Scotland Yard Confidential

Real Survival Stories is the brand-new show from Noiser hosted by John Hopkins. Hear true stories of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary survival situations. Stranded in the desert. Lost in the jungle. Marooned in the mountains. Shipwrecked on the high seas. You'll hear from individuals who had everything against them. But even then, they refused to give in… New episodes Thursdays. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts or at noiser.com Podfollow: https://podfollow.com/real-survival-stories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Noiser, Detectives Don’t Sleep is the new podcast that takes you beyond the police tape to shadow the real detectives who worked history’s most intriguing cases. In this taster episode, we’re in the Bahamas in 1943. One of the wealthiest men in the islands, Sir Harry Oakes, has been murdered - bludgeoned and burned in his mansion. The prime suspect is Oakes’s son-in-law, Count Alfred de Marigny. But Oakes’s daughter Nancy refuses to believe in her husband’s guilt and hires New York-based PI Ray Schindler to clear de Marigny’s name. Ray flies to the paradise island of New Providence and gets straight down to work, interviewing witnesses, following up clues, and piecing together the circumstances of Oakes’s death. Before long, he finds himself drawn into a complex mystery straight from the pages of a classic whodunnit. Part Two of Murder in Paradise is live now on the Detectives Don’t Sleep podcast. If you enjoy this taster episode, search ‘Detectives Don’t Sleep’ in your podcast app and hit follow to get new episodes every Tuesday. Or, listen at noiser.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Thursday, April 24th, 1975, a group of six well-dressed men let themselves into the Bank of America in London's Mayfair. They had one intention: to break into the vault and make off with over 8 million pounds worth of gold, valuables and cash. Little did they know that the inside man who'd helped them set up the job would also be a part of their downfall. Scotland Yard's Intelligence Division, and the detectives from the Flying Squad were about to make history, turning the criminals against each other as they chased each one of them down and tried to recover the record-breaking haul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On November 7th, 2000, a professional gang of thieves attempted an audacious robbery in London. Their target: the largest flawless diamond collection in the world. Its location: the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. It's an outrageous plan, but can these crooks really steal such a prize, in broad daylight, from such a public place, and make their escape? Not if Scotland Yard has anything to do with it. The plot reads like something from a Bond film — speedboats, firearms, ram raids, and elaborate undercover surveillance. With limited information to go on, it's a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, or rather cops and robbers. In the end, timing will be everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On October 17th, 1898, a most daring theft took place on a train at Paris’s Gare du Nord station. In the blink of an eye, and in broad daylight, a priceless collection of jewels was taken from under the nose of their owner — the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland. The culprit was one of the most cunning, lightest-fingered crooks in Europe. The original gentleman thief. Unparallelled in his abilities, he was a man known to both the law, and the underworld world only by his alias — Harry 'the Valet'. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

June 23rd, 1946. Police Constable Arthur Collins was at home with his wife Marjorie in Warwick, England. Whilst getting ready for bed, he heard the sound of shattering glass. He put on his uniform and rushed out into the night without hesitation. That decision would cost him dear. Unknown assailants would beat him within an inch of his life using his own truncheon. If it weren’t for the heroic intervention of his wife, it would’ve almost certainly been a murder. In the aftermath of the bloody attack, local cops only had one lead: the scrap of cloth Marjorie had ripped from the attacker’s jacket. Warwick Police called in Scotland Yard for what would be the final case of the incomparable Robert Fabian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a sunny August day in 1966, on a quiet street near Wormwood Scrubs Common, an unmarked police car flagged down a battered blue Vanguard to ask about a missing tax disc. What happened next was the brutal slaying of three police officers in the line of duty, which became known as the Braybrook Street Massacre. Under the guidance of Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Chitty, officers of Scotland Yard carried out the largest manhunt of the century in an attempt to find one of the cop-killers who had gone on the run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In October 1946, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor - Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson - were staying at Ednam Lodge, in the genteel countryside on the outskirts of London. The royal visit alone was enough to cause a press frenzy, but when the Duchess's collection of priceless jewels was stolen in broad daylight, the ensuing furore was quite something else altogether. Naturally, the very best from Scotland Yard were brought in to investigate the high-profile, audacious theft. With their sights set on capturing the most successful jewel thief of his generation, detectives were led on a merry dance through London and the surrounding countryside. But could they finally bring the enigmatic and elusive character known only as Johnny the Gent to justice and recover the Windsor jewels? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was an ordinary Sunday evening in February, 1939, in London's brightly lit West End. Legendary detective, Robert Fabian, known to all as Fabian of the Yard, was enjoying a quiet duty at Vine Street Police Station. Or so he thought. When a musician stumbled into the station, screaming bloody murder, Fabian became entangled in a shadow-play of sleaze, vice and violence. A beautiful singer known as The Black Butterfly had been found brutally murdered in her flat, lying in a pool of her own blood, her killer still on the loose. The cunning inspector had nothing to go on except for a shred of black foil and the vague mention of a man in a nightclub offering the victim drinks. Fabian knew he had to move fast. Or else, risk the knife man striking again... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In December 1970, Julian Sessé, the long-serving butler to Granada TV Chairman, Lord Bernstein, was found brutally murdered in his basement flat in Belgravia. With little hope for a successful investigation, and two murder cases already on their books, local police quickly handed the case to Scotland Yard. Evidence gathered from the flat revealed that the elegant 65-year-old butler was in the habit of picking up younger men and entertaining them at his home. He was discreet and private in these affairs, and his personal acquaintances were equally secretive. Was his killer a stranger or a friend? And how would detectives trace him if no one was willing to talk? It fell to Detective Chief Superintendent John “Ginger” Hensley to crack the case of the Peer's Butler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

February 1947 is one of the snowiest months on UK record. As roads and rail are forced to close, in London, a six-man criminal gang organized a robbery targeting the Midland Bank of Kentish Town. Their mark was the unsuspecting bank manager, Mr. Snell. But all good plans are bound to go awry. Before they could act, word reached Scotland Yard's mysterious undercover intelligence unit - the Ghost Squad. Detective Inspector Len Crawford quickly came up with a cunning but dangerous play to snare the robbers - but it's a high-risk game that could prove fatal to his men. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amid the heatwave of July 1948, a gang of London's top thieves came up with an audacious plot to steal half a million pounds worth of gold bullion and other valuables from the customs warehouse at the newly opened London Airport. The Head of Security at the airport - which later became known as Heathrow - was former Scotland Yard Detective, Donald Fish. He wasted no time in alerting his old pals on the force. The heist, and the resulting royal rumble between cops and robbers became known as The Battle of Heathrow. It went down in Scotland Yard folklore as the most bloody, but most successful sting operation in Flying Squad history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On September 6th, 1988, 28-year-old British photographer, Julie Ward disappeared while driving through the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. Four days later, her father, John Ward, began a search for the truth, which would cost several million pounds and span three decades. Accident? Animal attack? Or murder? The case saw both police in Kenya and detectives from Scotland Yard plagued by conspiracies and cover-ups, secrets and lies. The investigation reached the highest levels of Kenyan politics, but the only true constant was a distraught father, determined to find the truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the story of a legendary figure of the Wild West… The man widely believed to have inspired the Lone Ranger… Who was born into slavery — and became one of America’s most revered lawmen. His name was Bass Reeves. Follow Solved Murders to catch the four-part miniseries, Bass Reeves: No Master But Duty. Listen free, only on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1854. A shipwreck was found off the coast of Brazil. On board was a young English aristocrat, 25-year-old Sir Roger Tichborne. But his mother, a wealthy dowager, could not accept his death. When, years later, rumors circled that the survivors were taken to Australia, she placed ads in the papers, but heard nothing. Then, over a decade after the shipwreck, an impoverished man emerged from the Australian outback, making the sensational claim that he was in fact the long-lost Sir Roger. It led to scandal, sensation, and one of the most infamous legal battles in 19th-century Britain. So, just who was the claimant? Jack Whicher, legendary Scotland Yard inspector, was determined to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2006. On a quiet street in Wembley, London, special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri, was found bleeding to death on her driveway. With no obvious enemies, police initially struggled to find any suspects. But the investigation led them through a twisted, shocking tale of lust, deceit and greed. Detectives from Scotland Yard tackled a crime born of age-old motives with 21st century technology. Using CCTV footage and mobile phone data, they pieced together a trail of evidence that blew the case wide open. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On February 14th, 1945, 75-year-old farm worker, Charles Walton, was brutally murdered while working in some fields. His body had been pinned to the ground with his own pitchfork, his throat cut with his hedging blade, and the sign of a cross carved into his chest. As superstitious villagers shared rumors of witchcraft and ritual sacrifice, local police realised they were out of their depth and called for help from Scotland Yard. Detective Superintendent Robert Fabian was assigned to the case. The most famous detective of his time, Fabian found himself leading an investigation so frustrating and exasperating that it would remain one of the very few unsolved murders on his record — despite being confident he knew who killed Charles Walton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1935. Up in the picturesque hills of Moffat, Scotland, a gruesome discovery is made. Beneath an old bridge, a humble country police constable stands amid human body parts. The public will soon be as mystified as they are shocked, and the case will be dubbed The Jigsaw Murders. Those body parts will form the building blocks of 'the first modern murder investigation', going on to define criminal forensics itself. But under that bridge, horror strewn around his feet, the constable asks himself the question: Who could do something like this? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On December 29th, 1969, Muriel McKay disappeared from her home in London's affluent suburb of Wimbledon. Her husband, the newspaper executive Alick McKay, was convinced she'd been abducted. When the call came demanding one million pounds in ransom for her safe return, he was proved right. The problem was, the kidnappers had taken the wrong woman. They had meant to abduct Anna Murdoch, wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who was McKay's boss at the time. In fact, the first-time kidnappers bungled every step of their ridiculous plan, and yet managed to evade the clutches of Scotland Yard for nearly two months. The investigation, dogged by a media frenzy, was the largest of its kind, taking over 250 officers some 40 days to solve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On June 8th, 1946, London was in a party mood. A Victory Parade to celebrate the end of World War II saw the city consumed with pomp and fanfare. However, in the lull between the parade ending and the evening fireworks, a brutal murder took place. In the affluent suburb of Belgravia, in a house owned by the exiled King of Greece — George II — Elizabeth McLindon was shot in the back of the head. Finding her killer would take a combination of inspired detective work from one of Scotland Yard's finest, coupled with ground-breaking forensic science in a case that set the standard for ballistic analysis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices