# What's the most famous murder in England? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411 "2012-03-01T01:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/61 "2012-03-03T16:04:40Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Yes, but per the OP, he’s asking for English monsters, not Hungarian ones. Yeah - I didn’t mean Elizabeth Bathory as a response to the OP (I’m another vote for Jack the Ripper on that). I was just responding to ScubaQueen saying that Jack the Ripper was the first documented serial killer in history. Sorry if I was unclear! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/62 "2012-03-03T18:56:27Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Yeah - I didn’t mean Elizabeth Bathory as a response to the OP (I’m another vote for Jack the Ripper on that). I was just responding to ScubaQueen saying that Jack the Ripper was the first documented serial killer in history. Sorry if I was unclear! You’ve never heard of Gilles deRais? ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/63 "2012-03-03T19:40:02Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Yeah - I didn’t mean Elizabeth Bathory as a response to the OP (I’m another vote for Jack the Ripper on that). I was just responding to ScubaQueen saying that Jack the Ripper was the first documented serial killer in history. Sorry if I was unclear! Ah, I see. Carry on! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/64 "2012-03-03T22:12:16Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Do assassinations count? If so, there’s [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma#Assassination) one. > > (noted that ‘in England’ may be in dispute - the victim was English, but the event and perpetrators were not) It might count, except that it didn’t happen in England. It probably happened _because_ of England, though. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/65 "2012-03-03T23:33:37Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > You’ve never heard of Gilles deRais? Argh. Clearly this is one of those days where I make no sense anywhere except inside my own head. Sure, I know about Gilles de Rais. My point was that there were serial killers before Jack the Ripper. I picked Elizabeth Bathory out of the air as one example, the first that sprang to mind, not as the first serial killer ever. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/66 "2012-03-04T00:07:52Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I’m glad you mentioned James Bulger. No one else had. He’s not the answer to the question, tragic though it was. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/67 "2012-03-04T00:11:29Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Cromwell was “murdered” by malaria. I’m pretty sure the guilty mosquito’s name has been lost to history. Wrong Cromwell. Though I guess that speaks to the right Cromwell not being famous. That’s a sad state of affairs, though. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/68 "2012-03-04T16:46:59Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Wrong Cromwell. > > Though I guess that speaks to the right Cromwell not being famous. That’s a sad state of affairs, though. Post 52, I even said who the right Cromwell was. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/69 "2012-03-04T18:05:24Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Argh. Clearly this is one of those days where I make no sense anywhere except inside my own head. > > Sure, I know about Gilles de Rais. My point was that there were serial killers before Jack the Ripper. I picked Elizabeth Bathory out of the air as one example, the first that sprang to mind, not as the first serial killer ever. What you say makes perfect sense to me, I think other posters are just a little bit too eager to add their voices to the thread to properly read what has come before. FWIW, while Jack the Ripper is the first English murderer that comes to mind (mine, at least), James Bulger is the first victim I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/70 "2012-03-04T18:14:03Z")
I recall reading about a guy who murdered several people in London, during WWII. He claimed to be a vampire, and he murdered his victims during German bombing raids (he figured that his victims would have been assumed to be killed by the bombs). At any rate, he was convicted and hung-anyone know the deatils? I read about it long ago, in an anthology-I think it was called “Journey Into Crime”. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/71 "2012-03-04T19:34:53Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I recall reading about a guy who murdered several people in London, during WWII. > He claimed to be a vampire, and he murdered his victims during German bombing raids (he figured that his victims would have been assumed to be killed by the bombs). > At any rate, he was convicted and hung-anyone know the deatils? > I read about it long ago, in an anthology-I think it was called “Journey Into Crime”. I think you have John George Haigh in mind. His vampire claims, I have read elsewhere, have been thought to have been a failed ploy for a “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity” verdict. > **[John Haigh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Haigh)** > > John George Haigh (/heɪɡ/ HEYG; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his victims and disposed of their bodies using sulphuric acid before forging their signatures so he could sell their possessions and collect large sums of money. His actions were the subject of the television film A Is for Acid. > John Haigh was born ... > **[John George Haigh: The Acid Bath Vampire](https://thevampireproject.blogspot.com/2008/12/john-george-haigh-acid-bath-vampire.html)** > > An online vampire research portal, with resources and information, terminology, folklore and historical writings, and otherkin related materials. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/72 "2012-03-05T02:45:03Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > He/they (not conclusively proven that the Ripper WASN’T actually a team) constitutes the first documented serial killer/s in history. Not by a long shot. He’s not even the first documented serial killer in England. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/73 "2012-03-05T10:46:46Z")
It probably depends on where in the country you are from and how old you are. The first answer that sprung to my mind was the Moors Murders, the Yorkshire Ripper and then Jamie Bulger. The World’s End murders are pretty infamous in Scotland but not really known elsewhere, too. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/74 "2012-03-05T15:29:12Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > The first answer that sprung to my mind was the Moors Murders, the Yorkshire Ripper and then Jamie Bulger. Jamie Bulger’s been murdered!? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/75 "2012-03-06T00:01:25Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Jamie Bulger’s been murdered!? Colonel Mustard did it in the Ballroom with a candlestick. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411/76 "2012-03-06T02:05:15Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I’m glad you mentioned James Bulger. No one else had. It was so far beyond the pale that nobody wanted to think of it, I suppose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-murder-in-england/614411.md?page=3)