On
this date, 19 April 1996, an English Serial killer, John Martin Scripps was
executed by hanging at Changi Prison in Singapore for the murder of South
African tourist, Gerard Lowe. He was the last Englishman to die by the gallows.
I will post information about him from Wikipedia before giving my comments.
 |
| John Martin Scripps |
Born
|
9 December
1959
Letchworth, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom |
Died
|
19 April
1996 (aged 36)
Changi, Singapore |
Alias(es)
|
Simon James
Davis
|
Charge(s)
|
Murder
|
Penalty
|
Death by
hanging
|
Spouse
|
María
Arellanos
|
Parents
|
Leonard and
Jean Scripps
|
John Martin
(born John Martin Scripps, 9 December 1959 – 19 April 1996) was an
English spree killer who murdered three tourists—Gerard Lowe in Singapore, and
Sheila and Darin Damude in Thailand—with another three unconfirmed victims. He
posed as a tourist himself when committing the murders, for which British
tabloids nicknamed him "the tourist from Hell". He cut up all his
victims' bodies, using butchery skills he acquired in prison, before disposing
of them.
Martin
was arrested in Singapore when he returned there after murdering the Damudes.
Photographs of decomposed body parts were shown as evidence during his trial,
making it "one of the most grisly" ever heard in Singapore. He
defended himself by saying that Lowe's death was an accident and that a friend
of his killed the Damudes. The judge did not believe Martin's account of events
and sentenced him to death by hanging, making him the first Briton in Singapore
since the latter nation's independence to be given the death penalty.
 |
|
John
Martin Scripps as one of the 101 Dalmatians.
|
Early
life
John
Martin Scripps was born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, 9 December 1959 to
Leonard and Jean Scripps, an East End lorry driver and a Fleet Street barmaid
respectively. He travelled often in childhood, occasionally accompanied by his
father, with whom he was very close. Leonard Scripps committed suicide when his
son was nine. After his father's death, Scripps developed problems with reading
and writing, which led to him leaving school at the age of 15. After dropping
out of school he continued to travel, raising money for his trips by doing odd
jobs and selling antiques.
Criminal
career
Scripps
was convicted of his first crime in May 1974, when he was sentenced to a
12-month conditional discharge and fined £10 by Highgate Juvenile Court for
burglary. The punishment did nothing to deter him from stealing, and by August
1976 he had stolen again three times. In June 1978, he was fined £40 for
indecent assault.
While
traveling in Mexico, Scripps met María Pilar Arellanos, of Cancún, and married
her in 1980. They travelled together for two years until 1982, when he was
sentenced to a three-year jail term for theft, burglary and resisting arrest.
His imprisonment upset María, and their relationship was further soured when he
ran away from jail during home leave in June 1985—just months short of
completing his term—and burgled again. He was sentenced to another three years'
imprisonment, during which she filed for divorce and married Police Constable
Ken Cold, an officer in the Royal Protection Squad. This angered Scripps, who
acted in revenge, stealing some of Cold's clothing while released on home
leave. He was appeased only when she divorced her new husband and returned to
her hometown. After he was released, Scripps legally changed his name to John
Martin.
Scripps
began trafficking in drugs, and carried heroin between Asia and Europe for a
syndicate. Singapore authorities first encountered his name in 1987, when he
was arrested at Heathrow Airport for possessing drugs. Police found a key on
him that belonged to a safe deposit box in a bank in Orchard Road in Singapore,
from which officers from Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau seized
1.5 kilogrammes (3.3 lb) of heroin worth about US$1 million. For this
and another drug offence, Southwark Crown Court in January 1988 sentenced him
to seven years in jail. He escaped while on home leave but was later
re-arrested. In July 1992, Winchester Crown Court added another six years to
the original sentence, which would have kept him behind bars until 2001 had he
not escaped again.
He
was in custody at Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight from February 1992 to
August 1993, where he became a model prisoner. Initially he did menial jobs
such as dishwashing and general cleaning and was later promoted to the position
of butcher, under the training of James Quigley, a prison caterer with more
than 20 years' experience, and another inmate only identified as
"Ginger", who had been a professional butcher. They taught him how to
dismember and remove the bone from animals after slaughtering them. Martin
performed his duties with such efficiency that he once told Quigley he wished
to open a butcher's shop after his release.
On
20 August 1993, Martin was transferred from Albany Prison to The Mount Prison
in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, as a result of a change in his security
categorisation. In October 1994 he escaped while on home leave, which was
granted only two days after being refused parole. His mother, noting that he
had sold all his belongings to fellow inmates while in prison (a clear notice
of his intention to escape), asked prison authorities not to release him. After
Martin was sentenced to death, she reiterated:
The Home Office have buried their head in the sand over this. They know full well that if they had done what I told them, none of this would have ever happened. I begged them not to let him go.
His
mother gave Scripps £200 to go overseas after his arrest. To avoid recapture,
he used the birth certificate of another inmate, Simon James Davis, to get a
passport in Davis' name. Within a month of his escape, he turned up in Mexico
as John Martin. He reported to the British Embassy there that he lost his
passport, and managed to get a replacement. Martin arrived in Singapore from
San Francisco at about 2 a.m. SST on 8 March 1995 (6 p.m. UTC on 7
March).
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|
River
View Hotel
|
Murder
of tourists
Martin
killed at least three people in Singapore and Thailand, and may have killed
others in Belize, Mexico, and the United States. His modus operandi was
to pose as a tourist and converse with another randomly chosen Caucasian,
either aboard their flights or while waiting at airports. He stayed in the same
hotels as his victims in a room near theirs. Once he had an excuse to be in
their rooms, he used an electroshock weapon to immobilise them before killing
them by striking their heads with a hammer and cutting them up in their
bathrooms. He chose Caucasians as his victims because they were vacationing far
away from their home countries, which made him less likely to be discovered.
His motive included money; large amounts were withdrawn using the credit cards
of Gerard Lowe and Timothy MacDowall.
Gerard
Lowe
Gerard
George Lowe came from Johannesburg, South Africa. He was a chemical engineer
with South African Breweries. He went to Singapore to shop for electrical and
electronic goods. Before he left Johannesburg on 7 March 1995, he told his wife
Vanessa, a local airlines employee, his exact schedule, saying: "I will
call you the moment I check into the hotel to give you the contact number. If
you do not hear from me on 10 March, it would mean that I would have a seat on
the plane to return to South Africa and would arrive home on 11 March. But if I
do call you on 10 March, that would mean that I have not managed to get a seat
and would return on 12 March."
When
Lowe arrived at Singapore Changi Airport on the morning of 8 March, he was
accosted by Martin (under the assumed name of Simon Davis), who struck up a
conversation with him and suggested that they share a room, to which Lowe
agreed. They managed to book Room 1511 in the River View Hotel off Havelock
Road. The next morning, Martin asked a hotel receptionist to delete Lowe's name
from the room registration system, saying that he had kicked Lowe out the
previous night for being a homosexual. Martin checked out on 11 March and flew
to Bangkok the same day.
On
13 March 1995, a pair of legs, severed at the knees, was found in a plastic bag
floating off Clifford Pier. Three days later, a pair of thighs and a torso were
found in the same area, also in a plastic bag. Initially, Singapore police
could only determine that the body parts belonged to a Caucasian, and they had
a possible name after receiving a missing person report for Lowe from the South
African High Commission. Vanessa Lowe filed the report because she was
distressed that her husband, who used to make daily contact with his family
when overseas, had not called home or returned to South Africa by 12 March.
Lowe's colleagues at work also tried to determine his whereabouts through
personal contacts in Singapore. On 1 April, she confirmed that the body parts
were her husband's through visual identification. However, his arms and head
were never found.
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|
Victims
Sheila and Daren Damude
|
Sheila
and Darin Damude
Sheila
Mae Damude and her son Darin Jon Damude came from Saanich, British Columbia,
Canada. She was an administrator at the Pacific Christian School in Victoria,
while Darin was a college student. They had come to Thailand on holiday, with
Darin flying to Asia first before Sheila met him in Bangkok during spring
break. They flew to Phuket on 15 March with Martin (still using his assumed
name) who was sitting in the same row as them. He befriended the two and they
checked into Nilly's Marina Inn facing Patong Beach. Martin was given Room 48
and the Damudes were given the adjacent Room 43. The Damudes were not seen
again after they ate breakfast the next morning; at about 11 a.m. THA
(5 a.m. UTC), Martin asked the inn's receptionist to switch his room to
Room 43, saying that the Damudes had left and that he would pay their bill.
Martin
checked out and returned to Singapore on 19 March. On that day the skulls of
the Damudes were found in a disused tin mine in Kathu district. A torso and a
pair each of arms and legs were found along Bahn Nai Trang Road,
9.7 kilometres (6 mi) away, five days later. The body parts were so
badly decomposed that visual identification was impossible; Royal Thai Police
used dental records to identify the skulls and forensic analysis concluded that
the torso, arms, and legs were likely to be Sheila's. The other parts of
Darin's body were never found.
Unconfirmed
victims
Scotland
Yard suspected Martin of having separately killed two men from south London,
financial adviser Timothy MacDowall and accountant William Shackel. In Mexico,
Martin had discussed with his wife about going scuba diving with MacDowall, who
was taking scuba lessons while on holiday on an island off Belize. MacDowall
disappeared in Belize in early 1995 but police could not conclusively match him
to body parts later found in that country; the only suspicious activity they
uncovered was the transfer of £21,000 from MacDowall's bank account to an
account in San Francisco under Martin's name. MacDowall is believed to have
been murdered as he slept and his remains thrown into a crocodile-infested
river. Martin refused to be interviewed by Scotland Yard while he was on death
row in Changi Prison, thus whether he killed MacDowall remains unconfirmed.
Shackel was reported missing while on holiday in Cancún, Mexico. Police reports
said that Martin was in Cancún the day Shackel cashed traveller's cheques worth
£4,000, after which he disappeared.
Martin
was also wanted in San Francisco in the United States for the murder of
homosexual prostitute Tom Wenger on 28 March 1994. Wenger's body was chopped up
and drained of blood; it was found in a garbage skip ("dumpster") in
Myrte Alley, in the Polk Street district. Although Martin was supposed to be in
jail in the United Kingdom at the time, his photograph matched a facial
composite picture made by San Francisco police.
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|
Passport
of Darin Damude with Martin's photo
|
Arrest
and remand
Martin
was arrested when he arrived at Changi Airport on the evening of 19 March 1995
and produced a passport with his assumed name, Simon Davis. Police had put the
name on their wanted list on 14 March after they determined that Lowe had
checked into River View Hotel with someone by that name. In a police interview
room in the airport, Martin smashed a glass panel and cut his wrist with a
shard of glass in a suicide attempt, fearing that he would be hanged like Flor Contemplacion,
a Filipino who had been hanged two days before for a double murder. He was
taken to Alexandra Hospital for treatment.
The
police found five passports on Martin in addition to his own—two British
passports issued to Simon Davis, two Canadian passports issued to Sheila and
Darin Damude, and a South African passport issued to Gerard Lowe—each with
Martin's photograph affixed. They also found credit cards belonging to Sheila
Damude and Gerard Lowe. In addition, police found Simon Davis' birth
certificate, and items that Martin had used to immobilise and kill: a hammer
weighing 1.5 kilogrammes (3.3 lb), a battery-operated Z-Force III
electroshock weapon, a can of mace, two pairs of handcuffs, a pair of
thumbcuffs, two Police brand foldable knives, an oilstone and two Swiss army
knives. Importation of some of these into Singapore is illegal.
On
21 March 1995, Martin was taken to court on an initial charge, naming him as
Simon James Davis and accusing him of forging Lowe's signature on a DBS Bank
credit card transaction slip to obtain S$6,000 in cash on 9 March. Three days
later, he was charged under his real name for the murder of Gerard Lowe in a
River View Hotel room some time between 8 March and 9. In subsequent hearings,
he was additionally charged with forgery (forging Lowe's signature five more
times to obtain cash and goods worth $3,200), vandalism (smashing the glass
panel), possession of an offensive weapon (the electroshock weapon), and
possession of a controlled drug (he had 24 sticks of cannabis at the time of
his arrest).
On
18 September, a preliminary enquiry in a district court was held to determine
whether there was sufficient evidence for a trial to proceed. The magistrate
overseeing the enquiry ordered Martin to stand trial for Gerard Lowe's murder
on 2 October after hearing statements from 39 witnesses, and looking at more
than 100 exhibits and 100 photographs that the prosecution had prepared as
evidence.
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John
Martin Scripps passport photo
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Trial
Before
the trial, Martin made a statement explaining that he killed Lowe in
self-defence. He said he had fallen asleep after checking in, but woke up after
someone touched his buttocks; it was Lowe, who was clad only in his underwear
and smiling at him. To him, this behaviour made Lowe appear to be a homosexual,
so he kicked Lowe away. This angered Lowe, who threw Martin's hammer at his
stomach. Martin then grabbed the hammer and "hit [Lowe] several times on
the head until he collapsed onto the carpeted floor." A friend later
helped him to dispose of Lowe's body by throwing it into the Singapore River.
Martin continued, "I am not sure what was the next thing I did...
everything was such a blur to me after this incident that I was walking around
in a dream world for the next few days." He refused to identify his
friend, saying, "I cannot tell you his identity because if he knew he
would harm my family back in Britain." On 15 March, he flew to Phuket,
where he met his friend again. His friend gave him the passports and other
items belonging to the Damudes, whom he never met.
In
court, Martin argued that he was by nature not a violent person. "I may
have worked in the (prison) butchery, but cutting up a human body is another
thing. When I saw the photographs (of Lowe's body parts), it made me feel
sick." He maintained that he had killed Lowe after the latter made
homosexual advances that caused him to "freak out"; he had previously
fended off homosexual attacks twice while imprisoned: in Israel in 1978, and in
England in 1994. When Deputy Public Prosecutor Jennifer Marie asked him what he
did after killing Lowe, he said that he could not remember anything because he
had drunk heavily and consumed Valium after Lowe's death until he was arrested.
He repeated that he had not killed the Damudes, and that he had come back to
Singapore from Phuket to clear his conscience about Lowe's death.
On
7 November, Judge T. S. Sinnathuray
adjourned the trial for three days to consider his verdict. (Singapore
abolished jury trials in 1969.) When the trial resumed, the judge was satisfied
that the prosecution had made its case and dismissed Martin's version of
events. In his verdict, he said:
I'm satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Martin had intentionally killed Lowe. After that, he disarticulated Lowe's body into separate parts, and it was he who subsequently disposed of the body parts by throwing them into the river behind the hotel.On the evidence, I had no difficulty to find that it was Martin who was concerned with the deaths of Sheila and Darin and for the disposal of their body parts found in different sites in Phuket. The disarticulation of the body parts of Lowe, Sheila and Darin have the hallmark signs of having been done by the same person. Altogether, this similar fact evidence reinforces the decision I have made, for it puts beyond doubt that Martin is guilty on the charge of murder.The sentence of this court upon you is that you will be taken from this place to a lawful prison and taken to a place to be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Appeal
and hanging
On
15 November 1995, Martin announced he would appeal the sentence. He later
dropped the appeal without giving an explanation on 4 January 1996, four
days before it was to have been heard. He turned down a subsequent chance to
petition the President of Singapore for clemency, saying that he was impatient
to be executed.
In
the days before his hanging, Martin wrote of an "emptiness" inside
him and lamented that no one had loved him besides his family and his ex-wife
María, in a series of misspelled notes (he was semi-literate):
One day poor. One day reach. Money filds the pane of hunger but what will fill the emteness inside? I know that love is beyond me. So do I give myself to god. The god that has betrad me. Can I be a person again? Only time will tell me.You may take my life for what it is worth, but grant thows that I love, pease and happiness.
He
complained that in prison, "You are told every day that you are not a
member of the uman rase [a misspelling of 'human race']." The week before
he was due to hang, he dreamed that he had avoided the sentence by committing
suicide:
I tied the rope around my little neck before I got up on the old creaky chair. I reached down and picked up a handful of earth and put it in my mouth. Then I crawled up to the old creaky chair and pulled the rope tighter and tighter still. I was on tiptoe, just one more pull, then my feet left the chair knocking it over and darkness embraced me as the heavens opened. I woke up in darkness and felt a heavy weight on my chest. I cried out, "Mummy, I am here."
Martin's
mother remarked, "Whoever he is now, he's the person the prison service
trained him to be. These bastards have no right to take my son's life. I
brought him into the world. I am the only person who can take him out of
it." However, no one formally protested against the hanging. At dawn on 19
April 1996, Martin was hanged in Changi Prison together with two Singaporean
drug traffickers. On that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Royal
Thai Police closed their files on the murders of Sheila and Darin Damude,
declaring the case effectively solved.
When
Martin's ex-wife María heard that he had been hanged, she said:
John disappeared on several trips and went to the United States and Southeast Asia. I knew something awful was happening, but I could not believe he had started killing people.I knew this would happen to John but I didn't know it would hurt so much. The last memory I have of him is a message he sent promising we would meet in the next life and that he would never let me go again.
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The
cover of Body Parts
|
Post-death
coverage
In
May 1996, Tan Ooi Boon, a reporter from The Straits Times who covered
Martin's case from start to finish, wrote a book on the case, titled Body
Parts: A British Serial Killer in Singapore. He wrote the book in three
months using material he had prepared for the newspaper. It mixed fictional
narrative with fact and described how Martin disposed of his victims' bodies.
In
July 1996, the story of how Martin murdered Gerard Lowe, and the investigation
that followed, was featured in an episode of the Singapore Crimewatch,
which was shown on Television Corporation of Singapore's Channel 5 and Channel
8. In the episode, actual photographs from the autopsy were shown, causing the
series to be the first current affairs programme in Singapore to be given the
PG (Parental Guidance) warning tag. Police justified their use of the
photographs, saying that they wanted to "give an accurate account of the
case to the public." The story was also re-enacted in the last episode of
MediaCorp TV's Channel 5 docu-drama True Files on 23 July 2002.
On
31 January 1997, eight police officers who made significant contributions
towards Martin's conviction were awarded commemorative plaques by the High
Commissioner for Canada in Singapore, Barry Carin.
LINKS:
COMMENTS:
I
remember reading about Scripps case when I was a little boy. I recalled being a
strong opponent of the death penalty, I felt angry at the Singapore Justice
System for putting him to death. Just like any abolitionists, I would have protested
his execution and cry for him.
But
ever since I became a supporter of the death penalty, I soon realized that it
is extremely dangerous to keep a murderer alive as he would be given a chance
to kill again for sure. His case was so heinous and gruesome that even the
British government did not want to appeal for clemency. At that time, Britain
had not signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights. If they had done
that, they will have no choice but to plead for his life to be spared.
Let
us assume if the Singapore courts believed that it was only a manslaughter
charge for Gerard Lowe’s killing and the Damudes’ bodies were never found,
Scripps will most probably get a ten to twenty year jail sentence. When he finishes
his jail sentence, he will definitely kill for sure as he was suspected of
killing other victims.
Thank
God the Singapore Government did not spare his life and it was a good thing
that he requested a suicide assist, he was hung five months after being
sentenced to death. Caucasian tourists around the world should thank the
Singapore government and those law enforcement officials for getting rid of
this ‘Tourist from Hell’. Singapore has a low homicide rate, thank Singapore!
As Michel Eyquem de Montaigne said:
"One of the uses of our system of justice is to warn others... We are reforming, not the hanged individual, but everyone else."
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