Having heard nothing from their daughter since June, the Hearst family withdrew their offer of a $50,000 reward for the safe return of Patty Hearst.On 21st April 1975, four members of the SLA held up a bank in Carmichael, California, and an innocent bystander, 42-year old Myrna Opsahl, was killed during the robbery. Hearst was not one of the four involved in the raid.Finally, on 18th September 1975, following her return to the West Coast, Hearst was arrested in San Francisco, along with fellow SLA members Bill and Emily Harris, and Wendy Yoshimura. When she was taken to the police station to be booked, she told the desk sergeant that her occupation was 'urban guerrilla'.

Greenglass took no time in implicating his wife, Ruth, and his brother-in-law, Julius Rosenberg. As a result, Julius was arrested on 17 July 1950, and Ethel was arrested three weeks later, on 11 August 1950. Neither could post the $100,000 bail set at their initial hearings and they were incarcerated at the New York House of Detention, pending further investigations.Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with the crime of conspiracy to commit espionage and tried under the Espionage Act of 1917. It was claimed that, as a direct result of the Rosenberg Spy Ring, the Soviets had gained the expertise to manufacture atomic bombs years earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

Gein was arrested and taken to Wautoma County jail, where he initially denied everything, before eventually admitting having shot Bernice Worden with a rifle.He claimed that most of the body parts in his house, estimated to total 15 different individuals, had come from corpses removed from the cemetery. Police were initially sceptical of this claim, but were forced to accept it when they exhumed the bodies in question and discovered that the corpses had indeed been mutilated, as Gein had claimed.They were eager to tie Gein to four other mysterious Wisconsin disappearances, which included a child, a teenager and two men, but no remains from the farmhouse were ever matched to these victims. They did, however, find Mary Hogan’s remains, and Gein admitted to her murder as well.During the course of the interrogation, sheriff Schley subjected Gein to a brutal assault, banging his head repeatedly against a brick wall, which rendered his confession inadmissible, but Gein was assessed by psychiatrists and, in any case, declared mentally unfit for trial at that time. He was committed to the Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.Locals were horrified by the litany of depravity carried out by Gein in their community, and his farmhouse suffered an arson attack on 20 March 1958, and was razed to the ground. His car was sold at auction, and toured State fairs, billed as the “Ghoul Car”, which made its entrepreneurial purchaser a healthy profit.

During the Army hearing it became clear that the preliminary investigation at the murder scene had been a fiasco with vital evidence contaminated due to negligence and incompetence by the military police. The catalogue of mistakes was staggering.It was reported that the ambulance man had not only moved items at the crime scene, but had also stolen the wallet of MacDonald. Fingerprints had been wiped from the telephone and a hair strand taken from MacDonald turned out to be from a pony that he had bought for his eldest daughter.But worse for MacDonald was the fact that a young investigator, William Ivory from the Army CID believed that MacDonald had invented the whole story about the attack by crazed hippies. As a consequence the army put its focus on finding MacDonald guilty.Colonel Warren V. Rock was assigned to head up what is known in military terms as ‘Article 32’, which relates to when a member of the armed services is charged with a crime. On the defence side, Bernie Segal was assigned as MacDonald’s attorney.Freddy Kassab, MacDonald’s father in law and step-father to Colette MacDonald, was incensed that his son-in-law was being accused of the crimes. In response, he started a publicity campaign to prove MacDonald’s innocence. Kassab was also dumbfounded by the fact that the army authorities chose to keep the hearing closed.The woman in the floppy hat who had been seen by officer Mica and Lieutenant Paulk was now identified as Helen Stoeckley. She was known to be a heavy drug user who also had a keen interest in witchcraft and the occult. However, the Army’s CID, William Ivory was accused by the defence of carrying out an inadequate investigation of the woman and her associates. By the time she came to be asked to testify she could not be found.Medical witnesses testified to MacDonald being a man of sound personality with no obvious mental health problems or issues. Furthermore they did not believe he had lied about events on the night of the murders.Apart from the revelation that MacDonald had participated in a few extra marital flings, the majority of military and medical witnesses testified to him being a loyal family man who loved his wife and children.After six weeks of public humiliation for the army, the case was dismissed and Colonel Rock ordered further investigations into Helen Stoeckley. According to the defence team, the Army was still determined to convict MacDonald.MacDonald discharged himself from the Army and around the same time he committed a grave error in judgement when he took it upon himself to talk on chat shows about his experiences and worse, criticise the Army further. His celebrity appearances only helped to undermine his cause and personal loss.Helen Stoeckley was eventually traced, interviewed and given a polygraph test. She told the Army CID that she ‘believed’ she was present during the murders. However, due to the fact that her prints could not be matched with any of those remaining from the crime scene she was dismissed as a suspect.Jeffrey MacDonald began to rebuild his life, returning to work in medicine and receiving praise for many initiatives he brought about in that field. He proved he was well liked and admired and was even made an honorary lifetime member of the Long Beach Police Department.After several years, a grand jury was presented with a new theory about MacDonald. When MacDonald was said to have refused to take a sodium amytal test this led to the grand jury indicting him.After studying the Article 32 transcripts, MacDonald’s father-in-law also became convinced of his guilt and began a successful campaign to have him brought to trial. A grand jury in North Carolina indicted him on 24 January 1975 and within an hour MacDonald was arrested in California.It was to be the kind of high profile case that could make careers. The lead prosecutor, Attorney James Blackburn, later went on to a higher position in North Carolina. Ironically, he was later convicted for fraud and embezzlement.MacDonald was unfortunate that Judge Franklin T. Dupree Jr. who was to preside over the case, was also a close friend and in-law of a Government official who was out to get a conviction. It appeared the odds were stacked against the suspect. MacDonald was indicted over a period of five years, but not charged. His trial was finally set for mid 1979, nine years after the murders had occurred.

Dorset Police used various methods to construct a case against Restivo. Identified early on as a likely suspect, Restivo quickly became the sole focus of investigation. Building towards the arrest, Restivo was questioned a number of times by the police.During the early stages of investigation, Restivo gave an alibi for the day of the murder. In police interviewing he claimed that medical reasons had affected his memory of the key events. He seemed to have an answer for all the police’s questions: he bleached his shoes to get rid of dirt; when arrested in 2006 about hair found in his Bournemouth home, Restivo claimed it was planted there.Though suspicious, without proof the police could only monitor Restivo through surveillance in the hope that they would find new evidence. In 2008, a new forensic technique called Leuco Crystal Violet identified blood in his shoes despite the efforts to bleach the evidence away.In May 2011, with this now compelling forensic evidence and special permission to use evidence from the re-opened Italian investigation, the police were finally able to arrested Restvio for Heather’s murder. Claiming poor memory, attempts to cover his tracks by bleaching clothes he wore during the murder and his defence of hair being planted in his house were no answer to the police’s questioning and Restivo was charged with murder.

Detective Mike Chitwood led the search of Einhorn’s apartment on 28th March 1979, almost 20 months after Maddux had gone missing. In a wardrobe, Chitwood found Maddux’s suitcase, handbag, driver’s licence and social security card. In the same wardrobe, he also found Maddux’s body in a trunk, packed in styrofoam, air fresheners and newspapers. Her decomposing body was partially mummified and the remains weighed only 37 pounds.A post-mortem revealed that Maddux had suffered trauma to the head and her skull was smashed in several places as a result. However, the position of the body and size of the trunk meant that she had actually been alive and semi-conscious when placed in the trunk and had died trying to claw her way out. Upon his arrest, Einhorn reportedly shrugged indifferently and said, “You found what you found”. He was charged with murder, as Pennsylvania has no degrees of murder.Einhorn was represented by the notorious defence attorney Arlen Specter. Later a Senator, he served on the infamous Warren Commission and was the author of the ‘single assassin/crazy bullet theory’ used to explain the assassination of John F Kennedy. Specter argued successfully at the bail hearing on 3rd April 1979 for bail to be set at the strangely low sum of $40 000, of which only 10% had to be paid in cash to secure the release of the bailor.The bail hearing in itself was abnormal, as it was unheard of for bail to be granted in murder cases. While Einhorn’s friends in high places might not have influenced the bail hearing or the amount of bail itself, they certainly did put up the money for his release. Barbara Bronfman, a Montreal socialite who had married into a wealthy distillery family, paid Einhorn’s bail.Still vociferously protesting his innocence, Einhorn was released onto the streets. He told anyone and everyone that he would clear his name, claiming it was a conspiracy by the CIA or FBI, who wanted to discredit him and halt his political activities. Then, on 21st January 1981, Einhorn skipped bail on the eve of the pre-trial hearing and disappeared, probably to Europe. Thus began the most determined international pursuit of a fugitive since the Israeli Mossad’s hunt, capture and cross-border kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.Conducting the manhunt was Assistant District Attorney Richard DiBenedetto, who, through Einhorn’s 60 handwritten journals, knew his prey better than anyone else. In 1985, Einhorn was traced to Dublin, Ireland, where he was living under the name of Ben Moore. However, there were no extradition papers in effect and Einhorn fled Dublin after the alert. From there, he probably travelled throughout the United Kingdom, crossing the English Channel at some point, to enter continental Europe. In 1993, the unprecedented step, in Philadelphia at least, was taken to try Einhorn in absentia, a hugely significant development that would later be exploited by Einhorn. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.Circa 1994, DiBenedetto learned that Einhorn’s benefactor, Barbara Bronfman, had been financing his flight from his hunters. However she had a change of heart, to one in the belief in Einhorn’s guilt, and she provided DiBenedetto with the Stockholm address where Einhorn was residing. The address turned up one Annika Flodin, who disclaimed all knowledge of Einhorn, saying that she knew him as Ben Moore, and that she had no idea where he was. When Flodin subsequently disappeared, investigators ran her name through Interpol and found that she had relocated to France and married Einhorn, who was then known under the moniker of Eugene Mallon.On 13th June 1997, DiBenedetto and his men arrested Einhorn in a converted millhouse outside Champagne-Mouton, a beautiful village in the French countryside near Cognac.

Despite the discovery of her body, police made little progress on the whereabouts of the "Black Panther", and it was 9 months later, on 11 December 1975, that he was caught. Having returned to post office raids following the failure of his kidnap attempt, he was finally apprehended by two policemen in Mansfield Woodhouse, near Nottingham, for acting suspiciously in the vicinity of the local post office. A search of his home revealed panther masks, as well as a model of a black panther and, after extensive questioning, Neilson confessed to being the Black Panther. Regarding the murder of Lesley Whittle, however, he claimed her death had been an accident, and that she had been accidentally knocked from the ledge in the drainage shaft.

Despite Souza feeling certain that the arrogant Dana had something to do with the heinous crime, there was nothing he could link him with that would incriminate the laid back youth. Little did Souza and his fellow detectives realise that they had just started on what would be an intensive game of ‘cat and mouse’ between them and the brilliant college graduate.For a brainy college kid, Dana wasn’t so bright to at least fake compassion and shock at the slaughter of his own family, although ironically he offered a $50,000 reward for the killer’s capture.However, his main concern was how to get his hands on his father’s business and assets. This cold-hearted behaviour just made Detective Souza even more suspicious. The duel between suspect and detectives was to continue for three long years as the police chased every lead they could find to catch Dana out.One main frustrating problem for Dana was that his father’s family, mainly his three brothers, prevented their nephew from receiving any of the funds and access to his father’s wealth. This meant he had to plunder funds elsewhere, such as his grandmother’s $400,000 trust account.In the meantime Dana continued to live life as he always had while Souza and his fellow detectives kept hot on his trail. They had Dana’s pager and ‘cloned’ his cellular phone and tapped his landline. Dana himself had kept a receipt for some candy that he bought from a grocery stall with his Amex card. He used this artefact as a means of proving a paper trail that in his eyes would exonerate him from the terrible murders. However, his retention of the receipt just made the police even more suspicious.Another friend and former college buddy of Ewell’s, Joel Radovcich was fingered as having being involved in the murders. However, there was still little evidence the authorities could use to pin the crime on both men. Finally in 1995, three years after the killings, Dana was charged with the murder of his parents and sister.As far as Detective Souza was concerned the main motivation was money. He saw Dana as being a callous sociopath who wasn’t prepared to wait for his inheritance which was stated in his father’s will to be distributed to his son on his 25th, 30th and 35th birthday. To add to more complications Dana Ewell's grandfather died in a basement explosion in his home in Ohio, which fire officials attributed to an unsafe gas generator.During investigations into Dana’s involvement in his family’s deaths, it was found that he plundered his grandmother’s account leaving only $2000 out of an original fund of $400,000. Transactions took place over a three-year period and it is believed that these funds supported his and girlfriend Monica Zent’s expensive lifestyle.Documents revealed that a $17,000 cheque was made out to her San Diego University – where ironically she was studying law – as well as $11,000 to pay for flying lessons both for Ewell and Radovcich. $200,000 went on a lawyer to support the defendant after he was arrested. Ewell also had more than twenty-four accounts in fourteen different banks, some held jointly either with his grandmother or girlfriend.Then finally in 1995, three years after the murder scene, a breakthrough came for Detective Souza when a friend of Radovcich, Ernest Jack Ponce, provided a detailed account of the killings as described by Radovcich.

Crippen, unaware of the good impression he had made on Dew, panicked. He told Ethel of Dew’s visit, and persuaded her that they would need to leave the country for a year, until the scandal surrounding Belle’s desertion had died down. They travelled to Antwerp the following day, to catch a boat bound for Quebec, in Canada.On a routine follow-up visit to Crippen’s dental practice, on 11 July, Dew discovered that Crippen and Ethel had disappeared. He returned immediately to Hilldrop Crescent, to find that the maid had been dismissed, and was in the process of preparing the house for an extended absence. Dew organised an extremely thorough search of the premises, conducted over two full days, which finally unearthed the rotting remains concealed beneath the floor of the cellar. A medical examination of the remains of the torso found an operation scar, which enabled them to identify the remains as Belle Crippen. They also discovered the presence of Hyoscine. On 16 July an arrest warrant was issued for Hawley Crippen and Ethel le Neve.The case made huge headlines in England, and the story, with pictures of the fugitives, was carried in European newspapers as well. Crippen decided that they would be best travelling incognito, and he boarded the SS Montrose in Antwerp, bound for Canada, on 20 July 1910, travelling as Mr. Robinson, with Ethel disguised, rather poorly, as his young son. Unfortunately for them, the Captain of the Montrose, named Kendall, took a local newspaper with him, on the day of departure, containing pictures of the fugitives. Ethel’s poor disguise drew attention; looking more closely, Captain Kendall recognised the similarity between the odd couple and the fugitives and, on 22 July, sent a wireless telegram to the White Star Line in Liverpool, claiming that Crippen and Ethel were onboard. It was the first time that this new means of communications was used in the apprehension of a criminal. The information was passed immediately to Inspector Dew at Scotland Yard.Fortunately for Dew, another White Star liner, the SS Laurentic, was due to leave Liverpool for Quebec the following morning; a faster ship, she would actually arrive at her destination before the SS Montrose. The thrill of the transatlantic chase gripped the media, and newspapers were full of stories about the love triangle, covering the lives of Belle, Ethel and Crippen, and plotting the progress of each ship, as the Laurentic steadily made ground on the Montrose.The Laurentic reached Quebec the day before the Montrose, as scheduled. When the Montrose reached Father Point, on 31 July 1910, and prepared to take pilots onboard to guide the ship into dock, Dew boarded the vessel, disguised as a pilot, and arrested Hawley Crippen and Ethel le Neve. He was able to do this in his capacity as a Scotland Yard detective, carrying out his duty within British Territorial Waters. Had Crippen decided to sail straight to the United States instead of Canada, Dew would have had no jurisdiction over Crippen, a US citizen, within United States territory.

Cohen went to prison a second time for tax evasion in 1961. He was sent to the notorious Alcatraz prison in San Francisco bay for fifteen years. After the ‘crumbling dungeon’ closed he was transferred to a prison in Atlanta where he suffered a vicious attack from a disturbed prisoner with an iron bar and was left partially paralysed.After leaving Springfield prison in Missouri in 1972, the now ageing former mobster took retirement and spent his twilight days travelling the country visiting old friends. But one headline grabbing incident brought him back into the limelight again in 1974 when nineteen-year-old heiress, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA was a group of American terrorists who targeted the Hearst empire due to its wealth and power as the country’s leading newspaper empire.Cohen was approached by the Hearst family, due to his ‘background’ with the underworld but despite his efforts to pin down the people responsible for kidnapping Patty, the situation came to nothing. Cohen also backed out of further developments when it transpired that Patty was not interested in returning home and may herself be imprisoned for terrorist activities.His last remaining years were spent at his home in California where he died peacefully in 1976.

Chris Ward was the first suspect accused of being part of the bank robbery and of manipulating work rotas in order for it to be carried out. Following the robbery, Northern Bank put Ward on sick leave whilst the police investigation continued. During a ten-minute hearing in early December 2005, Ward denied the charges against him and instead accused the police of bugging him at home and abroad, in an attempt to frame him. He was remanded in custody until 4 January 2006 and then released. The charges against Ward for imprisoning McMullen and his wife were dropped.“It was just terrifying… even the fact they knew I was involved in Celtic [football club], they knew where I lived, they knew my family, they knew my family’s names, they knew about my brother and his girlfriend. You are walking up the street now and you are wondering: Is someone watching me?” - Chris WardA 22-year-old woman, believed either to be an employee of Northern Bank or a friend of Ward’s was also taken in for questioning but later released.The second suspect was Dominic McEvoy, 23, a building contractor from County Down. On 2 November 2005 he was arrested and charged with possession of a gun or imitation firearm and for taking McMullen and his wife hostage as part of the Northern bank robbery. When McEvoy appeared in court on 4 November 2005, the Public Prosecution Service withdrew the charges after studying police files and he was released.On 2 November 2005 a third man was arrested and charged in connection with the Northern bank robbery. Computers, discs, a passport, bank statements, credit cards, wage cheques and phone records were seized. The 30-year-old man was held for questioning and appeared before Belfast magistrates on 9 November 2005. He was charged with collecting and making a record of information to be of use to terrorists. He too had the charges against him dropped and was released.In late November 2005, Martin McAliskey, 40, a salesman from County Tyrone, was accused of withholding information and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was being held responsible for the white Ford Transit box van used to transport the stolen money. The van had crossed the border from the Irish Republic a few hours before the bank raid took place. Charges against McAliskey were later withdrawn.In mid-February 2005, seven suspects were arrested in several co-ordinated raids that targeted suspected IRA money-laundering operations across the Republic of Ireland. Police believed the nearly £3 million recovered during the raids to be part of that stolen from Northern Bank but it could not be confirmed. Later that month, £60,000 was found in a toilet at the Police Athletic Association’s Newforge Country Club. Following forensic testing of the money, police confirmed it to be part of the Northern Bank heist but believed it was planted to divert their attention from events elsewhere.The beleaguered investigation of the Northern Bank robbery continued and in February 2006, police raided the home of former Sin Féin councillor, Francie Braniff. The following month, police chiefs were accused of a botched investigation into the Northern Bank robbery, with charges against suspects repeatedly being withdrawn by the Public Prosecution Service, and with no firm evidence in their case.Chris Ward still stands accused by police as being part of the robbery. He was remanded on bail and is due to appear in court once more, in late April 2007. Investigating detectives have appealed to the public for anyone who may have witnessed Ward handing over the sports bag of money to one of the gang members at a bus stop in Upper Queen Street on Monday 20 December 2004, to come forward. On 15 April 2007 leading investigator, Detective Superintendent Andrew Sproule, released CCTV footage of that evening. It showed Ward leaving the Donegall Square West branch of Northern Bank, carrying a distinctive sports bag bearing the UMBRO name and logo, and handing it to an unknown man at the bus stop.

Chikatilo was arrested on 20 November 1990, following more suspicious behaviour, but he refused at first to confess to any of the killings. Burakov decided to allow the psychiatrist, Bukhanovski, who had prepared the original profile, to talk to Chikatilo, under the guise of trying to understand the mind of a killer from a scientific context. Chikatilo, clearly flattered by this approach, opened up to the psychiatrist, providing extensive details of all of his killings, and even leading police to the site of bodies previously undiscovered.He claimed to have taken the lives of 56 victims, although only 53 of these could be independently verified. This figure was far in excess of the 36 cases that the police had initially attributed to their serial killer.

Capone’s activities attracted the attention of President Herbert Hoover who in March 1929, asked Andrew Mellon, his Secretary of the Treasury, "Have you got this fellow Capone yet? I want that man in jail." Mellon set out to get the necessary evidence both to prove income tax evasion and to amass enough evidence to prosecute Capone successfully for Prohibition violations.Eliot Ness, a dynamic young agent with the US Prohibition Bureau, was charged with gathering the evidence of Prohibition violations. He assembled a team of daring young men and made extensive use of wire tapping technology. While there was doubt that Capone could be successfully prosecuted for Prohibition violations in Chicago, the government was certain it could get Capone on tax evasion.In May 1929, Capone went to a ‘gangsters’ conference in Atlantic City. Afterwards he saw a movie in Philadelphia. When leaving the cinema he was arrested and imprisoned for carrying a concealed weapon. Capone was soon incarcerated in the Eastern Penitentiary where he stayed until 16 March 1930. He was later released from jail for good behaviour, but was put on the America’s ‘Most Wanted’ list which publicly humiliated the mobster who so desperately wanted to be regarded as a worthy man of the people.Elmer Irey undertook a cunning plan to use undercover agents posing as hoods to infiltrate Capone’s organisation. The operation took nerves of steel and despite an informer ending up with a bullet in his head before he could testify, Elmer managed to amass enough evidence through his detectives, posing as gangsters, to try Capone in front of a jury. With two vital bookkeepers Leslie Shumway and Fred Reis, who had once been in Capone’s employment, now safely under police protection it was only a matter of time before Capone’s days as Public Enemy No. 1 were over.Furthermore, agent Eliot Ness, angered by Capone for the murder of a friend, managed to enrage Capone by exposing Prohibition violations to ruin his bootlegging industry. Millions of dollars of brewing equipment was seized or destroyed, thousands of gallons of beer and alcohol had been dumped and the largest breweries were closed.

Because Unterweger had lied to get into the US, he could technically be arrested for this alone. When Mrak’s mother wired some money to her daughter, US marshals saw this as an opportunity to arrest him at a Western Union office in South Beach, California.After Mrak collected the money she and Unterwegger walked out of the building while the marshals followed. But Unterweger twigged something was up and bolted. He was chased through a restaurant, but finally cornered in a back parking bay, handcuffed and arrested. It is alleged that when the police officers informed him he was wanted for murders in Austria, Unterweger broke down and wept.A search of Unterweger and Mrak’s Malibu apartment revealed many incriminating items that could be linked to the murdered LA prostitutes. The police also recovered a diary written by Unterweger which suggested he had plans to dispose of Mrak.Unterweger preferred to be tried in California as he knew that he would be facing a charge of murder against just three victims as opposed to many in Austria. However, realising that he could also be facing the gas chamber he quickly agreed to extradition. Unterweger was deported on the 28 May 1992.Unterweger played on logic to defend himself. Why as he pointed out would a man such as himself, who had been rewarded so well with fame and money, suddenly decide to destroy his privileged life by murdering women?But before the court case commenced, Dr Geiger enlisted Thomas Mueller, Chief of the Criminal Psychology Service in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, to accompany him to America and learn all they could about the psychology of compulsive serial killers.Through a briefing with the Behavioural Science Unit (BSU) at Quantico, Virginia, Geiger and Mueller discovered that there were standard forms of behaviour relating to murderers like Unterweger, who also displayed deviant sexual obsessions that usually followed a pattern. Although most serial killers rarely move from one country to another the details of the deaths of the Los Angeles prostitutes were too close to those in Austria to be purely coincidental.But there was more tangible evidence to come against Unterweger when analysis on the knots to tie ligatures on the three Los Angeles prostitutes, matched the pantyhose knots used on the victims in Austria.

Attempts to contact Simpson turned up the information that he had left his North Rockingham Avenue house at 11:15 pm to catch an 11:45 pm flight to Chicago for a golf game. He arrived at the O’Hare Plaza Hotel in Chicago at 4:15 am, and was contacted and informed of the deaths at 5:45 am, upon which he checked out of the hotel, and caught the 7:41 am flight back to Los Angeles. At around midday, he was taken voluntarily to police headquarters, where he was questioned. He was then fingerprinted and photographed, and a sample of his blood was taken. It was noted that his middle finger was bandaged; it had been cut when he broke a glass, he explained.

While waiting for Simpson to return to Los Angeles, police searched the grounds of the Simpson property. The detectives found a white Ford Bronco that was owned by the Hertz Corporation, for which Simpson was a spokesman; in it were several packages with “Orenthal Products” on them and on its door handles were blood stains. Detectives also found a blood-stained brown leather right-hand glove and a trail of blood drops was found leading from the Bronco up the driveway to the front door. Later that morning, Chicago police searched Simpson’s hotel room, where they found drops of blood on the bathroom sink, a broken glass and a bloody washcloth.On 16 June, Brown was buried in Orange County, attended by Simpson, family and friends. More importantly however, preliminary DNA tests confirmed that day that the blood present on the glove, found on Simpson’s property, belonged to Simpson and to both of the victims. Along with eyewitness evidence that Simpson had been driving the Ford Bronco at around 11 pm, an arrest warrant was approved and issued for the arrest of OJ Simpson on 17 June 1994.

Simpson could not be immediately located and the hunt was soon on for the fugitive. His suicide note was read out by his friend, lawyer Robert Kardashian. Simpson’s car was soon spotted on the highway but Simpson’s fellow passenger, Al Cowling, dialled 911 and warned that Simpson possessed a gun and appeared suicidal. The slow-speed chase attracted the media, with NBC even interrupting their coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to cover the chase, and large crowds gathered on the interstate to watch the convoy led by Simpson’s car, as negotiators tried to talk to Simpson. It ended when the negotiating team finally managed to convince Simpson to accept arrest.

As fate would have it, Metropolitan police officer Alan Thompson was having a drink at The Magdala. He found Ellis still holding the gun and cautioned her. A few minutes later, police from the Hampstead Police Station arrived, arrested Ellis and took her into custody on 10 April 1955. David Blakely was rushed to the New End Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

At 11pm on 10 April 1955, witnessed by three senior CID officers, Ellis made a statement admitting to shooting Blakely. The officers present were Superintendent Leonard Crawford, Detective Chief Inspector Leslie Davies and Detective Inspector Peter Gill.

At 12.30pm on 11 April 1955, Ellis was charged with murder. She appeared briefly at Hampstead Magistrates Court on 12 April 1955, before being taken to the all-female Holloway Prison in Islington, to await her sentence of death by hanging, less than a month away, as Prisoner 9656.

Would Ruth Ellis be convicted of murder today?

Sixty Five years on since Ruth Ellis was hanged what has changed for women who commit crimes?

Anthony was arrested on 16 July 2008, the day after Caylee was reported missing. She was charged with giving false statements, child neglect and obstruction of criminal investigation. At first she was denied bail, then on 22 July 2008, her bail bond was set at $500 000.In the meantime on 11, 12 and 13 August, meter reader Roy Kronk alerted the police to a suspicious object found in a wooded area near the Anthony residence. 

Officers did eventually accompany him to the forest where he claimed he had seen a skull, but they found nothing. It is alleged officers were reluctant to enter the swamp area due to snakes.

Anthony’s bond was posted on 20 August 2008 by bounty hunter Leonard Padilia, in the hope of her assisting in finding Caylee’s body. Anthony was released the following day. But her freedom was short-lived when she was re-arrested on 29 August, for an unrelated cheque fraud case.

On 5 September 2008, Anthony was released when her parents posted her bond and she was fitted with electronic tracking device. Three days later protesters outside the Anthony family home chanter 'baby killer'. On 15 September she turned herself in again over an additional cheque fraud charge, but her bond of $ 1 250.00 was paid and she was released the next day.

A month later, on 14 October 2008, she was indicted on charges of first-degree murder aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, four counts of providing false information to the police. The judge ordered that Anthony be held again, without bond. A week later the charge of child neglect was dropped. She pleaded not guilty on all counts. Caylee was still missing and no body had been found.

This changed when on 11 December 2008, when Kronk again called the police and this time they found the body of a child in a rubbish bag. Duct tape was sticking to the skull. A Winnie the Pooh blanket that matched Caylee’s bedding at home and a laundry bag were also found at the scene. Eight days later, medical examiner Dr Jan Garavaglia identified the body as that of Caylee’s and found the cause of death to be undetermined.

An antiques dealer in Newcastle became suspicious after two men offered him china and silverware well below its worth. He jotted down the number plate of the car the men were driving and alerted the police. The police found the car had been rented out to a Scott-Elliot and when they visited the Chelsea flat they found the walls spattered with blood and over £3,500 worth of valuables missing.Mary Coggle’s body had been found a month earlier, on Christmas day, by a shepherd. Knowing that Coggle had once worked for Dorothy Scott-Elliot as a housekeeper and cook, detectives began to wonder if the two murders were connected. Was she the same woman wearing a mink coat that they knew had stayed at the Tilt Hotel in Blair Atholl, Scotland with three other men, one of them very elderly? Two days later the two younger men had returned to the hotel alone.In January 1978, Fontaine and Kitto stopped at a hotel in North Berwick. The owner, Norman Wight, became suspicious of the two guests and called the police. During a routine check the police found Donald Hall’s body. Fontaine escaped out of a toilet window and got as far as Haddington before he was stopped at a police roadblock.Following a failed suicide attempt on 18 January 1978 Fontaine helped the police search for Mr Scott-Elliot’s body on the Highlands. They found him, chewed by foxes amongst a rhododendron bush. Days later they dug up David Wright, and soon after that Mrs Scott-Elliot was found face down in a roadside ditch 100 miles from where her husband’s corpse had been uncovered.

After so many attacks, the police were under enormous pressure to find the culprit, and so extended their investigation. They increased the number of police patrols in Krakow and officers were told to pay specific attention to young men behaving abnormally. Investigators analysing the attacks discovered similarities between them. It was found that the killer always acted alone, chose victims weaker than himself, and attacked suddenly, inflicting blows to the abdomen and upper back. In addition they didn’t believe the attacks to be robberies as the perpetrator never spoke with the victims and never took anything from them.

It was known that the attacker was a young man, but still police couldn’t find their suspect. Although the police had a report from a taxi driver who had accurately described Kot, authorities from the communist Polish People's Republic decided that a representative of the so-called “private initiative” could not be a credible witness.

Meanwhile, Kot was enjoying his criminal success. When the newspapers published a photograph of the young boy he had killed, he was so glad that he ran to his friend Danuta and boasted that it was his work. He planned to wallpaper his entire room with photographs of his young victim. Danuta did not believe his story, but, after his next attack, Kot again told Danuta everything and she began to suspect that he really was the attacker. His story was so detailed that she believed that it could not be a product of a sick imagination and so she went to the police.

Kot was arrested on 1 June shortly after he graduated from school. There is a theory that the police deliberately delayed the arrest until after his final exams. Passing the exams could be used in court to prove the sanity and mental level of the accused. Officers who arrived at Kot’s apartment were astonished when they were met by a sympathetic, kind and polite boy. Initially, Kot denied everything, but when confronted with his suspected victims, he confessed to everything and proudly began to talk about his achievements. To one of his surviving victims who recognized him, he said: “Your memory is good, come here so I can finish you off”Kot gave a very detailed testimony of his crimes and of his plans that he had not yet managed to carry out. The plans that he revealed were so extreme that the court had them witheld. Kot did not display any sign of contrition or remorse.

After a spell in prison for breaking and entering, DeSalvo went on to commit more serious crimes. Having broken into a woman’s apartment, he tied her up on the bed and held a knife to her throat before molesting her and finally running away. The victim gave the police a good description, one that fitted his likeness sketch from his previous crimes. Shortly afterwards DeSalvo was arrested.It was after he had been picked out of an identity parade that DeSalvo admitted to robbing hundreds of apartments and carrying out a couple of rapes. He then confessed to being the Boston Strangler.Despite the police not believing him at the time DeSalvo was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital to be assessed by psychiatrists. He was assigned an attorney by the name of F Lee Bailey. When DeSalvo’s wife was told by Bailey that her husband had confessed to being the ‘Strangler’ she couldn’t believe it and suggested he was doing it purely for payment from the newspapers.During his spell in Bridgewater, DeSalvo struck up a friendship with another inmate, an intelligent but highly dangerous killer called George Nassar. The two apparently had worked out a deal to split reward money that would go to anyone who supplied information to the identity of the Strangler. DeSalvo had accepted that he would be in prison for the rest of his life and wanted his family to be financially secure.Bailey interviewed DeSalvo to discover if he really was the notorious killer. The attorney was shocked to hear DeSalvo describe the murders in incredible detail, right down to the furniture in the apartments of his victims.DeSalvo had it all worked out. He believed he could convince the psychiatric board that he was insane and then remain in prison for the rest of his life. Bailey could then write up his story and make much needed money to support his family. In his book 'The Defence Never Rests', Bailey explains how it was that DeSalvo managed to avoid detection. DeSalvo was Dr Jekyll; the police were looking for Mr Hyde.After a second visit and listening to DeSalvo describe in grisly detail the murder of seventy-five year old Ida Irga, Bailey was convinced his client was the Boston Strangler. When he asked DeSalvo why he chose a victim of such an age, the man coolly replied "attractiveness had nothing to do with it".After many hours of questioning and going into minute detail of what the victims wore or how their apartments looked, both Bailey and the police were convinced that they had the killer. One disturbing revelation was when DeSalvo described an aborted attack on a Danish girl. As he was strangling her he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Horrified by the ghastly vision of what he was doing he released her and begged her not to tell the police before fleeing.

Charles Sobhraj was in and out of prison since 1963 for a variety of crimes, including armed robbery, car theft and burglary. He served time in France, India and Afghanistan.

His first major arrest came in July 1976 after he tried to drug a group of French tourists in New Delhi. When the pills affected some of the group faster than the others, three of his victims had time to attack him and alert the authorities. Sobhraj was sentenced to 12 years in prison and really embraced his life inside. He bribed lots of the guards and proceeded to live a life of luxury.

However, he was due to be extradited and almost certainly executed for committing murder in Thailand after his release. So in 1986, he threw a massive party for all the guards and fellow inmates in the Indian prison. He took the opportunity to drug them all and simply walked out unopposed.

Sobhraj's plan worked perfectly. He was recaptured and had his sentence extended by 10 years to ensure he was free from the 20-year Thai statute of limitations.

He was released from prison in 1997 and returned to France where he lived comfortably. He then chose to move to Nepal in 2003 and promptly re-arrested. He was sentenced to life imprisonment the following year for the murders of Laurent Carrière and Connie Jo Bronzich.

Tourist killers: from Charles Sobhraj to Ivan Milat

The killers who targeted tourists in search of fun and adventure

“She was dead under the hedge when I left her.” John Straffen, when questioned about the murder of Cicely BatstoneStraffen is questioned by the police about the murder of Brenda Goddard, but because of lack of evidence they don’t arrest him. However, there is an eyewitness to the second murder: a policeman’s wife sees Straffen walking with Cicely Batstone and tells her husband, as she thinks it is odd. When the little girl is reported missing the couple go in search of her and discover her body under a hedge, near where the woman saw Straffen with Cicely.On 9 August the police come for Straffen, arresting him for the murder of Cicely. When questioned his statements are muddled and childish, he doesn’t appear to understand that he has killed the child, but says that he had left her dead.“I don’t think that Straffen has a concept of guilt. I think he’s so educationally challenged that he has no concept of right or wrong. He doesn’t have the moral development that would allow one to say he was conscious of guilt or, indeed, innocence. He has no way of marrying up his behaviour to the consequences of his behaviour.” Professor David Wilson, Fred Dinenage: Murder CasebookAfter he is charged with Cicely’s murder he also confesses to killing Brenda, even though there is no evidence to tie him to the case.When Straffen is questioned about the murder of 5-year-old Linda Bowyer a year later he denies killing the little girl on the bicycle, before the police even have a chance to mention why they have come to interview him.Two days later Straffen is charged with murder.

“I would blow their two arms and legs off and say ‘go on, you can swim home now’.”

David Norris, covertly recorded in 1994, on what he’d like to do to black people

FIRST ARRESTS

On 7 May, 1993, nearly two weeks after the murder, the police finally raid the prime suspects’ homes. During this period, it’s possible that vital forensic evidence is destroyed.

The reason for the delay is that Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden is ignorant of a ’basic tenet of criminal law’ namely that he could arrest simply on reasonable suspicion. (The Detective later contradicts his own assessment of this at a later inquiry).

When police arrest Dobson, they find a CS gas canister in a drawer beneath his bed. At the Acourts’ home, police find a knife behind a TV set and under a settee, a sword. But these don’t provide evidence that either brother is involved. Both Neil and Jamie are taken in for questioning. Norris isn’t home when the police come. He turns up with his lawyer three days later, and is arrested. On 3 June, Knight is also arrested.

Dobson lies to the police in the mistaken belief it will keep Norris’s name from them. (That same year, he’s convicted of theft...he’s convicted again for it in 2000) Dobson’s parents support his alibi that he was at home at the time of the murder. (Gary alleges he did pop out at 11:30pm, but only to see the Acourt brothers, but this was only so he could borrow a Bob Marley CD; an unusual choice of music for a racist.)Dobson is the only one of the five to provide an alibi.But only Neil Acourt and Luke Knight are charged. Neither are convicted.

SECOND ARRESTS

By September 2010, Norris is now an unmarried father of five, and living in a bedsit, when he is arrested again. (Norris’s first wife has left him because of the unwanted attention, by both the public and press.)

He’s previously been arrested for racially abusing an off duty police officer, along with Neil Acourt, and just months after Norris’s release from jail for this offence, he’s sentenced to 13 months for a pub burglary and handling a stolen Range Rover. It also transpires that he stood trial for attempted murder in a stabbing committed a month before Stephen was killed. He was found not guilty.But during his time in jail awaiting trial for Stephen’s murder, he becomes the target of violence. While on remand in Belmarsh prison, he’s badly beaten several times. During one attack, his nose is broken, he loses a number of teeth and suffers four broken ribs.

Dobson is slightly easier to arrest as on 9 July 2010, as he’s already in prison. He started a five year jail sentence for supplying a Class B drug after being caught during a sting by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The Court of Appeal decides there’s enough new and substantial evidence to allow Dobson’s acquittal to be quashed. Dobson and Norris are now both ready to be tried for the murder of Stephen.

“I had been handed a poison chalice. . .” DCI Colin Sutton

It was left to DCI Colin Sutton, who had recently led the successful investigation to apprehend Levi Bellfield, to try and catch the perpetrator.

The senseless misogynistic violence of Levi Bellfield

He was lovely at first, charming, then completely controlling and evil.'

Sutton decided that the DNA evidence was proving a red herring for the police. He changed tack and set up a burglary squad. He discovered that in just one street in Croydon the Night Stalker had been his most prolific. Deciding that this is a significant area, he put in a request for 150 officers and 18 cameras to observe this region. The request was declined but a compromise was reached. Sutton got 70 officers.

On the first night of observation, the Night Stalker attacked three times. This was a major breakthrough, but unfortunately the attacks were just outside the areas being policed. However, CCTV cameras showed a man fitting the description running to a vehicle. Experts picked out a silver Vauxhall Zafira as the car potentially owned by the Night Stalker.

Seventeen days later, a member of the surveillance team noticed a similar Vauxhall Zafira in the neighbourhood. An hour later a man was spotted running to the same car. The police sprung into action and moments later, at around 2am, the Night Stalker was arrested. There were 203 confirmed cases now linked to this prolific sex attacker.

“Go and arrest him” Detective Superintendent Ian Forbes from Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad 14 November 1968, (Birmingham Mail, 4 May 2011)

DCs Joseph and Atkins produce a nine page report detailing their findings and on 14 November they hand it to the officers leading the investigation. Less than two hours later Detective Superintendent Ian Forbes tells them to arrest Morris. They do so early the next morning.

A warrant is obtained to search Morris’s home and indecent photographs of a five-year-old girl are discovered. The photographs, taken in August 1965, are found to be of Carol Morris’s five-year-old niece.

Detective Forbes puts it to Morris that he is not telling the truth regarding the death of Christine Darby, that he did in fact murder the little girl. Morris remains ‘cool, calm and collected’ during the interviews until he is told his wife has retracted her alibi for him. Upon hearing this Morris becomes upset and puts his head in his hands, saying, ‘Oh God. She wouldn’t…’. He is shaking his head, in a mixture of disbelief and the knowledge that he is in serious trouble.

On 16 November 1968, Morris is taken to Cannock court and formally charged with the murder of Christine Darby. He is also charged with two counts of indecent assault on Carol’s niece and the attempted abduction of Margaret Aulton.

"These appalling crimes left a community, a county and a nation in a state of profound shock." Detective Chief Inspector Stewart Gull BBC Online 21 February 2008‘A MADMAN GRIPPED BY MURDER LUST’ The Mirror, 13 December 2006Newspaper headlines in the days after Wright’s victims are discovered would echo the nation’s horror reaction to the killings.Concerned at the mounting death toll, police decide to put Steve Wright, known to be a user of Ipswich prostitutes, under round-the-clock surveillance, before he is arrested.Wright’s arrest is meticulously planned; giving forensic experts time to search for vital evidence. Senior officers know they are taking a risk delaying bringing him in but are aware they would be against the clock once they make the arrest.On 19 December 2006 at 05.00am, Suffolk Police arrest Steve Wright at his home in Ipswich, close to the red light district where the dead women worked. Wright’s arrest would come a little over two weeks since the body of the first victim; Gemma Adams is discovered in a brook.During an intense police investigation, detectives establish that 48-year-old Wright moved into his Ipswich home just months before the killing spree started. With Wright safely off the streets, the police erect a scaffolding cover outside his flat so they can search for evidence to link him to the murders.Steve Wright is questioned by detectives for eight hours. He simply replies ‘no comment’ to all questions.Nevertheless, on 21 December 2006, police and prosecutors make a joint statement: Steve Wright is charged with the murder of all five women.

"I am not sorry and I would do the same thing all over again." Anders Behring Breivik, BBC News Online, 14 April 2012The SWAT team arrive but are immediately mistaken by the teenagers to be Breivik’s accomplices. After reassurances, they are directed to the location of the gunman. All around them the sound of rapid gun shots being fired can be heard.Unexpectedly, Breivik is seen walking towards them with his hands above his head. He’s thrown his weapons to the side of him. There is no struggle and it’s an easy arrest. Chillingly, the police discover that Breivik doesn’t stop because he’s run out of ammunition, he wants to be caught.On 25 July 2011 Breivik is charged with two counts of terrorism under Norwegian law; the first for “destabilising or destroying basic functions of society”; the second for “creating serious fear in the population”. He’s held in custody for an initial eight weeks, with the first four being in solitary confinement.

"Anthony John Hardy has exhibited a degree of depravity in the way he committed these appalling crimes that I personally have never ever come across before." Detective Chief Inspector Ken Bell, Metropolitan Police BBC News Online, 25 November 2003With the discovery of a female torso in his Camden flat, the hunt is on to locate and arrest the prime suspect, 51-year-old drifter, Anthony Hardy. Hardy flees from the scene of his crimes and having established that he has no car, is diabetic and needs regular medication, the police target local hospitals to trap their suspect.Within days this pays off. The case is front page news and the public knows what Hardy looks like. Retired police officer Mike Burrowes, recognises the man the press were calling the Camden Ripper and he calls detectives.Police arrest Hardy in a waiting room at Great Ormond Street hospital and begin questioning him. Hardy was arrested wearing the baseball cap which was found later in the haul of obscene photographs featuring Elizabeth Valad’s corpse.Hardy is taken to Colindale Police station in North London. Lead detective D.S. Alan Bostock asks his suspect about the incriminating photographs found in his flat. He shows Hardy the photo of the naked body of Sally White. “Is that, Mr Hardy, is the dead lady, the corpse which we found in your bedroom?” asks the veteran detective. Hardy replies “no comment”. He replies the same to all the questions the police put to him.He is eventually charged with the murders of both Elizabeth and Bridgette as well as Sally White, the woman whose death had originally been put down to natural causes.