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Music is an incredibly important part of almost everyone’s life, whether you’re a magically gifted maestro, an enthusiastic strummer, an avid listener, a liker of listening to a bit of background noise whilst bathing, or simply someone who loves to sing-along to Sinatra but is oblivious to how tone deaf they truly are. Music is essential for affecting your mood centre, whether to get you pumped, perked up, levelled off, or merely to bring you down.
But how do your musical tastes differ from your neighbours, friends or family? What does it say about you? And more importantly – for Murder Mile especially - how does the much-loved musical tastes of sadistic serial killers compare to those of the world’s most respected political leaders? Do mass murderers always prefer death metal, thrash and an impossibly painful wall of noise, compared to an impeccably performed aria? What follows is a list of the world’s most powerful people (whether notorious killers, world leaders, or both – depending on your political leanings) and what music makes them tick? Serial Killers:
Dennis Nilsen, prior to strangling each of his victims, Dennis used to get himself “in the mood” by listening to Tommy by The Who, Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Rick Wakeman, Royal Philharmonic’s Hooked on Classics, and – his personal favourite - Frankenstein by The Edgar Winter Group.*
* click on any red text for more information
John Wayne Gacy, dubbed the “killer clown” owing to his part-time job as a children’s entertainer, but when he wasn’t dismembering and stashing the bodies of young men underneath the floorboards, he sang along to Keep On Loving You and Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon.
Jeffrey Dahmer, the “cannibal”, who once stored the decapitated head of one if his victims in his work’s locker whilst working in a chocolate factory, loved Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, The Wizard and Iron Man.
Peter Sutcliffe, the “Yorkshire Ripper” loved a truly eclectic mix such as reggae, Mozart’s Requiem, Better To Have Lost In Love and I Can’t Stand It by The Eurythmics, and - oddly for a man with such a hatred of women - Joan Baez’s album Feminine Touch.
Charles Manson, cult leader of “Helter Skelter”, loved The Beatles’s White Album, which he said was a message to his followers about the upcoming race wars. Manson also supposedly was a big fan (and befriended) Dennis Wilson from The Beach Boys, the Mammas & The Pappas, and Neil Young.
Hmm, quite an eclectic mix, wouldn’t you say? But how, you might be asking, do the tastes of serial killers and mass murderers differ from the world’s most dangerous despots and dictators? Ah, well, this is where things get very interesting.
Military Despots & Dictators
As we know, Adolf Hitler, the “Nazi Nutjob”, the "Teutonic tit" and the "one-balled odd-ball" was a huge fan of Wagner and apparently carried around a copy of Tristan und Isolde in his knapsack.
Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad had his iTunes account hacked, which revealed that his favourite songs are I’m Sexy & I know it by the gold jock-strapped prancers LMFAO, I’m Too Sexy and Don’t Talk Just Kiss by the notoriously camp and openly homosexual songsters Right Said Fred, as well as Hurt by Leona Lewis, Look at Me Now by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes and A Tribute to Cliff Richard.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is not only a fan of plinky-plonky pop-synch pap such as Moranbong, who belt out such state-approved songs like Oh My Motherland Full of Hope, Our Father, We Think of the Marshal Day & Night, but apparently his favourite song is Excellent Horse-Like Lady by Hyon Song-Wol - click the red link, I defy you to watch it all.
The former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi reportedly paid out millions of dollars to celebrities to perform for him and his family. They include: Nelly Furtado for $1million for a 45min set (who has since donated her entire fee to charity), Mariah Carey in 2010 (who hasn’t), 50 Cent at a festival in Venice and Lionel Richie at a concert to mark 20 years since the US air raids on Libya. As well as Usher, Kanye West and Beyonce. But then again, all stars make mistakes…
…even the environmentally-friendly front-man and political flag-waver Sting is not immune to performing for despots. October 2009, he was paid £1million to perform for the daughter of Uzbek president – Islam Karimov – who has been denounced for serious human rights violations, the massacre of protesters and has a dreadful environmental record.
As well as Rapper (and self-proclaimed “creative genius”) Kanye West who was paid a whopping $3million to perform a mercifully short 30 minute set at the family wedding of Kazakhstan's tyrannical President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
And Jennifer Lopez supposedly serenaded Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan on his 56th birthday, entirely unaware of his truly appalling human rights record. That said, if she could actually manage to pronounce his name, even just a little bit, she deserves to keep every penny.
And just in case you’re wondering whether the musical tastes of Eastern despots to current and former Western leaders – who are supposedly less despotic and war-mongering according to western media, but then I have had to add Tony Blair and George W Bush into this list, so you decide – here’s what our boys and girls listen to.
And if you’re unsure which way to vote in the upcoming British General Election, Jeremy Corbyn loves House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Boris Johnson like anything by The Rolling Stones, although here’s a video of bumbling Boris attempting to sing some Bob Marley.
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Ledra Street in Cyprus, the original "murder mile"
The original Murder Mile was termed by British military personnel based in Cyprus during the 1957-9 EOKA campaign for Cypriot nationalist independence. Ledra Street in Nicosia – now a prosperous shopping district – proved so dangerous to patrol during British rule, that it was colloquially given the moniker of the “murder mile”.
The term “murder mile” has been used frequently – but not formally – in military parlance to describe an area of significant risk to soldier’s safety. During the British occupation of Aden (a port city in the Yemen), up until 1963, Main Road in Mualla became the “murder mile”.
Where-as in the 70’s and 80’s, the Antrim Road gained this nickname, again during the British occupation of Northern Ireland, during the trouble.
In the 1990’s, although no-one can determine when, why or who by, a series of conjoining streets running from Stamford Hill through Lea Bridge Roundabout to Clapton High Street was dubbed in the press as the “murder mile”, with many violent incidents in the Hackney borough attributed to the geographical anomaly. And although Hackney often appears in most lists of London’s ten most dangerous neighbourhoods, it has never been number one. That said, not one of the roads listed above has ever officially been given the name – Murder Mile…
…but there are a few intriguingly titled roads, courtesy of the fabulous Instagram site knowing as Sad Topography including:
Murder Island (Canada): named, either after French explorers found the island littered with human bones, following a huge battle between two Native American tribes, or after an stricken ship which was wrecked here, and found to be soaked with blood, the only survivor was one truly terrified woman. Other real place names include: Murder Kill Road, Murderers Creek, Murdering Beach Road, Suicide Bridge Road, Shades of Death Road, Death Lake, Despair Island, Haunted Lake, a town called Die, Why Me Lord Lane, a village called Kill, Bucket of Blood Street, Dead Woman Pond, Road to Nowhere, End of the World, Misery, Pain, Hatred and a place called Nothing. So, should anyone informs you where the real “murder mile” is, this should be your reply? "Murder Mile"… is in Soho, every Saturday & Sunday, at 11am, and it's bloody brilliant.
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
Work. An annoying distraction to an otherwise delightful day, which – whether we like it or not, and usually it’s “not” – we put up with, as it funds our food, fags, frivolous trips and frequently boozy slips, all dubbed “fun at the weekend”, simply to help us forget that it’s almost Monday… again
And so, as you sit there, clock-watching, crisp-munching and counting down the hours till it’s time to bog off, wondering how many pee-breaks you can sneak in without anyone noticing, before it’s time to go home, a strange thought suddenly crosses your mind… “Is my work colleague… a serial killer?” Which is an odd thing to think, but this isn’t the first time you’ve thought that, now is it? I mean, yes they’re a little bit strange (or “eccentric” as they like to call it), but then again they’re also unnervingly handy with a letter opener, weirdly a “devout vegan” one week and a “true carnivore” the next, are always tired after a weekend but when asked “what did you do?” they always say “oh… nothing”, and keep in their drawer a roll of gaffer tape, a spare ID badge and a full can of Febreeze (the “odour eliminator”). But, ask yourself “how well do you know your work colleague?” Especially given that having never met them before (until your boss, who doesn’t like you much, “interviewed them”), forcing your together, so now you spend more than half your day – more than most family members – within strangling range, sharing every secret, scandal and sordid detail about everything from your worst toilet habits to your so-called sex-life, accepting cups of tea off them without sniffing it first, and yet you’ve probably have never seen inside their home. Hmm, I wonder why? So, “Is my work colleague… a serial killer?” Probably not. But statistically… there’s a chance. Because, when they’re not murdering, serial killers are real people too, just like you. They lead regular lives, at regular times, in regular homes, by drinking in pubs, bathing in tubs, and collecting pay-stubs, for a day-job they can’t even bare, which covers the cost of their “fun at the weekend”. And when questioned by the Police, after the “incident”, their colleagues always say “we had no idea, they seemed so nice, so normal, so lovely, so… like us”. What follows is a list of the TOP 15 “day-jobs” and professions undertaken by some of the UK and USA’s most notorious serial killers to help you decide if the person sitting next to you… is deadly: #15 - Factory: Peter “Yorkshire Ripper” Sutcliffe was a factory worker, and Jeffrey Dahmer was a chocolate mixer, who kept the dismembered head of one victim, at work, in his work locker. #14 - Hospitality: Richard Ramirez was night porter at the Holiday Inn, and Colin “The Gay Slayer” Ireland was barman at Admiral Duncan, Old Compton Street, Soho. #13 – Driver: Fred West a van driver, Peter Sutcliffe HGV driver and Derrick Bird taxi-driver. #12 – Government/State: Dennis Nilsen a civil servant, Theodore “Ted” Bundy an admin' assistant at Washington State Dept, and David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz was a postman. #11 – Prostitution: Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, were all prostitutes, where-as Dorothea Puente was a brothel owner. #10 - Landlady: Dorothea Puente, and Catherine Flannagan & Margaret Higgins - the “Black Widows of Liverpool” all owned boarding houses. #9 – Crime: Richard Ramirez was a burglar, Henri “The Ladykiller” Desire Landru an embezzler, Peter “The Dusseldorf Vampire” Kurten and Colin Ireland both burglars. #8 – Catering: Dennis Nilsen an army butcher, John Wayne Gacy manager of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, Fred West ice-cream man, and Jeffrey “The Cannibal” Dahmer a sandwich maker. #7 – Administrative: Dennis Nilsen was a job centre manager, Moor’s Murderer Ian Brady a clerical assistant), Joel Rifkin a records clerk at Times Square Stores, Moor’s Murderer Myra Hindley a junior clerk & typist and Theodore “Ted” Bundy was a researcher for DES, a government agency involved in the “search for missing women”, yes you read that correctly. #6 – Children’s Services: John Wayne Gacy clown & children’s entertainer, Fred West ice-cream man, Beverly Allitt babysitter, Amelia Dyer a nanny and - Wisconsin serial killer, cannibal, grave-robber, necrophiliac and inspiration for the film Psycho - Ed Gein was also a baby sitter, and apparently a very good one too. #5 – Retail/Sales: Henri Desire Landru was a 2nd hand furniture dealer, Michael Ryan part-time antiques dealer, Ed Gein insurance salesman, Michael Lupo florist, Michael Lupo sales assistant at Yves Saint Laurent on Brompton Road, London, Joel Rifkin florist’s clerk, and John “The Acid Bath Murderer” George Haigh was... a life insurance salesman. #4 – Military: Dennis Nilsen army cook, Richard Ramirez US army in Vietnam, Henri Desire Landru French army, David Berkowitz US army, Michael Lupo Italian army, Jeffrey Dahmer US army. William Burke officer’s servants in the army, and Albert “Boston Strangler” DeSalvo US army. Note: all were army, no navy or RAF. For RAF, see “The Blackout Ripper”. #3 – Housewife/Mother (f/t): Rosemary West, Cynthia Coffman, Faye Copeland, Janie Lou Gibbs, Judy Buenoano, Kristen Gilbert, Mary Elizabeth Wilson, Rhonda Belle Martin all had multiple husbands, and Tillie Klimek, who all murdered their own husbands and children. #2 – Construction & Engineering: John Wayne Gacy was a builder, Fred West builder, Albert Fish painter & odd-job man, Michael “Hungerford Massacre” Ryan handyman, Ed Gein carpenter, Ian Brady labourer, Joel Rifkin landscape gardener, Anthony “Camden Ripper” Hardy engineer, John George Haigh mechanic / engineer, William “Body Snatcher” Burke navvy/labourer, and William “Body Snatcher” Hare navvy/labourer. #1 - Medical: Dr H H Crippin homeopath / ear & eye specialist, Orville Lyn Majors nurse, Harold Shipman GP/doctor, Thomas “The Lambeth Poisoner” Neil Cream doctor, Beverly Allitt nurse, Amelia Dyer nurse, Amy Archer-Gilligan nurse & nursing home owner, Dorothea Puente nurse’s aide, Jane Toppan nurse, Judy Buenoano nurse, Kimberly Clark-Saenz nurse, Kristen Gilbert nurse, Linda Hazzard unqualified nurse, and Velma Barfield nurse. Oddly, a list of the professions you are most likely to trust.
Surprised? You probably thought that truck drivers, butchers and army soldiers would be higher on the list, but they aren’t? Maybe you thought teachers might appear somewhere, well they do, but just not in the UK/USA (see Mohan Kumar, Kevin Paulus, Andrei Chikatilo, Ronald Janssen and Atalay Filiz)? And what about “medical”, how did that become number one? Well, in truth, it wasn’t. It was way down on the list of male serial killers, but when I added in the females, it shot up to the top.
Statistically, female serial killers are young, middle-class, usually married and (oddly) devoutly Christian, who work in “the caring profession” with vulnerable people. And given that they are more inclined to poison their victims (a method which leaves very little trace of the perpetrator), female serial killers are less likely to be caught, and often have a longer career as a killer, with men lasting two years, and women lasting between eight and eleven. Read more in this Washington Post article. And yet, one profession was almost ominously absent, with the exception of David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz? The Postman. Why was there only one postal worker on the list of serial killers, given the prevalence of the phrase “to go postal”, meaning to “shoot your co-workers dead”, with 40+ people being gunned down from 1986-97 by postal workers in the US alone. Because, even though a killing spree by a postman does seem to be an oddly recurring occurrence, the killer tends to target very few victims (usually less than three), specifically chosen, and usually ending with themselves. The pattern is unmistakably ominous. They include:
So, “Is my work colleague… a serial killer?” That's down to you. But if you're still unsure, feel free to compare your co-worker to my two other serial killer blogs, "Were You Born To Kill... Because Of Your Name?" and "100 Top Tips To Decide If Your Work Colleague Is A Serial Killer". Either way... it was nice knowing you.
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
What are you like with time-keeping? Are you always early, often arriving anywhere a full hour before to “get your bearings”, having been there before, blocked out the route, and leaving nothing to chance, just in case? Are you a bastion of being bang-on-time, scraping in by the skin of your teeth as the clock bongs, lamenting the lateness of others with a tut as each whole minute passes? Or, are you a notoriously late ninny, not caring how long others have had to wait, as you regale them, all red-faced and flustered with an over-long tale, as you blame someone else? Whichever you are, maybe it’s time to rethink your relationship with punctuality? As every second of life is precious, and beside, you never know which second… will be your last. What follows is a true story, compiled from archive sources and first-hand accounts, about how a simple momentary hint of hesitation, a split second’s kindness to a stranger, or even an overwhelming desire to jog instead of walk…can be the death of you. During the Blitz of 1940 to 41, as fifty thousand bombs and over one million incendiary devices rained down from the heavily droning heavens, pockmarking the bustling streets of London with hot pockets of fire, that turned the sunlight black, the night skyline red, and killed forty-three thousand civilians in its wake – a bomb dropped on Soho. On the 24th September 1940 at 11:38pm, in Orange Yard (a small cul-de-sac between Manette Street and Goslett’s Yard, just to the side of the site formerly occupied by Foyles, where Boardwalk now stands) killing three people. That bomb was an SC50, a 50kg weapon, containing 25kgs of TNT (high explosive), and was the most common bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Of those three victims*, the first died in a merchant’s building in Orange Yard, as a result of a direct hit. No-one is sure what killed the occupant first, whether he was crushed by falling debris as the structure gave way, whether it was the strength of the blast-wave which blew his arms, legs and head from his torso, or whether it was the intensity of the heat which vaporised his body, either way there was very little for his family to identify his body. The second victim died on the first floor of no 16 Manette Street. And although the building was only partially occupied at the time, most of the lodgers got away with nothing more than superficial cuts and shock, as much of the blast-wave from the explosion was dissipated by the strength of the walls. Unfortunately, one lady was not so lucky. A piece of shrapnel from the bomb casing - which can travel as far as a kilometre away and up to seven times the speed of sound - pierced the wall and struck her in the head, killing her instantly as she lay in her bed. Where-as the third victim died on Manette Street (just outside of Foyles), over one hundred feet away. But unlike the others, she had no injuries of any kind; no cuts, no bruises, no grazes, no burns. Her clothes weren’t even ruffled. At first, as she lay there, in the street, passers-by thought that she was asleep, but she wasn’t, she was dead. Rescue teams during the Blitz referred this kind of injury as “Blast Lung”. Effectively, as the SC50 bomb exploded, it sent out a massive pressure wave which did untold damage the merchants building which stood in Orange Yard, killing the occupant (Victim #1) instantly. But, as the weakened blast-wave hit 16 Manette Street, it hadn’t got enough strength left to cause any serious damage, but it was the shrapnel which caused the fatality (Victim #2). Where-as, with Victim #3 being beyond the blast radius, away from the scorching heat and with no razor-sharp shrapnel heading her way like white hot bullets, she still wasn’t safe. With no walls between the blast and the Victim #3 to dissipate the blast, the much weakened blast-wave made its way down the alley of Orange Yard, using the walls like a barrel of a gun, focussing the pressure wave, so that – the by time it hit her – it hadn’t got enough energy to knock her off her feet, but it had just enough left to crush her lungs, squeezing all the life and oxygen out of her body, therefore she keeled over and died of asphyxiation. No-one knows where Victim #3 was going that night. It’s logical to assume she was on her way to the local air-raid shelter. The nearest to Orange Yard is underneath Soho Square; it held between two to three hundred people, and it’s still there today. So, what has her time-keeping got to do with this? How can a “simple momentary hint of hesitation, a split second’s kindness to a stranger, or even an overwhelming desire to jog instead of walk” cause her to “almost miss her own death” in an event as random as a bomb being dropped on a city from ten thousand feet up? According to eye-witness testimony, Victim #3 (who was never formally identified, but it is believed she was “not local”) was last seen walking quickly but carefully across Charing Cross Road towards Manette Street, when she stopped to help a little boy who’d fallen. And then, as the desperate wail of the air-raid sirens grew louder, she quickened her pace - only slightly – but it was enough to ensure she kept her date with destiny. As the bomb was dropped, both she and the little boy were safe, being shielded as they stood behind the walls of 16 Manette Street. But by the time the bomb had exploded, she had already moved on, between the two walls in the alley of Orange Yard – exposed - away from safety and into the path of a killer blast-wave. It is approximately eighteen feet between the walls of Orange Yard, which means, if she was running… the difference between her life and her death… was barely two seconds.
That said, if you’re travelling on the tube? It might be worth reading about my blog about The London Underground’s Very Own Serial Killer or to read more about “blitz spirit”in this article, or Malcolm Gladwell's fabulous book 'David & Goliath - The Art of Battling Giants' * Their names of the victims have been deliberately redacted out of respect. Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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Note: This blog contains only licence-free images or photos shot by myself in compliance with UK & EU copyright laws. If any image breaches these laws, blame Google Images.
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