Always True Crime

After 65-year-old Attracta Harron attended morning Mass on December 11, 2003, as part of a 30-day Novena prayer sequence, she headed home on foot, in line with her fitness regime, but never arrived. A sighting of her by a local farmer that morning was the last time she was seen alive, with her body finally being found four months later. Join my Patreon community at patreon.com/britishmurders for e...

This series' Monsters Of episode comes this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, where in a reach into the archives of Patreon, we head to Greater Manchester to meet two individuals capable of the most callous of crimes against a vulnerable adult. They tick the Monsters box all right.  The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, involving  a vulnerable adult, t...

It was late - almost midnight - by a quarry near the forest. The police had arrived as a car had been reported for driving in an erratic manner. The woman was clearly very uncomfortable and didn't want the officers to look inside the two suitcases. The bodycam is startling as an officer opens one of the bags. There is an audible sharp exhale of breath when what he is looking at hits home. The offi...

#249 - Besotted: The Endless Love of Mr & Mrs Park On Saturday 24th January 1976 at 1:30pm, in their second floor flat at 41 St Olaf’s Road in Fulham, John Park brutally murdered his heavily pregnant wife. In an act of rage which was unusual for such a calm and placid man, he would claim he murdered her over money she had given to her daughter. But was there more to this? Date: Saturday 24th J...

When 18-year-old Barry Wallace attended his work's Christmas party in December 1999, he planned on letting his hair down after booking the full weekend off. As the party drew to a close, Barry planned on heading to another party nearby but was confronted by someone who'd had a murder conviction overturned a decade earlier. Barry would not be seen alive again. Join my Patreon community at patreon.c...

Lauren Jeska was a fell runner. As a transgender athlete, she had been asked to provide evidence of hormone levels after historical complaints to UK Athletics that she had an unfair advantage competing in women’s events because she had been born a man. The policy of the governing body required the athlete to take a blood test, but she took exception to this and feared being unable to compete. Laur...

All families have squabbles from time to time - it's human nature. But sometimes, a squabble exists only in the mind of one family member, and when they become obsessed that they are right, wild horses cannot change their mind - sometimes, it borders on paranoia. The tale this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, a horrific tale from Manchester back in 2016, shows just what horrific c...

#248 - The Creeper. On Monday 15th January 1945 at 12:15am, a Dutch seaman called Jan Pureveen was murdered at Fred White’s coffee stall on Euston Road. It was a brutal and unprovoked attack which came out of nowhere, and yet, it was both expected and unexpected, as the killer was already known to the police as ‘The Creeper’. Date: Monday 15th January 1945 at 12:15am Location: outside of the (form...

When 26-year-old Karena Bigg-Wither offered 19-year-old Ian Haywood a place to stay one evening at her parents' luxury 17th-century cottage when they were out of the country, she did so out of the kindness of her heart. Confronting Haywood the following morning when she noticed him attempting to steal some of her parents' valuables, Karena had no idea that doing so would endanger her life. Join my...

Lorraine Cox had returned to her home in Exeter to catch up with her family and friends. After a great night out with lots of fun and laughter, Lorraine walked home through the centre of City. But over the next few days, Lorraine seemed to be acting very strangely and it soon became very apparent why. Buy tickets for my live show on 2 June https://www.customshouse.co.uk/theatre/murder-aint-easy/ F...

#247 - The Dormers Wells Massacre. On the evening of Wednesday 11th November 1987, two orthodox Sikhs (Rajinder Singh Batth and Mangit Singh Sunder) sat in the sports hall of Dormers Wells High School in Southall, listening to the sermons of (some say) ‘self-proclaimed’ Guru Darshan Das. It would become one of Britain rare school shootings, and yet, unlike Dunblane, it has almost been forgott...

When multiple women and children were raped in and around London's railway network during the early 1980s, detectives initially believed one man was responsible. They didn't realise that two men had committed the horrific acts and that their sadistic tendencies would soon turn to murder. In this two-part series, I discuss what became the nation’s biggest manhunt since the Peter Sutcliffe inquiry....

John Warrington was interested in making money and had built up a portfolio of several commercial premises and two houses. But when market conditions took a turn for the worse, he was soon in massive debt and his life was spiralling out of control. He needed urgent results before he lost everything. John's solution was to write a crime thriller - sure, an unusual choice. When the publishers weren'...

I welcome back former Scotland Yard Homicide Detective Inspector Steve Keogh to the show in this interview episode. In February 2024, TRUE CRIME announced the premiere of a new, expert-led true crime original series offering an insight into recent murder investigations from London, Sussex, Yorkshire and other locations across the UK. The series, titled 'Secrets of a Murder Detective' and presented...

"Everybody needs good neighbours" noted the theme tune of a popular 1980's Australian soap opera, and indeed, the majority of us do go on to have those good neighbours, that do become good friends - again, as the theme tune of the soap claimed. But not always. For one family living in Nottingham back in November 2022, there was to be nothing of the sort next door, except a nightmare - and a killer...

#246 - Jack the Shitter. Across October 2000, 55-year-old Brian Darby concocted a plan to rape an murder six women across West London over 24 hours, in order to become more infamous than his hero - Jack the Ripper. As a useless man with no skills, no talent and even less brains, he would fail in every way. And although this pointless little man was desperate to be hailed as a serial-killer, the be...

When multiple women and children were raped in and around London's railway network during the early 1980s, detectives initially believed one man was responsible. They didn't realise that two men had committed the horrific acts and that their sadistic tendencies would soon turn to murder. In this two-part series, I discuss what became the nation’s biggest manhunt since the Peter Sutcliffe inquiry....

21 year old Libby Squire, who was studying philosophy at Hull University, had been out with her friends that Thursday evening. They had been drinking around one of their mates houses before heading out. But at the end of the night the bouncers had not let her in the nightclub, The Welly, as they thought she was too tipsy. Nothing unusual here, many of us have been there - so her friends put her in...

I welcome author Emma Flint to the show in this interview episode to discuss her second novel, 'Other Women'. Emma grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne and has been writing fiction since she knew what stories were. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews with an MA in English Language and Literature, later completing a novel-writing course at the Faber Academy. Since childhood, she has been dra...

Concluding the opening tale of Series 9, with the account of "The Fox" - how back in 1984 one man brought a wave of terror with his horrific crimes, not just to his hunting grounds in the South of England - but to the country as a whole. How he was caught? I'll tell you in one of the most fascinating tales I have ever covered on the show.  The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes an...

#245 - Good Girl, Gone. On 18th of May 1942, 33-year-old part-time prostitute Jean Stafford welcomed a regular client into her room at 3 Bedford Place in Bloomsbury. Being shy and hating her job, she was hoping that a wealthy bachelor would sweep her off her. But later found dead, the detectives initially mistook her death for natural causes. But was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? Date: 1...

When professional cyclist Moriah "Mo" Wilson was found dead in her friend's home in Austin, Texas, on May 11, 2022, with multiple gunshot wounds, nobody could have anticipated that the hunt for her killer would end in the Republic of Costa Rica. This off-season episode features Grace from REDRUM true crime telling me (and you) Mo's story. You can find and support REDRUM true crime here: Linktree |...

21 year old Libby Squire, who was studying philosophy at Hull University, had been out with her friends that Thursday evening. They had been drinking around one of their mates houses before heading out. But at the end of the night the bouncers had not let her in the nightclub, The Welly, as they thought she was too tipsy. Nothing unusual here, many of us have been there - so her friends put her in...

Back with the first of a two part tale to start the brand new 9th series of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, and for it, we head back to the summer of 1984, where for three counties of the south of England - Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire - a cloud of fear hung over them. A simple yet prolific burglar was to over the space of five months evolve disturbingly in his criminality, a...

#244 - No Fixed Abode. On Thursday 25th of October 1934, at the Westminster Institute on Fulham Road, Jim Harvey smashed in the skull of his friend George Hamblin, nine times with a hammer. But what drove a lonely man to murder his only friend? Date: Thursday 25th of October 1934 at roughly 5:10pm Location: The Westminster Institute, 367 Fulham Road, London, England, SW10 Victim: 1 (Allen George H...