
Show Notes
It's World War 2 and London is still reeling from the Blitz. Although the blackout gives some protection from German bombers, it also provides the perfect hunting ground for criminals. When a woman is found strangled in an air raid shelter, and soon after another woman is brutally butchered, police suspect a serial killer is at work. The press dub him the Blackout Ripper.
Chief Superintendent Fred Cherrill, head of Scotland Yard's fingerprint department and a pioneer in this area of forensics, joins the case. Armed with his magnifying glass, Cherrill discovers marks left behind on makeshift weapons that show the murderer is left-handed. But with little else to go on, and another woman's body discovered, police are struggling to crack the case. However, as the sadistic killer becomes more frenzied, he begins to make mistakes and leaves behind two crucial clues to his identity. When the police finally trace him, he does not fit the usual profile of a killer. In the face of lies and cover-ups, Superintendent Cherrill must use his skills to build a case that will see the Blackout Ripper convicted and stopped, once and for all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from Scotland Yard Confidential
Real Survival Stories is the brand-new show from Noiser hosted by John Hopkins. Hear true stories of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary survival situations. Stranded in the desert. Lost in the jungle. Marooned in the mountains. Shipwrecked on the high seas. You'll hear from individuals who had everything against them. But even then, they refused to give in… New episodes Thursdays. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts or at noiser.com Podfollow: https://podfollow.com/real-survival-stories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
From Noiser, Detectives Don’t Sleep is the new podcast that takes you beyond the police tape to shadow the real detectives who worked history’s most intriguing cases. In this taster episode, we’re in the Bahamas in 1943. One of the wealthiest men in the islands, Sir Harry Oakes, has been murdered - bludgeoned and burned in his mansion. The prime suspect is Oakes’s son-in-law, Count Alfred de Marigny. But Oakes’s daughter Nancy refuses to believe in her husband’s guilt and hires New York-based PI Ray Schindler to clear de Marigny’s name. Ray flies to the paradise island of New Providence and gets straight down to work, interviewing witnesses, following up clues, and piecing together the circumstances of Oakes’s death. Before long, he finds himself drawn into a complex mystery straight from the pages of a classic whodunnit. Part Two of Murder in Paradise is live now on the Detectives Don’t Sleep podcast.
On Thursday, April 24th, 1975, a group of six well-dressed men let themselves into the Bank of America in London's Mayfair. They had one intention: to break into the vault and make off with over 8 million pounds worth of gold, valuables and cash. Little did they know that the inside man who'd helped them set up the job would also be a part of their downfall. Scotland Yard's Intelligence Division, and the detectives from the Flying Squad were about to make history, turning the criminals against each other as they chased each one of them down and tried to recover the record-breaking haul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On November 7th, 2000, a professional gang of thieves attempted an audacious robbery in London. Their target: the largest flawless diamond collection in the world. Its location: the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. It's an outrageous plan, but can these crooks really steal such a prize, in broad daylight, from such a public place, and make their escape? Not if Scotland Yard has anything to do with it. The plot reads like something from a Bond film — speedboats, firearms, ram raids, and elaborate undercover surveillance. With limited information to go on, it's a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, or rather cops and robbers. In the end, timing will be everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On October 17th, 1898, a most daring theft took place on a train at Paris’s Gare du Nord station. In the blink of an eye, and in broad daylight, a priceless collection of jewels was taken from under the nose of their owner — the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland. The culprit was one of the most cunning, lightest-fingered crooks in Europe. The original gentleman thief. Unparallelled in his abilities, he was a man known to both the law, and the underworld world only by his alias — Harry 'the Valet'. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices