Greig - Worlds Worst Crimes: An A-Z of Evil Deeds

Worlds Worst Crimes

Charlotte Greig

This edition published in 2012 by Arcturus Publishing Limited

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Copyright 2012 Arcturus Publishing Limited

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ISBN: 978-1-84858-999-5

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CONTENTS

Introduction

The motives that drive people to commit the most ghastly and hideous crimes are many and varied, and so are the criminals. There is an undeniable and compelling interest in these crimes and the people who carry them out. We may not care to admit it, even to ourselves, but evil has its attractions even if it is only to act as a warning to others.

Some people will kill for money, having no real sense of right or wrong to show them that a handful of cash is not worth a human life. John Haigh tried to claim bizarre motives for his murders in a bid to get a verdict of insanity, but he undoubtedly killed for cash benefit. Belle Gunnes likewise murdered for profit, working her way through an unknown number of husbands and lovers to gain their money.

Others kill out of pride or to show their fellow criminals that they are worthy of respect. Many a gang member has killed, sometimes more than once, simply so that he would fit in. The true gang bosses, of course, keep themselves carefully removed from any actual crimes. Al Capone was famously convicted of tax evasion after police failed to find any evidence to link him directly with the many crimes that his gang carried out on his orders. Dutch Schultz was similarly careful, but this did not save him from being murdered by his fellow gangsters when he got too arrogant.

A few crimes spring from simple amoral arrogance. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb killed because they were bored and wanted to see if they could outfox the police.

Sex has long been a prime motive in killing. Jealous rage or lust has been enough to turn some men into killers. More disturbing perverted urges have driven others. Peter Krten roamed Germany in the 1930s killing for pleasure with ever-increasing ferocity. Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono found fame as the Hillside Stranglers in 1970s California as they raped and butchered a succession of women. Some find the most unlikely accomplices. Sex killer Paul Bernardo had the help of his attractive girlfriend Karla Homolka, even when her own sister became a victim.

Some get a taste for murder and kill for many reasons. Charles Ng and Leonard Lake killed men for money, women for sexual kicks and children if they got in the way. They did away with about 25 people in 14 months.

The most prolific serial killer of all was Dr Harold Shipman who snuffed out the lives of hundreds of his patients. Disturbingly, nobody really knows why.

Few of those who have perpetrated the most horrific crimes would fit the general image of evil come to life. Some are quiet, others gregarious. Some are charming, others rude. Only their heartless devotion to killing, mayhem and crime links them together.

Doubt hangs over the convictions of some. Albert DeSalvo was convicted of the Boston Strangler murders. Although he was undoubtedly a perverted sex offender, some think he was no killer, but had been framed by the real culprit. Doubt of another kind hovers over John Dillinger: many think that it was another gangster who died in a hail of police bullets in 1934 and that he got away.

No doubt hangs over the fact that there are evil men and women among us. Many make mistakes and are caught. Others are still active. They kill, rob and maim, but they are not caught. They are out there still.

The Acid Bath Murders

Arguably one of Britains worst serial killers, John George Haigh the Acid Bath Murderer remains something of an enigma. Was he a calculating swindler who murdered for profit? Did he deliberately portray himself as a crazed lunatic who needed to drink human blood so that he could plead insanity? Or was he indeed a modern-day vampire?

John Haigh was born on 24 July 1909 in Stamford, Yorkshire, in the north of England. Soon after his birth, his parents, John Robert and Emily, moved to Outwood, near the larger town of Wakefield. They were both members of the Plymouth Brethren, an ultra-puritanical Christian sect, with a hellfire ideology based on sin and punishment.

Background

The family seems to have been settled enough, but religion dominated Haighs childhood. His father often showed him a scar that he said was a punishment from God for committing a sin. The young Haigh at first lived in fear of receiving such a mark himself, but when he did sin and received no such mark, he began to develop the profound cynicism that would characterize his adult life.

On leaving school, Haigh worked briefly as a car mechanic. Although he loved cars, he had a lifelong aversion to dirt (later he would habitually wear gloves to avoid contamination). He soon left the job and worked briefly as a clerk before finding a career in which he was able to exploit an already well-developed ability to embellish the truth: he became an advertising copywriter. He did well at the job and bought himself a flash Alfa Romeo car. But before long he was sacked after some money went missing.

In 1934 he met and married Beatrice Hammer. Four months later he was convicted of fraud for a scam involving hire-purchase agreements, and sent to prison. While he was there, Beatrice gave birth to a child who she immediately gave up for adoption. On his release, Haigh left Beatrice and then simply ignored her, acting as if he had never been married.

Prison seemed to have shocked Haigh back on to the straight and narrow. He started a dry-cleaning company that prospered until his partner in the business died in a motorcycle accident, and business began to decline with the coming of war. Haigh then moved to London where he worked in an amusement arcade, owned by a man named Donald McSwann. A year later, he struck out on his own with a scam that resulted in him being sent to prison again, this time for four years. In prison he talked a lot to his fellow inmates about committing the perfect crime. An imperfect understanding of the law allowed him to develop the notion that if the police could not find a body, then the killer could not be convicted of murder. He decided that the best way to effect this would be to dissolve a body in acid. He experimented in the prison workshops, managing to dissolve a mouse in acid.

Life After Prison

Once back in the community, he put his plan into action. He met up with McSwann, luring him to a workshop that he was renting. Haigh then killed him and, with some difficulty, dumped his body into a large barrel of acid that he had prepared for the purpose. The plan worked perfectly and Haigh was able to tip the last sludgy remains of his friend down a drain. McSwanns parents were suspicious but Haigh managed to fob them off with the story that McSwann had fled to Scotland to avoid being drafted to fight in the war.