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Quirky, Curious & Unusual Christmas Gift Vouchers

30/9/2017

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Got a friend who's a nightmare to buy Christmas presents for? Do you have a certain special someone in your life who loves gifts which are out of the ordinary? Are they a big fan of true-crime, horror and history, but they've got every book/film that's ever been made? If shopping for them is "murder", then treat them to Murder Mile Walks gift vouchers.
Murder Mile Walks is a guided tour of Soho's (London) most infamous murder cases, featuring 12 murderers, across 15 locations, totaling 75 mysterious deaths, all in just two hours. Along with 126 FIVE STAR reviews, Murder Mile Walks has been awarded:
  • TripAdvisor's Prestigious Certificate of Excellence 2017
  • "One of the Top Three Themed Walks in London" - Time Out
  • "Top 100 Quirky & Unusual Things To Do" - Curious London
  • "Definitely One of the Best Walks in London" - TripAdvisor
  • "Top 5 Unusual Things To Do in London" - Standard Issue
  • "Top 5 Best Valentine's Day Tours in London" - Secret London
  • "Top 10 Mother's Day Things To Do in London" - Time Out
To read our all of our FIVE STAR reviews, search online or click here.

Gift vouchers for Murder Mile Walks can be redeemed for any walk, at any time and are valid for a whole year. Once ordered, your e-vouchers will appear in your inbox seconds later. It's that simple.

Order your Murder Mile Walks gift vouchers by using the red widget to the right, simply:
  • Select a number of Adults/Teens
  • Tick "Purchase as a Gift Voucher"
  • Click 'Next'
... then follow the onscreen instructions, it's super simple, takes 30 seconds, is very secure (this website and the red payment widget are both SSL Protected), and all major credit & debit cards are accepted.

If you have any problems at all, or have any queries about the tour, not covered in my questions section, feel free to email me here.

Thank you and happy shopping
Best wishes
Michael.x

True-Crime Fans: The Murder Mile true-crime podcast is live and features 300+ untold, unsolved and (often) long-forgotten murder cases, all within one square mile. To listen to an episode or to subscribe to the podcast (it's all free), click here or PODCAST in the tab above. .

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster 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 curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast #1 - The Denmark Place Fire

30/9/2017

29 Comments

 
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A panoramic view of Denmark Street (left to Charing Cross Road, right to St Giles' High Street)
Welcome to the Murder Mile podcast, a true-crime podcast and audio guided walk of London's most infamous (and often forgotten) murder cases, set within one square mile of the West End. 
  • 30 minute weekly true-crime podcast - EVERY THURSDAY
  • 300+ untold or often forgotten true murders
  • Based on Soho's FIVE STAR rated Murder Mile Walks
  • Research collected from original and first-hand sources
  • Authentic sounds recorded from the location itself
  • An audio guided walk... all from the comfort of your home
To accompany your audio guided walk, what follows is a series of photos, videos and maps, so that no matter where you are listening to this podcast, you'll feel like you're actually there. 

EPISODE ONE
Episode One: The Denmark Place Fire is widely regarded as one of Britain's deadliest mass-murders (in terms of death-toll it was worse than the King's Cross Fire and even the Great Fire of London) and yet the true story of what happened on 16th August 1980 is largely forgotten. 
  • Date: Saturday 16th August 1980
  • Location: 18 Denmark Place, W1
  • Victims: 37 (but technically 38)
  • Culprit: John Thompson

CLICK HERE to download the Murder Mile podcast via i-Tunes and to receive the latest episodes, click "subscribe". You can listen to it now by clicking the green PLAY button on the embedded media player below. All transcribed versions are available in "Podcast Transcripts" (right).

THE LOCATION
Denmark Street is a small one-way street, off the end of the A40, within a stone's throw from Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden and Shaftsbury Avenue. 

Using the interactive Murder Map, you can find every murder location from each episode. Denmark Place is marked with a red dot. To explore, simply click on the map to zoom in and scroll left/right. 
This photo shows the whole of Denmark Street as it looks today; a bustling hive of music shops, cafes and bars, which most visitors to London tend to miss. And although it's only a tiny street, it's packed full of music history. 

Click the grey media player below to hear a sample of the street sounds, recorded by myself, and used in this week's episode. 
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Denmark Street as it looks today
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21 Denmark Street today
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Denmark Place
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18 Denmark Place (on the left)
Above are three photos; one of 21 Denmark Street today (where Rhodes music store was, where the "desperate man" died), and two above of the narrow alley in Denmark Place before it was demolished. I've also included a very brief news reel about the Denmark Place fire. It's roughly 1 minute long. This is the only televised news report I can find. 
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Denmark Place as it looks today (09/08/2017)
Sadly, with large chunks of London being demolished for Crossrail, this is all that is left of Denmark Place today. You can just see the back of 21 Denmark Street (just behind the words 'Hitachi' on the digger's arm), this is where 18 Denmark Place once stood. There is currently no plaque to commemorate the dead, nor is there likely to be, as posh shops and fancy apartments are being built here. 

THE DENMARK PLACE FIRE

SCRIPT: Welcome to Murder Mile; a true-crime podcast and audio guided walk of London’s most notorious (and often forgotten) murder cases, all set within one square mile of the West End.

Today’s episode is a guided walk of one of Britain’s deadliest mass-murders, it’s a crime so horrific, it’s shocking that the perpetrator himself isn’t uttered in the same breath as Shipman, Brady or The Wests, and yet, almost forty years on, the culprit, the victims and even the story itself is almost entirely forgotten. The question you have to ask yourself is “why?”

Murder Mile contains vivid descriptions which may not be suitable for those of a sensitive disposition, as well as photos, videos and maps which accompany this series, so that no matter where you’re listening to this podcast, you’ll feel like you’re actually there.

My name is Michael, I am your tour-guide and this is Murder Mile.

Episode 1: The Denmark Place Fire.

Today, I am standing on Denmark Street, WC2; a stumpy little thoroughfare nestling in the borough of St Giles in the beating heart London’s bustling West End, just a stones-throw from Tottenham Court Road (to the north), Covent Garden (to the south) and Theatreland and Soho (to the west).

Looking tatty, tired and a little unloved, Denmark Street consists of a mishmash of three and four storey buildings, cobbled together over four centuries, and yet almost all feature a wealth of music shops on the ground floor with office space and apartments above. Some of the buildings are listed, other are not, and a few have been abandoned, leaving behind an empty shell full of rat’s turds, dust, debris and distant memories.

At just 270 feet long and 30 feet wide, Denmark Street is the type of street you could easily miss in a sprawling metropolis like London, situated (as it is) at the arse-end of the A40, with the grade 1 listed splendour of St Giles In Fields Church at one end, a simple set of traffic lights to Charring Cross Road at the other, under the looming menace of the Centre Point skyscraper and surrounded by the  dull drone of demolition as the bulldozers and diggers of Crossrail level great swathes of the city.

Before this street and its seedy little sister – Denmark Place - became synonymous with murder, Denmark Street dubbed “Tin Pan Alley” was once a mecca for aspiring musicians, such as The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces and Jimi Hendrix, all who either lived, wrote or recorded here; the Sex Pistols lived above no6, Elton John wrote in Regent Sounds Studio at no4, and a young David Bowie slept in his camper van by night, as by day he soaked up the ambiance of London’s rock & roll utopia.

What Carnaby Street was to the London fashion scene of the sixties and seventies, Denmark Street was to music. But by 1980, with the streets strewn with litter, squatters having moved in and much of its sparkle gone, Denmark Street would become infamous for something unsavoury…

…a murder, a mass-murder, so cruel, so callous and so deadly, it’s shocking that such a heinous crime is barely known. The story of one of London’s deadliest mass-murders has been reduced a whisper, its memory almost entirely forgotten and the last hint that this street holds a dark history is about to be erased… forever.

In late 1970’s London, Cuban popular dance music known as Salsa was a little-known part of the underground music scene in Soho’s club land, made popular as South & Central American immigrants came to the city, on a one-to-three year visa, as part of the Department of Employment’s recruitment programme to fill British hotels with service staff on a minimum wage.

One such man was Hernan Vargas, a twenty-six year old Columbian of slim-stature, who by day slogged his guts out in a menial job just to make-ends-meet, but by night, he lived for the music, he lived to dance and he lived to salsa. Nicknamed “El Flaco” (which means “skinny”), Hernan Vargas was the resident DJ at El Escondite (alias “The Hiding Place”); an illegally run nightclub ran by Lubin Reyes, which was hidden-from-view in a disused attic on Hanway Street, an unlit seedy little side-street between Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, until they were shut-down by the Police and promptly re-opened just one street away at 18 Denmark Place and renamed El Hueco (which aptly translates as “The Hole”). 

18 Denmark Place, a former 19th century three-story coach-house and home of El Hueco, was owned by Victor Gonzalez, a shady businessman from Spain with a passion for gambling but a greater thirst for profit, who - like many of London’s illegal club owners, bolstered his illicit income by a fleet of hardly hygienic hotdog carts which flooded the city streets – it was operated under the radar of the Police, Fire Brigade and the local Council, flouting licencing laws, ignored gaming regulations and was devoid of fire alarms, sprinklers, extinguishers and a fully working fire-escape.

But the dangers aside, for many El Hueco was a safe haven, a release; a chance to drink, chat and dance, and regardless of whether you were Columbian, Spanish, Jamaican, Irish or English; a waiter, a painter, dish-washer or a hotdog vendor, here you could be whoever you wanted to be. This was a private club for a very select group; with no sign on the walls and no bouncers on the door, if you wanted in, you rang the bell, you waited, and if your face, name and membership number fitted the bill, the key was tossed down, the door was opened and you were in.

The night of Saturday 16th August 1980 was no exception, as - after another tedious game of cat & mouse between the council and Victor Gonzalez - Lubin Reyes was informed that once again his club night would be shut-down by the Police on Monday morning, and so blessed with two days grace, El Hueco would host a farewell party. With the rulebook thrown out the window, the drinks flowed and the clubbers grooved as Hernan “Skinny” Vargas spun hot Salsa tunes from his decks, but safety was the last thing on everyone’s mind, as this night was going to be a night to remember.

By 2am, after a long hot summer where the temperatures had soared into the low 30’s, over one hundred and fifty drinkers, dancers and gamblers had crammed into the first and second floor of 18 Denmark Place; the air was thick with smoke, the walls were soaked with sweat and even the drinks were warm to the touch. Unfortunately, one man’s temperature was getting a little too hot.

John Thompson, a 42 year old resident of Morning Lane in Hackney was a semi-regular guest at the gambling club, with prior convictions for drug-dealing, arson and petty-theft, Thompson went by the nicknames of “The Gypsy” (having been born into a travelling community in Scotland) and “Punch” (owing to fiery temper, drunken rages and being a little too handy with his fists). By 3am, Thompson had drank himself into a drunken stupor, yet again having blown a sizeable chunk of money playing poker and ploughing coins into the slot-machine, and now he was looking for someone to blame.

As per usual, Jose Franco (the manager of the venue) bore the brunt of Thompson’s abuse, receiving both barrels in the form of fists, fury and racial slurs, and therefore (rightly) Thompson was forcibly ejected off the premises, thrown out into the dingy darkness of Denmark Place, as the fiery Scotsman’s temper was taken out on every wall, door and dustbin as he staggered out of the tiny alley, until finally… he was gone.

And so, with a cheer, a giggle and a round of applause, the farewell party continued.

But twenty minutes later, Thompson returned and he wanted revenge.

Having taken a return trip to the nearest service-station in Camden, Thompson staggered out of a black cab on St Giles’ High Street, into the claustrophobic blackness of Denmark Place and drunkenly stumbled the final two-hundred feet to number 18. Thompson was witnessed moments later, crouching down in a doorway, but with no working street lamps, no neon signs and no lights on, this clandestine little cut-through (so cramped that even the moonlight couldn’t illuminate it) was the perfect spot for a murder. Dismissed as just another drunk, the witness failed to see the rage on Thompson’s face, failed to hear the anger in his voice and failed to spot the ominous bulge in his jacket, as above him, the music pumped, making his blood boil.

Inside, the party was in full swing; the night was hot, the air was thick and (to keep the party secret) the windows were shut; but Jose Franco kept the cool drinks flowing, Hernan “Skinny” Vargas kept Salsa tracks spinning (with a mix from his own personal collection that he kept in the attic) and Eduardo Trujillo toasted the last days of his best friend Elizabeth Mercado, having booked her airline tickets to take her back home to Columbia.

Outside, having blocked the only entrance or exit to both clubs, Thompson opened his jacket, pulled out a black metal can, and poured through the letterbox two gallons of petrol.

Inside the club, no-one noticed the temperature rise.

No-one heard the crackle of fire as the flames licked up the wooden walls.

And no-one smelled the chocking smoke above the thick aroma of tobacco and sweaty bodies.

At a little after 3:30am, Lubin Reyes heard a bang; not a big bang, but enough of a bang to be heard over the music, and asked “Did you hear that?” but no-one was sure so he went out to check. What greeted him was an inferno, the entire central stairwell was engulfed in flames as fire licked up the tinder-dry walls, making the security doors too hot to touch, let alone open.

Another bang shook the stairwell, then another, and another, as the ground-floor erupted with a series of explosions, as (having converted the concrete-floored space into a parking bay) it housed almost thirty hotdog vendor’s trolleys, each packing two 13kg bottles of highly flammable propane.

Seeing the flames fill the ground-floor and quickly envelop the two further floors, John Thompson fled. Not to call for the fire brigade, not to call for an ambulance, not to get any help at all, but to run. To run away from the fiery hell that he had created out of anger and petty spite, leaving over one hundred and fifty innocent people trapped inside a burning building, their screams still ringing in his ears as many were burned alive.

The Soho Fire Brigade based at 126 Shaftsbury Avenue (barely a 1/3 mile away) were alerted to the blaze just a few minutes later. Six fire-engines screamed down Charing Cross Road and turning right into Denmark Street, only to be confronted by a scene which shocked even seasoned professionals.

At first, with the street being so ominously quiet, the fire brigade thought that they’d been sent to the wrong address, and they had. They also thought that maybe this was a hoax, but at no 21 Denmark Street (the building which 18 Denmark Place backed onto) they could see smoke seeping through the shuttered windows… and beyond that, they could hear screaming.

When David Parre, a firefighter from the Soho Brigade’s Green Watch approached the ground floor of 21 Denmark Street (formerly home to Rhodes Music Store), he was greeted by a sight which has haunted him forever, as trapped inside the store was a frantic man, wielding an electric guitar like it was an axe, desperately trying to smash the security grille on the window to escape. It took the firefighters four minutes to break through the double-thickness, triple bolted, steal-lined security door at the front of Rhodes Music Store, but they were too late. As having escaped the horrifying inferno in El Hueco, the desperate man died of asphyxiation, just a few feet from safety.
But it wasn’t until the Soho Fire Brigade arrived on Denmark Place (the alley at the rear), that they saw the full horror of the scene. Divisional Fire Officer Roy Baldwin later stated “as we arrived on Denmark Place, the whole building was ablaze, people were ripping wooden shutters off the windows, they were smashing glass with their bare hands, people were throwing themselves from the second and third floor, out into the alley below, their clothes still on fire, smashing their bones”
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With the alley being barely 10 feet wide, and blocked by bollards, none of the six fire-engines could enter Denmark Place, so the fire-fighters had to tackle the blaze by hand, aiming heavy hoses at the inferno, as bodies rained down and a humid wind whipped up the alley, fanning the flames further.

With solid walls made from oak timbers, the floors of thick wooden beams and every side lined with plasterboard (even the wrought-iron fire-escape was covered in plywood), it took almost three hours to extinguish the fire, and a further six before the building was safe to enter, as the fire consumed a lethal mix of petrol, alcohol and propane.

Inside, everything was black, and dark, and wet. The air was thick with black acrid smoke, the smell of petrol stung your nostrils and hot melted plastic dripped from the ceiling. The ferocity of the fire was so intense that it bent floors and buckled doors, but the true horror of the inferno was yet to greet the fire-fighters, as they approached the bar where over one hundred and fifty terrified patrons had panicked, unable to escape the flames of El Hueco.

The layout of the bar was described in court as “a death-trap”; “lethal”; the room was long and narrow, tightly packed with long wooden benches, with just a single entrance or exit at one end of the bar, which – when crammed full of sweaty bodies to the point where you could hardly breathe (let alone move) under the best of circumstances – it was impossible to escape.  And on this night, El Hueco’s farewell party, it was unusually busy.

Fire Officer Baldwin described the charred aftermath of the barroom: he said “I have never seen bodies packed together like that before. The fire must have spread too quickly. People were still sitting at tables, they were slumped at the bar, many still had drinks in their hands. Of the survivors, people talked of screaming, of skin peeling off faces, of trying to get out, but finding the doors locked. Inside, nobody stood a chance”.

Green Watch’s fire-brigade photographer Alan Freeman described the horror as “…it was as if the bodies were dominoes that had been pushed over…” and as panic enveloped the room, as the terrified punters rushed to escape, they were forced “to climb over bodies three deep". Some died where they sat, some died where they stood and others died huddled together in the corner, as amongst the indecipherable charred blackness of the bar, the only evidence of life… were skulls.
It took four pathologists and three dentists two months to identify the bodies.

Celebrating her final night in London before her return flight to Columbia, Elizabeth Mercado and her friend Eduardo Trujillo escaped the blaze, suffering broken bones and second degree burns as they leapt from a second-story window. They were two of the twenty-three people who were confirmed as wounded and escaped with their lives.

Thirty-seven people died in the Denmark Place fire; fourteen women, twenty-three men and one unborn baby. The rest of the party’s revellers simply vanished into the night; too traumatised by the horror to give witness testimony, too terrified by the blaze to seek medical help, and too scared of the repercussions by the authorities given their dubious immigration status.

Those who died in the Denmark Place fire were; Sylvia Aguire, Alvaro Barrios, Pamela Bough, Beiddredin Bulati, Archibald O'Donnell Campbell, Leonard Carroll, Diana Coward, Clancy Dcedaran, Maria Dick, Peter Alan Dolan, Paul Fiorilo, Jose Franco, Carol Gorey, Maria Gumiel, Theresa Gumiel, Denise Henaghan, Christina Isherwood, Luz Mary Londono, Avril McDermot, Diana McIlvaney, Gloria Munoz, Anita Murray, Antonio Navaro, Bridget Norton, Julian Ortegon-Garces, Segg Putahu, William Ramsey, Alexander Reid, Juan Antonio Sagasta-Juldain, Edgar Smith, Carlos Alberto Soto, Robert Sirton, Eustace Ralph Taylor-Harding, Plutarco Alejandro Vargas Bernett,, Hernan Vargas, Beatrice Vargas-Corrales and Frederick Yule.

Of those who died; Harnan “Skinny” Vargas, the resident DJ at El Hueco died trying to save his prized collection of vinyl records which he’d stored in the attic; Jose Franco, the bar manager who’d escorted John Thompson off the premises died trying to escort people to safety, and (one of the youngest victims) 17 year old Alex Reid died, having heroically re-entered the burning building to rescue a pregnant woman. Neither survived.

Victor Gonzalez (the owner of 18 Denmark Place) and Lubin Reyes (the club promoter for El Hueco) both survived the fire, and following a court case, neither men were charged.

With the exception of the Times, the Observer and the Glasgow Herald, very few newspapers followed the story, choosing instead to focus on the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, where-as those who did, wrongly assumed it was a dispute between drug dealers, a grudge attack involving South American politics, or it was part of a gangland feud between two rival groups of hotdog vendors.

Having been identified by the service-station manager and the black-cab driver, John “The Gypsy” Thompson was arrested just two days later. He appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court on 29th August 1980 where he pleaded “not guilty” to the charge of murder.

At his trial, Thompson’s defence was that he was “drunk”, and then proceeded to blame Jose Franco, the deceased bar manager at El Hueco, for “over-charging” his for “a drink”.

Thompson was found guilty and charged on 7th May 1981 with one charge of 1st degree arson, one (unrelated) charge of 2nd degree arson, one charge of manslaughter (having mistakenly caused the death of his friend who was inside club and died in the fire) and thirty-six counts of murder. But after the abolition of the Death Penalty in 1965, Thompson was given the harshest sentence the British legal system could give him – life imprisonment. That’s thirty years. Not even one year for each of his victims.

The Denmark Place fire is widely regarded “one of the deadliest blazes in London since the Blitz of World War Two”, and yet – unlike the King’s Cross fire (with 31 people dead) and the Great Fire of London (just 6 people dead) – those who died at 18 Denmark Place have almost been forgotten. There is no plaque on the wall, no memorial above the door, and (as of today) the building is now entirely demolished.

John “The Gypsy” Thompson, the 42 year old petty thief, convicted drug-dealer and (now) widely considered “one of Britain’s worst mass-murderers” was eligible for parole in May 2011
…
…but following a long-battle with lung cancer, he died alone, in a prison hospital, on the 16th August 2008 – coincidentally on the 28th anniversary of the Denmark Place Fire.

This episode is dedicated to those who died in the Denmark Place Fire; Sylvia Aguire, Alvaro Barrios, Pamela Bough, Beiddredin Bulati, Archibald O'Donnell Campbell, Leonard Carroll, Diana Coward, Clancy Dcedaran, Maria Dick, Peter Alan Dolan, Paul Fiorilo, Jose Franco, Carol Gorey, Maria Gumiel, Theresa Gumiel, Denise Henaghan, Christina Isherwood, Luz Mary Londono, Avril McDermot, Diana McIlvaney, Gloria Munoz, Anita Murray, Antonio Navaro, Bridget Norton, Julian Ortegon-Garces, Segg Putahu, William Ramsey, Alexander Reid, Juan Antonio Sagasta-Juldain, Edgar Smith, Carlos Alberto Soto, Robert Sirton, Eustace Ralph Taylor-Harding, Plutarco Alejandro Vargas Bernett,, Hernan Vargas, Beatrice Vargas-Corrales and Frederick Yule.

*** LEGAL DISCLAIMER ***
The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, therefore mistakes will be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken. It is not a full representation of the case, the people or the investigation in its entirety, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity and drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, therefore it will contain a certain level of bias to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated.
*** LEGAL DISCLAIMER ***
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DOWNLOAD this episode of Murder Mile Episode #1 - The Denmark Place Fire. 
​You can also listen to the podcast live, by clicking PLAY on this embedded player above.

​Credits: The Murder Mile true-crime podcast was researched, written and recorded by Michael J Buchanan-Dunne, with the sounds recorded on location (where possible). The music was written and performed by Erik Stein & Jon Boux of Cult With No Name. ​

Next episode: Double Murder at The Bus Stop Club (due Sunday 15th October 2017). 

No plans this weekend? Why not book yourself into Murder Mile Walks, hailed as one of the best "curious, quirky and unusual things to do in London". Click BOOK NOW for tickets.
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster 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 curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Serial Killers, Murderers and their Religion / Faith

24/9/2017

13 Comments

 
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It's odd that almost every religion has a vow which decrees "thou shalt not kill"; a pretty bog-standard easy-to-follow rule which at least 99.99999% of the people on this planet manage to keep to on a daily basis, even if some of us are atheists - and yet a recent study has shown that "people of faith" are more likely to be murderers than atheists - so does religion does play a big part in the life of many serial killers and murderers? Let's take a peek at who has what faith. 

As always, this is not a fully comprehensive list and I will be updating it as-and-when new data comes to light, but if you have any "accurate" information (with a link to a proven source), feel free to leave it in the comments section below. Thank you and enjoy. Mx
  • Aileen Wuornos - mostly atheist, but upon her conviction Wuornos became a "born again" Christian having been legally adopted by an evangelical Christian couple - link
  • Albert Fish - devoutly Christian, but he stemmed from a family prone to religious psychosis, hence his preoccupation with the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:1–24), that sacrificing a boy (Isaac) would provide penance for his sins - link
  • Anthony Hardy - press reports have alluded to him being a practising Satanist, owing to a rubber devil being in his flat, but there's no evidence to back the Satanism claim - link
  • David Berkowitz - raised Jewish, baptised aged 20 and converted to Catholicism, but recently become a devout "born again Christian" who (as a play on his former nickname "Son of Sam", he now calls himself "Son of Hope" - link
  • David Copeland - although not a "Christian" in the traditional sense, Copeland would often read anti-Semitic literature by extreme right wing Christian groups
  • David Ray Parker - became a "born again" Christian who found God after 2 1/2 years in solitary confinement where he read his Bible to “get right with God”
  • Dean Arnold Corll - raised Catholic by parents, attended various religious rallies and events but there's little evidence of strict religious belief
  • Dennis Nilsen - he was raised as devout Catholic into a strictly religious household, but he is currently agnostic, learn more about Dennis Nilsen here 
  • Dennis Rader - was raised strictly Lutheran, was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, Wichita (Kansas) and had been elected president of the church council - link
  • Donald Henry Gaskins - forced to attend church as a child, but not religious
  • Ed Gein - raised by his mother Augusta Wilhelmine, who was a strict, uncaring and violent Lutheran, which is where many of Ed's sexual peculiarities stem from - link
  • Edmund Kemper - although he was not raised into a religious family, he would claim that a "religious conversion" had taken place whilst in Atascadero prison, awaiting sentence
  • Gary Ridgway -  became a devout Baptist (during his second marriage), proselytising door-to-door, reading the Bible aloud at work/home and insisting his family followed the strict teachings, often crying whilst reading the Bible, was regarded as a religious fanatic - link
  • H H Holmes - devoutly and strict religious parents, his mother would often lock her children in the attic without food as a means of punishment for even the smallest of "sins" - link
  • Dr Harold Shipman - both Harold and his wife Primrose were raised as devout Methodists, which caused ructions in both families as they became pregnant within a few months of meeting and were unmarried, hence the need for a shotgun wedding - link
  • Herbert Mullin - started researching into "eastern religions" aged 20 and became obsessed with reincarnation after the death of his friend Dean Richardson, although he would often  condemn Catholicism and then flip into being a fanatical Catholic - link
  • Janie Lou Gibbs - a devout Christian who murdered her three sons, grandson and husband with rat poison, inherited $31000, and donated $3000 of that to the church - link 
  • Jeffrey Dahmer - born into a devout family of the Stone-Campbell denomination known as the "Churches of Christ", he was an active churchgoer until age 5, renounced his religion (possibly owing to his sexuality) but was re-baptised during his incarceration - link
  • Joel Rifkin - raised in an adopted Jewish household, although would rarely abide by the ideals of his faith as (being adopted) he never felt like this was his religion - link
  • John Allen Muhammad - born John Allen Williams, he joined the Nation of Islam in 1987 (aged 27), changed his surname to Muhammad and provided security for the 1995 "Million Man March", but was denounced by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan - link
  • John Wayne Gacy - raised into a devout Catholic family, went to private Christian school, and aged 18 he thought about becoming a priest - link
  • John Bodkin Adams - born into a deeply austere Protestant family of the Plymouth Brethren, his father, Samuel, was a preacher in the local congregation - link
  • John George Haigh - his parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Protestant sect, who saw all forms of entertainment as sinful, so only stories from the bible were tolerated. As a child, Haigh was never allowed out, and his father installed a 10 foot high fence around their garden to keep the sins of the outside world away - link
  • John Reginald Christie - Anglican, a regular attendee at All Souls’ Church, Halifax - link
  • Judy Buenoano - insists she is a devout Roman Catholic - link
  • Lee Boyd Malvo - baptised as a Seventh Day Adventist in 1999 (aged 14), but influenced by fellow "Washington sniper" John Allen Muhammad, Malvo converted to Islam - link
  • Levi Bellfield - converted to Islam in prison and is now known as Yusuf Rahim - link
  • Myra Hindley - raised as a Catholic in a semi-religious family, Hindley was baptised as a Catholic on 16th August 1942 and regularly attended Holy Communion, although with Brady, Hindley renounced her Catholicism, but she later claimed to have become a reformed Catholic (in Holloway Prison when parole was mooted) - link
  • Peter Manuel - raised as a practising Catholic, he attended Park St Roman Catholic School in Motherwell (Scotland) and ended a 3 month engagement over religious differences - link
  • Peter Sutcliffe - raised as a Catholic, and would later claim that "the voice of God" had instructed him to kill fallen women (prostitutes), like he was on a "divine mission from God". In 2015, Sutcliffe was baptised as a Jehovah's Witness - link
  • Peter Tobin - born into an Irish Catholic family, he worked as a church handyman at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Anderston (Glasgow), he ran away with the Jesus Fellowship, a religious sect in Coventry, and he is also believed to be the illusive serial-killer known as Bible John
  • Richard Ramirez - claimed to be a Satanist, began to worship Satan aged 18, when he drove to San Francisco to meet with Anton LaVey, author of The Satanic Bible - link
  • Robert “Willie” Pickton - no evidence of being raised as a Christian, but in a series of letters he uses direct quotes from the Bible on numerous occasions - link
  • Rodney Alcala - raised in Catholic family, educated in both of Catholic and public schools, but by the age of 12 he'd had enough of religious education and became agnostic - link
  • Ted Bundy - baptised as a Mormon at the LDS Church, Salt Lake City in 1974 under the name of Theodore Robert Cowell, his name remains on the Mormon roll - link 
  • Timothy McVeigh - raised Roman Catholic, confirmed at the Good Shepherd Church in Pendleton (New York) in 1995, but lost his faith along the way, informing to the Buffalo News that he was agnostic one day before his execution, and yet he took the Last Rites before his execution, which were administered by Father Charles Smith - link
  • Velma Barfield - July 1978, whilst in prison for murder, she heard a program by evangelist J. K Kinkle, she accepted forgiveness for her sins and “found God”. - link

No known religion: Albert DeSalvo, Arthur Shawcross, Beverley Allitt, Colin Ireland, Derrick Bird, Donald Neilson, Paul Bernardo, Kenneth Bianchi, Richard Chase, Ray & Faye Copeland, Charles Cullen, Dorothea Puente, Kristen Gilbert, Larry Eyler, Henry Lee Lucas, Fred West, George Joseph Smith, Glen Edward Rogers, Graham Young, Ian Brady, Jeremy Bamber, Joanna Dennehy, John Childs, John Straffen, Kenneth Erskine, Michael Lupo, Michael Ryan, Orville Lynn Majors, Patrick MacKay, Peter Bryan, Randall Woodfield, Ray Fernandez & Martha Beck, Raymond Morris, Robert Black, Robert Maudsley,  Rose West, Stephen Akinmurele, Stephen Griffiths, Stephen Port, Steve Wright, Steven Grieveson, Ted Kaczynski and Trevor Hardy. Important: this does not mean they didn't have a religion, just that (as of yet) I have been unable to find evidence that religion played an "important" part of their life/upbringing etc. 


Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster 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 curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Murder Mile True-Crime Podcast - "300+ Murders in 1 Square Mile"

18/9/2017

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An introductory episode of Murder Mile is available via i-Tunes
Sunday 1st October 2017, the Murder Mile true-crime podcast launches, featuring 300+ infamous and long-forgotten murder cases, all set within one square mile in London's West End. 

Murder Mile is a true-crime podcast and audio guided walk combined, the idea being that, as you listen to each episode, absorbing vivid descriptions of the locations, victims and murderers, all whilst enjoying the realistic sounds of the street itself. Therefore, even if you've never been to London's West End (or ever intend to visit), you'll feel like you're actually there at the murder location, as with each episode there's also an accompanying blog full of videos, photos, links and even an interactive murder map showing where each murder is. 

If you're bored with listening the same old tired stories being rehashed for the billionth time, then the Murder Mile true-crime podcast is perfect for you, as many of these murder cases have either gone unreported, misreported, almost forgotten or lost to the midst of time, the evidence of which I am personally researching using reliable sources, first-person testimony, court transcripts and many painstaking hours trawling through the National Archives and uncovering new evidence. 

You'll hear fresh, dark and unusual true stories for the first time, because (even as a avid crime researcher and tour guide of London murder locations) I'm hearing them for the first time too. 
As each episode launches, this interactive murder map will be updated, showing you exactly where each murder location is, by using a multicoloured pin, to show how close they are to each other, which will contain links to all the relevant sources you need to fully feel like you're participating in a guided walk of the West End's most infamous murder locations. Click on the map to zoom in and scroll left/right to explore. 
If you want to hear a very brief (4 minute) introduction to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast, click the green PLAY button on the media player below.
Subscribe to the Murder Mile True-Crime Podcast via i-tunes, by clicking SUBSCRIBE
Or you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates, or to learn more about the Murder Mile true-crime podcast, the host and the upcoming episodes, click here. 
The Murder Mile true-crime podcast is researched, written and performed by Michael J Buchanan-Dunne, with music written and performed by Erik Stein & Jon Boux of Cult with No Name. The piece of music used in the introduction above is from their latest album 'Heir of the Dog' and is called 'Winsome, Lose Some'. 

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster 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 curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Offspring of Serial Killers / Children of Murderers

4/9/2017

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If you love true-crime podcasts, subscribe to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, Podbean, Pocketcast, Stitcher, Acast, Tune-In, Otto Radio or Libsyn
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Legal Notice: This is NOT a serial killers child... probably
If you've read my blogs before, you know that I love to delve deep into the minutiae of the every day lives of serial killers and mass-murderers, to work out what makes them so different from the average person, but also how similar we all are, such as their weight, height, birth order, diets, favourite drinks, height, IQ, star signs, lunar cycles, dates of birth, reasons for killing, music and nicknames, to name but a few. 

This week I shall be delving into lives of 85 infamous serial killers and mass-murderers from the UK and USA and drawing up a list of which had biological children prior to or during their murders, and which were entirely childless, many of whom were married or in relationships. As always, these blogs are updated with new information as and when it comes to light, therefore these lists are not fully comprehensive, but if you have any new details, please tweet me at @mmiletours

Serial-killer & Murderers with Children:
  • Aileen Wuornos; following a violent attack by a family friend when she was 14 years old, Wuornos gave birth to a boy, who was given up for "closed adoption" (no details known)
  • Albert DeSalvo; two children, one son (Michael) & one daughter (Judy) to wife Irmgard
  • Dennis Rader; two children, one son (Brian), one daughter (Kerri) to Paula Dietz. 
  • John Wayne Gacy; two children, one son (Michael), one daughter (Christine) to Marilyn, although he was also step-father to Carole Hoff's two young daughters
  • Ted Bundy; one daughter (Rose), conceived in prison to Carole Ann Boone
  • H H Holmes; one son (Robert Lovering Mudgett) to Clara Lovering, one daughter (Lucy Theodate Holmes) with Myrta Belknap whilst bigamously married
  • Albert Fish; six children: four sons (Albert, John, Eugene & Henry), two daughters (Anna and Gertrude), all to his wife Anna Mary Hoffman, but his son Albert wasn't named Albert Fish Junior, as Fish's real name was Hamilton Howard Fish, as he had re-named himself "Albert" after his dead brother. 
  • Ray & Faye Copeland; different sources list them as having either four, five or six children, so far I can only determine that they have one son called Al, 
  • Janie Lou Gibbs; three children, three sons (Lester, Roger and Marvin), all of whom she killed with rat poison to claim on the insurance money. 
  • Judy Buenoano; one son (Michael), who she murdered
  • Kristen Gilbert; two children, two sons (Raymond and Brian)
  • Dorothea Puente; two daughters, both put up for adoption
  • Velma Barfield; two children, one son (Ronnie), one daughter (Kim) to Thomas Burke 
  • Gary Ridgway; one son (Matthew) 
  • John Allen Muhammad, three children, one son (Lindbergh Williams), and two daughters (Taalibah and Salena). Watch an interview with the daughters here
  • Karla Homolka; after her release, she changed her name to Leanne Bordelais, moved to Guadeloupe, remarried and now has three children. Read more here. 
  • Carol M. Bundy; two young sons by a previous marriage (names unknown)
  • David Parker Ray; one daughter (Glenda Jean Ray)
  • Cynthia Coffman; one child, a son (Joshua Luke)
  • Glen Edward Rogers; two children, two sons (Clinton Dwayne and Jonathan Claude), both to Deborah Ann Nix, later briefly become his wife, but Clinton was not fathered by Rogers. 
  • John George Haigh; one daughter to Beatrice 'Betty' Hamer, who was born whilst Haigh was in prison and was later given up for adoption (name unknown)
  • Donald Neilson; one daughter (Kathryn), originally born Kathryn Nappey, which was Donald's original surname, before he changed it, not wanting her to be bullied like he was
  • Fred & Rose West; Fred had one step-daughter (Charmaine Carol West) to his first wife - Catherine "Rena" Costello - who was fathered by a "Pakistani bus driver", andlater another daughter (Anna Marie), and with his second wife Rose West, they had two further daughters (Heather Ann & Mae West) and one son (Stephen), although when he was a teenager Fred West also impregnated his 13 year old sister Kitty. 
  • Harold Shipman; four children, three sons (Christopher, Sam & David) and one daughter (Sarah), all to wife Primrose Shipman. Read Shipman's profile
  • Peter Sutcliffe; he tried to have children with his partner, Sonia Szurma, but they suffered several miscarriages and were informed that she would not be able to have children
  • Anthony Hardy; four children with Judith Dwight, three sons and one daughter, following his arrest for trying to kill her, he got full custody of the children
  • Levi Bellfield; five daughters (Jessica, Hannah, Jaynie, Bobbie and Maisie) with three different women, the youngest three with his most recent girlfriend, Emma Mills 
  • Raymond Morris, two children, two sons (names unknown)
  • Peter Tobin; three children, two sons (Ian & Daniel) and one daughter (Daisy, deceased
  • John Childs; two children, although very few details are known
  • Derrick Bird; two sons (Graeme & Jamie), read more​​

Entirely Childless Serial Killers & Murderers: David Berkowitz, Edmund Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Joel Rifkin, Richard Ramirez, Ed Gein, John Reginald Christie, Ian Brady, Myra Hindley, Dennis Nilsen, Joanna Dennehy, Robert Black, Graham Young, Michael Lupo, Stephen Port, Rodney Alcala, Ted Kaczynski, Robert “Willie” Pickton, Ronald Dominique, Larry Eyler, Randall Woodfield, Donald Henry Gaskins, Dean Arnold Corll, Lee Boyd Malvo, Orville Lynn Majors, Herbert Mullin, Arthur Shawcross, Paul Bernardo, Ray Fernandez & Martha Beck, Doug Clark, Kenneth Bianchi, Richard Chase, Henry Lee Lucas, Patrick MacKay, Robert Maudsley, Colin Ireland, Kenneth Erskine, Steven Grieveson, Stephen Griffiths, Trevor Hardy, Robert Napper, George Joseph Smith, Peter Manuel, Beverley Allitt, Steve Wright, John Straffen, Peter Bryan, David Copeland, Michael Ryan, Stephen Akinmurele and John Bodkin Adams. Please note: some of these serial-killers / murderers may have had step-children or their partners may have had children, but I am only counting biological children. 

That's a pretty substantial list of adults, who were of biological age to have children, but never did, whether this is because they found it hard to remain in a "loving" relationship (owing to their mental, physical or emotional peculiarities), it is hard to tell. 

TRUE-CRIME PODCAST FANS? Great news. On Sunday 1st October, Murder Mile will be launched as a fortnightly true-crime podcast, featuring 300+ long-forgotten real-life murders, recorded from the actual locations and all within a few city streets of each other. If you love true-crime podcasts, then this is not to be missed. Stay tuned. ​More details here. Or, if you're in London, visit the Murder Mile Walk of Soho's most infamous murders by clicking BOOK NOW. . 
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster 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 curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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    Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster & tour guide of Murder Mile Walks, hailed as one of the best "quirky curious & unusual things to do in London". 

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