In-depth investigations recommended for true-crime connoisseurs

Episodes

The Bunnyman Mystery

A hatchet supposedly thrown through the window of Air Force cadet Robert Bennett's car while parked in the 5400 block of Guinea Road, Fairfax, VA, October 31 1970.Come with us as we chase a rabbit down a hole — a blood-thirsty psychopath dressed in a monstrous, man-size bunny costume. Parents and grandparents in Fairfax, VA, are supposed to warn their children: "Be good, or the Bunnyman'll get you!"

The blood-spattered Bunnyman has won a place in the rogue's gallery of American horror fiction. But is the story based on fact? Who was the Bunnyman? And is he still out there?

Our quest to identify the legendary Bunnyman led us through a maze of myth, mystery and murder.
Prepare to enter a wonderland of nightmares, where nothing is what it seems.

Acknowledgements

  • Donnie Darko, Flower Films,2001, written and directed by Richard Kelly.
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls (Donnie Darko cinema scene), Steven Baker and Carmen Daye.
  • Killing Moon, Echo & The Bunnymen (Sergeant, McCulloch, Pattinson and de Freitas). Produced by David Lord, Korova, 1984. 
  • Bunnyman, Osiris Entertainment, 2011, produced and directed by  Carl Lindbergh.

Listen to "The Bunnyman Mystery" on Spreaker.

Walter Chadwick: A Rival Of Jack The Ripper?

Walter ChadwickJack the Ripper was the Devil incarnate. He rose to notoriety from among the countless demons who preyed on the poor and vulnerable of Victorian London. But whereas Jack was driven by unexplained, dark urges, his contemporaries killed and mutilated their victims in the course of more mundane crimes. 

These were the robbers and housebreakers who plagued the metropolis. They were quick to resort to violence and the homicide rate soared. London's police struggled to contain an epidemic of lawlessness unrivalled until the rise of the gangsters in 1920s America.

Two cases, in particular, horrified the citizens of London. Both were senseless acts of violence, committed by a psychopath who clearly killed for the sake of killing. One man was suspected of both murders. But would the Metropolitan Police find enough evidence to hang him? 

Listen to "Jack The Ripper's Rivals: Did Walter Chadwick Get Away With Murder – Twice?" on Spreaker.

Dr Buck Ruxton: The Jigsaw Murderer

ISABELLA_RUXTON_PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPERIMPOSITION_200.jpgA peaceful country walk turns into a waking nightmare for a young woman and her brother when they stumble across parcels of dismembered human remains at a Scottish beauty spot. The evidence leads to the door of a charismatic and well-liked general practitioner 100 miles away in Lancaster.

Dr Buck Ruxton's patients loved their attentive, if slightly eccentric, physician. Born in India, Ruxton changed his name and cultivated the air of an English gentleman. Tragically, his gentlemanly behaviour didn't extend to his wife, Isabella, or Mary Jane Rogerson, the nanny of the Ruxton's three children.

During the autumn of 1935, newspaper reports of the jigsaw murders held readers spellbound – in horror. Ruxton's ghastly deeds turned out to be significant as well as sensational. For the first time in English legal history, forensic science tipped the scales of justice and sent a man to the gallows.

Credits
'Who's Been Polishing The Sun?' performed by Ambrose and His Orchestra, Decca Records, 1935.
'Lovely To Look At' performed by Eddy Duchin (vocals by Lew Sherwood), Victor Records, 1935.

Listen to "Buck Ruxton: The Jigsaw Murderer" on Spreaker.

Dorothea Waddingham: A Miscarriage Of Justice?

A hangman's noose on display at the National Justice Museum, High Pavement, Nottingham.12,000 protestors gathered outside Winson Green Prison in Birmingham on the morning of Dorothea Waddingham's execution, 16 April 1936.

The 'nurse' had poisoned two vulnerable women in her care to fraudulently inherit their estate. Despite Waddingham being a mother of five, including a six-month-old baby, appeals for her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment failed.  "Stop this mother murder" chanted the protestors. The execution went ahead anyway.

Did Dorothea Waddingham get a fair trial? Was this a miscarriage of justice? Join Psycho Killer's investigative team as we go in search of answers!

Listen to "Dorothea Waddingham: A Miscarriage Of Justice?" on Spreaker.

The Nottingham Nursing Home Murders

Dorothea Waddingham mugshotMahatma Gandhi said: "the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members."

In this case, the murders of an elderly mother and her disabled daughter in Nottingham stand as a damning indictment of British society in the 1930s.

Nursing homes were unregulated, doctors played God and their decisions went unchallenged. It was a toxic soup that nourished the likes of Dorothea Waddingham and Ronald Sullivan. Former homicide detective Jacques Morrell tells the story.

Listen to "The Nottingham Nursing Home Murders" on Spreaker.

Kosei Homi: Japan's Haiku Killer

Kosei Homi under arrestPsycho killers come in all shapes and sizes. This fellow fancied himself as a poet. His rage and resentment built up over the years. Then, in a carefully-planned murderous rampage, he set about annihilating his neighbours. Ex-homicide detective, Jacques Morrell, and journalist Simon Ford investigate Kosei Homi, Japan's 'Haiku Killer'.

Featuring special guest Pippa Phillips: @IpsaHerself

Acknowledgement: ABC News Australia

 

Listen to "Kosei Homi: The Haiku Killer" on Spreaker.

Dr Sam: Who Murdered Marilyn Sheppard?

Listen to "Dr Sam: The Mysterious Murder Of Marilyn Sheppard" on Spreaker.

Dr Sam Sheppard under arrest, flanked by Cleveland Police officers.'In every dream home a heartache.' Neurosurgeon Sam Shepphard had everything: a glittering career; a beautiful wife; a seven-year-old son, and another baby on the way.

Then, one night, the Sheppard family's world was torn apart. Somebody broke into their lakefront residence near Cleveland Ohio and battered pregnant Marilyn Sheppard to death while she slept.

The finger of suspicion soon turned to her husband, despite his protests that a bushy-haired intruder was responsible.

Was Dr Sam a homicidal maniac, or the victim of a miscarriage of justice? The Psycho Killer team investigates!

Listen to "Arthur Warren Waite: The Deadly Dentist" on Spreaker.

He was suave, sophisticated, and a psycho killer through and through. Arthur Warren Waite's get-rich-quick plan involved the systematic murders of his parents-in-law, his wife, and any of her relatives who got in the way. 

Waite was as audacious as he was ruthless. But could his jaw-dropping legal defence save him from the high-voltage embrace of Ol' Sparky? Step back in time to New York in its heyday – and the dastardly deeds of the Deadly Dentist!

Listen to "Assassinations And Politically-Motivated Murderers: Sirhan Sirhan and Patrick Magee" on Spreaker.

Why did Lee Harvey Oswald shoot JFK? We’ll never know. Jack Ruby saw to that. But we do know why Sirhan Bishara Sirhan assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Sirhan was captured. And over the course of his life sentence, he’s gone on record about what motivated him. 

Patrick Magee, the Brighton bomber, is less talkative. Magee tried to blow up Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in 1984 – and he almost succeeded.  Magee was a terrorist, a member of the Irish Republican Army. But was he a psychopath? And was Sirhan? We’ve been looking for answers.

Listen to "What I'd Do As Met Police Commissioner – DCS (Ret) Bob Taylor" on Spreaker.

The Metropolitan Police is without a Commissioner following the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick as London's police chief. A recent report about racist and sexist officers was one of many controversies she faced. Among the cases covered by Psycho Killer are:

- The murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer (https://bit.ly/sarah-everard-wayne-couzens)
- The murder of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman by Danyal Hussein (https://bit.ly/danyal-hussein)
- The investigation into Stephen Port, the Gridr Killer (https://bit.ly/grindr-killer)

Former West Yorkshire DCS Bob Taylor is a critic of Dame Cressida. In an interview with Simon Ford recorded in October 2021, he held her responsible for the Met's failings. Simon Ford asked DCS (Ret) Taylor: what would he do to put the Met's house in order?

Listen to "Steve Wright: The Suffolk Strangler" on Spreaker.

Advisory: injury detail

Not much is known about William Sheward, a Victorian tailor-turned-pawnbroker. He loved the company of women – except, it seems, his wife. Did he marry her for love, or for money? Was William climbing the social ladder, or cooking up a get-rich-quick scheme? 

The couple had a fiery relationship that flared up when they hit hard times. Their fall from grace preceded possibly the most gruesome crime ever committed in Norfolk — the Norwich Tabernacle Street Murder. 

Featuring Graham Lewis from Anglia News as the voice of H. Woodcock.
The March Of The Women, by Ethel Smythe, is performed by the Rainbow Chorus.
English Folk Music (live performance) recorded by David Ward and the Gibraltar Pub in Harpenden, Herts, and available on YouTube.

Listen to "Stephen Port: The Grindr Serial Killer" on Spreaker.

It started with the unexplained deaths of four young, gay men, whose bodies were found in Barking, East London. It led to the conviction of Stephen Port, whose warped fantasies drove him to administer lethal doses of the date-rape drug, GHB. 

But the case of the Grindr Killer is far from over, with calls for a Public Enquiry into allegations of  institutionalised homophobia at the Metropolitan Police. 

But why did the 'catalogue of errors' come about? How were crucial errors made? Were processes, not people, to blame?

In this podcast, former major crime detective, Jacques Morrell, and journalist, Simon Ford, examine the evidence.

Listen to "Matthew White: The Aussie Croc Killer" on Spreaker.

Part 3 of 3

Question: you've just killed someone; what's the quickest way to dispose of the body? If you live in northern Queensland, Australia, a simple answer presents itself. Dump the corpse in a crocodile-infested river. The "salties", as Australians call them, will do the rest.

That was Matthew White's plan after he murdered Donna Steele in Cooktown. But the plan backfired spectacularly thanks to advances in forensic science and a one-in-a-million DNA match.

The third and final part of our series about familial DNA looks at the 2017 murder of Donna Louise Steele and how familial DNA helped crack the case.

Listen to "Paul Stewart Hutchinson: Colette Aram's Killer – Convicted By DNA After 25 Years" on Spreaker.

Part 2 of 3

16-year-old Colette Aram had her whole life in front of her. But on Halloween 1986 she encountered Paul Stewart Hutchinson as he cruised her home village in Nottinghamshire in a stolen car. Hutchinson abducted Colette, raped and murdered her. Then he simply disappeared. 

25 years later, police reopened the investigation. In this podcast, we go behind the scenes of the Colette Aram cold case with Psycho Killer's Jacques Morrell. He was part of the team that collared Hutchinson thanks to advances in DNA testing — and an incredible coincidence.

Listen to "Joseph DeAngelo Jr: The Golden State Killer" on Spreaker.

Part 1 of 3

This psycho killer made Jack the Ripper look like a choirboy. Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986.

Born on 8 November 1945, DeAngelo served in the US Navy during the Vietnam war. Afterwards, he joined the police but was fired for gross misconduct. 

Before he was unmasked, DeAngelo was known as the Night Stalker, the Original Night Stalker, the Visalia Ransacker, and the East Area Rapist. But the name that stuck was the Golden State Killer.

DeAngelo committed his last rape/murder in 1986 and disappeared into the shadows. But the FBI reopened the case in 2016. Two years later, DeAngelo, then aged 72, was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, based on DNA evidence.

This podcast tells the story of the Golden State Killer in the context of advances in forensic science – in particular, the use of familial DNA to solve cold cases.

Listen to "Tony Hobson: The Psycho Biker" on Spreaker.

Advisory: violence, strong language

When three young men disappeared in a small Yorkshire town, the finger of suspicion pointed to the local troublemaker. Paul Anthony Hobson was the president of the West Riding chapter of the Hell's Angels. He and his rag-tag gang of impressionable followers were behind most of the antisocial behaviour in Garforth, near Leeds. But was loud-mouthed Tony Hobson a killer? Even hardened detectives were shocked by what they found.

Listen to "The Murder of Sir David Amess MP" on Spreaker.

Last week a new name was added to the roll-call of British parliamentarians who've died violent deaths in the course of their duties. Sir David Amess MP, who was 69, was fatally stabbed while meeting people in the constituency he represented.

A man has been detained and is being questioned in connection with Sir David's murder, which police are treating as a terrorist incident. Jacques and Simon discuss the case and its implications for policing in the United Kingdom.

Listen to "Robert Black: The Paedophile Child Killer" on Spreaker.

This episode contains graphic content of a sexual nature that you might find upsetting. We know because we were. But we decided the story needed to be told straight, for the record.

The dictionary is full of adjectives to describe child rape and murder. None comes close to the experience of the children and families Robert Black tormented.

If you have kids (as we do) please give them a hug when you've listened to our podcast. 

Robert Black is dead. But the law of averages says there are others like him out there, biding their time.

So if you believe in a god, or none at all, pray they're stopped before they inflict this kind of suffering on the world.

Acknowledgements: BBC Crimewatch UK; BBC Look North; BBC TV Documentaries; ITV Central News; ITN/ITV News; ITV Night Stalker

Listen to "Kenneth Noye: The Road Rage Psycho Killer" on Spreaker.

Kenneth Noye has a way of dealing with people who p*** him off. He stabs them to death. 

The first time it was an undercover surveillance officer hiding in the grounds of his mansion. Noye's guard dogs brought down PC John Fordham. Then Noye shanked him 10 times and left the officer to bleed to death. 

Noye pleaded self-defence — and got off! 

The next time was during a road rage fistfight. Noye took a beating from Stephen Cameron. So he stabbed the younger, fitter man in the heart to teach the whippersnapper a lesson. 

Noye's a free man again – hanging around his old haunts in Kent – after serving 20 years for murder. Let's pray the Probation Service is keeping a close eye on him.

 

Listen to "Wayne Couzens: The British Cop Turned Sex Killer" on Spreaker.

Wayne Couzens was a disgrace to the police uniform he wore. Somehow, this sexual deviant managed to secure employment with the Met's elite diplomatic protection squad. 

He was licenced to kill – and kill he did. Posing as a plainclothes officer, Couzens raped and murdered Sarah Everard after kidnapping her under the guise of an arrest. 

Couzens erstwhile colleagues were soon onto him. He confessed and on 30 September 2021, a judge told him he'd spend the rest of his life in prison.

Listen to "Beverley Allitt: The Killer Nurse - Britain's Most Prolific Female Murderer" on Spreaker.

Britain’s most prolific female killer. That’s one description of Bev Allitt. But to the families whose babies and children she murdered, she is a monster – the embodiment of evil. And to those who seek to analyse her, an enigma. 

Allitt was a pathological liar who was allowed, by a series of grievous errors, to join the nursing profession. She claimed her first victim – a seven-week-old baby – within days of starting work at Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire. 

Assigned to the children’s ward, children became the targets of her perverse personality disorder – Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy. Allitt murdered four babies and children. She tried to kill three others and caused a further six grievous bodily harm. 

Allitt’s crimes spanned just three months – February to April 1991. In this episode, we go beyond the wilting floral tributes and sympathy cards. We revisit Allitt’s crimes with archive recordings. And we give a chilling insight into the grotesque mind of Beverley Gail Allitt – the killer nurse. 

Warning: contains testimony you may find upsetting.

Acknowledgements: ITV, World In Action - Murder on Ward Four; ITV, Trevor McDonald and the Killer Nurse; Nick Davies/Chatto Press, Murder on Ward Four, The Story of Bev Allitt, and the Most Terrifying Crime Since the Moors Murders.

Listen to "Thomas Parker: Hanged In Public For Shooting his Parents" on Spreaker.

Elizabeth Parker from Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire, doted on her little boy. But little Tom turned into a spoilt brat who grew up to be a workshy, wife-beating drunk. And he repaid his long-suffering parents by turning a shotgun on them. 

Parker’s father survived with slight injuries. But his mother lingered for weeks with a festering head wound. 

The year was 1864. Elizabeth Parker fell into a coma and died in April. Four months later, her son also met his maker — at the end of a rope in front of 10,000 citizens. 

Thomas Parker was the last person to be hanged in public at Nottingham. This is his story. 

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Transcript

Listen to "Michael Sams: Killer of Julie Dart and Kidnapper of Stephanie Slater" on Spreaker.

Michael Benneman Sams was one of life’s losers, a little man with big, bad ideas. He snatched his victims and held them to ransom locked in a wheelie bin. Birmingham estate agent Stephanie Slater walked free when her employers paid £175,000. Julie Dart, a teenager from Leeds, wasn’t so lucky. She escaped from the wheelie bin, triggering Sams’s silent alarm. He murdered her before she could break out of his workshop in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and dumped her body in a field in Lincolnshire. But the police caught up with Sams. His ex-wife and son had long memories. When they recognised him on BBC Crimewatch they were quick to turn him in. Sams, now 79, will die in prison.

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Transcript

Listen to "Murder on the Brighton Line: Conan Doyle's Inspiration?" on Spreaker.

In straight-laced Victorian Britain, the railway line between London and the seaside town of Brighton was a bordello on wheels. Inevitably, the secret trysts and dodgy deals conducted in its curtained carriages led to some unsavoury crimes. A series of murders on the Brighton Line shocked polite society and some remain unsolved to this day. Others saw their perpetrators sent to the gallows. Brighton’s reputation as a Bohemian playground was matched only by the town’s notoriety for violence. The curious characters of Grahame Green’s novel Brighton Rock were typical of those Simon Ford and detective Jacques Morrell encountered on this journey through the archives.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Black Panther, Donald Neilson: Part 2" on Spreaker.

Part 2 of a two-part UK true-crime documentary

Donald Neilson was born Donald Nappey. He changed his name to get the bullies off his back. But he couldn’t shake the chip on his shoulder. It drove him to rob the vulnerable at gunpoint. He murdered defenceless victims in the pursuit of greed. And he tethered a teenage girl naked in a drainage shaft, demanding £50,000 for her release. Lesley Whittle died in that shaft, throttled by the metal cable Neilson shacked around her neck. But did he fall or was she pushed? That was for a jury to decide.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Black Panther, Donald Neilson: Part 1" on Spreaker.

Part 1 of a two-part UK true-crime documentary

It was the culmination of a reign of terror climaxing in a crime that horrified a nation. Between 1967 and 1974, an athletic, shadowy figure carried out a series of nighttime raids on sub-post offices in the English Midlands. The masked robber, who always wore dark clothing, was as ruthless as he was physically fit. These characteristics earned him the nickname ‘The Black Panther’. Before long, the Panther turned to cold-blooded murder. Then, with the same chilling disregard for life which characterised his earlier crimes, he kidnapped and murdered a teenage girl. The girl, who he believed to be heiress to a vast fortune, was Lesley Whittle. The Black Panther was eventually unmasked as Donald Neilson, a psychopath with a massive chip on his shoulder. 

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "Blood and Fire: The Murders of Peter Tosh and John Lennon" on Spreaker.

Two musicians; two murders, separated by hundreds of miles. On the face of it, ex-Beatle John Lennon and Reggae star Peter Tosh were gunned down in very different circumstances. Lennon was shot by an obsessed fan; Tosh a victim of 1980s Jamaican gun culture. On closer examination, however, their deaths have more in common than first meets the eye, not least because they were both peace-loving artists who wanted mankind to live in harmony. Jacques Morrell and Simon Ford unpack the archives and their vinyl collections in this investigation.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Pretty Windows: Nottingham's Unsolved Murder Mystery" on Spreaker.

More than 50 years have passed since the fatal stabbing of publican George Wilson in Nottingham and his family members are still seeking closure. The pub was called the Fox and Grapes, but local folk knew it by another name, the Pretty Windows, on account of its ornate stained glass. It was late one Saturday night in 1963. George Wilson locked up and took his dog for a walk. The next time his wife saw him he was lying on a pool of blood, the victim of a frenzied knife attack. Who killed George Wilson and why? Simon Ford and ex major-crime detective Jacques Morrell investigate.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "Wearside Jack: The Yorkshire Ripper Tape Hoax Tape (A Tale of Two Jacks)" on Spreaker.

Part 3 of a three-part British true-crime documentary series

John Samuel Humble killed nobody, but he had blood on his hands, and he knew it. He was the hoaxer who pretended to be the Yorkshire Ripper. Dubbed Wearside Jack by the newspapers, his infamous ‘I’m Jack’ tape sent the Ripper investigation on a wild goose chase, during which the real killer, Peter Sutcliffe, claimed more victims. One of them, Jayne MacDonald, was a 16-year-old school leaver walking home from a night out. Humble said he goaded detectives with the intention of spurring the enquiry. His plan failed spectacularly. Like many hoaxers, he thought he was safe under a cloak of anonymity, but he reckoned without the determination and long memories of West Yorkshire CID.

This podcast features an exclusive interview with a member of the Yorkshire Ripper incident room, Detective Chief Superintendent (retired) Bob Taylor of West Yorkshire Police.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe" on Spreaker.

Part 2 of a three-part British true-crime documentary series

‘Wicked beyond belief’, is how the trial judge summarised the character of Peter William Sutcliffe. Between 1975 and 1980 he murdered 13 women and attempted to murder seven others. The north of England was gripped by fear during a reign of terror the police were unable to terminate. Simon Ford joins former major-crime detective Jacques Morell in an examination of Sutcliffe’s life and crimes. Sutcliffe (who changed his name to Coonan in prison) slipped through the net nine times before being caught almost by accident. Simon asks Jacques: would today’s policing methods have stopped the Yorkshire Ripper sooner?

This podcast features an exclusive interview with a member of the Yorkshire Ripper incident room, Detective Chief Superintendent (retired) Bob Taylor of West Yorkshire Police.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe: Death of a Monster" on Spreaker.

Part 1 of a three-part British true-crime documentary series

Peter Sutcliffe's heinous crimes made him one of the UK's most notorious serial killers. In 1981, the gravedigger turned lorry driver from Yorkshire was found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was serving a whole life term when he died on 13 November 2020 aged 74.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Australian Ripper: Frederick Bailey Deeming - Was He Jack The Ripper?" on Spreaker.

Frederick Bailey Deeming was many things – a bigamist, a swindler and murderer of two women and four children. But was he also Jack the Ripper? Journalist Simon Ford and former major-crime detective Jacques Morrell plunge into the life and brutal times of this Victorian enigma. Deeming’s career spanned the globe – Australia, South Africa, Latin America – under a catalogue of aliases. He was an unscrupulous psychopath who would stop at nothing to cheat the wealthy and defend his freedom. A contemporary of Jack the Ripper, some theorize he was Jack. But does the evidence support the theory? What propelled Deeming on his international rampage anyway? And how was he stopped?

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Entwistle Murders: The Massachusetts Man Who Shot His Wife And Baby Daughter" on Spreaker.

Mild-mannered, handsome and geeky were all terms used to describe Neil Entwistle. Yet this British computer engineer was convicted of shooting dead his wife and baby daughter at their home near Boston, Massachusetts. Entwistle fled the scene, jumped on a plane and ran home to mum and dad. The American authorities caught up with him in London and put him on trial in the United States, where he was found guilty. Despite the weight of evidence stacked against him, Neil Entwistle continues to protest his innocence, denying any part in the fatal shootings of 27-year-old Rachel and 9-month-old Lillian in January 2006.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Green Bicycle Murder" on Spreaker.

The farmer who found Bella Wright’s body thought she’d been knocked off her bicycle. Hours later the police realised she’d been shot in the face. Bella was 21 when she met her death on an English country road in July 1919. Detectives brought a man to trial, but he was acquitted by the jury and walked free and the identity of the murderer is unknown. Simon Ford and Jacques Morrell visit the scene, at Little Streeton in Leicestershire, where they reveal the result of their investigation into the Green Bicycle Murder.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "Fetish Murders" on Spreaker.

He saw her at a bus stop and thought, ‘she’ll do’. That was how Wakefield shoe fetish murderer Christopher Farrow chose his victim, Wendy Speakes. He followed her home, where he tied her up, raped her and stabbed her 11 times. Farrow evaded justice for six years. He was caught thanks to advances in forensic science. Detective Jacques Morrell witnessed the introduction of the National Automated Fingerprints Identification System (Nafis) which provided the breakthrough. He explains how technology is closing the net on killers who thought they’d got away with murder.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "A Murder in the Family" on Spreaker.

The fatal shooting of six people in Plymouth yesterday (12 August 2021) throws into sharp relief the phenomenon of the family annihilator. The first indications are that Jake Davison murdered those closest to him before turning the gun on himself.  What drives some men – and it is mainly men – to murder their families? The motivation for familicide is only partly understood but seems to be linked to a ‘loss of control over masculine domains’, even where there is no prior evidence of domestic abuse. Detective Jacque Morrell takes reporter Simon Ford on a disturbing journey into the dark side of gender identity, where lives unravel with catastrophic and unimaginable consequences.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The ‘Hammersmith Nude’ Murders" on Spreaker.

The press dubbed this killer ‘Jack the Stripper’. He was never caught but left behind a trail of bodies and struck fear in the heart of London in the Swinging Sixties. The six female victims were found undressed in or near the River Thames in 1964 and 1965. Two earlier murders, committed in 1959 and 1963, have been linked to the same perpetrator. Despite intense media interest and one of the biggest manhunts in Scotland Yard's history, the case is unsolved. All the evidence is reported to have been destroyed or lost.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.

Listen to "The Saint Valentine's Day 'Witchcraft' Murder: Was This A Ritual Killing Of A Warlock?" on Spreaker.

This unsolved, brutal murder happened in a sleepy, secretive village hidden in the heart of rural England. Apparently motiveless, folklore and legend have linked the killing of Charles Walton to witchcraft and satanism. His body was found lying – some say ritually posed – in the shadow of Meon Hill, an Iron Age fort. His throat had been slashed and a pitchfork plunged into his body. As detective Jacques Morrell and reporter Simon Ford discover, an area cloaked in the supernatural, mixed with a deep-seated mistrust of outsiders.

Transcript

The Six O'clock Knock© is a Psycho Killer production.