Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society, or even

earn the label, Crime of the Century.

But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.

I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist, an author, and in each episode of this show,

I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.

This is Crimes of the Centuries.

Music This is Crimes at the Centuries. Layed out before Dr. Francis Edward Camps was the trunk of a human being, a torso with its arms still

attached, but no sign of the legs or head that once accompanied them.

Camps was not yet the famous forensic pathologist he would become, but he was experienced

enough. As one of just three main pathologists in and around London immediately

after the Second World War, and for decades onward, he would be called in on a lot of famous

cases. How was he to know that this would be his first? He was just doing his job. But he had not

often seen something quite so, shall we say, disturbing.

The skin of the torso before him was decidedly more shaded than fair, and in estimates that would

be remarkably accurate, he said the body had likely entered the waters of the English Channel

48 hours after death, and had been in those waters of the English Channel 48 hours after death and had been in

those waters for between 16 and 21 days.

Here's Camps detailing his examination for an early documentary called Great Crimes and Tales

of the 20th Century.

The head had been cut off.

The arms and hands were still intact.

The legs had been cut off.

...