Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.
Sutcliffe & Jimmy Savill (which was worst?)
How'd do you fancy reading a rather mundane letter written by Peter Sutcliffe, also known as The Yorkshire Ripper? Well, you;re in luck.
Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of brutally murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in Leeds and Bradford in the North of England, and so horrific were their injuries that he was dubbed the “Yorkshire Ripper”. Being declared insane, Sutcliffe was (and currently still is) housed at Broadmoor Psychiatric Prison on an indeterminate sentence, and this letter was written by Sutcliffe to Sandra Lester, a friend, model, escort girl, part-time stripper and a supposed confidante, who later sold his story to the papers. They started writing in 1993, but the love letters stopped when he asked her to marry him and she said no. The letter is dated 9th June 1998, it is handwritten with very curly handwriting, and with a sticker of a palm tree on the top of letter. Sutcliffe loves using excessive grammar. “Dear Sandy. Hi!! How are you today? I hope this letter finds you happy and in the best of health (small kiss). I received your nice wee letter okay “with the butterfly stickers”, it’s such a bright and cheery letter so thanks for that. I hope you’re right about what you said about something changing for the better (as there’s something in the air, etc). …. (pages missing)… pleased its happened at long last. As you say, dad will be in touch when he’s got himself sorted out! Did I mention that I’d had a nice visit from Maria last Saturday? She was telling me all about her holiday! She really enjoyed herself and brought me loads of postcards back etc!! (smiley face) She said the weather was very hot all the time and she’d obviously caught the sun so she was looking very well. She said she’d been staying in London for a few days before making her way back home! Anyway take care 4 now cos you’re in my thoughts. I send you all my love and GR8 big caring HUGS!!!. Love Pete. X x x x x x x x Next up is an interesting letter written by Sutcliffe to his friend Chris on 2015, again pages missing, but it ends like this… “Yes! I have heard of (Ian) Brady’s book - The Gates of Janus - and I’d been told ages ago that there’s a bit about me in it, but I’m not interested in reading it myself Chris? Ha! No I didn’t know they sent Keith Richards to The Scrubbs. Yeah, Charles Bronson also spent time here at Broadmoor, until he caused a lot of damage to the roof. His previous name was Mickey Peterson by the way! There’s a DVD out called Bronson and it’s been on telly over here a few times! He was known for taking hostages etc! He’s a pretty good artist thought, I’ve seen quite a few of his sketches!! (smiley face) Well it’s almost time for my usual 9:30pm phone-call Chris, so I’ll try to finish off this letter and get it into the post-box ready for the early morning collection tomorrow. Well my good and dear friend, take care of yourself for now you hear!! (smiley face) Best wishes and regards as always. Your pal Pete. X Oddly, in a later letter, it’s clear that Chris recounted the entire contents of a phone conversation between himself and Peter Sutcliffe to tabloid newspaper the News of the World, including a crappy joke Sutcliffe had made, which he was most displeased about (sad face) five exclamation marks.
If you found this interesting? Check out the Mini Mile episodes of the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast, or click on the link below to listen to an episode.
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”, nominated "one of the best true-crime podcasts at the British Podcast Awards 2018", and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk
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Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.
The Murder Mile Threadless Store
Credits: The Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast was researched, written and recorded by Michael J Buchanan-Dunne, with the music written and performed by Erik Stein & Jon Boux of Cult With No Name. Additional music was used under the Creative Common Agreement 4.0. The music featured in this episode includes:
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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”, nominated "one of the best true-crime podcasts at the British Podcast Awards 2018", and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk  Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.  This week’s question is how much do every day items cost in prison?
In British prisons, money and the loaning or borrowing of personal items is strictly forbidden, this is to limit the number of disputes over debts, and although some basic essentials are paid for by the state (clothing, food, bedding and some toiletries), prisoners do have a mandatory cell wage of £5 per week, plus an allowance of between £4 and £25 per week, depending on their category, behaviour, duties and how hard they work. Inside most prisons there is a canteen and a shop, where prisoners can buy additional legitimate items using their weekly allowance, and (in Scotland at least) they’re surprisingly cheap, which has caused a bit of a rumpus up north (“we’re allll doomed!”). For example; a can of Pringles is 50p cheaper, HobNob biscuits 40p cheaper, Pot Noodle 25p cheaper, a pack of 10 Lambert & Butler cigarettes 75p cheaper, oh yes all the essentials, and that staple of the Scottish diet (no not fruit – obviously, not Tennant’s Super Strength Lager on toast, not heroin-infused haggis or deep-fried whiskey-flavoured Klootie pudding – although that does sound smashing) no, it’s Scotland’s favourite breakfast, Scott’s Porage Oats which you can buy in the prison shop for 5p cheaper than in Tesco’s. Okay, look, as I’m half Scottish, I’ll only apologise for half of that joke… although (hands-up) that accent was unforgivable. So what about the things the shop can’t provide for a prisoner’s needs? What about contraband? Cigarettes: Convicted prisoners are allowed to keep up to 62.5 grams of tobacco or 80 cigarettes, which seems fair enough, but as cigarettes are in high demand and can be easily traded for contraband items, this has created a black market where a single cigarette has been sold for £20 and a small pouch of tobacco for £200, especially since the 2007 Smoking Ban when some prisons went smoke-free. In the last few years, the prison system has spent £100,000 on vape kits to try to resolve this problem. Mobile Phones: Illegal in prison, and yet, in 2017, over 15000 handsets and Sim cards were confiscated in UK prisons. Sim cards (the size of your fingernail and as thin as a credit card) can easily be smuggled in and with prisoners only allowed to make landline phone calls (all of which are screened), texts are forbidden and access to the internet is strictly limited, Sim cards which are cheap and even free on the outside, can be traded for £30, £50 and £100 inside. There are even tiny mobile phones, such as a the GTstar Mini BM50, which is entirely made from plastic so it’s not picked up by prison scanners, it’s as small as your finger (for obvious reasons - coughs), and on the outside they sell for £15, but inside, trade for between £200-300 a-piece, some phone up to £1000. The upside: you get to make unlimited calls, the downside is #1 if found your sentence can be increased, #2 you’re phone smells like another man’s ass, and #3, imagine the poor bloke who had to smuggle in the phone’s charger. Youch. Drugs: The Prison Officers Association estimates the value of the drug market inside UK prisons at £100m a year with a whopping 189 kilos of drugs confiscated in UK prisons in 2017. So lucrative is the prison black market, with many drugs selling for ten times their street value inside, that ex-convicts actually get themselves re-arrested for minor offences, so they can be returned to prison, having first concealed contraband “about-their-person”, and by person, I mean up their bum-bum, foo-foo or down their foreskin. Eek. I guess that’s why some drugs are often referred to as “the good shit”. These drugs include: Spice: a synthetic psychoactive chemical cocktail which is dubbed the zombie drug because it turns the user temporarily into a motionless drooling zombie, which they take to help pass the time. It costs just £3 on the outside, but is sold at 33 times the price inside, almost £100, and as it’s highly addictive, ex-convicts (whose prison allowance can be as low as just £20 a month) can make £3000 in one day having smuggled just 28 ounces of Spice into the prison. The same goes with other drugs. Cocaine: depending on the quality, sells for £40 to £100 a gram on the outside, but £400 to £1000 inside. Heroin is roughly £100 a gram outside, but £1000 to £1500 on the inside, all of which are low-quality, having been cut and mix with baking powder, washing powder, shredded carpet and battery acid. Cannabis: On average it is £150 an ounce outside, but when broken down into separate baggies, an ounce brought inside for £800 can earn the prisoner £2800. And failing that, there always alcohol or homemade hooch, an illegal drink which can be made from fruit and vegetable peel, sugar, syrup and crumbled bread (to act as the yeast); it’s pretty foul, it can be very pungent and as it needs a cool dark place to ferment, that is why it is often referred to as “toilet wine”. Ewww. The rule of thumb inside prison seems to be, anything from the shop will be cheap but boring and anything that is contraband will stink like it’s been shoved up a man’s plop-pipe – which it has. So, when I’m next in prison, I think I’m smuggle in some hand sanitiser, some moist bottom wipes and a large can of air-freshener. 
Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.
what differentiates a murderer, a mass murderer, a serial killer and a spree killer?
Before we begin, I must state, these definitions are highly contested among legal professionals and law enforcement alike, so they are very prone to change, manipulation and disagreement. So, a murderer; Murder is a form of criminal homicide involving the unlawful killing of another person with premeditation (a plan to kill), their actions have criminal intent and (by minimum definition) they will have intentionally murdered at least one person. That’s a murderer. Next is a spree-killer; a spree killer is a person or a group who commits two or more murders over a short period of time (normally over less than a month), in multiple locations and with almost no “cooling off period” between the murders. So The Blackout Ripper, who murdered four women, in four different locations, over consecutive four days is a perfect example. A mass-murderer is a person or a group who commits several murders (the FBI states this as “four or more”) which occur either simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time, and in a single location or within close proximity, and (like a spree-killer) there is no “cooling off period”. Mass murders can be committed a group or a single person, and are usually (but not always) attributed to cults, fascists, terrorists, acts of genocide and mass-shootings, with some form of persecution acting as a catalyst. A good example is the mass-shooting at Columbine High School. A serial killer is more often a person who acts alone (although this is not always the case) who commits three or more murders, usually for personal gratification, over a period of more than a month and includes a “cooling off period” between each murder. Now, three or more is a vague definition, as the FBI defines a serial killing as “a series of two or more murders”, and yet other law enforcement authorities define it as at least four murders. Perfect examples would be the Yorkshire Ripper, Dennis Nilsen, etc. There. I hope that makes a little more sense. And if you’re a murderer who has been unfairly labelled a serial killer or mass-murderer when you’re quite clearly a spree-killer, there will be a helpline number for you to call.
If you found this interesting? Check out the Mini Mile episodes of the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast, or click on the link below to listen to an episode.
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”, nominated "one of the best true-crime podcasts at the British Podcast Awards 2018", and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk
Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.
What’s the best way to clean up after a murder?
Today, we’ll be looking at how to effectively clean up blood, vomit, urine, faeces and semen, all key indicators which can link a perpetrator to a crime scene, or any night out in Newcastle. So, firstly, how can you superficially clean-up a murder scene so it’ll pass a visual investigation? Number #1 – Urine. Urine can contain cells which contain traces of DNA, occasionally blood and other characteristics useful for toxicology, chemical analysis and identification, and although it has a distinct odour, as urine is almost 100% water, it can be removed with the use of hot water and a household detergent. Number #2 – Faeces. Faeces can tell investigator many different details about the victim (as mentioned in Mini Mile #7) such as how, where, when and what they last ate, what drugs, alcohol or poisons are in their system, what disease they have, and even their mood at the time of their last meal, and although faeces also contains hydrochloric acid (from the stomach bile which destroys DNA), faeces also contains blood and skin from the bowel, intestines and anus, which are not destroyed. So, to remove faeces stains; if it is solid, it’s best to let it air-dry, pick it up and clean the area as you would with wee-wee, or if it’s not solid, treat it like vomit. Number #3: Vomit. Again, this contains hydrochloric acid, but also skin, blood and mucus from the digestive tract and mouth, so DNA can be present. Hospital cleaners advise sprinkling on baking soda, leaving it to dry and scraping off the excess vomit. Then mix one tablespoon of detergent, white vinegar and two cups of warm water and blot the stain until it is completely absorbed. Then sponge the area with cold water to remove the detergent/vinegar solution. Number #4: Blood. As any lady knows full well, if you get blood on your clothes, you never wash it out with hot water, or warm water, but cold water, as cold water helps the blood cells rehydrate. It’s also best to remove the stain while it’s still wet. And as with vomit, blood can be removed by sprinkling it with salt, letting the crystals absorb the blood and once it’s dry, you can hoover up the blood soaked crystals and blot the area until it’s dry. Obviously, when I say “hoover the area”, that’s a British colloquialism meaning to vacuum, and not hold J Edgar Hoover by the feet and make him lick it up. Although, I’m sure he would have done a great job. Number #5: Semen. Not something you want left at a scene, as although it is smaller in quantity (apparently), contains less harmless acids (unless you drink a lot of Pepsi), and it is an entire library of information for investigators and a DNA profile can be taken from it years and even decades later, semen is tricky to remove even at a high temperature, and after several washes it can remain, so I’m told. So a solution of hot water and strong bleach or detergent is needed, but bleach itself does leave a very obvious stain… which we’ll get into shortly, so stay-tuned you sex-pests. But this is all just superficial cleaning. It’ll pass a visual inspection, but – as you’ll know if you’ve listened to Mini Mile #1 - nothing more advanced, like Luminol. So where are the problems? Speed: you have to get to a stain quickly before it dries, if it’s still in a liquid form and contains higher levels of water, it’s easier to remove, but as its water content dries, it’s harder to erase. Water: when water is used to clean up a stain, if you leave it too long and don’t softly blot the area till it is completely dried, the water will leave a very clear stain, which (to an investigator) is as obvious as blood and shows that a clean-up has taken place. Bleaches: There’s two kinds in most home products; chlorine bleach and oxygen bleach. Chlorine bleaches can visually remove blood but Luminol will still show up the haemoglobin in the blood, even after several washes using chlorine bleach. Whereas an oxygen bleach uses a hydrogen peroxide, so after a few hours of soaking, it completely destroys the haemoglobin and can no longer be detected. But as with blood, the use of bleaches are evident, so although the DNA no longer exists, a clean-up is obvious as it leaves very visible marks and discolours any materials and even skin. Acids: hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric pretty much destroy everything, whether DNA, skin, blood, semen, almost anything, but large quantities of acid are hard to come by (for the average person), its purchase leaves a trail and (again) it leaves a big stain. And finally, fire: Fires are easy to start, they require very little experience and it can destroy everything, but it is very obvious, and modern fire investigation skills can easily determine the difference between an arson and an accident, by the presence of accelerants, etc. One interesting way that investigators can determine if a fire was the work of an arsonist and who they were, is by searching the neighbouring bushes for human poo, as because serial arsonists get sexually excited by the sight of things burning, this causes them to need to poo.
If you found this interesting? Check out the Mini Mile episodes of the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast, or click on the link below to listen to an episode.
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”, nominated "one of the best true-crime podcasts at the British Podcast Awards 2018", and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk
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AuthorMichael 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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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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