Investigating a burglary on a farm near Romford, Essex, Inspector Thomas Simmons, 38, and a constable noticed three men they recognised as burglars, casing an isolated house. When the trio James Lee, 40, David Dredge, 52, and James Martin saw the officers they hid in a hedge. As the officers strode forward to
London in the wartime blackout was a haven for prostitutes. They could be picked up easily in the dark - unfortunately, they could just as easily be killed in the dark. The man who murdered Agnes Stafford, 31, who was well known on the streets, used her own summer dress to strangle her, and left
Find those burglars and bring em in! That was the message given to night-beat policeman James Archibald as he set out on patrol on the night of May 28th, 1913. There had been a rash of commercial burglaries in Vancouver, Canada, and the citys businessmen were getting anxious. The streets were dark and empty at
They met in a pub in Whiston, near Rotherham, and after a few drinks they began a serious pub-crawl. In the small hours of February 18th, 1880, they ended up in a brothel near Rotherham town centre. They were John Wood, a labourer and recently released burglar, and John Coe, both aged 27. No one
They looked like a nice happy family with their neat little home in Bolton. The truth was somewhat different. The husband was Henry Eccles, a widower, who had married Mrs. Betty Haslam, 38, a widow, in January 1841. He worked in a Manchester factory and came home only at weekends. They had four surviving children
Neighbours heard the murder, heard the victim calling out for help. As one of them rushed to help, he found the victim, Dr. Richard Castillo, falling to the ground by the entrance to 3 Albert Bridge, Battersea, mortally wounded by two deep stab wounds. But the killer had vanished. Dr. Castillo, a 70-year-old Maltese GP,
The taxi drivers fare, resplendent in RAF uniform, wanted to be driven from New Street Station, Birmingham, to Derby, 40 miles away which must have seemed odd to cabbie George Tyler, because there were plenty of trains going to Derby that evening of Monday, APRIL 28th, 1947. Next day Tyler was found dead in
A squabble over money ended in murder in Sydenham, south-east London. It began when Richard Bishop, 21, a petty criminal and shopkeeper, started shouting at another man just before midnight on April 3rd, 1868. A neighbour, Alfred Cartwright, 24, complained about the noise which had woken him up and Bishop punched him. The police were
Chaos reigned at the home of 61-year-old Mrs. Jeffries in Bristol on March 4th, 1849. The old lady lay beaten to death in the living-room, her dog had been killed and thrown down the lavatory, and the house had been ransacked. Her servant, Sarah Thomas, 18, had gone off to her parents home. When police
Separated from her husband and living alone in Magdalene Road, Oxford, Mrs. Lucy Strange, 40, was battered to death with a pair of fire tongs in her home on Friday, APRIL 23rd, 1915. The last man to see her alive was a local labourer, Alfred Holland, 24. He admitted having seen her, but claimed that