Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
In September of nineteen fifty four, twenty one year old Gene Townshend was living with her parents on Bempton Drive in South Ricelip, an area of West London in the Borough of Hillingdon. She worked as a theatrical costume designer and seamstress in London's West End and was developing a highly respectable reputation. She was described as having been a quote friend of stage and to actors. The director of the company she worked for called her, quote a very
sweet girl, intelligent and charming. It sounds like things were really taking off for this young woman until one night when she was killed on her way home from a social event. Who was responsible for her death remains a mystery still today. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarki and.
I'm Holly Frye. Jean's body was discovered the morning of September fifteenth, at around seven am on an empty lot to the north side of Victoria Road, right near its intersection with Angus Drive, and she was only about six hundred yards from home. Her body was found in tall grass, but it was noted by those first to the scene that the part of the grass that was usually very tall, over six feet tall in some areas, was flattened. Maybe
considered authorities she had been dragged there. Scotland Yard quickly put Detective Superintendent Paul Richardson in charge of the case. He worked closely with local law enforcement and an investigative team got started.
Jean had spent the evening of September fourteenth a party with friends at a nightclub called the Pyramid Club not far from her work. She left at about eleven PM and boarded the final Central Line train home from the West End that night. She was last seen walking out of south Ry Slip Station at eleven forty five pm along Victoria Road in the direction of her parents' house. It was less than a twenty minute walk door to door, but she was never seen alive again.
According to the post mortem conducted by Home Office pathologist Professor Donald Tyr, Jeanne was found mostly clothed, though her shoes, undergarments and stockings had been removed and carefully gathered beside her body. Tyr determined her cause of death as strangulation. The murder weapon according to his report, had been her
own black and gold silk scarf. He noted that otherwise her body showed no signs of injury, nor were there any signs of a struggle, and although a few items of her clothing had been removed, there was also no sign of sexual assault.
And that was all anyone knew. Still, early in the investigation, authorities assumed a few things about that night. They didn't believe Jean knew her killer, and they theorized that she was most likely offered a ride or was forced into a car after she left the train station, but those were guesses. They didn't have any evidence to back either of those things up.
The closest witness to the crime was believed to have been Brenda Thompson, though her distance from the crime scene made it a bit of a stretch, investigators did interview her. Brenda lived with her parents on Westmead Road, which overlooked the area of Victoria Road where Jane was killed. Brenda had been in bed that night when she heard a woman's scream. She recalled looking out the window, but stated to authorities that she was unable to see any activity outside.
Calling for her father, the two listened at the window, Brenda reported that they heard two men arguing, one of whom had an American accent. In her account, Brenda also stated that the evening prior to Jean's death, she herself had had an encounter with two men as she walked by the lot where Jean's body had been found. Those men had tried to stop her, but she ran home.
The idea that an American voice was heard the night of Jean's death raised suspicions and grew theories that she was murdered by a member of the United States military. Now this wasn't an impossible idea. American military were stationed nearby at South Ry Slip Air Station, home to the United States Air Force's Third Air Force. The Third had been at Ryce Slip since nineteen fifty one with the assignment of managing the growing presence of the Air Force
in the UK. Thousands of United States military personnel were stationed there, and it became the investigation team's new focus. Local rumors alleged that the base commander was unwilling to allow his forces to be interviewed in the inquiry, and, as rumors can do, true or faulse that only heightened local suspicions against the American military's involvement in the case.
We're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsors, and when we return, we'll talk about the numerous women in South Ricelip who may have encountered the mystery murderer before he killed jean.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about related cases and the details other women in South rice Slip were able to provide based on their own scary encounters with the guy who sounds like he could have been the prime suspect fact if anyone could figure out who he was.
As investigators considered the possibility that their suspect might be in the United States military, they also considered the possibility that this wasn't the killer's first murder, and they tried to tie these two theories together. Several similar recent murders had happened in West Germany near American military bases, but when investigated, no connection was made to the murder in
South Ricelip. Back in England, just a week before Jeanne's death, on September sixth, a twenty eight year old sex worker named Ellen Carlin, known as Red Helen because of her long red hair was killed in Pimlico in central London, shortly after being seen entering her room with a United States Air Force sergeant. Screams were reportedly heard coming from
her room around midnight when she was found. Ellen had been beaten about her head before being strangled with her own skins, so these cases had overlap in regard to the scarf. The American military theory didn't hold true here, though. Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel confessed to Ellen's murder, but that's always rung a little strange for many people. Manuel terrorized Scotland in a series of brutal murders of young women,
so he certainly fit the profile. But his murder spree took place between nineteen fifty six and nineteen fifty eight, so that was after Ellen was killed. Investigators did not link the deaths of Ellen and Jean.
Reports suggest that local police took more than six hundred statements during the investigation of Jean's murder. One local woman came forward claiming she had been followed and attacked by a man with a quote high forehead on the same road about a week before Jean's murder happened, and that kicked off a slew of statements from other women.
Another local resident, Jacqueline, told reporters this she had been approached repeatedly by a man with a high forehead who spoke with an American accent and drove an American car. She estimated that he was about thirty years old. Another local woman, Joan Galla, came forward to claim that she had been accosted by a man with a high forehead
on the Saturday night before Jean's murder. Several other women also came forward, and each of them reported that they had been approached by a quote strange man close to where Jean's body had been found, and there were similarities among these reports. One obviously it was a man, Two it was a man that they all described as having a high forehead, and three that man with the high forehead had an American accent in most of these accounts, and possibly an American car.
About three weeks after Jean's murder, missus Doris Bennell reported to the local police that she had been followed and attacked by a man outside North Harrow Station that's no more than five miles or so from the South Ryeslip station. She stated that her attacker had boarded the train at Baker Street station and that he then watched her during the entire ride until he followed her off the train
at North Harrow. It's there, according to her report, at about midnight, where Doris confronted him about why he was following her and that she wanted him to stop, and that's when he attacked her. She managed to get away, but only after a struggle during which she tore three buttons off her assailant's jacket. She described her attacker as a man in his thirties with a high forehead. She returned to the scene the next day to collect the buttons.
She gave them to the police as she relayed details of her attack, but nothing came from the incident or the details she provided During the investigation. Some local residents organized safe escorts for women to and from the train station at night.
Sixteen years after Jane's death, her case still unsolved. A woman named Gloria Booth was killed in the same manner and in the same area. Investigators considered that maybe it was the same killer, but they were never able to substantiate that claim. By what is surely a strange coincidence in twenty eighteen, twenty year old Osmond Shane was fatally stabbed in essentially the exact same place as Jean and Gloria had been killed. This is an area that has since been dubbed the Rice Lip Murder Mile.
We are going to take a break for a word from our sponsors. When we're back, we'll talk about where the case stands today.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Case came alive again in the nineteen eighties, so let's talk about the good and the not so good about that revival.
In nineteen eighty two, following a cluster of anonymous phone calls about Jean's death, local police started reviewing the case files again. The calls went nowhere, but nearly thirty years after the murder, investigators concluded two things from them, though
they didn't go into reasons. Authorities were now one hundred percent positive that the killer had not been in the United States Air Force, and they also didn't think Jean's murder was linked to any other suspicious activity in the area at the time, but the case it still didn't move forward.
Jean's mother, Lillian Townsend, was interviewed by The Daily Mail that same year, and she was quoted saying I never really got over her death. A clairvoyant told me whoever did it was far away across water. But now it's nothing to me. I am not vindictive. I don't know why they should reopen the case.
Jump ahead to fifty one years after Jean's murder to two thousand and five. Reg Hargrave, a former neighbor and school friend of Jean's, believed there was a cover up by authorities and formally requested access to the police files for the case. By this time, the files had been moved to the National Archives in Q, but regardless of location, the request for the case files via the Freedom of
Information Act was refused. An appeal was heard in a closed door hearing in late two thousand and seven, but ultimately the Information Tribunal dismissed the appeal and ruled to withhold the case files from public inspection until the year twenty thirty one. I know, right, so let's talk about the agenda of that hearing.
Members of the investigative team addressed those in attendance. A retired detective who had worked on Jane's case claimed that investigators did have someone in mind at the time, but they didn't have enough evidence to bring him in for questioning. It was also disclosed that though the case files had been substantial, a number of items had gone missing over the years.
There was some evidence presented and reviewed. Jane's clothing had been re examined by the Forensic Science Service in the nineteen nineties in an effort to obtain DNA evidence, but the results were quote, nothing of value. The tribunal also reviewed the original post mortem report from nineteen fifty four.
Pathologist Tyr who conducted that autopsy, recounted his report and then began to make unsolicited guesses about the crime, wondering aloud that because some of Jane's clothing had been removed and the clothing she was wearing had been a little quote disturbed, if her death had been an attempted sexual assault that had ended in now that was all one pure speculation.
Given the number of reported instances of local women being approached in the weeks and days prior to Jean's murder, each by a man who they all described in pretty similar ways, but not in a lot of detail, the tribunal felt the attack was likely a quote premeditated but opportunistic murderer in their closing document, they stated, and this is a small quote if you can believe it quote.
The critical issue is whether there is indeed any substantial likelihood of the murderer being detected and or a prosecution being undertaken. Whilst we have regard to the general consideration set out in the Information Commissioners and the Metropolitan Police's submissions, and in a statement by Scotland Yards Detective Superintendent David Maveld, who was representing the Commissioner at the hearing, we are not impressed by some of them. Given the age of
the case. There is no reason of which we are aware why any witness should now have a critical change of heart or crisis of conscience. Forensic science may advance in unforeseen ways, and a detective might spot a connection which eluded his or her predecessors fifty years ago. Such possibilities of progress cannot be excluded, but they hardly amount to substantial reasons for thinking that there will ever be
a future investigation which might be prejudiced. Where information is requested as to a long dormant investigation, it may well be that a simple recitation of standard policy arguments will not suffice to overcome the first hurdle standing in the way of this exemption. This document continues quote. However, we heard further evidence in the private session which clearly altered our view on this issue. Because it was specific to this case. It did not indicate that a future identification
prosecution of the killer was more likely than not. It did persuade us that there was a significant possibility of such a development, such as to satisfy the test imposed by section thirty one.
Okay, so that was a little dense to get through. So let's talk about what the tribunal meant by exceptions and section thirty one, because it's important to understand why it may or may not mean justice for Gene in the future. There are some legal exemptions for refusing to release information under regulations of the UK Freedom of Information Act, and the Tribunal felt one exemption, called the prejudice based
exemption was appropriate to keep the case closed. It states that public authorities must demonstrate that disclosing certain information could interfere with or undermine the work of law enforcement agencies. The Tribunal concluded that even though there was nothing to suggest that identification of the killer, either through a confession or new information, was in any way imminent. The quote considerable passage of time has not destroyed any possibility of
prosecuting a suspected offender. Not only did they want to avoid bias or influence on the future of the case, the tribunal also believed that public interest favored the files to be withheld from public inspection.
Seventy years later, Jean's murder remains unsolved, her case file remains closed at least until twenty thirty one, and the man with the high forehead, he and his possible American accent, remain a mystery.
This one is very much a mystery.
With all of that in mind, would you like to step into the cooler with me?
I would very much.
So here's what I of course obsessed. O. Yeah, in six years, I'm going to be following up on this, and so this drink is called six years. And I wanted to because there is an a lot of information regarding her case, at least not that's been publicly available.
I wanted to keep it a little bit simple. And because that high forehead thing keeps coming up, which, by the way, I mean maybe this is just me, but I kept thinking, how high is this forehead that that's the one identifying thing that every woman mentioned.
I thought so too, like did he did?
Was it? That was it?
That was the thing.
So that made me think of something we haven't really talked about on the show before, and that's highballs.
Hey we haven't.
But like, highballs are not fancy wild drinks at all. All a high ball is is spirit, usually an ounce and a half, maybe two ounces if you got a heavy hand and a mixer. That's all it is. So like when you order like a vodka cranberry or a whiskey ginger, you're essentially ordering a high ball. And the proportion is important there because there there's much more of the mixer than the spirit. Normally, it's there intended to be a pretty light drink that you could have several
of without really getting super smashed. But so I was like, great, let's come up with our own high ball. That way we can keep the ingredients down to a minimum. We do have more than just two. And I wanted it to be gold because of the Pyramid Club for some reason, like that really stuck in my mind, which I associate with you know, Egypt and golden leaf things. And here was the big thing because we have to wait six more years for these documents to be released, maybe released right,
for them to go through it re evaluated, right. I also wanted to include ingredients that are associated with hope because we hope that it happens, and we hope we find out more about what happened to Gene, whether there was a cover up, whether this was just like a person who had this idea in mind that they wanted to commit a murderer random poor Gene just happened to
be the person. So, doing a bit of research on things that have been associated with hope, two things kept coming up across a lot of different cultures and in a lot of different ways, and in a lot of different iterations of what hope means within those cultures. But one of them is honey, which comes up a lot interesting, and another is apples like the and the two combined are often in multiple different cultures used as like part of a food spread on events or holidays that are
associated with new beginnings. So those seemed good to me, so, but we're not gonna do a lot of either of them, just enough to add a little a little softness to this drink. So you're gonna use just a half ounce of honey. We're not you don't have to do honey syrup. We're about to kind of make it on our own. You're gonna do a half ounce of honey and then a half ounce of apple juice, and I would use a pretty low sugar one here. Because you are using honey.
You may want to let that just sit together for a little while and give it a stir like I just put it like a ramkin and stirred it here and there. Because we're not going to do this in a shaking tin. We're building in the glass again to
keep it simple. And so once that's well incorporated, you will get a high ball glass or a glass stick and hold, you know, about ten to twelve ounces of liquid, fill it with ice, pour over your honey in apple mixture, and then on top of that, you're gonna pour an ounce and a half of Reposodo tequila, and then four to five ounces of a sharp ginger ale. When I
say sharp ginger ale, here's what I mean. We all know the big name ginger ales that are in your grocery store, which are wonderful and I use them all the time, but they're not for this drink. They can't. They can be if you want it softer, but what we really want is something that is just a little edgy. Or so you're gonna go in my grocery store. I know there's kind of a separate area on the soft drinks aisle that is clearly like these are for mixed drinks.
Might have the same yeah, right where they have like the brands that are really made for bartending and mixed drink stuff. And choose one of those ginger ales, or if you have one that's a little sharp that you really love, great, and that's it. You're just gonna pour the repisoud of tequila in, pour the sharp ginger ale over it, and you are ready to serve. You can do it with a little apple slice garnish if you want.
You can even dip that apple in a little bit of honey if you really want to sell this idea of hope. But it's a very simple drink, super easy to make, really easy to sip on, not too heavy. Here's a nice thing. It's also a little bit of a choose your own adventure because if you don't like tequila, that's no problem.
This will work with other things.
I mean, it really feel you can literally do this with your bourbon, with your gin in, with your vodka. You could do it with run like you can kind of put in whatever your spirit of choice is. But I wanted to do tequila because it just felt right. We haven't used it a bunch of this this season yet. And also I don't know, I kind of think about this as like the kind of drink they would serve at a post theater party at a club called the Pyramid Club. I know, it just feels like the right
drink for it. So for the mocktail, super duper easy. All you're gonna do is you're gonna build it as it is. Since we're already dealing with a pretty diluted spirit situation here, You're just gonna up your ginger ale amount. But in addition, when you're mixing your honey and your apple juice, you're also gonna add about three quarters of an ounce of just plain water and a couple of slices of klopeno, and you're gonna mix them together and
let them sit a little bit together. And you want fresh halopeno here, this is not your time for your pickle, your pickle talapeno. You're gonna let them all sit together for a little bit stirm STM storm and you'll strain that one in that case, Or if you could, if you just want to pull your halopeno slices out and you can get all the seeds, great, you just don't want any residue or bits of halopena left in there.
And then that just kind of kicks it up. It gives it a little bit of that deeper flavor that the Reposato tequila would normally impart. But it's also a very breezy sip in it's gold. Yeah, it's a really it's very crisp and refreshing. So that is the six years I know, I'm putting it on my twenty thirty one calendar that we got to follow up on this.
So let me tell you like that Hearing originally closed the files until twenty fifty something and then backed off on it to twenty thirty one. So we're actually a little lucky in that record.
A little a little justice for Gene, I really like. I just it does seem weird that they're.
Like, no, I can't have them, no, thank you, Uh.
We don't need to. It makes me, it makes me start to believe her friend, who is like, I think there's a cover up. What are you hiding?
Why can't I have them? I know I have the same thoughts whenever, whenever I'm writing about a Foyer refusal in particular, Yeah, what about that? Don't you want me to see? Is what always just comes to mind.
So hopefully, as you sip this drink, you have clarity. You don't have to wait on anything to be revealed to you. We will reveal yet another story to you next week, and another drink recipe with a mocktail to go with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.