| Kenneth Erskine | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Stockwell Strangler |
| Born | 1963 (age 48–49) Hammersmith, West London, England |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 7-11 |
| Span of killings | 9 April, 1986–28 July, 1987 |
| Date apprehended | 28 July, 1987 [1] |
Kenneth Erskine (born July 1963) is an English serial killer who became known as the Stockwell Strangler.[2]
Contents |
Erskine was born in July 1963 to an English mother and Antiguan father. He was abandoned by both parents during childhood and attended various special schools.[3]
Erskine's criminal career began with a number of burglaries, and he was able to open ten separate bank accounts with the proceeds of his crimes.[4]
During 1987, Erskine murdered at least seven elderly people, breaking into their homes and strangling them; most often they were sexually assaulted. The crimes took place in London.
His first victim was Mrs Eileen Emms (78), of Wandsworth, who died on 9 April 1987. Her death was originally not believed to have been murder, and it was only established that she had been murdered when a television set was detected missing from her flat. A post mortem examination revealed that she had been raped and strangled.
His second victim was Mrs Janet Cockett (67), who died on 9 June 1987 after being strangled in her flat on the Wandsworth housing estate on which she was chairwoman of the tenants association. Erskine's palm print was found on a window at Mrs Cockett's flat.
On 28 June 1987, Erskine claimed his third and fourth victims (both men) at a residential home in Stockwell. His victims were Polish pensioners and World War II veterans[5] Valentine Gleim (84) and Zbigniew Strabawa (94). Both men were sexually assaulted and strangled.
Erskine's fifth victim was Mr William Carmen (84), of Islington. He stole money from Mr Carmen's flat before molesting him and strangling him to death in an attack on 8 July 1987.
He claimed his sixth victim on 21 July 1987, when he committed a similar fatal attack on 74-year-old Mr William Downes in a Stockwell bedsit.
The final victim was Mrs Florence Tisdall, an 83-year-old widow who lived at a retirement complex in Fulham. She was found dead by the caretaker on the morning of 23 July 1987.
Erskine was arrested on 28 July 1987 at a social security office. Police were then able to match his palm print to one left at one of the murder scenes, and he was identified in a police lineup by a 74-year-old man who claimed Erskine tried to strangle him in his bed a month before police apprehended him.[6]
A homeless drifter and solvent abuser, Erskine was 22-23 years old when he committed the crimes. He was convicted of seven murders. During his trial, he was seen to be masturbating.[7]
Police suspected Erskine of four other murders. These include the murder of Wilfred Parkes (aged 81, at Stockwell, on 2 June 1986) and Trevor Thomas (aged 75, at Lambeth, on 21 July 1986). Erskine has never been charged with any of these murders.
It was clear to the police that all these attacks were the work of one man. There were no signs of forced entry, with every indication that the intruder had gained access through an unsecured window. In each case it appeared that the killer had knelt on the victims' chests, and then placed his left hand over their mouths whilst he used his right hand to grip their throats and strangle them to death. In addition, four of the victims had been sodomized, although there was some uncertainty as to whether this had taken place before or after death.
Erskine was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 40 years, but has since been found to be suffering from mental disorder within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983, and is therefore now held at the maximum security Broadmoor Hospital. He is unlikely to be freed until at least 2028 and the age of 65. Some 20 years later, the trial judge's recommendation is still one of the severest ever handed out in British legal history.
In July 2009, following an appeal, Erskine's murder convictions were reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.[8] Mr. Erskine was scolded by the court for falling asleep during the proceedings and, at one point, snoring.[9]