Tag: killing

22 – The horrific murder of Sylvia Fleming

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, murder, sadism

The year 1998 was a particularly difficult one for the small town of Omagh, in Northern Ireland. There finally seemed to be a workable plan in place to bring about the beginning of a peace process, but along with that, emotions were heightened.

Just days before the agreement was signed, Sylvia Fleming (17) was out celebrating her first paycheque from her first job. She visited her ex boyfriend that night, and was never seen again. Her sisters, with whom Sylvia was very close, realised that something was wrong very quickly. The pregnant teenager would never have just left them. But they never thought that she would have suffered the fate that she did.

Join us this week as we look at the tragic events surrounding Sylvia Fleming’s murder, and how her community was torn apart that year.

Continue reading “22 – The horrific murder of Sylvia Fleming” →

21 – Veronica Guerin: Gangland Murder of the Media (Part 2)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Drug-related, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, Landmark Case, murder, Organised Crime

Veronica Guerin took on Ireland’s booming gangland criminals in 1994, who were flooding the country with cannabis and other illegal substances and engaging in an all out war with their competitors. When she approached John Gilligan, the man in charge, at his home, she set in motion a series of events that would lead to her death, and to the downfall of the criminal set she had set her eyes on.

The events of 1994 changed the landscape of organised crime in Ireland forever, as well how the authorities would attempt to curb their enjoyment of their assets. But would they be held responsible for Veronica’s death?

Continue reading “21 – Veronica Guerin: Gangland Murder of the Media (Part 2)” →

21 – Veronica Guerin: Gangland Murder of the Media (Part 1)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Drug-related, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, Landmark Case, murder, Organised Crime

 
In the 1990’s, Ireland saw a boom in organised crime and the importation of drugs that it had not experienced before. Criminals set themselves up at the head of drugs empires and reaped the benefit of their crimes to the tune of millions of pounds a year. Gardai struggled to keep up with these developments, and had no recourse to the extravagant spending of the crime bosses, who set up shell companies and owned expensive homes, vehicles and lived lavish lifestyles.
 
When Veronica Guerin, crime correspondent for the Sunday Independent, began asking questions of these gangsters, she found herself in the firing line. Quite literally.

Continue reading “21 – Veronica Guerin: Gangland Murder of the Media (Part 1)” →

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.

Continue reading “19 – The Brighton Trunk Murders: Unsolved Crimes” →

17 – The Dunblane Massacre & Gun Crimes

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Controversial Case, Landmark Case, Mental Health, murder, Public Inquiry, UK Crime

 

Thomas Hamilton was a loner. He decided to dedicate his life to running boys’ clubs to keep kids off the street, but its quite likely he had ulterior motives for this. His strange, erratic and inappropriate behaviour meant that he was not well liked, his his passion, his boys’ clubs, came under scrutiny. He also had a persecution complex, and as his life fell apart due to his own actions, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Thomas Hamilton became the man responsible for the Dunblane Massacre, the only school shooting in British History.

Continue reading “17 – The Dunblane Massacre & Gun Crimes” →

15 – Harold Shipman: Medical Murders (Part 2)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Mental Health, murder, Public Inquiry, Serial Killer, UK Crime

 

In the second and final episode of the story of Harold Shipman, we find out how the police went about investigating his murders. A suspicious will led to questions regarding prominent citizen, Kathleen Grundy’s death and the exhumation of her body. A local doctor had become suspicious of the sheer amount of cremations being performed at Shipman’s Surgery, and so, these taken together, an investigation into recent deaths of Shipman’s patients was launched. Soon, 12 women’s bodies had been exhumed. This week, we find out a little about these women, the investigation of the police, Shipman’s lengthy trial, and the public inquiry that followed.

Continue reading “15 – Harold Shipman: Medical Murders (Part 2)” →

13 – The medical student & the cruel murder of Hazel Mullen

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Capital Punishment, Child Victim, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Mental Health, murder, Vintage murder

[

Shan Mohangi arrived in Dublin in 1962 from South Africa. He was 21 years old and had left his home country due to the limited opportunities afforded by the apartheid regime to people of colour in his country at the time. Like many who travelled to Ireland from the African continent, he enrolled in medical school. He took up residence in 95 Harcourt Street and also worked in the restaurant housed in its basement, The Green Tureen. The next year, he met 15 year old Hazel Mullen and the two started going out together. The relationship was serious to Shan, but perhaps less so to Hazel. On the 12th of August 1963, Hazel was to have lunch with Shan in his flat, but he said she never turned up. Smoke was later seen billowing from the restaurant downstairs. After searching all weekend, Shan Mohangi finally told the awful truth. Hazel was dead, and he had tried to burn her up in the ovens of the restaurant. But would 1960’s Ireland provide a man of colour a fair trial for the murder of a teenaged girl?

Continue reading “13 – The medical student & the cruel murder of Hazel Mullen” →

11 – The murder of Tia Sharp

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, murder, UK Crime

Tia Sharp was 12 years old in the summer of 2012, and the Olympics had come to her city, London. She was a carefree and bubbly young girl and was close with her family. Which is why it was so surprising when she went missing from her grandmothers house in New Addington, South London. They knew she wasn’t a runaway. A huge search began for the missing girl, and eventually she was found – in the home she had gone missing from. Suspicion fell on the man she knew as her step-gradfather, Stuart Hazel. Was this man that she trusted and loved responsible for her death and the hiding of her body in her grandmother’s attic?

Continue reading “11 – The murder of Tia Sharp” →

10 – Catherine Nevin: The Black Widow (Part 1)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Black Widow, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, murder, Women Who Kill

The weekend of St Patrick’s Day, 1996, Tom Nevin was found lying dead from a gunshot wound to the chest in the kitchen of his pub, Jack White’s in the popular seaside town of Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow.  His wife, Catherine, had sounded the alarm and when the Gardai arrived they found her bound by the wrists. She said that intruders had entered the pub, looking for jewellery.  But something wasn’t quite right, the scene seemed staged, and soon the Gardai began unravelling a web of deceit constructed carefully over nearly 10 years of a plan to have Tom Nevin killed. All eyes now turned to Catherine. Was she really a grieving widow? Or a Black Widow who had her husband killed to get control of their assets?

Continue reading “10 – Catherine Nevin: The Black Widow (Part 1)” →

9 – The Scissor Sisters & the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, murder, Women Who Kill

Farah Swaleh Noor was an apparent Somalian refugee to Ireland and disappeared on the 20th March 2005. Later that month, and unidentified male body was pulled from the Royal Canal on Dublin city’s north side in pieces which had been dumped in black plastic rubbish bags. The body – missing its head-  was identified as Farah Noor, and it soon became apparent that his girlfriend Kathleen Mulhall and her two daughters, Linda and Charlotte, were involved in the gruesome murder, dismemberment and disposal of his body.

Continue reading “9 – The Scissor Sisters & the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor” →