All three were strapped to crosses and machine-gunned to death THE CRIME: On the evening of 8 June 1946 King Rama VIII Ananda Mahidol, the 20-year-old monarch of Siam, called the court physician, complaining of feeling unwell. He had spent most of his life in Switzerland and found the heat and humidity of what is… Read More »
“The missingest man in New York” THE CRIME: Born on 5 January 1889, Joseph Force Crater’s childhood ambition was to be a judge. Having qualified at Columbia Law School in 1916 he joined a Manhattan law firm where his colleagues believed he was on his way to a seat on the United States Supreme Court.… Read More »
“Darling Dottie, I want to…kiss your pretty pink toes” THE CRIME: Blonde, blue-eyed, sexy and petite Dorothy Keenan left home, a slum in New York, in 1915 when she was 19 years old. Like many attractive teenagers, she became a model and worked for a dress shop on Fifth Avenue. Under the name Dot King… Read More »
“She’s a liar, she’s a liar” THE CRIME: Edward Wheeler Hall was the chubby, balding, 41-year-old Episcopal minister of the Church of St John the Evangelist in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was having an affair with the married lead soprano of his choir Eleanor Mills, 34, the wife of the church sexton. Both lovers… Read More »
“Don’t let anyone drink my whisky. I shall be back in a few minutes” THE CRIME: Firebrand orator Albert Victor Grayson was born in Liverpool, England on 5 September 1881 and was elected MP for Colne Valley in July 1907 by 153 votes. Despite standing for the Independent Labour Party, he was not welcomed by… Read More »
“We know, and he knows, that he tried to murder our mother” THE CRIME: Socialite Claus von Bulow lived a charmed life until he was 50 years old. He went to Trinity, Cambridge, was personal assistant to J. Paul Getty and on 6 June 1966 he married Martha Crawford, known to all as Sunny. A… Read More »
“It’s an unpleasant memory… [but] I can live with it” THE CRIME: In 1977 Roman Polanski was a successful film director, living in America. He suggested that he photograph “sexy, pert and thoroughly human” teenage girls for Vogue Hommes. A friend passed him the number of Samantha Jane Geimer (then known as Samantha Galley), the… Read More »
“I’ve always known she shot Spider Sabich and meant to do it” THE CRIME: Claudine Georgette Longet was born at Paris, France on 29 January 1942 and became a popular singer during the 1960s, no doubt helped by her marriage to Andy Williams on 15 December 1961. They had three children and divorced in January… Read More »
“Well he would, wouldn’t he?” THE CRIME: On 8 July 1961 Minister of War, John Profumo, 46, encountered a naked, wet and embarrassed Christine Keeler, a 19-year-old good-time girl, at a cottage on the Cliveden estate of Lord Astor. Keeler’s friend, Stephen Ward, had a standing invitation to use the swimming pool. The next day… Read More »
They created life-like dummies to leave in their beds when they escaped THE CRIME: Frank Lee Morris was born at Washington DC on 1 September 1926. He was a career criminal, beginning his nefarious activities when he was just 13 years old. On 20 January 1960 he was sent to Alcatraz and immediately began planning… Read More »