Murder Mile UK True Crime

On Friday 5th July 1940 at 13:45pm, War Reservist Constable Jack William Avery left his post at the 'Old Police House' in Hyde Park having been alerted to a man "acting suspisiously" near the gun-emplacements. Confronting the man, PC Avery was stabbed to death. PC Avery is one of 1600 police officers to have died since policing began... but is there more to this story, why did he die and who was F...

This is Part Three of Three of the Thames Towpath Murders. Across May & June 1953, a violent serial rapist who would attack lone women in isolated spots in and around Teddington, and yet, going against his own method, that same man would rape and murder two young girls at the same time. But why? Date: 26th May to 17th June 1953 Location: Teddington Lock, Oxshott Heath and Windsor Great Park, L...

This is Part Two of Three of The Thames Towpath Murders. On the morning of Monday 1st June 1953, at 09:05am, the body of Barbara Songhurst was pulled out of the River Thames at Radnor Gardens and brought ashore at St Helena Pier, as many dead bodies are. But even before an autopsy was conducted, Scotland Yard were notified, as this was no accident, this was unmistakably a murder. Date: Monday 1st...

This is Part One of Three of the Thames Towpath Murders. On the night of Sunday 31st May 1953, Barbara Songhurst and Christine Reed, two innocent and inseparable best-friends were brutally raped and murdered on a peaceful towpath and their bodies were dumped in the River Thames. But who would want these two young girls dead, and why? Date: Sunday 31st May 1953 Location: Teddington Lock, a towpath...

On the morning of Friday 27th August 1971, in the basement flat at 15 Linden Gardens in Chiswick, W4; with her family life in tatters, her emotions frought and everything she had ever loved destroyed, being at a loss at her lover’s rejection, Nora Tenconi took several desperate steps which ended in death. But why? Date: Friday 27th August 1971 Location: Basement Flat, 15A Linden Gardens, Chiswick,...

On Monday 17th October 1814, at 5:30pm, an iron hoop on a vat of Porter beer at the Horseshoe Brewery would slip, it didn't seem like an emergency, but it would unleash a deadly tidal wave which would change Great Russell Street and the residents of The Rookery forever Date: Monday 17th October 1814 Location: Meux & Co's Horseshoe Brewery, Tottenham Court Road, Bloomsbury, London, W1 Victims:...

On Thursday 15th October 1942, in flat 34 of Chalfont Court at 236 Baker Street, the body of William Raven was discovered. He was an elegant sociable divorcee and co-owner of a gentleman’s outfitters with no enemies, who was found battered to death in his own bed. Everybody liked him. But was this a bungled robbery, a revenge attack, or was it something a little more ordinary? Date: Thursday 15th...

On Tuesday 4th October 1853, in a squalid first-floor lodging at 6 Little Dean Street, the beating of baby Richard began… and ten days later, he would be dead. Described as a ‘bastard’ child, his widowed mother struggled against insurmountable odds in the hope that he would survive, only those she was forced to trust with his care, became his killers. ate: Tuesday 4th to Friday 14th October 1853 L...

On Friday 20th December 1940, James Forbes McCallum robbed the Coach & Horses public house in Covent Garden; he was a desperate man whose first and only robbery was ill-judged, unplanned and such a catastrophic failure that it ended in death. And yet, when he was arrested, he was so panicked, he gave the Police five plausible alibis. But which alibi was right? Date: Friday 20th December 1940 a...

On Saturday 7th November 1908, at 11:40am, John Esmond Murphy walked into the bank of Cartmell & Schlittle at 84 Shaftesbury Avenue. Overwhelming evidence pointed to the fact that he bungled a heist, pulled a gun, shot and stabbed the manager dead, and was then captured, arrested, convicted and executed. But did he actually do it? Date: Saturday 7th November 1908 at 11:40am Location: Cartmell...

On Wednesday 13th March 1940 at 4:30pm, in the Tudor Room of Caxton Hall, Udham Singh would murder Sir Michael O'Dwyer, a man he had never met before, but fuelled by hatred over twenty-one years, Udham’s reason to kill would make him not just a murderer, but a martyr. Date: Wednesday 13th March 1940 Location: Caxton Hall, 10 Caxton Street, Westminster, London, SW1 Victims: 1 (Sir Michael Francis O...

On Sunday 29th May 1887, in the first-floor flat of 29 Great Windmill Street in Soho, twenty-year-old Amelie Pottle had a "little accident" with an oil-lamp which would lead to her slow and painful death. But was it a mishap, or a murder? Date: Sunday 29th May 1887 to Monday 30th May 1887 Location: 29 Great Windmill Street, Soho, London, W1 (now Nico Didonna) Victims: 1 (Amelia Pottle) Culprits: 1...

At just before midnight on Sunday 2nd April 1989, Victor Castigador and his small gang of cohorts robbed the Leisure Investments amusement arcade at 23 Gerrard Street in Chinatown, but owing to a very petty grudge, Victor would turn a simply robbery for a few thousand pounds into one of London's worst and most horrific mass-murders. Date: Sunday 2nd April 1989 to Monday 3rd April 1989 Location: 23...

On the evening of Sunday 15th June 1952, just inside the front-door of the Shelbourne Hotel at 1 Lexham Gardens, a 44-year-old lady known as 'Christine Granville' was murdered. She looked like a nobody, and yet, living under an assumed name, she was actually a hero, a soldier, a secret-agent and one of the most amazing women who has ever lived. Her exploits were the stuff of legend, but being cast...

On the evening of Wednesday 3rd August 2016, a young Muslim man ran amok in Russell Square, he was armed with a knife and had killed one person and injured five, but as the press jumped to lazy conclusions and branded him as a ‘terrorist’, they missed the fact that he was (literally) fighting demons of his own. Murder Mile is researched, written and performed by Michael J Buchanan-Dunne of Murder...

On the 21st November 1927, in the backroom of a well-respected abortionist at 55 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, recently-pregnant Elsie Goldsmith went in to have her little problem solved. His illegal technique was hailed as non-invasive, safe and revolutionary, and yet he destroyed not only the baby's life... but also hers. Date: Monday 21st November 1927 Location: 55 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair,...

On Tuesday 15th June 1948, in the 'The Maltese Club' situated in the basement of 3 Carlisle Street, one of Soho’s deadliest and most feared gangsters known as 'The Terror of Maltese London' was murdered by Joseph Farrugia? But who was 'The Terror' and why did he have to die? Date: Tuesday 15th June 1948 Location: 'The Maltese Club', 3 Carlisle Street, Soho, London, W1 Victims: 1 (Amabile Ricca) Cu...

Today’s episode began as a violent sexual assault on a young woman, a humiliating and traumatic rape which changed her life forever, but this isn’t the victim’s story and neither is it the culprit’s, it’s about two innocent people who the system was designed to protect, but ultimately failed. Date: Friday 13th February 2015 Location: 4 Landor House, Westbourne Park Road, London, W2 Victims: 2 (Has...

Today’s episode is about Elizabeth McLindon, a lonely lady looking for love who had finally found her future husband in a man named Arthur Boyce, and although this sweet and attentive man seemed like ‘Mr Right’, he was actually a liar, a thief, a bigamist and – just months later - her murderer. Date: Saturday 8th June 1946 Location: 45 Chester Square, Belgravia, London, SW1 Victims: 1 (Elizabeth M...

Today’s episode isn’t about the victim, it’s about her murderer. His identity isn’t a mystery; we know his name, his age and (based on witness descriptions) he would later become known as ‘the sad faced killer’; we know what he did, when he did it and where, but the one detail we can’t explain is why? Date: Saturday 27th May 1950 Location: Room 12, Saura Hotel, 162 Sussex Gardens in Paddington, Lo...

Today’s episode began as an ordinary morning for three police officers going about their regular duties. And what started as a simple stop-and-search on a West London street for (what would have been) a very minor traffic offence, lead to the brutal and senseless executions of three good men. This is the true story of what is often referred to as The Shepherd's Bush Murders Date: Thursday 18th Nov...

Today’s episode is about the tragic death of eight-year-old Peter Buckingham; a lovely little boy who wasn’t starved, abused or mistreated, if anything he was adored, and yet, several traumatic incidents lead to this innocent boy being murdered by the one person who loved him the most – his own mum. Date: Thursday 18th November 1948 Location: 134 Milton Avenue, Harlesden, London, NW10 Victims: 1 (...

Today’s episode is about the three possible murders of Vincent Patrick Keighery, a delightful elegant bachelor brutally tortured in his Bayswater flat. But whose story was true and why was he killed? Was it a robbery, a homophobic attack, or a sex game gone wrong? Date: Saturday 28th November 1964 Location: Flat 58, Carroll House, Craven Terrace, Bayswater, London, W2 Victims: 1 (Vincent Patrick K...

Today’s episode is about the murder of Kate Beagley; a smart independent woman who had agreed to go out for a drink with a handsome young man; she did everything right, she took every precaution, and yet, the only mistake she made was the one we all make - she knew nothing about this stranger. Date: Wednesday 30th May 2007 Location: The Terrace, Richmond Hill, Richmond, London, TW10 Victims: 1 (Ka...

Today’s episode is a romantic wartime tale about Barbara Shuttleworth and Felic Sterbe, who amidst the ruins of a bombed-out London found comfort in each other’s arms, and yet, something lead these two “lovers” to end their lives in a truly bizarre death pact… well, sort of. Date: Friday 30th July 1948 Location: Ralph Court, 210A Queensway, London, W2 Victims: 2 (Barbara Sylvia Shuttleworth and Lt...