Category: unsolved

54 – The Serial Child Murders of Robert Black

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Controversial Case, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, Life Sentence, Mental Health, murder, sadism, Scottish Crimes, Serial Killer, sex crimes, UK Crime, unsolved

A stranger snatching a child off the street is thankfully a rare thing. But throughout the 70s and 80s, in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a number of young girls disappeared as if into thin air while walking alone. Most went missing in broad daylight. Some were found – their bodies dumped hundreds of miles from home. Some remain missing, presumed murdered.

In 1990, police in Scotland realised that many of these cases were linked. A delivery driver living in London was responsible for them all. Despite getting into trouble throughout his youth for sexually motivated attacks on younger children, Robert Black had been free to roam the country and target girls for decades.

*Episode Image: Jennifer Cardy (via The Irish Times Archive)

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44 – Missing & Murdered: Operation Trace

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, murder, sex crimes, unsolved

Women have been disappearing from, or ending up found dead in, the Wicklow Mountains for over 30 years. In this bonus episode we look at a man that is suspected to have committed some of these abductions and murders,  look back on a number of unsolved rape and murder cases in the 80’s, and bring the story right up-to-date with that latest unfortunate woman to have been killed and dumped in what is called “the vanishing triangle”.

So, what the heck is going on in the Wicklow Mountains?

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39 – Terrorism at Lockerbie: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Human Rights, Landmark Case, murder, Organised Crime, Public Inquiry, Scottish Crimes, terrorism, UK Crime, unsolved, US Crime

In 1988, a routine flight took off from London Heathrow. It was the second leg of a transatlantic flight that would stop in JFK, before heading even further west, to Detroit. In fact, Flight 103 had started off in Frankfurt. But something got on the flight in the German airport that shouldn’t have. It was a brown samsonite suitcase, filled with clothing and a Toshiba cassette tape player. Inside the electronics was a pound of semtex and a timer.

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish countryside, killing everyone aboard, 11 people on the ground, and scattering debris for miles around the countryside.

But who had planted the bomb?

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37 – St Patrick’s Day: Crimes & Mayhem

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Capital Punishment, Collabouration, Discrimination, Drug-related, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, Mental Health, murder, Serial Killer, unsolved, Vintage murder, Wrongly Accused

It’s St Patrick’s day. Worldwide, buildings are being “greened”. Shamrock shakes are being consumed. Guinness is being poured, and we’re drowning the shamrock.

But, this time of year sees a lot of bad behaviour. Some directly as a result of our celebration of all things Irish and some… a little more premeditated.
This week, I’m joined by 4 other fabulous podcasts to tell the story of some St Patrick’s day crimes for you.

Special thanks this week to:
All Crime No Cattle ;
Southern Fried True Crime;
Gone Cold – Texas True Crime; and
Unresolved
for your kind contributions!

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34 – The murder of Una Lynsky, Wrongful Convictions & fight for Justice

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Human Rights, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, Landmark Case, murder, unsolved, Vintage murder, Wrongly Accused

In October 1971, on a rural lane south of the village of Ratoath, Co Meath, Una Lynsky disappeared while walking a short distance from a bus stop to her home. Around that time, screams were heard and a strange car was seen driving up and down the lane. But three local lads, Dick Donnelly, Martin Kerrigan, and Martin Conmey found that they were the ones who had drawn the attention of the notorious Murder Squad of the Garda Siochana.

By the end of the year, two young people from Porterstown Lane would be dead. Two trials would follow and a series of appeals to try and clear a man’s name of guilt that did not belong to him.

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23 – Colin Norris: murderous nurse, or wrongfully convicted?

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Drug-related, murder, Public Inquiry, Serial Killer, UK Crime, unsolved, Wrongly Accused

In 2002, Colin Norris was a young man at the beginning of his career in his chosen field of nursing. But the sudden death of an elderly patient, Ethel Hall, who had been under his care prompted a police investigation which scrutinised the 18 months that he had worked in Leeds General Infirmary, and he was accused of 4 murders and an attempted murder. authorities said he had maliciously administered injections of insulin to elderly patients, police said because he didn’t like old people.

But would there be enough evidence to convict him?

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19 – The Brighton Trunk Murders: Unsolved Crimes

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Capital Punishment, Domestic Violence, murder, UK Crime, unsolved, Vintage murder

This week, we take another trip back in time and have a look at three vintage murders. First, we crack open the 1832 autobiographical account of John Holloway, who murdered his first wife Celia and buried her body, hidden in a trunk, down a lovers lane.

Over 100 years later, two more trunks filled with murder victims’ bodies were found again in Brighton. One of these cases remains unsolved to this day, while the culprit for the other Toni Mancini, was never punished for his crime.

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6 – The Kerry Babies Murder & familial false confessions

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Irish Crime, murder, unsolved, Wrongly Accused

In the year 1984, Ireland was a very different place. Contraception, Abortion and Divorce were illegal. The country was dogged by religious conservatism and was facing into a terrible recession. Amidst this, the body of a baby boy was found on a beach in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry.

The police began to look for the likely suspect: a recently-pregnant unmarried mother. Joanne Hayes was accused and charged with the murder of the infant. She and her whole family eventually confessed to the murder, despite Joanne’s baby being located. So what had caused the family to confess?

A judicial inquiry was set up to investigate Garda maltreatment, but it soon turned into a trial of Joanne’s character.

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3 – The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier & trial by press

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Irish Crime, murder, unsolved

Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a french writer and documentarian, who owned a secluded holiday home in the picturesque west Cork town of Schull. Days before Christmas 1996, she was found savagely murdered in the lane way leading to her house. The case remains unsolved, but that doesn’t mean the matter hasn’t been heard before the courts. The prime suspect, Ian Bailey, took a defamation action against eight newspapers for reporting that he was the prime suspect in the case.

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