Five time nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at the True Crime Awards, Independent Podcast Award and The British Podcast Awards, and voted 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
29 St George's Drive in Pimlico (right hand pillars) @Googlemaps2025 July2024
On Monday 19th of February 1962, the same day that Norman Rickard’s body was found, 23-year-old Alan Vigar, who was also a quiet, handsome and secretly-gay man was strangled to death in the privacy of his flat by a tall and attractive man that the Police believe he too had picked up in Piccadilly Circus. Both men had invited their killer in, undressed, willingly been tied up and asphyxiated as part of this sex play. The press dubbed him the Twilight Sex Killer. But who was he?
THE LOCATION: (note I stopped updating the map, as MapHub were demanding money)
SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: So, who was the Twilight Sex Killer? Find out in Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing on St George’s Drive in Pimlico, SW1: four streets south-east of Maggie’s fall, two streets west of Martha Browning’s deadly alibi, four streets east of the woman in red, and yet a full three and a half miles south of the murder of Norman Rickard – as covered last week on Murder Mile. At 29 St George’s Drive stands yet another five-storey, mid-Victorian terraced house on the corner of a busy city street and just a short walk from a tube station - not dissimilar to Norman’s. Today, it’s an affordably priced hotel for city-breakers called ‘The 29’; with good showers so you can scrub away the London filth, and soft beds to cry away how fast you got fleeced in London - ‘Europe’s biggest rip-off’. Yet, if true crime is your thing, the front first-floor room was once the scene of a little-known sex killer. On Monday 19th of February 1962, the same day that Norman Rickard’s body was found, 23-year-old Alan Vigar, who was also a quiet, handsome and secretly-gay man was strangled to death in the privacy of his flat by a tall and attractive man that the Police believe he too had picked up in Piccadilly Circus. Both had invited him in, undressed, willingly been tied up and asphyxiated as part of this sex play. With the killer leaving no fingerprints, witnesses or obvious motive, although the coroner ruled this ‘murder by persons unknown’ as a sex game gone wrong, with a serial killer potentially stalking the city’s gay men, Police had started looking for links in unnervingly similar killings across London, Kent, Derbyshire, West Germany, even in Zurich, and - although Albert Day had seen the suspect with Norman Rickard - no-one knew his name, yet the press had already dubbed him the Twilight Sex Killer. But who was he? My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 315: The Twilight Sex Killer – Part Two. Like Norman, Alan was gay and lived in a world where it was illegal to be gay, and yet he was. Alan John Vigar was born in March 1939 in Tenterden, Kent, a oldy-worldly ancient town full of quaint tearooms, church fetes, a blacksmiths, maybe a maypole, Morris dancers, a pelting stock, and as a site of a very English culture, like Norman’s town, it was a place where people and ideas do not change. Raised by Robert, an aging father, who had two previous wives and many other children, Alan was the youngest son of Eleanor Vigar, with his older brother Kenneth being the one who married and had a child. And although, as a Shoesmith in the Royal Field Artillery (awarded the Star and Military Medal), Robert wanted his son to follow him into the services, knowing that he was gay and wanted to be who he wanted to be, instead of being trapped by a career – as Norman was - Alan chose to enter the arts. Aged 23, and said to be 5 foot 6, slim, with fair hair in a quiff, Alan was softly spoken and quiet, polite and well mannered, and never discussed his love life, even though he worked in an industry where gay men flourished; he began as a window dresser in Croydon, he was briefly a male model, he joined the BBC as a costumier, and was now a ‘wardrobe boy’ at Teddington Studios working on ABC TV comedy series ‘Our House’, starring Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtree, Joan Syms and Bernard Bleslaw. Bernard recalled “he had been my dresser for the past 26 weeks. He was extremely efficient and never talked about his private life”. Filming every Saturday and Sunday, Monday was his day off, and paying £3 10s a week, Alan had occupied the front first-floor flat – a small serviced room – at 29 St George’s Drive, of which the landlady Miss Olive Molyneux described him as “the best tenant in the house”, with the housekeeper, Frederica Thornton stating “he was a very nice man”. Being private, she said “the only woman who visited him was his mother, and I never heard any disturbance from his room”. Like Norman, he was stylish and neat, last seen wearing a fawn mohair jacket with knitted sleeves, a brown shirt, black and white tight fitting trousers, black casual shoes and brown sheepskin gloves. But unlike Norman, having his own car, he often picked up men in his slightly battered Hillman Minx. And again, unlike Norman, Alan was comfortable with his sexuality, but it was still a secret, as it had to be. On Sunday 18th of February 1962, the day before his death and when Norman’s body was found, he met his brother and his mother in Westerham in Kent, and was “excited about his holiday in Italy”… …which rules out any hint that it could have been a suicide. The next day, Monday the 19th, Frederica the housekeeper saw him at about 10am, leaving with Alfred Abbott, a foreman he’d known for a year. She normally cleaned his room at 11:30am, but as he’d been away, he asked her not to bother. He departed a little after, leaving his car, as he wanted to drink. It was a typical day for an ordinary man enjoying his life. As planned, Alan & Albert headed to a several milliners in Knightsbridge, Victoria and Piccadilly as he was looking to buy a hat. Mid-afternoon, as they sat in a coffee-house near Piccadilly Circus, Alan suddenly excused himself saying he wanted to “speak privately” to an unnamed and unidentified man who Albert said Alan had been ‘eyeing up’. He was gone for five minutes, it was never said what they spoke about, and the man was never identified. Was this the same place that Norman was last seen in? We shall never know. That afternoon they strolled the West End and having parted ways outside the Ritz Cinema in Leicester Square at 5pm, it is uncertain if Alan had planned to meet Albert again that evening, as Albert called the communal phone several times at 29 St George’s Drive from 7pm to 8pm, but Alan wasn’t in. Did Alan snub Albert Abbott, as Norman had with Albert Day, or was this just a coincidence? Like Norman, instead of going home, Alan headed back to Piccadilly Circus and at 7:30pm he entered a cellar bar called Ward's Irish House, where he got chatting to an unnamed Guardsman he had known for six months. At the Coroner’s inquest, he confirmed they parted at 8.20pm at Piccadilly Circus, Alan was tipsy but not drunk, he wasn’t worried or frightened, and said “he was going to meet someone”. It was a 25-minute journey home, but he wasn’t seen till 9:50pm, so although an hour is missing from his timeline, like Norman, his last ever sighting alive was captured as he entered his home, but whereas it is said that most eyewitnesses are only 30% accurate, this sighting was by possibly the best witness. Sergeant William Wotherspoon, a plain-clothed detective for the Met’ Police was sat in a bay window on the ground-floor sitting-room next door at 27 St George’s Drive, overlooking the busy intersection. With a notepad, he was keeping surveillance on a nearby building, and at 9:50pm, “I saw Alan, who I had known for about a year, but had never spoke to, coming from the direction of Ecclestone Square”. Trained to accurately record details, William told the inquest “I had a good look at them both and took note of the other man”, but as they passed his window, “I didn't see if they had entered number 29”. In fact nobody did. William described this man; as aged 23 to 26 (a similar age to the suspect last seen with Norman), as well as also slim, 5 foot 10, well built, clean shaven with ‘classic features’, expanding this that he had “a pointed chin, a high forehead, was effeminate, and was extraordinarily well dressed” wearing a dark brown windcheater or raincoat which was zipped-up at the front. And although some details don’t match the man seen with Norman - as this man had thick fair hair, not dark - did Albert Day get this detail wrong, because being snubbed was his focus was on Norman and not his date? Of course, if he was the killer, this man who ‘may’ have accompanied Alan to his flat could have been wearing a wig or had dyed it, but if he wanted to disguise himself, why didn’t he wear glasses or a hat? Either way, no-one could confirm or refute if this was the same man as Norman’s suspect… until later. Whatever time Alan entered his lodging at 29 St George’s Drive, as per usual, no-one heard him open the door, climb the stairs, or enter his room. Frederica the housekeeper was in all night, and stated “I didn’t hear a thing”, no voices, no bangs and no struggle, just the delicate sound of music and silence. As with Norman, no-one suspected that anything was wrong, and all stated, it was an uneventful night. The next morning, on Tuesday the 20th of February, around the time of Norman’s autopsy at St Pancras mortuary, Frederica was doing her rounds, and with most of the residents out, she was going room-to-room with her hoover, dusters and cleaning box. At 11:15am, her usual time, even though she knew he’d be out, being polite, she knocked at his door, and getting no reply, she opened it with a pass key. Was this why Norman Rickard’s killer had locked him in a wardrobe? Did he believe that Norman may have had a housekeeper, so he hid the body in a locked cupboard so it wouldn’t be found for days? Inside Alan’s one-roomed lodging was a bed, a set of drawers and a wash stand, but no wardrobe. As usual, it was neat and clean, with no signs of forced entry or a disturbance, but the second she walked in – knowing Alan – she knew that something wasn’t right. His shoes were by the door and last night’s clothes had been neatly folded over the back of two fireside chairs, but he hadn’t made his bed. Alan always made his bed. So, with the curtains closed and the bedside lamp previously broken, it looked as if he had bunched up his crinkled sheets into a messy lump in the bed’s middle, and spotting a towel ominously draped over the pillow, as she removed it, she was confronted by a horrible sight… …the bulging eyes of Alan’s contorted and discoloured face. This is where confusion often sets in, as the first officer on the scene had arrived to what was described to him as “an attempted suicide”, as with the witness being so shocked, mistakes were easily made. The investigation was headed up by Detective Superintendent Fred Cornish, a different detective to Norman’s killer, as although both murders occurred in London, they were both in different boroughs. But the second the details were released – that another young, handsome, gay man was found in his own room, naked, bound and strangled - the gay men of London were already calling for the Police to catch and convict him before he kills again, and the press had already dubbed him ‘Twilight Sex Killer’. The similarities between both murders were startling. The room didn’t look like a typical murder scene, just as Norman’s had been mistaken (for at least a week) as that of a missing person. There was no struggle, no ransacking, no fingerprints, no witnesses, and no obvious motive. In fact, it took days to discover that a few items were missing; an electric razor, a cigarette case, two leather jackets, and his wallet, which could suggest his killer wasn’t a stranger? So was this a robbery, a sex game gone wrong by an opportunist thief, or was the theft a red-herring? The Police issued photos and descriptions of the jackets, as being of high-quality and no-longer being made, they were likely to be sold or worn by the killer, but this line of enquiry resulted in a dead end. Like Norman, the body was examined in-situ by a Home Office Pathologist, this time Dr Donald Teare. Based on the decomposition, his time of death was established as between 1am and 4am, but with a 25% margin of error owing to the house’s intermittent heating, this was extended to 11pm and 5am – a timing which was as good as useless. As before, Alan was naked, having willingly undressed and got into bed, which either suggests that he knew his killer, or that he was so used to bringing strangers back to his flat that for him this was normal. With no signs of force or assault, Alan had allowed his hands to be tied behind his back using the red, blue and yellow cord of a bathrobe – similar to the kind used to strangle Norman – and yet, it didn’t belong to either of Alan’s two bathrobes, and the one used to kill Norman was still around his neck. So, did his killer bring this bathrobe cord with him, or was he already wearing a bathrobe, if so, why? Again, forensic analysis was unable to determine if he had been sexually assaulted. Again, the motive was hard to prove. Again, he had been strangled from behind while laying face-down on the bed, but with the cord used to bind his wrists, his killer had grabbed Alan’s cotton vest from the chair, with one hand he had held him down as fingernail abrasions had embedded into his left shoulder, and as if he was pulling the reins of a horse, he strangled Alan with his right, forcing his face deep into the pillow. Alan was strangled and suffocated, and again, before he died, he didn’t have time to cry out or scream, even though it had taken his killer two attempts to take his life, as around his neck, were two ligature marks both made by the vest being seven inches long, but they were three-quarters of an inch apart. Blood on the pillow confirmed that he died by asphyxia strangulation, which again, the coroner could not determine if this was the result of a wilful murder; with Gavin Thurston stating “it was impossible to say whether death might not have been the result of some perverted play which got out of hand”. In short, Alan knew the risks of his ‘immoral’ (and illegal) way of life, and the outcome was death. Yet, if his killer had accidentally killed him, as he had Norman just one week before, why didn’t he flee immediately? Instead, he tried to hide him; by pulling the bedsheet up to his face, covering his head with a towel, possibly fabricating a robbery, locking the door, taking the keys, and again, creeping out. So, was this also an accident, or was it planned? Seeing the similarities, Detective Superintendent Cornish teamed up with Detective Superintendent Hare who was investigating Norman’s killing, as there was a possibility that the cases were linked. Like Norman, Alan kept a diary of the men he had met for sex. Police initially suspected he may have been killed as (working in television) he knew many celebrities who were secretly gay, “but there were no famous names, no royals, nor anyone who would cause a scandal”, so it was dropped as a motive. Again, as every clue only led to dead-ends and silences, with no evidence pointing to an obvious killer, the people and the press went into overdrive, and even the Police targeted any man who fit the brief; whether he was violent, sadistic, gay, or looked a little like the suspect Albert had seen with Norman. On the 16th of March, an unnamed soldier who had gone AWOL since Christmas was questioned and put on an ID parade in front of the key eyewitnesses (Albert Day, Sergeant Wotherspoon, Elphreda Weinand or the unnamed Guardsman) who may have seen the killer, but none of them picked him. On the 23rd of July, a ship’s Steward, whose own colleagues onboard the Rangitoto had alerted the Police to this possible suspect, who was gay and looked like the Identikit posted in the press. But again the ID parade failed. He also had a perfect alibi, that on the day that Norman & Alan were murdered, he was onboard this P&O liner, surrounded by 400 passengers, and was half way across the Pacific. He later stated “it is my misfortune that I am supposed to look like the man seen with Alan Vigar”, and fearing some repercussions, he stated “I have been treated well by the Police during my interviews”. This wasn’t the only desperate connection made, as many leads ended with a wall of silence by the gay men of London who felt they were being persecuted as suspects, rather than possible victims. But as before, many possible attention-seekers also came out of the woodwork to seek some notoriety. On Sunday the 25th of February, Patrick Lambert, a 32-year-old chef from Maidstone in Kent claimed “last Sunday (the day before Alan’s murder and Norman’s body was found) I had a drink in a Soho pub. At 10pm, I strolled to Piccadilly tube station. I met a good looking young man. We chatted. He told me his name was Johnny”, he was Scots-Irish “and had left prison recently after serving time for robbery”. “He wore a raincoat, grey flannel trousers… his hair was dark and brushed back… I agreed to put him up for the night. We had tea and cake in Victoria train station”, and arriving back at Patrick’s flat, “I dozed off. Suddenly the man threw himself at me and squeezed my throat. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t scream”. Collapsing unconscious, this ‘Johnny’ stole £3 from his wallet, and then fled. So certain were Police that it was him, that they visited many of the gay clubs in Soho, showing regulars the Identikit and warning them “if you see this man, call us immediately, do not take him home”. But as we know, with a provable alibi to the murders of Alan and Norman, he was released without charge. Patrick’s story could be true, but every detail he states is identical to those which had already printed in the newspapers, except one fact – that the strangulation happened during sadomasochistic sex. Running out of patience, the Police headed further into their rogue’s gallery; questioning Jack Murray, owner of the Alibi Club in Soho (which both Alan & Norman had frequented) as he had been convicted in Tangiers for “leading young men into debauchery”, but he was in prison during both murders. On the 14th of March, they interviewed an unnamed Spanish hotel porter living in London, who was Interpol’s no1 suspect in the murder of Swiss postman Heinrich Gihner in Zurich, weeks before both murders. With Heinrich found naked, tied up and strangled face down on his bed, the Spanish porter was questioned by Met’s Detectives, but he didn’t match the description, and also had a strong alibi. So, were either of these men the killer, but the Police failed to catch them as they were too fixated on believing that the eyewitness descriptions were accurate in their hunt for this possible serial killer… …or does this simply show how common this kind of murder actually is? Are we seeing similarities because we want to see similarities, and ignoring the differences because they are more likely to point to it being two, three or maybe several suspects who are unconnected? Every angle had to be investigated, so Police also explored the possibility that the Twilight Sex Killings could be linked to the Bubble Car Murders of Derbyshire, also known as ‘The Carbon Copy murders’, three murders in Chesterfield and Germany linked to convicted killer, 23-year-old Michael Copeland. But although they had undoubtably been committed by the same maniac who had a hatred of gays, 60-year-old William Elliott was kicked and stamped to death, 48-year-old George Stobbs was battered to death, Gunter Himbrecht was stabbed 37 times, and there was no sadomasochistic sex involved. Michael Copeland voluntarily confessed to those three murders, and was convicted in 1965. When the Met’ Police questioned him about the deaths of Alan Vigar & Norman Rickard, he had no knowledge at all. And although he looked slightly similar to the Identikit, he wasn’t 5 foot 10, but a huge 6 foot 4. No-one could mistake him for someone else, even given how flawed eyewitness descriptions are. They even investigated a possible link to Ellen Brabon, a 72-year-old widow who was found strangled to death in her basement flat at nearby 77 St George’s Drive, and – again – the press tried to dig up dirt to link Alan to William Vassalli who sold secrets to Russia, but why would there be a connection? The nearest Police got to a link was – as we’ve covered before – the murder of Vincent Patrick Keighrey on the 2nd of December 1964, at Carroll House in Bayswater; he was found in bed, strangled, with his hands tied behind his back, there was no sexual assault, and nothing seemed to have been stolen. He too was living a double life having worked for the Police, and although three men (John Simpson, William Dunning & Michael Odam were acquitted) it’s likely that they pretended to be gay to rob him. On the 13th of April 1962, Alan Vigar was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church at Westerham. Detectives were in attendance to pay their respects, and see if his killer was watching, but this proved fruitless. On 18th of May, three months after the murders, having deliberated for five minutes, the jury returned a verdict of “murder by a person or persons unknown”, the same as Norman Rickard. Alan was blamed for his own death, as the coroner Gavin Thurston stated “whether it had been some kind of perverted play that had got out of hand, it was impossible to say”. And today, the case remains unsolved. (End) So, who was the Twilight Sex Killer? We may never know, as there were two mistakes in the reporting of the Norman’s murder (where many witnesses learned of the killings), and in the investigation itself. Albert Day, the man who was snubbed by Norman that evening, described the man Norman was seen walking home with as “20 to 23, 5 foot 10 to 11, broad shoulders, athletic, oval or round face, dark-brown brushed-back hair and a fresh complexion, dark trousers and a grey wool gabardine raincoat”. And although eye-witnesses are notoriously unreliable, Police made and distributed an Identikit of it. That was the first mistake. Albert’s detailed description of the suspect was wrong, as the tall dark-haired German girl, Elphreda Weinand, who Norman got chatting to in Piccadilly, caught the tube back with him to Maida Vale, and living at 11a Elgin Avenue, one block south, he was escorting her home. Albert Day didn’t see a man, but a taller than average woman with short dark hair wearing masculine clothes. He didn’t notice this, as being upset at being snubbed, his focus was on Norman, not the girl. And even if this suspect, whether male or female was Norman’s killer, he didn’t die that night. Saturday 10th of February was the last time he was seen alive, and even though the pathologist could only state that he had been dead for “at least a week”, and no one had seen or heard from Norman after that moment, we know he was alive, at least at 1pm on Sunday afternoon, almost a day later. Being a weekend, he did what he always did. He had breakfast, he got dressed like an ‘urban cowboy’, and with a plan to pick up a stranger for sex, he hid his jewellery and his wallet in the usual places. At 1pm, even though no-one saw him, we know he listened to the lunchtime news on the radio, as he wrote about it in a letter to his father and stepmother posted that afternoon. He wrote “just going for lunch… the weather said it’s going to rain this afternoon, so I’ll go for a walk before the rain comes”. It was a small, overlooked detail, which most of the press missed, as they were too focussed on their hunt for a salacious sex killer and serial killer of London’s gay men, rather seeing this obvious fact. That day, although he wasn’t seen, Norman must have caught his usual bus to Speaker’s Corner, and being professionally discrete, he bought a stranger back to his flat, and that man was seen by no-one. Who was the Twilight Sex Killer? Who knows. But as riddled as both murders are with coincidences, the only way to solve it is to seek out the differences and not the similarities in a hunt for a serial killer. 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, which are freely available in the public domain, 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, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast 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 to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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