Master Detective - June 2022

54 Pages·2022·18 MB·English

MASTER
CINEMA MURDER IN BONNIE’S DATE
DETECTIVE’S WARTIME DOVER WITH A FRENZIED
CRIMAEXE-KILLER
Private Horror Show At The Plaza
CASEBOOK
HOW RUTH
JUNE 2022
BECA ME
THE L A ST
TO HANG
CRIME OF PASSION –
OR SOMETHING DARKER?
TEACHER
LAURA
BEATEN TO
DEATH BY
FAMILY CONVICTED
KILLER
ROCKED
BY SECOND
Suffolk s
’
BRUTAL “Body In
MURDER IN A Suitcase”
FOUR YEARS The Mystery Deepens...
www.truecrimelibrary.com
InsideMD
The senseless
2015 slaying of
Alabama mom
Miranda Lynch
www.truecrimelibrary.com June 2022
R was an awful
uth Ellis, the dyed-blonde drinking-club manageress and killer, went
to the gallows 67 years ago yet her story continues to fascinate. She tragedy. Then, in
was the last woman hanged in Britain and her case is the final one to
be featured in our series on executed women. Was she a cold-blooded 2019, daughter
murderess or the provoked victim of a cad who should only have been
found guilty of manslaughter? Turn to page 12 and Women On The Gallows Willoe Watkins
– How Ruth Became The Last To Hang for the full story.
North London teen Bernie Oliver disappeared in January 1967. Ten days fell victim to
later his dismembered remains were found dumped in two suitcases in the
village of Tattingstone. Who killed him remains a mystery. See page 21 and the cruellest of
MD Forum – Suffolk’s “Body In A Suitcase.” Finally, don’t miss the puzzling
case of The Last Man Hanged At Derry. See page 47. Enjoy the read! killers...
2 FAMILY ROCKED BY SECOND BRUTAL MURDER F
IN FOUR YEARS ACT PROVED tragically stranger
The shocking unrelated and motiveless Alabama than fiction for a grandmother in
murders of Miranda Lynch and her daughter Willoe Alabama when her daughter and
Watkins granddaughter were tortured and died in
horrific but unrelated murders that were
5 PAUL DONNELLEY’S MURDER MONTH
uncannily similar.
More Murder Months on pages 7, 15, 32 and 49 Kathy Harrison felt as if her world
6 EUROPEAN CRIME REPORT had ended in 2015 when she lost her
daughter, but four years later she had
“Teacher Laura Beaten To Death By Convicted Killer,”
“The Body In The Ice-Bound Car,” “Holiday Island
Rape-Killer Was ‘Soldier Of God’” Case Report
11 VIEWPOINT By Mark Davis
More of your letters and a chance to win a book
and Francesca
12 WOMEN ON THE GALLOWS:
HOW RUTH BECAME THE LAST TO HANG Morrison
The story of Ruth Ellis and the deadly passion for David
Blakely that led to his murder
to face the same nightmare again, and
21 MD FORUM: SUFFOLK’S “BODY IN A
wondered if she could possibly survive
SUITCASE”
the agony of a second loss in such
For more than 55 years the grisly murder of teenager
terrible circumstances.
Bernard Oliver has remained a mystery It began one swelteringly hot week in
25 HANGED AT STRANGEWAYS: PART SEVEN August when a neighbour in a trailer
park in Bessemer, an impoverished
How a market trader, night-watchman, iron-moulder
suburb of Birmingham, heard women
and more found themselves at the Manchester prison
shouting and screaming in a nearby
gallows
mobile home. Eventually, he called the
30 US EXECUTIONS – THE “ROCK ’N’ ROLL police.
YEARS”: BONNIE’S DATE WITH A FRENZIED AXE- The ruckus had been going on for
KILLER several days, but Bessemer has the
Bonnie Lou Merrill was just 16 years old when she found a second-highest violent crime rate in
summer job at a Columbus, Nebraska, drive-in. What was America and people living there tend
behind her mysterious disappearance? to shrug off disturbances that would
unsettle more affluent communities.
36 CINEMA MURDER IN WARTIME DOVER When police arrived, they found the
German bombing meant Dover was a dangerous place pummelled body of 34-year-old Miranda
to be in 1941. But at the Plaza cinema there was a Lynch hunched in a slick of blood on
completely unrelated horror show the bathroom floor. She was riddled with
fractures and bruises and had a broken
40 HORROR IN HIS SNUFF MOVIE STUDIO
neck. The autopsy showed she’d been
Obsessed with Dexter, he made life imitate art
thrashed and beaten over at least two
47 LAST MAN HANGED AT DERRY days, and forensics found her blood on a
washing machine, fridge and aircon unit
Convicted murderer William Rooney went to the gallows
in the trailer.
at Derry Jail in February 1923. Was he the victim of a
Miranda and her boyfriend had been
miscarriage of justice?
staying in the trailer with their friend
Karen Kirby, 57, while they found
Cover and contents of Master Detective produced by Magazine Design & Publishing Ltd. Printed and
somewhere to live. That afternoon Ms.
bound by Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH, for the Proprietors and Publishers.
Kirby lent Miranda’s boyfriend her car
Copyright and the rights of translation and reproduction of the contents of Master Detective are strictly
reserved. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP. to go and collect his EBT or Electronic
Tel: [phone]. © Magazine Design & Publishing Ltd. Benefits Transfer, a government-issued
2
FAMILY ROCKED
BY SECOND
BRUTAL MURDER
IN FOUR YEARS
Giarusso, agreed.
Assuming the boyfriend would die,
the three women plotted to steal his
benefits by making a duplicate EBT
card. To do this, they needed his social
security number and other ID, and
asked Miranda to provide them. But she
refused.
Susan Otts and Karen Kirby both had
d
e
r
e
t
h
g
u
a
l
S
convictions for drink, drugs, theft and
r
violence so they may have turned on e
Miranda in a spaced-out rage. Tamara t
h
Giarusso had no criminal record, but
g
was probably present for at least some u
Above, Willoe Watkins. Right, inset, her mother and fellow-murder victim of the assaults. However, she was never a
convicted. D
Miranda Lynch
For at least two days, Ms. Otts and

Ms. Kirby kept Miranda a prisoner and d
debit card that has replaced food stamps taken to intensive care where doctors battered her with anything that came to n
in the US. It’s worth around $200 a said he might not survive. hand: rods from a broken bird cage, a A
month. Not surprisingly, Miranda was wooden paddle, a drawer from a cabinet, r
The boyfriend (who has not been distraught when she received the news. and smashed chunks of china. Ms. e
named) may have been driving while But Ms. Kirby’s priorities proved very Kirby said in court that Miranda had h
drunk or drugged because witnesses who different. Outraged that her car had died during a final fight in the bathroom ot
saw him crash headlong into an 18-wheel been written off, she exploded angrily at when she wrapped her legs round the M
truck say he suddenly swung the car Miranda that the least she could do was wounded woman from behind and beat
D
without warning onto the wrong side of offer some compensation. Her daughter, her head on the floor until she stopped
the freeway. He was critically injured and Susan Otts, and another friend, Tamara struggling. M
3
Randy Christian, the police deputy
who covered the case, said: “This
wasn’t a simple, angry argument that
took Miranda’s life; it was her so-called
friends gripped by and driven by sheer
greed. It’s hard to believe they could
be capable of this, and so sad to think
this poor woman lost her life for some
lousy food stamps.”
The district attorney declined to
charge Ms. Kirby and Ms. Otts with
capital murder, but ringleader Ms.
Kirby pleaded guilty to murder during
the course of a robbery and was
sentenced to life. Her daughter, Susan
Otts, admitted second-degree assault
and received a 15-year suspended
prison sentence with one year’s
probation. She was credited with the
534 days she’d already spent in jail.
Charges against Ms. Giarusso were
Above, police outside the trailer in Bessemer, Alabama, where Miranda
dropped.
Lynch was beaten to death. Below, killers Karen Kirby and Susan Otts
Why Miranda suffered appalling
injuries and sacrificed her life rather
than give the women what they wanted
remains a mystery.
Four years later, having buried her
daughter, Kathy Harrison would
find her life plunged again into
darkness and horror when her beloved
granddaughter Willoe Watkins went
missing in June 2019.
Willoe had endured her own sorrows,
of course, with the murder of her
mother – plus her father’s death a few
years before. The losses had brought
her and her grandmother very close
as Willoe had been only 16 when her
mother died.
Until Miranda’s death, Willoe had
been a promising student and popular
cheerleader. But after leaving school
she fell in with the wrong crowd and, concrete blocks and quick-setting doctor’s appointment. Monic Battles
apart from her grandmother, had no cement. said she realised “something had
stable influence in her life to help fight Her grandmother had never given happened” when they got home, but
off her demons. up hope of finding Willoe alive, but wasn’t sure what it was as she’d “gone
When she disappeared, Tuscaloosa now she wept again for another to sleep.”
County police were swamped with heartbreaking murder in her family, Each man’s account of what
tip-offs and social media speculation tears and the glare of Alabama’s media happened next was little more than a
about her whereabouts, but right from spotlight blinding her. blame-game to distance himself from
the start they were very concerned for Within hours, police announced the appalling violence they’d all inflicted
her safety as her mobile phone and the arrest of three men in connection on Willoe. Who did what was impossible
bank cards had not been used. with the crime: Joseph Nevels, Devon to disentangle.
Tuscaloosa is a dynamic and thriving Hall and Tyler Battles. It seemed that Nevels claimed Willoe had stolen his
city, home to Alabama’s state university Willoe had been staying the weekend phone some months earlier and he was
and scene of some of the 1960s’ with Battles and his wife Monic at their angry because it contained photos of his
fiercest civil rights battles. But it wasn’t home. grandmother who had since died. He
in the social melée that investigators In their initial interview with admitted hitting her on the head with a
at last located Willoe. She was only 12 detectives, Tyler and Monic Battles shotgun, then said the other two joined
miles away from her grandma’s home said they’d left Willoe there briefly with in, smashing her repeatedly with an
in Bessemer. Nevels and Hall while they went to a aluminium baseball bat.
The voice on the Crime Stoppers The orgy of sadistic violence
hotline said Willoe could be found apparently continued with Battles,
“Most murders are
at an abandoned house which had a Monic and Hall kicking and punching
well in its grounds. By now she’d been done in moments of Willoe as she cowered on the ground.
missing for six weeks and police raced Many of her bones were broken and
panic. But disposing
to the property hoping she might be her teeth knocked out. Nevels said
squatting there. Fearing the worst of Willoe was not he thought Hall had been the one to
when there was still no sign of her, they actually kill her by strangling her with a
done in a hasty
called in a team of road workers to cord.
excavate the well. fashion. It was “But as far as I was concerned they
It took two days of drilling and were all up to their necks in it,” said
carefully thought
hoisting to find Willoe’s body. She’d police chief John Hall. “What’s more,
been stuffed in bin bags, thrown 35ft through” they had to give considerable thought
down the shaft, and buried under as to how and where to dispose of her
4
Paul Donnelley’s
MURDER MONTH
June
Matricidal rock star...James Beck
“Jim” Gordon had a glittering
career culminating in him drumming
alongside Eric Clapton in Delaney
& Bonnie and then Derek and the
Dominos.
After deciding not to go to university
Gordon had begun playing with the
Everly Brothers. He also worked on
Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys and The
Notorious Byrd Brothers by The Byrds.
At his peak he was so busy that he
flew from Las Vegas to
Above, police tape at the site of the abandoned property where the body
Los Angeles to work in
of murdered Willoe Watkins was found down a well and buried in concrete.
studios before flying back
Below, killers Tyler Battles (left) and Joseph Nevels
to Sin City the same
night to play at Caesar’s
Palace. In 1970, he
toured with Joe Cocker
and the following year
with Traffic. In 1972, he Jim Gordon
played with Frank Zappa (far left)
with Derek
and Helen Reddy.
and the
His career ended when
Dominoes
he became schizophrenic
and began to hear voices. They told him
to starve himself – which stopped him
sleeping and playing the drums. His
illness was misdiagnosed and he was
treated for alcoholism.
On the afternoon of June 3rd,
1983, Gordon drove his white Datsun
200SX five miles from his Van Nuys
condominium to his 72-year-old mother
Osa Marie Gordon’s bijou North
Hollywood apartment. She was out so
body in the hope she would never be In separate trials, Battles and Nevels he went home to wait. He returned to
found. were convicted of murder and abuse North Hollywood at 11.30 p.m. and saw
“Most murders are done in moments of a corpse, and each sentenced to life a light was on.
of panic without forethought or without parole. He knocked on her front door and,
planning. But disposing of Willoe was For Kathy Harrison, the trials when she opened it, he launched an
not done in a hasty fashion. It was were another chapter in the ongoing attack, hitting her with a hammer four
carefully thought through, and had we nightmare of her daughter and times before using an eight-and-a-
not had a tip-off about where Willoe granddaughter’s deaths. Family and quarter-inch butcher’s knife to stab her
was, they could well have gotten away friends all wore T-shirts printed with in the chest three times. He left the knife
with it. a photo of Willoe, and hearing the in her body.
“Her mother was murdered over most upsetting sections of testimony After he was arrested and charged,
some food stamps, and then Willoe almost brought Kathy to her knees. the authorities finally accepted his
was killed over a stolen phone. It’s After the highly-charged proceedings, schizophrenia. He said he had been told
incredible.” Willoe’s relatives shouted at some of by a “voice” to murder his mother. The
Such was the outrage and heartbreak the attorneys: “How can you defend voice said to hit her with a hammer first,
in the local community that a murderers?” so she would not suffer when he stabbed
GoFundMe page was set up, raising Charges against Monic Battles are her with the knife.
nearly $10,000 for Willoe’s funeral still uncertain, but will include either When Gordon went on trial, the court
expenses. murder or conspiracy to kidnap and agreed that he was mentally ill but he
Devon Hall was the first of the murder. Her husband, Tyler Battles, had was not allowed to claim he was insane
killers to try and make a deal with the been prosecuted for domestic violence at the time of the killing because of the
authorities by offering to testify against and her attorney has argued that his Insanity Defence Reform Act.
Nevels and Battles in exchange for a controlling behaviour would have Found guilty of second-degree murder,
lighter sentence. In return he received affected her actions. Gordon was sentenced to 16 years to
30 years behind bars instead of life Perhaps the most disturbing life in prison on July 10th, 1984. “I really
without parole. truth about these murders is not don’t feel that crazy,” he added. “I get
At different points in the investigation their similarity, but that each was along with people. I think I’m pretty
he said Nevels and then Battles had motiveless and driven by trivia, normal.”
strangled Willoe to death, but either leaving Miranda and Willoe to By 2018, Gordon had been
way his testimony placed both men at suffer at the hands and psyches refused parole 10 times. He remains
the murder scene as participants in her of men and women unable to incarcerated at the California
torment and later in planning how to understand the atrocities they were Medical Facility in Vacaville.
dispose of her body. perpetrating.
5
EUR PEAN
C R I M E R E P O R T
TEACHER LAURA
BEATEN TO DEATH
BY CONVICTED
KILLER
Laura was over the
moon about her new
job at a school in the
mountains. Only one
thing bothered her
– the proximity of a
t
r leering neighbour as
o
p he watched her every
e
move along the street
R

s BLUE-EYED, attractive Laura
r
e Luelmo, 26, had every reason to
d be thrilled with her new job as a
n visual arts teacher at a Spanish
a secondary school. High on a
S hillside, the school overlooked
the rifts and valleys of the Sierra
n Police and forensic officers at the scene where the body
Huelva. Laura’s rented apartment
h of murdered Laura Luelmo (left) was discovered
was close by – and the views
o
everywhere were idyllic.
J
The newly qualified professor There was no was looking for a local store to stock up
d
couldn’t have wished for a better way she could on groceries, and there was Montoya
n
location to live and work. But there know, of course, loitering in the street.
a was one blot on the landscape – that the leering “Is there a supermarket near here?”

e the cheesy next-door neighbour, neighbour was a she asked.
n Bernardo Montoya, 50. With his convicted killer, Delightedly he directed her through a
r trim moustache and goatee beard for which he had maze of lanes. New to the area, she had
a it was clear this was a man whose served a prison no idea this would lead up a blind alley.
C
ego was greater than the canyons term before Up one steep lane and down another,
d between his ears. being released she began to realise the only way home
l Montoya parked himself on to the streets. was the way she had come.
a permanently on the doorstep of his Mindful of a criminal’s human rights, At that moment a car stopped behind
n
dilapidated home with a coke burner Spanish law doesn’t consider protecting her. Montoya, the driver, leapt out,
o to keep warm. He never seemed to the rights of innocent women that grabbed her and in his own words,
D
go to work. Whenever Laura passed, predatory brutes like Montoya line up “smashed her head into the boot.” He
D he watched her intently. “I don’t like as their next victim. tied her hands behind her back and
M the way he looks at me,” she told her Laura started work at the school on wrapped her in a blanket before driving
boyfriend Teofilio. December 4th, 2018. A week later she back to his home next to hers.
6
He would later tell police: “I took her
clothes off from the waist down and MURDER MONTH
tried to rape her, but I didn’t manage it
June
even though she was unconscious.”
After that, he beat her with his fists
and feet and “a long blunt instrument” Judge murdered – on orders
for more than an hour according to of judge...At 10 a.m. on June
magistrate Jessica Sotelo. Then, with 15th, 1955, veteran Judge Curtis E.
her arms still tied behind her back, he Chillingworth was due for a hearing at
sealed her mouth with masking tape, West Palm Beach court in Florida. He
dragged her into his bedroom and was also a stickler for timekeeping, and
attempted to rape her again. Finally he when did not turn up his staff were
knocked her unconscious with a heavy alarmed. They called the police and then
blow to the head. went to his home at Manalpan, an area 12
“He subjected her to unnecessary miles from Palm Beach.
suffering, and suffering more intense When the staff and police arrived, there
than was necessary to cause her death.” was no sign
Checking that the street was deserted, of the Judge
Montoya bundled Laura, still alive, into or his wife.
the back of his Alfa Romeo and drove At the back
her to an isolated spot at the foot of the of the house,
mountains where he dumped her in a police found
ditch near the 346 national highway. Bernardo Montoya a smudged
“The post-mortem results suggest footprint, a
Judge Curtis
that there were two or three days when violator is impotent, there is room broken lamp, Chillingworth and his
Laura was missing but still alive,” for a slightly lesser sentence than life two rolls of wife Marjorie
said Ms. Sotelo. Which is a nice way imprisonment.” sticky tape
of saying that she lay in agony in the Montoya pleaded not guilty. He and spots of blood.
freezing temperature for two days and said his ex-partner, Josefa Carmina, Despite the couple not being good
nights, unable to move because of her killed Laura because she was jealous. swimmers, police surmised they had
injuries, until mercifully death ended “I only helped to remove the remains,” gone for a dip and drowned. Helicopters,
her appalling suffering. he added. The prosecution said that planes, boats and divers began a search at
When Laura was reported missing Carmina was never a suspect. In sea but nothing was found.
by her father the next day the villagers fact, her alibi was perfect – she was The police then decided that the
rallied to search for her. Montoya was resident in a detox centre under close couple had been kidnapped and awaited
quickly identified as a suspect, but the observation on the evening of the a ransom note. Family and friends
evidence was missing until five days murder. raised $113,000 to be paid in the event
later, when her half-naked body was He beat her with his the kidnapping was confirmed. But
discovered in the ditch among the the kidnapping angle did not seem to
fists and feet and “a
colourful rockrose of the mountains. make much sense as the judge was not a
The evidence trail led back to long blunt instrument” wealthy man. The case remained open.
Montoya, but he was no longer for more than an Then in 1960 James Yentzer, a sheriff’s
ensconced by the coke burner outside aide, was offered money by a friend
hour. Then with her
his home. He had vanished. called Joseph Peel to kill Floyd Holzapfel,
A search began, and days later he arms tied behind her a career criminal. Yentzer contacted
was arrested in the small village of back he attempted Holzapfel and, wearing a wire, met him
Cortegana. This was the place where in in a hotel room where much drink was
to rape her. Finally,
1994 he stabbed to death a woman in taken.
he knocked her
her 80s – a murder, which was his only Once he was drunk, Holzapfel
connection with the village. For that he unconscious confessed a secret. He said that, at the
served 17 years and seven months in behest of a powerful pillar of the Floridian
jail. Occasionally Montoya made his community, he had murdered Judge
On parole in 2008, he was sentenced views heard by calling out in court, “I Chillingworth who had upset the wrong
to a further 18 months for pulling a am innocent,” and “I love you, Pilar” people. Holzapfel said that he and a
knife on a hairdresser. – the latter apparently addressed to his confederate had broken into the house
At first Montoya confessed to police current partner. intending just to kill the judge but he had
that he beat, raped and killed Laura. “I The jury deliberated for five days caused a commotion and woken his wife,
took her clothes off and tried to rape before finding Montoya guilty of killing so she was beaten into unconsciousness.
her,” he said, but later he withdrew his Laura. He was sentenced to “reviewable She and her husband were gagged and
confession, denying everything and permanent prison” for the murder; 20 dragged to a nearby boat.
saying it was impossible that he raped years for kidnapping and 12 years for Out at sea, chained and weighted
Laura because he was impotent. sexual assault. down, Mrs. Chillingworth was thrown
He was brought before a As the brutal killer was led off to overboard, sinking immediately. Her
nine-member jury of five men and the cells there were some people in husband, even when wrapped in chains
four women at the Huelva Provincial court who wondered why on earth the and weights, did not sink but began to
Court in November 2021, where the Spanish don’t throw all such monsters swim to the shore. The killers rowed after
prosecutor demanded a sentence of into prison for life. him and split his head open with an oar,
“reviewable permanent prison.” This Curiously, Montoya’s twin finally killing him.
unusual sentence is reserved for the brother Luciano is also a murderer. Holzapfel was arrested for murder on
most egregious of crimes where only He was sentenced to 15 years in October 4th, 1960. Judge Joseph Peel,
one victim is involved. jail for killing a 35-year-old woman who was behind the murder of Judge
Prosecutor Alfredo Flores explained in 2000 after she reported him Chillingworth, was sentenced to two life
why the prosecution stopped short of for the theft of a purse. He was terms.
demanding life imprisonment. “There released from prison the same Holzapfel’s death sentence was
are many categories of sexual crimes,” day that Laura Luelmo’s body was later commuted to life and he spent
he said. “In extreme cases, where a discovered. 39 years behind bars.
7
THE BODY IN THE
ICE-BOUND CAR
A murder trial refused to believe the businessman was murdered by his
former lover for his money, and set her free. But another court had a
different view – and now the ex-lover will spend years behind bars
LIFE BECAME something of a
high-speed roller-coaster for Carina
Heed when the body of her former
partner Tommy Sörensen, 50, was
found inside a burned-out car in a
forest at Hedlandet, 40 miles west of
Stockholm.
For Sörensen, the Swedish cops
decided, was murdered. And top of the
frame in the list of suspects was Carina,
whose life as a mother of four was
already complicated by an aggressive
custody battle with her former husband.
The forest of pines where the body
was found is a major attraction for
summertime hikers. But this was
December 16th, 2018. The frozen
ground was dusted in powdered snow
and the vehicle was smothered in ice.
There wasn’t much left of Tommy
Sörensen, whose disappearance had
been reported by his family 10 days
earlier. But there was enough for the
medical examiner to identify that he The frozen burned-out car in which the body of Tommy Sörenson was
was high on sedatives before he died. discovered 10 days after his mysterious disappearance
Sörensen was owner of a luxury
hostel for hikers and holidaymakers no blood, no DNA, or anything else threw away Sörensen’s mobile phone,
located deeper in the forest. Police that would indicate that the victim was bought large quantities of cleaning
discovered that the hostel’s bank killed or even restrained. Or even that products, firewood, petrol and matches
account had been emptied by no less his body was in the basement. There and in various ways stored, transported
a person than former partner Carina is no trace of him at all, and if there and finally burned Sörensen’s body
Heed. Money, they decided, was no were it would have been detected by after killing him.
doubt the motive for the murder. technicians or dogs. By and large the witnesses were not
It was known that while Carina “So what, if she bought two cans on Elisabeth Andersson’s side. One
Heed’s relationship with Sörensen lasted of petrol. She was in the process of of them, Andrea, the daughter of a
it was a stormy affair. She claimed former partner, told the court that when
“She killed him in
that he sexually assaulted one of her her father planned to move in with
daughters, but there was no evidence the basement of the Elisabeth Andersson she was told by
of that, nor was it ever reported to the hostel. Afterwards she her that she must share a room with her
police. She doubtless had some sort of two daughters.
repainted the floor”
grievance – but was it enough to incite When Andrea complained Elisabeth
murder? Andersson bombarded her with verbal
Yes, was the official answer, so the moving home and it was natural for her abuse to such an extent that her father
former lover was charged with fraud to buy cleaning materials, refuse bags quickly turned tail on the relationship
and murder. No pictures of the victim and the like.” and ran.
were made available in a country where While in custody awaiting trial Carina It seemed the trial was going nowhere
privacy is more of an issue. Heed changed her name. She now when a surprise witness turned up. This
“She killed him in the basement of became Elisabeth Andersson. She had was an elderly woman who told the
the hostel,” declared prosecutor Anna to appoint a new lawyer because Ms. court she was walking her dog outside
Asklöf. “Afterwards she repainted the Wilhelmsson could no longer continue Elisabeth Andersson’s home on the
floor, changed the lock and cleaned due to a conflict of interest. She was night Tommy Sôrensen vanished.
the room thoroughly. She changed the assisting the plaintiff in another case in “I saw a man in the basement. He
drain in the basement floor and bought which Elisabeth Andersson was accused was loading something on to a trailer.
two cans of petrol. Throughout all this of assault. A woman was standing next to him. I
she had a van parked outside. It was When the murder case finally came thought it was strange that they were
seen by neighbours.” to trial in May 2020 the prosecution working completely in the dark.”
“This is nonsense,” replied Maria argued that in the course of a few days This was the first indication of a
Wilhelmsson, defending. “There is Elisabeth Andersson, as she now was, helper, and it seemed to catch everyone
080
HOLIDAY ISLAND
by surprise. Sceptically, the prosecutor
began asking questions, such as, why
did she not tell the police this before?
“It was in the statement I gave during RAPE-KILLER WAS
my police interview,” the woman replied
stiffly. After a flurry of pages, the
prosecution was forced to agree. “SOLDIER OF GOD”
Later in the proceedings, the
prosecution admitted they didn’t know
exactly how Sörensen died – there were
few remains and the fire destroyed most
of the evidence. Without knowing how
After terrorising
he died, the defence questioned whether
intent could be proved. residents and tourists
Elisabeth Andersson sat patiently
he savagely attacked
during the proceedings, her hands
clasped, her feet tucked beneath her. a woman visitor.
The court convicted her on the charges
Now women’s rights
of fraud and forgery. She was sentenced
to two years, which equated to time campaigners are
already served, and walked out of court
reacting with fury
a free woman.
ABNER AQUILINA, 20, called
himself a “Soldier of God” and
said he acted in response to “orders
from frequencies” in doing God’s work,
although currently the Devil appeared
to have more to do with his life than the
deity.
In Malta where he lived, most people
who knew him didn’t see him as a Abner Aquilina. He has been
divine creature. They thought he was charged with the murder in Malta
of 29-year-old Paulina Dembska
the biggest sex pest on the island, and
(below)
possibly dangerous with it.
Two young women who were enjoying
a day out in Malta’s famous nature park
at Marsaxlokk on New Year’s Eve, 2021,
can testify to that. They were resting on
a park bench when Aquilina came up to
Carina Heed. She changed her them and started making lewd remarks.
name to Elisabeth Andersson “We politely asked him to leave,”
one of them said. “He was darting
Then came the Parthian shot. The around the bench, back and forth,
prosecution appealed and in November running around in quite an odd way.
2021 Elisabeth Andersson returned He eventually came up behind us and
to court – this time the Svea Appeals started hitting his head on the rocks –
Court. Unusually, this court overturned there was even some blood.
the District Court’s decision. Elisabeth “We asked him again to give us some
Andersson was found guilty of space and he began shouting, telling
Sörensen’s murder and sentenced to 16 us he wasn’t going to move away. He
years’ imprisonment. called two friends before running off
Justifying the decision, the Appeals and leaving. His friends did come and
Court chairman Sven Jönson said: apologise to us, telling us that he was
“The evidence is sufficient to conclude dealing with some personal issues. every evening and got to recognise some
when the man died and that only the “It was a really unnerving incident of them. They are well looked after and
cohabitant was present at the time. The that really shocked us when we heard have dried cat food and water under
measures taken by Andersson after the the news two days later.” the benches and beds to sleep in. We
man’s death, including cleaning up and The news two days later, on Sunday, saw people taking fresh food to them
burning the body, and the fact that the January 2nd, 2022, began when too. Some are very friendly and like the
man was drugged at the time of his Paulina Dembska, 29, a visitor to Malta attention.”
death, put beyond reasonable doubt holidaying in a youth hostel, rose early Cats are an essential part of Maltese
that the woman intentionally killed the to take a day trip to Independence culture. There is even a statue of a
man.” Gardens in Sliema, on the coast. 12-foot-high cat in the gardens. The cat
Elisabeth Andersson may once Paulina knew the island well. She went statue sits proudly on a toilet block, and
have thought she had committed there regularly to improve her English some Maltese say it is a cat god looking
the perfect murder. On November and on social media called it “the most out for the cats in the garden.
29th, 2021, she was taken to her beautiful place on Earth.” Paulina arrived there at 6.15 a.m.
cell to begin her sentence, leaving The attraction at the gardens in The park was quiet and she was isolated
behind some intriguing questions: Sliema was the colony of feral cats that when Aquilina approached her. There
who was the man the neighbour are a feature of the park. Paulina was was no one nearby to hear her screams
saw in the basement? Was it Tommy a cat lover, and there is no shortage of as he raped and strangled her. Her
Sörensen before his death, or was them in Independence Gardens. body was found 15 minutes later by a
it an accomplice who really has got “At night the park is alive with cats!”
away with murder? wrote one visitor. “We walked there l Continues over page
9
l Continued from page 9
“We can talk about
laws, we can
passer-by, semi-naked and face-up on a
ramp. introduce new tougher
The Maltese Women’s Rights punishments, but
Foundation reacted with fury. “There
until we deal with the
is no other way of putting it, the cause
of her demise and those of others root cause we are a
before her is men,” they said in a far cry from ensuring
statement. “We can talk about laws,
that women will not
we can introduce new and tougher
punishments, but until we deal with be abused and killed
the root cause we are a far cry from on account of their
ensuring that women will not be abused
gender”
and killed on account of their gender.”
After the attack Aquilina ran to nearby
Balluta Church, where he overturned Paulina’s body is removed from the said. “She said she was very sorry, but
some seats and made his way to Independence Gardens our Paulina was murdered.”
the altar. He hinted to a cleric who Her mother added: “Paulina loved
approached him that he had attacked from their Italian-based daughter who the island. She loved animals. She loved
someone. He was dragged outside the picked it up from Maltese media. “She cats. She loved Malta.”
church by some men and was arrested found information about her sister’s Aquilina was sent to Mount Carmel
half an hour later. death on the internet and called us in Hospital for psychiatric assessment. At
Paulina’s parents heard of her death the middle of the night,” her mother his forthcoming trial he is expected to
TRUE
“ONE OF THE MOST REVOLTING CRIMES
COMMITTED IN ESSEX” – BUT...
Should He
CRIME
Have Hanged
For Maud’s
Murder?
JUNE ISSUE
THE GRIM
Aquilina in police custody
SECRETS OF
“MURDER MOM...
EDGWARE’S plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
DISMEMBER DAD” When this intention was revealed it
CLAY LANE caused a backlash among advocates for
mental health. “This has nothing to do
– Lying with mental health,” declared lawyer
KILLER Lara Dmeitrijvie. “Do not stigmatise
Son’s
people with mental health problems.
WITH There are thousands of women with
Desperate
mental health problems living in
100
Malta. You do not see them raping,
Plan
FACES bludgeoning and killing random men.”
Meanwhile, Aquilina’s career as a
In France, he was sexual pest was being aired. Several
YARMOUTH treated like Robin women and girls as young as 14
Hood – but he claimed
came forward to accuse him of sexual
HOLIDAY to have killed 39
harassment; threatening to show up at
their homes or place of work if they
HORROR
The Secret didn’t comply with his demands; leaving
messages by phone and online. On one
The Terrible
Head Of LA’s occasion he threatened suicide if he
Snatching Of Leoni
didn’t get his way.
“Underworld
Complaints were made to the police
MURDER UNDER Government” but they dithered in their reaction.
COVER OF WAR “Paulina’s death is an example of
WW2 Soldiers Who Went To The Gallows what happens when we don’t take
TWO WIVES, inappropriate comments and catcalling
Middlesbrough’s
seriously,” one woman said.
TWO MISTRESSES...
Only The two young women accosted
in the nature park on New Year’s
ONE MURDER
Police Eve were bound to agree. They still
can’t believe how lucky they were to
SAGA OF THE SOMERSET RAKE Murder
escape with their lives.
In shops from May 26th • Make sure of your copy by ordering direct from Join us next month for further
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10