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Serial Killers; Youngest, Middle, Oldest or an Only Child?

13/3/2017

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Siblings: me, my bro, my sis and mum. But which is the serial killer?
A lot is often said about the difference in personality traits between siblings, whether they are the first born, middle child, last out, or an only child. Some may be moody, brooding and insular, and others energetic, hyperactive and attention-seeking, with each child's dominant characteristics (based on their birth order) being conveniently labelled by parent's groups and - some - medical professionals as a "syndrome". In 1927, psychologist Alfred Adler wrote about his theory that birth order predicted the following behaviour in children, which concluded. * to read more, click on the red links. 

Youngest Child Syndrome: characterised as "highly social, confident, creative, a problem solver, charming, funny, but also spoiled, a risk-taker, and adept at getting others to do things for them". 

Middle Child Syndrome: characterised as "unremarkable, moody, feels left out and neglected but is often the hardest to label as they desperately seek to be the exact opposite of their older sibling, with middle children are more prone to depression but have stronger immune systems". 

Eldest Child Syndrome: characteristics are dictated by how they react to the arrival of the second born who usurps their place as the only child, so their traits swings wildly between "an achiever or perfectionist, natural leader or bossy, strong-willed or sullen and serious or solitary". 

Only Child Syndrome: characterised by a "high level of confidence, a need for privacy and independence, a higher academic ability, but an inability to share, over-sensitivity and unable to accept criticism". 

So what I want to uncover with this blog is whether the personality traits of serial killers and mass-murderers are determined by their birth-order, as a first born, middle kid, eldest sibling or only child. As always I've started this blog with no prior evidence or opinion, and have based this on a random selection of 29 British serial killers. 

A simple list of Serial Killers and their Siblings
​What follows is a simple list of serial killers and the number of siblings they had, if any and where possibly I have listed the genders of their siblings (just in case it becomes relevant). 
  • Beverley Allitt "The Angel of Death" - middle child, second of four, two elder sisters and one younger brother
  • Levi Bellfield "The Bus Stop Killer" - youngest of five, two brothers and two sisters, plus ten step-siblings (family were Romany travellers)
  • Ian Brady "Moors Murderer" - only child (was put up for adoption)
  • Myra Hindley "Moors Murderer" - eldest child, one younger sister
  • John Reginald Christie - middle child of seven siblings, he was second youngest
  • Thomas Neill Cream "Lambest Poisoner" - eldest child of eight brothers and sisters
  • Joanna Dennehy "Peterborough Ditch Murderer" - eldest of two, one younger sister
  • Kenneth Erskine "The Stockwell Strangler" - middle child of three brothers (abandoned)
  • Stephen Griffiths "The Sunderland Strangler" - eldest child of three
  • John George Haigh "Acid Bath Murderer" - only child
  • Trevor Hardy "The Beast of Manchester" - youngest child of four
  • Colin Ireland "The Gay Slayer" - eldest child with one half-sibling (abandoned by father)
  • Patrick Mackay – eldest of three, two younger sisters
  • Robert Maudsley incorrectly labelled "Hannibal the Cannibal" by the tabloid press – youngest child of four, with two brothers and one sister, before they were all orphaned, although his parents later went on to have a total of 12 children
  • Raymond Morris "The A34 Killer" – youngest of two, one older brother
  • Donald Neilson "Black Panther" – only child
  • Dennis Nilsen "Kindly Killer" – middle child of three, one older brother and a younger sister
  • Harold Shipman "Dr Death" – middle child, second of four, two brothers and one sister
  • John Straffen – youngest of three, one older sister and brother
  • Peter Sutcliffe "Yorkshire Ripper" – eldest of six, two younger brothers and three sisters
  • Fred West - eldest of six, two others having died in infancy
  • Rosemary West – eldest of two, with one younger brother
  • Steve Wright "The Suffolk Strangler" – middle child, second of four, one older brother and two younger sisters
  • Graham Young "The Teacup Poisoner" – youngest of two, with one older sister
  • Robert Black - only child, born illgitimate, later fostered
  • Peter Manuel – middle child of three, with one brother and one sister
  • Peter Tobin "Bible John" - middle child, second eldest of eight children
  • Michael Robert Ryan "Hungerford Massacre" – only child
  • Derrick Bird "Cumbria KIller" – one of twins with an older brother 
So, if we split these into groups of youngest, middle, eldest and only child:
  • Only Child: total of 5 of 29, Ian Brady, John George Haigh, Donald Neilson, Robert Black and Michael Ryan. 
  • Youngest Child: total of 6 of 29, Levi Bellfield, Trevor Hardy, Robert Maudsley, Raymond Morris, John Straffen and Graham Young.  
  • Middle Child: total of 9 of 29; Beverley Allitt, John Reginald Christie, Kenneth Erskine, Dennis Nilsen, Harold Shipman, Steve Wright, Peter Manuel and Peter Tobin, with one anomaly being Derrick Bird - who was a twin - so was technically a middle child. 
  • Eldest Child: total of 9 of 29; Myra Hindley, Thomas Neill Cream, Joanna Dennehy, Stephen Griffiths, Colin Ireland, Patrick Mackay, Peter Sutcliffe, Fred West and Rosemary West. 
So - according to this data - you are statistically twice as likely to be a serial killer is you are the middle or eldest child than if you were an only child ir youngest child. And as we've seen above, the personality traits of the middle child is often determined by the traits of the eldest child. Where-as if this data is broken down into older and younger siblings, or both: 
  • Older Sister(s): total of 1 of 29; Graham Young "The Teacup Poisoner"
  • Younger Sister(s): total of 3 of 29; Myra Hindley**, Joanna Dennehy** and Patrick Mackay
  • Older Brother(s): total of 3 of 29; Kenneth Erskine*, Raymond Morris and Derrick Bird*
  • Younger Brother(s): total 4 of 29; Kenneth Erskine*, Rosemary West and Derrick Bird* *  Erskine & Bird were of single gender siblings (all brothers), hence they appear on the list twice
  • Siblings of a Single Sex: total 4 of 29; Myra Hindley**, Joanna Dennehy**, Kenneth Erskine* and Derrick Bird*. **  Hindley & Dennehy were of single gender siblings (all sisters), hence they appear on the list twice
  • Siblings of Mixed Gender & Ages: total 14 of 29; Beverley Allitt, Levi Bellfield, John Reginald Christie, Thomas Neill Cream, Robert Maudsley, Dennis Nilsen, Harold Shipman, John Straffen, Fred West, Steve Wright, Peter Sutcliffe, Peter Manuel and Peter Tobin
At least half of all the serial killers - in the data supplied - came from a family where there was a mixture of genders and ages amongst the siblings, as opposed to having a single sibling of either gender, or single-sex siblings. I guess the conclusion we can make it that, you are more likely to be a serial killer if there is a conflict over "who is the first born"? But obviously, that's not the only reason people become serial killers. Next week, I shall look at serial killers and their motives.

If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals. ​

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 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Killer Couples - A Valentine's Day Special #2

25/1/2017

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If you love true-crime podcasts, subscribe to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podbean, Pocketcast, Stitcher, Acast, Tune-In, Otto Radio or Libsyn
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As a Valentine's Day treat, here's the second part of my list of deadly couples; whose dark fantasties, morbid passions and murderous desires only come to the surface when they fall head-over-heels in love with a kindred spirit, who is willing to do anything to prove their love for each other... even going so far as to commit murder. Often, when we think of "couples who kill", we usually think of Myra Hindley & Ian Brady, Fred & Rose West and even Bonnie & Clyde, but they were not the first and they won't be the last. What follows is a list of "murderous lovers", so shocking are the stories that it's hard to simplify them, and so long is the list that I've barely touched the surface and had to split this list into a two-part blog, the first part can be viewed here. Warning: this blog contains graphic (& very unromantic) details. 
Jasmine Richardson & Jeremy Steinke
On 23rd April 2006, 23 year old self-confessed “vampire” Jeremy Steinke and his 12 year old girlfriend Jasmine Richardson brutally murdered her family including her father Marc (42), mother Debra (48) and brother Jacob (8) in the basement of their home, it is claimed they’d been inspired by the film Natural Born Killers which Steinke told an undercover officer is “the best love story of all time”. 
On 15th December 2008, Steinke was sentenced to 3 life sentences and is eligible for parole in 25 years. On 9th July 2007, Richardson was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder, but was sentenced to 10 years (the maximum sentence given her age); with 4 ½ spent in a psychiatric institution and the remainder as a student at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University (Calgary). On 6th May 2016 her sentence was completed and she was freed. Read more. 
Jens Söring & Elizabeth Haysom
In 1985, Canadian couple Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom & German national Jens Söring murdered her parents - Derek & Nancy Haysom – in their Boonsboro home (Virginia). They’d been brutally slashed, stabbed and (so ferocious was the attack that they were) almost decapitated. Both blamed the other during their trials – even though it is believed that Jens committed the murders - but both were found guilty. 
Elizabeth Haysom acknowledged her guilt and was sentenced to 90 years at the Fluvanna Correctional Centre (Troy, VA) and won’t be eligible for parole until 2032, aged 68. Jens Söring fought extradition, and following a plea bargain (which saw the death sentence dropped) was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn (VA), and became eligible for parole in 2003... but his application was rejected. Jens Söring maintains his innocence. A recent documentary cast doubt on the conviction. Read more. ​
Judith & Alvin Neelley
On 25th September 1982, Judith & Alvin Neelley kidnapped Lisa Ann Millican from the Riverbend Mall in Rome (Georgia). Driven to the Neelley’s motel room, the frightened 13 year old girl was repeatedly raped and tortured for three days, and later injected with liquid drain cleaner in the neck, arms and buttocks, which – although a hideously painful death – didn’t kill her, so Judith shot her in the back and tossed her body off a cliff. 
One week later, with their sadism unsated, the Neeley’s abducted young couple Janice Chatman & John Hancock and were brought back to the same motel room, during which John Hancock was shot in the head… but did not die, and subsequently identified Judith & Alvin Neelley as the culprits. To avoid Georgia’s mandatory death penalty, Alvin pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence served at the Bostick State Prison until his death in November 2005, whilst undergoing surgery. Having given birth in prison, Judith Neelley was convicted of the torture & murder of Lisa Ann Millican and was sentenced to death at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women (Alabama), making her the youngest woman on death row in the USA. But on 15th January 1999, days from execution, she was granted clemency and the state governor commuted her sentence to life in prison without parole. She is now 52. Watch a documentary about them here. ​
Michelle Michaud & James Daveggio
On 2nd December 1997, sadistic lovers Michelle Michaud (38) & James Daveggio (42) lured 22 year old university student Vanessa Lei Samson into their green Dodge caravan (specially fitted with hooks and ropes) in Pleasanton (California) and repeatedly raped and tortured her as they drove to South Lake Tahoe, forcing her to wear a rubber-ball gag, strangled her with nylon rope and then dumped her body in the snow. 
Both were found guilty, sentenced to death and are currently on Death Row. At their trial, Judge Goodman said "the death penalty is the appropriate penalty", adding that Samson's slaying and torture was "vile, cruel, senseless, depraved, brutal, evil and vicious", especially after – in her own defence – Michaud described each assault as an “adventure” and “huntings". Records show that Daveggio & Michaud sexually assaulted at least six other young women, two of whom were relatives. Read more. ​
Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka – The Barbie & Ken Killers
In October 1987, Karla Homolka met Paul Bernardo and fell in love. But unlike most loving/sexual relationships, between 4th May 1987 and 27th December 1992, she encouraged his sadistic sexual desires and together they’d stalk, assault, abduct, drug, rape, torture and murder at least 20 young women in the Scarborough area of Toronto (Canada), as they exited buses late at night… although the true victim count is estimated to be as many as 100+. Found guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping and murder, Paul Bernardo was declared a dangerous offender in 1995 having amassed a score of 35/40 on the psychopathy checklist and was sentenced to life imprisonment at Millhaven Institution. 
He is eligible for parole this year. Karla Homolka agreed a plea-bargain, testified against Bernardo, and was subsequently sentenced to just 12 years in prison, having claimed she was an “unwilling accomplice”, even though there is evidence against this, including video footage of Karla performing oral sex on their victims. Karla Homolka is currently living with her children in Châteauguay, Quebec. Read more. ​
Ray & Faye Copeland
Aged 76 & 69, Ray & Faye Copeland are the oldest couple sentenced to death in the United States. Between 17th October 1986 and 1st May 1989, the Copeland’s killed at least five homeless drifters, shooting them with a .22 Marlin rifle to the back of the head and burying their bodies in a nearby barn. Following a conviction for fraud, Ray couldn’t buy or sell cattle, so he’d employ hobos as farmhands, got them to buy cattle for him using fake cheques, and then the men would ”disappear”. 
Both were sentenced to death. When Ray learned that his wife of 50 years had been sentenced to death, he unemotionally said “well, those things happen to some, you know". But neither Ray nor Faye were executed. On 19th October 1993 Ray died of natural causes and in September 2002, following a severe stroke which left her paralysed, and having been moved to the Morningside Centre nursing home in Chillicothe (Missouri), Faye died aged 82. Read more. ​
Ricky Davis & Dena Riley
In April 2006, serial rapist and methamphetamine addicts Richard D. Davis & Dena D. Riley, who were once the FBI’s most wanted couple, kidnapped, tortured and murdered mother-of-four Michelle Huff-Ricci (36). When Police searched the couple’s apartment, whilst investigating the disappearance of Marsha Speer on 14th May 2006, they discovered a stash of videotapes depicting the torture, beating, rape and strangulation of Marsha Speer and Michelle Huff-Ricci. One tape was more than two hours long. 
The bodies of Marsha Speer and Michelle Huff-Ricci were subsequently dumped and doused with lighter fluid. But before David & Riley could be arrested, they fled, sparking an 8-day manhunt, during which they abducted and sexually assaulted a 5 year old girl. In August 2008, Dena Riley & Ricky David were given nine life sentences. Read more. ​
​Suzan & James Carson
Now, I don’t wish to denigrate stoners but… between March 1981 and March 1983, heavy cannabis-users and radical anarchists (who predicted a nuclear apocalypse within the year) Suzan & James Carson murdered three people in California and San Francisco Bay. First, their 22 year old roommate Keryn Barnes, who’d been stabbed 13 times and had her skull bashed in with a frying pan, as Suzan was convinced she was a witch. Secondly, Clarke Stephen, a fellow worker at the cannabis farm, who Suzan also thought was a witch, who they shot, burned and buried. 
And thirdly, whilst on the run, a 30 year old hitchhiker called Jon Charles Hellyar, who (have you guessed it?) Suzan thought was a witch. Whilst driving at speed on Route 101 near Santa Rosa (Sonoma County), Suzan repeatedly stabbed Jon and James shot him dead at point blank range, all in view of passing motorists. On 12th June 1984, the Carsons were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 25 years a piece for the murder of Jon Charles Hellyar, with their sentence extended to 50 to 75 years for the two subsequent murders. Read more. ​
Ray Fernandez & Martha Beck - The Lonely Hearts Killers
Between 1947-49, convicted fraudster Raymond Fernandez and his lover Martha Beck killed 20+ women who’d they’d met through lonely hearts adverts. Desperate to marry her lover, Martha fled Milton (Florida) to New York City, abandoning her children with the Salvation Army, believing this to be a sign of her unconditional love for him. Besotted and fully accepting of his criminal plan, Martha posed as his sister / chaperone as Raymond would lure hopeful “lonely hearts” to his Long Island apartment, and con monies out of them, having made them believe they were in love with a much younger man. 
Unfortunately, Martha had an awful temper and – in fits of jealousy, witnessing the couples kissing, or worse – would smash the “lonely hearts” over the head with a hammer, strangle them, drown them... and even their children. Fernandez quickly confessed and on 8th March 1951, both were executed by electric chair at the infamous Sing Sing prison (Ossining, New York). Their final words were Raymond: "I wanna shout it out; I love Martha! What do the public know about love?" and Martha: "My story is a love story. But only those tortured by love can know what I mean. I am not unfeeling, stupid or moronic. I am a woman who had a great love and always will have it. Imprisonment in the Death House has only strengthened my feeling for Raymond". Read more. ​

If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals

No plans for Valentine's Day? Looking for something quirky to do? Book onto Murder MIle Walks. It's the perect gift for that certain special someone who's a little bit... different. 

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 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Killer Couples - A Valentine's Day Special #1

18/1/2017

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If you love true-crime podcasts, subscribe to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podbean, Pocketcast, Stitcher, Acast, Tune-In, Otto Radio or Libsyn
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Some people don't feel like they aren a whole person until they meet that certain special someone who "completes them". Whether you believe this or not? This can be the basis of the world's most successful marriages. Unfortunately the same can also be said for serial killers, especially those sadistic couples whose dark fantasties, morbid passions and murderous predelictions only come to the surface when they fall head-over-heels in love with a kindred spirit, who is willing to do anything to prove their love for each other... even going so far as to commit murder. 

So, when we think of "couples who kill", we usually think of Myra Hindley & Ian Brady, Fred & Rose West and even Bonnie & Clyde, three of the most sadistic couples who have every existed (it could be argued), but they were not the first and they won't be the last. As a Valentine's Day treat, what follows is a list of "murderous lovers", so shocking are the stories that it's hard to simplify them, and so long is the list that I've barely touched the surface and had to split this list into a two-part blog, to be continued next week. Warning: contains graphic (& unromantic) details. 
​Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
Alton Coleman was a spree killer who brutally raped and murdered eight adults and children (some as young as 9 years old) across six states in the American Midwest, between May 29th and 13th July 1984, with the help of his accomplice Debra Brown.  
Although Brown previously had no criminal record nor history of violence, she was complicit in all of the murders having (it is claimed) had a childhood head trauma which caused her to suffer from dependent personality disorder. Coleman received a death sentence in three states and was executed in Ohio on 26th April 2002 by lethal injection. Having been declared as “intellectually disabled”, Brown’s death sentence was commuted to a life sentence, which she is serving at the Dayton Correctional Institution (Ohio). Read more.
​Charles Starkweather & Caril Fugate – “The Badlands Killers”
Charles Starkweather was 19 year old spree killer who – with his 14 year old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate – raped and murdered eleven people (mostly by a shotgun blast to the head), during a 60 day crime spree from 1st December 1957 to 29th January 1958. Starkweather’s first victim was Robert Colvert, a gas-station attendant who refused to sell Starkweather a stuffed animal on credit and later killed Velda & Marion Bartlett (Carol’s mother and step-father). Although Caril Ann was complicit in the killings, she would later claim in court that she was Starkweather’s hostage. 
Starkweather was executed by electric chair on 25th June 1959 in Nebraska State Penitentiary. Caril Ann was sentenced to life imprisonment at Nebraska Correctional Center in Nebraska, and after 17 years was paroled. She currently lives in Hillsdale (Michigan) with her husband Fredrick, and until her recent retirement was an observer for the National Weather Service. Read more. ​
Carol M. Bundy and Doug Clark – “The Sunset Strip Killers”
Sadistic sweethearts Carol M Bundy and Doug Clark had a n odd relationship fuelled by dark fantasies, as Clark would often bring home young prostitutes for them both to have sex with, his ultimate goal being to kill a woman during sex and “feel her vaginal contractions during death”. Between 1st June and 26th August 1980, Bundy & Clark’s sick fantasies turned into a reality as Clark murdered 6 teenage prostitutes; forcing them to perform lewd sex acts, shooting them in the head, defiling their corpses and dumping their bodies, once taking a victim's head as a trophy. 
Clark is reported to have said that if ever they were arrested, he would take the blame… but at his trail, he blamed Bundy for everything. Found guilty by the court, Doug Clark was sentenced to death on 15th February 1983 and – 33 years on – still sits on Death Row in San Quentin Prison (California) with Carol M Bundy receiving a life sentence having entered a plea bargain. She died in prison on 9th December 2003 from heart failure. Read more. ​
​Charlene and Gerald Gallego – “The Love Slave Killers”
Between 11th September 1978 and 2nd November 1980, married couple Charlene & Gerald Gallego murdered 10 victims, some as young as 13 years old, across the states of California, Nevada and Oregon. Unable to be aroused during normal sex, Gerald (aided by Charlene) lured their terrified teenage victims into a van, where they were repeatedly raped, tortured and abused over the course of an evening or night, and then driven to a secluded spot, bludgeoned, shot in the head and their bodies dumped. 
Best-friends Brenda Judd (14) & Sandra Colley (13) who were abducted together, weren’t discovered until four years later when a tractor unearthed their skeletal remains. In 1984, Gerald Gallego was sentenced to death in two states (Nevada & California) but died of rectal cancer on 18th July 2002 at Nevada State Prison. Charlene testified against him in exchange for a plea bargain and having served 16 years and 8 months of her sentence, Charlene Gallego was released from Nevada State Prison and moved to Fair Oaks (California) where she changed her name to Mary Martinez. She is now 60 years old. Read more.
​Cynthia Coffman and James Gregory Marlow
Between 11th October & 12th November 1986, newly-weds Cynthia Coffman & James Marlow murdered 4 women who were withdrawing cash from an ATM. Each victim was robbed, abducted, strangled, sodomised and their bodies were dumped in a shallow grave, all whilst Cynthia & Gregory were high on methamphetamine. 
With very little evidence, Police hoped for a bit of luck, and it came when their third victim’s chequebook was found in a dumpster near Laguna Niguel, hidden inside a fast-food takeaway bag, which contained bank statements bearing the names Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow. Besotted with each other, Cynthia & Gregory married on 30th July 1986, barely months before the murders, and as a mark of her love, Cynthia had tattooed on her buttock “Property of The Folsom Wolf” (Gregory’s nickname). But upon visiting Cynthia during the trial, her lawyer asked if there was anything she wanted, she replied “Yeah! Find someone who can help me lose this damn tattoo!”. Both Cynthia & Gregory are on Death Row in San Bernardino (California) with Cynthia Coffman being the first woman to receive a death sentence in the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. Read more. ​
​David and Catherine Birnie – “The Moorhouse Murderers”
Between 6th October and 5th November 1986, married couple David & Catherine Birnie of 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee (a suburb of Perth, Western Australia) murdered four young women - Mary Neilson (22), Susannah Candy (15), Noelene Patterson (31), Denise Brown (21) - and attempted to kill Kate Moir (17), many in their own home. Fuelled by sick fantasies, the Birnie’s would abduct, gag, chain to a bed and rape their victims, then drive them to a secluded spot, where their terrified victim would be strangled, stabbed and buried in a shallow grave. 
Their victims were not known to them, they were merely strangers who were either hitchhiking, stranded, waiting for a bus or were replying to an advert for a set of tyres. Luckily, following her abduction and rape, 17 year old Kate Moir escaped and called the Police. David & Catherine Birnie were sentenced to four life terms. One day before his trial having raped a fellow inmate, David Birnie committed suicide by hanging in his cell at Casuarina Prison on 7th October 2005 at 1.33am. Catherine Birnie is imprisoned in Bandyup Women's Prison; her 2007 and 2010 application for parole was rejected, with Jim McGinty (Attorney General of Western Australia) marking her papers as “never to be released”. Her case is up for review in 2019. Read more. 
​Delfina and María de Jesús González – “Las Poquianchis”
Following the arrest of Josefina Gutiérrez, a known kidnapper of young girls in Guanajuato on 14th January 1964, Police arrested Delfina and María de Jesús González, two sisters from Guanajuato (north-central Mexico) who ran a large-scale prostitution ring known as Rancho el Angel near the city of San Francisco del Rincón. Inside the brothel they found the rotting corpses of 80 women, 11 men and numerous fetuses. 
From the early 1950’s onwards, Delfine & Maria had advertised for housemaids, but had abducted those who applied for the job, injected them heroin till they sustained a heavy drug-addiction and forced them into prostitution. When their prisoners/prostitutes became too ill, too unwilling, lost their looks, or were so badly damaged internally from being repeatedly raped, Defline & Maria murdered and dumped their bodies. Along with any unwanted babies, and any male customer who they felt was a suitable target for robbery. Both were sentenced to 40 years; Delfina died in Irapuato prison on 17th October 1968 when a workmen doing repairs above her cell “accidentally” dropped a bucket of cement on her head. Maria was subsequently freed in the mid-1990’s having completed her sentence, and vanished into obscurity. Read more. ​
​Gwendolyn Graham & Cathy Wood – “The Lethal Lovers”
in January & February 1987, two nurses aides - Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood – at Alpine Manor (Walker, Michigan) suffocated five vulnerable elderly patients, aged 65 to 97 years old, who all had Alzheimer's disease. Their victims were not murdered out of malice or for financial gain, but as part of a twisted love-bond between the two lesbian lovers, who chose their victims based on whether their first initial would spell “M-U-R-D-E-and finally - R)”. 
Ultimately the couple broke up, and Catherine Wood’s ex-husband went to the Police having been told about the murders which Wood blamed entirely on Graham. On 4th & 5th December 1988, both women were arrested and charged with two of the five murders (as three of their victims had already been cremated). On 3rd November 1989, Graham convicted of five counts of murder and given five life sentences at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility (Michigan). Wood – who testified against Graham – received a lesser sentence of second degree murder and is due for release from Federal Correctional Institution (Tallahassee, Florida) on 6th June 2021. The Alpine Manor nursing home – unsurprisingly - went out of business. Read more. ​

Part Two of Killer Couples is available here next Wednesday 25th January

No plans for Valentine's Day? Looking for a curious & quirky treat for that certain special? Book onto Murder Mile Walks. 
​If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals

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 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Who is Britain's Deadliest Family?

14/7/2016

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So, who is Britain's deadliest family? Obviously, by "deadly" I don't mean the stereotypical set of chav's who dine on a daily diet of chips, crisps, crack, fags and Red-Bull, dress in matching terry towelling tracksuits, drip in Lizzie Duke gold(plated) chains, and have almost as many brain-cells as they have teeth, whose snaring pit-bull is their intellectual equal, who wear a sovereign ring on each finger to stop their knuckles scraping on the floor, whose social high-point was "kicking off" in a (let's be honest, "pre-rehearsed") spiteful spat on Jeremy Kyle, and who most of their neighbours avoid because they're a little bit "shouty". No, by "deadly" I mean a family with whom death has become synonymous, almost as if death follows them about. 
Maybe you're thinking of Sawney Bean, the 48 strong clan of cannibals who reportedly murdered over 1000 locals in East Lothian during the 1500's, feeding on their limbs, torsos and brains (as if the contents of a haggis wasn't bad enough)? 

Perhaps it's the hideous West's who have popped into your mind; Fred & Rose West, the serial killer couple who, from 1967 to 1987 murdered 12 young women and girls, including their own daughters? ​
Or perchance, having just watched the excellent Tom Hardy in Legend (an awful title but a highly watchable film), it's the East End's terrible twosome, those terrifying twins, Ronnie & Reggie Kray who fits the bill? Well...?
Sorry, it was not either of them​. 

You see, in Britain we have a population of over sixty-four million people, but - thankfully, unlike America - we have an incredibly low murder rate, which averages out at roughly three hundred people per year, just over one person per day (a high proportion of which are sex workers*). And yet, if you were to look at your family tree, it's very unlikely that any of your families will befall a colossal personal tragedy, such as one murder every two or three hundred years. 

Where-as Britain's deadliest family 
has a higher mortality rate than most others when it comes to murders, executions, assassinations, and mysteriously unexplained deaths. So, who are they? They are, of course, The British Royal Family - a dynasty beset by tragedy. 

​Unnatural Deaths in the British Royal Family (1000BC to today)
  • 31 August 1997 - Princess Diana - unexplained car accident / murder
  • 13 June 1981 - Queen Elizabeth II - assassination attempt by Marcus Sarjeant
  • ​29 April 1970 - Queen Elizabeth II - assassination attempt in Lithgow, Australia
  • 20 January 1936 - King George V -  died by lethal injection 
  • 17 July 1918 - The Russian Royal Family - murdered by the Bolshiviks
Note: One of the nine children of Queen Victoria was Alice who married Louis IV Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, one of whose seven children was Alexandra, who married The last Czar of Russia, Nicholas Romanov II.
  • 21 January 1919 - Prince John - epileptic seizure (an excellent documentary - Prince John: The Windor's Tragic Secret, who was hidden from the public)
  • Seven attempts to assassinate HRH Queen Victoria in 1840, 1842 (twice this year), 1849, 1850, 1872 and 1882. 
  • 25 October 1760 - King George II - dies drinking hot chocolate on the toilet
  • 8 March 1702 - King William II & III- died of pneumonia, having fallen from a horse
  • 19 January 1600 - King Charles I - guilty of treason and beheaded
  • 8 February 1587 - Mary I "Queen of Scots" - guilty of treason and beheaded
  • 12 February 1554 - (Queen/Consort/Lady) Jane Grey - guilty of treason and beheaded, she is England's shortest serving monarch, hence she's known as the Nine Day Queen
  • 13 February 1542 - Queen Katherine Howard - beheaded on the orders of Henry VIII
  • 19 May 1536 - Queen Anne Boleyn - beheaded on the orders of Henry VIII (again)
  • 2 April 1502 - Prince Arthur of Wales - died of "sweating sickness" five months after his wedding to Catherine of Aragon, the illness remains a mystery to this day
  • c 1483 - King Edward V & Richard, Duke of York - dubbed "The Princes in the Tower", both were imprisoned in the Tower of London, supposedly on the orders of King Richard III, the date and causes of their deaths remain unknown 
  • 21/22 May 1471 - King Henry VI - imprisoned in tower of London and murdered
  • 21 February 1437 - King James I - assassinated by a Scots group by Sir Robert Graham at the Friars Preachers Monastery in Perth
  • 14 February 1400 - King Richard II - imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he was either murdered or starved to death, no-one actually knows
  • 21 September 1327 - King Edward II - was supposedly murdered by having a metal tube and a red-hot poker inserted into his anus by Sir John Maltravers of Dorset (I bet you £50 that Sir John went to Eton, just saying)
  • 19 March 1286 - King Alexander II - assumed he fell from his horse riding home
  • 2 August 1100 - King William II - mysteriously killed by an arrow through the heart on a hunting trip with some "close friends"
  • 12 November 1094 - King Duncan II - killed by Máel Petair of Mearns

A pretty deadly family wouldn't you say? And there's probably a whole heap of other murders, mischief, misery and mysteries I haven't uncovered as I've mostly focused on the Monarchs, the Queen, their kids, and anyone who happened to "cark it on the carzi" or died with "a red hot poker up their arses". But if you know of any others, please let me know in the comments section below. Now that's a family history I bet they don't tell on a guided tour of Buckingham Palace?

* Sex-workers in the UK are 42 times more likely to be murdered than the average person
** yes, I know it isn't Linda McCartney, this is called sarcasm

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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    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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