Jack the Stripper

Named partly after the infamous ripper for killing women and also because of his signature of stripping his victims, Jack the Stripper killed women in London for a few years, before his reign finally ended.

The first victim was 30 year-old Hannah Tailford, who was discovered drowned in the River Thames wearing only her stockings and with her underwear stuffed in her mouth, on February 2nd 1964. At first the police thought nothing of it, as many prostitutes were unlucky enough to succumb to such a fate. But when the naked corpse of Helen Barthelemy turned up on 24th April, alarms went off. The media quickly named the serial killer "Jack the Stripper", quite an apt name. On 14th July Mary Fleming was found dead, naked with her dentures missing. The final victim was Bridgett O'Hara, who was discovered mummified under some bushed near a paint shop, which was interesting since some of the other victims were found with small dots of paint on them.

The killings ended there, but the identity of the Stripper was never discovered. However just after the death of the final victim a security guard committed suicide. This seemed peculiar as the guard's patrol included the paint shop near where O'Hara's body had been found. Whether the security guard was in fact the killer, or it was just a coincidence that the murders stopped after his suicide, it will never be known.