a security guard on the Heron Trading Estate in Acton whose rounds included a paint shop where one of the bodies was thought 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 head".

A recent book also named British light heavyweight boxing champion Freddie Mills as the killer, although this has not been substantiated.[3]

[edit] Fictional portrayals

The 1969 crime novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, written by Arthur LeBern, is loosely based on the case; the protagonist strangles women with his necktie. The book was turned into the Alfred Hitchcock movie Frenzy in 1972.[4]

[edit] References

  • Murder Was My Business by John Du Rose (Mayflower Books, St Albans 1973) is the autobiography of the policeman 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.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Jack the Stripper, unknown London serial killer murdered prostitutes the Crime Library - The Crime library
  2. ^ Jack the Stripper, unknown London serial killer murdered prostitutes the Crime Library - The Crime library
  3. ^ Boxing hero Freddie Mills 'murdered eight women' | UK news | The Observer
  4. ^ Frenzy (1972)

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  • Blundell, Nigel, and Susan Blackhall, comps. "Jack the Stripper." The Visual Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. London: PRC Limited, 2004. 232-236.