Nostalgic recollections of wartime Britain often forget that when the blackout was enforced at night in an attempt to foil Nazi bombers a crime wave, cloaked by the inky black darkness, ensued on many of our streets. There were petty crimes, robberies, sexual assaults and, as The Blackout Murders reveals, some horrific murders took place on our home front during the Second World War. Some of them still rank among the most shocking crimes in modern British history. Some of the murders recounted within the pages of this book remain infamous, others are almost forgotten and some remain unsolved to this day. Several cases have new light shed on them from recently released archives and records uncovered by the author. Every case has been carefully selected for its reflection of wartime conditions and each one has a powerful, poignant and tragic story to tell. Readers will gain insights into the darker narrative of our home front and learn about some of the men and women who strove to maintain law and order under the most challenging circumstances. Others innovated and developed ground-breaking forensic techniques to identify bodies, recognize if foul play had occurred and as a direct result brought murderers to justice who may otherwise have gone undetected and unpunished. Anyone reading The Blackout Murders will never look at Britain's Home Front during the Second World War in the same way again.

In February, 1942, a woman was found strangled in a London air raid shelter. Chief Superintendent Frederick Cherrill, head of Scotland Yard’s revolutionary fingerprint division, knew just how well the wartime blackout concealed crime. But this was a brutal, senseless killing with few clues, no apparent motive—and no sign of the terror to come. The nightly air raids had darkened London’s neon dazzle but not its urge to live it up. With death a daily possibility, drinks and sex were everywhere. But one man had other urges. Over a five-day period, he murdered with a lightning-fast ferocity that stunned and baffled investigators. Dubbed “The Blackout Ripper,” he left few clues in his bloody wake—until a slip-up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all.

Two days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government imposed blackout regulations across the nation as it was believed that in the event of war, Germany would very quickly begin conducting air raids on British towns and cities. The measures included covering windows in a dark, thick material at night to ensure no light could be seen from the outside. The use of vehicle headlamps was also prohibited, which resulted in a number of accidents and pedestrians being killed. These restrictions, enforced by Air Raid Precaution wardens and the police, were for the benefit and safety of the British public, but it also unintentionally made life a lot less dangerous for members of the criminal fraternity, allowing them to go about their regular night time activities with less chance of being caught by the police. As a result, during one week in February 1942, Gordon Cummins, RAF, was able to move around freely to carry out his attacks and make it back to his billet without being caught, or even stopped, by the police. The very restrictions put in place to protect the British public from German bombers actually placed women in danger from men such as Cummins: three of his victims were known prostitutes, as was at least one of the two women he is known to have attacked, but who survived. All of Cummins victims were attacked during the hours of darkness while the ‘blackout was in place, leading to him becoming known as the Blackout Ripper.

In February 1942, a woman was found strangled in a London air raid shelter. Seven days later, the man dubbed as the 'Blackout Ripper' had struck six times, his crimes becoming more brutal at each turn. The killer left few clues in his bloody wake, until a slip up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all.

A young man suffers a head injury and now has blackouts that last from hours to days long. During that period he commits brutal crimes, especially to those that he believes are "Trophy Wives". He meets the girl of his dreams by accident and seeks help from doctors in the form of medication. However sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

It is 1942 and a fiend lurks in the dark streets of London. Unlike Jack the Ripper, this monster looks for women in uniform to kill, and every time he leaves behind a badge of the US commandoes. The possibility that the killer is American has serious consequences for Anglo-American cooperation especially as London is full of US servicemen.