John Martin Scripps
Encyclopedia
John Martin was a British 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 nickname 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 had been an accident and that a friend of his had 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 Singapore's independence to be given the death penalty
.
, Hertfordshire
, 9 December 1959 to Leonard and Jean Scripps,
an East End lorry driver and a Fleet Street
barmaid, respectively. He traveled often in childhood, occasionally accompanied by his father, to 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.
Scripps committed his first crime in May 1974, when he was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge
and fined £10 by the 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
.
, Mexico whom he had met on a trip to her country. They travelled together for two years until in 1982, he was jailed three years for theft, burglary, and resisting arrest. His imprisonment upset Maria, 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 stole some of Cold's clothing while released on home leave in an act of revenge. He was appeased only when she divorced her new lover and returned to her hometown. After he was released, he legally changed his name
to John Martin.
He soon started trafficking in drugs. Being an experienced traveller, he 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 on him a key that belonged to a safe deposit box
in a bank in Orchard Road
. Officers from Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau
seized 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb) of heroin worth about US$1 million from the box. For this and another drug offence, the 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 the 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 incarcerated at Albany Prison
on the Isle of Wight
from February 1992 to August 1993. He was a model prisoner; initially he did menial jobs such as dishwashing and general cleaning but was later promoted to be a butcher. He was trained by James Quigley, a prison caterer with more than 20 years' experience, and another inmate only identified as "Ginger" who was 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
due to a change in his security categorisation. In October 1994 he escaped, again while on home leave. His home leave had been granted only two days after he had been refused parole
. Even before he was granted leave, there were signs that doing so would be a mistake; according to his mother, he had sold all his belongings to fellow inmates while in prison, a clear notice of his intention to escape. She asked prison authorities not to release him. After Martin was sentenced to death, she reiterated:
However, she did give him £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 had 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).
, 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 would stay in the same hotels as his victims in a room near theirs. Once he had an excuse to be in their rooms, he would use 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 evidently was money; large amounts were withdrawn using the credit cards of Gerard Lowe and Timothy MacDowall.
, South Africa. He was a chemical engineer
with South African Breweries
. He had gone 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 had belonged to a Caucasian, but they had a possible name after receiving a missing person report for Lowe from the South African High Commission. Vanessa Lowe had 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 peers at work had also tried to locate 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.
, 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) happening to sit 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.
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, California
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 traveler's cheque
s 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
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.
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 in to 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 passport
s issued to Simon Davis, two Canadian passport
s 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 kilograms (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
.
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 slapped with additional charges of 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.
. 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 trial
s 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:
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 Maria, in a series of misspelled notes (he was illiterate):
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
:
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 Maria heard that he had been hanged, she said:
who had 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. Back in Canada, the deaths of the Damudes served as a warning to travelers not to readily accept offers to share rooms from strangers.
Spree killer
A spree killer is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."-Definition:According to the...
who murdered three tourists—Gerard Lowe in Singapore, and Sheila and Darin Damude in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
—with another three unconfirmed victims. He posed as a tourist himself when committing the murders, for which British tabloids nickname 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 had been an accident and that a friend of his had 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 Singapore's independence to be given the death penalty
Capital punishment in Singapore
Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in Singapore. The city-state had the highest per-capita execution rate in the world between 1994 and 1999, estimated by the United Nations to be 1.357 executions per hundred thousand of population during that period. The next highest was Turkmenistan...
.
Early life
John Martin Scripps was born in LetchworthLetchworth
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The town's name is taken from one of the three villages it surrounded - all of which featured in the Domesday Book. The land used was first purchased by Quakers who had intended to farm the...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, 9 December 1959 to Leonard and Jean Scripps,
an East End lorry driver and a Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
barmaid, respectively. He traveled often in childhood, occasionally accompanied by his father, to 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.
Scripps committed his first crime in May 1974, when he was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge
Conditional discharge
A discharge is a type of sentence where no punishment is imposed. An absolute discharge is unconditional: the defendant is not punished, and the case is over. In some jurisdictions, an absolute discharge means there is no conviction despite a finding that the defendant is guilty...
and fined £10 by the Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
Juvenile Court
Juvenile court
A juvenile court is a tribunal having special authority to try and pass judgments for crimes committed by children or adolescents who have not attained the age of majority...
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
Indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...
.
Criminal career
In 1980, Scripps married Maria Pilar Arellanos from CancúnCancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
, Mexico whom he had met on a trip to her country. They travelled together for two years until in 1982, he was jailed three years for theft, burglary, and resisting arrest. His imprisonment upset Maria, 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 stole some of Cold's clothing while released on home leave in an act of revenge. He was appeased only when she divorced her new lover and returned to her hometown. After he was released, he legally changed his name
Deed of Change of Name
A deed of change of name is a legal document in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, which enables a single person or a family to officially change his or her name...
to John Martin.
He soon started trafficking in drugs. Being an experienced traveller, he 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 on him a key that belonged to a safe deposit box
Safe deposit box
A safe deposit box or wrongly referred to as a safety deposit box is an individually-secured container, usually held within a larger safe or bank vault. Safe deposit boxes are generally located in banks, post offices or other institutions...
in a bank in Orchard Road
Orchard Road
Orchard Road is a road in Singapore that is the retail and entertainment hub of the city-state. It is regularly frequented by the local population as well as being a major tourist attraction...
. Officers from Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau
Central Narcotics Bureau
The Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore was established in 1971 as the primary drug enforcement agency entrusted with the responsibilities of coordinating all matters pertaining to drug eradication...
seized 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb) of heroin worth about US$1 million from the box. For this and another drug offence, the Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
in January 1988 sentenced him to seven years in jail; he escaped while on home leave but was later re-arrested. In July 1992 the Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
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 incarcerated at Albany Prison
Albany (HM Prison)
HMP Isle of Wight - Albany Barracks is a Category B men's prison, situated on the outskirts of Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service....
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
from February 1992 to August 1993. He was a model prisoner; initially he did menial jobs such as dishwashing and general cleaning but was later promoted to be a butcher. He was trained by James Quigley, a prison caterer with more than 20 years' experience, and another inmate only identified as "Ginger" who was 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
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
due to a change in his security categorisation. In October 1994 he escaped, again while on home leave. His home leave had been granted only two days after he had been refused parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
. Even before he was granted leave, there were signs that doing so would be a mistake; according to his mother, he had sold all his belongings to fellow inmates while in prison, a clear notice of his intention to escape. She asked prison authorities not to release him. After Martin was sentenced to death, she reiterated:
However, she did give him £200 to go overseas after his arrest. To avoid recapture, he used the birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
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 had lost his passport, and managed to get a replacement. Martin arrived in Singapore from San Francisco at about 2 a.m. SST
Singapore Standard Time
Singapore Standard Time or Singapore Time based in Singapore uses a time zone eight hours in advance of UTC .- History :...
on 8 March 1995 (6 p.m. UTC on 7 March).
Murder of tourists
Martin killed at least three people in Singapore and ThailandThailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and may have killed others in Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Mexico and the United States. His modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
was to pose as a tourist and converse with another randomly-chosen Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
, either aboard their flights or while waiting at airports. He would stay in the same hotels as his victims in a room near theirs. Once he had an excuse to be in their rooms, he would use 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 evidently was money; large amounts were withdrawn using the credit cards of Gerard Lowe and Timothy MacDowall.
Gerard Lowe
Gerard George Lowe came from JohannesburgJohannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa. He was a chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
with South African Breweries
South African Breweries
The South African Breweries , then called Castle Breweries, was founded in 1895 specifically to serve a new market of miners and prospectors in and around Johannesburg. Two years later, it became the first industrial company to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange...
. He had gone 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
Singapore Changi Airport
Singapore Changi Airport , Changi International Airport, or simply Changi Airport, is the main airport in Singapore. A major aviation hub in Southeast Asia, it is about north-east from the commercial centre in Changi, on a site....
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
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
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
Clifford Pier
Clifford Pier is a pier located beside Collyer Quay at Marina Bay within the Downtown Core of Central Area, in Singapore's central business district....
. Three days later, a pair of thighs and a torso
Torso
Trunk or torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. The trunk includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
were found in the same area, also in a plastic bag. Initially, Singapore police
Singapore Police Force
The Singapore Police Force is the main agency tasked with maintaining law and order in the city-state. Formerly known as the Republic of Singapore Police , it has grown from an 11-man organisation to a 38,587 strong force...
could only determine that the body parts had belonged to a Caucasian, but they had a possible name after receiving a missing person report for Lowe from the South African High Commission. Vanessa Lowe had 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 peers at work had also tried to locate 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.
Sheila and Darin Damude
Sheila Mae Damude and her son Darin Jon Damude came from Saanich, British ColumbiaSaanich, British Columbia
The District of Saanich is a municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is located north of the provincial capital, Victoria. It has a population of 108,265 people, making it the most populous municipality on Vancouver Island, and the seventh most populous in the province...
, Canada. She was an administrator at the Pacific Christian School in Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, 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
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
during spring break. They flew to Phuket
Phuket Province
Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...
on 15 March with Martin (still using his assumed name) happening to sit in the same row as them. He befriended the two and they checked into Nilly's Marina Inn facing Patong Beach
Patong Beach
Patong Beach refers to a beach on Phuket's west coast, and to the town adjoining it. It is the main tourist resort in Phuket. It also contains an important center of Phuket's nightlife and is the center of inexpensive shopping on the island. The beach became popular with Western tourists,...
. 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
Time in Thailand
Thailand observes UTC+07:00 and does not observe daylight saving time.In 2001, then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced intentions to change the country's UTC offset to UTC+08:00 to be in line with Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong & The Philippines. This was met with much criticism and...
(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
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
mine in Kathu district
Amphoe Kathu
Kathu is a district of Phuket Province, located in the west of the island. It neighbors Thalang to the north, Mueang Phuket to the east and south, and the Andaman Sea to the west.-Geography:...
. 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
Royal Thai Police
The Royal Thai Police are the national police of Thailand.-About:Primary responsibility for the maintenance of public order through enforcement of the kingdom's laws was exercised by the Thailand National Police Department , a subdivision of the Ministry of Interior...
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 YardScotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
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
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
with MacDowall, who was taking scuba lessons while on holiday on an island off Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
. 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, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
under Martin's name. MacDowall is believed to have been murdered as he slept and his remains thrown into a crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
-infested river. Martin refused to be interviewed by Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
while he was on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
in Changi Prison
Changi Prison
Changi Prison is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.-First prison and POW camp:...
, 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 traveler's cheque
Traveler's cheque
A traveler's cheque is a preprinted, fixed-amount cheque designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege.- Usage :As traveler's cheques can usually be replaced if lost or stolen A traveler's cheque...
s 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
Skip (container)
A rubbish skip is usually called merely a skip or waste bin. A skip is a large open-topped container designed for loading onto a special type of lorry. Differing from dumpster, instead of being emptied into a waste vehicle onsite, a skip is replaced by an empty skip and then tipped at a landfill...
in Myrte Alley, in the Polk Street
Polk Street
Polk Street is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood traversing through the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill neighborhoods. The street takes its name from former U.S....
district. Although Martin was supposed to be in jail in the United Kingdom at the time, his photograph matched a facial composite
Facial composite
A facial composite is a graphical representation of an eyewitness's memory of a face, as recorded by a composite artist. Facial composites are used mainly by police in their investigation of crimes.-PhotoFIT generation:...
picture made by San Francisco police.
Arrest and remand
Martin was arrested when he arrived at Changi Airport on the evening of 19 March 1995 and produced a passportPassport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
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 in to 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
Flor Contemplacion
Flor R. Contemplacion born in San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines was a Filipina domestic worker who was executed in Singapore for murder...
, a Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
who had been hanged two days before for a double murder. He was taken to Alexandra Hospital
Alexandra Hospital
Alexandra Hospital is a 400-bed hospital located in the south-western part of Singapore. Nestled in a 110,000 square metre land, the hospital is a picture of tranquil setting, lined with mostly colonial style buildings built since the late 1930s...
for treatment.
The police found five passports on Martin in addition to his own—two British passport
British passport
British passports may be issued to people holding any of the various forms of British nationality, and are used as evidence of the bearer's nationality and immigration status within the United Kingdom or the issuing state/territory.-Issuing:...
s issued to Simon Davis, two Canadian passport
Canadian passport
A Canadian passport is a passport issued to citizens of Canada for the purpose of international travel; allowing the bearer to travel in foreign countries in accordance with visa requirements; facilitating the process of securing assistance from Canadian consular officials abroad, if necessary; and...
s issued to Sheila and Darin Damude, and a South African passport
South African passport
A South African passport is a travel document issued to citizens of South Africa for the purpose of international travel. It allows the bearer to travel in foreign countries in accordance with visa requirements, and facilitates the process of securing assistance from South African consular...
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 kilograms (3.3 lb), a battery-operated Z-Force III electroshock weapon, a can of mace
Mace (spray)
Chemical Mace is a tear gas in the form of an aerosol spray which propels a lachrymatory agent mixed with a volatile solvent. It is sometimes used as a self-defense device...
, two pairs of handcuffs, a pair of thumbcuffs
Thumbcuffs
Thumbcuffs are a metal restraining device that lock thumbs in proximity to each other.Rarely used due to an increased possibility of injury, most commonly by tight cuffs blocking blood circulation, handcuffs are used instead....
, two Police brand
Police (brand)
Police is an Italian manufacturer of fashion accessories. Launched in 1983, the company was initially specializing in designing sunglasses.In 1997 Police launched their first perfumes set and in 2003 – their first watch collection...
foldable knives, an oilstone, and two Swiss army knives
Swiss Army knife
The Swiss Army knife is a brand of pocket knife or multi-tool manufactured by Victorinox AG and Wenger SA. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II due to the difficulty they had in pronouncing the German name....
.
On 21 March 1995, Martin was taken to court on an initial charge, naming him as Simon James Davis and accusing him of forging
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
Lowe's signature on a DBS Bank
DBS Bank
DBS Bank Ltd is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was previously known as The Development Bank of Singapore Limited, before the present name was adopted in July 2003 to reflect its changing role as a regional 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 slapped with additional charges of forgery (forging Lowe's signature five more times to obtain cash and goods worth $3,200), vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
(smashing the glass panel), possession of an offensive weapon (the electroshock weapon), and possession of a controlled drug (he had 24 sticks of cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
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
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
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.
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 RiverSingapore River
The Singapore River is a river in Singapore with great historical importance. The Singapore River flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean...
. 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
Phuket Province
Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...
, 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
Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray
Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray, affectionately known as 'Sam' or 'Judge' by his friends and peers, was born on 22 September 1930 and the son of a school principal. He received his early education at Pearl's Hill School and the Outram School but was cut short by the Fall Of Singapore in February...
adjourned the trial for three days to consider his verdict. (Singapore abolished jury trial
Jury trial
A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...
s 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:
Appeal and hanging
On 15 November 1995, Martin announced he would appealAppeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
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
President of Singapore
The President of the Republic of Singapore is Singapore's head of state. In a Westminster parliamentary system, as which Singapore governs itself, the prime minister is the head of the government while the position of president is largely ceremonial. Before 1993, the President of Singapore was...
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 Maria, in a series of misspelled notes (he was illiterate):
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
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
:
Martin's mother remarked, "Whoever he is now, he's the person the prison service
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
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
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
and the Royal Thai Police
Royal Thai Police
The Royal Thai Police are the national police of Thailand.-About:Primary responsibility for the maintenance of public order through enforcement of the kingdom's laws was exercised by the Thailand National Police Department , a subdivision of the Ministry of Interior...
closed their files on the murders of Sheila and Darin Damude, declaring the case effectively solved.
When Martin's ex-wife Maria heard that he had been hanged, she said:
Post-death coverage
In May 1996, Tan Ooi Boon, a reporter from The Straits TimesThe Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...
who had 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
Crimewatch (Singaporean TV series)
Crimewatch is a television programme produced by the National Crime Prevention Council, Singapore and Singapore Police Force. Currently presented by serving regular police officers, it showcases the work of the Singapore Police Force: including solved cases, appeals for unsolved cases, as well as...
, which was shown on Television Corporation of Singapore
Television Corporation of Singapore
Television Corporation of Singapore was a private company that provide television broadcasting services in then monopolised media industry. TCS existed from 1 October 1994 to 11 February 2001; Singapore Broadcasting Corporation was privatised on 1 October 1994 at 00:00 am...
's Channel 5
MediaCorp TV Channel 5
MediaCorp Channel 5 or Channel 5 is a 24-hour free-to-air English and Malay language television channel based in Singapore....
and Channel 8
MediaCorp TV Channel 8
MediaCorp Channel 8 is a 24-hour free-to-air Mandarin Chinese general entertainment television channel in Singapore...
. In the episode, actual photographs from the autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
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
True Files
True Files is an English language television docu-drama telecast on MediaCorp Channel 5, with each episode re-enacting some major cases of crime in Singapore...
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
High Commissioner
High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.-Bilateral diplomacy:...
for Canada in Singapore, Barry Carin. Back in Canada, the deaths of the Damudes served as a warning to travelers not to readily accept offers to share rooms from strangers.