What crime stories have you been obsessed by?

[WomenHour]

I was griped by the James Bulger murder 25 years ago

I remember being hooked on the Rose and Fred West case as a pre teen or early teen (can't remember the year). I remember putting the TV on before a school to see more bodies had been found and all my friends talking about it on the way to school.

Likewise, Jon Benet Ramsay. The whole thing was so sad but also so grotesque to us as 90s kids, who had never seen pageant children before.

Kirsten Costas - her murder was made into one of those low grade TV films with fictitious names in the 90s that was on in the school holidays. Years later I saw it on the TV listings and googled it to find out what it was based on. There are some really weird websites on the case with overly invested posters that just snipe and insult each other but there are sometimes interviews with people who knew the girls.

Billie Jo Jenkins. I heard an interview with her foster parent Sion Jenkins. I found him chilling.

Do you think Sion Jenkins did do it? I thought he was cleared, but then so were the Taylor sisters (the ones who murdered Alison Shaughnessy, I remember reading an article about them being let out of jail in Take a Break ages ago) and it turned out they did do it after all. One of them had written all these diary entries about how much she hated Shaughnessy.

Charlene Downes
Andrew Gosden (a missing person but I'm completely obsessed with this and I hope so much his family get closure).
Similar is Daniel Entwistle.

I'm not sure you can say 'It turned out they (the Taylor sisters) did it after all. The conviction was overturned.

I think Sion Jenkins was cleared after initially being found guilty? Always seemed a bit odd someone would batter a child to death over an arguement about how to paint a door which seemed to be what the prosecution said.

Hmmmm. Sion Jenkins was a fantasist, with a dangerous temper: he'd been a headmaster or possibly deputy head, but had lied about his teaching qualifications, while a family friend said he'd seen Jenkins throw Billie-Jo across the room, hurting her ankle. His wife gave evidence against him, and ultimately divorced him and took their kids to the other side of the world. Still, his conviction was quashed so he's an innocent man.

Ah, I didn’t know about him having previously thrown her across the room.

Place marking as I've not heard of many of these before and I also find it weird that people can just disappear without trace.
A bag of bones have appeared in Sudbury in Suffolk which is odd and makes me wonder who they would have belonged to. That was on the local news yesterday.
I was also intrigued by a girl ( Jeanette Tate ) who went missing in Devon in the 70s down a country lane but I do believe it might been the black panther that admitted he had abducted her. She was never found I believe. So many mysteries that are never solved. It must be so horrible for the families to never have closure.

I don't know about obsessed but certainly have reflected many times about the Wests. Not so much about what they did, but that so many of their victims weren't looked for even though they had families, jobs etc, things that leave a footprint in society.

Jack the Ripper

I always assumed the Wests only targeted vulnerable girls who didn't have anyone looking out for them but I didn't really follow the case that much to be fair.
I did watch a drama on tv about the woman who had to sit with Fred West when he was being questioned but it was on years ago. Dominic West played Fred but I can't recall much about it.

Yes, it always made me sad that in the Ariel Castro kidnappings, 2 of the women (Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus) were being searched for, but basically nobody seemed to care what had happened to Michelle Knight. They just never bothered looking for her.

That was ‘Appropriate Adult’ he did a great job of portraying him ‘I wanna see Rose’ he was definitely not the brains of the operation.

I was actually on a bus from Budleigh Salterton to Exeter, passing the end of the lane at the time that Genette Tate disappeared. I've often wondered if I saw something that may have been relevant, only without realising it - except that I know I didn't, I was just chatting with my mum. But knowing you were that close...

Any more Netlfix/Prime recommendations? I've watched loads (can't do Podcasts) but could do with some more, particularly British Strange Cases to watch?

BovaryX Regarding Springfield Three, local rumour says that the women are buried under that car park but I saw a doc on ID where they used ultrasound equipment and they doubted any bodies were there and the timing of the construction and disappearance was all wrong. I think it makes sense that Sheryl, the mother was the intended victim - as you say, Suzie and Stacie were never meant to be there that night. Some people blame local mafia but I think that's a stretch for a tiny town in the Mid West

days
I agree. It's such a bizarre and awful case. As you say, it seems like Sheryl was the original target, but I guess someone could have followed the girls home? Whatever happened must have happened after they had removed their makeup, which suggests everything was normal when they got home? I saw an interview with Stacy's mother, her heartbreak is palpable. It must be absolutely unbearable not to know what happened to her daughter.

Fred West kept referring to the children they murdered as ' little lambs' and asking for Rose.
I agree she was the brains behind all of it.
So sad for the victims.

Yes yes to Billie-Jo Jenkins. So sad that no one has ever really been held accountable. I don’t think the foster dad was actually found innocent, it’s just after 3 trials they just couldn’t be sure beyond all reasonable doubt. I think he has even convinced himself he is innocent now, like genuinely believes it, maybe a PTSD thing where if he did do it, he has wiped it from his memory. Chilling. Poor little girl, think she was only 13 and had already been through so much in her life.
I did wonder for a bit if it might have been Levi Bellfield? His crimes were quite similar but I imagine that was looked into?

Sorry as in after 3 trials the Judge just had to say, enough is enough, not necessarily that he was cleared.

It was always said that the old east end gangsters in the 1950s used to put their dead in concrete and it was subsequently used to build flyovers and such like. As a small child it fascinated me that anyone could be that evil and I used to look at the huge flyover where I lived and imagined all
sorts. Just urban myths really , but I guess many criminals had ways of disposing of people they fell out with ( burning being another one)
Awful really , but I'm sure many things go on that we know nothing about.

My stepdaughter lived five doors down from the Jenkins... I walked past the house a few times... Couldn't help but shudder.... 😔 😔 😔 😔

I think I’ve seen that Sadie Hartley documentary before, it’s really good though. Any recommendations for things like that would be gratefully received!
Aileen Wornos makes me sad. I know she killed those men, but she was so abused and mentally damaged. Lots of people are guilty of making her like that.

I read somewhere that burying bodies in concrete wouldn't work, because as the body decayed it would form a void in the concrete, which would then break up.

Not sure, obviously, whether or not that's true.

I can imagine a whole body in concrete wouldnt work so I guess it's all just speculation and urban myths but I'm sure they had ways of disposing of bodies some where!

I couldn't work out why I knew about the Alison Shaughnessy case...... Just googled it. My Uncle Mac presided over the Taylor sisters appeal!