1960-шы жылдардағы лондондық жалаңаш қастандықтар сериясы

Series of six murders in 1960s London

The Hammersmith nude murders is the name of a series of six murders in West London, England, in 1964 and 1965. The victims, all prostitutes, were found undressed in or near the River Thames, leading the press to nickname the killer Jack the Stripper (a reference to Jack the Ripper). Two earlier murders, committed in West London in 1959 and 1963, have also been linked by some investigators to the same perpetrator.

Figg was found dead at 5:10am on 17 June 1959 by police officers The park had a reputation as a lovers' lane, and prostitutes were known to take their clients there. Figg's body was found on scrubland between Dan Mason Drive and the river's towpath, approximately west of Barnes Bridge. Her dress was torn at the waist and opened to reveal her breasts; marks around the neck were consistent with strangulation. Figg's underwear and shoes were missing, and no identification or personal possessions were found. A pathologist concluded that death had occurred between midnight and 2:00a. m. on 17 June. A post mortem photograph of Figg's face distributed to the press was independently recognized by her roommate and her mother. Extensive searches of the areaincluding the river bedfailed to find Figg's underwear, black stiletto shoes, or white handbag. A police official theorized that a client had murdered her in his car, after removing her shoes and underwear, and that these and her handbag had then remained in the car after the body was disposed of at Duke's Meadows. The proprietor of a pub on the opposite side of the river to where Figg was found said that on the night of the murder he and his wife had seen a car's headlights as it parked in that area at 12:05a. m. Shortly after the lights were switched off, they heard a woman's scream.

The body of Welsh born Gwynneth Rees was found on 8 November 1963 at the Barnes Borough Council household refuse disposal site on Townmead Road, Mortlake. The dump was situated from the Thames towpath, and approximately 1 mile (2 km) from Duke's Meadows. Rees was naked except for a single stocking on her right leg, extending no further up than the ankle. She had been accidentally decapitated by a shovel which workmen had been using to level the refuse.

Tailford was found dead on 2 February 1964 on the Thames foreshore below Linden Housethe clubhouse of the London Corinthian Sailing Clubwest of Hammersmith Bridge. She had been strangled, several of her teeth were missing, and her underwear had been stuffed into her mouth. Lockwood was pregnant at the time of her death.

Chief Superintendent John Du Rose of Scotland Yard, the detective put in charge of the case, interviewed almost 7,000 suspects. There were no further known Stripper killings following the initial news conference.

On 27 April 1964, Kenneth Archibald, a 57 year old caretaker at the Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club, walked into Notting Hill police station and voluntarily confessed to the killing of Irene Lockwood.

For Du Rose, the most likely suspect was a Scottish security guard called Mungo Ireland, whom Du Rose first identified in a BBC television interview in 1970 as a respectable married man in his forties whom he codenamed "Big John". Ireland had apparently been identified as a suspect shortly after Bridget O'Hara's murder, when flecks of industrial paint were traced to the Heron Trading Estate, where he had worked as a security guard. Shortly after this connection was made, Ireland committed suicide Crime author Neil Milkins said the killings stopped after Ireland's death and the police task force set up to catch the killer was reduced and finally disbanded. Milkins, who wrote the book Who Was Jack the Stripper?, was an investigative consultant for the BBC documentary Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. "On the morning that Ireland’s body was found, he had been due to appear before Acton Magistrates Court to face a charge of failing to stop his car after being involved in a road traffic accident," said Milkins. "Did Ireland commit suicide to save facing Acton magistrates over a trifling motoring charge or did John Du Rose push him over the edge with his press statements?" The Scotland Yard Serious Crime Review Group re investigated the Hammersmith murders between 2006 and 2007 and this resulted in a new conclusion. A statement read: "The circumstantial evidence against Mungo Ireland is very strong and it was the view of the officers conducting the most recent review of this case that he was most likely to be responsible." Although Ireland's work records indicated he was in Scotland on the night of O’Hara's disappearance, Scotland Yard believe it is possible that these may have been falsified.

In 2001, reformed gangster Jimmy Tippett, Jr. claimed that, during research for his book about London's gangland, he had uncovered information suggesting that British light heavyweight boxing champion Freddie Mills was responsible for the murders. According to Tippett, Kray era gangsters, including Charlie Richardson and Frankie Fraser, had long suspected Mills of being the murderer. The suggestion that Mills was the Hammersmith nudes murderer originated with gangster Frankie Fraser, who told it to policeman Bob Berry, who told The Sun crime reporter Michael Litchfield. Fraser claimed that the story was confessed by Mills, to Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent John Du Rose, and told by Du Rose to him; but when Du Rose published his autobiography which touched on the 'Hammersmith Nude Murders', there was no mention of Freddie Mills with regard to this case. The claims have since been dismissed. Peter McInnes put the allegations to the investigating officer, who stated that Mills had never been a suspect during the investigation.