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John Childs
is a British murderer who killed six people between 1974 and 1978.
He was a professional criminal and contract killer,
although he surpassed many gangland hitmen in sheer brutality. One
victim was shot three times and then stabbed with a sword, while
another was battered with an axe and a lead pipe before being
strangled.
One unsuspecting victim was lured to a factory to be
killed, and he turned up with his 10-year-old son. Ignoring the
unwritten rule that gangsters supposedly refrained from hurting
women and children, Childs shot both father and son to death.
The remains of Childs' victims were never found
because he dismembered the bodies and cremated them in the fireplace
of his London home.
Childs was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980 and
remains in prison. It is suspected that he is on a whole life
tariff, meaning he will die in jail, though his name has never been
publicised as such. The last published list made it clear that some
names had been held back for various reasons, and it is possible
Childs' name was one such.
Two alleged accomplices, Terry Pinfold and Harry
Mackenney, were also sentenced to life, primarily on Childs'
testimony, but in 2003 they were released after their convictions
were quashed on appeal.
John Childs
is a British murderer who killed six people between 1974 and 1978.
Childs was a professional criminal and contract killer, although he
surpassed many gangland hitmen in sheer brutality.
Victims
Terry (Teddy) Eve was killed in August 1974. Terry was
beaten with a piece of pipe and an axe before Childs strangled him to
death.
Robert Brown - was killed in January
1975. Robert was shot 3 times then axed and stabbed with a knife and a
sword.
George Brett and Terry Brett
murdered in November 1975, were father and son, both victims were shot
in the head.
Freddie Sherwood was killed in July
1978, he was also shot in the head.
Ronald Andrews was killed in October
1978, shot in the head.
Childs burnt the body of each victim in the
fireplace of his London home. Childs had tried to mince the body and
dispose of it down the toilet. This proved to be impossible so the
bodies were dismembered with a saw and a wooden mallet, before
incinerating them. Detectives reconstructed this burning using an 11-stone
pig to prove it was possible.
Trial
Childs claimed to have worked with Harry McKenney
and Terry Pinfold and the trio were sentenced to life imprisonment,
McKenney and Pinfold were recommended to serve 25 years before parole,
but it has since been reported that Childs has been issued with a
whole life tariff which means he is unlikely ever to be released.
However Terry Pinfold and Harry McKenny were both
released from prison in 2003 after the Court of Appeal in London
quashed the convictions as unsafe. The judges said the evidence
against Terry Pinfold, from Hornchurch, Essex, and Harry Mackenney,
from Dagenham, Essex, was “so unreliable that it is worthless”.
Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, said fresh
evidence showed Childs - regarded as an unsatisfactory witness even at
the trial - was a “pathological liar”.
Wikipedia.org
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