Tag: northern ireland

103 – A killing at Christmas: The murder of Maire Rankin

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Irish Crime, Life Sentence, Mental Health, murder, sex crimes, Women Who Kill

On Christmas morning, 2008, 81 year old widow Maire Rankin was not answering the phone. Family members called around to her Newry home to check on her – not only had she been recently ill but it was totally out of character for her to not respond. 

When they arrived at the house on the Dublin Road, Maire was found dead on her bedroom floor. The house was a mess, and it appeared that Mrs Rankin had been subjected to a violent assault of a sexual nature.
No one expected it when Maire’s 42 year old neighbour was arrested. Not only was Karen Walsh a woman, she was a wealthy pharmacist who stayed in her second home in Newry on the weekends.

What on earth had happened, and was the mother of one really responsible for the death of the elderly woman? 

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75 – Pathological: The murders of Lesley Clarke and Trevor Buchanan

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn affair, Black Widow, Controversial Case, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Life Sentence, love triangle, Mental Health, murder, murder for profit, Public Inquiry, sex crimes, Women Who Kill

In May of 1991, the bodies of Lesley Clarke and Trevor Buchanan were discovered in a fume filled car, parked in Lesley’s deceased father’s garage. The deaths were ruled a tragic double suicide – probably the result of the affair that Lesley and Trevor’s spouses were carrying on together.

But 18 years later, a startling confession would launch a renewed investigation into the deaths, this time as a case of murder. The prime suspects were the victim’s spouses – Colin Howell and Hazel Buchanan.

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65 – A Deadly Affair: The killing of Penny McAllister

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn affair, Controversial Case, Insanity Defence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Life Sentence, love triangle, Mental Health, murder, UK Crime, Women Who Kill

In the early 1980s, there was a series of kidnap-for-ransom crimes committed in the Republic by the Provisional IRA in order to raise funds to finance their organisation and its terrorist operations here and in the UK.

One of the victims of these abductions was prominent businessman, Don Tidey, and Englishman who was the senior executive of the Quinnsworth group of supermarkets. Tidey was held for 23 days in Derrada wood, Co Leitrim. He as rescued by the gardai and the army, but a garda probationer and an army private were killed during the operation.

Though a number of people were charged in relation to the kidnap, no one has ever been charged in relation to the two killings.

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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.

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