LONDON DURING THE Second World War had to face bombing raids, blackout restrictions and a life expectancy dominated by the uncertainties of war. Ladies’ stockings were a luxury, but became the means of strangulation for some of the victims of a man that came to be known as the ‘Blackout Ripper’.
In February 1942, four women were attacked and murdered in a space of six days. Evelyn Hamilton, a 40-year-old chemist’s assistant, was found strangled in an air-raid shelter in Montagu Place, Marylebone, in the early morning of Sunday, 9 February. Her scarf was wound round her head and her clothing was in disarray, but there was no sign of sexual assault. Her handbag, which had contained £80, had been taken. That night, a 35-year-old former Windmill showgirl Evelyn Oatley (alias Nita Ward) took a client back to her flat in Wardour Street and was strangled to death. Her nearly naked body was found mutilated: her throat had been cut, the lower part of her body sliced open with a razor blade and cut with a tin opener. In the flat, fingerprints were found on a tin opener. The attacker was apparently left-handed.
On the Thursday, 13 February, another prostitute, Margaret Lowe, was found murdered in her flat in Gosfield Street, near Great Portland Street. She had been strangled with a silk stocking, but also cut and disfigured with a knife and razor blade. Detective Chief Inspector Ted Greeno was at the scene, with Detective Inspector Robert Higgins and Sir Bernard Spilsbury, when news of a fourth murder reached them. Doris Jouannet (32), who was also known as Doris Robson, had been strangled with a scarf and her naked body obscenely mutilated in the flat in Sussex Gardens that she shared with her husband. The murders were occurring with frightening speed.
The breakthrough came on the following evening, Friday, when Mrs Greta Heywood went for a drink and a sandwich with an RAF airman near Piccadilly Circus, but as they walked down Haymarket she tried to avoid his physical advances and ran away. The man chased after her and started to attack her in a doorway in St Alban’s Street. A delivery boy investigated the scuffling, saw her silk stocking in the blackout and approached to find out what was happening. The man ran away, but left behind an RAF gas mask, which bore his name, rank and number, identifying him as Gordon Cummins.
A few hours later, Cummins went to the flat of a prostitute, Mrs Mulcahy, in Southwick Street, Paddington, to whom he gave £5 for her services. Because her flat was so cold, she undressed but kept her boots on. Cummins had just removed his greatcoat and belt when she noticed a strange expression on his face, and the man tried to strangle her. She was able to deliver a hard kick to his shins with her boots and he then left the flat in a hurry, leaving behind his belt.
Ted Greeno traced Cummins to RAF quarters in St Johns Wood, but found that he had been signed in before midnight each night that week but police disproved the alibi by ascertaining that Cummins had left the premises by a fire escape after being officially checked in. Items belonging to his first murder victim, Evelyn Hamilton, were found in a nearby dustbin. A cigarette case belonging to his second victim, Evelyn Oatley, was found in his uniform pocket. Cummins’ finger marks were found in the flats of his second and third victims. A fountain pen marked ‘DJ’, found in his No. 1 uniform, had been taken from his fourth victim, Doris Jouannet, thus completing an impressive set of identification links to the murder scenes. A tin opener, knives, shoe heels, the cigarette case and other items are in the museum.
Cummins was prosecuted initially only for the murder of Evelyn Oatley. He was found guilty and hanged on 25 June 1942.