The late spring and early summer of 1986 were filled with hot sunny days and warm nights. Across London police struggled to deal with a mini crime wave as the capital's burglars and sneak thieves took full advantage of the thousands of windows left open in homes and offices because of the heat. But burglars were not the only ones who were breaking into people's houses during the night. A killer was on the loose in south London, strangling old people in their beds.
The attacker's first killing almost wasn't recognized as a murder at all. Seventy-eight-year-old Nancy Emms lived alone in a musty, unkempt basement flat in West Hill Road in the south-west London suburb of Wandsworth. She was found dead in her bed by her home help on 9 April.
There was no immediate sign of anything untoward. She lay on her back, eyes closed, with the sheet pulled up under her chin. A doctor called to the scene thought she had been dead for about three days and signed a death certificate to say that she had died of natural causes.
Missing TV
Plans were already being made for her cremation when the home help noticed that a portable TV set was missing from the flat. The police were called and a postmortem was ordered. Nancy Emms had been strangled - throttled by a killer with his bare hands. There was also bruising on her ribs, from heavy pressure, as if someone had knelt on her chest.
Whoever had killed Nancy Emms had left virtually no trace. Detectives could find no sign of a break-in, but the victim was known to have often slept with a window open on warm nights, and they concluded that this was how the intruder had got into the building. Whoever it was had almost got away with murder. His mistake was in stealing the TV set.
A police scientist carrying out a thorough forensic examination found only one small clue: a short Afro-Caribbean head hair on a sheet from the bed.
A second victim is found
It looked like a burglary that had gone wrong. A squad of detectives began checking through lists of burglars known to live and work in that area of London. They were still working on the case when a second victim was discovered.
On 9 June, two months after the killing of Nancy Emms, the body of 67-year-old widow Mrs. Janet Cockett was found at her flat in Warwick House on the Overton Estate in Stockwell, south London.
Almost immediately it was plain that this was murder. Although she appeared to be sleeping peacefully in bed, Mrs. Cockett had been strangled with bare hands and sexually assaulted; two of her ribs were fractured as a result of heavy pressure rather than a blow.
Her nightdress had been ripped from her body, but the killer had folded it up neatly and put it on a chair near the bed. There was another odd feature of the murder. On the mantelpiece in the bedroom family photographs had been placed face down, or turned around away from the scene of the crime. The killer had taken no care to hide his identity. There was a fresh palm print on the bathroom window; another, partial palm print was found on a flowerpot. Police concluded that he had got in through the bathroom window, left open because of the warm night.
Detectives on the Emms and Cockett murders exchanged information, but at that stage could see nothing to link the two crimes, which were separated by five miles of suburbia, into which were packed over a million people. In little over a fortnight, that view was to change.
In the early hours of 27 June retired engineer Fred Prentice was asleep in his bed in a council-run old people's home, Bradmead, in Cedars Road, Clapham, when he was awoken by a noise in the corridor outside his door.
He saw a shadow through the frosted glass, then the door to his room opened. A young man entered and as Mr Prentice fumbled for the bedside light the intruder leapt on to the bed on top of him.
Mr Prentice tried to shout out, but the killer put his finger to his lips to indicate hush, then gripped the old man’s throat. He squeezed his windpipe powerfully, then relaxed his grip - then squeezed again. The intruder was playing with his victim. He squeezed his throat a third and fourth time. As he did so he hissed just one word over and over: ‘Kill. Kill. Kill...'
Fighting for his life
Mr Prentice, fighting for his life, managed to reach an alarm button on the wall near his bed head. No sound could be heard in the room, but the attacker was off the bed and out of the room in a flash. Moments later a warden dashed in to rescue Fred Prentice. The attacker had vanished. A check revealed that he had got into the complex through a window that had been left half-open.
For the local CID the attack presented something of a conundrum. Was this job linked to the strangling of Nancy Emms and Janet Cockett? Was it likely that a killer would attack both women and men? Some aspects of the three crimes were the same, yet others were totally different. At least in this case they had a witness who had had a good look at the attacker's face.
Any doubts the detectives had about the cases being linked were quickly dispelled. The killer struck again the very next night.
The bodies of 84-year-old Valentine Gleim and 94-year-old Polish-born Zbigniev Stabrava were found in their adjoining rooms at Somerville Hastings House, an old people's home in Stockwell Park Crescent. Both men had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
The intruder had been spotted creeping through the corridors of the building by night-duty staff. The police were called, but the man had vanished by the time they arrived. Once again he had entered the building through an open window.
Detective Chief Superintendent Ken Thompson of Scotland Yard was put in charge of the case. Over 200 detectives were taken off other duties to try to find the man now dubbed by the newspapers the 'Stockwell Strangler'. Dozens of old people's homes in south London were watched through the night by groups of plainclothes police officers.
Detectives wrong-footed
Two weeks later the Strangler struck again, wrong-footing the detectives by carrying out his next crime on the other side of the Thames in Islington, north London. William Carmen, the fifth victim, was murdered by an intruder in his flat at Sybil Thorndike House, on the Marquess Estate in Islington, sometime between 6 and 9 July. The 82-year-old widower was found dead in his bed, with the sheet neatly pulled up under his chin.
For the first time since the death of Nancy Emms there was a clear sign of theft. Some £400 to £500 in savings that Mr Carmen had hidden in his flat had been taken. Scotland Yard issued warnings, especially to the elderly, to keep windows securely fastened at night, despite the warm weather. But the killings went on.
On 12 July 75-year-old Trevor Thomas was found dead in the bath at his home in Barter Court. Clapham. There was little forensic evidence left for police to find as he had been dead for some time. He was not counted among the Strangler's victims, but he almost certainly was one.
Then on 20 July the body of another old man was discovered back in Stockwell. The Strangler had returned to the Overton Estate where the previous month he had killed Janet Cockett. This time he struck at neighboring Hollies House. His victim was 74-year-old William Downes, who lived alone and virtually never went out. He had been strangled and assaulted in the now familiar fashion.
Mr Downes's son said he had warned him about the Strangler: 'I warned him to keep his door and windows locked, especially at night, but it was hot and I think he left one slightly open to let some air in' It was chance enough for the Stockwell Strangler.
Murder Squad detectives were able to pick up an excellent new lead from the scene of Mr Downes's murder. On a wall in the kitchen and on the garden gate they found the killer's palm prints. They were an exact match with the one left at the home of Janet Cockett. But Scotland Yard couldn't match them with those of anyone on their files.
Palm prints not computerized
The reason was simple. Fingerprint records were in the process of being computerized. Although hundreds of thousands of fingerprint files had already been transferred to computer disc, in 1986 the work of inputting palm prints had not even begun.
So the vital clues found at the scene of two of the murders were now being checked visually by a small team of detectives. They had a staggering four million files to work through. By concentrating solely on London-based burglars and petty villains they were able to reduce the job to a manageable size. But even so, it was three months before detectives found the match they were looking for. The palm prints were those of Kenneth Erskine – a small-time crook who had been arrested a number of times for burglary. But the vital find came too late to save the final victim.
Eighty-year-old Florence Tisdall lived in an upmarket apartment block at Ranelagh Gardens by the River Thames, close to Putney Bridge. She had spent 23 July watching the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York on TV before retiring to bed. It was another hot night, and she left a window open. Erskine needed no second bidding. The frail pensioner was found the next day, manually strangled, sexually assaulted, and with broken ribs where her killer had knelt on her chest.
Now the police knew who their killer was, but they still had to find him. He was a drifter with no permanent address so the detectives toured hostels and squats looking for him. They knew they had to move quickly. Erskine was on a killing spree and could strike again at any time.
Dole-queue killer
They got the next break they needed when they found that Erskine was claiming unemployment benefit from a Department of Social Security office in Southwark. He was next due to pick up his benefit check on 28 July. A team of detectives set up a discreet watch on the building. He turned up right on time. As he joined the queue for his money the cuffs clicked on to his wrist. Erskine didn't struggle. The terror created by the Stockwell Strangler was over.
Questioning Erskine proved almost as difficult for the detectives as finding him. With the reasoning ability of a 10-year-old, Erskine spent a considerable amount of time during questioning giggling or staring out of the window at the sky. He was clearly very disturbed, but the serial killer was not a complete fool.
Among his possessions were details of 10 bank and building society accounts he had opened to store the money he stole during his burglaries. During his reign of terror detectives noted that he had paid in nearly £3,000, even though he had no job and was claiming unemployment benefit.
One of the accounts also yielded an important piece of circumstantial evidence. Erskine had paid £350 into a building society on the day after William Carmen was murdered and robbed of £400-£500.
The palm prints were damning evidence, but they put Erskine at the scene of only two killings. Erskine was not admitting anything, and Detective Chief Superintendent Thompson wanted evidence that would link him to all the murders.
There was no problem with a charge of attempted murder of Fred Prentice. The old gentleman willingly attended an identity parade at Clapham police station and picked Erskine out of the line-up without a second's hesitation.
In an effort to find more witnesses and trace more stolen property that could be linked to Erskine's victims, Scotland Yard took the unusual step of issuing his photograph to the media, with an appeal for leads. It brought them one more extremely important piece of information. A young businesswoman, 25-year-old Denise Keena, came forward to tell police of her strange encounter with a manic-looking man on Putney Bridge.
Terrifying expression
She had seen him apparently being sick into the Thames below. When she was a couple of paces from him he looked at her. The expression on his face terrified her so much she had called the police about him, but when they arrived he had vanished. She told police:
'He had this sort of terrible grin on his face. He looked as if he was out of control. It was a horrible, awful, disgusting expression. He had wide staring eyes and his mouth was open. All the muscles and tendons in his face were standing out, drawn tight against the bones.'
The encounter had taken place just an hour after Florence Tisdall had been killed in her Fulham flat just 200m away. Denise Keena also picked out Erskine in an identity parade and testified against him in court.
Erskine's trial at the Old Bailey started on 12 January 1988. He was charged with seven murders and the attempted murder of Mr Prentice. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but seemed unable to comprehend what was taking place.
Mr James Crespi, prosecuting, told the jury that Erskine was 'A killer who likes killing.' The jury were visibly moved as they listened to his account of Fred Prentice's brush with death. Mr Crespi said: 'He jumped on Mr Prentice, putting one knee on each of his hands to immobilize him and his hands on his neck with the thumbs on his windpipe, pressing with a pumping action. He appeared to be playing with his victim.'
Later in the trial Mr Prentice himself took the witness stand. He told the court: 'I shouted at him to get out of my home. Then he was on top of me. I will never forget the cunning grin he had on his face as he tried to kill me. I thought I was a goner.'
Killer’s motive
The court heard that under questioning Erskine had told detectives: 'What motive was there for me to murder? I have done some burglaries in my time but I have never been violent.' But later he told them: 'I thought I would never be caught.' When asked by a detective, 'Do you want to be famous, is that it?' Erskine replied: 'Yes, yes, I used to act a little.’
After a trial lasting 18 days Erskine was found guilty of all the charges. Mr Justice Rose jailed him for seven life terms and told him: 'The horrific nature and number of your crimes requires that I should recommend you serve a minimum sentence' Erskine was jailed for 40 years. □
Why did he kill?
No one has been able to penetrate the mind of Kenneth Erskine to find out why he turned to murder. A picture of his life shows a young man totally alone, without friends or family. When police found him they discovered he had no possessions other than the clothes he stood up in and a collection of building society books.
Prison paintings
But an incident in his earlier life possibly offered some insight into what he would later become. In 1982 while serving a sentence for burglary in the Young Offenders’ prison at Feltham, Middlesex, Erskine took up painting. Prison officers noticed that many of his efforts featured old people with knives sticking in their bodies and gags in their mouths. Others showed them burning to death.
Dr. Gisli Gudjohnsson, a London University psychiatrist sent to examine Erskine after his arrest said: ‘He had a serious problem distinguishing fantasy from reality. I have never seen anyone react in such a way to being questioned about such serious crimes. He just giggled and smiled and looked out of the window'.
From burglar to strangler
Twenty-four-year-old Kenneth Erskine was an experienced burglar, who had learned in his teens how to scale a wall and shin up a drainpipe. A drifter since the age of 16, when his family had given up on him, Erskine had no permanent home; instead he lived in squats or hostels, or joined the scores of other youngsters sleeping rough in the capital's ‘cardboard city'.
Low IQ
Erskine’s IQ was roughly the same as that of a 10-year-old, and he had no ambition other than to be a small-time crook. His crimes usually amounted to breaking open gas meters or stealing a few pounds from a purse on a kitchen table. Sometimes he would walk away with bigger items: a TV set, a camera, records, the occasional piece of jewelry or an antique ornament. He would then sell them to back-street dealers for a fraction of their true worth.
Time in jail
Kenneth Erskine was hardly a successful burglar. He had been caught by the police 10 times and had spent several years in jail. As soon as he was released he went back to the only trade he knew. But in the spring of 1986, for reasons no one understands, he underwent a profound change. In the space of four months he evolved from being a small-time crook to the serial killer known as the ‘Stockwell Strangler’.
The 8 Victims of the Stockwell Strangler
Nancy Emms - 9 April 1986
Nancy Eileen Emms lived in West Hill Road, Wandsworth. When she was found dead, there was no obvious evidence of foul play. It was some time before anyone realized that the elderly spinster had not died of natural causes at all but had been murdered.
Janet Cockett - 9 June 1986
Sixty-seven-year-old widow Janet Cockett was found dead two months after the death of Nancy Emms. An active pensioner who chaired her local tenants’ group, Mrs. Cockett lived in a first-floor council flat on Stock well’s Overton Estate. Like Miss Emms, she had been strangled, but she had also been sexually assaulted. There was little else to connect the two cases.
Zbigniev Stabrava and Valentine Gleim 28 June 1986
Ninety-four-year-old Polish-born Zbigniev Stabrava had fled from the Nazis at the start of the Second World War He lived at Somerville Hastings House, a home for the elderly in Stockwell Park Crescent. Valentine Gleim, an 84-year- old former Army officer, also lived there. When these two frail old men were murdered three weeks after the death of Janet Cockett, the police realized that they had a serial killer on the loose.
The home where Zbigniev and Valentine were murdered was run by Camden Council. Detectives wanted to fingerprint everybody in the home to eliminate them as suspects, and so perhaps identify prints belonging to the killer but the local government union instructed its members not to cooperate. They did not believe police assurances that all prints would be destroyed once the investigation was over
William Carmen 6 to 9 July 1986
William Carmen was discovered dead a week after Stabrava and Gleim were killed at the home in Stockwell. Although it took place in north London, the 82-year-old's murder was quickly linked with the others. An old man living alone, he had been strangled during the night. Although the killer also got away with up to £500, the police were certain that robbery was only secondary to the intruder’s desire to kill. When the killer was finally arrested, he was found to have banked several hundred pounds soon after the date of this crime.
Trevor Thomas - 12 July 1986
The body of 75-year-old Trevor Thomas was found in his bath on 12 July, four days after William Carmen's body was discovered. Mr Thomas had been dead for some time and there was little forensic evidence for the police to find. Consequently, Mr Thomas was not at first included in the list of the Stockwell Strangler's victims; but as the case progressed the police became increasingly certain that he had been killed by the same person. Mr Thomas was one of a number of people who may well have died at the hands of the Stockwell Strangler.
William Downs - 20 July 1986
William Downes lived on the Overton Estate in Stockwell, not far from the Strangler’s second victim, Janet Cockett. The 74-year-old pensioner was something of a recluse, rarely leaving his small studio fiat. As with all of the other victims, Mr Downes lived in a low-rise block of flats, easily accessible to an agile burglar. This time, however the killer left a clue. Police found two palm prints that matched a palm print at the scene of Janet Cockett's murder Now all the police had to do was find the owner of the prints.
Florence Tisdall - 23 July 1986
Cat-loving Florence Tisdall was murdered on the evening of 23 July. The crippled 80-year-old widow was one of the last remaining rental tenants in a block of flats rapidly going upmarket She had moved in more than 60 years before, spending all her adult life there. Unlike the other victims, Mrs. Tisdall was murdered relatively early in the evening. But the frail old woman had definitely been strangled in a similar manner.
