The ransom note had been drafted in elegant English, using a portable typewriter, indicating a high level of education in its composer. A pair of horn-rimmed spectacles was found near the body in the culvert, which were eventually traced back to Leopold. Police treated Leopold with the deference that might be expected, given the family’s wealth and social prominence, and interviewed him at a local hotel on 29 May, rather than taking him into police custody, where his questioning would certainly be reported in the press. They initially accepted his story, that he had lost the glasses whilst bird watching the week before; he was an unlikely suspect as the motive for the kidnapping was clearly money, and Leopold’s family had no shortage of that.He was asked about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, and claimed that he and Loeb had been out with dates, but could provide no details about the girls. When a search of his room turned up some questionable gay literature, he admitted ownership, but strenuously denied that he and Loeb were intimate. They also confiscated Leopold’s typewriter, which proved not to be a match to the ransom note. A family employee, however, remembered that they had seen Leopold with a portable typewriter, which seemed to have vanished.Leopold did not realise that Loeb was also being interrogated, in another room in the same hotel. Their stories did not agree: Loeb claimed that they had parted company in the early evening. However, during the long interrogation, Leopold managed to get a message to Loeb to square their stories, and police became inclined to believe them, although they continued to dig for further evidence that might incriminate the pair. This came via the Loeb family chauffeur, in an interview on 31 May: he was certain that Loeb’s car had been in the garage the entire evening of the 14 May. Loeb and Leopold’s story had them driving around in it, on the fictitious double date.Faced with this evidence, Loeb broke first, admitting the murder, but claiming that Leopold had been the driving force behind the plan, and that he had struck the fatal blow on Franks. A consensus built up around the idea of the handsome Loeb having been influenced by the less popular, but brilliant, Leopold: the ‘evil genius’. Faced with Loeb’s confession, Leopold also capitulated, but claimed that the murder was Loeb’s idea, and that he had killed Franks.Newspapers were dominated by the confessions, and the wealthy Jewish community of Chicago were aghast. The wider public, goaded by the press with its intimations of perversions amongst the pampered elite, demanded swift retribution. The Loeb family, desperate to spare their son from the gallows whatever the cost, engaged Clarence Darrow, the foremost criminal defence lawyer in the country at the time, to represent the pair at trial. Darrow was publicly passionate about his abhorrence of the death penalty.

The police arrived to scenes of carnage and took Amurao into custody, interviewing her and proceeding with the construction of an Identikit image. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive “Born to Raise Hell” tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. Subsequent nationwide enquiries also raised the other incidents in which Speck was suspected, as well as his criminal record. In the days before automated fingerprint identification, it took almost a week to identify the prints found in the townhouse as his.Media coverage splashed Speck’s image all over the front pages and, in a desperate bid to escape, Speck tried to commit suicide on 19 July 1966, by slashing his wrists in the dive-hotel where he was staying. Changing his mind at the last minute, he summoned help, and was taken to Cook County hospital where, again, his tattoo gave him away and he was arrested and taken into custody. During the surgery that he required to repair his severed artery, he was watched over by a dozen policemen, who were determined to ensure that his days of making lucky escapes were over.

The number of possible killers grew and grew, as investigators probed their underworld connections and bargained with convicts who were willing to dish the dirt in exchange for a reduction in their sentences.Between January 1976 and February 1977 the United States government issued internal reports which were based on interviews with an informer who claimed to know the entire story of Hoffa's disappearance. The informer, Ralph Picardo was serving a sentence for murder at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey. In 1975 Picardo was a driver for 'Tony Pro' Provenzano and he revealed that Hoffa had been invited to the restaurant meeting by renowned Detoriot mobster, Anthony Giacalone for a 'sit down' with Provenzano to make amends over their differences.O'Brien, who claimed to have been on a fish-carving expedition that day, had, according to Picardo, picked up Hoffa at the restaurant and driven him to a nearby house where Teamster business agent Thomas Andretta, Salvatore Briguglio and his brother Gabriel waited to ambush Hoffa. Frank Sheeran was also present.Picardo claimed that the hit had been ordered by Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino, because his cousin, William, had a big falling out with Hoffa in 1967, and Bufalino had passed the actual deed of murder onto Provenzano.Bufalino's exact whereabouts on the day Hoffa was murdered were never confirmed but the FBI believed there was little doubt that Hoffa was murdered, as Picardo had confessed.In 1985 the FBI released a memo summarising citing, Briguglio along with brother Gabriel, Andretta, O'Brien, Provenzano, Giacalone and Bufalino as their prime suspect for Hoffa's murder.

The next morning police officers find Mackay in Stockwell, South London. He is placid and compliant because he is hungover. He had spent all the money from the robbery on alcohol.He immediately admits to the murder of Father Crean and says a “white mist” had come over him and he’d done it in a fit of anger. On the journey to the police station at Gravesend he takes police to a garage near Clapham where he says he disposed of the knife he had used in the murder.During police interviews Mackay describes the murder vividly and relives it step-by-step. It is noted that talk of all the blood makes Mackay excited and it jogs his memory of standing for an hour after the murder, watching the body float in the water.Mackay is charged with the murders and held at Brixton Prison awaiting trial.

The gossip in the town finally led the police to investigate and they arrested Adams on suspicion of murder. The general rumours that swept the genteel seaside resort were that Adams’ bedside manner was to persuade a wealthy widow to write a will which left him money before administering a lethal concoction of drugs.Accusations and hearsay had reached such a peak that the local police had little choice but to undertake enquiries. At the same time the press got hold of the story and almost in a ‘trial by media’ manner helped reinforce the view that Adams was a GP with a sinister agenda. One headline ‘Inquiry into 400 wills’ no doubt helped fuel the view that Adams was a potential killer.The police investigated for several months during 1956. Then on 1 October of that year they confronted Dr Adams with their suspicions concerning the death of Mrs Morrell. In his defence Adams argued that his ill patient, suffering terribly from pain, wanted to die. He argued that it wasn’t a crime to ease the suffering of the terminally ill. But it was the legacies left in the patients wills that caused the police to remain suspicious over Adams' motivations.

The gang’s evasion from the authorities didn’t last long. Blanche was already suffering from a previous battle when she was hit in the eye with flying glass segments and nearly blinded. Then on 24 July, the Barrow gang was ambushed. Buck was shot several times and both he and Blanche were captured. The badly injured Buck died in hospital five days later.The next couple of months would witness a bloodbath as the gang were ambushed, escaped and then killed a prison guard when they raided Eastham prison to free fellow gang members Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer. During the fracas it was Palmer who shot and killed the unfortunate victim. It was this kind of cold hearted killing, particularly of civil servants that toughened the authority’s view of bringing the gang to justice, dead or alive.On 1 April 1934, Clyde Barrow’s reputation for ruthlessness was cemented when he and fellow gang member Henry Methvin turned their guns on two highway patrolmen in Grapevine, Texas. The incident confirmed an understanding between FBI agents and the Louisiana authorities to deal with Bonnie and Clyde in a manner that would remove them from continuing to be a public menace.End of the RoadIt was a quiet, uneventful day on 23 May 1934 when Bonnie and Clyde were driving down a back road near their hideout at Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Unbeknownst to them a posse of four Texas and two Louisiana officers led by ranger captain Frank Hamer were lying low, waiting. Hamer had been on the gang’s tail ever since February of that year when he had been given a directive from the Texas Department of Corrections to eliminate Bonnie and Clyde.Hamer, along with other agents had visited Barrow gang member Henry Methvin’s parents’ house in Shreveport, Louisiana to ascertain the gang’s movements. The Methvin’s house had been designated as a safe house and rendezvous by Clyde in case the gang became separated.On 23 May, Hamer and his posse were waiting patiently in thick bushes for Bonnie and Clyde to turn up on Highway 154 between Gibsland and Sailes. They had already been there for a day and were close to abandoning the plan when they were finally rewarded with the sight of Clyde’s stolen Ford V-8 approaching.First Clyde stopped to talk to Methvin’s father Henry, standing by a truck, prearranged by Hamer to distract Clyde and steer him in sight of the rangers’ guns. Within seconds the rangers opened fire, delivering around 130 bullets into Bonnie and Clyde.Clyde died instantly with a single shot to the head administered by ranger Prentis Oakley. But Bonnie was heard to scream in pain as the bullets hit her, pebbledash fashion, ripping her and the car apart. The lawmakers reloaded their guns, alternating from automatic rifles to shotguns and then pistols as the car came to a halt and ran into a ditch. Even as it came to a stop the guns kept firing.

The first to be apprehended was Arthur ‘Doc’ Barker, who was captured on 8 January 1935 by FBI hero, Melvin Purvis himself. Despite being taken alive, Doc was eventually sent to Alcatraz where he was shot and killed by guards as he attempted to escape from the infamous San Francisco prison.On 16 January 1935, agents then tracked down Ma and favourite son Fred when they were renting a cottage in Lake Weir, Florida. Ma was manning a machine gun and during a four-hour shoot out both were shot and killed by the FBI. Ma Barker ended up with one to three fatal bullets in her, although another version has Ma committing suicide after she witnessed Freddie’s death.In shootouts with the other gang members, Herman Barker who was wounded after a gun battle, shot and killed himself with his gun. Lloyd, who was captured and eventually served 25 years was later, ironically, killed by his own wife.Karpis, who maintained that it was always J. Edgar Hoover who had created the myth of Ma Barker as ‘Bloody Mama’ to serve his purpose, vowed to kill Hoover in the same manner that the FBI had dealt with Ma and Freddie. He even sent a letter to the burly FBI director promising such a fate. At one stage the psychopathic mobster was nearly killed by the FBI when they located him in Atlantic City, but he managed to shoot his way to freedom despite his pregnant girlfriend getting shot in the thigh.Hoover was intent on arresting Karpis himself and on 1 May 1936 he had that pleasure granted when the last of the Enemy Number Ones was located in New Orleans. A dozen agents swarmed over Karpis’ car and Hoover himself went up to the vehicle and declared that he was under arrest.George Barker, Ma’s estranged husband buried her and his son Freddie in Welch, Oklahoma. Of his wife and sons he said: "She never would let me do with them what I wanted to."

The case is cold and no break through happens until one day in 2006 police receive an anonymous letter. The writer explains that he saw Michael Ross in a Kirkwall public toilet just before the murder. The youngster was carrying a gun and had a balaclava on top of his head; he swears when he notices the witness looking at him.

Police discover that the witness is William Grant. He has kept silent for 12 years as he was too scared to speak out. But the knowledge and guilt weighs heavily on him until he decides to write to the police.

Police then find out that Michael Ross is now a hero - he has made a new life in the army and has no previous convictions. But because of the new crucial information and Grant as a witness, Michael Ross is finally arrested in May 2007 for the cold blooded murder committed 13 years before.

The Bradford Street scuttler, William Willan had been in plenty of fights but he had no criminal record. He was, after all, only sixteen. But when one Saturday in 1892, he fatally stabbed Peter Kennedy in the side, he not only broke the law, he broke the scuttle code. The point of the fights was to maim, not murder. As Kennedy lay bleeding, Willan fled the scene.Many in his gang feared the retribution that would follow. They decided to inform on him. This was lucky for the police for they had been largely ineffective in combating the scuttlers. The police were there to deal with professional criminals or market disturbances and pub brawls. Citywide organised gang violence and murder just wasn’t in their remit. As Duncan Broady of the Greater Manchester Police Museum noted; “The police weren’t set up to deal with this scale of outbreak”.And if a uniformed bobby did turn up to a mass scuttle, they may themselves become the target. They also found that if they quietened one district, fighting would just break out in another.Fearing the gallows, Willan ran to his friend, Jimmy Hands. Willan gave him his wage packet on condition that Hands stashed the murder weapon for him. He gave him only one instruction “If you get copped, don’t tell on me”.But the following day, at 3pm, Jimmy Hands walked into Canal Street Police Station in Ancoats and handed in the clasp knife. He told the desk sergeant that the weapon had been used by William Willan to stab Peter Kennedy.Willan was arrested on the Monday morning. At this stage, the charge was not murder. Peter Kennedy was still in hospital. But his condition deteriorated. He died two weeks later.William Willan and two of his friends were now charged with murder.

The 233-year-old Barings bank incurred losses of £827 million ($1.4 billion at the exchange rate of that time). The sum amounted to twice the bank’s trading capital and reserves, and led to its immediate collapse.Investors lost their savings and 1,200 employees lost their jobs. ING, a Dutch bank, agreed to assume the majority of Baring’s debt and acquired the bank for £1.When questioned, Leeson claimed to have opened the (88888) error account to hide a £20,000 trade, made by one of his subordinates, which had been incorrectly recorded. In fact, over time, he used the account to cover numerous bad trades of his own. Leeson claimed never to have used the account for his gain but lawyers for Barings eventually found several bank accounts linked to Leeson, with a total worth in the region of $35 million.Barings was not entirely without blame. Leeson had been able to conduct his dealings in secret and hide his losses from the bank due to an administrative abnormality. Barings management had allowed him to perform functions usually done by two people. That is, in an unethical move, Leeson had acted both as Chief Trader whilst also settling his own trades.It was discovered during the investigation that in 1993, an internal memo had been written, warning London head office of this very problem. It read: “We are in danger of setting up a system that will prove disastrous” but nothing was done to resolve the issue. In January 1995, SIMEX communicated their concern with Leeson’s activities to Barings, but to no avail.When Leeson and his wife went on the run, they first fled to Malaysia, then to Brunei and finally on to Germany. It was here that the law caught up with him and Leeson was arrested in Frankfurt airport on 2 March 1995, just less than two months after his first short straddle. After nearly nine months in Germany, spent trying to avoid it, Leeson was finally extradited to Singapore for trial and sentencing.

Subsequent forensic enquiries revealed the thallium poisoning: the first recorded case of deliberate poisoning by this heavy metal ever recorded. Young’s poison conviction was soon unearthed, as were his collection of poisons, and meticulous diaries recording explicit dosages administered to individuals, and their reactions to the dosage over time.Young was arrested in Sheerness, Kent, on 21 November 1971, where he had been visiting his father. A quantity of thallium was found on his person. Under interrogation, he admitted verbally to the poisonings, but refused to sign a written admission of guilt. He clearly relished the notoriety that his day in court would afford him.

Starkweather and Fugate drove all night, crossing into Wyoming on 29 January 1958. Realising that the luxurious car they were driving would raise suspicion, they pulled over when they spotted a Buick parked on the shoulder of the road, whose inhabitant, shoe salesman Merle Collison, was sleeping inside. When Collison refused to swap cars Starkweather shot him multiple times at close range. Starkweather and Fugate made to leave in the car, with Collison dead in the passenger seat, but he didn’t know how to release the handbrake in the Buick. When another passer-by stopped to assist them, Starkweather pulled out his gun and threatened to kill him, if he didn’t show him how to release the brake. A struggle ensued and, when a deputy sheriff stopped to investigate, Fugate ran over to him and yelled that Charlie Starkweather was in the vehicle, and that he had just killed somebody.Starkweather jumped back in the Packard and drove off at break-neck speed, followed by the deputy sheriff who had radioed for help to set up roadblocks. A high-speed car chase followed and, when Starkweather’s back window was shot out by police gunfire, he brought the vehicle to an abrupt halt and surrendered: a shard of glass had nicked his ear, and he had thought he had been mortally wounded.

Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey raided many of Luciano’s brothels and successfully closed half of them down. It was then that he realised he had a case against Luciano when the madams and call-girl bookers started to give evidence about their paymaster. An order was put out to arrest Luciano. This time he wasn’t so lucky.

Police start shifting through those kids who were drunk and drugged up on Friday night to find those that had gone onto kill.Two Police Community Support Officers had noticed one lad, 16-year-old Stephen Sorton, was missing a trainer when they stopped him. He’d lied and said it had come off while running. He is soon arrested.Methodical, painstaking detective work, alongside several eyewitness statements, identify other key members of the gangs. Witnesses all agree there were around four or five main youths involved in the attack.Within hours, nine are in custody.“I decided to...get a map drawn of the street and draw on where Mr Newlove was. And then we got each individual who was involved to record on their individual map where individuals were stood at the time of the attack. And what was consistent in that was when we overlayed them all was the fact there were five youths stood round Mr Newlove.” Detective Inspector Geoff ElveyThree names keep coming up. All are known for either drinking or drug taking and for disturbances in the local neighbourhood. In addition to Sorton, they are Adam Swellings, 18, and Jordan Cunliffe, aged just 15-years-old.After the attack on Garry, Swellings had gone home and admitted to his mother that he’d beaten a man up. She called the police. Swellings was at his father’s home in Crewe when the police came. He’d been watching the news and knew why they were there. Detective Inspector Geoff Elvey got the impression that Swellings ‘wasn’t really bothered about what had taken place.’Basic checks reveal that Swellings had only just been released from custody on the day of the attack. The magistrates had had the opportunity to remand him for his assault on a police officer ten days before. Instead, they released him. One of the conditions of his bail was that he wouldn’t go to Warrington.Swelling’s previous crimes included theft, robbery, criminal damage and assault. He had a reputation for being a violent drunk. He initially denies being involved but then changes his story. He says he landed just one punch and then did no more.Sorton was said to have come from a decent family but was known for his ‘vindictive edge’. He had a previous police reprimand for assault.“Sorton never admitted anything during the interview other than that he did find out there’d been an attack in the street. And he said he went out to investigate and render assistance while he was waiting for the ambulance and that’s how he lost his shoe.” Detective Inspector Geoff ElveyEyewitnesses contradict his account. They place him at the scene of the attack and having taken part in the kicking. They say that’s how he lost his shoe. After he’s charged, Sorton admits his guilt to his mother.Jordan Cunliffe was not only younger than the other two: He was smaller and weaker. He had made up for this by inviting gang members to use his home for drug taking. He had a conviction for shoplifting. He also denied being in the area. Eyewitness accounts, PCSO statements, CCTV footage and Zoe Newlove’s blood on his jacket contradict him.

Police investigation was finally gaining impetus and investigators knew for certain that several of their unsolved crimes were linked and that they potentially had a serial killer on their hands. The media frenzy surrounding the killings had unleashed a level of panic in the population of Paris. Georges was being dubbed the ‘Beast of Bastille’ due to the fact that several of his attacks had occurred in the Bastille quarter, the famed Revolutionary era Parisian neighbourhood.It was one of the largest manhunts in French criminal history. Police finally found Georges in Montmartre and arrested him on 27 March 1998 for the rape and murder of Pascale Escarfail, Catherine Rock, Elsa Benady and Agnes Nijkamp. It transpired that Georges’ DNA matched that found at all four crime scenes, as well as at one attempted rape. Confronted whilst in custody with the irrefutable DNA evidence, Georges confessed to these four, as well as three other murders.Kept in custody, Georges tried to escape in December 2000; a few weeks before his trial was due to begin. He and three cellmates attempted to saw through the bars of their cell but were caught by prison guards. Georges was assessed by psychiatrists and declared legally sane and fit to stand trial.

Crime+Investigation Play - What to watch in March 2023

Find out about shows streaming on Crime+Investigation Play in March 2023

Police interviewer: “So what can you tell me about the murder of Tia Sharp, Stuart?”Stuart Hazell:  “Can I have a couple of minutes with my solicitor please?”Hazell’s early morning exit on 10 August was, in fact, a pathetic attempt to escape the inevitable. He’s caught on CCTV buying vodka in a shop in Cannon Hill Lane, South London. He cries to a little girl in the shop. The little girl calls her father who calls the police.That evening, at 8:25pm, they arrest the man Tia called ‘Granddad’. The public surround the police van into which he’s placed. They want instant revenge. They are not alone:“I prayed that one of them got their hands on him before the police did.” Natalie SharpInstead, the police arrest Natalie’s mother, suspecting Christine must have been involved; “They arrested me that Friday night - five to twelve - I was released on bail at, I think it was about six, seven o’clock the Saturday evening, but I wasn’t allowed nowhere near Natalie or my grandchildren.” Christine BicknellWith her mother in prison, Natalie watches on television as her daughter’s body is removed from her house: “They wheeled her out. And it didn’t even look like a body, do you know, it wasn’t big enough for her... ...They shouldn’t have removed her, not with all them strangers and all them cameras and...I should have been with her.”It’s decided that Natalie will not be allowed to see the badly decomposed remains of her daughter. Stuart Hazell now tries to explain how Tia died: “...his account evolved into one of where they had been playing together, Tia had fallen down the stairs, but seemed OK, so he had thought nothing more of it. He had then passed out through drink, as his account, and when he’d woken up he found Tia dead on the floor. He said he felt so guilty that he hadn’t done more for Tia the night before when she’d fallen over, and he couldn’t face telling the grandmother that her only granddaughter was dead, that he hid her body in the loft.” Nick Scola, Detective Chief InspectorBut during one of the searches of the property, police find two memory cards. One has been particularly well hidden in a doorframe.“The last shot on the memory card had been deleted, but we recovered it, and that was the incredibly disturbing image that we believe was taken of Tia, in a sexually posed position, after she was dead...This image depicted a naked female, on all fours, with the photograph being taken from behind her.” Nick Scola, Det Ch Insp“I expect that he would have kept that as a trophy. He would have continued to get sexual pleasure from that. This was his way of prolonging the enjoyment.” Dr. Keri Nixon, Forensic PsychologistOther recovered images are of Hazell himself. He’s posed for the camera, mimicking the sleeping positions of Tia. In others, he’d perform and gyrate. And insert things into his anus.Thankfully, Christine is cleared of having any involvement and is released.But Stuart Hazell is still saying he’s innocent.   

On 5 February 2002 police, armed with a search warrant, entered the Pickton farm looking for illegal firearms. Within hours of the 57 year old being in custody, the police obtained a second court order to search the farm as part of the ongoing 20 year police investigation into the disappearance of over 60 women from downtown. The search by dozens of forensic suited investigators amongst the slurry and dirt turned up an asthma inhaler belonging to one of the many missing, but the police could only charge Pickton with minor firearm contraventions. Later released, he was now under police surveillance.

A few weeks later, the police arrested and charged Pickton with two counts of first degree murder for the killings of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. A fortnight later, the names of Heather Bottomley, Jacqueline McDonell and Diane Rock were added to the charges. One week later, Andrea Joesbury became the sixth charge.With the addition of Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall, the total murder charges reached fifteen, making Pickton Canada’s biggest formally charged serial killer. By this stage, large conveyor belts were being used to shift through tons of soil, going as deep as 30 feet down for sifting and DNA analysis by over 100 forensic specialists. It broke new ground for forensics. They had found blood-stained clothes and pieces of human bone and teeth. Amongst a pile of animal bones, human toes, heels and rib bones were found.

By November, there were nearly 30 charges against Pickton but investigators were constantly thwarted by the conditions on the farm and the fact that Pickton’s pigs had helped in the disposal of the evidence.

Animals involved in murder plots

Here are five ways that violent folk have plotted to kill and some poor ol’ critters have got caught up in the murderous scheme... 

On 4th May 1985, Magdalena Kopp was released from French prison, having earned early release for good behaviour. She joined Carlos in Hungary, but political pressure soon saw them forced to seek refuge in Syria, one of the few countries willing to offer Carlos a base. On 17th August, Kopp gave birth to their first child, named Elba Rosa. In return for sanctuary, Syria insisted that Carlos remain inactive and, with few other options, he was forced into retirement, where he remained in relative obscurity, until Western intelligence agencies received information that Carlos was about to head Saddam Hussein’s terror campaign in his attack on Kuwait, in August 1990.There followed an all-out campaign to capture him, which saw Carlos and his family expelled from Syria, and he was forced to settle in Jordan by October 1991. He then left Kopp for a young Jordanian woman, whom he took as his second wife. Kopp left Jordan for Venezuela with their daughter, moving in with Carlos’ mother. Carlos was forced again to leave Jordan, settling finally in Khartoum, in the Sudan.His drinking and womanising did not endear him to the Muslim authorities there and, amidst intense political pressure from the French government, the Sudanese authorities gave him up for extradition on 14th August 1994. He was immediately flown to France, and charged with the 1975 murders of the two policemen, as well as Michel Moukharbal. He was held in the maximum-security prison, La Sante, pending trial.

On 31 October 1828, Burke’s lodgers, Ann & James Gray, became suspicious at Docherty’s disappearance, especially when Burke warned them away from the bed where her body was hidden. Waiting for him to go out, they quickly discovered the body, confronting Helen McDougal. Realising what they had seen, she tried to bribe them into silence, recruiting Margaret Hare’s help as well, but the Grays refused payment and made off to summon the police.Helen and Margaret contacted their husbands immediately, who took Docherty’s body to Surgeon’s Square in a large trunk to secure payment. When the police arrived at Burke’s home, there was no body. An anonymous tip-off led police to the offices of Dr. Knox at 10 Surgeon’s Square on 2 November, where the body of Mary Docherty was found in a tea chest. William Burke, William Hare, Margaret Hare, and Helen McDougal were all arrested for her murder.They all produced conflicting stories under interrogation. When news of the arrests became common knowledge, prostitute Janet Brown came forward with the story of the disappearance of Mary Paterson. Neighbours provided additional stories about suspicious activities, and a further search of Hare’s lodging house revealed clothing that had belonged to Paterson, as well as items identified as belonging to Jamie Wilson and Mary Docherty.An autopsy of Mary Docherty concluded that she had died of suffocation, but could not prove whether this was intentional or accidental. The lack of direct evidence, linking Burke and Hare to the deaths, led the Lord Advocate to offer Hare the chance of immunity from prosecution, if he agreed to give evidence against Burke. Hare accepted with alacrity, and implicated Burke in all of the cases known to the police at that time. On 1 December 1828, Burke and McDougal were charged with the murder of Mary Docherty, and Burke was also charged with the murders of Mary Paterson and Jamie Wilson. Hare and his wife escaped all charges, although they continued to be held in Calton Prison until well after the trial.

On 28 May 1945, Joyce was captured by British forces near the German-Danish border, in the town of Flensburg. Apparently Joyce’s accent had raised suspicions, and when he went to retrieve his forged identification papers from his pocket, to prove he wasn’t Joyce, he was thought to be reaching for a pistol, and was shot in the leg by an interpreter attached to the British forces, named Lieutenant Perry.

After recovering for a fortnight in Lueneberg Military Hospital, Joyce was transported back to the U.K on 16 June 1945. His capture was seen as a significant coup for the authorities and, conveniently, the day before Joyce's arrival, the Treason Act 1945 had been granted Royal Assent by King George VI, enabling Joyce to be charged with three counts of high treason.

On 28 July 1996, John Copik pulled up a body tangled in the nets of his fishing trawler off the coast of south Devon. There was an injury to the back of the man’s head, but everything indicated that he accidentally drowned. At first the man’s identity was a mystery to the police, but he was wearing an expensive Rolex Oyster Perpetual wristwatch. The police contacted Rolex, who keep records of purchases, and they discovered that a man by the name of Ronald Platt had that particular watch repaired ten years earlier in 1986.The police found Walker’s mobile phone number on a reference letter Ronald had given a letting agent company. When they spoke to Walker he was more than helpful and went into the police station voluntarily. He told them that as far as he was aware Ronald had gone to France.Essex police contacted Walker to clear up a few matters. He was still using the name of David Davis, but when they went to his house he wasn’t there. A neighbour informed them that Ronald Platt lived next door, not David Davis, and Ronald had a yacht in Devon.On 31 October 1997 police arrested Walker on suspicion of the murder of Ronald Joseph Platt and found Sheena stuffing gold bars into a diaper bag. In the previous month Walker had bought over £67,000 in gold bullion.

On 17 July 1975, Honka was on a shift at the ship yard, when a fire started by candles in a neighbour’s apartment engulfed the his entire house. Firefighters tried to control the flames from the top of the building but when they reached the attic they were met by the penetrating stench of rotten bodies. When Honka returned home the next morning, the police were waiting for him. At this point, investigators had no evidence of his guilt - all of the neighbours also had access to the attic – they needed a confession. Given Honka’s low intelligence and his speech impediment, the questioning was not easy. However, Honka was was aware that sooner or later he would be found out and during interrogation he confessed to committing four murders. He never revealed his motive to the police, apart from to say that he was contacted by Jack the Ripper who told him to kill the women.  

On 14 November 1975, Gaskins, now aged 42, is arrested after a criminal colleague, Walter Neely, tells police he’s seen Gaskins kill two men.Gaskins downfall was involving other people. The first is Walter Neely. He needs Neely’s help in disposing of a van in which Gaskins has killed three people.Gaskins then decides to make some money out of his serial killing, and becomes a killer for hire. A woman hires him to kill her former lover. Diane Neely lures the target out so that Gaskins can kidnap him. Two others are involved in the murder and burial of the body.Diane Neely and her boyfriend try to blackmail Gaskins over the murder, little realising that he’s a psychopathic serial killer. He says he’ll meet them to give them the money. Instead, he murders them. Two locals also have little sense of the true nature of their victim when they steal from Gaskins. They’re also killed. He enlists Walter Neely to help bury the pair. Meanwhile, another of Gaskins former kills leads police to search his apartment. The victim’s clothes are found. And Neely is also brought in for questioning. He soon confesses everything.Gaskins says he’s involved in the murders of many of those reported missing and indicates where he’s buried them.On 4 December, 1975, Gaskins takes police to some land he owns. The police find eight of his victims.

On 11 September 1996, Vest saw a news item on the murder on television. He told his mother his version of events, stating that Johnson had shot the man at the service station.Vest and Johnson were arrested on 13 September 1996. A police officer said: “Johnson is one of the worst individuals I’ve ever come in contact with. He just hates life, he hates people.”

Northcott was arrested in Vernon, British Colombia, Canada on 20 September 1928, while his mother was arrested in Calgary. Jack H Brown, a sheriff’s deputy from the Riverside County police, was sent up to interview them. Upon his arrest, Northcott initially denied his identity, although positive identification was a simple matter. They were extradited and returned to the United States to stand trial for the murder of the four boys.

Ng had sisters in Toronto and Calgary, an uncle in Yorkshire, England and former Marine friends in Hawaii. Interpol and Scotland Yard were informed about his possible whereabouts in the hope of arresting him in one of several locations.Although bones and articles of clothing had been recovered at the bunker site, it was several more days before the first skeletal remains of two people were unearthed. The bones had been sawn in pieces and burnt. Also, the discovery of a sealed container revealed a cache of personal belongings and several videotapes. One of them disclosed disturbing footage of Kathleen Allen who was seen chained to a chair and made to perform a striptease while being taunted by two men off screen.Another video revealed Leonard Lake himself describing his fantasies about kidnapping women and enslaving them. Most disturbing of all was footage showing Brenda O’Connor pleading for information about her baby.The baby and O’Connor’s partner Lonnie Bond had most likely been killed before the tape was recorded. O’Connor then appeared to agree to co-operate and later she is heard taking a shower, no doubt under duress - with the same men who were heard taunting Ms Allen.Later excavations, involving the demolishing of the entire bunker, finally revealed up to ten bodies (seven men, three women) including two baby boys and forty-five pounds of bone fragments. Evidence pointed to the slaughter of up to 25 people in total.On the day that Balasz had taken Ng to the San Francisco airport he had been seen boarding an American Airlines flight to Chicago. The search took the FBI to a hotel where Ng had checked out four days earlier. Ng travelled to Detroit with a friend before entering Canada. He managed to elude the authorities for nearly a month before a shopping theft in a Calgary grocery store led police officers to approach him. One was shot in the hand, but Ng was eventually overpowered and charged with robbery, possession of a firearm and attempted murder of a police officer.When news of his capture alerted the American Task Force, bureaucratic red tape soon obstructed the extradition of Ng for trial in the States. This protracted affair went on for six years as Canadian officials refused to hand over any prisoner who was charged on a capital offence that could lead to the death penalty.In the interim, Ng was questioned by US detectives. He maintained his innocence regarding the killing of the victims found at the Wilseyville bunker and insisted that Leonard Lake was responsible for most of the abductions and murders.While serving his four year 'sentence' for theft and assault charges in Calgary, Ng invested his time in learning everything he could about American law.It was to be the start of a protracted roller coaster ride where Ng would use every legal trick up his sleeve to delay proceedings against him for the murders. Ng was finally extradited to America on 26 September 1991 and incarcerated in Sacramento prison while awaiting trial.During this time the devious Ng used his newfound knowledge of American law to draw out proceedings. First he made formal complaints ranging from poor treatment and bad food to even declaring that he was forced to take medication for motion sickness which resulted in him being unfit for court.One clever tactic was filing to represent himself, which then took considerable time to arrange only for him to withdraw from the offer at the last minute.When Ng and his attorneys insisted that the trial be moved to Orange County for fear of media prejudice in San Andreas, this in itself became a protracted arrangement particularly when OC officials complained that such a trial would bankrupt them. Finally the matter was resolved when the Californian state agreed to pay all costs.After having delayed court proceedings which also involved Ng dismissing his own attorneys and filing a million dollar suit against them for incompetence, Ng was finally placed in the dock in October 1998, thirteen years after he had been initially arrested.

More than two years later, on 15th September 1934, the police had the breakthrough they needed: a petrol station manager, Walter Lyle, suspicious of an old-fashioned gold-backed ten dollar note he received in payment for petrol, wrote down the license plate number of the purchaser. It was traced back to a 35 year-old German immigrant, a carpenter called Richard Bruno Hauptmann, who lived in the Bronx.Hauptmann was discovered to have entered the United States illegally in 1923, and had a criminal record for robbery, in one case having used a ladder to commit the crime. Significantly for the police, he had suddenly given up his carpentering trade around May 1932, and become a stock investor.Hauptmann was found to have another Lindbergh note on his person, when he was arrested outside his home on 19th September 1934. His home was practically dismantled in the subsequent search, and over $14,000 of the ransom money was found hidden in the wall joists of a garage, which Hauptmann had built himself. In addition, a missing rafter in Hauptmann’s attic exactly matched an upright strut in the kidnap ladder.Under intense interrogation, Hauptmann maintained that a former business partner, Isador Fisch, had given the money to him, before he departed for Germany in December 1933, although, as Fisch had died of tuberculosis in Germany in March 1934, Hauptmann could not provide corroboration of his account. He was required to provide a sample of his handwriting, which experts concluded matched the handwriting in the ransom note.

Milat was arrested and taken into custody for questioning, where he was evasive and uncooperative. He was initially charged with the attack on Paul Onions, then subsequently with the seven murders, once ballistic evidence matched his weapon to the attacks. He was remanded in custody to await trial. He engaged the same lawyer who had represented him during his 1971 rape trial and acquittal, John Marsden, but fired him when he advised Milat to plead guilty.

Knox was arrested on 6 November 2007 but not formally charged. She spent nearly two years in custody waiting for her trial which did not begin until 16 January 2009. It’s simply a statement of fact to say that wherever your sympathies lie, she was tried by the media in the interim.The ways of this West Coast American student were put under as much forensic examination as the murder scene of Meredith Kercher. CCTV evidence of her and Sollecito reportedly buying sexy underwear two days after the murder entered the Italian press. The press adds that the amount of men she’s slept with is approaching double figures. This amount of premarital sex is rare in a country where extra partners are frowned on before marriage. And in Italy, very few women would keep their condoms and rabbit vibrator in a transparent wash-bag like Knox did. It’s also revealed that her creative writing included a rape story where the victim is drugged.Her mother, Edda Mellas, and her father, Curt Knox, telephone her once a week for ten minutes.In total, they would make two dozen trips to Italy to be by their daughter’s side and spend over a million dollars in an ultimately doomed PR and legal campaign. As their daughter’s character is endlessly assassinated, Amanda Knox turns 21 in an Italian cell that she shares with three others.The American media parade an equal number of friendly counter witnesses who all agree that Knox hasn’t a ‘harmful bone in her body’. An American’s commentator’s view that ‘This is a lynching and it’s happening to an American girl’ summarised most US sentiment. Her family, however, didn’t always help her case. Her mother and sister took part in a dubious photo- shoot for a woman’s magazine where two of Knox’s sister posed by the house where Kercher was murdered.As media networks battled with each other (essentially, Italy and the UK versus the US) there was an actual judicial process occurring. The third suspect, Guede, had been arrested in Germany when he was caught on a train without a ticket. The police had been after him after finding a bloody handprint on Kercher’s pillow that didn’t match either Knox or Sollecito’s. It had matched a fingerprint of Guede’s entered in an immigrant register. After being extradited, he went for a fast track trial behind closed doors fearing that he would be singled out as the killer by Knox and Sollecito in a group trial. He admitted he was in Kercher’s home but like the Knox/Lumumba confession, Guede said he heard the murder from another room.In October 2008, he was sentenced to 30 years. Damningly, the judge in the his case explained in a 106 page verdict that he believed that Guede acted with Knox and Sollecito. In December 2009, his sentence was nearly halved on appeal. The reduction was due to his youth at the time of the crime, his lack of a previous criminal record, and the fact that he had opted for the fast track trial which both saved money and the suffering of the Kercher family.Despite being a fellow suspect, the far less photogenic Sollecito received little attention and he and Knox separate. A leak of her alleged prison diary suggests the separation isn’t just about the end of a romance. "I think it is possible Raffaele went to Meredith's house, raped her, then killed her and then when he got home, while I was sleeping, he pressed my fingerprints on the knife."Before the trial even started, most interested people had been exposed to a lot of evidence making a fair trial, in the sense of jurors being unaware of a case, and considering the evidence for the first time, an unlikely possibility. In 2008, an Italian online poll rated Amanda Knox the most well known person in Italy.

Knox was arrested on 6 November 2007 but not formally charged. She spent nearly two years in custody waiting for her trial which did not begin until 16 January 2009. It’s simply a statement of fact to say that wherever your sympathies lie, she was tried by the media in the interim.The ways of this West Coast American student were put under as much forensic examination as the murder scene of Meredith Kercher. CCTV evidence of her and Sollecito reportedly buying sexy underwear two days after the murder entered the Italian press. The press adds that the amount of men she’s slept with is approaching double figures. This amount of premarital sex is rare in a country where extra partners are frowned on before marriage. And in Italy, very few women would keep their condoms and rabbit vibrator in a transparent wash-bag like Knox did. It’s also revealed that her creative writing included a rape story where the victim is drugged.Her mother, Edda Mellas, and her father, Curt Knox, telephone her once a week for ten minutes.In total, they would make two dozen trips to Italy to be by their daughter’s side and spend over a million dollars in an ultimately doomed PR and legal campaign. As their daughter’s character is endlessly assassinated, Amanda Knox turns 21 in an Italian cell that she shares with three others.The American media parade an equal number of friendly counter witnesses who all agree that Knox hasn’t a ‘harmful bone in her body’. An American’s commentator’s view that ‘This is a lynching and it’s happening to an American girl’ summarised most US sentiment. Her family, however, didn’t always help her case. Her mother and sister took part in a dubious photo- shoot for a woman’s magazine where two of Knox’s sister posed by the house where Kercher was murdered.As media networks battled with each other (essentially, Italy and the UK versus the US) there was an actual judicial process occurring. The third suspect, Guede, had been arrested in Germany when he was caught on a train without a ticket. The police had been after him after finding a bloody handprint on Kercher’s pillow that didn’t match either Knox or Sollecito’s. It had matched a fingerprint of Guede’s entered in an immigrant register. After being extradited, he went for a fast track trial behind closed doors fearing that he would be singled out as the killer by Knox and Sollecito in a group trial. He admitted he was in Kercher’s home but like the Knox/Lumumba confession, Guede said he heard the murder from another room.In October 2008, he was sentenced to 30 years. Damningly, the judge in the his case explained in a 106 page verdict that he believed that Guede acted with Knox and Sollecito. In December 2009, his sentence was nearly halved on appeal. The reduction was due to his youth at the time of the crime, his lack of a previous criminal record, and the fact that he had opted for the fast track trial which both saved money and the suffering of the Kercher family.Despite being a fellow suspect, the far less photogenic Sollecito received little attention and he and Knox separate. A leak of her alleged prison diary suggests the separation isn’t just about the end of a romance. "I think it is possible Raffaele went to Meredith's house, raped her, then killed her and then when he got home, while I was sleeping, he pressed my fingerprints on the knife."Before the trial even started, most interested people had been exposed to a lot of evidence making a fair trial, in the sense of jurors being unaware of a case, and considering the evidence for the first time, an unlikely possibility. In 2008, an Italian online poll rated Amanda Knox the most well known person in Italy. 

Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe were arrested on 9 June 2005 on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Holloway. The three youngsters had been named early on in the hunt for Holloway as they had been identified with her outside the Carlos 'n Charlie's club, the last known sighting of the teenager before she vanished.Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig, who took over from Jan van der Straten following his retirement in mid-2005, stated that the three had been suspects from the start and they had been under police surveillance via telephone wire taps and the monitoring of their emails.On 17 June 2005, a fourth person, Steve Gregory Croes, was also arrested based on information given by one of the other three detainees and on 22 June 2005 police also arrested Paulus van der Sloot, Joran van der Sloot's father. Both Paulus van der Sloot and Croes were released a few days later.The stories given by the three detained suspects kept changing as to what had happened to Holloway. All three alibis matched in so far as saying that van der Sloot and Holloway were dropped off at the Marriott Hotel beach near the fishermen's huts. However, van der Sloot stated that he did not harm Holloway in any way and had merely left her on the beach. Van der Sloot's account was continuously altered and later, during his interrogation, he panicked and changed his story to say that in fact he had been dropped off at home and Holloway was driven off by the Kalpoe brothers.Dompig immediately disbelieved this new version of events on the basis that Van der Sloot had started to worry that the Kalpoe brothers were trying to point the finger in his direction and in return he thought he would place the blame on them.On 4 July 2005, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were released from custody following hearings before a judge, but Joran van der Sloot was held for a further 60 days.The Kalpoe brothers were rearrested on 26 August 2005 along with another new suspect, Freddy Arambatzis, 21, who was suspected of having physical contact with an underage girl; an incident which had allegedly occurred before Holloway disappeared and in which Arambatzis's friends van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers had apparently been involved. Van der Sloot's mother, Anita, commented, "It's a desperate attempt to get the boys to talk”.On 3 September 2005, all of the detained suspects were released by a judge and subsequently, on 14 September 2005, all restrictions on them were removed by the Combined Appeals Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. They had not found enough substantial evidence to convict any of the suspects.Between April and May 2006, three more people were arrested on suspicion of being involved in Holloway's disappearance but despite being extensively questioned, all of them were also released without charge.By 2006, the Aruban authorities had exhausted their leads in the case and requested that the Netherlands instead took over the investigation. The Dutch National Police began work afresh on the case in September 2006 and a new search was launched at the van der Sloot family home in April 2007. A month later, police turned their attentions to the other original prime suspects, the Kalpoe brothers, and on 21 November 2007, the three original suspects in the case, the Kalpoe brothers and van der Sloot, were all rearrested. All three were released by December 2007, with the court determining that there was still not enough evidence to conclude that the suspects had anything to do with Holloway's disappearance.On 18 December 2007, Holloway's case was officially declared closed. In total, ten people were arrested on suspicion of being involved in Holloway's disappearance but no charges were filed and no one remains in custody.

Initial public speculation was that the vicious murder had been a robbery gone wrong but police soon dispelled that by issuing warrants for four men. Two of the men were local surfers, known drug-users and petty criminals. They were Julio Martin Chamorro Lopez, 30, known as Rosita, and Nelson Antonio Lopez Dangla, 24, known as Krusty. Lopez had been arrested because a policeman had seen him near the store, shirtless, with fresh scratches and acting nervous. His friend Dangla was arrested soon after. The third person sought by police was Armando Llanes, 20, who had been casually dating Jimenez at the time of her death. Llanes produced a statement from officials at his university that proved an alibi and he was not taken into custody.Despite being two hours away from the crime scene and having a detailed alibi, the fourth man arrested was 27-year-old Eric Volz, Jimenez’s ex-boyfriend. On the morning of Jimenez’s murder Volz was at his home in Managua, which doubled as the offices of EP magazine. He entered the office area of the house at about 9.15am and was seen by five co-workers, the security guard and the housekeeper. Over the course of the morning Volz had a series of meetings with various people including the journalist Ricardo Castillo and a conference call with a business contact in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at 1.14pm.At 2.43pm, in front of five people, Volz received a call from a friend of Jimenez’s informing him of her death. Visibly upset, he hurried to rent a car to drive to San Juan del Sur to support Jimenez’s family, leaving at about 3pm. Despite his apparent removal from the crime, he was arrested and charged with her murder shortly after the funeral on 23rd November 2006.In custody, Lopez pointed to Volz as the perpetrator. In an unsigned statement to police, that he later claimed had been extracted under torture, Lopez said Volz had offered him $5,000 to go to the store with him where the jealous ex-boyfriend, raging at her new relationship with Llanes, attacked, raped and murdered Jimenez. When arrested, Dangla had injuries to his penis and scratches on his neck, torso, arms and hands. He told police that Volz had paid him to meet him outside the fashion boutique and carry two bags into a car. The charges against Dangla were dropped in return for his testimony.Anti-foreigner sentiment was running high, due to rampant foreign investment and a developing culture of the ‘gringo haves’ and the ‘local have-nots’. Public opinion immediately turned against the American, with local papers running the headlines “Young businesswoman victim of jealous gringo’’ and “US Embassy advises accused gringo to keep quiet”. Several days before Volz’s arraignment on 7 December 2006, a car drove through San Juan del Sur with a loudspeaker asking people to “Bring justice to the gringo”. An angry mob were present at the arraignment and Volz and his defence team were attacked as they left, having to flee and take refuge in a nearby gymnasium.

In late 1999, Andrade, Trevi, Boquitas and their ‘troop’ of girls flew first to Spain and then to Chile. Not long after that, they moved to Argentina.It was here that the teenage girls escaped and were returned to their homes in Mexico. Andrade, Trevi and Boquitas then moved to Brazil, where Trevi enjoyed wandering around their neighbourhood and would stop to eat at a local bakery every day.The trio lived here for several months before they were caught by Brazilian police and arrested in January 2000.

In January 1993, over two decades after the first killings, a seventy one year old Pietro Pacciani, a semiliterate farmhand and amateur taxidermist was arrested. It was not Pacciani’s first arrest. In 1951, he had caught his fiancée with a travelling salesman. Pacciani stabbed the man and stamped on his head till he was dead. He then raped the corpse. After his release, Pacciani started a family. He was arrested again for beating his wife and sexually molesting his daughters.But many considered him too stupid to have carried out the killings alone, and without direction. It was believed that he was part of an occult ring and two other people, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were believed to have aided him. 

In a country inured to random acts of violence, the death of four ordinary people at the hands of Cunanan was hardly worthy of column inches and his capture was of interest only to close family and the law enforcement agencies involved.Versace’s death however brought the full weight of global media scrutiny to bear on his South Beach slaughter and networks scrambled for any news, no matter how implausible, about the whereabouts of Versace’s killer. Cunanan’s sordid past was grist to the endless tabloid media mill and political pressure ensured that hundreds of FBI agents were assigned to facilitate his capture. To local forces, there was no other crime more important, smarting at the criticism of having lost opportunities for capture that might have saved Versace’s life, when the earlier blunders came to light. Cunanan had achieved his life’s ambition, the attention of the world’s media was focused squarely on him.The operational errors made by the authorities continued, although now they were firmly in the public domain, given the media scrutiny after Versace’s death. When the pawnshop information became available, the police raided the hotel Cunanan had listed on the form but were given the wrong room number by reception. Unsurprisingly, the room was empty. When the hotel discovered the error two days later, they again alerted the police but with 48 hours warning, Cunanan was long gone.With Cunanan’s image plastered everywhere, his options became very limited indeed. He sought refuge in a luxurious houseboat but was discovered there on 23 July 1997 by a security guard doing his rounds at the marina. The guard recognised Cunanan and immediately alerted the authorities.Determined not to lose Cunanan yet again, hundreds of law enforcement officers descended on the houseboat and a three-hour standoff ensued, with FBI agents gradually inching closer to the boat, using a loud-hailer to demand that Cunanan give himself up. Finally, a gas grenade assault was launched and agents stormed the boat. They found Cunanan’s body in an upstairs bedroom, he had shot himself with the same gun that he had used to kill Madson and Reese.

Immediately after the shots had fired out and the presidential motorcade sped away, a man in the Texas School Book Depository, second-floor lunchroom was confronted by an armed Dallas policeman who had raced into the building. The man in question, Lee Harvey Oswald, was to become associated with Kennedy’s assassination for all time.Twenty-four-year-old Oswald was identified by the superintendent of the building before being released. He then calmly bought a coke from a vending machine and left the building and into Elm Street.The Warren Commission, which later investigated all aspects of the assassination, convened that Oswald had shot the president from the sixth floor window of the depository building and then hidden an eight pound, 1938, Mannlicher-Carcano, 6.5 mm rifle with power scope.It was claimed that Oswald, immediately after shooting the president, then hid the gun before he took the descending lift and was confronted by the police officer. The gun was later found standing upright by Dallas police, around 1.22 pm, a good 20 minutes after Oswald had already returned to his boarding house.During this time, the crime scene was searched by police, detectives and witnesses, all around the grassy knoll, parking lot and railroad yard. Interestingly, the area had not been sealed off immediately after the shooting and photographs show vehicles still driving down Elm Street only nine minutes after the assassination.Oswald’s landlady testified that he was standing waiting for a bus around 1.04 pm. He then continued walking some distance and missed a Greyhound bus that was heading for Mexico. At 1.15 pm, 13 people witnessed Oswald either shooting dead Police Officer JD Tippet, or running away from the scene of the crime. Another witness then observed Oswald hiding from police cars and surreptitiously entering the Texas Theatre movie house.Dallas police arrived outside the cinema at 1.40 pm. Inside patrons noted that Oswald had moved around the auditorium sitting next to different people. Two dozen policemen carried out the arrest. By now word about the president’s murder had reached the general population and an angry crowd gathered outside the cinema as Oswald was bundled out. As some yelled for his death, Oswald replied that he was a victim of police brutality.At 7.05 pm and 11.36 pm respectively, Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the murder of police officer J.D.Tippit and President Kennedy. He denied he had anything to do with the killings.Doctors at Parkland Hospital had worked frantically to save the president’s life but at 1.00 pm, after all the heart activity had ceased, he was pronounced dead.At 2.38 pm on Air Force One, Lyndon Johnson, in the presence of a blood stained Mrs Kennedy, was sworn in by as the 36th President of the United States of America. When the aeroplane arrived back in Washington, Jacqueline Kennedy stepped off still wearing her stained pink suit. She refused to remove her blood spattered attire until the early hours of the morning, saying to witnesses, “Let them see what they have done”.Oswald was held at Dallas Police headquarters for interrogation. The room where he was questioned was swarming with FBI agents, Secret Agents and detectives. The suspect denied everything.Oswald never reached trial, for just two days after the president’s assassination he was himself shot and killed in front of millions of television viewers.Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, self publicist and associate of the underworld, came to international attention when he gunned down Oswald on Sunday, 24th November, at 11.21 am.Oswald was in the process of been transferred by car from police headquarters to a nearby jail when Ruby suddenly stepped out and aiming a Cobra 38, shot Oswald fatally, as television cameras were broadcasting the scene.On being arrested Ruby, who had changed his surname from Rubenstein, told witnesses that he killed Oswald to show that ‘Jews have guts’ and to help Dallas ‘redeem’ itself in the eyes of the public.Many theories have been mulled over regarding possible motivations. The main ones being that Ruby was put up to do the job by mafia mobsters or by certain figures who did not want Oswald to testify. Neither theory has ever been proved. What is a known fact is that Ruby had close ties to many Dallas police officers who frequented his nightclubs.Ruby was found guilty of ‘murder with malice’ and sentenced to death. However, his lawyers successfully managed to apply for a re-trial on the basis that their client should have been tried outside Dallas. While the retrial was in process, Ruby fell ill and died of a pulmonary embolism on 3rd January 1967. Before he passed away he declared that he had not been part of a conspiracy or involved with others, regarding his shooting of Oswald, despite previously making claims to the Warren Commission that he and his family were in danger of their lives.Lee Harvey Oswald had a history of volatile behaviour and an unsettled upbringing. Before the age of 18, he had lived in 22 different residences and attended 12 different schools. As a teenager, he threatened his sister-in-law with a knife and punched his mother. This violent behaviour, coupled with his truancy from school, led to him undergoing psychiatric treatment. The 14-year-old Oswald was described as having a "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies".Noted for his poor spelling and writing abilities, which may have been a consequence of his erratic schooling, he nonetheless developed a voracious appetite for book reading and boasted that he was better educated than most around him. By the time he was 15, he was a self-declared Marxist. Despite his political beliefs, Oswald joined the Marines, where he was ridiculed and ostracised by his fellow comrades for his Soviet sympathies. He was even nicknamed Oswaldskovich.In October 1959, Oswald, who had taught himself rudimentary Russian, went to the USSR after obtaining a student visa by submitting fictional applications to foreign universities. Once there he renounced his American citizenship and declared that he wanted to live and stay in the Soviet Union.Expecting to be able to study at Moscow University he was instead sent to Minsk where he took up a manual occupation in a factory that made electronics. Oswald enjoyed his life for a while, particularly as he was given a rent-subsidised apartment and managed to develop a network of friends and dated women. However, after a fellow worker and girlfriend turned down a marriage proposal, he became more disillusioned with Russia, declaring that its version of Marxism was a perversion.People who knew him at the time recollect that he comprehended little, appeared immature and was also dull company. Soon afterwards he married 19-year-old Marina Alexandrovna. They had a young daughter.Life became more difficult for Oswald and his relationship with Marina deteriorated to the point where she would belittle him in front of Russian friends. Finally the Russian authorities agreed to grant exit visas for Oswald and Marina, particularly after it had been discovered that Oswald had made a pipe bomb which he discarded once he realised he was under surveillance.Back in New Orleans, the petulant and now increasingly malcontent Oswald became more abusive and refused to teach Marina the English language. It is also alleged that he began to beat her. Eventually Marina and her infant daughter left him.After a series of laborious jobs and getting fired for various offences, Oswald’s desperation to be a ‘somebody’ appeared to get out of control when he decided to assassinate General Edwin Walker, a member of the right wing John Birch Society and ardent anti-communist.After buying several firearms via mail order and also taking pictures of Walker’s home, Oswald planned the assassination for the 10th April, 1963. He wrote about his plans and left a note for Marina in case he was caught.Despite destroying most of his plan notes, Marina kept the personal letter. Oswald’s attempt to kill Walker failed when he shot at the General through a window. At the time, the police had no idea who was involved in the attempted assassination until they retrieved the note and photographs during investigations after Kennedy’s murder.Although the bullet fired at General Walker was too badly damaged to run conclusive ballistics studies, tests later proved the bullet was from the same cartridge manufacturer as the two which later struck Kennedy.Following the assassination failure, Oswald turned his preoccupations to Fidel Castro and Cuba seeing them as the last bastion and representation of pure Marxism. He soon became a pro-Castro vocalist and was even invited on a radio programme to debate Cold War issues.Oswald, now known for his pro-Cuba and socialist views, was privately filmed passing out fliers in front of the International Trade Mart with two volunteers he had hired for $2 at the unemployment office.When Oswald returned to Dallas he found a temporary job at the Texas School Book Depository, where he allegedly shot Kennedy from a sixth floor window of the building.It was during investigations after Kennedy’s murder that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison went to great pains to link Oswald to wealthy local businessman Clay Shaw, a former president of the International Trade Mart.Garrison was convinced that Shaw, Oswald and another accomplice were responsible for the plotting and death of the President.