Kenneth Erskine - Crimes

Crimes

Erskine's criminal career began with a number of burglaries, and he was able to open ten separate bank accounts with the proceeds of his crimes.

During 1986, Erskine murdered at least seven elderly people, breaking into their homes and strangling them; most often they were sexually assaulted. The crimes took place in London.

His first victim was Mrs Eileen Emms (78), of Wandsworth, who died on 9 April 1986. Her death was originally not believed to have been murder, and it was only established that she had been murdered when a television set was detected missing from her flat. A post mortem examination revealed that she had been raped and strangled.

His second victim was Mrs Janet Cockett (67), who died on 9 June 1986 after being strangled in her flat on the Wandsworth housing estate on which she was chairwoman of the tenants association. Erskine's palm print was found on a window at Mrs Cockett's flat.

On 28 June 1986, Erskine claimed his third and fourth victims (both men) at a residential home in Stockwell. His victims were Polish pensioners and World War II veterans: Valentine Gleim (84) and Zbigniew Strabawa (94). Both men were sexually assaulted and strangled.

Erskine's fifth victim was Mr William Carmen (84), of Islington. He stole money from Mr Carmen's flat before molesting him and strangling him to death in an attack on 8 July 1986.

He claimed his sixth victim on 21 July 1986, when he committed a similar fatal attack on 74-year-old Mr William Downes in a Stockwell bedsit.

The final victim was Mrs Florence Tisdall, an 83-year-old widow who lived at a retirement complex in Fulham. She was found dead by the caretaker on the morning of 23 July 1986.

Erskine was arrested on 28 July 1986 at a social security office. Police were then able to match his palm print to one left at one of the murder scenes, and he was identified in a police lineup by a 74-year-old man who claimed Erskine tried to strangle him in his bed a month before police apprehended him.