Murder Maps

We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper the most famous serial killer in history who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel and got away with it In this twopart special we reexamine those crimes

Jack the Ripper part two reveals how the story we know today was shaped by the sensationalist press of 1888 We strip back decades of rumor and misinformation to reveal the true lives of the five women slain

In December 1910 the murder of three City of London Police officers and the wounding of two others was and continues to be one of the largest multiple murders of police officers on duty carried out in Great Britain The three officers Sergeant Bentley Sergeant Tucker and Constable Choat were shot dead while trying to prevent a burglary at a jewelers in Houndsditch

The First World War took the lives of countless soldiers on the front line but one man in Paris too old for combat saw this as an opportunity Henri Landru targeted the lonely and vulnerable women left behind by the war He seduced them with promises of marriage and lured them to houses outside Paris where the women vanished With the police uninterested in investigating the disappearances two women

Herbert Rowse Armstrong is remembered by history as the Hay Poisoner Convicted in 1922 of murdering his wife with arsenic he was the first and only solicitor to be hanged in the UK But was he guilty Much of the evidence against Armstrong was circumstantial and the scientific testimony remains disputed In this episode we examine both sides of the case and ask whether the British justice system

Amelia Dyer preyed on disadvantaged mothers without the means to care for their children The practice of baby farming was common during the 1800s when it was socially frowned upon to be an unwed woman and many mothers felt their only choice was to give up their infants for a better life But there was little hope of a future for babies that entered Amelia Dyers home

A string of violent murders frustrates the Cleveland Ohio police in the 1930s The killings were characterized by dismembered bodies and very brazen displays of the victims however there was little to no evidence left behind Despite a large police effort to apprehend the serial killer they were never identified

Kate Webster a lifelong petty criminal found herself employed as a house maid by Mrs Julia Thomas Unbeknown to Mrs Thomas the contrast between their social stations would tempt Kate Webster into committing an act of the most depraved variety A hundred years later new facts are being uncovered that reveal the true depth of Kate Websters deception

Here we reveal how the notorious killer Mary Pearcey began an affair with her victims husband and how she inserted herself into the familys life The evidence against her was overwhelmingly damning but questions arose surrounding the involvement of her lover