Murder Maps

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.

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were in love but the young couple were convicted for murdering Edith's husband. The case would shock this changing society and highlight the horror of the death penalty.

The first episode examines the horrifying discovery made in a trunk at the left luggage office of Brighton Train Station on a hot summer's day in 1934. Two days later, a similar case was found in Kings Cross Station, London. A major police investigation began that would take an unexpected turn in the search for a murderer.

Peter Manuel was a Scottish serial killer who killed at least eight people between 1956 - 1958 around the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. Manuel had prison for a string of sexual attacks but on his release it didn't take long for his psychopathic behaviour to escalate. He fell under the police's radar several times but each time was let go, free to kill further. Manuel's parents would always give their son an alibi. His father especially would go to great lengths to protect him from justice. When he was finally tracked down and arrested for the murder of a family, who he shot dead in their own home, Manuel sensationally defended himself in court. But it would be his mother's testimony which would prove to be crucial to the outcome.

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 rumour 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.