Towpath murders

Towpath murders
Christine Reed (left) and Barbara Songhurst, c. 1953
Location	Teddington Lock, Richmond upon Thames, London, England
Coordinates	51°25′56″N 0°19′31″W / 51.43222°N 0.32528°W / 51.43222; -0.32528
Date	31 May 1953 (1953-05-31)
Weapons	Axe Gurkha knife
Deaths	Christine Rose Reed (18) Barbara Songhurst (16)
Perpetrator	Alfred Charles Whiteway (21)
Motive	Sexual sadism Rape Elimination
Sentence	Death (2 November 1953) Executed (22 December 1953)

The towpath murders (also known as the Thames Towpath Murders and the Teddington Towpath Murders^[1]) are a double murder which occurred upon a section of towpath between Teddington Lock and Eel Pie Island in Richmond upon Thames, London, England, on 31 May 1953. The victims were two teenage girls named Christine Reed and Barbara Songhurst who were ambushed by a lone individual as they cycled to their respective homes in Hampton Hill and Teddington. Both girls were overpowered, then violently raped and murdered before their bodies were discarded in the River Thames. The perpetrator, 21-year-old Alfred Charles Whiteway, was convicted of both murders in a trial held at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Hilbery that October; he was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 December 1953.^[2]

The murders of Christine Reed and Barbara Songhurst became known as the "towpath murders" due to a towpath being both the location the victims were last seen alive and the site of their murder. The forensic methods used to link the perpetrator to both the victims and the weapons used in the commission of the crime were described as "one of Scotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".^[3]

On the afternoon of Saturday 30 May 1953, 16-year-old Barbara Songhurst informed her parents of her intention to cycle from her Teddington home to spend the evening with her friend, 18-year-old Christine Reed, who lived in nearby Hampton Hill.^[4] Although Reed was two years older than Songhurst and the girls hailed from differing social backgrounds,^[a] the two were best friends, having become acquainted through their shared love of jazz music and dancing approximately one year prior. Both also enjoyed cycling, and had scrupulously saved their money to purchase their own bicycles: Reed had purchased a bicycle with money saved from her earnings as a machinist earlier in 1953; Songhurst had also recently purchased a new bicycle for £17 (the equivalent of approximately £400 as of 2024^[update]) with money earned via her employment as a chemist's shop assistant.^[4]

Later that afternoon, the two cycled together to a bebop concert to be held at York House, Twickenham, where several of their friends were also socialising.^[6] Several hours later, Reed and another girl left the premises to visit a nearby café as Songhurst danced with an American soldier based at Bushy Park; she later joined her friends at the café.^[5]

Reed and Songhurst left York House shortly before midnight; they cycled approximately three miles to Reed's home in Roy Grove, Hampton Hill where, by prearrangement, Songhurst spent the night.^[7]

At 10 a.m. on 31 May, Reed and Songhurst ate breakfast after Reed had redressed into a yellow cardigan and dark blue serge trousers; they then returned to Songhurst's home, where Barbara changed from her dancing clothing into a tartan shirt, blue jeans and a distinctive waist-high, wide black belt with a large clasp buckle before informing her mother she and Reed intended to cycle to Brighton. That afternoon, the girls returned to Reed's home before—at approximately 7:15 p.m.—cycling to a section of the River Thames towpath between Teddington Lock and Petersham, where several teenagers both knew were camping on the opposite side of the river.

Reed and Songhurst left their friends at approximately 11 p.m. As Songhurst's new bicycle was not fitted with lighting, one of the male campers lent her his cycle lamp. Several campers watched the friends cycle in the direction of Teddington Lock, where they were to cross an iron bridge en route to their homes. The last individuals to see the girls alive were a courting couple sitting alongside the towpath.^[8]

At 8:15 p.m. on 1 June, a man named George Coster discovered the body of a teenage girl floating face-down in the Thames as he cycled to work;^[9] he immediately notified authorities, who instructed the Marine Policing Unit to retrieve the body, which was then taken to Richmond mortuary.

Extensive injuries upon the body indicated the decedent had been violently murdered. A search of the vicinity revealed the girl had evidently been attacked approximately half a mile from the location of her discovery at a location known locally as Lovers' Glade.^[10] This site was approximately 400 yards from a lock within a secluded section of a secondary towpath which runs parallel to the main towpath by the Thames and is surrounded by shrubbery, trees and bushes.^[11] At this location, two large pools of blood were discovered in addition to numerous blood spatterings upon sections of shrubbery and ample sections of churned soil indicative of a ferocious physical struggle between the decedent and her murderer. A forensic analysis of the two pools of blood revealed one pool—located closer toward the centre of the towpath—to be type A^[12] and the other type O. The decedent in the river had type A blood. Furthermore, two pairs of women's shoes—one pair two sizes larger than the other—were recovered near a poplar tree 5 feet (1.5 m) from the crime scene,^[13] indicating more than one victim.^[14]

The decedent's autopsy was conducted by pathologist Keith Mant, who described the victim as a brunette, Caucasian female in her mid-teens and 5 ft (150 cm) in height who had died approximately eight hours prior to her discovery. She had received a deep laceration to her left cheek, which had fractured her cheekbone in addition to three stab wounds to the back—each of which had punctured her lungs and had had penetrated her body up to nine inches in depth. She had also received a skull fracture and numerous scratches and bruises on her legs likely sustained as she fought her assailant. This theory was further supported by several fibers sourcing from a man's sports jacket recovered from beneath her fingernails. The girl had also been violently raped.^[15] Mant was also able to determine the weapons used to inflict the injuries to the decedent were a distinctive Gurkha knife with a one-inch-wide blade and a small hatchet and that the perpetrator had likely been "a man of unusual strength".^[16]

Songhurst's parents formally identified their daughter on the afternoon of her discovery; her mother also informed police she had last seen her daughter in the company of Christine Reed on Sunday morning and that she had assumed her daughter had simply chosen to spend the previous evening at Reed's home, but had expected her home that day as her daughter had been looking forward to the upcoming Coronation of Elizabeth II and had entered a local bathing beauty contest in celebration of the occasion to be held the following evening.^[17] She had only learned her daughter was missing when she failed to show up for work that morning, and had also discovered from Reed's parents their daughter was also missing.^[13]

Formally establishing Songhurst's identity and learning her close friend was also missing led investigators to conclude Reed had most likely also been murdered. This conclusion was supported by the discovery of articles of Reed's clothing alongside garments belonging Songhurst at the site were two individuals had evidently been violently assaulted and murdered. As such, a decision was made to dredge a three-mile section of the River Thames between Teddington Lock and Richmond.^[18][19] Shortly after the Port of London Authority opened the sluices at Teddington Lock on 2 June, an electromagnet located Reed's distinctive blue-and-cream BSA bicycle beneath the river approximately one hundred yards from the site where the girls had evidently been attacked.^[b] A distinctive Gurkha knife was also later recovered from the riverbed.^[14]

Reed's partially-clothed body was found submerged close to Glover's Island on the afternoon of 6 June.^[21][22] Her autopsy revealed she had received six stab wounds to her back, six stab wounds to her chest and one stab wound above her left wrist. One of the wounds to Reed's back had pierced her lung, while four of the wounds to her chest had entered her heart. Her skull had been fractured in two places and, like Songhurst, Reed had been violently raped. All the injuries had been inflicted with a small hatchet and either a stiletto or Gurkha knife.^[16]

The pathologist who conducted Reed's autopsy placed the time of death as occurring between five and six days previous; he was also able to determine she had still been alive when thrown into the river.^[20]

The murders of Reed and Songhurst received considerable media attention, and numerous television and radio appeals encouraged potential eyewitnesses or individuals with information to assist in the intense police manhunt to apprehend the murderer. The individual assigned command of the investigation was Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Herbert Hannam.^[23]

Hannam established both girls had been responsible, family-oriented and virtuous, with no known enemies. Although both had enjoyed the company and attention of males, neither had been promiscuous, and both had been virgins prior to their rape.^[3][10] All individuals known to the girls—including the three camping teenage boys they had specifically cycled to meet on the date of their murder—were eliminated from police enquiries. As Songhurst was known to have frequently danced with United States Air Force servicemen stationed at Bushy Park, all personnel at the base were questioned and likewise eliminated. Over 1,600 individuals would be questioned and eliminated throughout the enquiry, and several known sex offenders interrogated and eliminated as suspects.^[17]

Initial public appeals resulted in the courting couple whom the girls had cycled past coming forward to inform police they had sat on the bank of the River Thames from 10 p.m. until midnight on the date of the murders; both revealed they had heard the male campers briefly chat with, then say "Goodbye", to the girls before both had cycled past them in the direction of Teddington Lock shortly before midnight. One of these individuals had heard a brief, high-pitched scream shortly thereafter, but had paid no attention to the noise.^[20]

Both the time at which the murders had occurred and the somewhat secluded location of the crime scene led investigators to conclude the perpetrator was most likely either local to the area or someone familiar with local transport networks.^[3] Furthermore, as both victims had been riding bicycles at the time of their initial assault, and the wounds to both were similar in nature in addition to having been applied with considerable force, Hannam believed the murderer had likely incapacitated one victim by either stunning her with, or throwing the axe at her head or torso as she cycled along the towpath before rapidly overpowering the other victim—possibly by throwing a knife at her back.^[20]

On 12 June, a 46-year-old woman was approached by a young man on a bicycle ostensibly asking for directions as she walked her dog in Windsor Great Park. As she attempted to describe the directions for this man she was dragged into nearby undergrowth at knifepoint and sexually assaulted, though not raped. The modus operandi of this attack had been similar to the rape of a 14-year-old girl in the Oxshott Heath and Woods on 24 May. In this instance, the schoolgirl had first been rendered unconscious by a blow to the head from the flat edge of an axe-like instrument, with her assailant having crept upon her from behind. She had also been walking a dog when attacked. As such, investigators were unable to discount a link between the two cases, or rule out the possibility the perpetrator had also murdered Reed and Songhurst.^[24]

Enquiries into the rape of the schoolgirl produced an eyewitness who had seen a young, dark-haired man wearing gloves following a schoolgirl from a distance as she walked across a heath at the approximate time of the assault. Another witness had seen a man matching this description waiting for a bus close to Oxshott Heath and Woods shortly after the rape had occurred; this individual also added the man had a cleft chin. A facial composite of this individual was created and extensively distributed throughout the media.^[25]

Several days after the facial composite was released to the media, on 17 June, two builders spotted a man matching this description sitting on a tree stump close to Oxshott railway station. Both recognised him as a man they had previously worked with: Alfred Charles Whiteway. He was briefly questioned by two policeman before undergoing formal questioning at Kingston police station, but was soon released as he was not considered to closely resemble the identikit of the suspect.^[26]

On 28 June, Whiteway was arrested by the Surrey Constabulary; this arrest was in relation to the sexual assault he had committed in Windsor Great Park sixteen days previous. Both the victim of this sexual assault and the man who had seen a suspicious individual waiting for a bus close to Oxshott Heath and Woods shortly after the 24 May rape of the schoolgirl at this location positively identified Whiteway when asked to view an identity parade.^[3] A search of Whiteway's home revealed a pair of recently-washed crêpe-soled shoes which he admitted habitually wearing; Forensic testing revealed traces of blood in the seam and eyelets.^[27][28]

Whiteway was remanded in custody in relation to both sex attacks on 1 July; he denied any involvement in the sexual assaults. Upon learning of these developments and the fact the 21-year-old labourer and father-of-one had recently separated from his pregnant wife, was a body-building enthusiast, was also known to practice knife throwing as a hobby, and lived with his parents in Teddington at the time of the murders,^[29][30] DCI Hannam chose to question Whiteway with regards to his whereabouts on 31 May.^[31]

Several days after Whiteway was remanded in custody, he was questioned by DCI Hannam in relation to both the sexual assaults and the towpath murders. On this occasion, Whiteway admitted responsibility for the sexual assaults but denied responsibility for the murders.^[32] When questioned with regards to an earlier admission he had owned a small axe, Whiteway first claimed the tool was in the cupboard of his wife's Twickenham home before admitting he had hidden the tool beneath the driver's seat of a police car following his 28 June arest.^[33]

Prior to this admission, a Kingston police officer named Arthur Cosh had discovered a small axe concealed beneath the driver's seat of a police car while cleaning the vehicle.^[34] As no member of the public had enquired about the tool for several days, the constable had taken the tool home and had been using the instrument to chop wood in his basement; he later retrieved the axe from his home and presented the tool to Hannam upon learning of the item's significance in relation to the murder investigation. A forensic examination of the tool yielded no physical evidence linking the item to Whiteway, although the axe's dimensions perfectly matched wounds inflicted to both murder victims.^[35]

On 30 July, DCI Hannam again interviewed Whiteway. On this occasion, he presented the tool to Whiteway. According to Hannam, upon viewing the axe, Whiteway almost immediately stated: "Blimey, that's it. It was ... sharp when I did it. I sharpened it with a file." He then further elaborated: "It's all over. You know well I done it, eh? [My shoe] buggered me."^[36][37]

On 18 September 1953, Whiteway (then aged 22) was formally charged with the murders of Reed and Songhurst. When asked if he wished to speak at this committal hearing, Whiteway stated, "I have denied the charges."^[38]

As Whiteway's blood type was determined to be the same as Christine Reed, greater physical evidence existed to connect him with the murder of Barbara Songhurst; as such, the Crown subsequently opted for him to be tried solely for her murder.^[12]

Whiteway was brought to trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of Barbara Songhurst on 26 October 1953. He was tried before Mr Justice Hilbery.^[39] The prosecution consisted of Christmas Humphreys and J. F. Claxton; the defence consisted of solicitor defended Arthur Prothero, who instructed Peter Rawlinson (then a relatively junior barrister). Whiteway pleaded not guilty to the charge.^[40]

The primary evidence against Whiteway was his alleged signed confession, which was introduced into evidence in the opening days of the trial and which DCI Hannam testified "unlocked the whole crime". Hannam testified as to both the circumstances surrounding the obtaining of the confession and the actual contents, also alleging that Whiteway had said to him he would later claim his confession was "all lies".^[41]

Upon cross-examination, Hannam's testimony pertaining to Whiteway's confession was subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism by Peter Rawlinson, who successfully outlined several discrepancies and inaccuracies in Hannam's accounts, including official records of interviews in which Whiteway had told police he did not know what he was actually being asked to sign when instructed to add his signature to the alleged confession.^[41][c]

Rawlinson also poured scorn on Hannam's claim that a police officer had found an axe beneath a seat of a police car and had subsequently taken the tool home to chop wood, only to later learn of the item's significance in a widely publicised murder case and bring the item to investigators after his client's arrest. Whiteway's wife also testified her husband had been drinking tea with her on the porch of her home at 11:30 p.m. on 31 May, when the victims were last seen alive, adding her parents had refused to allow him into her home.^[3]

The physical evidence introduced into evidence included the weapons used in the commission of the murders, with Keith Mant testifying the laceration wound to Songhurst's cheek was consistent with having been inflicted by an axe of the size of the one presented into evidence.^[15] The dimensions of the flat edge of the weapon perfectly matched the fractures inflicted to her skull.^[42]

Contemporary press reports pertaining to Whiteway's trial were critical of the defence's implication that police had fabricated evidence against Whiteway;^[16] however, in view of police methods of the time, and Hannam's subsequent admissions expressing the opinion that the law sometimes must be ignored by detectives, subsequent commentary has thought it not unlikely that Whiteway had been "verballed".

The jury retired to consider their verdict on 2 November; they deliberated for forty-eight minutes before announcing they had reached their verdict: Whiteway was found guilty of Songhurst's murder. He closed his eyes and swayed slightly as the sentence was passed, then left the courtroom in silence.^[44]

After Whiteway had left the dock, Judge Hilbery ordered that charges against Whiteway for the murder of Christine Reed and the separate charges of rape and attempted rape for which he had initially been arrested lie on file.^[43]

Whiteway did appeal his sentence; his appeal contended the trial judge had wrongly permitted the fact he had previously been arrested upon a charge of attempting to rape a 15-year-old girl to be introduced into evidence at his trial. The appeal was heard by the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Goddard), Mr. Justice Sellers and Mr. Justice Barry on 7 December, but was rejected the same day,^[45] with Lord Goddard describing the case as one of the "most brutal and horrifying crimes" he had encountered in many years and directly quoting Whiteway's confession upon announcing the upholding of the sentence. Upon hearing the rejection of her husband's appeal, Whiteway's 18-year-old wife, Cherry, burst into tears and had to be assisted from the courtroom.^[46]

Alfred Whiteway was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 December 1953. His executioner was Albert Pierrepoint.^[47]

• Smyth, Frank; Williams, Paul (1993). "The Towpath Murders". Real-Life Crimes. No. 23. London, England: Eaglemoss Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-1-856-29960-2.
• Wade, Stephen (2018). The Count of Scotland Yard: The Controversial Life and Cases of DCS Herbert Hannam. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-68102-3.

• The true crime documentary series Murder Maps has broadcast an episode focusing on the crimes of Alfred Whiteway. Titled The Towpath Murders and presented by Nicholas Day, this 45-minute episode was first broadcast on 26 October 2017.^[48]

• Bell, Amy (2014), Murder Capital: Suspicious deaths in London, 1933–53, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-719-09197-1
• Chibnall, Steven (2013), Law-and-Order News: An Analysis of Crime Reporting in the British Press, Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-1-136-42249-2
• Cullen, Pamela V. (2006). A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams, London: Elliott & Thompson. ISBN 978-1-904-02719-5
• Fielding, Steven (2008). Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners, London, John Blake Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-843-58563-3
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• Innes, Brian (2000), Bodies of Evidence, London: Amber Books Ltd., ISBN 978-1-856-05623-6
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• Koestler, Arthur (2019), Reflections on Hanging, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, ISBN 978-0-820-36974-7
• Lane, Brian (1995), Chronicle of 20th Century Murder, Bournemouth: Select Editions, ISBN 978-0-425-14649-1
• Lucas, Norman (1974), The Sex Killers, London: W. H. Allen & Co., ISBN 978-0-491-01481-6
• McRery, Nigel (2013), Silent Witnesses: A History of Forensic Science, London: Random House Books, ISBN 978-1-847-94683-6
• Morris, Jim (2015), The Who's Who of British Crime: In the Twentieth Century, Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN 978-1-445-63924-6
• Smyth, Frank; Williams, Paul (1993). "The Towpath Murders". Real-Life Crimes. No. 23. London, England: Eaglemoss Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-1-856-29960-2.
• Traini, Robert (1960), Murder for Sex, and Cases of Manslaughter Under the New Act, United Kingdom: William Kimber & Co Ltd., ASIN B002A8XQA6
• Van der Kiste, John (2012), Surrey Murders, Stroud: History Press, ISBN 978-0-752-48393-1
• Wade, Stephen (2018), The Count of Scotland Yard: The Controversial Life and Cases of DCS Herbert Hannam, Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN 978-1-445-68102-3
• Yount, Lisa (2007), Forensic Science: From Fibers to Fingerprints, New York City: Chelsea House Publishing, ISBN 978-1-604-13061-4

• British Executions case file pertaining to Alfred Charles Whiteway
• Contemporary news article pertaining to the towpath murders
• 16 September 1953 Sydney Sun news article detailing the murders of Reed and Songhurst
• The Towpath Murders: Death and Destruction on the River Bank at crimeandinvestigation.co.uk