Dr Crippen and the Hilldrop Crescent Murder revisits one of Britain’s most infamous true crime cases of 1910. When Cora Crippen, better known on the music-hall stage as Belle Elmorem vanished, her husband Hawley Harvey Crippen offered shifting explanations that soon aroused suspicion. A police search of their Hilldrop Crescent home uncovered human remains, pointing to a shocking murder. Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve attempted to flee Britain, but a transatlantic chase brought them into custody. The case became a sensation, cementing Dr Crippen as one of the most notorious figures in British criminal history.

Who Killed Kent Reeks?
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📘 Learn more about my upcoming book
Wartime London’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’: The Crime Spree of Betty Jones and Karl Hulten
https://prashganendran.com/the-cleft-chin-murder/

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🎧 Listen to my other podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

 🙏 Thank You!

Sources:
Coniam, Matthew. Mr Crippen, Cora and the Body in the Basement.Pen & Sword True Crime. Rubenhold, Hallie. Story of a Murder. Transworld. Kindle Edition.
British Newspaper Archive
Ancestry.co.uk

In February 1920, 15-year-old Kathleen Mary Drury left her home in Waterloo, Liverpool, and never returned. The following morning, her body was found near the Brooke Road allotments, her throat cut and no sign of the killer. Days later, the mutilated body of a railway signalman was discovered on the tracks at Sandhills Station but what linked the two deaths? This episode revisits an obscure and long-forgotten case from post-war Liverpool.

🔗 Prefer to read the case?
https://prashganendran.com/the-murder-of-mary-drury/

📘 Learn more about my upcoming book
Wartime London’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’: The Crime Spree of Betty Jones and Karl Hulten
https://prashganendran.com/the-cleft-chin-murder/

📺 Subscribe for video versions
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support my work
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Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/prashsmurdermap
PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my other podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Daily Mirror - Thursday 05 February 1920
Liverpool Daily Post - Friday 06 February 1920
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 05 February 1920
Liverpool Evening Express - Wednesday 04 February 1920
Nottingham Journal - Thursday 05 February 1920, Saturday 21 February 1920
Portsmouth Evening News - Tuesday 10 February 1920

Music:
Eternal Moment Even If I Go "Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License "Long Note Two" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

In November 1925, police constable Herbert Burrows was found guilty of murdering publican Ernest Laight, his wife Doris, and their young son Robert at the Garibaldi Inn in Worcester. The discovery was made by the family’s charwoman, who raised the alarm after finding the doors unlocked and the till emptied. The case exposed the calculated betrayal of trust within a small community and led to Burrows becoming the last person from Worcester to be executed by hanging.

👉 For further information about my upcoming book, Wartime London’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’: The Crime Spree of Betty Jones and Karl Hulten https://prashganendran.com/the-cleft-chin-murder/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:
📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

 💰 One-off contributions
☕ Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/prashsmurdermap
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🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain

Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DaHZikOhsXP13vl36Oyqu

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Ancestry.co.uk
Birmingham Daily Gazette - Wednesday 03 February 1926
Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 20 February 1926
Evening News 21 January 1987
Evening News (London) - Tuesday 26 June 1917
Evesham Standard & West Midland Observer - Saturday 05 December 1925
Hendon & Finchley Times - Friday 29 June 1917
Illustrated Police News - Thursday 25 February 1926
Dundee Courier - Friday 18 December 1925
Kingston Times - Saturday 30 January 1926
Reynolds's Newspaper - Sunday 06 December 1925, Sunday 21 February 1926
Sunday Express - Sunday 29 November1925
Daily News (London) - Monday 30 November 1925
Thomson's Weekly News - Saturday 05 December 1925
Westminster Gazette - Thursday 18 February 1926 

Music:
"Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
"Long Note Two" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Even if I go
"Ominous" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

When career criminal Henry Thomas Gaskin returned from serving with the Royal Engineers, tunnelling under the trenches of the Western Front during WWI, he was furious to discover his wife’s infidelity. He lured her to a meeting place under the pretence of discussing their marriage, and Lizzie Gaskin was never seen alive again. This true crime case remains one of the West Midlands’ most brutal, yet often forgotten, murders.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:

📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

Website: https://prashganendran.com

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 One-off contributions
☕ Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/prashsmurdermap
💵 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my other podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

 🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Walsall Observer - Saturday 02 June 1906
Lichfield Mercury - Friday 27 July 1906
Oxford Journal - Wednesday 13 March 1912
Lichfield Mercury - Friday 15 March 1912
Loftus Advertiser - Friday 12 April 1912

In Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, a young Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princip fired a shot which would become the deadliest in history. With the help of co-conspirators from underground nationalist group Young Bosnia, he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie during their imperial visit to the capital. Their deaths set off a domino effect of ultimatums, alliances, and mobilisations across Europe, and within weeks, the continent was engulfed in World War I (The Great War), a conflict that ultimately claimed millions of lives. Was Princip a terrorist, a freedom fighter, or simply a desperate youth caught in history’s tide? This episode explores the life, motives, and legacy of the 19-year-old whose pistol transformed Bosnia’s struggle into a global war. Few individuals have altered the course of history so suddenly, or so tragically.

 Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:
📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 One-off contributions
☕ Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/prashsmurdermap
💵 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1966.

Butcher, Tim. The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War. London: Chatto & Windus, 2014.

Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. The Desperate Act: The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. London: McGraw-Hill, 1968.

Additional references:
Aichelburg, Wladimir. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und Artstetten. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1986.

Woolf, Alex. Assassination in Sarajevo. Oxford: Heinemann, 2002.

Ullman, Harlan. A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace. New York: Potomac Books, 2014.

Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel. World War I: The “Great War”

Culpin, Christopher. Making History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996

In 2025, two pocket watches were sold at an auction, prompting renewed interest in a 170 year old East Anglia murder case. They were made by skilled German craftsman Lorenz Beha, who came to England to set up his watchmaking business in Norfolk. On a cold November day in 1853, Beha was found murdered on a quiet country road by a local labourer who happened to be one of his customers. The timepieces are not the only reminders of this forgotten piece of history, as the killer’s death mask survives as a gruesome relic of this tragic case.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:
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💰 One-off contributions
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🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!


Music:
"Long Note Two" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License "Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - ending Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
"Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License


Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gmr362p53o
A Brief History of Tittleshall People Compiled by Robert Box
Morning Advertiser - Friday 25 November 1853
Norfolk News - Saturday 26 November 1853
Norfolk Chronicle - Saturday 26 November 1853
Worcester Journal - Saturday 26 November 1853
Norwich Mercury - Saturday 25 March 1854
Evening Mail - Monday 27 March 1854
London Evening Standard - Monday 10 April 1854
Lynn Museum, https://www.lynnmuseum.norfolk.gov.uk
Norwich Castle Museum, https://www.norwichcastle.norfolk.gov.uk

Just days before Christmas 1959, the Edencroft Hostel in Birmingham became the scene of a shocking murder. Stephanie Baird, 29, was brutally killed by 27-year-old Patrick Byrne, a man hiding a history of stalking and violent sexual fantasies. The case revealed the terrifying progression from secret obsession to murder, leaving investigators to confront one of Britain’s most disturbing true crimes.

👉 For further information about my upcoming book, Wartime London’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’: The Crime Spree of Betty Jones and Karl Hulten https://prashganendran.com/the-cleft-chin-murder/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:
📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap


💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 Make a one-off contribution
Every little bit helps! If you'd like to make a one-time donation, you can do so via PayPal here: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!



Sources:

Ancestry
Belfast News-Letter - Thursday 25 February 1960
Birmingham Daily Post - Thursday 11 February 1960
Birmingham Evening Mail Wed, 23 Mar 1960
Birmingham Daily Post - Thursday 24 March 1960
Daily Mirror - Thursday 24 March 1960
Daily News (London) - Friday 25 March 1960
Newcastle Journal - Friday 25 March 1960
Sunday Express - Sunday 27 December 1959
Birmingham Weekly Mercury - Sunday 05 December 1999
Birmingham Murder Hunt, British Pathe

In January 1914, the industrial town of Wolverhampton became the backdrop to a baffling mystery when 24-year-old ship’s engineer Kent Reeks was found shot dead near a disused mine shaft — 90 miles from the Liverpool hotel where he had been staying. Just days earlier, he had arrived from Canada, carrying a large sum of money and travelling in the company of a mysterious man. This little-known true crime case follows Kent’s journey from Australia to England, the cryptic clues left in his wake, and the strange trail of money, ammunition, and unanswered questions that still surround his death.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:
📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 Make a one-off contribution
Every little bit helps! If you'd like to make a one-time donation, you can do so via PayPal here: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Ancestry
UK and Ireland Incoming Passenger Lists 1914
The Birmingham Post Mon, 26 Jan 1914
Dundee Evening Telegraph - Monday 26 January 1914
Western Daily Press - Monday 02 February 1914
Evening Sentinel Tue, 10 Feb 1914
Lancashire Evening Post - Tuesday 10 February 1914
The Birmingham Post Wed, 11 Feb 1914
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 21 March 1914
Westerham Herald Sat, 28 Mar 1914
Manchester Courier - Wednesday 28 January 1914
Evening News (London) - Monday 16 February 1914
Detroit Free Press, 5 December 1916
Walter Reeks – Naval Architect, Yachtsman and Entrepreneur by Nicole Mays & David Payne

In 1913, the little known hamlet of Gussage St. Michael in Dorset, southwest England, became the scene of a shocking discovery when a young woman’s body was found buried in woodland. This obscure true crime case explores the lives of killer William Burton and his victim, Winifred Mitchell, and how she came to be buried in a shallow grave in one of England’s most rural counties. 

📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 Make a one-off contribution
Every little bit helps! If you'd like to make a one-time donation, you can do so via PayPal here: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast

🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Ancestry
National Archives HO 144/1272/23900
Daily Mirror - Monday 05 May 1913
Daily News (London) - Wednesday 07 May 1913
London Evening Standard - Thursday 08 May 1913
Illustrated Police News - Thursday 15 May 1913
Daily Mirror - Friday 16 May 1913
Southern Times and Dorset County Herald - Saturday 21 June 1913
Daily Mirror - Tuesday 27 May 1913
Larne Times - Saturday 31 May 1913
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Wednesday 04 June 1913
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser - Wednesday 11 June 1913
Reynolds's Newspaper - Sunday 22 June 1913
Shields Daily News - Wednesday 25 June 1913
Grantham Journal - Saturday 28 June 1913

In the summer of 1920, Irene Munro chose a solo holiday in Eastbourne, on the south-east coast of England, over joining her mother in Edinburgh. Days later, her body was found buried on the remote Crumbles beach by a family on holiday. She had been violently murdered. As police investigated, newspapers suggested she had led a double life. With the help of witnesses, detectives began to piece together what happened and who was responsible.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:

📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap

💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodes
https://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap

💰 Make a one-off contribution
Every little bit helps! If you'd like to make a one-time donation, you can do so via PayPal here: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap

🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious Britain
Explore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast
 
🙏 Thank You!
Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!

Sources:
Ancestry
British Newspaper Archive
National Archives
Newspapers.com
Oates, Jonathan. Irene Munro and the Beach Murder of 1920 
Seaside Murders by Jonathan Goodman

Music:
ES_Theme Of Uncertainty
Long Note Three Long Note Two Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
ES_Maximum state by Ethan Sloan