Episode 636: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 2)
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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid. What is up, my guy? I can't stop doing that. If you don't follow the Grinch on TikTok, I don't know what's wrong with you. If TikTok even exists anymore. Oh god, yeah. I don't know where we are in the future, but it might be a future without TikTok. We have to record these in a

in advance if we want time off with our families. We'll never stop making reference to it just because it's become a funny thing now. It has. And I just can't stop singing to you people. It's true. My reign is continuous. Of terror. My reign is...

My reign of, uh, I don't know. I think I was an alto when I sang in chorus. Beats me. Embarrassing fact about me. Anyways. Bye. Well, we're, we're in part two of a pretty, uh,

Pretty gnarly case here, I would say. We sure are. I had potatoes for dinner last night, and you know what we didn't do? Didn't peel them. Didn't peel them. Didn't peel them. They were little baby potatoes. I mean, the skin has a lot of nutrients in them. Many fibers. Yeah, so many. Many. Many. Much fibers. Pretty. Look at us. This one, this case is just, it's bad all the way around. Yeah, it's very, very heartbreaking. And it's just got like...

It's got this vibe to it, I think, with the blackout. Yeah. It just adds this layer of darkness, if you will. Yeah, because you have to remember to, like, keep that in mind. While you're visualizing the time. That that is happening. Yeah. Yeah.

And this guy, Gordon, here is such a fucking asshole. I can't believe his name is fucking Gordo. Yeah. Gordo Cummins. That's his name. And just the fact that he's like in the army. Yeah, he's an Air Force guy. Somebody that you would look to to trust during this time period. Oh, yeah.

He's a real piece of work, I tell you. I'm scared to dive back in. Yeah, it doesn't get better, but then he does get caught. And that's nice. You can hold on to that. Yeah, like I said in the end of part one, I'm really excited for that part. So let's get to it, girl. That's always nice.

So when we left off, we had talked about how there was a couple of, you know, there was a close call with Catherine Mulcahy. There has been a few murders, very gruesome, very awful, very brutal murders.

And as it's happening so fast, like within hours of each other that like discoveries of other murders or assaults are happening as they are examining previous victims. So like things are coming at different times because he's just like every 24 hours or less. Yeah. He's like on a rampage.

And when Dr. Spilsbury, my favorite guy, who also, by the way, is apparently like a very, very well-known forensic pathologist. Like The Times, I think at one point called him like, you know, the real life Sherlock Holmes kind of thing. Oh, no way. Like, yeah, he's been on like huge cases. Like he was in like a...

I'm trying to think of like any infamous case you can think of that time period in London and around there. What's his last name again? Spillsbury. Spillsbury. He was a part of it. He was known to be like very, very involved in the case. Like he was... It affected him like greatly. Like he... These cases would like eat at his soul. He was like a very empathetic person. So like...

He just sounds like a really cool guy and like a very interesting historical figure. Yeah, definitely. I'd like to look further into him, actually. I know. Actually, I just like typed in notorious cases that he was part of. Yeah. The trunk murders. The trunk murders, yep. The Brighton trunk murders, I think it was. Yeah. There's a lot here that I actually think you would be really interested in. Yeah. The brides in Bath particularly speaks to me. Yeah, there's a lot that were very interesting and very horrific. Yeah. Yeah.

But he was doing autopsies while this is all going on. And on the autopsy of Evelyn Oatley, he confirmed, unfortunately, that she was alive when most of those wounds were inflicted. That's awful. She had bled from the wounds, so she was alive when they happened. And as he examined her body, it became even clearer how sadistic this killer was.

There were 12 puncture wounds around and in her genital area. Oh, God. And they seemed to be done and inflicted by a tin can opener. Now, I looked up what a tin can opener looked like in the 1930s because I assumed it was different than what I am thinking of. I meant to ask you yesterday when you were talking about it, like if it was the same deal. Nope, it's not. Google tin can opener 1930s and it will come up.

You'll see what it is. It's basically a tiny... It's a handle with like a little sickle, like a blade that looks like a sickle on the end of it. Like sharp. It's a weapon and it's a dangerous weapon that can be used to stab and not only stab, but it has a curved blade. So it inflicts a lot of damage. And you have to think like, I'm sure it's sharp to a point, but like not really. Like sharp to a point meaning not all the way. So it takes...

force to stab someone with it. A lot of force. Now, on February 12th, which again, I'm going back one day again from where we left off, I would think, but again, you have to like kind of interweave the discoveries and the actual murders. A woman named Mary, sometimes referred to as Greta in sources, Mary Haywood arrived in northwest London to meet a date. But having arrived early, she decided to walk around and look at the shop windows.

She was sitting in a cafe around 8 p.m. when a young airman approached her and said, excuse me, are you waiting for someone? He would explain that she was. She was waiting for someone, but like he was a little late and like whatever. And this guy convinced her to have a drink with him while they waited because he was very handsome. Charming. Very charming.

He quickly tried to get her to come to another pub or restaurant with him. He was like, just come with me for like, we'll be back in time for you to meet your person. And at first she was like, no, no, no. But then she ended up, he pushed harder and she was like, you

You know what? This guy's late. He was handsome. And again, she was able to tell this story later. Okay, that's good. Just know that. She said he was, you know, very handsome. She said he had a seductive quality about his smile. A lot of people talked about his smile and how they said it made it easy for them to understand how he was able to charm women. Disarming. Yeah. What's his last name again? I'm sorry. Cummins. C-U-M-M-I-N-S.

But she said he was also very overconfident. Like he had a very like arrogant way about him. Again, she imagined he had no trouble getting many women to come away with him. That's the thing. Sometimes I think as women we find that attractive at first. Yeah, of course. And then it changes. Yeah. Throughout the course of a relationship sometimes. There is like a...

a certain level of overconfidence that like is appreciated. Yeah. Because I'm not, I'm one to tell everybody you should be like. It's not even overconfidence. It's just confident. Yeah. Just be confident in yourself. Like that's totally fine. Yeah. And she said she wasn't put off by it. Yeah. She was more just like, huh? Like this guy's really like, look at him. Like he's really like shooting a shot. Like he doesn't even care that I'm waiting for a date. He's just like, I can get you to come with me.

But so they made their way to a place called Trocadero. And he started asking her about her life, where she lived. And then he quickly transitioned into suddenly being off-putting. Okay. Because he suddenly asked her if she was a quote-unquote naughty girl. Oh. And would she take him somewhere? Don't say that on the first date. And she was like, nope. Okay.

And then she realized, oh, he's mistaken me for a sex worker. Oh, okay. And she was not. Right. That's the reason she was like, that's not what I do.

So she told him, no, she didn't do that. And he was not going to be successful here if that's what he was looking for because, you know, that was not her line of work. And he was like, oh, that's fine. He's like, but like, I would love to take you away anyways. And she was like, oh, no, I'm not going to fuck you. Like, she was literally like, oh, no, like, you're not going to be successful at paying me to do it and we're not going to at all. Yeah, I just met you. And she was clear. She was like, this is not happening tonight. Like, you need to be aware of this. Blah.

And she was like, I'm waiting for a date. Like, I was waiting for a date. Like, yeah, you came along and you're handsome and you're charming. And sure, I'll grab a drink with you and we can chat and stuff. And like, I'm willing to consider you as like, let's go out sometime. Sure. We're not having sex. Yeah. Like, not happening. No. But he persisted. And he took out his wallet and showed her a large amount of cash.

And then he just kept telling her how he wasn't broke. He could afford a lot. And she was like, dude, that's not what I do. Like, go find that somewhere else. And at the time period, it's a plenty. Yeah. She's like, go ahead. Like, I'm not stopping you. Have at it. So she gets up and she's like, I'm out. So she goes to leave the restaurant and he follows her. Now, mind you, he hadn't even told her his name yet.

Oh, wow. But he had given caring, like neither one of them had really told each other their name. They were just kind of like being, which like, whatever, they were just being, you know, mysterious. Let's get a drink together kind of moment. They're in public. Nothing's, you know, crazy. They also, it's one of those time periods, which like is like every time period, but you think the world is ending. So you're like, let's have a little fun. Yeah. Let's get a drink. Yeah. I don't give a shit who you are. What's your name? Don't give a fuck. Yeah. Don't care. Yeah.

Now, this guy had been carrying as well his Royal Air Force issued respirator with him all night, like the gas mask that they had to carry. Oh, OK. He had it on him when he approached her. I'm scared. Like because they they would have them from like training and stuff. And like they'd go to a pub holding their bags. Yeah. They'd be walking around with the bag. Yeah. So he had that with him. Just remember that.

And it also proved that he was definitely a serviceman. Like he wasn't pretending. He wasn't, you know, he had the actual issued one. Yeah. Now by that point it had become dark out and the streets had kind of cleared out a little bit. So it was like less quieter. Yeah. It seems like everything's kind of quiet. It's getting dark. Yeah.

And so she took out a small flashlight and switched it on. But the man caught up to her and yanked the flashlight out of her hand and was like, no, you shouldn't use this around this area. Okay. And she was like, okay, I guess you're right. Like it can be a little shady, like a little seedy outside and you don't want to draw attention to yourself. So like just kind of scoot where you need to go. Yeah. So she was just kind of like, okay, like, okay. And he like kind of put it in and he didn't steal it from her. He put it in her purse and was like, keep it.

So to her, it seemed like he was being like, oh, I'm like trying to help you. Yeah, I'm looking out for you. Like I'm not stealing your flashlight. We all have so many responsibilities that we juggle every single day. Work, we're trying to do our fitness routine, we're trying to get right. And, you know, sometimes that can be very, very stressful. I like to go to therapy to manage my stress. I like to do some exercise. But I also love to have a nice little time.

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Then he tried again to kind of like shoot his shot by saying, well, you must let me kiss you goodnight. I must not. And then he asked her if she knew any of those like air raid shelters where the first victim was found. And he said nearby and he's like, we could like go make out in one of those. And she was like, I don't know where one is nearby. And also like, I'm not going to go to an air raid shelter with you.

And she was like, I'm not leaving to go somewhere with you. Yeah. Like, that's just not happening. And at that, he grabbed her and pulled her into an alley, pushed her up against the door in a more darkened alcove, and he kissed her. And she said she didn't stop him right away because she was like, fine. Okay. Whatever. Whatever.

But then she said he got handsy. And that's when she was like, dude, I have said it a million times. Yeah. I've been very upfront with you about this. I don't consent to this. I'm not having sex with you. Right. Like, that's not it. So she told him to stop. She was like, I was consenting to kiss you, but I'm not. Yeah, and we're not going further than that. Don't touch me like that.

And he refused to stop. Oh, fuck this motherfucker. So she later told police he tried to pull my clothes up. So she tried to fight him. But the man was very strong. Yeah. And she said he got a hold of me by the throat and he started squeezing. Oh my God. After a while, I lost unconsciousness. So he choked her until she was unconscious. Jesus. But what's even creepier is the entire time he was choking her, he was muttering like to her, you won't, you won't.

You won't. Over and over again. You won't what? To this day, nobody has any idea what the fuck that means. You won't? He just kept saying you won't. That's bizarre. And I wonder if it was him saying like convincing himself like you won't kill her or you won't stop or one or the other. Like either you won't stop or you won't kill this one.

Like because she said it was almost like a trance like thing like he was like far away in his own mind saying you won't. So it's almost like she wasn't saying it to her. Yeah. Like he was saying it to himself like you won't do it this time. To think how scary that like whole thing is in and of itself without the muttering and then to add the muttering to it. Yeah.

This poor woman. So she became unconscious. And at that time, a night porter, John Shine, who was only 18 years old, was making his rounds and he heard weird noises coming from the alley. And by the time he got there, he could see a flashlight kind of flickering. And he saw a pair of women's legs sticking out from a doorway. So he called out to whoever was there saying, like, whoever's there, like, I'm here. I'm like, I see you.

And this scared the shit out of the man. And he ran down the alley away from them, but it was pitch black. So the porter, with help from a few civilians, helped her. Haywood could only moan at this point. She could barely speak. She was like just coming to. Yeah, she's been choked so hard. He got her to her feet and together they found a police officer and reported the attack. Okay. By that time they found out her dress was ripped. The buttons were broken. Like it was a very brutal, like intense, aggressive attack.

Now, just hours after Haywood had reported her assault to police, another call came in. And this was the one that was 22-year-old Catherine Mulcahy from part one. I'll give you a little rundown quickly, if you forget, of what happened to her. That evening, that same evening, a young serviceman airman had picked her up near Piccadilly Circus and traveled back to her apartment.

They were, you know, getting ready to begin a transaction because she was working as a sex worker at the time. And he got on top of her and then immediately began choking her. And he had like

He had actually like put his knees into her abdomen. She was the one with the boots still on. Yes. Because she managed to get his thumbs off her throat and he kicked, she kicked him in the stomach with her boots because she was still wearing her boots. Clean. And she ran completely nude from her apartment into the hall and started banging on a neighbor's door screaming that she was being attacked.

And as she was being helped by some neighbors, the man had come out, threw money at her, said he had too much to drink, kind of apologized and left. And later that night, another woman would be murdered in an apartment just across town. Okay. So two attacks.

And one murder. And then he ran on to murder another woman. That's what makes me think that the you won't, you won't, you won't was almost him like trying to tell himself you won't again. Yeah. You know, like it feels weird. It does. Now, according to Neil Story, who wrote The Blackout Murders, Homicide and World War II.

And Simon Reid, who wrote In the Dark, The True Story of the Blackout Ripper. Both really great books on this case. I highly, highly recommend you go read them. Simon, we actually talked about, he wrote a book about the death of Michael Malloy, like the crazy death of Michael Malloy. That case was wild.

And Simon's awesome. We love Simon. His wife, Katie, had actually written in a listener tale that was amazing. Like, they're awesome. Power couple. Yeah, totally. And amazing books on this case. So highly, highly recommend. They're linked in the show notes. Yay, books. But according to their books, 25-year-old Doris Jouanet had only recently moved to London and quickly fell into sex work as a means of supporting herself until she could find a suitable husband.

Okay. Not long... That was very common in this time period especially, but not long after arriving in the city, Doris had met 60-year-old Henri Jouinet. Okay. A wealthy French hotel owner. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, and obviously much older than her. And a few months later, the couple married. Love. Now, apparently their marriage was very...

Yeah. Like it's not what you would think of the time period, first of all, and the age difference. Right. They genuinely seemed to love each other. I love that. And would say that. Like they were genuinely very happy with each other. But she was, Doris would get bored with married life a lot.

I mean, she's very young. She's young and she's very much a woman. Like, she has always kind of been, like, make her own way, scrappy on the streets kind of thing. So this is one of those things where she's just having trouble settling down. And this man is from a completely different generation. Exactly. I'm sure he has a completely different set of standards. And he, like, loved her. He understood that she had a life before him. Yeah. And, like, I think they had actually met.

in that way so like he was like i get it like but he's like you don't have to do that anymore and i don't want you to literally giving pretty woman it really is like he's like i don't want you to and he and so he would um he would sleep sometimes at the hotels that he owned and managed but he would typically stop at home to have dinner with her every night that's so they would have dinner together like she would always have soup on for him like they would just have this nice dinner

And again, she tried to settle, but it was a little tough. So she would often fall back into sex work to make extra income. Or while he was away for long periods, she would get bored and lonely and just want to go out and do it. But she would see him off to the train and then she would go out sometimes soliciting for extra money.

Now, on February 12th, the same night of the attack on Haywood and Mulcahy, Doris had seen Henry off at the train and then she had done just that, gone out in London onto the streets. Several acquaintances saw her that evening. They spoke to her about what she was doing. She seemed completely fine.

Okay. You know, nothing out of the ordinary. Yeah. It wasn't until the next night, February 13th, a little past 7 p.m., that Henry arrived home to find the dishes from the previous night's dinner still on the table and no reply when he called out to Doris. He said she never would have left the soup bowls and such dirty on the counter or in the sink. She just never procrastinated that particular chore. Yeah. It just wasn't something she would have done. Right. And he was even more concerned with the fact that the bedroom door, their bedroom door, was locked.

Oh. Now, none of this was like Doris. So Henry got their housekeeper next door to try to open the bedroom door, and she couldn't. Okay. So together they called the police, and very quickly Constable William Payne and his partner arrived at the apartment. And the officers ended up forcing their way into the bedroom, and they found Doris. And it looked like at first she might have been still asleep in bed. She was completely covered in a blanket and a sheet.

PC Payne wrote in his report, I pulled the bedclothes but slightly and revealed the head of a woman. Pulling the blanket even more, it revealed that it was definitely Doris in bed and she was dead. And she had been wearing only her nightdress. And they said a tight bound stocking was around her neck, under her chin. Payne wrote that a circular cut ran round under the left breast and the private parts appeared slashed.

What? Oh.

Now, upon examination, it was seen that there was also a gash on her right cheek. And according to Simon Reeds in The Dark, The True Story of the Blackout Ripper, there was a four-inch gash under her right breast and a large, deep six-inch gash that ran from just below her navel to right above her vaginal entrance. Oh, God. And there was another six-inch deep cut on the other side of her groin and another running up her thigh. My God.

And again, all had bled to varying degrees, so they were inflicted before, during, and right as she died. Right. It was clear that these were inflicted by someone who was also left-handed. Ah, again. So they also found a blood-stained razor, a nail file, and a pair of manicure scissors. Oh, God. Yes. Now... A nail file? Yeah.

Yeah. In his statement to the press, Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Fred Sherrill, our fingerprint extraordinaire guy, he told reporters, not since the panic-ridden days in 1888 when Jack the Ripper was abroad in the East End had London known such a reign of terror.

Now, the killer appeared to literally be tearing through the streets of London, just killing women at an alarming rate. And he was leaving basically nothing behind because he wasn't bringing anything with him. Right. Now, but when the reports of the attacks came from women who were escaping with their lives, though...

there was coming descriptions of him which was helpful in fact um Haywood had seen her attacker very up close for an extended period of time yeah he was like of of great help right they essentially had a date together yeah she gave a very detailed description she said he's between 25 and 26 which is insane yeah and when all is said and done it's like he's like barely 28 years old nuts

And he's about five foot eight inches tall, fresh complexion, chestnut or medium brown hair, wavy in front and frizzy at the crown, brown eyes, small mouth with thin lips. And he was dressed in an electric blue overcoat with thin gray lines and square check with fairly large collar and belt, gray trousers and brown shoes. Okay. Wow. Good for her. I was like, damn, I wouldn't have been able to remember all that. I don't even know what I have for breakfast today. No.

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What you may not be thinking about, or you may have forgotten about, though, because you're thinking, okay, we got a description, but he probably looks a lot like a lot of soldiers. And he's wearing the uniform. It's not like he's wearing something, you know, we can easily identify. He's got brown hair, brown eyes. They all have similar haircuts. Yeah, it's like, what are we going to do here?

But what you might not be thinking about is that Haywood's attacker had a Royal Air Force issued respirator with him all night. Mm-hmm. Well, there was a key piece of evidence left behind at the scene of her attack. Stop it. In his haste, when he ran away from the scene, he left behind that Royal Air Force issued respirator bag. Stop.

Like all military-issued equipment, the bag was stamped with service number 525987. With a simple call to the records department, investigators were able to identify who this belonged to. 28-year-old leading aircraftman Gordon Frederick Cummins.

28-year-old. And what a, thank goodness, dumbass mistake. Dumbass. Just left a whole ass identification behind. And thank God that that patrol man was walking by. 18 years old. At least he came to her rescue. Yeah, seriously. Because you'll see in Simon Reid's book that some civilians that were around at that point were like, well, what did she think she was getting? They assumed she was a sex worker. Of course. And they took on the

Well, what did she expect? What did she expect attitude? Which is so shitty. Because again, we say race car drivers get into accidents sometimes. But when that happens, nobody sits there and says, well, what did they expect? Well, it's a human. It's a person. No, they're not expecting to get murdered. Exactly. Thank you for asking. Like, well, I don't think they expect that. No, they also shouldn't have to. Exactly. Exactly.

Now, to the press, public, and surely some of the investigators, the murders definitely were ringing the Jack the Ripper bell from decades earlier. But this new killer appeared to honestly have accomplished in a literal handful of days what Jack the Ripper had in a span of months. Yeah. Which was even scarier. That is scarier. The murder of Evelyn Hamilton had occurred on the evening of February 8th.

And since then, the killer had murdered at least three additional women in less than a week. And attacked multiple more. The press reported, as the circumstances of the crime bear a strong resemblance to the murders, the police are working on the assumption that these cases are linked together. Investigators were fairly confident that the same man had done all of this. And the women who had escaped him had been vital to now capturing him.

Now, on February 15th, 1942, Scotland Yard investigators brought Gordon Cummins in for questioning. And at the time, they only had connected him to the Haywood attack. Right. Because that's where they had the respirator.

According to Cummins, he had met her at the cafe, as she had said, but he claimed that he had been out drinking with another serviceman that night and had become very drunk. So he had a hazy memory of whatever happened later that night. Oh, wow. That's crazy. That works out so well for you. And he actually said, he was like, oh, if I did do what you're telling me I did, like, I'm very sorry. I'll pay her, like, to apologize. Like, I'll give her money. Okay.

And they were like, I don't think that's going to fix the trauma, but thank you so much. He was booked on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm, which allowed for him to be held in jail and gave investigators time to look for any connection into the other attacks. He was probably shitting himself. Later that afternoon, Haywood and Mulcahy positively identified Cummins as the man who'd attacked them.

But when it came to the murders, he claimed he had an alibi that could be verified by checking the logs at the barracks. It turned out that the logs did show Cummins as having been on the base at the times the murders were committed. But when pushed for further details, his fellow soldiers...

Their loyalty wavered. There was, it seems, a habit of soldiers to log in and out for other soldiers when they wanted to get off base and they didn't get the permission to go off base. That meant where the logs might have shown him as being on base, it was unreliable at best. And some of them were like, oh, yeah, I logged him in. Right. Like he wasn't there. Yeah.

So meanwhile, Detective Tom Shepard inspected Cummins' room at the barracks to see if there was anything they could connect. They found a fountain pen in his pocket that was engraved in gold letters DJ, Doris Jouanet. He also uncovered shirts and towels with red stains on them that appeared to be blood stains.

And Cummins denied knowing how the pen was in his possession at all. Oh, that's so crazy that I have a murder victim's pen in my possession. I never saw that. And I don't know what those red stains could be. Oh, okay. He didn't even have a good story to come up with.

On the morning of February 17th, Cummins appeared before a judge at the Bow Street Magistrates Court, where he was formally charged for the murders of Evelyn Oatley, Margaret Lowe, and Doris Juenet. The logs and witness testimony at the time convincingly showed that

that he was in bed at the barracks on the night of Evelyn Hamilton's murder. Okay. So the prosecution was unable to connect him to that case at the time of his arraignment. Okay. So again, at the time, they didn't feel like they had enough to say that he was lying about being in the barracks at that time, so they didn't add her in. Okay. So to those who knew him, this arrest...

for multiple murders came as a shock to people. Not only was he well-liked and respected by his fellow airmen, but he had even won over his superiors for his efficiency and zeal to transform himself from lowly ground crew to dashing airmen. Wow. It just makes you think, like, yeah, these people walk among us. Oh, yeah. And this is very much of the time, this next thing, because

They were also baffled at the sexual assault allegations against him. Because at the time, when psychology and motives for sexual violence were very badly understood, the idea that this man would have to force women to engage in sex with him seemed insane to everybody. That does happen. We don't all just want to fuck every man we see. It's like, no, yeah. And it's like, and they said not only was he married to a beautiful young woman. He was married.

He sure was. What the fuck? He was also known to brag endlessly about his sexual conquests outside of the marriage. Oh, what a douchebag. He was constantly cheating on his wife. He never seemed to have enough sex around him. He was... He's got a problem. Yeah, he looks like he has a problem. I mean, it was constant. Yeah. He would go visit... And his wife was, like, beautiful. Yeah.

go visit his wife, have dinner with her, and then be like, oh, I have to get back early to the barracks. And it was because he was going out to troll for other girls. And it's like, you have a wife right here. Yeah. Who misses you and probably would love to spend some intimate time with you. Right. But for some men, it's not that. It's the conquest of having multiple women. Exactly. It makes them feel like a king. In fact...

He even got very close to his lieutenant's wife, like had a very close relationship with her. Shut the fuck up. And there were rumors that they were having an affair. That's how like charming this guy was. Wow. Yeah. And what? He's bold. Very bold. He's bold. Because he gets away with it. Can you imagine lieutenant finds that shit out? He'll fuck you up.

And there was always like sexual assault accusations like floating near him when he was, but no one ever pinned them on him. And again, thought that he would never need to force himself on any woman. So of course he couldn't have done it. And this was the culmination of what was likely a long career of quietly raping and hurting women. That's awful. And his looks and charm getting him out of being suspected for it. It's like, yeah, he doesn't need to, but he wants to. That's the problem, everybody. Yeah.

He was also known to be a liar and an extreme exaggerator. Shocking. He'd made everyone believe that he was a, quote, man of high class breeding. But he came from a pretty average beginning. He wasn't like, you know, in poverty, but he wasn't wealthy. His father was a civil servant. His mom was a housewife. Okay. He had a very normal childhood. That's fucking bonkers. No one in his family had anything wrong.

to say about him being like cruel, anything to be concerned about. Like his parents were literally like, that's so scary. He was a normal kid. And like they, and even he said, I had a very normal childhood. There was no abuse. There was nothing. So scary. But it happens. Exactly. It's not the first story we've told where that's been the case. He always had money on him as an adult from stealing it. And he waved it around and bragged all the time just to be a dick. Yeah.

And he had also been nicknamed at different times the Count and the Duke. Like he was like, yeah, growing up he was known in school to be pretty smart. But.

But he was always focused more on socializing than anything else. Same. Yeah. And he would go, that was like his whole life. Yeah. He would just like, he was so concerned with socializing and women and that kind of thing. And he would pretend to be like an aristocrat. Like he wanted to be a higher class guy. And he would even evolve his, he evolved his accent to sound posher. Really? Because he wanted to like live that life so much.

It reminds me of, I can't think of the name of that movie, but the Leonardo DiCaprio one where he's literally... Catch Me If You Can. Catch Me If You Can. Yes. Yeah.

Which is weird because pilots in the Air Force. Yeah, that is weird. But now, in court on the day of the arraignment, Cummins again impressed the large crowd of press and spectators. He was dressed in his full Royal Air Force uniform and, you know, looking cut, looking handsome, like dashing smile. And

And, you know, he was also being charged with the assaults on Haywood and Mulcahy. So not great. That wasn't really impressive to anybody. And as each charge was read for the court, the prosecutor, Vincent Evans, provided graphic details of the crimes committed. And when they went on to the murders, they talked about the brutality of the mutilations. And most importantly, that Gordon Cummins' fingerprints had been found at each scene.

And they had officially connected those fingerprints to the scene. There's that for you guys. Further evidence presented at the hearing were the various personal items belonging to the victims, like Evelyn Oatley's cigarette case, which had been found in Cummins' possession following his arrest.

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As he sat in jail awaiting trial, the evidence just continued piling up against him. Great. Among his possessions, investigators found, again, the pen that Doris, her initials were on. Yeah. A second cigarette case identified by Barbara Lowe as having belonged to her mother. There was also a bloodstained shirt, the bloodstained towel. Detectives traced the bills he had thrown at Catherine Mulcahy to those given to him in his recent payout. Wow.

Wow. For the time, that is so fucking impressive. The detective work here. Yes. So impressive. That's incredible. Henry Jouinet also identified a watch that Cummins was carrying in his respirator case as belonging to his wife, Doris. Oh, wow.

And just like when you hear about Henry and how he reacted, it breaks your heart. Like Ann Barbera with her mother. Yeah. Like it's really awful. And I guess the investigators did do a really, really good job at dealing with Margaret Lowe's like.

because they said her child is school-aged and is involved in this. So we don't want to make a big deal out of what she was doing for her profession, like out of respect for her daughter. Yeah, you never should. Which is like, wow. But that's great. I know. And it's like, that feels like weirdly progressive for the time. It does. Since they treated sex workers so horribly at the time. So like those were interesting little tidbits that were like, and they made sure to keep her,

from seeing the scene. They kept Henry from seeing the scene. Like, I guess they kept him out of the bedroom. They didn't want him to see anything. Just interesting little tidbits here and there.

So he was stealing trophies from these women that weren't even monetarily valuable. They were just for him to relive the experience. Like these cigarette cases were not really valuable. Yeah, a woman's watch even. And it was broken. It was like an old watch. He just wanted it. He also had a comb from Doris. Like a hair comb. That was missing teeth.

And Henry said, I know that's Doris's comb because she bought it on the street from a street vendor and it was missing teeth. And I told her, he even said like, I told her I'll buy you like a better one. And she was like, no, I like this one. So he stole like sentimental things. Yeah, meaningful things. Which is like even more fucked up. It is.

But there was also, again, more fingerprint evidence found at all the scenes and on the murder and mutilation implements, and they all matched his fingerprints. And footprints were found at at least one crime scene that matched his shoes. Oh, wow. So by the end of March, investigators finally found the crucial piece of information needed to connect him to finally the murder of Evelyn Hamilton. While processing the gas mask recovered from the scene of the Haywood attack,

Technicians found mortar dust inside that matched dust found at the scene of the Hamilton murder.

Damn. Again, 1930s, holy shit. Yeah. Like early 40s. That is detective work. As for his alibi for that night where it was like shaky that he was in bed, but they couldn't disprove it, the prosecutor believed that it would have just been fabricated. Like now they can officially say it was fabricated. Vincent Evans said, it is quite possible for men in that bullet-

which is the barracks, like a room in a barracks, to leave by means of a fire escape. And it is suggested that is what Cummins did on that night, so that he was logged in. He just escaped through the fire escape. In response to all the charges, Cummins said, that is ridiculous. I think you are ridiculous. You are very ridiculous, sir. That's it. That is ridiculous. And he was like, that is ridiculous, sir.

It's like, ooh, you tried. Barely. Yeah, you tried on that one, but nope. No cigar. His wife was equally shocked, saying she couldn't imagine him doing anything to jeopardize becoming a pilot. He was so, like, she was like, nothing, like, would stop him from going up the ladder. He didn't think it would. And she said their marriage was perfect.

She couldn't understand. He had never shown any violence. That's heartbreaking. Meanwhile, he barely came to see her and claimed it was because he was focused on doing his job well, but really he was running around getting sex wherever he could and forcing it on people. Yeah. But when she saw him, it was for small periods of time, and he was delightful. I'm sure. Yeah. Now, Cummins' trial began in late April at the Old Bailey. Oh, I know her. Yep. However, on April 24th, something shocking happened. What?

A mistrial was declared. Why? After the jury was incorrectly given access to the wrong exhibit. They were given photos from another victim's crime scene. Guys, you were doing so well up to this point. And that's never happened before at the Old Bailey. This was the first time. Wow. In his instructions to the press, Justice Acquiesce told reporters...

As little should be said as possible as to the reasons for the discharge of the jury, so as to not taint the new jury. Yeah. I am sure that the press can be relied upon to treat this with every discretion. The full truth will be published later, but not until this trial is over. He's like, you motherfuckers better sit still and quietly so that we can actually serve some justice here. He's like, don't be publishing theories about why there was a mistrial like he's innocent. Like, we'll let you know later, but like, shut the fuck up. Yeah.

On April 27th, a new jury was sworn in and the Cummins trial began again with the defendant testifying on his own behalf. According to Cummins, on the evening of February 9th, he had gone out for dinner and consumed a lot of drinks and didn't recall anything after leaving the restaurant around 10 p.m. That's not a great excuse. Yeah. But he did say, however, that he had never been to Evelyn Oatley's apartment and he had nothing to do with her murder or the murders of the other three women. How do you know if you can't remember anything? Exactly.

Cummins' defense was so fucking weak and the evidence against him was so fucking overwhelming. So convincing. On April 29th, just two days after the new trial started, the jury deliberated for a little more than a half hour before coming out and saying, you're guilty. You're guilty. You're guilty. It's like Nicole Byer. You're basic. You're basic. You're basic.

They came and said, you're guilty of the murder of Evelyn Oatley, and he was sentenced to death. He was sentenced to hang. Under the circumstances, the prosecution said, we're not going to pursue the other charges. Let's just get him gone. Yeah, I mean, we already got the death penalty. Yeah. A month later, Cummins' lead defense attorney, Deanne Pratt, filed an appeal on his sentence, arguing that the previous judge was, quote, not emphatic enough in his warning to the jury that they had to decide the case on the evidence alone. Okay.

Okay. Pratt argued that the media coverage had all but confirmed that Cummins was guilty, making it very difficult to get an unbiased jury. After reviewing the evidence in the Oatley case, the three-judge panel said, nope, we're upholding the previous ruling and we're dismissing the appeal. And they told reporters that they, quote, unhesitatingly took the view that the evidence was overwhelming. Yeah, it sounded like it. Yeah.

Despite the outcome of the trial and the appeal, he maintained that he was innocent of all charges, had nothing to do with the murders, even though his fingerprints were found on all the murder and mutilation weapons. His footprints were at the scenes. He had their possessions in his possession and blood from them on his clothes. That's crazy that he didn't do it. But he's like, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's a crazy framed job that's happening here. Wow, dude.

On June 25th, 1942, Gordon Frederick Cummins was hanged at Wadsworth Prison just as air raid sirens signaled an incoming bomb run on the city. Oh, God. Isn't that a wild coincidence? While the execution of the so-called Blackout Ripper brought an end to this particular series of brutal murders in 1942 London...

It didn't explain why it happened or why it received such little fucking coverage. Yeah, it's crazy that this does not get the coverage that it deserves. I just broke there. Historian Hallie Rubenhold, who some of you may like have read her book. She's gone very deeply into Jack the Ripper and his victims in particular.

She also has podcasts. Well, don't worry, I'll mention them. Historian Hallie Rubenhold told a reporter in 2022, the whole fabric of London was torn up and there was so much distraction, the murders passed almost under the radar. There was also the matter of the victim's class, status, and profession. Yep.

Like Hallie said, the women who were killed were vulnerable. Some of them were sex workers. People were sympathetic. But as with the women killed by Jack the Ripper, there was that underlying feeling. What did they expect? Until recently, again, the story has gone like kind of forgotten. Some reporters, some historians have done little pieces here and there on them. But

I didn't know about this. Yeah. And Rubenhold and her partner, criminologist Alice Fiennes, want to change that whole thing, just like they wanted to change how the Jack the Ripper story was told, and I think they did a great job at it by telling it more through the victims than through the perpetrator. Yeah, I like that. They have some podcasts abroad

this, it's called, let me see, The Blackout Ripper is the podcast that she has done. She's reporting on all the victims' stories, going very far into each of them. I highly recommend going to listen to it if you want to know more about this case. Yeah. I'm going to go and listen to it now. I haven't yet, but I plan to now that we're over the case. I want to go like dive further into it. Yeah.

She wrote, and Ruben Holt said, the women he assaulted had one thing in common. They were all trying to make their way in a world turned upside down by war. They faced the same danger from the bombs as men, but the upheaval affected them disproportionately. Some sold sex, some didn't. But their life stories, meticulously explored in every episode of The Blackout Ripper, create a compelling portrait of the time. It's just like the Jack the Ripper case. When you look further into the victims' lives...

you see like so much more to the landscape of what was going on. Absolutely. And it gives you such a bigger picture of the whole thing than just looking at it like, and they died and they were killed by this guy. Right. And they were a sex worker. Like, tell me why. Why were they a sex worker? There's so much more to it. Tell me what their lives were. What the time was like. Yeah. Like I think the Blackout Ripper, I'm excited to listen to it because I can't wait to get deeper into these

women's lives. Yeah. You know, I think she does a good job of doing that. Nice. So in her books too. That's great. Which we'll put all the stuff in the show notes. Yeah, definitely. But that is the story of the blackout ripper, Gordon Cummins. Devastating. Fascinating.

Horrific. Horrific. I enjoyed your coverage, but it was a lot at times. Upsetting. It was upsetting for sure, but very fascinating story. Yeah, it really is. I do feel like with the Jack the Ripper case and this case, the setting is such a key part of the story. And I like that you took the time to explain that. Yeah, I was tempted to.

to go full Jack the Ripper with this and like do a wild 72-page dissertation. I mean, you are a ripperologist. I held back though. I held back on it a little bit. I might revisit it again to like go even deeper into some things, but...

This is a wild one. Yeah. This shocked me. It's wild. Yeah. Damn. Well, you know, look out for that. This world just never stops. Look out for the next one. And with that being said, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you do any of this and you somehow end up with a ton of murder victims possessions in your possession somehow. Because usually when that happens, you're the one that did it. Idiot. Bye. Don't be a dick. He had fish lips. He did. Yeah.

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