 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Search Query
L |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This list is intended to give both an historic and a modern look at murder. With both new and old cases included it is hoped that a more complete picture will be available. This list only contains murders committed by men. This section currently has information on 50 cases |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
*****
Landru, Henri
*****
Laurence Shirley, Earl Ferrers
*****
Laurie, John Watson
*****
Lawrence, Edward
*****
Lee, John
*****
Lefroy Percy
*****
Lewis, Harry
*****
Thomas
John Ley & Lawrence John Smith (Chalkpit Murder)
*****
Light, Ronald
*****
Lock Ah Tam
*****
Long, Bobby Joe
*****
Lopez, Pedro
*****
Loughans, Harold
*****
Lamson, George Henry
*****
As he grew older he developed a taste for drink. When he was sober he was a fine fellow, but when he was in his cups he became a brute with a tendency to violence. One day he was beaten in a horse race, so he thrashed his groom unconscious. On another occasion he stabbed a servant for refusing to perjure himself and say that a barrel of oysters had been bad when they had been delivered. He then beat him unconscious with a candlestick and kicked the man so hard in the groin that the servant was lamed for life.
In 1752 he married the youngest daughter of Sir William Meredith. All was well to begin with but his darker side gradually emerged and one day he kicked her senseless. After six years she left him and returned to her family. She applied to Parliament for, and received, an order for maintenance. This came from a separate trust and was administered by Lord Ferrers' steward, John Johnson.
The Earl and his household lived at Staunton Harold, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire. Because of Johnson's duties as receiver of the Countess's maintenance the Earl became convinced that Johnson was plotting against him. John Johnson lived in a house belonging to the estate called the Lount. On Sunday 13th January 1760 the Earl went to the Lount and, after a conversation with Johnson, ordered the man to come to Staunton Harold on the following Friday at 3pm.
The steward attended at 3pm and, after a short wait, was called into the Earl's room and the door was locked. The Earl accused the poor man of various villainies and falsifying the accounts, accusations that were quite untrue. Ferrers ordered the man to kneel and to beg pardon. The steward went down on to one knee and the Earl, in a voice loud enough for the maids to hear, shouted, 'Down on your other knee! Declare you have acted against Lord Ferrers. Your time has come - you must die!' He produced a pistol from his pocket and shot the unfortunate steward. The Earl then left the room and the servants sent a messenger to fetch a doctor.
The Earl had been sober when the deed had been committed but now took to the bottle. His rage became boundless and at one stage went to the room where the poor steward lay dying and seized him by the wig, called him a villain, and threatened to shoot him through the head. The Earl must then have felt some remorse because he told Johnson's daughter that he would take care of the family if the steward died, so long as they didn't prosecute.
Mr Kirkland, the surgeon, wanted the steward removed from the house and, after the Earl had retired to his bed around midnight, they made up a sedan chair and carried Johnson back to the Lount. He died there about 9 o'clock the next morning.
A crowd of neighbours armed themselves and decided to apprehend the killer and set out for Staunton Harold. As they entered the yard they saw the Earl going towards the stables. When he saw them he escaped back into the house. About four hours later he was apprehended by a collier named Curtis as he walked on the bowling green. He was armed with a blunderbuss, a brace of pistols and a dagger but gave himself up quietly. He was taken to a local public house in Ashby and, on the Monday after a Coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against him, was taken to Leicester gaol.
Two weeks later he was taken to London and lodged in the Tower of London. He spent two months there before he came up for trial before the House of Lords on April 16th. His defence was one of insanity but this failed and he was found guilty. He was sentenced to be hanged on Monday 21 April and to then be anatomised. In deference to his rank the execution was postponed until Monday 5 May so that he might get his affairs in order.
At 9 o'clock on the morning of 5 May 1760 the Earl was taken from the
Tower, in his own landau drawn by six horses, on a three hour trip through
the record-breaking crowds to Tyburn. Here Laurence Shirley, Lord Ferrers,
was hanged. After the required one hour the body was taken down and was
conveyed to Surgeon's Hall, where the second part of the sentence was carried
out.
Rose's brother arrived on the island on the 27th July. He had become
concerned when his brother had not returned from
his break. He found out that his brother had set out to climb Goatfell
on the 15th in the company of Laurie. A search
involving 200 islanders found Rose's body hidden under a pile of rocks.
He had been beaten to death and robbed. A
shepherd was found who had seen Laurie coming down Goatfell on the
15th, alone and exhausted. Laurie had also been seen the next morning leaving
the island.
When news of the killing reached the mainland Laurie left his job and
moved to Liverpool. He couldn't resist writing to the newspapers to tell
them that 'I smile when I read that my arrest is expected hourly.' On 3rd
September he was spotted
boarding a train at Fernigair and was chased by a local constable.
When he was trapped in a local wood he tried to cut his throat but the
wounds were only superficial.
He appeared at Edinburgh charged with murder. He admitted robbing Rose but denied killing him, contending that he had died as the result of a fall. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after he was found to be of unsound mind. He was transferred to Perth Criminal Asylum in 1893 after a short escape from Peterhead Prison. He died in the asylum in 1930.
John Lee was 19 years old and had a job on the staff as the footman. Lee had a criminal record and had served a prison sentence for theft and it was his knife that had been used to cut the old woman's throat. Although the evidence against him was purely circumstantial he was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. The motive for the murder was that Ellen Keyse had been disapointed with his behaviour and had reduced his wages and threatened to sack him. There was fierce controversy over the verdict and sentence but that didn't stop him being taken to the gallows at Exeter Gaol on 23 February 1885.
When the time came for Lee to hang the preist read a prayer and the hangman Berry pulled the lever. Instead of the trapdoors swinging down plunging lee to his death nothing happened. Berry pushed the lever back and forth and warders stamped on the trapdoors, but still nothing happened. Lee was carried clear, his legs were still pinioned, and a carpenter was brought in to test the bolts. He could find nothing wrong so shaved away the edges of the trap. The drop was tested with a heavy weight and it worked first time. Lee was put back on the trap, the lever was pulled and again the trap refused to budge. Once more he was removed, this time back to his cell. Twenty minutes passed while a variety of workmen, planed, oiled and tested the apparatus. Every time it worked perfectly.
Lee was brought back again. Rev John Pitkin, the chaplain, intoned the prayers and Berry pulled the lever again. And again, and again. Still the trap refused to open. Lee was removed back to his cell and was reprieved within hours. The failure of the trapdoors had more to do with bad carpentry than devine intervention. It is believed that although the doors were tested with weights and worked these weights were not the same as that of Lee himself. When he was standing on the trapdoors his weight pushing down on the bolts actually prevented them from sliding. He spent twenty-two years in prison before being released in December 1907. He married and emigrated to America. He died there in 1933, aged sixty-eight.
The police searched the area near the track and the body of Isaac Frederick Gold, 64-years-old and a retired coin dealer, was found near the entrance to Balcolme Tunnel, he had been stabbed and shot. Frederick Gold had got on the train at London Bridge Station to return to his home in Brighton.
Percy Lefroy was searched and some German coins were found in his pocket that were of the same type that Gold traded in. Lefroy, whose real name was Percy Mapleton, was arrested. He was taken back to his lodgings in Croydon, accompanied by a policeman. He was allowed to enter the house on his own while the officer waited outside. Seeing his chance to escape he promptly vanished out of the back of the house. Not a very bright person Lefroy sent a telegram to his employer requesting his wages. His employer notified the police who were able to trace him from the telegram. They arrested him and he appeared at Maidstone Assizes in November 1881 where he was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was hanged on 29th November 1881 by William Marwood after confessing to the crime.
Michaelson was rushed to hospital in Paddington where it was found that, as well as a fractured skull, he also had broken ribs. Although the hospital staff did what they could his condition deteriorated and it was necessary to operate. He died without regaining consciousness on the 27th December.
Police investigating the crime found fingerprints in Michaelsons blood on a tubular steel chair that had been used to assault Mr Michaelson. When the police ran a check at Scotland Yard they were found to match 21-year-old Harry Lewis, a known thief. He was arrested on 18th January 1949.
When questioned Lewis freely admitted entering Michaelson's flat through an open window and said that he had been disturbed when Michaelson had woken up. He also admitted picking up the chair and hitting the man twice but denied murder. At his trial at the Old Bailey that opened on 7th July 1949, his defence put forward the theory was that it was the hospital operation that had killed the man, not the assault. The jury were not impressed by this and promptly found Lewis guilty, though they did add a recommendation for mercy. The judge obviously did not feel the same compassion and he sentenced him to death. Harry Lewis was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 21st April 1949.
After this incident his behaviour became increasingly erratic. He started drinking heavily and, in 1924, was declared bankrupt. On 1 December 1925 the family held a party to celebrate his son's twenty-first birthday. After the guests had left Lock shot his wife and two daughters. He telephoned the police and told them what he had done.
His defence, led by Sir Edward Marshall Hall, was one of insanity and suggested that the man was in a state of automatism at the time of the killing, induced by an epileptic fit caused by the head injury. This did not impress the jury and they only took twelve minutes to find him guilty and he was duly hanged at Walton gaol on 23 March 1926.
A distant cousin of Henry Lee Lucas, Bobby suffered from a hereditary
disorder in which he had an extra "X" chromosome
which made his glands produce abnormal amounts of estrogen. In other
words, Bobby had breasts. To add to his confusion his mother slept with
him until he was thirteen. After suffering from brain damage in a motorcycle
accident, Bobby Joe turned into a lust machine. He masturbated five times
a day in addition to the two daily sessions he enjoyed with his wife. Not
satisfied he
began stalking for new mates. From 1980 to 1983 Bobby was busy raping
fifty women in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area. In
1984 he graduated to murdering prostitutes who he considered scum.
He also kept a detailed file with all the clippings of his
crime spree. In November 17, 1984, he was arrested and in early 1985
he received the death penalty. During this killing spree it is feared he
killed at least ten women.
Pedro Lopez was born in 1949 to a prostitute. He was one of 13 children.
At the age of eight, he sexually molested one of his
sisters, and as a punishment for this his mother kicked him into the
streets. He was molested at that age by another man in a
neighboring town. He was assaulted again when he was eighteen while
in prison for car theft. He was gang raped by four older
convicts, and this led to his first murder conviction when he killed
three of the four attackers. He recieved a two year sentence
for that. His term only made him want to kill more. Usually, he'd wander
through the market till he found a girl that he could
take to a isolated spot. First he would rape, then secondly he would
strangle the girl. In 1978 he is said to have killed a hundred girls from
Peru.
In a Indian village he was caught trying to take a nine-year-old girl.
The Ayachucos' Indians that caught him considered justice to be a beating
then torturing, then burying him alive. But before they could do this an
American missionary talked them into letting her take him to the authorities.
The authorities took Lopez to Ecuador instead of punishing him for the
crime. He killed and raped possibly 110 Ecuador girls. In 1980, he was
caught leading away a twelve-year-old girl. This came after the unearthing
of fifty-three victims. He took them to many other burial sites, but no
other bodies were found. They think
that Lopez led them on a wild goose chase on the other searches. Lopez
is still in prison in Ecuador, and may get a chance for
parole. However, if released he still has trials and prison time coming
to him in Colombia and Peru.
A month later in Waterloo Road, London, two policemen apprehended a poorly dressed man trying to sell a new pair of shoes in a cafe. When asked the man said his name was Harold Loughans. He confessed to several burglaries but then surprised the officers by confessing to a murder. He was taken to the police station where he made a statement admitting the murder of Mrs Robinson. When the police looked at his coat which he said he had been wearing on the night of the murder they found all the buttons were missing. He said that he had pulled all the buttons off after finding that one was missing after the murder. Fibres found on the coat confirmed Loughans' presence at the scene of the murder.
By the time the case came to trial Loughans had changed his tune and was now claiming that he was innocent and that the police had put words into his mouth. At his trial at Winchester in March 1944 the defence produced three witnesses that swore they had seen Loughans in London on the night of the murder. The jury failed to agree a verdict. A fortnight later his retrial took place at the Old Bailey. Making a rare appearance for the defence was Sir Bernard Spilsbury. Loughans had a deformed right hand, with the ends of the fingers missing. Spilsbury, who was regarded at this time by juries as a minor god, gave his opinion that Loughans could not possibly have enough power and reach in his deformed hand to strangle the woman. This was enough for the jury and he was found not guilty. It did not keep him out of prison though. He was rearrested on a charge of attempted murder, for a different incident, and sent to prison.
In 1963 he was freed from prison and brought a libel action against The People newspaper. In 1960 it had published the memoirs of J.D. Casswell, the prosecuting counsel at his murder trials. It was virtually a replay of the two murder trials of almost twenty years before. This time the jury were not so easily convinced and found for the newspaper.
Three months later Loughans walked into the offices of The People and
confessed to the killing. He knew that he could not be tried again for
the crime and he had found out that he was dying of cancer. He died, aged
69, in 1965.