70 Facts About Gordon Cummins

Gordon Frederick Cummins was a British serial killer known as the Blackout Killer, the Blackout Ripper and the Wartime Ripper, who murdered four women and attempted to murder two others over a six-day period in London in February 1942.

Gordon Cummins is suspected of committing two earlier murders in October 1941.

Gordon Cummins became known as the "Blackout Killer" and the "Blackout Ripper" because he committed his murders during the imposed wartime blackout and because of the extensive mutilations inflicted upon three of his victims' bodies.

Gordon Cummins is known as the "Wartime Ripper" as his murders were committed at the height of World War II.

The murders committed by Gordon Cummins have been described by one Detective Superintendent within the Metropolitan Police as "by far the most vicious" he ever investigated during his entire career.

Gordon Frederick Cummins was born in New Earswick, North Riding of Yorkshire, on 18 February 1914, the first of four children born to John Cummins and his wife Amelia.

Gordon Cummins's father was a civil servant who ran a school for delinquent youths; his mother was a housewife.

Nonetheless, Gordon Cummins did obtain a diploma in chemistry at age sixteen.

At age 18, Gordon Cummins moved to Newcastle, where he briefly worked as an industrial chemist.

Gordon Cummins was dismissed from this job after five months.

Gordon Cummins later trained to become a foreman at this firm.

Gordon Cummins frequented hotels and clubs in the West End, falsely claiming to acquaintances to be the illegitimate son of a peer and claiming to receive an allowance from this fabled individual.

Shortly thereafter, Gordon Cummins moved into his brother's flat in Queens Mews, Bayswater, as he considered his next career move.

In early 1935, Gordon Cummins volunteered to join the Royal Air Force.

Gordon Cummins enlisted at the Air Crew Reception Centre in Regent's Park, London, where both serving members of the RAF and new recruits were assessed for training.

Gordon Cummins initially trained as a rigger, tasked with undertaking flight checks on aircraft.

Gordon Cummins was regarded by his superiors as an ambitious individual, although his boastful attitude and false claims of nobility made him unpopular with his fellow servicemen, who derisively nicknamed him "the Duke".

In May 1936, Gordon Cummins became acquainted with Marjorie Stevens, the secretary of a West End theatre producer, at an Empire Air Day event in the village of Henlow.

On 25 October 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Gordon Cummins was transferred to Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire.

Gordon Cummins remained stationed in Dunbartonshire until April 1941, when he was posted to Colerne, Wiltshire.

At this posting, Gordon Cummins reached the junior rank of leading aircraftman, although he held aspirations to become a Spitfire pilot.

Gordon Cummins is known to have murdered at least four women and to have attempted to murder two others over a period of six days in February 1942.

Gordon Cummins is suspected of previously murdering two other women in October 1941.

All of Gordon Cummins's known murders and attempted murders were committed in London during wartime blackout conditions, imposed in September 1939.

Gordon Cummins is suspected of committing his first two murders in October 1941.

Gordon Cummins had been strangled to death with her own camiknickers by an individual described by the pathologist who examined her body as being a left-handed individual, as the bruising around Churchyard's neck indicated her murderer had more strength in his left hand than his right.

Gordon Cummins had been extensively bludgeoned about the face and head before her assailant had attempted to strangle her before cutting her throat.

At the time of these two murders, Gordon Cummins was stationed in Colerne, although when on leave, he is known to have frequently visited London, residing at an address in nearby St John's Wood.

On Sunday 8 February 1942, Gordon Cummins left an RAF establishment in St John's Wood to visit his wife at the flat they rented in Southwark.

Gordon Cummins's clothes had been disarranged and her scarf wound about her head.

Gordon Cummins was last seen alive by a waitress at the Maison Lyons Corner House in Marble Arch shortly before midnight, drinking a glass of white wine to celebrate her 41st birthday.

Gordon Cummins had been beaten about the mouth and chest, then strangled into unconsciousness before a six-inch cut had been inflicted to her throat, severing her right carotid artery.

Gordon Cummins was on her back with her legs apart and her knees bent upwards.

Gordon Cummins had been extensively beaten, then strangled to death upon her divan bed with a silk stocking which was still knotted beneath the right side of her jaw.

Gordon Cummins's body had been extensively slashed and mutilated with a variety of implements including a razor blade, a vegetable knife, a table knife and a poker, all of which were found protruding from or beside her body.

Gordon Cummins's abdomen had been opened, exposing her internal organs, with one further wound inflicted to the right side of her groin being "a deep, gaping wound" measuring ten inches in length.

Gordon Cummins later enrolled her daughter in a boarding school before relocating alone to London, where she obtained employment as a house cleaner in 1934.

Gordon Cummins later stated a "strange smile" appeared on Cummins's face as she removed her clothing, lay upon her bed and beckoned him to join her.

Gordon Cummins removed his clothes, then approached Mulcahy, clambered atop her, slammed his knees into her stomach and attempted to strangle her as he pinned her body to the bed with his own weight.

Mulcahy fought her attacker, kicking his stomach with her boot and breaking free of his grasp as Gordon Cummins fell to the floor beside her bed.

Possibly as a means of deterring Mulcahy from reporting the assault to police, Gordon Cummins partially dressed himself before approaching her neighbour's flat.

Gordon Cummins then grabbed his coat and fled, unwittingly leaving his RAF webbing belt at her address.

Shortly after his assault upon Mulcahy, Gordon Cummins encountered 32-year-old Doris Jouannet.

Shortly thereafter, Jouannet encountered Gordon Cummins, accepted his proposal, and took him to the two-room ground-floor flat at 187 Sussex Gardens, Bayswater, that she shared with her husband.

Gordon Cummins then returned to the Paddington Police Station to request the station officer alert Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department and the divisional surgeon to his discovery.

Gordon Cummins would engage in prostitution when her husband slept overnight at the hotel, as his employment frequently required him to do.

Heywood later stated that, at this point, Gordon Cummins became "unpleasantly forward" toward her: pushing her into a doorway near Piccadilly Circus and groping her waist as he attempted to persuade her to accompany him to a nearby air raid shelter.

Heywood was then strangled into unconsciousness as Gordon Cummins repeatedly muttered the words, "You won't".

Immediately after his attack on Heywood, Gordon Cummins visited a nearby pub, where he realized he had left his gas mask and haversack at the site of the attempted murder, and that the service number printed inside his haversack could be traced to him.

Gordon Cummins protested his innocence and claimed he had spent the evening drinking whisky and bitter with a corporal whose name he could not recall at the Volunteer Public House in Baker Street before the two took a taxi to Shaftesbury Avenue.

Gordon Cummins further claimed to only hold vague recollections of his conversations with this woman, due to his intoxication, although he did claim to have a "hazy recollection" of walking on the street in her company before realizing in the early hours he had violated his curfew and immediately returned to his base.

Gordon Cummins claimed to have no memory of attacking Heywood but expressed his regrets and offered to pay her compensation.

Immediately after Gordon Cummins provided a written statement of his account of the previous evening's events, he was arrested and held on remand upon a charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

Detective Chief Superintendent Frederick Cherrill was able to match the fingerprint of Gordon Cummins's left little finger and thumb with prints found upon the tin opener and broken mirror found near the body of Evelyn Oatley.

Gordon Cummins insisted he had never encountered any of the murder victims, and claimed to be unable to recognise their photographs.

When presented with the victims' personal belongings recovered among his own possessions, Gordon Cummins claimed the items had been "taken from a service respirator case I was carrying when arrested, but which was not mine".

Gordon Cummins then recounted his claim that he had either picked up the wrong haversack or that another airman had switched his own gas mask and haversack with his.

Gordon Cummins was held on remand at HM Prison Brixton, to await trial.

Gordon Cummins himself seemed uninterested in the legal proceedings; occasionally chatting in a light-hearted manner with his lawyers or turning from the bar to smile and wave at his wife, who steadfastly believed in his innocence.

Gordon Cummins will tell you that there have been some half-million fingerprints taken in this time and there have never been two alike.

Gordon Cummins was then asked whether he had any legal reason or cause as to why the court should not impose the penalty of death.

Gordon Cummins voiced no concern over his predicament, although he did lodge an appeal against his conviction.

Gordon Cummins's appeal was rejected by the Lord Chief Justice in early June 1942.

Gordon Cummins was executed by Albert Pierrepoint at Wandsworth Prison on 25 June 1942.

Contemporary news reports indicate Gordon Cummins was given a glass of brandy to calm his nerves.

Gordon Cummins then walked stoically to the scaffold, flanked by two warders, without offering any resistance.

Gordon Cummins's execution was conducted during a German air raid upon London.

Gordon Cummins is the only convicted murderer in British criminal history known to have been executed during an air raid.

Gordon Cummins's body was buried within the confines of the prison.

Scotland Yard investigators later stated they strongly believed Gordon Cummins had murdered all four women, in addition to the two women murdered in October 1941 while he had been stationed in Colerne prior to his November 1941 posting to Cornwall.