Cases include many seemingly random attacks, usually on women, carried out by strangers with no apparent motive
A predator with a high forehead who may have been the “ Ruislip Strangler” is among more than 50 London cold cases that have been highlighted by a new crime map revealing 1,000 unsolved murders. Every case has been the subject of a major police investigation, with some dating back to the pre-war era and others occurring in the last decade.
This exclusive list was compiled from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every police force in the country, supported by research through a wide variety of local newspaper archives.
Cases include many seemingly random attacks, usually on women, carried out by strangers with no apparent motive. They include the horrific murder of 21-year-old Jean Townsend in 1954.
She was intercepted by her murderer as she walked home along Victoria Road in Ruislip after a night out in London’s West End. Her body was found on a patch of wasteland the next morning. She had been strangled to death with her own scarf, which was found wrapped tightly around her neck.
After the murder, several women came forward to report being attacked or followed, describing a man with a “high forehead”. With fears of a Ruislip Strangler growing, a vigilante group was formed among the fathers of teenage girls to patrol the streets near South Ruislip underground station. But neither the killer nor the attacker with the high forehead has ever been identified.
But the oldest London cold case included in the files is the brutal murder of Aurelie Maria Yankovic in 1940. Her body was found in the River Thames just off Albert Wharf at Hammersmith. She had been strangled. The case was chillingly similar to the Hammersmith Nude Murders of the 1960s, when a serial killer known as “Jack the Stripper” murdered at least six women, often dumping their bodies in the Thames.
Aurelie had told friends that she “knew a man who wanted her to love him, but she could not return his affections”. She said he “hypnotised her so much” that she was forced to make repeated journeys to London.
Other London cases highlighted in the map include the shocking murder of Polish aristocrat and resistance hero, Countess Teresa Lubienska, who was stabbed on a platform at Gloucester Road Underground Station in 1957, and Kelso Cochrane, an Antiguian national who was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack by a gang of white youths in 1959.
You can search our interactive map to find out if there are any unsolved murders near you.
The online map has been produced to support the special publication Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders Vol II: Midnight Stalkers. It seeks to reexamine cold cases that have been held in the files of police forces nationwide, in some cases for decades. The publication includes a full timeline of 1,000 unsolved murders, dating from the pre-war period to the last decade, alongside more than 20 in-depth features.
Many of the cases are so famous that they remain locked in the national psyche, such as the Bible John murders that terrified Scotland during the 1960s.
Other mysteries – however shocking at the time – have been consigned to history, such as the Cardiff murders of Mabel Harper and Alice Pittman, who were both strangled during the wartime blackout.
Each remains an enigma, with families still seeking justice and answers – and in many cases, the murderer may still walk the streets. You can purchase a copy of Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders Vol II: Midnight Stalkers in newsagents or by following the link to our online shop.
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