Florence Mabel Oliver Gooding was born in 1883 in Hastings, East Sussex, a coastal town known for its Regency elegance and pebbled beaches. By the mid-twentieth century, she had settled into a modest, independent life as a widow in Oxted, a picturesque commuter village nestled in the Tandridge district. Her home, Oast Hatch on Oast … More Florence Gooding

Six-year-old Carol Ann Stephens was a bright, rosy-cheeked girl with brown hair and steel-rimmed glasses, described by those who knew her as confident, chatty, and endlessly curious. Born into a hardworking family, she lived with her mother Mavis, stepfather Ken, and siblings in a modest home on Malefant Street in Cathays, a working-class enclave in … More Carol Ann Stephens

Susan Southgate was born in the very house where she would meet her end: The Mill House on Writtle Road just a stone’s throw from the bustling city of Chelmsford in Essex, England. She was the last of a long line of millers who had tended the grinding wheels of the River Wid since the … More Susan Southgate

Born Teresa Skarżyńska on April 18th, 1884, in the Podole region of what was then Russian Poland (now Ukraine), Teresa hailed from one of the country’s storied aristocratic families. The daughter of aviator and nobleman Władysław Skarżyński and Dorota Gołębiowska, she received an elite education at Jazłowiec College, a prestigious Catholic boarding school run by … More Countess Teresa Łubieńska

Born in 1919 in Stirlingshire, Scotland, Frederick Walter Jeffs moved to Birmingham, England as a child. He trained as an electrician at the Austin Longbridge car factory, a hub of wartime production, before enlisting in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II. Captured as a prisoner of war, Jeffs endured the hardships of … More Fred Jeffs

In the quiet coastal village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales—a place immortalized by poet Dylan Thomas for its serene estuary views and timeless charm—a single scream shattered the winter twilight on January 10th, 1953. Seventy-eight-year-old Elizabeth Thomas, a beloved local figure known for her cheerful demeanor and tireless work as a church cleaner, was brutally attacked … More Elizabeth Thomas

Twenty-eight-year-old Andrew Paterson Drury lived at 21a Carnegie Street in Dundee, Scotland, and worked as a machinist. Dundee, with its jute mills and bustling docks, was a hub for seafarers from across the Commonwealth, and on Saturday, November 25th, 1950, Andrew found himself in the heart of this transient world. According to trial testimonies, he … More Andrew Paterson Drury

Eighty-year-old Emily Pye owned a grocery store on Gibbet Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, and she’d been running it for thirty years. She was a long-established fixture in the community and well-loved by the locals. Saturday, June 8th, 1957 was a public holiday, and the store had been open as normal. Emily had plans later … More Emily Pye

Over the course of one year in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a terrifying killer roamed the streets of Los Angeles, California, targeting older women in a series of brutal, sexually motivated crimes. His identity remains a mystery to this day, and though he goes by many names, his most common appellation is the … More The Bouncing Ball Killer

Forty-one-year-old Lily Volpert owned a clothing store on Bute Street in the docklands area of Cardiff, Wales. According to the media, she was also an “unofficial moneylender.” On the evening of March 6th, 1952, Lily had just closed the shop and was preparing to have dinner in the back of the store with her mother … More Lily Volpert