With the police severely undermanned, criminals in wartime London could flourish and their crimes had to be viewed in the perspective of what was happening elsewhere on the war fronts. For instance, Mrs. Edith Humphreys, a 48-year-old widow, was found murdered in her bed on the same day Friday, October 17th, 1941 that the War Office announced that the total number of soldiers killed in action had so far reached 100,000.
She lived on the ground floor of a house in Gloucester Crescent and her killing was seemingly pointless she was neither robbed nor sexually assaulted. Her killer used incredible violence, breaking her jaw in several places, stabbing her through the head, and attempting to strangle her.