A serial killer stalked the streets of London in February 1942. He murdered four women over a six day period. The first victim was 40 year old Evelyn Hamilton whose body was discovered in an air raid shelter at Montagu Place in Marylebone on Sunday the 7th of February.
Evelyn had been strangled and robbed. The corpse of 35 year old prostitute, Evelyn Oatley, was discovered in her flat at 153 Wardour Street in Soho the following day by two meter readers.
She too had been strangled, had her throat cut, been sexually assaulted and mutilated with a razor. A prostitute named Margaret Florence Lowe was the next, on the 12th of February at Flat 4 at 9/10 Gosfiled Street in Fitzrovia.
She too had been strangled and seriously sexually assaulted. Doris Jouannet was the final victim, her body being discovered in her Paddington flat at 187 Sussex Gardens, also strangled and mutilated.
The killer struck again on Friday the 14th of February but the intended victim, Greta Hayward, was saved by a passing delivery boy as she was about to be strangled. Her attacker left behind his gas mask which enabled identification.
Another prostitute, who went by the name of Kathleen King, was attacked a few days later but managed to fight off her assailant.
The perpetrator was soon traced through the number on the gas mask (no. 525987) and arrested on the 16th of February. He was a 28 year old Leading Aircraftman named Gordon Frederick Cummins.
He was described in the press as an Air Cadet. The police had some good fingerprints from the crime scenes and found various items of the women’s property in Cummins’ possession which helped to ensure a conviction at his Old Bailey trial on the 27th and 28th of April, before Mr. Justice Asquith.
The prosecution proceeded only with the murder of Evelyn Oatley and it took the jury just 35 minutes to bring in a guilty verdict and he was sentenced to death on the 29th of April. The other three murder charges and the two attempted murder charges were allowed to remain on the file.
His appeal before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Humphreys and Tucker on the basis of the fingerprint evidence was dismissed on the 8th of June.
Cummins was hanged at Wandsworth prison by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Harry Kirk, at 9.00 a.m. on Thursday the 25th of June 1942, during an air raid. Cummins stood 5’ 10” and weighed 156 lbs. He received a drop of 7’ 1” causing fracture/dislocation the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae.
On the morning of execution, he wrote to his wife asking her forgiveness and saying, “Although I don’t know, I think I must be guilty – the evidence is overwhelming.” Other than a hatred of women in general and prostitutes in particular, his motives for this killing spree seem unclear.
It is thought that he may have killed two other women in late 1941 although this cannot be proven.
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