To ask if you've ever personally known an infamous killer/serial killer/

[gentlyscented]

I'm fascinated with true crime and was having a conversation with my Grandad once. He told me that one of his brothers mates was friends with peter sutcliffe,and that he had met him a couple of times.

Interested to know if others have have had encounters or known a serial killer

My DH worked with a guy who killed his two young children and his wife then himself. She had been going to take the children and leave him just a few days before but he had talked her out of it. Totally impossible to comprehend the mind of someone who can do this. I cant help but think if it's that bad just kill yourself and leave the others alone.

At the time he was arrested I worked quite closely with someone who knew Fred West as she drank in the same pub. Colleague was really shaken by it all. I also knew the second most senior officer involved in the investigation.

I also know someone who was the last person to see a young girl who disappeared in the area during the time the Wests were active and who it is suspected was probably one of their victims although the body has never been found.

Hideous, hideous.

@sola82 was that Brian Blackwell?

I lived a stones throw from Steve Wright who killed five women in Ipswich in 2006. Would regularly see him and his partner.

The father of an Iraqi friend of ours worked for sadden Hussein. He had nothing but good things to say about him.

My mum and dad lived next door to a young woman who killed a Garda - Irish version of a police officer - it was in the late 60’s. mum was a friend of hers and she came in for tea regularly. When she was released from prison years later she came to visit and mum told us - we were so shocked that anyone could murder someone in our village - sleepy was an understatement- and that she was a young woman and that my mum knew her. She became obsessed with the young Garda and when he didn’t reciprocate she poisoned him.

@ButtMuncher
Yes it was Brian Blackwell

My DH was friends with a man who went on to murder DH's then girlfriend. They socialised with the man and his girlfriend on many occasions. The man is currently still serving time.

i have nc for this as its quite outing if you did know me in real life. Not serial murderer (but just as bad!) - i used to know John Worboys - till this day i am disgusted and baffled as to why he did what he did - he seemed so boring and normal!

My husband's friend was murdered by her husband in the most awful way - repeated stabbing. My husbands PA's dad used to drive for the Krays.

This could be outing. Not the killer but my friend was abducted and murdered when we were 15. She had walked home on a route that we had all been warned about. Still breaks my heart to think about her which I often do. We like to mark her birthday every year.

There has been some media coverage of her killer recently and it's looking like she wasn't his only victim.

Nothing to add but this thread is absolutely fascinating

My husband was a colleague of Theresa Riggi's husband when she killed her three children and then tried to kill herself. She died four years later in Rampton high security psychiatric hospital.

I remember the William Beggs case well as I lived in the general area.

@NicoAndTheNiners - sounds like a different part of the same story - my mum was one of the last people to see a girl alive in the Lakes - I think it was her body they were looking for when the murdered wife was found?

I've taught someone now in prison for a long time for a fatal stabbing. It was a surprise but not a shock seeing it in the local paper. It was a struggling school in a rough area, the police came in in PSE to discuss gang/ knife crime. I got on with the lad in question. He was a "hard" type, and you'd have known if you were on the wrong side of him, but I taught him a low pressure subject and rubbed along with him fine.

What a waste of young lives for everyone involved.

Sadly I don't think this is outing because it's such a common problem in struggling urban communities

@thecatsthecats it was a young French girl they were looking for. She'd left was dale youth hostel to walk to Coniston and went missing. They found her the following year at the bottom of a crag.

@MyNameIsArthur Did you Dad mention what he thought of Frankie ? I met him years ago and he was very charming but, you could see he had two sides of him.

Used to work with Ian Huntley and maxine carr. He was very pleasant and polite, she was a little odd.
Same place, warehouseman turned out to be the beast in the balaclava, local guy raping women down dark alleys.
Still same place, young lad didn't turn in one day but his picture and story turned up in take a break magazine the next week as he'd taken out a contract on his wife for the insurance.

Visited long lartin maximum security prison as part of a uni event and got chatting to a lovely white haired old man who was telling me about looking forward to spending time in his garden when he got out. We were told he'd been inside many many years and would never be getting out. Didn't like to think about why he was in.

I often wonder if the knowledge of what they’ve done (murdered someone) has an impact on our perception/memory of that person eg did the murderer give off a “bad sort” of vibe as a child/beforehand or did they seem normal?

My uncle did the family research thing.
Apparently we are descendants of one of the Hare and Burke murderers.Lovely.

@Shallishanti123 my dh's friend's son killed his ex girlfriend. Turned out he was very possessive and controlling. However when he was a young child he was a terror. Badly behaved but never told off. Once told dh he would be a monster. Sent a chill down me when dh told me the police incident I was discussing on Facebook with friends who live in the area was him as he had murdered his girlfriend.

I worked in a secure young offenders’ institution a few years ago for ‘children’ up to the age of 18, so they were all still in education. One young lass had stabbed and killed her boyfriend but had a terrible home background and was rebuilding her life and earned the respect of both teachers and inmates. Boyfriend was older, controlling and manipulative.

Another young teen had stolen a car while drunk and killed a pedestrian. Again, awful background but rebuilding his life with support.

In a secure situation some of these young people, with the right support and guidance can turn themselves around I feel. The few that were very volatile and aggressive were the ones with drug problems and were there for more ‘minor’ offences. Being there for a much shorter time meant that when they were eventually allowed out they would probably go onto more crimes once they returned home.

@Rowgtfc72 Wow 😮!! Where did you work at a maximum security prison or something 😳

I was at school with the children of someone who raped and murdered 2 teens. We didn't know, the kids didn't either, the wife had no idea of his crimes until he was arrested and changed her and the childrens names. My mum said the press would hang around the school gates when things happened in the case, appeals and such, trying to photo the wife and kids and find the new names.

Mum only told me about this years later when she realised I and friends were using a shortcut to get home from secondary school. Turns out the lane we used was where one of the teen girls was raped and murdered, as I was then the age she was my mum thought it best to tell. Apparently my dad was also one of the many men DNA tested at the time, it was an emerging science and they tested hundreds of men in the area.

I can't imagine growing up and finding out your dad was this horrific person. He's now in an open prison and could be paroled next year, hopefully not.

@VioletCharlotte "Not a serial killer, but one of the boys who was in my group of friends when I was about 15 went on to murder someone by beheading them with a sword. I believe he was heavily into drugs"

Ooo I might know this one, I used to work with someone that beheaded his friend with a sword and scattered his body parts around the park?

Timmytoo, local aerosol factory. Live in a rough town though!