Behind the Crimes with Robert Murphy

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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.

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Within a few moments on the night of November 7th 1974, Lord Lucan killed his children’s nanny, tried to murder his wife - and then disappeared.

But that attack had been brewing for months, years even. And still - half a century on - people argue about what really happened.

Was his estranged wife really the target?

Was it Lucan in the cellar with the lead piping? Or a hitman? Had he somehow bungled an attempt to kill his wife?

And what about his rich, powerful gambling friends? Did they help his escape?

To research her book ‘A Different Class of Murder: The story of Lord Lucan’ award-winning author Laura Thompson spoke with people who knew the couple and investigated Sandra’s death.

In this interview, she argues that when you strip away the myths, the facts look different to the familiar story.

You can grab a copy of Laura’s book here: https://amzn.to/48UEXpb

Part 2 will be next week.

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Margaret Backhouse survived - it was a miracle. The car bomb seemed amateur but it was effective.

Why would anyone want to target an elegant farmer’s wife in a quiet, safe English village?

Detectives then heard about a hate campaign against her husband Graham. Dark notices left on the farm forewarning murd…

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In June 1984, 17-year-old Melanie Road was murdered as she walked home from a nightclub in the beautiful city of Bath, England.

The investigation became Britain’s biggest manhunt, yet despite 96 arrests, her killer was never found.

Twenty five years later, Det Sgt Julie Mackay joined Avon & Somerset Police’s cold case unit.

‘I always knew I would find Melanie’s killer,’ she says.

It would take seven further years of trying. The investigation saw incredible highs and lows. And as Julie fought for promotion, battled personal crises, she built a deep friendship with Melanie’s inspirational mother, Jean.

The story ends with a courtroom showdown between Jean Road and her daughter’s killer - who Julie brought to justice three decades after the murder.

The story is the subject of the award-winning* book Julie and I have written about the case: To Hunt a Killer.

In this interview, I ask Julie about the investigation, the rollercoaster that is a complex inquiry, her drive to find Melanie’s killer and her adoration for Jean Road.

You can get copies in the USA here or in the UK here.

* Julie and I were winners of the True Crime Awards’ ‘Best New Author’ and were shortlisted for a CWA ALCS Gold Dagger award for best book.

This suspect had already escaped from police custody once. Now he was wanted for a triple murder. He was living wild off the land and Britain’s newspapers had joined the police hunt. The suspect was even taunting the inquiry, writing to journalists describing police as ‘boy scouts.’

Then a detective had an ingenious idea to set a trap.

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In October 1998, Jenny King vanished. The 22-year-old had been on a night out at a club near her home in Kingswood near Bristol, in the South West of England.

Police realised the office worker was in a good, stable relationship. She had no enemies. And no-one would want to harm her.

But a friend of Jenny’s came forward. In the hour before Jenny disappeared, she had said something about a ‘psycho ex boyfriend’ being in the nightspot.

Behind the Crimes is a reader-supported publication. To see evidence from the case or watch videos with detectives, please subscribe.

Days later, police made an horrific discovery. But at this deposition site they found a set of keys.

Who was this ‘psycho ex boyfriend' and whose door would the keys unlock?

Eugène-François Vidocq was the real-life Paris detective who inspired Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin and Maurice Lablanc’s Lupin stories.

He revolutionised criminology: developing undercover techniques, using science and surveillance to bring Paris’s crimewave under control and setting up a system of card indexes which would be used for well over a century.

The department he created - the Sûreté - was the forerunner of both Scotland Yard and the FBI.

But who was this almost mythical man? And where does the truth stop and the fiction - which he helped create - begin?

James Morton wrote the entertaining ‘The First Detective: The life and revolutionary times of Eugène-François Vidocq.’ (Link to USA site.)

In this episode - a special bonus for paid subscribers - Morton describes how Vidocq moved from being a criminal himself to setting up one of the world’s most influential crime fighting organisations while inspiring history’s most celebrated fictional detectives.