Introduction 2019 UPDATE!!

This will be hopefully an informative and interesting site for enthusiasts of true crime


. What I am doing here is build a collection of photographs of present day sites where well known murders have been committed in the past using google street view and on site photography. I hope to cover sites from the murders of serial killers such as Peter Sutcliffe The Yorkshire Ripper; Trevor Hardy The beast of Manchester, Peter Moore and other less well-known cases solved and unsolved.

 My fascination for the subject has probably always been there but in recent years thanks to the internet I am able to research and go on a journey where time cannot wipe away the evil stain of these murders. Many places have changed; been built over or demolished but they are still worth collecting and exploring. Wherever I can I use original press photographs to compare the sites as well as to help me find them.

On visiting some locations ( and sometimes by looking at a location photo) I often get impressions and pictures in my mind of a psychic nature as I try to reach out to the victims and in return send them love and light. I share my experiences with some of these times.

  IMPORTANT INFORMATION - It is the case that many of the houses shown here are currently peoples homes. Please be respectful of peoples privacy if you do go and physically have a look and I am not suggesting for one moment that anyone should attempt to knock on doors and/or trespass illegally. I welcome original photos from blog readers but please do not be a nuisance to other people. Any person caught trespassing or causing offence are strictly not the responsibility of this site or owners. In short, please show respect at all times.

Unsolved : Malcolm Bolt Bristol 1982

One of the more modest houses in affluent Clifton in Bristol saw an horrific murder take place of businessman Malcolm Bolt in 1982. Bolt was a man who had fingers in many pies - nightclubs and unlicensed money lending were the least of them as it was claimed that he dealt in drugs and child pornography as part of his money making empire.

Despite this 1982 saw Bolt 200k in debt and in fear. His life was chaotic as he juggled shady underworld dealings with various affairs and had began to take extra precautions with security. He had many enemies and few real friends preferring the company of money and excitement. A business partner David Lovett may or may not have known that Bolt had been having an affair with his wife, but he was the first to be accused by police of the murder after Bolt was found with six hammer blows to the head breaking his skull from forehead to the nape of his neck.

Lovett was tried for the murder and found not guilty. He admitted to visiting Bolt on that day and an argument had ensued but convinced the jury that he was not Malcolm Bolts Killer. A picture was painted as Bolt as a lowlife, willing to do anything for money. The killer remains at large and the case is unsolved.

Unsolved :Lionel Webb Hackney 1993

Lionel Webb was an ambitious young man at 38 years old he had built up his business as an estate agent and property developer from his office in Evering Road trading as Greenvale Estate Agents. His plan was to buy up properties in the Evering Road to rent out or sell at a later date. He was a hard working and popular guy and was well respected in the area.

 Friends and associates noticed that he was not his usual self at the start of November 1993, seeming to be distracted and worried. His secretary said he had mentioned mounting debts quite recently, so was ambition driving him hard enough to resort to illegal activities?

On Sunday 12th November at around 5.30pm he was found by a passerby shot dead in the shop. At first no motive could be found but on a search of the premises and also his home it was discovered that he had a large amount of cannabis and amphetamine hidden away. It seemed that Lionel had taken a dangerous route into the world of drug dealing which cost him his life ultimately. Police had the theory that he had undercut local dealers or dealt on their patch which causing anger towards him. Or was he holding the drugs for someone else? Was he persuaded to store the drugs in return for a cut of the profits? Whatever the reason his murder has never been solved and the murderer(s) remain at large.
Interestingly down the road at 97 Evering Road is where Reg Kray stabbed Jack Macvitie on 28th October 1967 26 years before.

The shop where Lionel was murdered as it looks today

My brush with a serial killer

It was a dark afternoon in 1985 with rain lashing down in torrents. Here I was, 15 years old standing in the shop doorway of what used to be Plastic Wax Records in Old Market Street Bristol. The shop closed sometime after and moved to another location in the street and the old shop became The Sofa Project furniture warehouse as it is today. I pushed myself further back into the door way umbrella in hand, checking the time and looking out to see where my consistently late boyfriend was. He lived above one of the shops opposite and did not have a doorbell and this was long before mobile phones. He was already half an hour late.

There was a bus stop where I was standing and a woman in her twenties stopped to check the bus times then squeezed into the doorway beside me. Just then a car pulled up and to my surprise a woman opened the window and called me over.

"Do you need a lift,love?" She asked smiling as though she had known me for years. Someone else was driving but I could not see them at all. I refused at first thinking she was talking to the older woman but when I turned to look she was not taking any notice.

"No thanks, its ok Im waiting for someone,"I replied. She had a round plain looking face, short dark hair and huge glasses. I thought she could be a middle aged school teacher.

"Its ok come on where do you want to go?"

I shook my head. Perhaps the woman in the doorway needed a life? It seemed she was not being offered.

The car sped off to join the traffic. I stood there a bit puzzled and it was well into the 1990s that I saw that face again. This time it was the lunchtime news.

 I remembered the plain looking woman with big glasses and short brown hair from back then in '85 and realised I,d had a close shave with Rosemary and Fred West, probably out and about the streets of Bristol looking for a victim as I found out they were apt to do.

 I still get the shivers now, and think about those poor victims and how it could have been my bones being carried away from Cromwell Street Gloucester in a black box.

Wanda Skala Manchester 1975

 Trevor Hardy was named the beast of Manchester after he brutally raped and mutilated three teenage girls between 1974 and 1976. Before he started to kill he was known locally as a dangerous man to meet as he dealt out violent attacks on anyone he didn't like .Even members of his own family suffered violence at Hardys' hands.

Wanda Skala just 17 was Hardys' second victim in July 1975. She was a hard working young woman who had finished her shift at a local pub and started on her journey on foot towards her home on Lightbowne Road, Moston Manchester where she lived with her parents. Hardy followed her from the pub and attacked: dragging her into a building site. She was sexually assaulted and suffered fatal head injuries from a brick that Hardy used to hit her. He also bit off one nipple which became he went on to repeat  with his third known victim Sharon Mosoph.

A passerby noticed poor Wandas' body and called the police who attended the scene horrified at the way in which the killer had destroyed her head. Wandas' eyes were missing and were found shoved into her abdomen.

Finding the exact location of this dreadful murder is tricky as Lightbowne Road is very long and has changed beyond recognition with the erection of new housing over the years so it is by looking for clues from the crime scene photos we can try to find the murder site.

From the above photo we can see a building site which is fenced off with a petrol station sign behind it and what looks like a tower block in the distance and just a peek of a building on the left surrounded by trees. From another photo I saw a sign for George Wimpey the construction company so by this I assume that the site was about to be redeveloped.

Wanda Skala 

Taking a google street view journey along Lightbowne Road we come across a car wash that had been a petrol station in previous years with an address given as number 65. The area behind is green space and to the left set back from the road is an estate of relatively modern housing and directly across the road is another modern estate. There is no sign of a tower block in the horizon but this may have been demolished to make way for new housing.

Wandas' place of work is sometimes described as a pub and sometimes a hotel. We have information that she had been working at The Lightbowne Pub now demolished previously at number 276 which is currently a care home. We have to assume that this car wash/petrol station was the site of the murder. If anyone knows anything more please let me know.

Patricia Atkinson Bradford 1977

Patricia, also known as Tina Atkinson aged 32 had the grave misfortune to meet Peter Sutcliffe the Yorkshire Ripper one night on the 23rd April 1977 after an evening at the Carlisle Pub. Originally thought to have been Sutcliffes third victim it is now up for debate since many more murders have been linked to him reaching back to the 1960s.

Tina invited him back to flat 3 at 9 Oaks Avenue Bradford where Sutcliffe hung up his coat and delivered four fatal blows with a claw hammer.After rearranging the body on the bed and covering her with a light sheet he left her barely alive to die overnight.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              An original view of the flats where Tina was murdered.

  

                                                                          

     The flats today: derelict and boarded up.

  

Father Anthony Crean Kent 1975

Patrick Mckay was a psychopathic killer from London who killed three people before he was caught.
From his teens Mckay was a bully and a animal torturer doing unspeakable things with innocent helpless beings. He was from a mixed race background and his father was a violent alcoholic who made life hell for his wife and children.



After the murders of Isabella Griffiths in 1974 and Adele Price in 1975 Mckay targeted a Priest living in Shorne in Kent Fr Anthony Crean who had previously tried to show kindness to Mckay, which was repaid by Mckay stealing and forging a cheque.

On 21st March 1975 Mckay brutally murdered Crean with an axe, first giving him head injuries and dumping him in the bath tub and filling it with water. Crean was still conscious and begging for his life when Mckay began to study the damage he had done, prodding and exploring Creans shattered skull with part of his brain exposed.

Father Anthony Crean 

      

Fr Crean lived and died at the house adjacent the church of St Peter and St Paul in Malthouse Lane, Shorne, Kent. Immediately above is a picture taken some time after the murder. Notice the boarded up door in the front. Top is a picture of the site today.

Lesley Molseed Manchester 1975

Stiups Lane Rochdale

1975 was a horrific year for the innocent victims of serial killers. The north of England seemed to be rife with sick and twisted individuals.

5th October Rochdale - Lesley Molseed was a small and delicate child for her 11 years. She often went on errands for her Mum and this day was no different as she went off along Stiups Lane to buy a loaf of bread.

She was snatched from here and taken to a remote place on the west Yorkshire Moors and was found stabbed to death three days later on the 8th October.

Civil servant Stefan Kiszko was wrongly accused and jailed for 17 years being eventually released only to die six months later of a heart attack. His mother had fought tirelessly to have the evidence reviewed and he was declared innocent through DNA analysis.

The real killer was discovered (thanks again to DNA samples) to be Ronald Castree from Manchester - a previously convicted paedophile.

The house of Leslie Moleseed

Suzanne Capper Manchester 1992

The dreadful things people are capable of doing to each other never cease to amaze. Seriously warped events take place behind the nations net curtains every day and most of us just go on with our lives without a thought.

An example of this is the utterly horrifying case of 16 year old Suzanne Capper of Moston in Manchester. She was an ordinary girl who lived with her stepfather who had the misfortune to become friends with one Clifford Pook. Pook soon introduced Suzanne to his sister Jean Powell.

      

Jean Powell lived at 97 Langworthy Road (below right) with her children and another friend and neighbour Bernadette McNeilly who had her own place at no.91 but chose to stay with Jean Powell often inviting her 16 year old boyfriend Anthony Dudson to stay over. Other frequent visitors were Powells ex husband Glyn and 26 year old Jeffrey Leigh who would join the others to share drugs.

In November McNeilly and Dudson contracted pubic lice and ridiculously put the blame on Suzanne as she had slept in one of the beds they used at number 97. On top of this McNeilly insisted that Suzanne had stolen a £50 pink coat from her so on 7th December they invited Suzanne round on the pretext that there was a man who fancied her waiting to meet her. Once there her head was shaved and she was beaten with a 3ft long stick and bundled into a cupboard where she was forced to spend the night.

The next day she was moved to 97 as her desperate cries were upsetting the children in the house. There she was viciously tied to a bed frame with cords,chains and belts and left there for six days in her own urine and faeces with a sock stuffed into her mouth.

Suzanne was scrubbed with disinfectant and a yard brush until her skin blistered, was burnt between the eyes with a cigarette and had her teeth pulled out with pliers. A lodger at 91 Dave Hill heard the terrible sounds and Jeffrey Leigh allowed him to see Suzanne as she was tied to the bed frame. He said she was quiet and had no hair. Hill told police he was too frightened to do anything to help her.

The beatings continued regularly with headphones put on and had to listen to rave music at maximum volume particularly "Hi Im Chucky wanna play?" from the movie Child's Play. Dudson would shout the words from the song before each torture session making Suzanne scream in terror.

On 14th December Suzanne was bundled into a stolen vehicle and driven to the countryside where she was thrown out almost naked, head shaved and covered with burns, cuts and sores. She was doused in petrol and set alight and left to die. Her remarkable resilience enabled her to live long enough to find help and give the police the names of the gang who had tortured her. She died soon after however, from multiple organ failure arising from 80% burns.

Left: The bed
frame where Suzanne was held
Right : Suzanne Capper

91 Langworthy Road

Michael Gilbert Luton 2010

The house where Michael was murdered (right)

This ordinary house in Marlborough Street, Luton was the scene of the shocking murder of Michael Gilbert 26 years old back in 2010. It is a story of abuse, slavery and the failure of the police and care system to protect a vulnerable man.

Michael Gilbert had a challenging childhood. At age 13 he had a mastectomy and was bullied relentlessly at school. An accusation of sexual assault was made about him by his sister and he was placed in a children's home. (The sister has since admitted that she made it up to get herself removed from the family home )

Michael started to rack up several convictions for theft and was sent to a young offenders institution where he met James Watt a violent young offender. James Watt befriended him and when they came out of the institution Michael was invited to live with the Watt family. The family consisted of Mother Jennifer Smith-Dennis and her husband Antonio and James' brothers Richard, Colin and Robert. There were also living there James' girlfriend Natasha Oldfield and Richards girlfriend Nicola Roberts. They moved around to many different rented homes as they had a reputation for anti social behaviour including shooting air rifles in the street and terrorising neighbours by peering through windows.

James Watt and Natasha Oldfield

At some point the abuse of Michael began. He was vulnerable and emotionally immature and despite being tall and well built suffered at the hands of the Watt family, especially James who took Michaels benefit money for himself and forced him to do all the cooking and cleaning. Michael suffered horrific beatings at the hands of the family and was often bruised and battered but refused to report the abuse for because as he told police during an unrelated matter "It will just be worse for me in the long run". The police were aware of the abuse as were job centre staff who saw Michael each fortnight to sign on but inexplicably Michael refused to file charges against them and continued to live with the Watts family.

The torture was often filmed on mobile phones: Michael being forced to stand in boiling water, being shot with an air rifle, having his pubic hair sprayed with air freshener and set alight, being led around the house with pliers attached to his testicles and being handcuffed to James' bed each night to stop him escaping. Michaels clothes were taken and away from him and he wore just boxers, again to prevent an escape.

However he did on occasions escape and travelled to Birmingham and Cambridge staying at hostels. Each time the Watt family tracked him down by contacting the job centre and quoting Michaels National Insurance number and then waited outside for him bundling him into the car and taking him back to Luton. Michael did not protest on these occasions and appeared to go willingly. When asked by older brother Richard why he never complained he replied "I love you lot, you are my family."

Michaels' own family rarely saw him as he tended to keep a distance. Mother Rosalie White told how Michael would visit occasionally and when he did often was bruised and battered. He would make excuses that he had been in an accident or a fight and was fine really. Nevertheless a Mothers instinct is to protect her son and she begged him to come home. James Watt was described by brother Richard as"Obsessed with finding Michael" when he escaped and stepped up the abuse when he was brought back. A pet giant lizard was encouraged to attack Michael and he slept on a mattress underneath James Watts' bed handcuffed whilst James and girlfriend Natasha Oldfield slept above, Oldfield denied that they had had sex during these times.

Oldfield invented a game show where friends could pay to assault Michael for set amounts of money : she wrote it all up in a notebook with the last entry saying "Gilbert ends up dead."

A few days before his death Michael attended the job centre. A staff member noted how he appeared to be in terrible pain, limping and covered in cuts and bruises but again excusing his state as being the result of a fight. Back at the squalid, dirty house in Marlborough Road- overrun with dogs, snakes and lizards and various people of dubious character Michael was ordered to lie on the floor whilst James Watt placed a piece of wood between his teeth and performed press ups. 21 stone Natasha Oldfield led the way by jumping with both feet on Michaels stomach using him as a kind of trampoline and the others soon joined in.

Later that day Michaels stomach began to swell severely and he was doubled up in pain, unable to walk and his bowels leaking blood and faeces. Colin Watt who had moved out several weeks before, unable to bear the abuse and violence being forced on Michael, visited the house and found him lying on the bathroom floor conscious but lying in his own excrement. No medical care was offered and during the night of 21st January 2009 Michael died alone and in agony of internal injuries on a filthy mattress under James Watts' bed .

When Michael was discovered the family panicked and Robert Watt called his brother Colin asking him to come over. He had just one thing to tell him :"We killed Michael."

The room where Michael was dismembered

The two Watt brothers James and Robert together with their girlfriends Natasha and Nichola began to dismember the body in an upstairs room wrapping the pieces in builders bags and weighing it down with flagstones from the front garden, drove to a local beauty spot nicknamed The Blue Lagoon and dumped the body parts into the lake.

Some of Michaels remains were discovered by fisherman just under four months later in May 2009. The murder was quickly traced back to the Watt family who were arrested and between them racked up a total sentence of 96 years imprisonment with the Judge quoted as saying it was one of the worst crimes he had ever come across in his entire career.