The Gruesome and Grisly Side of Brighton

[West Hoathly Seagull]

BoF, why not get in touch with Tim Carder? He posts sometimes on here as the History Man, though I don't know how often he reads NSC. I expect he's a bit busy with the museum at the moment, but I'm sure he could give you research tips, bits of information, etc. Then there's always the museum by the Pavilion.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

And the killing of the Jewish police chief - can't remember his name but that was a famous Brighton murder too.

Interesting story BoF - do keep us posted if you find more stuff like that, always interested in Brighton history (BTW, if it's not a bear, it's spelled "grisly")

Noted (and corrected)! I shall.

BoF, why not get in touch with Tim Carder? He posts sometimes on here as the History Man, though I don't know how often he reads NSC. I expect he's a bit busy with the museum at the moment, but I'm sure he could give you research tips, bits of information, etc. Then there's always the museum by the Pavilion.

That's a good idea, thanks.

The murder I am basing my story round is this...

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk...ar-soot-preston-manor-edwardian-dog-tombstone

It's a spoof/happy families type murder mystery. I have a worrying feeling that it is going to be dire, but there is only one way to find out.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

THE BRIGHTON TRUNK MURDER (1934)

The Brighton trunk murder of 1934 is one of those curious mysteries that should have been solved and yet never was. On June 17, 1934, the smell coming from a plywood trunk at the Brighton Railway Station aroused suspicion. It proved to contain the naked torso of a woman; the legs were found in another suitcase at King's Cross Station. The suntanned skin and the sun-bleached hair suggested that she was probably an upper-class girl in hwer middle 20s who was about 3 months pregnant. But in spite of exhaustive police work all over England, the girl was never identified. A certain kind of pure olive oil on the corpse, used by surgeons to stop heavy bleeding, suggested that the murderer could have been a medical man. The trunk was brought into Brighton, yet the police found evidence to suggest that the murderer had traveled with it from Dartford, in Kent, by way of London Bridge. Another baffling touch! Years of police investigation failed to reveal the slightest clue to the murderer or to the identity of the murdered girl, although both probably belonged to the "leisured class." This makes the failure to identify the girl even more baffling. It has been called the perfect murde

 

[Black Dalek]

Enjoyable read with my Tea & Toast for breaky. Always luv a bit of gruesome Brighton history.

 

[dougdeep]

The murder I am basing my story round is this...

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk...ar-soot-preston-manor-edwardian-dog-tombstone

No originality then?

 

[Da Man Clay]

Brighton is also the only place to have a chief constable murdered.

 

[banjo]

http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8498_path__0p116p166p367p0p116p1442p1571p.aspx

 

[Dover]

You have to dig a little, and i have heard that this is a a load of old toffee, but.......http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/rdudley/legalandgeneral.pdf

 

[Dover]

or maybe there is some truth in the story....http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2133790.stm

 

[Phat Baz 68]

Russell Bishop was done for the attempted murder of a seven year old girl from Whitehawk in 1990, four years after he was somehow cleared of the murder of two other little girls found in Wild Park, Brighton that became known as
The Babes In The Woods Murders the case is apparently being reopened on him for that one now.
He is or was ( not sure if hes out now) Britains longest serving prison for attempted murder only.
They didn't have enough evidence in 2005 to send himtotrial again for the two girls murders but new evidence has now come to light.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Good luck BOF seems there is plenty of stories out there!

 

[Seagull58]

It was a saturday, the day after he was hanged.

 

[algie]

What about this one Paul?

http://www.womenofbrighton.co.uk/lucy-packham.html

 

[Barrel of Fun]

No originality then?

Has a story been based upon this murder? My bad.

What about this one Paul?

http://www.womenofbrighton.co.uk/lucy-packham.html

Manslaughter?! It certainly goes some way to show how man regarded women in those days.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Don't know if you've read this book;

Breakfast in Brighton-Adventures on the Edge of England

Pretty good read

 

[jevs]

Maybe you could try solving this one BoF ? http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3751317.Brighton_murder_case_that_lives_on/

 

[Pbseagull]

I'm trying to write a murder mystery based in Victorian Brighton and my research came across this very interesting tale of Lover's Walk.

http://rpmcollections.wordpress.com/tag/lovers-walk/

Anymore interesting tales out there?

Brighton trunk Murders, earned Brighton the unwanted sobriquet ‘Queen of Slaughtering Places’ suddenly Brighton found itself to be the crime capital of England.


In the 1930s Brighton became notorious for a series of “trunk murders”, when dismembered female bodies were found crammed into separate trunks at Charing Cross Station in 1927 and two more bodies at King’s Cross and Brighton stations in 1934.

The seaside resort, best known as a destination for its illicit weekend trysts, was given the unwanted nickname of ‘Queen of Slaughtering Places’ and suddenly Brighton found itself to be the crime capital of England.

The First Trunk Murder

On 10 May 1927 staff at Charing Cross railway station in London noticed an unpleasant smell in the left luggage department where they found the dismembered body of a woman.

“Concerned by a foul smell in the cloakroom he discovered it was coming from a locked trunk.”

Sir Bernard Spilsbury, an eminent police pathologist who had worked on the Dr Crippen case in 1910, was called in to carry out a post-mortem examination at Westminster Mortuary. He found a limbless body with its legs hacked off at the hips and the arms removed from the shoulders. Each piece had been wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string. The woman’s shoes and handbag were also in the trunk and the crime had been committed two-to-three weeks previously.

The Second Trunk Murder

Seven years later on 17 June 1934, Southern Railway cloakroom attendant William Joseph Vinnicombe found the remains of a woman in a trunk at Brighton Railway Station. Concerned by a foul smell in the cloakroom, he discovered it was coming from a locked trunk. Summoning Detective Bishop of the Railway Police who opened the trunk, they found several layers of paper and cotton wool soaked in blood and a parcel tied with a sash cord that held together arms and a torso. The next day a case containing the woman’s legs was found at King’s Cross Railway Station.

Carrying out the post-mortem on 19 June 1934, Sir Bernard Spilsbury stated that the 25-year-old woman was pregnant and suffered a heavy blow to the head with a blunt instrument. The only clue was a piece of paper with the word “Ford” written on it.

The country was horrified and Brighton police called in Scotland Yard to conduct a massive nationwide operation. The cases of 700 missing women were reviewed and police checked hospitals and known abortionists. For the first time ever the police appealed directly to the public for help and information using the Press.

After a month of investigations with few results police concentrated on house-to-house searches and on 15 July they found a locked room containing a trunk at 52 Kemp Street, Brighton. Inside the trunk was another body of a decomposing woman.

42-year-old Violet Kaye had moved from London to Brighton with her lover Tony Mancini in September 1933. Her real name was Violet Saunders and she was a known prostitute who had once been a dancer touring the country in revue shows.

A heavy drinker who was insecure of her much younger lover, she accused Mancini of making a pass at one of the waitresses at the Skylark Café where he worked. A few days after their argument, Mancini told his work colleague that Violet had left him and gone to Paris.

Tony Mancini was picked up for vagrancy on the outskirts of London on 17 July. When questioned he gave his name as Cecil Lois England and claimed he had found Kaye dead in their flat and assumed she had been killed by one of her clients. He had panicked because he had a criminal record and had hidden her body in a trunk. On hearing of the house-to-house searches he went on the run.