S14 Ep17: The Blackout Ripper Pt2
Blood Ties Podcast
Peter Shevlin
4.4 • 668 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell uncover the terrifying story of Gordon Frederick Cummins, the RAF serviceman who became known as the Blackout Killer.
Over just five days in wartime London, Cummins murdered four women and brutally attacked two others while the city lay hidden beneath the enforced blackout of the Blitz.
His victims were strangled, and several were shockingly mutilated, crimes so savage they stunned even seasoned detectives.
Dubbed the Blackout Ripper and the Wartime Ripper, Cummins preyed on vulnerable women as bombs fell across the capital during the darkest days of the Second World War. Convicted of murdering Evelyn Oatley, he was sentenced to death and hanged at Wandsworth Prison in June 1942, becoming the only murderer in British history executed during an air raid.
CREDITS:
Presenters: Geoffrey and Molly Wansell
Producer: Peter Shevlin https://pod60.com/
Artwork: George Leigh
Music: Dan Wansell
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on Blood Ties. |
| 0:12.0 | She'd actually been celebrating her 41st birthday, and she'd had a glass of white wine to celebrate. |
| 0:19.0 | She could not have expected to run into a man who was going to kill her, |
| 0:24.8 | but not assault her, no sexual assault. |
| 0:33.1 | On the 10th of February, a woman called Evelyn Oakley, who was aged 33, was found at about |
| 0:40.3 | half-past eight in the morning on the 10th of it. |
| 0:49.3 | On her bed in Warder Street in Soho, she'd been beaten, strangled, and had her throat cut. |
| 0:58.8 | But also, she had been mutilated, grossly. |
| 1:18.6 | Music. Hi, I'm Molly Wonsall. And I'm Geoffrey Wonsall. |
| 1:20.6 | We're a father and daughter, as those of you who listened to Blood Ties in the past will remember, |
| 1:24.6 | and we meet every week and often our conversation has turned to murder, |
| 1:29.0 | which is why we originally launched blood ties and why we've now decided to bring it back |
| 1:33.9 | in its new fresher form. |
| 1:36.2 | We're really excited to be back and we would love it if you could also check out our Patreon. |
| 1:41.2 | Just search Blood Ties on Patreon. |
| 1:43.2 | Thanks so much. |
| 1:44.0 | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 1:49.8 | Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Blood Ties podcast. I'm Molly Wansel and I'm here with my father, |
| 1:54.3 | Jeffrey Wansel. Hello everyone. Welcome back to Blood Ties 2.0. We hope you're enjoying it. We hope |
| 2:00.6 | it doesn't upset you too much. |
| 2:02.4 | I think Molly and I talked about this before. I'm trying to be careful with not making it too |
| 2:10.0 | horrible. Yeah, I don't know. It's a funny one, isn't it? I don't. Yeah. Someone wrote in a while |
... |
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