Previous crimes

Who did it? The murderers are revealed here as the Crime Team series evolves. Down the centuries, the law and detection methods may have changed, but did our modern sleuths do any better?

Trouble at Mill
It is 24 May 1807 and neighbours breaking into the cottage of a couple in Bramley on the outskirts of Leeds, find 40-year-old Rebeccca Perigo lying dead on the bed. For 10 days the door has been locked and her husband William also seems to be ill. The couple were wealthy but desperate for a child. In the weeks before her death Rebecca had been particularly disturbed and claimed that she had been haunted by a mysterious black dog that watched her even as she slept. A box of medicines is found by the dead woman’s bed. Cause of death is almost certainly poisoning, but by whom?

The Body in the Trunk
At 1.45pm on 6 May 1927 a trunk is left at the left luggage office of Charing Cross railway station in central London. When, after a while, it begins to emit an over-powering smell, railway workers call the police. They make the not uncommon discovery of the dismembered body of a woman, stations being a common dumping place for bodies at the time — anonymous and unchecked.

A Parliamentary Killing
The year is 1682. It is 12 February. As MP Thomas Thynn is riding in a carriage down Pall Mall, he is shot dead. A gun and a green ribbon are found at the scene.

The Baby in the Bulrushes
On 30 March 1896, a tightly wrapped package is found in the bulrushes on the banks of the Thames in Reading. When police open up the paper and cloth bundle they find the body of a one-year-old child, strangled by a knotted tape ligature. It's only a matter of weeks before two more dead babies are found at the same spot, dumped in the river with a house brick to weigh them down. Who could be responsible for this systematic and heartless series of crimes?

The Box Office Hit
A vicious attack in the Jewish part of London’s East End leaves cinema owner Dudley Horde dead and his wife Maisie unconscious with head injuries. It is August 1934. The most obvious motive is the £90 missing from the office but as investigations continue, suspects aplenty emerge.

Dead Man of Drumberg
In April 1830 a body is found in a Scottish Highland loch, wearing a tartan waistcoat identified as belonging to the Grant clan. Ferry logs reveal the man to be a peddler called Murdo Grant. But although the victim’s identity has now been revealed, there are still few leads to the killer.

The Cut Throat Killer
It is 30 June 1860 and the occupants of Rode Hill House, a remote manor house in a sprawling estate in Somerset, awake to a horror. Francis Savile, the four-year-old son of the master of the house, is gone from the nursery. A short search reveals the lifeless body of the young boy in the outside privy. His throat has been cut and he has stab wounds to his chest. Who has perpetrated this heinous crime?

The Strychnine Poisoner
The first Crime Team investigation concerned the 1891 story of a young woman prostitute poisoned by strychnine after keeping an appointment with a stranger. In the seedy streets of south London, the death kindles the fear of a new Jack the Ripper.

top