This article relates to the murders of eight women between 1959 and 1965. All of the victims were prostitutes and some, possibly all, appear to be the victim of the same killer. The Senior Investigating Officer utilised what resources that were available at the time, many of these we take for granted today. One such resource was to have provided a car fitted with a police radio. Read on.
Elizabeth Figg was a 21 year old prostitute who was last seen alive by a client on the early morning of Wednesday 17 June 1959. The client, after their business had concluded, took her by motor vehicle dropping her off at Holland Park Avenue at 0110 hrs. The client was satisfactorily eliminated from the enquiry. Her partially clothed body was found in Dukes Meadows on the north bank of the Thames at 0510 hrs. She had been strangled. No effort had been made to conceal the body. Her brassiere, knickers, shoes and handbag were missing and have never been recovered.
Gwyneth Rees was 22 years old when she disappeared. Her decomposed remains were found on a council rubbish tip in Barnes on 8 November 1963. The body was almost naked with the exception of one rolled down nylon stocking on the left ankle. The victim had plied her trade in the East End of London where she associated with members of organised crime gangs. Her body was the only one found south of the river. The main link to the spate of killings is the time factor, her body being found three months before the 'series' commenced.
Hannah Tailford was the first of the definitive series of murders, which were to follow a regular pattern throughout 1964 and into 1965. Her body was found on the foreshore of the north bank of the Thames, upstream from Hammersmith Bridge, on Sunday 2 February 1964. She was naked with the exception of nylon stockings, which were around her ankles. A pair of knickers had been stuffed into her mouth. These knickers were to show positive for traces of semen and in the absence of any obvious injury, cause of death was given as drowning.
A surprising conclusion, as examination of photographs of the body clearly show the mark of a panty line on the victim's right buttock, which plainly demonstrates that the body continued to wear this apparel after death and they presumably were taken off and forced into her mouth before she was dumped into the river. She had last been seen alive at 2100 hrs on Friday 24 January 1964. The post mortem findings concluded she had been immersed in water from between two and seven days. The outside estimate of seven days is still two days short from when she was last seen alive.
Irene Lockwood was a lady who in the parlance of the day was a 'common prostitute'. She operated as Tailford had done on the bottom