Conclusion

As well as being a pleasant place to live and an enjoyable place for a day out, the Thameside villages which now form the boroughs of Richmond and Kingston have also been the scenes of suicide and murder. Some of these made national headlines.

Of the murders recounted here, most of the victims were female and most of the killers were men, as is usually the case. To be exact, of these crimes, ten women, seven men and three children were killed. Their killers were fourteen men and two women. In most cases, the killer and victim were already been acquainted, often being family members or living in the same household, except in chapters 8 and 17. Two of the killers here claimed two victims and one killed three. Their methods varied, with seven being killed by gunshot wounds, six dying from bladed instruments; three were bludgeoned and four strangled. The motives of the killers were also diverse. Employment disputes, sex, insanity and unknown motives all accounted for three murders each, with rage resulting in one death and burglary another. In only two crimes was money the reason for murder. The criminals met different fates. Four committed suicide, four were hanged, four were gaoled and four escaped justice.

In most cases the reader will pity the victims. Some of the killers, though, may evoke sympathy from the reader, Maurice Odell Tribe being one. Others, though, merit none, and perhaps Whiteway was the most vicious. Some of the cases recounted are puzzles. Did Dr Smethurst kill his wife? Probably not. Did Hadfield kill Mrs Mordaunt-Chapman? Probably. But who killed James Wells and why?

In many cases, the amount of detection required by the police was minimal. Some killers simply gave themselves up, such as Jack Martin and William Baldwin, and in others, detection was assisted by the criminal committing similar crimes, such as Whiteway. The police were often painstaking in their enquiries, but in no cases was there a brilliant detective. Some cases were probably unsolvable once the crime had been committed and the culprit fled the scene – the murder of PC Atkins being one of these.

In most cases, modern comparisons with crimes of years gone by are unfavourable. Yet Richmond and Kingston prove the exceptions. Police figures for April 2007-March 2009 indicate that there have been no murders at all in these districts; whereas the average for these places from the 1930s–1950s is one per year (still a relatively low number). Elsewhere in London, the figures are less impressive – there have been thirty-four murders in Lambeth from 2007–09. If current trends continue, the inhabitants of Richmond and Kingston are doubly favoured.