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Emile Cilliers made global headlines in 2018 when he was convicted of the attempted murder of his wife Victoria.

He was an upstanding army sergeant, a family man, who led a debaucherous double life of sex clubs, girlfriends and payday loans.

He tried to murder Victoria by tampering with the gas meter in their home. When this failed, he sabotaged her parachute - both her main and reserve canopies.

Somehow, Victoria survived the 4,000-foot drop.

There was little direct evidence: no DNA, no CCTV. No clue that Emile was responsible.

But after taking a spine-tingling call and arresting Cilliers, detective Maddy Hennah became convinced he was the perpetrator.

What followed was a long, arduous inquiry leading to a sensational pair of trials.

It has been the subject of my own eight-part podcast series:

And it is now the subject of a brilliant three-part docudrama, made by Story Films for Channel4 in the UK:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-fall-skydive-murder-plot/on-demand/75275-002

Victoria has written her own account too.

If you are impacted by issues raised in this interview, please read more here: https://refuge.org.uk/i-need-help-now/coercive-control/

https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/coercive-control/

https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/i-need-help/

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Laura Lippman spent more than 20 years as a journalist working in Texas and Baltimore.

She has won Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Barry, Nero and Shamus awards (among many others) for her 25 novels - which include 12 featuring the private investigator Tess Monaghan

Her latest, Prom Mom, has a loose inspiration by the 1997 case of Melissa Drexler a New Jersey teenager who gave birth during her prom, but then something truly awful happened…

Laura discusses the ethics of True Crime - including the aftermath of Baby Reindeer, how being a journalist helped her ‘research to task’ and why Nick Hornby likened Laura to ‘a big American cheeseburger’ (Patricia Highsmith was a steak!)

There’s more about Laura here: https://lauralippman.com/

And subscribe for extras: robertmurphy.substack.com

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This was Penelope Jackson’s final chance. The evidence against her seemed overwhelming: the glib 999 call admitting the killing of her husband, her further confessions on police body worn footage.

In court, even her friends had described her as overbearing and domineering.

Now it was her turn to take to the witness stand to give her version of events.

In the words of her lawyer: ‘She could see no way out, She replaced invisible handcuffs for real ones but at least then she knew where she would be.’

But would the jury believe Penelope?

If you’ve been affected by issues in this episode, please follow these links:

https://www.nelsontrust.com/

https://refuge.org.uk/

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To friends, David and Penelope Jackson were like most other retired couples living in the West Country.

They had a good life: a nice home, an active social life and a penchant for foreign cruises.

But in February 2021, Penelope killed her husband after a birthday celebration.

She then called 999 saying ‘I stabbed him once, then he said I wouldn’t do it again so I did it twice more.’

Had she been suffering in silence for years at the hands of a silent abuser?

Or was she fabricating a life of coercive control to wriggle away from a murder charge?

If you’ve been affected by issues in this episode, please look at these links:

https://www.nelsontrust.com/

https://refuge.org.uk/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

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Award-winning crime novelist Denise Mina has written the latest Philip Marlowe book: The Second Murderer. To research the book, she spent months studying Los Angeles in 1940, deconstructing Raymond Chandler’s distinct sentence structure and recreating his unique humour.

Denise’s career straddles both crime fiction and true crime. She has won many awards - including the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year two years running and has been inducted into the CWA Hall of Fame.

This podcast was recorded at CrimeFest, May 2024.

The Second Murderer is available here.

Denise’s true crime book about Peter Manuel ,The Long Drop, is available here.

Raymond Chandler’s books are available here.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is available here.

My own true crime books Decoy and the award-winning To Hunt A Killer are available here.

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To coincide with the launch of my true crime book ‘Decoy’ I’ve updated and reissued this podcast featuring a rare and exclusive interview with Chris Gould.

In the 1970s, the city of Bristol was terrorised by a man nicknamed ‘The Clifton Rapist.’ The stranger-attacker assaulted seven women over a two-year period.

PC Chris Gould suggested a daring honeytrap: Avon and Somerset Police should set up an innovative undercover sting, using young rookie police officers as decoys to catch him.

This was a monumental gamble, putting the lives of their youngest, least-experienced female officers on the line.

But 12 women volunteered.

As the weeks passed, with no further attacks, commanders made an even more innovative move. And Chris’s career was never the same again.

How was the predator caught and justice achieved? Chris has never spoken in this detail before.

+++ Grab your copy of Decoy here in the UK: https://tinyurl.com/fd759pmh +++

+++ Or here in the USA: https://tinyurl.com/yethzdum +++

Haven’t subscribed yet? Just hit: robertmurphy.substack.com

NB: This is a reissue of a podcast episode first released in November 2023

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Nearly 20 years had passed and forensic scientist Dr Colin Dark received a call asking if he’d like to take on the case of Hilda Murrell.

What clues had been left at the scene? How could they be analysed using modern techniques? And what truths would emerge about the theories surrounding her murder?

This is a short p…

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On March 21st 1984, Hilda Murrell disappeared. It would take police three days to find her - yet her body was in the obvious place.

She had been murdered.

But by whom?

Now the conspiracy theories started: Did the British government want Hilda dead because of her awkward questions about a new nuclear power station? Was she killed because of her links with naval intelligence?

And was the phone line disconnection in her home the work of a bungling amateur or a professional hitman?

This is a free episode and the first part of a two-part mini series. Episode two is for paid subscribers.

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Screenwriter George Kay (Hijack, Lupin, The Long Shadow, Criminal UK) was talking with his mother about a potential project: would he be interested in writing a script about the Lord Lucan mystery?

Then, she dropped the bombshell: he had a personal link with the other Lucan nanny Christabel Boyce.

George wanted to speak with Christabel - she would be a primary source and knew the main characters from ‘74.

This was impossible, his mother said. Christabel had herself been murdered by her husband ten years later.

In this conversation, George and Behind the Crimes host Rob Murphy discuss how a private diary found by police investigating Cristabel’s murder in 1985 shed new light on Sandra’s killing.

And the parallels between the Lucan marriage and the Boyce’s are chilling.

Parts 1 and 2 of this trilogy are available, you may want to listen to these first.

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In her book ‘A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan’ writer Laura Thompson suggests six possible scenarios of what happened on the night of November 7th 1974.

Was Lady Lucan the target? Did Lord Lucan carry out the killing himself or - as with the rest of his life - did he get help?

And speaking of help, did his rich, powerful gambling friends at the Clermont Club aid his disappearance? Or were they - like he - a target of 1970s society?

You can get a copy of Laura’s incredible book here.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe