#The Gatwick Blackmailer

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

The Gatwick Blackmailer

An attractive blonde stewardess in her mid-thirties arrived at Gatwick Airport police station in a state of clear distress, and placed on a desk the following letter that she had received whilst at work. The name of the recipient has been left out, but the letter is reproduced:

DEAR X

YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT I KNOW YOU QUITE WELL. I’M UNEMPLOYED, BUT MAKE A LITTLE DELIVERING THINGS IN MY VAN. I’VE NOT HAD A GIRLFRIEND FOR FIVE YEARS. I HAVE DECIDED I’M HAVING YOU. YOU MUST DO THE FOLLOWING. GO TO A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO, DRESSED IN YOUR FULL UNIFORM, INCLUDING GLOVES, HANDBAG, STOCKINGS, SUSPENDERS AND HIGH HEELS – BROWN. I WANT 40 PICTURES IN GLOSS COLOUR, 10 BY 8, SO I CAN SEE YOUR TITS, WITH YOUR SKIRT ON BUT PULLED UP – NO KNICKERS, CLEAR VIEWS BETWEEN YOUR LEGS. SEE DIAGRAMS.

IF YOU DON’T COMPLY, NEXT YEAR AT SOME STAGE WHEN IT IS SAFE FOR ME, I WILL THROW CONCENTRATED SULPHURIC ACID IN YOUR FACE. I WILL NOT STAY AROUND TO WATCH YOUR FLESH MELT OFF. I WILL GET YOU, NO QUESTION. NO MORE CHANCES NO MORE WARNINGS. YOU CAN’T HIDE, AND IF THE PICTURES ARENT THERE BY DECEMBER 12, THAT’S IT. IF I CAN’T SEE YOU, NO ONE ELSE WOULD EVER WANT TO ONCE I’VE DONE MY JOB NEXT YEAR. DO YOURS AND YOU WONT NEED TO LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER ALL YEAR. BY THE WAY, YOU WILL PROBABLY BE BLINDED TOO, UNLESS YOU ARE LUCKY.

This horrifying message also contained with it disgusting and explicit hand drawn sketches of the poses that the author wanted the woman to adopt in the photographs, as well as detailed instruction about how to specifically package the pictures and where to leave them – the location being a ditch by a sign on a minor road near Gatwick Airport.

Detectives started an investigation, and although the letter was postmarked 20 miles away in Kingston Upon Thames, they theorised that the author was someone who was employed at the airport in some way. They discreetly began looking at the woman’s male colleagues for a possible suspect, and subjected the letter and envelope to forensic examination for fingerprints or traces of DNA. All fingerprints found on the letter and envelope were ran through fingerprint databases, but no match was found on file. There was no obvious suspect found either. Needless to say, the frightened woman did not comply with the writer’s demands, and the deadline of December 12 passed without incident. The same woman then received another letter on 12 February 1998, written in the same handwriting and in the format of capital letters, simply saying:

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR NOW, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN

Speculating that the author had gotten wind of the police investigation and had backed off, there was little more that detectives could do – except wait to see if the author wrote again. For nearly a year, there were no further developments.

Then, just after Christmas 1998, a second frightened woman came into Gatwick Airport police station with another disturbing and disgusting letter. It had again been posted in Kingston Upon Thames, and the recipient was again a blonde woman in her early 30’s, who worked on the ticket reservation staff at the airport. This time, the author of the letter had switched to referring to himself in the plural. Again, the name of the recipient has been removed here:

WE NEED YOUR UNIFORM FOR A FILM. IF YOU DON’T SUPPLY IT WE WILL TAKE IT. WE WILL FIND OUT A BIT ABOUT YOU, AND THEN WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT AND YOU ARE OFF GUARD, WE WILL TAKE IT. EVEN IF YOU ARE WEARING IT. WE WILL ALSO TAKE ONE OF YOUR FINGERS FOR MAKING THINGS DIFFICULT FOR US. DON’T BE A CUNT, X, MAKE LIFE EASY FOR ALL OF US. YOU KNOW EVERYTHING CAN BE FORGOT

The letter also contained the same detailed drop off instructions and location as the previous letter. The recipient of the second letter also did not comply with these demands, and although the first inquiry was again looked at, there was no arrest and it did not advance the investigation further. There was no follow up letter this time, and things again went quiet.

Then in April 1999, the letter writer was back. The third recipient was a colleague of the first recipient, and was the now familiar pattern again of a blonde woman in her early 30’s. This time, the letter had been posted at Gatwick itself, and the writer had drawn up a list of “forfeits” for the recipient. He again wanted her uniform, and it was again to be left in the same spot as before. As with the previous letters, the demands were ignored, and a follow up letter a month later contained the threat that the writer would place an obscene picture of the recipient online. The recipient, like the first victim, had been photographed for the airline’s promotional literature, and the writer threatened to graft her picture onto an image of a woman masturbating with a wine bottle. It would then be placed on a website with a message for people to telephone her airline asking for the “cabin crew performance manager”, and to detail which obscene and degrading acts they wished for her to perform.

The fourth and what turned out to be the final recipient of “The Gatwick Blackmailer” also worked for the same airline that victims 1 and 3 worked for – but this time was brown haired and only 22 years of age. The letter had also been sent just a day after the follow up letter to the third victim, which alarmed police. This man was becoming bolder and was stepping up his attacks. He was also becoming more perverted. The letter to the 4th victim again talked of a forfeit system, but as what was becoming a common pattern with the author, used a slightly different approach from the previous letters:

I WAS ON YOUR FLIGHT ONCE AND I MANAGED TO FIND OUT WHO YOU WERE. I WAITED FOR DAYS OUTSIDE THE CAR PARKS TO GET A FEW PICTURES OF YOU. I THOUGHT YOU SAW ME – DID YOU? I THINK ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME, AS I DON’T HAVE TOO LONG TO LIVE. I’VE SOLD MY HOUSE, GIVEN UP MY JOB AND DECIDED TO GO OUT, FULFILLING EVERY FANTASY I’VE HAD AND DOING WHATEVER I WANT. ALL IN ALL I’M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE. BEFORE I DIE I WILL THROW ACID OVER YOU. IT’S SO STRONG NOBODY WILL EVER RECOGNIZE YOU AGAIN. HERE IS TASK ONE. WRITE ME A LETTER. DESCRIBE YOUR BREASTS AND HOW YOU MASTURBATE.

The letter also contained a threat that non-compliance would result in a picture of her being posted online with her face grafted onto that of a woman with a frog in her vagina. This would be accompanied by an invitation to call a number and to ask for private shows of the victim with a manner of objects inserted into her vagina and anus.

The 4th victim was so traumatised by this letter, that after reporting it, she quit her job and moved away from the area. Gatwick Police now had 4 victims of what was undoubtedly the same man, but the investigation was at a standstill. 

The offender was likely male, in the older age bracket, and was unlikely to be married with children – or even in a conventional relationship. He was likely a loner, computer literate and technologically minded, with an interest in machinery. There was a possibility that the offender may have some form of disfigurement – as acid and disfiguring featured strongly in his letters. He agreed with the police that the writer would work at the airport, as the lure of being around his particular fetish would be too difficult to resist. It may be a low-level job, but that did not mean the offender was unintelligent. He considered the offender to be heavily into “anal sadism”, who would gain thrills from the humiliation and degradation of the victim. He estimated that the offender would be heavily into pornography – particularly relating to air hostesses as this was his bent, likely having clothing or paraphernalia related to that of air hostesses at his home. There was also the likelihood that the offender had written many more such letters to other victims, which may have been dismissed and to not have been reported. The fact that he had contacted three of the four victims twice gave the opinion that the author was a writer rather than a doer; none of the threats contained in the letters had ever been carried out, the offender gained his kicks from purely writing the letters, with every word giving him deep satisfaction. He would also find it irresistible to visit the drop off location described in the letters.

The drop off location detailed in the Sutton letters had been surveyed by officers on the enquiry for two days covering one of the dates detailed by the author in one of the letters. No package had been left of course, but no one had turned up either. When the operation had been stood down, officers had left an empty bag and envelope at the scene to see the results. Shortly afterwards, the Sutton victim had received a letter asking her if she was trying to trick him with empty bags. It was clear that the offender had visited the scene at some point, even though the surveillance had failed to spot him.

Encouraged by this, DI Johns opted to put into action a round the clock surveillance operation upon the drop off location in the country lane near the airport that had been specified in many of the letters. A bag of clothing was deposited at the scene, a concealed video camera was installed that could observe the location, and two teams of officers hid a short distance either side of the location. On a Monday morning in mid July 1999, the operation began. 

For nearly three full days, police sat in wait but with nothing happening. But then, at nearly 11:00pm on 14 July 1999, the bag was collected. A car was observed stopping, and when the camera footage was later examined, the vehicles headlights were seen to illuminate the scene. A person’s silhouette could then be seen exiting the vehicle, going right to the bag and then returning to the vehicle before driving off the way the way that had approached from. The driver was stopped a short distance from the scene – and the bag was found on the front seat of the car. He was arrested and brought into custody at Gatwick, where he was interviewed in the presence of a solicitor.

The man arrested at the scene was Keith Downer, a 40-year-old British Airways engineer who lived near Redhill in Surrey, and who worked on the B Shift short haul line maintenance at Gatwick Airport. Downer was bailed following his interview, but allowed officers to take his fingerprints before he left the station. Within a few days, Downer’s fingerprints were found to be a match to outstanding fingerprints on two of the blackmail letters. He was re-arrested and exercised his right not to comment when this evidence was put to him. Coupled with being in possession of the bag of clothing left as bait, and the unlikely explanation Downer had given for being in the lane at the time, it was enough to charge him. Five months later, when the case came before Chichester Crown Court in December 1999, Downer pleaded guilty to eight counts of blackmail – including the Sutton offence. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, which however was halved to four years at a Court Of Appeal hearing in autumn 2000. Downer’s victims were understandably extremely upset by this and has since been freed. 

[happymeishappylife]

The Daleks (6th Appearance): The Evil of the Daleks

Just when I think the Daleks have gotten better and scarier in the ways they plan and scheme, along comes this serial and kills the vibe. I mean this is worse than their plot in the Chase to me and that’s saying a lot. Part of the problem could be that this serial took several confusing turns, but part of it could be that their plan just sucked. So let’s discuss it.

First, we learn that the Daleks have made contact with two men from the 1800s. One is Theodore Maxtible who is a wealthy English gentlemen with a fascination in science. The second is his friend Edward Waterfield who equally is interested in science and gets Maxtible’s help to build a time machine. But in doing so that’s how they meet the Daleks. And with the promise to learn the secret of transmutation to turn items into gold, Maxtible agrees to help the Daleks and coerces Waterfield to join him by plotting to kidnap Waterfield’s daughter, Victoria. Now even though these two are men of science, they are not equipped to help the Daleks with their experiment and so they with the help of the Daleks time machine, track down the Doctor to help them.

Now this is interesting for two reasons. One, how they found the Doctor at Gatwick Airport and plot to steal the TARDIS, seems far fetched since the Doctor never leaves the airport or causes worldwide panic in the Faceless Ones. But two, this is the first time we see the Daleks reach out to the Doctor, an enemy they are aware of don’t trust (they even say that), to help them. And knowing he won’t that’s why they steal the TARDIS. So it is a little bit of blackmail to get him to help them, but again they even state that they don’t trust him so why do they want his help? Plus at the end we learn its all for nothing really.

But catching up with the story, once the Doctor and Jamie learn that the TARDIS is stolen, they track it down to a fake Victorian antique shop selling pristine items. Invited by Waterfields associates in the 1960s who get confused by his talk of coaches, they lure the two in and drug them so that they can travel to the 1800s. Once there, things get crazier when the Doctor learns of the plan between Maxtible, Waterfield, and the Daleks, but can’t let Jamie in on it because he has to do the experiment without that knowledge. This infuriates Jamie and makes me sad to see the two quarrel.

The experiment is to implant “the human factor” into three test Daleks because that’s something they say they need to help their further conquest… Which obviously is suspicious since we know them to fight for only themselves and they hate others, but oh well. To get the human factor, they must measure Jamie’s brainwaves and pick out key moments that are true to human nature, which is what they need the Doctor for. And of course, being the Doctor, he picks courage, kindness, and curious which leads to fun Daleks. He even rode them for fun and gave them names once the test proved a success.

Meanwhile, Jamie who thinks he is working opposite the Doctor goes through the tests, battling Daleks and a man named Kemel who he later rescues and befriends. They find Victoria, but just as they are escaping are separated when Jamie gets into a fight with another gentlemen half under the Daleks control. That’s when he learns the Doctor’s true intentions but it is too late as Victoria is still missing, Maxtible sets a bomb, and the Doctor, Jamie, and Waterfield escape the house through the Daleks transmat and arrive back on Skaro.

It feels a little weird to be back on Skaro since we haven’t since the very first serial. But because its somewhere the Doctor has been before, he knows how to sneak around, though he does intentionally get captured to learn more of the Daleks overall plan. In doing so we meet a new evolution of the Daleks; The Dalek Emperor:

I’m not sure when they decided they needed an Emperor, but since this is not the last time we see it, its interesting that now is when it gets introduced. But then it reveals their plan which is that they really didn’t want the human factor introduced into Daleks, but rather they was “the Dalek factor” introduced into humans so they can control them and take over Earth. So why make the Doctor do the opposite? Like did they really think that wouldn’t help him prevent their takeover? They weren’t even phased when he said he made Daleks who now questioned things. But then when they do they freak out.

Still they show off how the Dalek factor works by turning Maxtible when they fake him out to give him the formula to turn items into gold. He in turn does turn into an obedient servant but later shows its not perfect because he does help the Doctor later on, but the Doctor uses a key part of his character to survive and finally admits to his team that oh wait, he’s not human. Hence why he does not come under control of the Daleks. Plus he has one container of the human factor which he uses to replace the Dalek factor and transform more Daleks into humans which makes them start war and rebel against the Dalek Emperor.

In the end, the Daleks kill off themselves, but in the process do kill off Waterfield and Maxtible kills Kemel so that leaves Victoria stranded, stressed, and distraught which is why the Doctor and Jamie take her with them once they leave Skaro.

Overall, the Daleks plan is messy and confusing, plus totally unnecessary because it seems like they already knew what they were going to do and how to do it, but I guess to make it interesting they invited the Doctor, just because. But I do miss the days when we could destroy Daleks by tripping them over rope and throwing them over balconies and cliffs.