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Posted: 21-03-2013 11:50 Post subject: Visiting crime scenes

Does anybody have an interest or obsession with visiting the scenes of famous crimes?

Or maybe just finding them on google earth.

I've noticed the lane where the range rover murders happened has been taken off the map, but can bee seen on google earth.

Last week I was trying to find out which house Colin Pitchfork lived in in Haybarn Close, no luck, but I did find out where the murders happened. Colin Pitchfork was the first murderer ever caught by DNA, he even got a friend to take a DNA test for him.

Has anybody else done the same with other crimes?

Posted: 21-03-2013 14:17 Post subject:

I actually do a Jack the Ripper walk for friends and family so I've become quite familiar with those crime scenes.

I suppose the difference there is that the location is almost always gone so it's more an opportunity to give a talk on the poverty of the period that lead to the women being on the streets in the early hours than a gawp at the place.

Interestingly in the book 'the Worst Street in London' about Dorset street, the author mentions how within weeks of Mary Kelly's murder the new occupant was charging the curious to see the blood stains on the wall of 13 Miller's Court.

Posted: 21-03-2013 14:49 Post subject:

The only murder scene I've knowingly visited (useful caveat) is Mitre Square in November, in the middle of a downpour at the end of a grey-old day. It was fairly dull if atmospheric due to the weather, and I must say my earlier trip to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was much more interesting:

http://www.whitechapelbellfoundry.co.uk/foundry.htm

Posted: 21-03-2013 14:58 Post subject:

This sort of thing interests me as well, although I feel embarrassed about the ghoulishness of it. Is it right to be fascinated by such things?

I went to see Lord Lucan's House in Belgravia when I was staying there on conference just before Xmas, as I was staying just round the corner.

10 Rillington place is interesting as the council flattened the houses and rebuilt the place in such a way as to make it difficult to work out where the actual house and garden stood.

Posted: 21-03-2013 15:06 Post subject:

I guess there are plenty of places in London.

Rillington Pace (now Ruston Mews I think)

Gowan Avenue (Jill dando)

Hilldrop cresent (Dr Crippen)

Posted: 21-03-2013 15:20 Post subject:

There is also a website that covers such things....

http://www.shadyoldlady.com/

But it only covers london. But it covers everything from murder to weird architecture.

Posted: 21-03-2013 16:59 Post subject:

I was once sitting in the kitchen of a house in Brixton (where I'd been couch-surfing with friends) when we found out, more or less by accident, that a murder had taken place there. For some reason the anonymity of the crime (bar a flurry of newspaper reports at the time it had hardly caused a ripple, and certainly hadn't entered the annals of the history of true crime) made the whole experience seem odder and more unnerving than it might have been; it felt almost as if a little notoriety would have made us all feel we had company, if only in the form of the interest shown by others in the subject, whereas we were all on our own with it. (I don’t know if that makes sense – I don’t think I’ve explained it very well.)

I was also once at a party in a flat in Edinburgh when a similar story emerged, although this one was apparently better known. To my regret I can’t remember any of the details: it was a long time ago and I really can’t remember where I was, what I was doing, or who I was with. I’m kind of hoping it was 31 Buckingham Terrace, because that was the scene of the Merrett Mystery - one of the stories covered in William Roughead’s Classic Crimes which I have only just mentioned on the Suggestions for a good read thread – and I like that kind of coincidence.

Probably not though, unfortunately – I don’t think the venue was as posh as it is round that part of the city.

Posted: 21-03-2013 17:33 Post subject:

I used to be in a Yahoo group about a famous murder case. Some of the members were a bit too obsessed with the perpetrator for my liking - sending xmas cards, quoting little witticisms from his replies to their letters, bragging about owning discarded bits of his property and so on.

One member, who wasn't a 'worshipper' but was very knowledgeable, did a carefully-planned tour of sites associated with the case and sent out a group email complete with photos.

That seemed a bit much to me but I did find it interesting. The sites are accessible to me so i could have done the same.
In fact, I discovered from his 'travelogue' that a pub I used to pop into was also frequented by the murderer some years before I moved to that area, brr!

Other members were fascinated. If the group hadn't folded I reckon there'd have been a charabanc tour this summer.

In my town there have been a handful of homicides and I can, and do, point out their locations to my passengers as I drive around. They love it. I think.

Posted: 21-03-2013 17:56 Post subject:

I remember the house where Ian Huntley murdered Holly and Jessica was sealed off until after the trial. Then it was demolished and every brick was taken away in a sealed container so morbid souvenior hunters could not get any pieces.

Today it is plain grass.

It was decided that a memorial would have become a tojurist attraction.

Posted: 21-03-2013 19:09 Post subject:

Fred and Rose West's gaff was similarly Wiped From The Face Of The Earth.

I wonder which pen-pusher, in which anonymous department, gets to decide when a murder-hourse should be demolished? I mean, not all murder-houses get the treatment, so there must be some criteria. Home office? But it would appear to be more of a local planning issue. Council officer?

Posted: 21-03-2013 20:21 Post subject:

(Erm, I appear to have somehow managed to delete the post that was originally at this point by replacing it with something that was supposed to be somewhere else.

I don't think it matters but I shall go and get my coat anyway.!

For what it's worth - I mentioned that the decsion to demolish Huntley's house was taken by the School Governors.)

Posted: 22-03-2013 02:46 Post subject:

Posted: 22-03-2013 09:34 Post subject:

I've visited a few sites "professionally".......

Posted: 22-03-2013 10:22 Post subject:

Posted: 22-03-2013 11:48 Post subject: