Brian Donald Hume He was charged with murder and was tried in January
1950. The jury failed to reach a verdict. At his second trial the judge
instructed the jury to find Hume not guilty. He pleaded guilty to the charge
of being an accessory after the fact and received 12 years' imprisonment.
He was released in 1958 and, knowing that he couldn't be charged with the
same crime twice, promptly sold his story to the Sunday Pictorial in which
he confessed to killing Setty.
This case was a triumph for forensic science and Professor Keith
Simpson in particular. In July 1942 workmen were clearing a South Lambeth
chapel that had been bombed in an air-raid. As they lifted
aside a slab they came across the mummified, dismembered body of a woman.
Although the chapel had been bombed, police were suspicious about the corpse
from the start, if for no other reason the body had been buried in lime.
Keith Simpson's examination of the corpse discovered that head and
limbs had been hacked from the torso and there was bruising to the throat.
Identification was the problem. Photo-superimposition techniques and dental
records identified the woman as Mrs Rachel Dobkin, the estranged wife of
Harry Dobkin. It was discovered that Dobkin had been an air-raid
warden at the chapel at the beginning of the war. It was also found
that his wife had obtained a maintenance order against
him, which he didn't comply with, and she had been pressing him for
payment.
Harry Dobkin killed his wife out of desperation more than anything
else. Having been seperated from her for several years he
found he was unable to keep up with the maintenance payments so sought
the easy way out by killing her
At the Coroner's Court he behaved with complete arrogance until the
forensic evidence was produced. He was tried at the Old Bailey in November
1942 and found guilty. He was executed at Wandsworth Prison on 27th January
1943.
Henry Wainwright
Henry Wainwright Henry was charged with the murder of 20-year-old Harriet
Louisa Lane. Wainwright had killed Harriet at his shop and buried her under
the floor. Then, a year later and aided by his brother, Thomas alias Frieake,
they had disinterred the body and cut it into manageable pieces. The pair
were tried at the Old Bailey in November 1875. Thomas Wainwright was sentenced
to seven years imprisonment and Henry was sentenced to death. He was hanged
outside Newgate on 21st December 1875.
Patrick Herbert Mahon
Patrick Herbert Mahon Mahon was charged with the murder of Emily Beilby Kaye and his trial began on Tuesday 15 July 1924 at Sussex Assizes, Lewes. Spilsbury testified that Emily could not have received the fatal injuries from falling onto the coal-scuttle. It was a cheap, very flimsy, object and it was completely undamaged. This, coupled with evidence that Mahon had bought the knife and saw before the woman's death, sealed his fate. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 9 September 1924.
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Gregg Manning