The parents who asked what everyone was thinking: ‘Would we kill our own daughter?’ Now the experts analyse the tears, the lies and the video tape. A murder that shocked a community. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s2e3: Shafilea Ahmed
Everything they were describing was a lie. ibid. Cliff
Police began to investigate what Shafilea had told her friends – frequent rows she’d been having with her parents. ibid.
Drinking bleach left Shafilea leaving urgent medical attention. ibid.
They were looking only at her parents. ibid.
September 2003: 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed had gone missing from her home in Warrington, Cheshire. Four months later her body was found. Her parents were the prime suspects. ibid.
Their lack of concern for Shafilea was creating suspicion. ibid.
‘Alesha finally said to the police she had witnessed Shafilea being murdered by her parents all those years ago.’ woman
‘The mother had actually encouraged and pushed Iftikhar on to do it.’ ibid. man
Her parents were found guilty of her murder. ibid.
A 17-year-old girl has disappeared … ‘She was reporting from a very young age, yeah, I am being abused by my mother and father.’ When Missing Turns to Murder s1e7: Shafilea Ahmed, comment
It seems they are determined to bring her into line by going to extreme measures. ibid.
She [Alesha] took the stand and she gave testimony to Shafilea’s life. ibid.
Warrington, England, 2003: In the north of England 16-year-old Shafilea Ahmed grows up with two cultures … Shafilea refuses to enter into an arranged marriage. Killer Britain with Dermot Murnaghan s4e7, CI 2022
‘Shafilea suffered physical abuse at home … The family chose to hide it.’ ibid. brief
‘And yet unusually when she went missing in 2003 they broke the pattern by not making a complaint or looking for a missing person at all.’ ibid. brief
Her parents don’t appear at all distressed by her disappearance. ibid.
AHMED, SHAHIDUL [viz Miscarriages of Justice: White, Barri & Keith Hyatt]: Evidence-Based Justice Lab online - BBC online - True Crime/Evidence of Evil TV
Barri White was convicted of the murder of his 19 year old girlfriend (Rachel Manning), after a party (and his friend Keith Hyatt was convicted of perverting the course of justice for allegedly helping him to dispose of the body). The convictinon was largely based on scientific evidence that was called into question on appeal. A forensic expert, Kenneth Pye, had said an unusual combination of flint particles from a cigarette lighter were found on Rachel’s skirt and the van seat. But experts found the particles could have come from anywhere, particularly as Barri, Keith and Rachel all smoked. The conviction was overturned and White was found not guilty at a retrial. DNA evidence later proved the person really guilty of the murder was Shahidul Ahmed, who has now been convicted. Evidence-Based Justice Lab online article
The body of Rachel Manning, 19, was found dumped on a Milton Keynes golf course in 2000.
In 2002, Barri White was convicted of murder and his friend Keith Hyatt of perverting the course of justice.
Both had their convictions quashed in 2007. Six years on restaurant worker Shahidul Ahmed has been found guilty of her murder.
The verdict goes some way to repairing the damage, but the emotional wounds caused by the senseless murder of Rachel, and the subsequent miscarriage of justice which followed, will probably never heal. BBC online article Mark Daly 4th September 2013
In May 2010 a woman on a night out approached a car believing it to be a taxi. The driver was in fact an opportunistic sexual predator. And unknown to the woman she was in mortal danger. She escaped after being indecently assaulted and was helped by a passing lorry driver. True Crime/Evidence of Evil, CBS Reality/ITVX, Crime Channel/Youtube 45.00, 2018
The car’s registration led them to a man about whom the police knew nothing. The incident required him to give investigators of the assault incident a DNA sample. ibid.
He was arrested on suspicion of Rachel Manning’s murder in September 2010. ibid.
ALBRIGHT, CHARLES: Born to Kill? TV - Very Bad Men TV - The Mark of a Killer TV - World’s Most Evil Killers TV -
In the early ’90s Dallas working girls became the target of a twisted killer. The brutal murderer was putting on a show. Collecting grotesque souvenirs. His desire would become insatiable. What was driving his heinous violence? And was he born to kill? Born to Kill? s7e4: Charles Albright, Really 2017
‘Her [mother’s] domination would have affected him.’ ibid. Dr Katherine Ramaland, forensic psychologist
Although the Albright household was run as a strict regime, the mother and son spent any downtime indulging a shared passion for taxidermy. ibid.
33-year-old prostitute Mary Pratt had been brutally murdered and grotesquely mutilated by the surgery removal of her eyes. ibid.
Some very bad men are beloved members of their community but underneath a charming exterior they hide a depraved obsession. Very Bad Men s4e7: An Eye for an Eye, ID 2014
1990 Oak Cliff, Texas: ‘The eyeballs are missing.’ ibid. examiner
Charles’s sexual escapades become increasingly cruel and sadistic. ibid.
‘A woman that was shot and left for dead at that time in Dallas, at that time was not an anomaly … Mary Pratt was a known prostitute.’ The Mark of a Killer: An Eye for Murder s1e3: rozzer, Sky Crime 2019
‘Mary Pratt was down on her knees when she was shot.’ ibid. woman
The homicide department can barely keep up with the number of murders. ibid.
‘His goal, his whole purpose, is to get at those eyeballs.’ ibid. woman
In December 1990, 33-year-old sex worker Mary Pratt was discovered murdered in Dallas, Texas. Homicide was rife in the city at the time. But there was one thing about Mary’s murder that stood out from the rest … ‘The eyes had been removed’ … Two more victims followed … Evidence would lead detectives to the door of 57-year-old career criminal Charles Albright, a man with a talent for taxidermy. World’s Most Evil Killers s7e4: Charles Albright, Sky Crime 2023
ALCALA, RODNEY: True Crime with Aphrodite Jones TV - LA Times online - Very Bad Men TV - World’s Most Evil Killers TV - The Mark of a Killer TV - Dating Death: The Rodney Alcala Murders TV - True Crime Recaps 2021 - Very Scary People TV -
One murder put Rodney Alcala on Death Row. Today, he’s on the hook for at least five. True Crime with Aphrodite Jones s2e3: Killer Contestant, ID 2013
But the ’70s belonged to another killer too. He left a trail of dead bodies, broken dreams, and grief-striken families behind him. ibid.
1968: The suspect was long gone. And all he left behind was a bloodstained floor and fingerprints. Alcala ran all the way to New York City where he assumed a new identity. ibid.
After Alcala’s arrest, police learned of a storage unit he’s rented in Seattle. Inside they found a treasure trove. ibid.
In 1980 Rodney Alcala was convicted of Robin Samsoe’s murder ... Alcala was retried and convicted again. ibid.
By 2004 there were more … Four similar homicides … He was a bona fide serial killer. ibid.
California serial killer Rodney Alcala was sentenced to additional prison time in New York for the murders of two more women, a case that brought a veteran judge to tears during the hearing.
Alcala, who is already on death row in California for the murders of four women and a girl, pleaded guilty in December to the 1971 murder of Cornelia Crilley and the 1977 murder of Ellen Hover, both in New York. On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Bonnie Wittner handed down a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, the Wall Street Journal reported.
‘This kind of case is something I’ve never experienced, hope to never again. I just want to say I hope these families find some peace and solace for these inexplicably brutal and horrific acts,’ Wittner said, according to the Journal. LA Times online article 8th January 2013, ‘Judge weeps as Dating Game serial killer Rodney Alcala sentenced’
Bachelor number one is a sadistic sexual predator, a man who has killed at least twice before and will go on to kill again. A boogie man who craves the bright lights. Very Bad Men s3e5: Bachelor Number One, 2014
Rodney Alcala is found guilty of all five murders. ibid.