The Stockwell Strangler
In the summer of 1986, South London was stalked by the Stockwell Strangler, a ruthless predator who crept into the homes of elderly residents and strangled them in their sleep. With a growing body count, no clear motive, and an increasingly terrified public, the police launched one of the biggest manhunts in London’s history to catch Kenneth Erskine before he could kill again.
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Key details:
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Victims
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Nancy Emms, 78
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Janet Cockett, 67
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Valentine Gleim, 84
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Zbigniew Stabik, 94
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William Carmen, 75
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William Downes, 74
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Florence Tisdall, 80
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Fred Prentice (Only survivor)
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Perpetrator: Kenneth Erskine, 24
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Offence: Serial Murder
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Location: South London, including Stockwell, Clapham, Wandsworth, and Putney.
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Date: April - July 1986
Key Details
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Kenneth Erskine was a homeless drifter with a long history of burglaries before escalating to murder.
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Born in 1963 in Hammersmith, London, to an Antiguan father and English mother.
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Had a history of violent behaviour from childhood, including attempts to drown classmates and physically attack teachers.
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Spent time in special schools for "maladjusted children" and was expelled multiple times.
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At 16, his family disowned him after he attempted to strangle his younger brother and introduced him to drugs.
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Became homeless, drifting between hostels, squats, and social housing while funding his life through burglaries.
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Had a below-average IQ and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, though he was fully convicted of murder at the time.
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Attacked at least seven elderly victims, strangling them in their beds while they slept.
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Often knelt on their chests to subdue them, crushing their ribs in the process.
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Many victims had their nightclothes folded neatly beside them and their family photos turned face-down.
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Some victims were also sexually assaulted post-mortem, adding an even more disturbing element to the crimes.
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Erskine left very little evidence, but detectives found palm prints at multiple crime scenes, which eventually led to his arrest.
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Attempted to kill Fred Prentice, who managed to trigger his emergency panic button, scaring Erskine away.
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Despite multiple murders and a growing public panic, Erskine continued his killing spree, showing no fear of capture.
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The press dubbed him "The Stockwell Strangler," though some early reports called him "The Heatwave Killer."
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The first murder was misclassified as natural causes, delaying the hunt for the killer.
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Police searched millions of fingerprint records manually, as palm prints were not yet digitised.
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The breakthrough came when a partial palm print found on a bathroom window was finally matched to Erskine.
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Erskine was arrested on July 28, 1986, at a Southwark benefits office while collecting his unemployment payment.
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When questioned, Erskine giggled, muttered to himself, and barely acknowledged detectives.
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He was charged with seven counts of murder and remanded in custody.
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Tried at the Old Bailey in 1988, where he was convicted of seven murders and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 40 years.
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Prosecutors described him as a "callous and remorseless killer", while psychiatrists debated his mental capacity.
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Later diagnosed with schizophrenia, leading to a successful appeal to reduce his convictions to manslaughter in 2009.
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Transferred from prison to Broadmoor Hospital, where he remains under psychiatric care.
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In 2023, reports surfaced that Erskine had been granted supervised day releases, sparking outrage among victims' families.