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The London Chambermaid Slayer - Gerald Thomas Archer · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Between nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy one, three women
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: were murdered inside their homes across southwestern Ontario, Canada. Each
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: case was investigated separately, and each left without answers. What
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: investigators didn't realize, though, was that the victims shared more
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: than just circumstances. They shared the same job, the same vulnerabilities,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and the same killer, and it would ultimately take decades
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: before they ever connected any of those dots. This is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the story of a man who got away with it
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: strictly because of circumstances. This is the story of the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: serial killer Gerald Thomas Art. This is the story of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the serial killer Gerald Thomas Archer, aka a London chamber
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: made slayer.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole and you're listening to Wicked
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcasting.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: The following podcast material more audience listeners. It's a Canadian
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: case today, so I thought it be a Canadian.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Be a Canadian?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Huh is this Canadian?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: The drink or the drinking?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Is drinking a Canadian thing?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's more than just a Canadian thing.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I know it is, but I was just I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: don't know, I didn't know what to say, and that's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: what I said, So I said it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, you know, I've got to enjoy a bevy
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: once in a while, especially after a hard day of researching.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: And it was a hard day of researching. So I
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: earned it. And here I am drinking.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Go there, you go?
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: There?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I is Shania Twain Canadian? Yes?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Okay? What? I was almost certain she was?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: How did you not know she was not Canadian?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Well? I was starting to dope myself. But anyway, are
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: you jealous of my shirt?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Yes? I am, but I feel like you should not
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: be wearing that shirt now.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Well I think I was getting her mixed up with
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: someone else with who another Canadian person? I think because
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Celine Dion is also Canadian.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Selene's Canadian.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Good singers.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So is Avri Levine.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Justin Biebes.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah not my not my favorite, not my forte, but
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he is Canadian. He's talented. We need to at least
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: admit that. Whether you like his music or not, he
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: is a talented individual.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Talented. Anyway, I am wearing a Shania Twain shirt and
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: it's a shirt Ben wanted. Yep, But why didn't you
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: get it?
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It was in the lady section. Lady shirt just not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: like like a cut or shirt design like size wise
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that I would wear, you know what I mean?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, well I love it. Yeah, just to make you jealous.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should just start wearing it anyways, You'll see
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: me just wearing it around and be like, man, A
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: feel lack woman. Sorry, I'm not going to keep doing that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Well have you gone to her concert? Ort all?
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: No, but I wish I had.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I know, I've gone once. It was awesome. Yeah, you
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: missed out.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I did. I missed it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe there'll be another opportunity.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe fingers crossed. But there's always another opportunity, especially when
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it comes to signing up over on Patreon. So shout
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: out to our patrons Gillian Ross, Petra Rachel Dryman, Calinda Jeffrey,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Heather Lavalley, Victoria Peters, and bat Jin. Thank you very
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: much for signing up on Patreon. And like I said,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it's ever too late to sign up and get that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: exclusive behind the scenes in the extra episode like the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: one that came out the other day. It was a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: bit of a fun one we did too.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: It was fun. Also, are you not going to comment
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: how I actually set you up for that sege, did
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: you mean to I sure.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Did know you didn't.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I did act really uh huh like pinky swear.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, And I just took the bait like think you.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Didn't take it. You kind of paused and I was like,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: what is he doing?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: That's perfect?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: But then you took it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Well. I was kind of acting a little casual about it,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay, that's what I was trying to do,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: make it seem a little more nonchalant.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Well, good job, because you had me fooled.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I was kind of well, that's good. Heck, I didn't
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: want it to be too chalant. I wanted non chalant,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you know, mix it up a bit. But we do
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: have an interesting case today. It's a Canadian case. As
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, it's another serial killer case. Like I said,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I've been diving into a bit of those again recently,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and I think this is one you've never even heard of.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I'm almost guaranteeing that. In fact, I have a feeling
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: many people have never heard of this case before.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Oh is it not very big big one out there?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: It's not very known. In fact, I had trouble finding
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: information for this case.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Really. It's a bit old, but not that old.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Well, it's also I think it's a matter of how
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the case unfolded over time too. That buried a lot
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of things about it, oh okay, and made it not
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: so much forefront because a lot of its situations you have,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you know, a serial killer happens and it's like great
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: big headlines, you know, oh, this serial killer on the loose, right,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and they try and find him and then boom they
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: got him or whatever. Well, this case, they didn't even
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: realize he was a serial killer until like way later.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Dang.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Then it was like, oh wait, that's attributed to him, okay.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: And then by that time it was like the headlines
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: are already decades old, and like, you know, it didn't
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: really ever explode in that sense.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: That's scary.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It is it is. It was a quiet quiet, a
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: slow burn, A slow burn, A slow burn.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, we've talked about that before. I don't think you
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: should use that word, but anyway, okay.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Well it's appropriate though, and I'm not trying to correlate
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: any sort of euphemisms or anything like that. I'm serious.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: It's it's a slow burn as far as the story goes,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and that's that's the case.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I can only associate slow burn with romance novels though
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: for some reason, So it just triggers something in my brain.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe you should stop reading so much smut. Maybe
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that's the solution.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I don't. I actually haven't been reading much. I think
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I need to read more smut. Whoa you just kidding? Okay, Now,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the last book I read it was it was kind
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of like romancy, but it was not like I would
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: have been fine with you listening to the whole book.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So there you go.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Oh so there's books you've listened to where you're not
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: fine with me listening. Oh yeah, Oh okay, all right,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: now I really know what kind of stuff's going down
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: in your headphones when you're when you're quote unquote working.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's get going, all right.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So, in the nineteen sixties and into the early nineteen seventies, London, Ontario, Canada,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: looked exactly like you like you would expect from a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: mid sized Canadian city, you know, especially when you hear
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: just even a little bit about it. It was known
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: as the Forest City, a place with tree lined streets,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: quiet neighborhoods, and a population that hovered around two hundred
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: thousand people. At the time. There was a university, a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: growing medical community, and the kind of steady, predictable pace
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of life that didn't draw a whole lot of attention
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to itself. However, beneath all that surface of this you know,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: amazing looking, flourishing city, something else underneath wasn't right. See,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: over a span of roughly twenty five years, from the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: late nineteen fifties into the mid nineteen eighties, the city
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and its surrounding areas saw a disturbing number of murders.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: In fact, by the time the researchers investigators began looking
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: back at that period, they identified more than thirty sides
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that showed signs of being connected to several different serial offenders.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: So it's almost like a Canadian Golden Age of serial killers,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: if you will. Now. Even more in settling, there were
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: points during that time where multiple killers had been operating,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in fact, all at once, overlapping one another, even in
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the same regions, without anyone fully realizing it. And at
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: that time though none of that was clear like it
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: is nowadays, police departments were often working case by case
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and going across different towns or jurisdictions. Even like a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: murder in London might not even be immediately connected to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: one that was in a nearby place like Chatham or
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: in Merlin, and communication between departments certainly wasn't what it
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: is today either. There was no shared database, no DNA profiling,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and not even a widely used understanding of what quote
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: unquote a serial killer really was. The term itself wasn't
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: part of everyday investigative language yet, so when bodies were found,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: they were treated it as isolated incidents, tragic, violent, but separate.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It's honestly something that we've talked about a few times
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: on this podcast at this point, howse killers can outpace
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: authorities and travel from location to location committing crimes without
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the connection ever being drawn, simply because of the slow
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: progression of cases and the difficult difficulty and communication between
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: different jurisdictions and police forces as well.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: You have to also think, is that scarier to know
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: that there's a serial killer out there or is it
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: better just not to know?
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely better to know, because you can at
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: least protect yourself in some certain sense of the word.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: You can know there's someone on the loose in your neighborhood.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: You can lock your doors, you can leave the lights on,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you can make sure that you know people are looking
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: out for you, and you look out for your neighbors.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: You have neighborhood watches. The list goes on. You can
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: do things, You can arm yourself, you can ready yourself.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I guess serial killers nowadays have to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: almost be smarter hey than they did then.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Really well, I think everyone does have to as well.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: True.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you go to a bar and you
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: do a silly little dance all drunk or something, there's
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a good chance it might end up on Instagram or TikTok.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: So you just got to live and act smarter no
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: matter what you do.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't that the truth?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah? But in this case, when there was tough communication
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and everything, it meant patterns were really easy to miss.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: And trust me when I say there were patterns. Victims
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: in some of these cases shared similarities. The violence showed
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: familiar traits. There were signs that certain offenders had very
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: specific methods and even targets, but without the tools or
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: systems to connect those dots, the bigger picture just stayed hidden.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Looking back now, it's clear that London and the surrounding
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: region were dealing with not just a single threat. They
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: were dealing with several and somewhere in that chaos, moving
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: between the cities, blending into bars, apartments and hotel corridors,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: one of those threats existed. He was a man who
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: at the time looked nothing more than like just another
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: face in the crowd. No one realized yet he was
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: part of that pattern, or how long he had already
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: been part of it at all. His name was Gerald
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Thomas Archer and he was born in nineteen thirty two
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in London, Ontario. By the time he reached adulthood, he
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: had already built himself a bit of a criminal record.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: By the age of eighteen, he'd been involved in offenses
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: like robbery, breaking and entering, and possession related offenses as well.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: It wasn't headlined stuff by any means, but it was
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: enough to establish a very a very early pattern, you know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: petty crime, instability, and tendencies to drift. As the years
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: went on, Gerald moved between towns in southwestern Ontario, taking
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: on temporary work when he needed it, but never holding
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: anything long term. He preferred it that way. Jobs came
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and went, and money came and went even faster. What
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: didn't change was where he spent most of his time, bars,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: cheap hotels, and the kind of places where people didn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: ask too many questions. Those were his regular kind of places. Then,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, he began talking with a woman
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: named Mary. The two didn't meet in person at first,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and it's not exactly clear how their relationship began. What
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: we do know is that it started through writing letters
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and correlations that way, which wasn't uncommon at the time.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Their relationship, though, it did blossom, and after about a
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: year of writing back and forth and being pen pals,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: they finally met in December of nineteen sixty seven. Then
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: eleven days later, they got married. Now, Mary was about
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: eighteen years older than Gerald. In many ways, she brought
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of stability that he didn't have on his own.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: She worked steady jobs, including at a nursing home, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: became the primary source of income in their life. Gerald,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, relied heavily on earnings of well
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: her earnings and earnings on hindside were welfare and whatever
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: sort of short term stuff you could find just to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: get the cash he needed right then and there. But
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: much of that money ended up going back into his routine,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you know, drinking, in local bars, often the cheaper and
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: rougher ones. At one point the couple lived in a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: small rural village of Merlin, which is a quiet community
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: in southwestern Ontario, located within what is now Chatham, Kent.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Then in October of nineteen seventy, they relocated to the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: nearby town of Chatham, roughly a half hour drive away
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: in about an hour from London, Ontario, settling in to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Adelaide Street South, a move that placed them closer to
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: a more active downtown area. Now. The move was a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: practical one because Mary needed to be closer to work,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and without a car, communicating from a smaller village had
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: become difficult, so it just made sense now. Their life
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: together wasn't glamorous by any means, was quiet, even strained,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and built around getting by. In this setting, Gerald looked
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: like a man who simply drank too much, worked too little,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and carried a bit of a criminal past. In the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: bars he frequented, he was just another regular, though in
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the neighborhoods he lived in, he was just another tenant
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: trying to make ends meet, and by all those accounts,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: he simply blended in to the many of those other
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: people like him in the area. But for now, that's
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: enough of Gerald. By the end of January nineteen sixty nine,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Jane Woolley was around sixty years old. She was living
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: alone in a small apartment on York Street in London, Ontario.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: She'd found herself a job and worked as a chambermaid
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: at a nearby hotel. It was called the London House
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and it was located at the corner of Dundas and Talbot.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It didn't pay much and no one paid much attention
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to her, but it was an honest and reliable living.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: People here came and went, and employees often did too.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And on January twenty ninth of that year, Jane went
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to collect your paycheck after she left for work, But
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: after that no one can say for certain where she went.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: She was known to spend time at local hotel bars,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: moving between places in the downtown area, but there were
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: no confirmed sightings of her after she left work that day.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Then she didn't even show up for work the next
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: day on January thirtieth, which at first didn't raise a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: media alarm. As I mentioned, the job had some people
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: who were not exactly staying all the time. High turnaround
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of employees if you will, and people deciding not to
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: show up for work and just not ever showing up
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: again was not exactly uncommon, and so by the thirty
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: first her position as a chambermaid had already been filled
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: with a new employee.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So she didn't show up, but they
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: just didn't really look into it and just filled it
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: with someone else.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Yep, So she didn't show up one day, and then
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: by the next day her positions filled.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: We see. That's kind of sad, because sometimes there could
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: actually be shit going down.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: And wrong, well exactly. But that's the thing is, there's
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: no indicators to say there's something wrong in a space
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: where people just don't show up all the time. You
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: assume it's just another one of those regular situations and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: not something out of the norm. I get what you mean, though,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: if only there was a way of knowing and actually
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: doing something about it. But thankfully that's kind of more.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: The case today is people will, we'll call you or
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: text you or email you or whatever, right, but back then,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: definitely not so much now. It wasn't until February third
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: that something about this actually started to feel wrong. Jane's
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: landlord became concerned when her rent, which was normally paid
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: on time, was now several days overdue. After knocking on
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the door and getting no response, they decided to let
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: themselves in, and what they found inside shocked them. Jane's
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: body was lying on the floor, positioned on her back
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: in a pool of her own dried blood. Her legs
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: were spread wide, and most of her clothes had been
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: violently removed. A pillow and several sweaters had been placed
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: over her head, too, partially covering her face. Nearby, her
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: purse had been emptied onto the floor, with no signs
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: of the money she had just recently collected from her paycheck.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: It was all gone. The phone was also found hanging
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: off the receiver so no calls could come in, and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: whether that was on purpose or accident, it's hard to say,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: because there was also clear signs that a struggle had
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: happened quickly and violently, but ultimately it seemed that she
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: had been overpowered and lost her life.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Brutal and she's only found because rent is due. Someone
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: needs something from her. Yes, I hate that.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Not to say that she didn't have friends or family
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: who would eventually check on her, but that's how it
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: came first, but.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: I mean too there was. It was less easy to
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: communicate with people back.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Then too, so definitely was now Soon nine one one
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: was called to the scene and when investigators came and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: they examined the body, they determined that Jane had died
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: from severe blunt forced trauma to the head. Yeah, that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: pool of blood she was lying in was definitely her own,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and she was bleeding significantly when she died. The injuries
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: were consistent with repeated forceful blows enough to incapacitate her
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: almost immediately, and based on the condition of her body
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and at the scene, it was believed that she had
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: been dead for several days before she was discovered, likely
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: since January twenty ninth, which was the last day that
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: she had been seen alive. There were also indications that
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the attacker had attempted to rape Jane, though no evidence
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of that was confirmed. The removal of the clothing and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: position of the body suggested the intent, but all investigators
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: knew was the primary cause of death remained the head injuries. Now,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: At first glance, her emptied purse suggested that this was
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a robbery. However, the amount of money missing wasn't a lot,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and the level of violence found of the scene didn't
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: match a simple theft scenario, so investigators began to suspect
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: that whatever had happened inside that apartment, it wasn't primarily
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: about money. Now, during the search of the scene, there
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: was one piece of information that stood out to investigators,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: one single piece of evidence that kind of had that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: asterisk beside it that made them look twice. See. There
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was an ash tray containing several cigarette butts, some of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: them contained lipstick on the end and some without. Now
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: this meant or likely meant that Jane hadn't been alone
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: at some point before she died, because theoretically those cigarettes
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: without lipstick were not hers. Whether that meant that she
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: lets went into her apartment willingly, or had been approached earlier, whatever,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: it's all unclear on how it played out, But at
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the time, investigators collected those cigarette butts as evidence for
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: future reference. The only thing though, now is without modern
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: forensic tools, there was no DNA analysis they could do.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: They have these cigarette butts, but there's little they can
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: do beyond just basic analysis, right right, because.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nowadays it would be like ohoh wow.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly, which is also my assumption on why they are
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: not certain on her being raped. Same thing deep right now.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Beyond that, there was almost nothing else going on at
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the scene, and soon the case just stalled out and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the trail went cold. More than a year passed by
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and the case just remained unsolved. Then in early September
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy, another woman was found. This time the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: discovery wasn't in the city. It was in the small
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: village of Merlin, about twenty minutes outside of Chatham, which
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: is a quieter place, even more removed from the kind
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of violence people associate with larger towns. Her name was
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Edith Arthier and she was fifty seven years old. She
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: lived alone in her home and worked as a chambermaid
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: at the William Pitt Hotel in Chatham. She carpooled to work,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and people in her small community knew when something was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: out of place, and on the morning of September fifth,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy something was. A neighbor and fellow carpool member,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Mary Gray, arrived to pick Edith up for work. However,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Edith wasn't outside waiting like she usually was, so after
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: knocking on the door to try and get her to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: come out for work and head on their way and
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: getting no response. Worry began to set in and eventually
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the police were called. When they entered her home for
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a welfare check, that's when they found Edith inside. She
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was found dead, laying on her back on the floor,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: still dressed in her nightgowns, surrounded by blood. It was
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: obvious right from the start that there were multiple weapons
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: involved in this murder, and all of them were taken
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: from inside the home. Kitchen knives were found nearby, and
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: an iron had been used as a blunt object. Edith
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: had suffered repeated blows to the head along with multiple
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: stab wounds. Blood had splattered all around, painting the surrounding
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: surfaces Crimson red, including up the walls, which indicated the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: level of force alone an animosity that had been used
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: during this attack. It was violent, personal, and.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Overwhelming, that is super savage.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Investigators also determined that Edith had been sexually assaulted and raped,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and just like Jane's case, money had been taken, but
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: again it didn't seem to be the primary motive. The
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: sheer level of violence far exceeded what you'd be expecting
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: from someone just looking to steal some cash, and like
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Jane's case as well. There was also no clear sign
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of a forced entry either or anything like that. Whoever
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: had come into Edith's home either convinced her to let
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: them in, or was someone she didn't immediately see as
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a threat or something. Now police began working the case
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and following leads, speaking to neighbors, trying to piece together
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: who might have been in the area at the time.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: But just like before, there was nothing solid that emerged.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: No witnesses could place a suspect nearby at the home
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: or in the home, and there was no physical evidence
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that pointed clearly into one direction. The investigation simply stalled out.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Another brutal murder, another woman living alone, another case that
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: couldn't be solved with the tools available in that era.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: But there was something else, something no one realized yet.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Edith Arthier had a connection to someone investigators would come
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to know later see through family ties. She was linked
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to Mary Archer, the wife of Gerald Thomas Archer. But
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: at the time that connection meant nothing. It wasn't flagged,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: it wasn't explored, it wasn't even recognized as important, and so,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: just like the case before it, Edith Arthier's murder went cold.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: By late January of nineteen seventy one, there was nothing
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: publicly linking the murders of Jane Woolley and Edith Arthier.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Both cases remained unsolved, handled separately and without a suspect,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and in Chatham life continued much of the same way
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: as it always had, especially in the downtown corps, where
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: hotels and bars served as social hubs for people finishing
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: work or looking to pass the time laid into the night.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: On the evening of January twenty second, nineteen seventy one,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: fifty seven year old Belva Russell, often called Bella by
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: those who knew her, went out with her common law husband,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Reginald Thomason. And now Reginald worked as a cab driver,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and that day had been payday, which gave them a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: reason to go out for drinks after running errands and
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: grocery shopping. You know, cash in hand, Let's go have
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a good night out together, right, maybe a date night
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: something like that. They started their evening at the Rankin
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: hotel bar at around six thirty pm, spending several hours together,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and at some point later in the night Reginald left
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: briefly to go home and change out of his work clothes,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: while Belva stayed behind. When he returned, they continued drinking
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: together at around eleven thirty pm, and it was some
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: time after that when the tube became separated. Reginald realized
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: that Belva was no longer in the bar he was in,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and after checking a few nearby locations and having another
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: drink himself, he eventually assumed that she must have just
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: gone home now. Belva, however, didn't go home. She had
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: instead made her way to another nearby location, the bar
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: inside the Meryll Hotel. It was close to her apartment
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: on Adelaine's Street South, only a short walk away. She
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: arrived there around midnight and sat in the women's section
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: of the bar, which was still common type of setup
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: for that era. She was soon joined by a friend,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Hugh Smith, and he also lived nearby. However, what they
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: didn't know was that also inside the MARYL Hotel that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: night was Gerald Thomas Archer. Now at the time, Gerald
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: was thirty nine years old. He was known in the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: area as irregular in bars like this, particularly the cheaper,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: more run down establishments, where he spent much of his
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: drinking time. Now, that night, he was seated at the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: men's section of the bar across the room from Belva.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Witnesses later described him watching her. He would sit there,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: sipping away in his drink casually, but his eyes continued
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: to glance up into her direction. Now, at some point
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: during the night, Belva got up from her table to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: use the restroom, and Gerald also got up and walked
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: in the same direction, disappearing briefly down the hallway that
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: led towards the back of the bar. And what if
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: anything was said between them during the moment back there
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: has never clearly been established, but both returned to the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: bar shortly afterwards. Now, this is actually where Gerald requested
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: permission to sit in the women's section, which was allowed
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: under the condition that there was a reason to be there,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: which is why Hugh was having, you know, the conversation.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, So that's how it works. You can sit
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: in that section and be kind of left alone if
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: you want, exactly, or if permission then someone can join
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: you exactly. Okay.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Now, Gerald was given permission for whatever reason I don't know,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: but he was granted access to the women's section, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: he took a seat near the cigarette machine, which was
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: positioned a short distance from Belva and Hugh. So he
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't going over to talk to them specifically or anything,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: but he was granted permission to go into the section alone,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't permission from Bella Belllva. No, she went
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: by Bella, didn't she didn't you say.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, I've been calling her bell.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, result But so it wasn't The permission wasn't granted
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: from her. It was from someone else.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from the establishment.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's like you go up to the bartender. Hey,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: is it cool if I go sit over there? Yeah,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you're all good, go ahead, I see. That's basically how
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: it played out. Now. Later in the night, a waiter
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: named William Bezo finished his shift and sat down with Gerald.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: The two began talking casually, initially about London and where
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: both had spent time, and the conversation eventually turned to Belva.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Now reportedly, Gerald made a well. He made several statements
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: in fact during that conversation that would become critical to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: understanding what had happened. Next. He claimed that he knew
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Belv's daughter and had spent time with her in the past.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: He also said that he'd been inside Belvi's apartment earlier
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that day, and described an incident in which the two
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: had a physical altercation. Now, at one point he even
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: stated that he had tried to quote force her to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: do something end quote, and added to it that if
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: she didn't quote smarten up end quote, he would be
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: killing her.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: And he's selling this to just some other.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Person, Yeah, someone who worked there and is just off shift,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: chilling and talking with a random and a bar.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: What the heck.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Now, at the time, those statements weren't taken seriously. I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: want to make that clear. It was just some like
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: badly timed dark humor maybe. I mean, we are talking
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: about a dingy bar in the nineteen seventies, late at
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: night by a man who'd been drinking. Not to give
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: it an excuse, but it makes a bit more sense
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: when you look at it in that case.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And so nothing was reported to police, and the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: conversation ended without any further attention. Now, not long after that,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the nights began to wind down. Hugh Smith eventually left
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the bar with Belva, and he walked her home right
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: up to her doorstep at forty three and a half
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Adelaine Street South, and then he watched her going side,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: closed the door behind her, saw a light come on,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and that was that. That was some time between approximately
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: one point fifteen and one thirty am. From that point on,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Belva was alone in her apartment, at least that's how
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: it appeared, but within the next half hour something changed.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: At approximately one forty five am, a downstairs neighbor, Myrtle Barks,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: was in her apartment when she began to hear voices
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: coming from above her. The voices were loud, and she
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: later stated that she recognized Belva's voice very clearly. The
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: other voice, a man's, was unfamiliar to her, and she
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: was certain it did not belong to her husband, Reginald. Now.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: The exchange wasn't calm either. It sounded almost certainly like
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: an argument, and at one point Myrtle heard Belva shout
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: words to tell the man to leave, ordering him to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: go down the stairs and get out of her home.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Shortly after that, there was a loud, crashing noise from above,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: followed by a continued movement of sword sounds like stumbling
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and shifting in a low, distant noise that went on
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: for some time afterwards. The disturbance lasted long enough in
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: fact that Myrtle, along with another person in the building,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Rick Blair. They eventually went outside to see if they
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: could determine what was even going on and happening, But
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: by the time they stepped out, the noise stopped. From there,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: there was nothing visible, there was no further sounds, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: so both of them returned to their apartments. Then, roughly
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes later, at around two am, Reginald arrived back
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: at the building. He had called a cab from a
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: nearby restaurant and was dropped off shortly before two fifteen am. Now,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: as he approached and began to go upstairs towards the apartment,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: a man suddenly came running down the stairs in the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: opposite direction. The two collide I had briefly in the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: stairway as they tried to kind of stumble past one another.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: It was a sudden and disorienting situation, and Reginald called
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: out to the man as he rushed past, what's going
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: on right, Like, he's clearly in a hurry.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: When you're kind of not expecting to see anyone exactly.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: But the man didn't stop, didn't say anything, He just
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: kept going and fast. He continued past him. And exited
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the building. And in that moment, Reginald felt something deep
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in his gut, and it told him something was wrong.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: He turned around, rushed up the stairs and went into
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: their apartment, and inside he found Belva lying on the floor.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: She was lying on her back in the dining room area,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: her arms extended outwards, her lower body exposed, with her
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: clothing partially removed and displaced nearby, and there was a
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: significant amount of blood present both beneath her and around
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the immediate area. It was obvious there had been a
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: violent strule.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Oh brutal. It's brutal that they got separated. Hey, yeah,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: because if that wasn't the case, this probably wouldn't have happened.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it's hard to say, but it definitely
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: reduces the risk of this occurring for sure.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: And then I'm assuming apartments too. Back then, they anyone
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: can probably just walk in. I don't think they would
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: have security.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, maybe they might have a key to open
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: or something.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: It's hard to say, possibly, but I'm kind of thinking
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: they wouldn't.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: They might not have. Yeah. Now, Reginald called out Belve's
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: name as he saw her lying on the floor, and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: he tried to wake her up, but there was no response,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and so soon he ran downstairs to try and get help,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and he knocked on Myrtle Bark's door, having already heard
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the earlier disturbance. She responded quite quickly and the two
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: returned upstairs together and then, realizing the severity of the situation,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: they soon called nine to one one. Police arrived at
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: approximately two twenty am, and it didn't take long for
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Belva to be pronounced dead.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from just hearing about the other women like you,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: I don't think you would survive that sort of attack.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, she had sustained extensive injuries, particularly to the heads,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and the level of trauma was consistent with repeated forceful blows.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: An autopsy was conducted later that very same day, approximately
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: eleven hours after her body was discovered, and the coroner
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: determined that Belva had died as a result of shock
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: caused by severe head injuries that she had sustained. Investigators
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: also concluded that the assailant had sexually assaulted and at
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: least attempted to rape Belva, based on the condition of
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: the body and the positioning of her clothes, but again
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: those details were merely assumed. Now blood samples were collected
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: from the scene and categorized by type, which served as
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: one of the few biologue tools available to investigators at
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the time. While this could not identify a specific individual,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: it could be used to include or exclude potential suspects
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: if a comparison was available. And once again, the apartment
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: itself showed signs of a struggle, but not a forced entry.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: There were similarities, however, the murder of Belv was different
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: from the beginning, not because of the violence, but because
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: of what followed immediately after. See for the first time,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: investigators were not starting from nothing. They had a timeline
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: that narrowed the window of the crime to a matter
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: of minutes. They had neighbors who had heard the disturbance
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and who could place a man inside the apartment shortly
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: before the attack. And most importantly, they had Reginald, someone
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: who had physically encountered a man fleeing the scene. This
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: changed everything, and officers began working outwards from the scene,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: speaking with neighbors in any one one who had been
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in the area during the early morning hours. Myrtle Barks
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: provided a very clear account of the argument she had overheard,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: including Belva's demand for the man to leave the apartment.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: With that information, investigators began focusing on individuals who may
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: have had contact with Belva earlier that night, and the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: attention it quickly turned to the Merrill Hotel. Belva had
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: been there shortly before returning home, and it was one
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: of the last confirmed locations where she had been seen alive.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Police officers spoke with staff and patrons alike, gathering accounts
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and with people who had been there, you know, trying
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: to see if they saw anything. It was during this
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: process that a key detail emerged. A waiter named William
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Bezo came forward and described a conversation he had a
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: man with in the bar earlier that night. It was
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a man he claimed was named Gerald Thomas Archer. William
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: said that Gerald hadim to no Belva and that he
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: had stated that that he had been in her apartment
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: earlier that day even and he described an altercation between
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the two of them. He also recalled Gerald making a
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: threatening remark about her, something that in hindsight took far
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: more significance than it had when it was initially stated.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, would From there, the case moved quickly. On
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: February ninth, nineteen seventy one, police released a composite sketch
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: based on the descriptions provided by witnesses, and the response
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: was pretty much immediate. Calls began coming in and several
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: pointed towards the same name, Gerald Thomas Archer, and three
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: days later, on February twelfth, investigators obtained and executed a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: search warrant for the home Gerald shared with his wife
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: on Adelaide's Street South, and during that search, officers recovered
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: a red shirt that had visible bloodstains on it. Now
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: the garment was seized and submitted for analysis, with its
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: blood type later found to match that of Belva Russell. Now.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: At that point police decided they would also arrange a lineup,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: and Belvo's widower, Reginald, was brought into view it and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: as soon as he was presented with the options in
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: front of him, without hesitation, he identified Gerald as the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: man he had encountered in the stairs that night, the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: same man who had collided with him while fleeing the
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: building just moments after Belva was murdered. So with physical evidence,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: witness statements, and a direct identification, investigators had what they needed.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: On February eighteenth, nineteen seventy one, Gerald Thomas Archer was
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: officially arrested and he was charged with the non capital
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: murder of Belva Russell's.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness, because it kind of was seeming like this
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: guy was just getting started.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, probably would have been the case in all of
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: His trial began in June of nineteen seventy one in
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Kent County and was presided over by Mister Justice W. F. Donahue.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors came out strong and introduced a timeline that investigators
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: had established, with the murder occurring at approximately two am.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: That estimate aligned closely with multiple accounts. Myrtle had heard
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the argument and the subsequent crash at around one forty
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: five am, followed by the continued movement and noise for
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: a period of time. Shortly after that, Reginald returned to
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: the building and then encountered the man running down the stairs,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: placing that individual at the scene at almost the exact
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: moment the attack would have concluded. The Crown's case centered
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: on the argument that Gerald was the man, and Reginald's
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: testimony became one of the most critical pieces of evidence
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: presented to the court. He described in detail the moment
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: he collided with the man on the staircase and later
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: identified Gerald in the police lineup without hesitation. In addition
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: to eyewitness accounts, the Crown introduced physical evidence recovered during
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the investigation too, the red shirt, for example, found in
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Gerald's home containing bloodstains that matched Belva's blood type. There
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: was also fingerprints recovered from within the apartment, including impressions
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: found on a door frame and unbroken glass at the scene,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and while not every piece of physical evidence could be
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: definitively attributed to Gerald, the culminative effect reinforced the Crown's
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: position that he had been present during the attack. The defense,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: in response, attempted to create reasonable doubt by offering alternative
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: explanations for the evidence. Gerald maintained that he had known
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Belva and that he had been inside her apartment earlier
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: that week. According to his account, he had brought her
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: alcohol while she was recovering from the flu. He had
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: shared a drink with her, and then left without incident.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: This explanation was used to account for any potential trace
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: evidence that might connect him to the apartment or the scene, saying,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: there's reason why it's there.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what you need. After recovering from the flu.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, well maybe in the seventies. You know, little whiskey
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and honey goes.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: A long way, you know, my goodness.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Now, regarding the bloodstains on the shirt and closed, Gerald
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: claimed that he frequently suffered from nosebleeds, suggesting that the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: blood found on the shirt was likely his own rather
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: than the victim's blood. Now, his wife, Mary, supported parts
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: of his testimony and provided an alibi two, stating under
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: oath that he had returned home at approximately one thirty
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: am on the night of the murder. She testified that
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: she had checked the time when he arrived, placing him
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: at home before the estimated time of the attack, which
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: was about two and the Crown challenged this timeline directly
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: saying if the murder had occurred at two am, as
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: they believe as the evidence suggested, then Gerald's claimed arrival
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: left a time gap that allowed for him to have
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: left the residence again, to then go commit the crime
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and return home without being noticed. Now, after hearing the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: testimony and reviewing the evidence, the jury was sent to deliberate,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and on June seventeenth, nineteen ninety one, they returned with
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: their verdict. Gerald Thomas Archer was found guilty, and the
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: following day, on June eighteenth, he was sentenced to life imprisonment,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and at the time, the sentence was mandatory for that charge.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: As he was being led out of the courtroom, Gerald
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: reacted to the verdict shouting, that's only the first strike
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: against me. The ballgame isn't over yet.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: What Yeah, seriously, yeah, what a complete jackass.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I know. And honestly, like that sounds like anger or
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: like denial or frustrate whatever emotions coming out right after
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: this trials concluded. However, in the years that followed, like
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: that statement, it's got a lot more of a different
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: meaning behind it when you really analyze it, a lot
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: more weight behind it, if you will.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Well, just like so disrespectful too, that's shocking.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, definitely. Now. After his conviction in June of nineteen
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: seventy one, Gerald entered the prison system to serve a
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: life sentence. However, parole eligibility exists, and in many cases,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: inmates can be released after serving a portion of their sentence,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: depending on behavior and other factors considered by parole boards,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: and in this case, for Gerald's well, he remained in
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: custody for only approximately fourteen years. In nineteen eighty five,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: he was granted parole and released back into the public.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: By that point, he was in his early fifties. The
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: case that ed sent to Well sent him to prison
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: had long since faded from the public attention, and the
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: earlier unsolved mystery of Jane Woolley and Edith Arthier were
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: still not formally connected to him. As far as official
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: records were concerned. He was a man who had served
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: time for a single homicide and had now been deemed
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: suitable for release. After leaving prison, Gerald resumed the same
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: pattern of life that had defined his early years for
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: well so long he moved between locations, he stayed in
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: inexpensive accommodations and spent time in bar similar to the
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: ones that he'd frequented before his arrest, And as far
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: as anyone could tell, his marriage to Mary didn't continue.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: There's not a whole lot of documentation that points to
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: anything like that, so it's not really sure if they'd
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: got officially divorced, but they certainly weren't really together.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: And she was a little bit quite a bit older
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: than him too, right she was.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So for the next decade, Gerald lived largely out
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of site. There were no new charges that were brought
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: against him, and no public developments linking him to any
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: other crimes. Then, in nineteen ninety five, Gerald Thomas Archer
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: died of a heart attack at the age of sixty four.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: At the time of his death, there was no significant
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: public attention surrounding him. His passing didn't trigger any renewed
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: investigation or any sort of re examination of past cases.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: He died as a man who had been once convicted
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: and nothing more. Ultimately, his body was unclaimed, without family
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: stepping forward to arrange for a burial. He was then
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: buried in a potter's field, which is an unmarked or
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: minimally marked grave typically used for those without identified next
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: of kin or the means for private burials. For a time,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: it seemed as though the story had ended there. The
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: earlier cases involving Jane and Edith remained unresolved, sitting in
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: separate files in some filing cabinets somewhere, with no suspects
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: formally identified and no active direction for investigators to pursue.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: At that point, the prevailing assumption was that whatever answers
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: might have existed had been lost to time, But that
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: changed in the late nineteen nineties with the formation of
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: a cold case task force known as Project Angel. The
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: purpose of the task force was to revisit unsolved homicides
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: across southwestern Ontario, particularly those that had stalled due to
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the limitation of investigative practices and forensic technologies at the
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: time they were originally examined, and now with newer and
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: more modern technology. Rather than treating each case in isolation,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: investigators began reviewing them collectively, looking for similarities in victim profiles,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: methods of attack, and geographic movements that might not have
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: been apparent when the cases were first handled. It was
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: during this broad a review that new information emerged regarding Gerald.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Investigators had become aware that Gerald had, at some point
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: prior to his death, made statements to members of his
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: own family indicating that he was responsible for the murder
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: of Edith Authior. This was information that had not been
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: shared with police at the time of the original investigation,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: nor had it surfaced during Gerald's trial in nineteen seventy one. Instead,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: it remained within the family for years, just unreported and unexamined.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: But when this information finally did come to the attention
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: of authorities, investigators aimed to verify it. Gerald's estrange wife, Mary,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: along with her daughter, were interviewed and questioned about the statements.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Both of them confirmed that Gerald had admitted to killing
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Edith Authier. What the shit. While the previous circumstances of
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: the confession are not exactly clear, like when it was made,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: how it was phrased, or what even prompted it like,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: those details aren't clear, but the consistency is the key here,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: because consistently between their accounts there was enough to establish
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: that the admission had in fact occurred. It's not a
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: false statement. They're both telling the same story.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: How can you just carry on with that kind of knowledge,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: especially after he has been tried and committed to one
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: of these crimes?
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: I know, But here's one thing. Because there's not a
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: whole lot of information out there about this case, because
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: it's not widespread public knowledge and everything. There's details that
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: are really hard to find. And I'm not certain on
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: when he said that to his family. Had they been
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: hanging on to it, like maybe six months before he passed,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Was it very fresh? Did they know about it during
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: the trials? I am uncertain how long were they holding
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: onto this information? I do not know, and I could not.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Source if they were holding on to that before or
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: during the trials. That's really messed up.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I agree. I do also have a feeling that she
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: may have known more than she did. I mean, she
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: was giving a false alibi in prison, for example, But
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I digress. Either way, the discovery of this admission was huge,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: but on its own it wasn't enough to formally close
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: a case. But with Gerald now identified as a potential
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: suspect in Edith's murder, investigators began re examining the details
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: of that case along with others in the same period,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: and as they did, similarities between Edith's case and the
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: earlier murder of Jane Wooley became increasingly apparent. Both victims
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: were women of similar age, both worked as chambermaids, and
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: both had been attacked inside their own homes in a
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: manner that involved severe blunt force trauma and indications of rape.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: In each case. There was also no clear evidence of
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: fourth century suggesting that the attacker had either been known
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: to the victim or gained access without immediate resistance, and
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: so for the first time, investigators were not looking at
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the cases as separate tragedies. On their own, but now
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: as potential connection of between these events involving the same individual. Now,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: when Jane and Edith were murdered, investigators had been limited
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: to very basic tools, primarily blood typing and physical evidence
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: that could only be compared in very general ways. There
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: was no method available at the time to identify a
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: specific individual from biological material left at the scene, and
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: so as a result, evidence that may have been crucial
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in a later era had been collected, documented, and then
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: effectively set aside, preserved but not fully usable then. And
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: one of those pieces of evidence came from Jane Woolly's apartment,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: if you remember. During the original investigation in February of
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, officers had collected several cigarette butts from
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: an ash tray at the scene. Some of those cigarette
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: butts bore lipstick, consistent with Jane herself, while others did not,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: suggesting they came from someone else. However, without any way
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to identify who had smoked the other cigarette, the evidence
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: had limited value. It was retained, cataloged, and stored alongside
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the rest of the case files. But now, decades later,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: that evidence became central to the investigation, and so as
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: part of the renewed effort under Project Angel, investigators revisited
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: the physical evidence and determined that the cigarette butts could
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: now be tested for DNA, but in order to make
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: a comparison, they needed a biological sample from Gerald too,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: and by that point Gerald had been dead for several years,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: But in February of two thousand, authorities made the decision
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: to exume his body in order to obtain the necessary
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: samples required. Okay, and this step was not taken lightly,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: but given the potential to resolve multiple unsolved homicides, it
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: was considered justified.
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say so.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: So the tissue samples were collected and submitted for DNA analysis,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and when compared, the DNA profile obtained from Gerald's remains
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: matched the DNA recovered from the cigarette butts found in
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Jane Bully's apartment, meaning for the first time there was
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: a direct physical link placing him inside the residence at
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: or near the time of the murder in nineteen sixty nine.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: When it came to the situation of Edith, though, it
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: was a little more complicated. While the confession provided by
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Gerald's family strongly indicated his involvement, the physical evidence from
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the original investigation had not been preserved in a way
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: that allowed for definitive DNA testing. Some material had been lost, mishandled,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: or even just degraded over time, limiting what they could
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: conclusively establish through forensic analysis. But despite this, investigators were
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: able to assess the available evidence in combination with the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: confirmed pattern and behavior and the admission made by Gerald,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: and all taken together, the information was considered sufficient enough
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: to determine that he was in fact responsible for Edith's
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: murder as well, even if the case could not be
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: supported by the same level of forensic certainty as Jane's investigation.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: In the year two thousand, authorities publicly announced that they
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: had effectively solved both Jane Woolley and Edith Authier's case. However,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: due to legal constraints at the time, the police were
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: limited into how directly they could be in naming the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: individual who was responsible, particularly in relation to a deceased suspect.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: Seriously, but.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Enough information was released to make the conclusion very clear
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: without saying it allowed directly.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, I see, but that honestly is a bit of
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: a piss off, because why are we needing to protect
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: anyone who is a murderer a serial killer.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Well, that's exactly the thing. Legally we can't say that
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: the person's name is Gerald, but the person's name rhymes
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: with Beryld Like, you know, that's basically what they're doing.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: They're saying it without saying it.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, but I also think that's ridiculous that there
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: should even be.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: That sort of clause.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like something out there that would prevent them from
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: being able to name this person.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I know, I know. But ultimately, Gerald Thomas Archer had
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: been found responsible for all three of these.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: Murders, and quite recently really yep.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Jane Woolley, Edith Arthier, and Belva Russell were in a
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: similar age range, each in their late fifties and early sixties.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: They all even worked as chambermaids in local hotels, positions
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: that often place them in environments where they're interacting with
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: a wide range of people, many of whom were were
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: transient or unfamiliar at the very least. In each case,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: the attack occurred when a victim was alone in her residence,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: leaving no immediate barrier between her and whoever approached. The
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: routines also shared some similarities to each maintained a relatively
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: independent lifestyle, moving between work and nearby social environments such
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: as hotel bars. These were places where regular patrons became
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: familiar faces over time, even if relationships remained casual or
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: loosely defined. For someone like Gerald, who spent a lot
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: of time in these same environments, this created opportunities. In
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: each case, the assault began with significant blunt force trauma
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: to the head. The level of force use suggested an
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: intent to incapacitate, quickly removing the victim's ability to resist.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: This was followed by additional violence, including stabbing in the
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: case of Edith, and clear indication of sexual assault and
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: rape in all three of the cases. Geographically, the pattern
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: also becomes clear when viewed and full. The murders occurred
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: across three different communities, London, Merlin and Chatham, all within
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: relatively short driving distance of one another, and these locations
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: were connected by major roadways, including Highway four oh one,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: allowing for movement between them without difficulty. When these elements
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: were considered together, a consistent behavioral pattern emerged. Gerald was
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: not acting randomly. He was selecting victims who shared specific characteristics,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: operating with environments that he was familiar with, and using
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: a method that remained largely unchanged across each attack, and
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: like you mentioned, he was probably only just getting started.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: The consistency of these elements is what ultimately allowed investigators
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: years later, mind you, to connect the cases with a
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: high degree of certainty. At the time of the crimes
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and when they were committed, though the pattern remained obscured.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Even at the time of his arrest and trial, the
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: full reality had not been recognized. He'd been convicted of
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: the murder of bellev Russell and sentenced, but the earlier
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: cases remained open, with no suspect formally identified. His nickname,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the London Chamber Made Slayer, is a label that only
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: makes sense in hindsight. During the period he was active,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: though there was no such designation because the connections were
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: limited by the time, a period in time and where
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: he was heavily active with serial killers. In fact, the
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: region surrounding London was experiencing an unusually high number of
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: violent crimes, many of which would later be linked to
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: other serial offenses. Researchers and investigators examining the era have
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: suggested that multiple killers were likely operating, all at the
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: same time, sometimes within overlapping geographical areas. Even it created
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: an environment in which patterns were more difficult to detect
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: and where individual cases could be obscured by the sheer
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: volume of violent incidents. In that environment, Gerald targeted women
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: whose defenses were down, and in the resolution of the
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: case in two thousand, it provided a form of closure
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: from an investigative standpoint, but the resolution it came long
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: after the fact. For the victims, Jane Woolley, Edith Authier
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: and Belleville Russell, the recognition of what had happened and
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: who was responsible arrived decades after their murders, decades after
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: they passed, during the time when answers might have made
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a difference to those closest to them, but instead the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: cases remained incomplete. Their lives, much like their work, had
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: existed largely out of the public attention. They were not
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: widely known figures, and there was limited information available about
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: them beyond the circumstance of their deaths. What is clear
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: is that each one of them lived independently, worked in
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: environments that brought them into contact with many people, and
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: one of those people ended up being a monster. In
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: telling this story, it becomes difficult to separate the investigation
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: from the people at the center of it. The name
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: Gerald Thomas Archer is now attached to these cases, defined
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: by the pattern of his actions and the label that
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: came later. But the story itself is not about him.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: It's about the three women whose murders were not immediately
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: understood or connected, and whose cases remained unresolved for years.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: As a result, what happened between nineteen sixty nine and
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one was not recognized in real time for
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: what it was. Only much later did the full picture
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: come into view. And it's up to us to make
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: sure we give them a voice, even if it is
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: decades too late, so that way their full story gets told.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: And that's the story of the London chambermaid slayer.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: Who Wow, fuck you Gerald.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought you were saying fuck you to me
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: for a second. Yeah, fuck you Gerald. I agree.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: The fact that he only served fourteen years is disgusting.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: And then he just got out and got to live
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: the rest of his.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Liaer to live another fourteen years.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, huh. So that is a case that. Yeah, there's
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: not a lot out there on that. I've seen a
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: couple podcasts cover it. I think in my searching, I
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: saw like dark poutine did it, and they did a
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: really good one, so I recommend you listened to them
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: as well. I think there was another, like one or
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: two smaller podcasts I've seen cover it, and that was it.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never heard about any of this.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and being the fact that it's a Canadian tale,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised that we haven't heard of it. But at
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the same time, with the lack of information, the lack
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of notoriety, I'm also not surprised. So I'm happy to
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: tell that story and try and get it out there.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Just how you describe to the times back then, it
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: seems kind of terrifying because there's just like a lot
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: of serial killers and like violent crimes just going down,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: I know, and I seem so scary.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: I use a term. I used a term in this episode,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: a term that I like, but I also dislike. It's
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: a two sides to the coin, a golden era of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: serial killers. It's not a golden era because it has
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: that value and oh my god, it's amazing. It's just
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: it really brings to light, like you know what, it
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: is the prime era, not for everyone, but for them,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: because that's how they can move, they can act and
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: not be detected, and they were so prevalent, and there
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: were so many of them. It's golden era because of
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: how many there were, not because it's a good thing.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: Gosh, that's so disturbing, and this whole time too, just
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: said listening to this, I mean, my heart obviously very
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: much so goes out to the victims, but it also
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: really goes out to the one husband.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, he was just.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: Moments away from being able to save her. Obviously this
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: wasn't his fault in any friggin way, but that's toss. Yeah,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: knowing that you were that close to being able to
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: save your wife, like, ooh, that would be so difficult
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: and wreck me. Yeah yeah, ah kind of like I would.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Just have that like dread flesh over us at the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: same home.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I mean. The one thing though, I guess,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: the tiny silver lining is that all of this madness
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: that was happening at that point got us to where
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: we are today in a way of being able to
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: solve this shit better.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I know. Right, So, and shout out to those investigators
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: who were on Project Angel.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, I love that name. Holy shit, that is just perfect,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: Shout out to them for the people who came up
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: with that, and the people who actually initiated it and
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: executed it phenomenal. Love it.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, we need more investigators and people like that to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: do the things that need to be done and give
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: voice to those victims and tell their stories, find their stories,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: and find the truth. We need people like that in
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, because they could have just let these you know,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: go unsolved. They could have, but they didn't.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, if you guys enjoyed this episode, check out
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: our socials. Give us a review. We appreciate it. We're
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: an independent podcast, researched, written, hosted all in our little
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: tiny home just with us and our little lonesome in you.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: It's our own little community and you're a part of it,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: and we appreciate you. That's all I have to say today.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you, really sappy. We do really appreciate you. But
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: it was almost just.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Like I think it was my tone of voice usually
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: have like check out the description of this podcast, but say,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: I'm like, check out the description lonely. It's definitely not
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: lonely because we have you guys. Yes, so, thank you
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: so much, and until next episode, stay wicked a boo