It began with Evelyn Hamilton.

A lonely 41-year-old pharmacist found strangled in an air raid shelter in Montague Place.

With her legs spread, her genitals and right breast exposed, there was no doubt that

she had been posed, whether to shame her, to shock her finders, or to titillate her

crazed torturer.

It seemed like a one-off, but it was not.

The next night, 34-year-old Evelyn Oatley, a sex worker known as Leit Award, was found strangled

with a stocking in her Wardour Street flat.

Pose to elicit maximum horror.

With great relish, he had carved up her semi-conscious body, with a kitchen knife, a razor blade, and a can opener with a claw-like

hook, having thrust her metal torch deep into her gaping vagina.

Two different police divisions handled each murder. But before they knew that the cases were connected, he had attacked again.

This time, 43-year-old Margaret Florence Lowe, a widowed fancy dress shop owner, now sex worker,

in a Gosfield Street flat.

She had been posed, strangled, mutilated,

and as with the others,

he had stolen handbags, trinkets,

and several unusual souvenirs,

but rarely anything of any value.

And while the police were mulling over,

what sort of homicidal maniac stalked their streets?

The next night, he struck again.

...