Murder Maps

This drama-documentary series takes us back in time to the some of the most shocking and surprising murder cases in history.

Genre: Crime, History

Cast:Nicholas Day , Alan Moss , Donald Rumbelow , Judith Rowbotham , Martyn Mayger , Richard Banks , Carl Heap , Claire Garvey , Ludovic Hughes , Kevin Bedford , Robert McLanachan , Lynsey Beauchamp , Martin Ross , Vic Waghorn , Ty Hurley , Penelope Granycome , Steve Broad , Hallie Rubenhold

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ The Bermondsey Horror

Tue, Nov 24, 2015

In 1849, a man suddenly disappeared in Bermondsey. The discovery that he had been brutally murdered enraptured the press and the public. Even Charles Dickens was totally engrossed in the story of the sinister Marie Manning.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ In the Shadow of Jack

Tue, Dec 1, 2015

At the time of Jack The Ripper, London was home to some of the most terrible individuals the city has ever seen. One of the very worst was the elusive Borough Poisoner, George Chapman.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ Finding Dr Crippen

Tue, Dec 8, 2015

Having killed his wife and buried her in the basement, Dr Crippen believed he had escaped on a ship to Canada. But the police managed to hunt him down and bring him to account for his terrible crime.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ The Brides in the Bath Killer

Tue, Dec 15, 2015

George Smith had many aliases. He needed them for his many wives who he would soon murder in order to claim the inheritance. Catching this chameleon would be a gargantuan challenge.

1Season 4

S4.E1 ∙ The Beast of Birkenshaw

Sun, Jan 13, 2019

Peter Manuel was a Scottish serial killer who killed at least eight people between 1956-1958 around the Greater Glasgow area. He fell under the police's radar several times but each time let go. When he was finally tracked down and arrested, Manuel sensationally defended himself in court. But it would be his mother's testimony which would prove to be crucial to the outcome.

2Season 4

S4.E2 ∙ The Black Widow

Sun, Jan 20, 2019

Born in 1832 the story of the Black Widow is a classic Victorian tale Cotton travelled around the north east of England marrying lonely men getting them to take out life insurance and then murdering them. Arsenic was her preferred means of killing, once dead she would cash in their life insurance. After her execution it was suspected that she was responsible for the murders of a further 21 people

3Season 4

S4.E3 ∙ The Jigsaw Murders

Sun, Jan 27, 2019

Dr Ruxton was an Indian born physician. He lived a quiet, respectable life in Lancaster but had a violent jealous streak. He had accused his wife of infidelity for years but in September 1935 his jealousy got the better of him. He beat, strangled and stabbed her to death then did the same to the housemaid. He dismembered the bodies to remove identification marks and dumped them in Scotland.

4Season 4

S4.E4 ∙ The Shepherd's Bush Murders

Sun, Feb 3, 2019

Three police officers were murdered in Shepherds Bush on Friday 12th August 1966 by Harry Roberts and two others. After the killing they went on the run and a manhunt ensued. The notion that someone had killed several policemen shocked the public and attracted a lot of press attention. As the act of murder happened six months after the death penalty was suspended, people called for it's return.

1Season 5

S5.E1 ∙ Jack the Ripper (1)

Mon, Oct 7, 2019

We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper, the most famous serial killer in history, who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel and got away with it. In this two-part special we re-examine those crimes.

2Season 5

S5.E2 ∙ Jack the Ripper (2)

Mon, Oct 14, 2019

We all think we know the story of Jack the Ripper. The most famous serial killer in history, the man who murdered five women on the streets of Whitechapel - and got away with it. In this two-part Murder Maps special, we re-examine those notorious crimes. We reveal how the story we know today was shaped by the sensationalist press of 1888. And we strip back decades of rumor and misinformation to reveal the true lives of the five women slain. With contributions from world renowned Ripper expert Donald Rumbelow and writer Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five - the only book to tell the lives of the victims, these documentaries are the true story of the Whitechapel Murders as never heard before.

3Season 5

S5.E3 ∙ Houndsditch murders

Mon, Oct 21, 2019

In December 1910, the murder of three City of London Police officers and the wounding of two others was, and continues to be, one of the largest multiple murders of police officers on duty carried out in Great Britain. The three officers - Sergeants Bentley and Tucker and Constable Choat - were shot dead whilst trying to prevent a burglary at a jewelers in Houndsditch on the evening of the 16th of December and this incident and the events surrounding it formed the precursor to the famous Siege of Sidney Street in January 1911.

4Season 5

S5.E4 ∙ Bluebeard/Henri Landru

Mon, Oct 28, 2019

The First World War took the lives of countless soldiers on the front line. But one man in Paris too old for combat saw this as an opportunity. Henri Landru targeted the lonely and vulnerable women left behind by the war. He seduced them with promises of marriage and lured them to houses outside Paris where the women vanished. With the police uninterested in investigating the disappearances, two women took it upon themselves to pursue Landru. This episode tells their story. How they tirelessly gathered evidence against the killer. How they pestered the authorities to investigate. And how they made sure Landru finally faced justice for his crimes.

5Season 5

S5.E5 ∙ Herbert Armstrong - Hay poisoner

Mon, Nov 4, 2019

Herbert Rowse Armstrong went down in history as The Hay Poisoner. Convicted in 1922 of murdering his wife with arsenic, he was the first and only solicitor to be hanged in the UK. But was he guilty? Was he a cunning poisoner, or was he a grieving husband wrongly accused? Much of the evidence against Armstrong was circumstantial and the scientific testimony remains disputed. In this episode we examine both sides of the case and ask whether the British justice system made a terrible mistake.

6Season 5

S5.E6 ∙ The Baby Farmer

Fri, Feb 7, 2020

Amelia Dyer, baby farmer who killed between 200 and 400 children during Victorian period.

7Season 5

S5.E7 ∙ Cleveland Torso Murders

Fri, Feb 14, 2020

The unsolved murders committed by the Butcher of Kingsbury Run, a serial killer operating in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1930s, who murdered at least 12 men and women.

8Season 5

S5.E8 ∙ The Richmond Murder

Fri, Feb 21, 2020

Kate Webster found herself employed as a housemaid by Julia Thomas, but she resented the contrast between their social stations, resulting in murder.

9Season 5

S5.E9 ∙ Mary Pearcey

Fri, Feb 28, 2020

Here we reveal how the notorious killer Mary Pearcey began an affair with her victim's husband, how she inserted herself into the family's life.

Murder Maps

S1.E1 ∙ The Bermondsey Horror

S1.E2 ∙ In the Shadow of Jack

S1.E3 ∙ Finding Dr Crippen

S1.E4 ∙ The Brides in the Bath Killer

S2.E1 ∙ Murder in the Roaring Twenties

S2.E2 ∙ The Blackout Ripper

S2.E3 ∙ The Lady Killer

S2.E4 ∙ Notting Hill Horror Part 1

S2.E5 ∙ Notting Hill Horror Part 2

S3.E1 ∙ The Brighton Trunk Murders

S3.E2 ∙ The Acid Bath Murderer

S3.E3 ∙ The Tow Path Murders

S3.E4 ∙ Ruth Ellis