Alexander Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 This is kind of creepy. A serial killer is at large in England who is killing prostitutes. This isn't so unusual. Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper) did something similar during the 1970s. What is kind of creepy is that there are a couple of coincidental paralells with the case of Jack the Ripper, who murdered five prostitutes during the autumn of 1888. The Ripper's first victim was Mary "Polly" Nichols. So far two of this killer's victims have had similar names (Annette Nicholls and Tania Nichol). In addition, the Chief Superintendent investigating the case is named Stewart Gull. One of the most famous Ripper suspects is Sir William Withey Gull (as seen in Alan Moore's graphic novel "From Hell" and the subsequent film version). I'm not claiming that there is any significance to these parallels. I'm just echoing Moore's observation (in the end notes to "From Hell") that there is a curious recurrence of names in serial murder (One of the Ripper's victims, for example, was found near Brady Street, while another was found near the Hindley Sacking Company. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley would become infamous in the 1960s as the Moors Murderers). It's kinda weird... ********************************* IPSWICH, England (Reuters) -- Members of a 500-strong task force hunting a suspected serial killer canvassed motorists and pedestrians passing through a red-light district to try to trace the final steps of five murdered prostitutes in an eastern England town, police said Sunday. More than 400 people in Ipswich were stopped and questioned, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said. In particular, they were asked if they had seen one woman, 24-year-old Paula Clennell, whose naked body was discovered at the side of a busy road last Tuesday. A frightened Clennell was still working the streets -- to satisfy her drug cravings, she told a television crew five days before she disappeared -- after the bodies of three other sex workers were discovered. She was last seen in the early hours of December 10. On December 12, her body was discovered, and police have said she died as a result of "compression to the neck." Gull said that 340 specialist investigators from forces across Britain had joined 160 officers on the task force. By Sunday morning, police had received more than 10,000 calls from the public. Interpol has offered assistance, and Gull said it would be considered and accepted "if necessary." On Saturday, police released closed-circuit television footage of Anneli Alderton, another 24-year-old prostitute whose body was discovered December 10, hours before Clennell disappeared. Police said she had been strangled. (Watch the CCTV footage of Alderton ) Alderton -- who was three months pregnant at the time of her murder -- was last seen December 3, the evening the footage was captured aboard a train south of the city. Calls prompted by the release of the images allowed detectives to determine that Alderton had ended up in Ipswich, but "we still need to know where she was after December 3," Gull told reporters. And he said that the team probing the killings were still unable to determine the final movements of another woman, 29-year-old Annette Nicholls. She was last seen alive on December 5 in Ipswich's red-light district. Detectives have only been able how to determine how two of the five women were killed. Post-mortem examinations on the other three women -- Nicholls, 25-year-old Gemma Adams, found December 2, and 19-year-old Tania Nichol, discovered December 8 -- were inconclusive. "We haven't got a murder scene at this stage, and once we establish that we'll start to complete the picture. I'm still waiting on a cause of death for three of these young women, and once we've got those results it may indicate if we're looking for a weapon," Gull told reporters. "We're keeping an open mind as to whether any form of weapon was involved." Gull also said that a man who had tried to abduct a woman in Ipswich about a month ago has not been spoken to by detectives investigating this case. "Nobody has been eliminated at this stage. We know who that individual is. He has been released on bail," Gull said. "We will take further action if we think it is appropriate." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 I'm just echoing Moore's observation (in the end notes to "From Hell") that there is a curious recurrence of names in serial murder. Just watch your back there, buddy. -Jazz Wayne Moose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Mystery solved... From AP: MAN HELD IN BRITAIN PROSTITUTE KILLINGS By MARTIN BENEDYK, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago Police hunting a suspected serial killer following the murders of five prostitutes in eastern England arrested a 37-year-old man on Monday and cordoned off a group of houses. The man was arrested at his home in Trimley St. Martin, near the port of Felixstowe, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said in a brief statement to reporters. He declined to say where the suspect was being held. "He has been arrested on the suspicion of murdering all five women," Gull said. News reports identified the suspect as Tom Stephens, who was quoted in the Sunday Mirror newspaper as saying he knew all five women, and that he had been interviewed four times under caution — meaning that he was regarded as a potential suspect — by police investigating the slayings. "From the police profiling it does look like me — white male between 25 and 40, knows the area, works strange hours. The bodies have got close to my house," Stephens was quoted as saying. "If new information, coincidental information, crops up, I could get arrested," Stephens was quoted as saying. He added that he was confident he would not be charged. Trimley is eight miles southeast of Ipswich, where all five victims worked as prostitutes. Their naked bodies were found in rural areas near Ipswich, 70 miles northeast of London, over a 10-day span beginning Dec. 2. Three were found near the main road and the rail line between Ipswich and Felixstowe; the other two were discovered near the same road south and southwest of Ipswich. The investigation had strained the resources of England's smallest police forces, and 340 investigators were brought in from across Britain to join 160 Suffolk officers working on the case. Earlier Monday, police announced that coroner's inquests into the deaths of Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls had been postponed. Clennell, 24, died of compression to her neck, and Alderton, 24, was strangled, a senior pathologist determined. Post-mortem examinations of the bodies of Nicol, 19, and Nicholls, reached no conclusion on the cause of death. An inquest into the death of Gemma Adams, 25, was opened and adjourned last week. The pathologist reached no conclusion about the cause of her death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 This is kind of creepy. A serial killer is at large in England who is killing prostitutes. This isn't so unusual. Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper) did something similar during the 1970s. What is kind of creepy is that there are a couple of coincidental paralells with the case of Jack the Ripper, who murdered five prostitutes during the autumn of 1888. The Ripper's first victim was Mary "Polly" Nichols. So far two of this killer's victims have had similar names (Annette Nicholls and Tania Nichol). In addition, the Chief Superintendent investigating the case is named Stewart Gull. One of the most famous Ripper suspects is Sir William Withey Gull (as seen in Alan Moore's graphic novel "From Hell" and the subsequent film version). I'm not claiming that there is any significance to these parallels. I'm just echoing Moore's observation (in the end notes to "From Hell") that there is a curious recurrence of names in serial murder (One of the Ripper's victims, for example, was found near Brady Street, while another was found near the Hindley Sacking Company. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley would become infamous in the 1960s as the Moors Murderers). It's kinda weird... It's like the opening sequence for Magnolia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I'm just echoing Moore's observation (in the end notes to "From Hell") that there is a curious recurrence of names in serial murder. Just watch your back there, buddy. -Jazz Wayne Moose Wouldn't that be Jazz Wayne Moosely? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Couldn't let that one go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 (edited) Mystery solved... From AP: MAN HELD IN BRITAIN PROSTITUTE KILLINGS Not so fast ... Second man held in murders probe Edited December 20, 2006 by Claude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Mystery solved... From AP: MAN HELD IN BRITAIN PROSTITUTE KILLINGS Not so fast ... Second man held in murders probe Good thing I retired! That's the kind of statement that would have had me in deep trouble. But then I would have been much, much more careful before going ahead with that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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