Twenty-eight-year-old Joseph Aaku, a Gambian immigrant, was known to be a drugs dealer, and when he was stabbed to death at his lodgings in Oakley Square, St. Pancras, on the night of January 4th, 1952, the motive was believed to be a drugs deal gone wrong.
Twenty-eight-year-old Joseph Aaku, a Gambian immigrant, was known to be a drugs dealer, and when he was stabbed to death at his lodgings in Oakley Square, St. Pancras, on the night of January 4th, 1952, the motive was believed to be a drugs deal gone wrong.
Blood of both groups A and O was found at the crime scene. Aaku was group A, and killer was believed to be group O, and to have been injured during the attack.
Aaku was a carriage-cleaner at Euston Station, and when detectives interviewed a fellow-worker, Backary Manneh, a 25-year-old Gambian, they noticed that his right hand was cut and swollen. He had been assaulted and robbed of £4 by three white men in Tottenham Court Road on January 5th, he said. One of the men had tried to stab him with a penknife, and he had received the cut when he raised his hand to protect himself.
He denied even knowing Aaku, but a witness came forward and showed the police a wristwatch he had recently bought from Manneh. It had belonged to Aaku, Mannehs blood was group O, and on January 12th he was arrested and charged with the murder.
At his trial at the Old Bailey he swore that all 40 prosecution witnesses were lying, claiming that on the night of the killing he stayed at home and went to bed at 10.30.
The jury rejected his story, finding him guilty, and as the black cap was placed on the wig of Mr. Justice Gorman, Manneh shouted, In the name of God, take off that black cap and abide by the word of God, Thou shalt not kill!
Albert Pierrepoint and Harry Smith hanged him on MAY 27th.