On September 28th, 1939, four-year-old Joyce Cox was walking home from Whitchurch Infants’ School in Coryton, Cardiff, Wales, accompanied by her seven-year-old brother Dennis. The children stopped by their grandmother’s house briefly, then continued on their way. Upon arriving in the alley behind their house, they met their cousin Alan, and the three of them … More Joyce Cox

Vera May Glasspool was a tall, pretty fifteen-year-old who originally lived with her parents and eight siblings in Baybridge, Owslebury, Winchester, England. She worked as a scullery maid at the nearby Longwood House, and stayed there in the servants’ quarters for most of the week, though she was allowed to walk back to visit her … More Vera May Glasspool

On November 12th, 1948, a woman named Irene McNamara left her home in Middlesbrough, England, and went out to her job as a cleaner. She was a widow—her husband had died in 1946—and she worked hard to provide for her three children, which included a twenty-two-month-old toddler named Terence. She left the baby in the … More Terence McNamara

On the morning of December 12th, 1945, a severed arm was found on the shore in Torry, Aberdeen, Scotland. Though the rest of the remains were never found, police were able to identify the arm as belonging to Elizabeth “Betty” Hadden; the seventeen-year-old maid and waitress’s fingerprints were on file from a previous arrest for … More Betty Hadden

Thomas Weldon Atherstone (born Thomas Weldon Anderson) was originally from Liverpool, England, and became a prominent actor in the English music halls around the end of the nineteenth century. He was married to an Irish actress named Monica Kelly for a time, but the pair separated in 1900, after which Thomas took up with another … More Thomas Weldon Atherstone

Ten-year-old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Peers lived with her parents, Elizabeth and William, and her five brothers in Toxteth, Liverpool, England. On October 28th, 1905, Lizzie’s mother asked her to go to a nearby butcher shop to buy pork and potatoes; the shop was only a six-minute walk from the family’s residence. In spite of the proximity, … More Elizabeth Peers and Margaret Kirby

Between four and four-thirty on the sunny afternoon of June 11th, 1906, in Heathfield, Camberley, Surrey, England, a sixty-two-year-old woman named Caroline Hogg was spotted running through the grounds of her large estate, clutching her bleeding throat and screaming, “I’m murdered, I’m murdered!” Upon investigation, it was discovered that both Caroline and her sixty-eight-year-old sister … More Mary Anne Hogg

King David Gray was originally from Virginia but moved to Hollywood, California as a young man to work in the burgeoning movie business in the early years of the 20th century. Starting as a lighting technician, King eventually became a cinematographer; his first credit in that profession was the 1915 film The College Orphan. He … More King D. Gray

It was the cold winter evening of February 7th, 1906 in Brussels, Belgium, and eight-year-old Jeanne Van Calck set out from her grandparents’ house at about six-thirty p.m. to visit her mother, as she did for a few hours every evening. Jeanne had lived with her grandparents for some time, since her father had abandoned … More Jeanne Van Calck

Twenty-seven-year-old Evelyn Foster, a popular fixture in the community and the daughter of a garage owner in Otterburn, Northumberland, England, was a taxi driver by trade, and January 6th, 1931 seemed as though it was going to be just another routine day on the job. But unbeknownst to Evelyn, this day was to be her … More Evelyn Foster