Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Random Cutting - Towpath Murders (June 1953)

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On the night of May 31st 1953 teenagers Barbara Songhurst and Christine Reed were seen cycling on the Thames Tow Path near Teddington Lock.
The next morning Barbara's body was found in the river Thames near Richmond, she had been beaten, stabbed and raped. Five days later Christine's body was also found.
At the end of the following month Alfred Charles Whiteway was arrested for raping a woman and assaulting another on Oxshott Heath.  During questioning he confessed to the Towpath murders.
He was tried at the Old Bailey in November 1953 and, despite trying to make out the police had forged the confession, he was found guilty.  He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison by executioner Albert Pierrepoint.


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