True Crime

Poisoners are a rare breed. They generally make their cold, premeditated drawn-out attacks on friends and family. Graham Young was one such evil killer. Poison, that favourite weapon of the Victorian murderer, is a comparative rarity nowadays. It accounts for less than three percent of all criminal homicides in the developed world. Modern science and the fact that the poisoner is usually closely related to his victims makes for ease of detection. There remains, however, the rare but real spectre of a motiveless, psychopathic poisoner with means and opportunity. In the spring of 1971, 23-year old Graham Young applied for a job at Hadland Laboratories, manufacturers of photographic equipment, at Bovington, Hertfordshire. A neat, precisely spoken young man, he told the managing director, Godfrey Foster, that he had no worked since leaving school because of a nervous breakdown, but was now fully recovered. Foster was impressed and took Young on as an assistant store man. Young’s imme...

  John Haigh: The Acid Bath Murderer John Haigh was known to the other residents of Kensington’s Onslow Court Hotel as a successful businessman. He wore smart suits and drove a sports car, but his money did not come from his business. It came from murder. When residents of the Onslow Court Hotel came down for breakfast on the morning of 19 February 1949, they immediately noticed that one of their number was missing. Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon, a wealthy 69-year old widow, had been a permanent resident at the hotel for some years and was noted for her punctiliousness. It was unlike her to be late for a meal. Mrs Constance Lane, another resident and a close friend of Mrs Durand-Deacon, was particularly concerned and decided to make a few discreet enquiries. Her concern deepened when the hotel’s chamber maid told her that Mrs Durand-Deacon’s bed had not been slept in. Later that morning Mrs Lane was approached by another of the Onslow Court’s residents, Mr John George Haigh. Haigh was so...

Christmas is the season of goodwill. But in Birmingham in 1959 it was marked by a gruesome attack on a helpless girl by a homicidal maniac. On 23 December 1959, 20-year-old Margaret Brown's thoughts were of Christmas, which she was spending at her parent’s home in Edinburgh. It was late afternoon and she was getting the last bits of her washing and ironing done in the laundry room before leaving on Christmas Eve. Her lodgings were at the YWCA Hostel known as 'Edencroft', a large Georgian-style house in Wheeley Road, Edgbaston, one of Birmingham's more select districts. In common with the other girls there she had her own room with the annex off the main building, but ironing and washing facilities were shared. This annex was a single storey block, so each room was on the ground floor. Most of her fellow lodgers had left the hostel and gone their various ways for the Christmas holidays, but a few were still in the common room watching television. Margaret's priori...

Men were dying in Florida. Truck drivers were warned: don't stop for a certain hitch-hiker. Richard Mallory cruised his Cadillac down Interstate 4 through the warm Florida night, on his way to Daytona from Tampa. He was in no real hurry; he felt too apathetic and depressed. His electronics business was going badly, he was heavily in debt, and he had just broken up with his girlfriend. He had been drinking, and was about to light up a 'reefer' of marijuana. Suddenly, a figure appeared in his headlights, thumbing a lift. Mallory slowed down. He saw that it was a woman of medium build, carelessly dressed in cut-off jeans, T-shirt and baseball cap, and carrying a shoulder bag. Mallory felt the need of company. If it was a woman, so much the better. Drinking and driving The woman drawled that if he was on his way to Daytona, that was fine. As they moved off, Mallory asked her if she minded him smoking the reefer. She laughed and told him he could do what he liked. She accep...