Sun, Jan 13, 2019
Peter Manuel was a Scottish serial killer who killed at least eight people between 1956-1958 around the Greater Glasgow area. He fell under the police's radar several times but each time let go. When he was finally tracked down and arrested, Manuel sensationally defended himself in court. But it would be his mother's testimony which would prove to be crucial to the outcome.
Sun, Jan 20, 2019
Born in 1832 the story of the Black Widow is a classic Victorian tale Cotton travelled around the north east of England marrying lonely men getting them to take out life insurance and then murdering them. Arsenic was her preferred means of killing, once dead she would cash in their life insurance. After her execution it was suspected that she was responsible for the murders of a further 21 people
Sun, Jan 27, 2019
Dr Ruxton was an Indian born physician. He lived a quiet, respectable life in Lancaster but had a violent jealous streak. He had accused his wife of infidelity for years but in September 1935 his jealousy got the better of him. He beat, strangled and stabbed her to death then did the same to the housemaid. He dismembered the bodies to remove identification marks and dumped them in Scotland.
Sun, Feb 3, 2019
Three police officers were murdered in Shepherds Bush on Friday 12th August 1966 by Harry Roberts and two others. After the killing they went on the run and a manhunt ensued. The notion that someone had killed several policemen shocked the public and attracted a lot of press attention. As the act of murder happened six months after the death penalty was suspended, people called for it's return.
Mon, Oct 14, 2019
We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper. The most famous serial killer in history, the man who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel - and got away with it. In this two-part Murder Maps special, we re-examine those notorious crimes. We reveal how the story we know today was shaped by the sensationalist press of 1888. And we strip back decades of rumor and misinformation to reveal the true lives of the five women slain. With contributions from world renowned Ripper expert Donald Rumbelow and writer Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five - the only book to tell the lives of the victims, these documentaries are the true story of the Whitechapel Murders as never heard before.
Mon, Oct 21, 2019
In December 1910, the murder of three City of London Police officers and the wounding of two others was, and continues to be, one of the largest multiple murders of police officers on duty carried out in Great Britain. The three officers - Sergeants Bentley and Tucker and Constable Choat - were shot dead whilst trying to prevent a burglary at a jewelers in Houndsditch on the evening of the 16th of December and this incident and the events surrounding it formed the precursor to the famous Siege of Sidney Street in January 1911.
Mon, Oct 28, 2019
The First World War took the lives of countless soldiers on the front line. But one man in Paris too old for combat saw this as an opportunity. Henri Landru targeted the lonely and vulnerable women left behind by the war. He seduced them with promises of marriage and lured them to houses outside Paris where the women vanished. With the police uninterested in investigating the disappearances, two women took it upon themselves to pursue Landru. This episode tells their story. How they tirelessly gathered evidence against the killer. How they pestered the authorities to investigate. And how they made sure Landru finally faced justice for his crimes.
Mon, Nov 4, 2019
Herbert Rowse Armstrong went down in history as The Hay Poisoner. Convicted in 1922 of murdering his wife with arsenic, he was the first and only solicitor to be hanged in the UK. But was he guilty? Was he a cunning poisoner, or was he a grieving husband wrongly accused? Much of the evidence against Armstrong was circumstantial and the scientific testimony remains disputed. In this episode we examine both sides of the case and ask whether the British justice system made a terrible mistake.