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A serial killer who was never detected by police may have been pinpointed by a new ‘murder map’ of 1,000 unsolved cases in the UK. The map shows that two women were strangled in Cardiff in strikingly similar crimes, which were committed just a few weeks apart in 1943. But perhaps because the murders were investigated during wartime blackouts, it appears that detectives didn’t link the crimes at the time, and both remain unsolved to this day. According to renowned criminologist Professor David Wilson, the likelihood is that once a predator starts such a violent pattern of behaviour, they won’t stop until they are caught. However, the wartime environment that made it possible for a predator to get away with murder may have also brought the killing spree to an end before a third victim was killed, the number of murders required to define a serial killer. Professor Wilson, a former prison governor and emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said: “I was really intrigued by this. Could the murder of these two women in Cardiff be linked? Yes. “The chances are, this was someone who was fighting in the war, or was about to fight in the war. He may have been stopped when he was killed in the fighting.” The first case is the unsolved murder of Mabel Harper, dating back to August 1943. The wartime blackout meant there were no street lights to illuminate the way as she walked home late at night through the centre of Cardiff after missing her last bus. The 53-year-old widow was attacked and beaten so savagely that a pathologist later said that her injuries may have been enough to kill her. But the murderer was not finished. He used her own clothing to tie and gag her, then sat on top of her and strangled her. The crime occurred under the cover of darkness on Western Avenue, a busy thoroughfare. A married couple walking along the street that night actually saw the killer as he sat astride Mabel, but assumed they were lovers and walked on. Three months later, a second woman, 29-year-old Alice Pitman, was similarly attacked in Cardiff. Her body was found in Cathays Park on Sunday, November 7, 1943, less than two miles away from where Mabel was murdered. Like Mabel, she had been strangled, this time with her own stockings. This second murder garnered far less attention in the press, likely because police almost immediately swooped in to arrest a man who worked with Alice at a munitions factory, David Emlyn Davies. He was charged with murder, but was cleared during a trial barely six weeks later. Even after the collapse of the murder trial, police don’t appear to have considered the possibility that Alice was killed by the same man who murdered Mabel, despite the fact that both women were strangled, within a two-mile area, three months apart. While that could be because detectives were convinced they had the right man for Alice’s murder, police resources were badly stretched during the war. Many seasoned officers had left to join the fighting, to be replaced by inexperienced volunteers, like the War Reserve Police. The war effort also meant priorities had shifted to protecting lives and property during the Blitz. Professor Wilson, whose latest book, A History of Modern Britain in Twenty Murders, includes an analysis of crime during the Second World War, said: “The Blitz and the war really did allow a number of murders to take place and go undetected. It is well documented that a number of killers deliberately staged how they left their victims' bodies, so it looked like they might have been killed by falling masonry. “What this murderer did not do was to make any attempt to hide what he had done. This was very spontaneous and very violent. Once someone starts offending in that way, you don’t normally stop until someone stops you. “The other thing to remember is that being at war changes the underlying rules of civility. There’s a breakdown if you are only expecting to live for the day, the week, or the year. Normal rules of behaviour are blown asunder. “It’s no surprise that two serial killers started their cycle of murders during the war, John Christie and Gordon Cummins, who was known as the Blackout Ripper.” Christie, the Rillington Place Strangler, murdered his wife and a neighbour’s baby daughter in 1943, and went on to strangle a total of eight women, hiding their bodies at his flat. Cummins, a serviceman in the RAF, murdered at least four women during a six-day period in London in February 1942. Both serial killers were hanged. However, whoever murdered Mabel and Alice has never faced justice. And they were not the only Cardiff and South Wales victims of wartime killers who have never been caught. Five-year-old Joyce Cox vanished as she walked home from school in 1939. Her body was later found on a railway embankment. She had been strangled. Less than two weeks after Alice was murdered, in November 1943, Norah Bartlett was strangled to death in Swansea. However, Professor Wilson believes Joyce’s age and the distance between Cardiff and Swansea, where Norah was killed, rule out a link with whoever strangled Mabel and Alice. A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: “All historic murder cases, often referred to in the media as ‘cold cases,’ are allocated to the Major Crime Review Unit and remain under active consideration and will be subject of re-investigation as and when new information is received or when there are opportunities following advances in forensic science. “Each case is reviewed periodically. If information comes in from the public or other forces we act on it. “South Wales Police has had considerable success with cold case reviews, being one of the first forces in the country to set up a review team in 1999 to conduct cold case reviews.” The possibility of a Cardiff blackout strangler was uncovered during research to map a database of 1,000 unsolved murders. Our exclusive list was sourced from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every police force in the country, and supported with research through a wide variety of local newspaper archives. The database - including many in-depth features focusing on specific cases - has now been published in a new special publication, Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders volume II: Midnight Stalkers . Each case has also been included in our searchable, interactive online map. Many of the features are so famous that they remain locked in the national psyche, such as the Bible John murders that terrified Scotland during the 1960s. Other mysteries - however shocking at the time - have been consigned to history, such as the Cardiff murders of Mabel and Alice. Cases include many seemingly random attacks, usually on women, carried out by strangers, as well as violent robberies, gangland killings, and contract murders. Each remains an enigma, with families still seeking justice and answers - and in many cases, the murderer may still walk the streets. You can purchase a copy of Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders Vol II: Midnight Stalkers by following the link to our online shop. Or search our interactive map to find out if there are any unsolved murders near you.
