Murder by the Sea

True crime author Geoffrey Wansell looks into the case of a killer whose violent fantasies lead him to pray on vulnerable people.

Deadly tales from the coastlines of the United Kingdom.

The discovery in 1961 by three cavers of a sack containing human bones in a disused lead mine close to the town of Caswell near the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, would finally resolve a mystery more than 40 years old. 

59 year old landlord Alec Warburtorn was savagely beaten, by what was in the view of the pathologist, most likely a hammer. His assailant David Ellis,41, then coolly drove the body over 140 miles to a disused quarry in North Wales that he had visited as a child, and thought was the perfect spot for disposing of his victim's body. He attempted a getaway to Northern Ireland by ferry, but was arrested there by the Garda after the victim was reported missing by his brother, some 3 days later. Most remarkably though, the heartless Ellis tried to claim self defence due to unwanted sexual advances from the older man, a claim that was not to sway the jury who were told by a forensic pathologist that the attack consisting of at least three heavy blows, was most likely from behind and there were no defensive injuries.

The strange relationship between mother and son Penelope and Barry Rogers, with eyewitness reports of overly close contact, leading some to believe incest was a possibility, was overshadowed by a much more sinister crime. The two planned and eventually murdered Penelope's own mother Betty Guy, intoxicating her with booze and drugs before callously smothering her. A rare case of both a mother and son involved in matricide.

A look back at the 1953 poisoning of Blackpool resident 79 year old Sarah Ann Ricketts by her new housekeeper , Louisa May Merrifield aged 49. Lousia was married to a much older man of 71 who was famously described as a simpleton , leaving the jury at Manchester Assizes unable to reach a verdict for his involvement. Louisa however was not so lucky and was dispatched by Albert Pierrepoint who coincidentally had honeymooned in the town.