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‘Jack The Stripper’ Serial Killer’s Identity May Finally Be Revealed In New Documentary
Harold Jones, who was put behind bars for two murders in the 1920s, is the subject of BBC’s newest crime documentary, “Dark Son: The Hunt For A Serial Killer.”
A British criminologist has claimed in a new BBC documentary that a metalworker who was put away for the murder of two young girls in the 1920s could have also been the man behind the slaying of six sex workers in the 1960s.
Professor David Wilson, of Birmingham City University, is featured in “Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer,” and leads an investigation into “the biggest unsolved serial murder case in British criminal history — the so-called ‘Jack the Stripper murders,” according to the BBC.
The documentary claims that Harold Jones, who was released from prison in 1941 for the murder of two girls in Wales and died in 1971, is responsible for the six murders of London prostitutes in the 1960s.
The women killed in 1960s London were Hannah Tailford, 30, who was found in London’s River Thames in 1964, Irene Lockwood, 25, who was found two months later in the same river, Helen Barthelemy, 22 and Mary Fleming, 30, whose remains were found inside a garage months later, Frances Brown, 21, whose body was found in Kensington, and Bridget O’Hara, according to British tabloid The Sun.
These killings reportedly share similarities to the six “Jack the Stripper murders” — a play off the famous Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper — in that they also targeted young women.
Wilson told The Sun that Jones changed his name to Stevens after prison, and has since been linked to an industrial area in which the bodies were being stored before getting tossed in the Thames, leading him to suspect Jones could be the culprit behind the murders.
Wilson said that the victims’ families deserve justice in these cases, even though it has been many decades.
“It is really important that we try and get justice for the families of these women, even if the crimes were committed in the 1960s,” he said, according to The Sun. “In Harold Jones we are giving the police evidence they never had at the time and he emerges as a prime suspect.”
Professor Wilson’s investigative team consists of fellow Professor Mike Berry, who specializes in forensic psychology, and former detective Jackie Malton, according to the BBC.
They started their 15-month investigation in the mining town of Abertillery, South Wales, which in 1921 was the site of the murder of two girls: Freda Burnell, 8, and Florence Little, 11, who were murdered by Jones. He was sent to prison for his crimes and is reportedly still referred to in the town as its “Dark Son.”
