World's Most Evil Killers - Season 1, Episode 6 - Joanne Dennehy - Full Episode | Forensic Files

-In March 2013, a man walking his dog on the outskirts of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire
made a shocking and grisly discovery. Dumped in a rural ditch was the body of a man
who'd been violently stabbed to death. The police didn't know it yet, but there was a serial killer on the loose.
-When is the next body going to turn up? We've got to find who did this, and we got to find it quickly.
-The investigation would lead detectives to a woman, a violent individual who had killed without hesitation
or remorse and for no other reason than the pleasure and gratification it offered her.
-She is heartless, ruthless, and sadistic. -During a 12-day killing spree, Joanna Dennehy butchered three men
and left a trail of destruction that stretched from east to west across the U.K.
-She's not somebody who feels bad, who feels remorseful, who regrets things. She does what she wants to do,
and she doesn't care about the consequences. -Joanna Dennehy had ruthlessly become
one of the world's most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ In April 2013, police in Hereford
arrested a runaway fugitive and her besotted accomplice. In a killing spree that lasted almost 2 weeks,
31-year-old Joanna Dennehy had murdered three men and stabbed two others in broad daylight,
leaving them for dead. One of the most dangerous women in criminal history, she's now locked away in prison
and will remain there for the rest of her life. -The fact that she'll never see daylight again
in the outside world is of huge comfort for the family. For Joanna Dennehy, it's absolutely the right thing
that she won't come out of prison. -Joanna Dennehy's crimes were incomprehensible
to the British public. At the time of her imprisonment, author and journalist Christopher Berry-Dee took a special interest in the case.
-I wanted to really try to get inside how the police were working and how rapidly they caught this very dangerous woman.
-The strong curiosity he had for Dennehy's crimes caught the attention of the murderer herself,
and very soon, Christopher was in written correspondence with the killer behind bars.
-Her letter is beautifully written, very eloquent, good grammar, certainly on a par of somebody of a good education behind them,
and we developed this relationship where I was trying to get inside her head but, at the same time, she, being the arch manipulator,
was trying to get inside my head. -His attention piqued, and Christopher eventually went to visit Dennehy
at Bronzefield Prison in 2015. -She looked into my eyes, and she said to me, "Christopher, killing you would be good for me."
And it was an ice-cold stare, I can tell you. So, yes, she would've killed me in a heartbeat
if she had had a chance. -The story of this cold-blooded killer begins 34 years ago
in the picturesque city of St. Albans in Hertfordshire. Joanna Dennehy was born in 1982
and began life in a loving and secure family home. Very few could've predicted this bright
and intelligent young girl would turn into a sadistic monster with a taste for violence.
-By all accounts, she was starting off in life with a, what we might say, as a perfect foundational upbringing.
-Joanna Dennehy appears to come from quite a normal family. She had a relatively uneventful childhood.
She's one of two siblings. Her mother worked in a supermarket. Her father worked as a security guard
for a telecommunications company, and from the outside, they appeared to be a normal family.
-She had a sister to which she was very close. They had even developed a secret language.
She played netball for the school. She was a very normal, quite bright schoolgirl.
-But Dennehy's idyllic childhood was curtailed as she entered her teens. -She started to experiment with drugs.
She started not going to school, and she linked up with a man called John Treanor.
-Her parents, they were at their wit's end. They didn't know what to do. They tried to keep her locked up or bring her home from school.
Her teachers tried to reprimand her, and the more they tried to control Jo, it was Jo saying, "Stuff you,"
and it was literally like throwing petrol on a fire. -Dennehy and Treanor ran away together,
embarking on a turbulent relationship. Despite Dennehy's violent outbursts, the couple had two children together
and eventually settled in Cambridgeshire. -I think quite a lot is made of the fact
that Joanna Dennehy misused alcohol and drugs, but I think she's well aware of the fact
that this is going to be discussed, and she knows that these offer quite a convenient excuse
for her behavior, and alcohol and drugs and other substances can disinhibit, but that's assuming that people have got
those moral standards to begin with, and Joanna Dennehy didn't have them in the first place.
-A very disturbed woman, she had done a lot of self-harm, of cutting herself and so on,
so there were a number of danger signs that this was somebody who was not attuned to society.
-As time went on, Dennehy's erratic behavior intensified. She'd cheat on Treanor and leave him
and their two children for sporadic periods of time. Her drinking worsened, and she reportedly began
to carry a knife hidden in her boot. -I think she's somebody who perhaps has always enjoyed hurting other people.
It's almost like she's this crazy scientist, and the world is her experiment. -Finally in 2009,
Treanor took the children and fled from Dennehy, afraid of what she might do next.
-The company that she was keeping, as well, she was surrounded by people who were similarly disconnected,
so I think when there was no check or filter or break on her behavior, she was only going to get worse.
-Dennehy had become no stranger to the local police. She'd been in and out of prison for drug offenses
and was also given a 12-month community order for being in control of a dangerous dog.
In February 2012, Dennehy spent 3 days on the psychiatric unit at Peterborough City Hospital
where she was diagnosed with a series of disorders. -She has had various diagnoses attached to her --
anti-social personality disorder, psychopathic personality disorder, and these are conditions.
They're not mental illnesses, and there's a real important difference between the two
because people with personality disorders know the difference between right and wrong.
They're fully rational. They're in control of what they're doing, but they choose to do it anyway.
So she's not somebody who feels bad, who feels remorseful, who regrets things. She does what she wants to do,
and she doesn't care about the consequences. -By 2013, 31-year-old Dennehy had settled
in a small bedsit in Bifield, a housing estate in Peterborough, but the local residents were unaware
of her troubled past or her violent nature. One of Dennehy's new neighbors was Michelle Bowles.
-She was polite to me, not mouthing her mouth, basically. She's well spoken to me and never swore.
She was actually quite pleasant. Do you know what I mean? I showed her respect. She loved babies.
She was excellent with children. I didn't have a problem with her. When I saw her or spoke to her, I said, "Hello."
She said, "Hello" back. -But other residents were not so sure. Michelle's friend, John Chapman,
lived in the same building as Dennehy. He was a Falklands War veteran who'd fallen on hard times.
-I don't know what regiment he used to be in. I should know because the amount of stories he used to say.
It's just John being smiley all the time and happy and nice to know. -But John Chapman didn't smile when Joanna Dennehy was around.
-John was petrified. John came in mine, and he said on several occasions, "There's this mad woman moved in.
She said she's going to get rid of me whatever way she can." -And he was right to be afraid.
In just a few months, Joanna Dennehy's threats would turn to violence, and John Chapman would be dead.
In early 2013, Joanna Dennehy was living in sheltered housing in Peterborough following the breakup of her relationship.
Her ex-partner had left her after becoming increasingly concerned about her erratic and sadistic behavior.
The bedsit that Dennehy now called home was managed by Kevin Lee, a father of two who lived in Peterborough
with his wife, Cristina. She remembers hearing about this strange new tenant. Cristina has asked for her identity to be concealed.
-He was stressed with work, the money element of it. It was turning into kind of a nightmare really.
It was getting a little bit unmanageable. Kevin used to house disadvantaged people,
so he's done it for years, and obviously, he was used to giving people chances, and so he did with her.
-But Kevin Lee and Dennehy's relationship quickly grew into more than just a business one.
Lee began to employ Dennehy as a rent collector. -Obviously, I wasn't aware at the time.
To me, it would've been just another tenant. And he just said about this woman and that she's really tough, really hard.
He needed to evict some people, and whether she was threatening, and it suited him
because he wasn't getting any joy from the counts at all. So I think she had a bit of wellies
and, you know, a really big mouth and threatening, and I don't know whether that, at the time,
he thought that was his only way out and to deal with these people. -48-year-old Kevin Lee became infatuated
with the younger Dennehy, and they soon became lovers. In exchange, Dennehy was living rent-free
in at least two of Lee's properties across Peterborough. -In a household, that becomes quite apparent
if someone's behavior has sort of changed, and he didn't seem quite himself. -Dennehy would make up unnerving stories
to impress her new landlord and lover. -At one point, she told Kevin Lee her father had abused her
and that she'd killed him, absolute nonsense, of course, never did anything of the kind.
She was neither abused nor was he dead, but she was also a pathological liar. -Kevin just said about her that she spent 8 years in prison
because he raped her as a child, abused her as a child. It's not unbelievable story,
but then when Kevin said that she'd also killed other people and that she hadn't got caught for those,
it sounded a bit far-fetched. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know whether it was a truth
or whether it was just a load of old rubbish. -But it wasn't long before Joanna Dennehy
turned her murderous fantasies into reality. 31-year-old Lukasz Slaboszewski had moved to the U.K. from Poland in 2005.
After meeting Dennehy a few days previously, he began exchanging text messages with her.
On the 19th of March, 2013, Slaboszewski went to visit Dennehy at one of the houses she was staying in on Rolleston Garth
and was never seen alive again. -She almost certainly lured this man with the promise of some kind of sexual favor,
but without a moment's hesitation, she stabbed him through the chest once very, very hard, killing him almost instantly.
-Slaboszewski had been coaxed into Dennehy's deadly embrace. She led him to believe the pair were in a relationship.
He willingly and naively entered the trap she'd laid for him. -Everybody that comes into contact with Joanna Dennehy,
it's like falling into a spider's web, and you can't get out. Men can't get out.
They become entranced by her for all sorts of reasons. -Dennehy had complete disregard for the life she had just taken.
-Dennehy puts this poor Polish man's body in a wheelie bin and then shows it to a 14-year-old,
and said, "Look how clever I am. I've killed this man in the wheelie bin." -But it was only a temporary solution.
Dennehy knew she couldn't keep Slaboszewski's body in a bin. She had to dispose of it quickly, but she needed help.
She called upon one of her friends, 47-year-old Gary Stretch, who was more than willing to assist.
-Joanna Dennehy is quite bright. She's quite clever, so she's able to exert quite a lot of control in her interactions with other people,
and that's what makes her exceptionally dangerous. Now looking at the relationship that Joanna Dennehy
had with her accomplices, I think she was able to charm these men. She was able to kind of lure them in really,
and they would have been flattered by her attentions, you know. Here she is, this younger woman, wanting to spend time with them.
These were men who had quite dull, quite boring lives, and I think they were quite excited to get involved
in what Joanna wanted to do. -At 7 foot, 2 inches tall, Gary Stretch towered above Dennehy's slight frame.
An unsuccessful burglar, Stretch was absolutely infatuated by her twisted and lethal charms.
-Gary Stretch and Joanna Dennehy met when both of them were on parole from prison for various offenses.
She realized that she could use him to do whatever she wanted. He was her bodyguard, her minder,
and that's how they formed this team, which became so overpowering for Stretch that he would do anything for her.
-I don't think Joanna Dennehy had any emotional feelings towards her accomplices whatsoever.
They were useful to her at the time, and she'd just cast them aside when she was finished with them.
-With the help of Stretch, Dennehy dumped Lukasz Slaboszewski's body in a ditch in rural Thorney Dyke,
just 10 miles east of Peterborough City Center. Unable to control herself, her confidence rising
and her desire for violence building, in just over a week, Dennehy would strike once more.
She'd turned her attention towards her fellow Bifield resident, 56-year-old Falklands War veteran John Chapman,
who reportedly had walked in on Dennehy while she was in the shared bathroom of their bedsit.
-Every time he spoke about her, he was with fear, like, in his tone of voice, and we thought it's just John...
"John, just leave it. If she starts, here is our phone numbers. Ring us, and we'll come around,
just, you know, help you and get you in here with us." He went, "Thanks," and that was the last time we saw John.
-On March the 29th, 2013, Dennehy attacked the helpless John Chapman. -John Chapman was an inoffensive,
kindly man who may have been asleep or in an alcoholic stupor when Dennehy killed him,
but she did so by stabbing him once in the neck, severing his carotid artery, and then five times in the chest with such force
that one wound broke the breast bone. It also punctured his heart. It's a frenzy that is quite difficult to comprehend
but evidence of what the behavioral scientists now call escalation -- first victim, one stab wound, second victim, six stab wounds.
-It's heartbreaking. It's a poor, defenseless man killed. And to know what she had done to him, how she killed him,
it's just heartbreaking for us all. -Dennehy was developing her confidence, and her crimes were becoming more
and more brutal with each move. -Now, where Joanna Dennehy is so bad is that this woman actually used a knife
to attack a grown, strong man, is very up close and personal. It's not at a point of a gun,
which is not quite such a personal thing. It's not by bludgeoning. It's not by strangulation.
By nature, a woman is not often strong enough to strangle a strong man, but this is a young woman
using a knife to repeatedly stab somebody, and for that reason alone, makes her a hands-on, blood-lusting killer.
I can't describe how evil this woman is. I really can't. She is the worst I've ever met.
-It's always been said the woman's method of killing is usually poisoning. It can sometimes be other things,
but knives, no. It's a very male killing method, and it's led some people to speculate that Dennehy was,
to some extent, trying to be more male, more masculine, than the men around her because she felt they were rather weak and feeble,
and she had to be the boss, and being a boss meant you were male. -But Dennehy was offsetting one role with another,
that of a femme fatale charming and enticing men into her life before switching character in an instant with deadly results.
-We're quite quick to point to Joanna Dennehy's masculine traits because they're the ones that are most visible to us --
her aggression and her violence and the very brutal way in which she perpetrated these murders --
but I don't think she's somebody who would be like that all the time because that wouldn't serve her needs all of the time.
I think sometimes she was feminine, and she was demure. In a way, she's somebody who will just adapt her behavior,
so it's very difficult to know who the real Joanna Dennehy is. -After killing John Chapman,
Dennehy didn't hesitate in continuing her rampage. On the very same day, she'd strike again
with fatal consequences. -Later that day, she lures her boss and her lover and the bedsitting houses' owner, Kevin Lee, to the house.
-But this time, Dennehy wasn't in the mood for love. She was searching for another victim
to try and quench her murderous desires. March the 29th would be the last time that Kevin Lee was seen alive.
Joanna Dennehy was in the middle of a murderous rampage, having taken the life of 31-year-old Polish man
Lukasz Slaboszewski 10 days earlier. Dennehy had just killed 56-year-old John Chapman
and had her third victim in her sights, her landlord, Kevin Lee. The pair had been having a secret affair.
Kevin's wife, Cristina, was the first to notice something was awry when he didn't arrive home on that March evening.
-He was very much like a come home from work, tea on the table, pajamas on. He was quite sort of traditional and old-fashioned in that sense.
I tried to ring him, and his phone wasn't on, which was odd in itself. He'd never have his phone switched off
because that was his livelihood. That was his business, and I knew it had a charge.
-Kevin had felt threatened by Dennehy days before, but he'd wrongly assumed it was just bravado.
-Kevin did tell me that she told him that she wanted to kill again, and I think that was the crucial thing
because it wasn't just a case of bragging or mentioning that she had committed murders in the past.
It was the fact that she specifically told him she wanted to kill again. So that's got to unnerve anybody, false or not.
It's just not a thing that normal people say. -Hours passed. Growing desperately concerned, Cristina,
with the help of Kevin's business partner, Paul Creed, tried to trace Kevin. -I asked Paul to look at Kevin's phone records,
so he gave them to me, and there was a number that kept appearing on the telephone,
and I said to Paul... I said, "Which houses are empty at the moment because of need work done to them?"
And he gave me a list, and I subsequently just went around to each of those properties.
I knew he was in trouble, put it that way, at that point. I knew there was something not right.
I knew Kevin wasn't coming home. -Cristina began an urgent hunt, unaware her search was in vain.
Dennehy had already struck. She'd stabbed Kevin Lee to death at the same house in Rolleston Garth
where she'd murdered Lukasz Slaboszewski 10 days earlier. Lee was Dennehy's third victim.
-I wouldn't describe Joanna Dennehy as a serial killer. I would describe her as a spree killer
because there didn't seem to be any point during her killing spree in which she returned to any semblance
of what was a normal life for her. It tended to be a continuous chain of events.
-What is not in doubt is that these first three victims were simply a prelude to what she hoped
would be a further spree. -Dennehy, again, with the help of Gary Stretch and this time another accomplice, Leslie Layton,
deposited the bodies of John Chapman and Kevin Lee on the outskirts of town. Chapman was placed at Thorney Dyke,
the same spot where they dumped Lukasz Slaboszewski's body 10 days previously. Kevin Lee was left 10 miles further north
at nearby Newborough. Dennehy dressed Lee's body in women's clothing and left him positioned in a grotesque
and crude manner with his buttocks exposed. -I think Joanna Dennehy was unusual in that
she liked humiliating her victims. It was clearly a modus operandi there, and there was clearly a motive, the pleasure of killing somebody
rather than doing it for some particular reason. -Oblivious to the fate of her husband,
Cristina Lee was becoming increasingly concerned about Kevin's whereabouts. -I rang the police, and then I went back with Paul Creed
to one specific house because I noticed that the light wasn't on, and then it was on when we went back later, so I thought,
"There's obviously somebody at the house," and I just said to the police, you know, "I'm really worried,"
expressed my concerns and gave them permission to break into the house, which they did.
-Inside the house on Rolleston Garth, there were no obvious signs of trouble, but the police immediately sensed that something was wrong.
-They said that they could smell -- There was a really strong smell of bleach, and they could see some blood on the floor,
and, you know, I just knew. -And Cristina wouldn't have to wait long for news of her husband.
The following day, March the 30th, 2013, police were called to an area of farmland in Newborough
by a dog walker who'd made an horrific discovery. -You know, you see on TV all the time
the dreaded knock at the door, and then two detectives came, and obviously, he had not been identified at that point,
but they just said that they'd found a body... which, you know, I was expecting to hear that,
so they just kind of told me what I was expecting to hear. You don't feel anything because you know,
and it's a feeling like you've never felt before. So, you know, where some people
might think you'll be doing this, you'll be doing that, I don't know. It's just kind of a blur really.
You're just alive. I think that's -- But not alive, you're just existing. -For police, a very serious picture
was beginning to emerge of a killer on the run with an unstoppable determination for destruction.
-When is the next body going to turn up? We've got to find who did this, and we got to find them quickly.
-Detectives soon discovered Kevin Lee's burnt-out car. Cristina had provided them with Dennehy's phone number,
and by using it, they were able to form a crucial link. -They must have been trying to call it too
and, using their systems or whatever, must have tracked it down through GPS. The location of Kevin's burnt-out car
was where this mobile had been, so it was quite obvious that she'd been there. -They realized that he'd know somebody called Joanna Dennehy,
and there was an affair between them, and then they came across a man called Leslie Layton,
who they interviewed. He tried to cover up. He didn't know anything about them, where they were, which, in fact, he did.
He soon cracked because he was weak-willed, spineless, and he said, "Yes. Dennehy and Stretch are on the run.
They've gone east, and they'll probably come west." And with that, the police went --
Well, they issued a national wanted alert for every agency in the country to find this couple as quickly as possible.
-Dennehy and Stretch were now wanted fugitives. She reveled in the idea, high on the thrill of being on the run.
-She loved the notoriety of it. She relished the fact that the men around her were frightened of her.
-In an attempt to try and evade the authorities, Dennehy and Stretch first headed to Norfolk
where they burgled a house. They then made their way across country to Hereford with the intention of selling the stolen goods
to help fund their escape. -Dennehy and Stretch became a sort of, hate to say this, a Bonnie-and-Clyde-type outfit.
Their faces were in all the newspapers now. They were wanted, most wanted. -After they burgled another property in Hertfordshire,
the pair stopped 20 miles outside of Hereford to liaise with a man named Mark Lloyd,
who joined Dennehy and Stretch on the journey. -They get an accomplice or a friend of theirs
to bring the stolen property into Hereford town to sell it, and it's at that point that Dennehy decides
she wants to kill again. -It had been 4 days since the murders of John Chapman and Kevin Lee.
On April the 2nd, 2013, with Mark Lloyd in tow, Dennehy was caught on CCTV entering this small shop in Hereford at 3:30 p.m.
She's seen pointing at the cashier in a threatening manner. Just 10 minutes after this footage was captured, Dennehy,
in an unprovoked random attack, attempted to murder a fourth man. -She had this terrific anger and bloodlust.
She's had a quarter bottle of whiskey. She's been smoking roll-ups, and she suddenly sees a man
walking his dog in broad daylight, and she says to Stretch, "Can we stop the car? I want to kill him."
-Brandishing a knife, Dennehy jumps out of the car and runs up behind him and stabs him in the back.
-Dennehy's unfortunate victim was Robin Bereza, a 63-year-old retired fireman. -You knew exactly what she intended to do.
"I'm going to kill you," she said to the fireman, "I want to hurt you. I'm going to kill you."
-As she plunges this 5-inch lock knife into his back time and time and time again, the man thought he'd been punched.
He turned around and saw her covered in his blood. He collapsed. She calmly walked away and got in the car and said to Stretch,
"Now let's go and find somebody else." -Back in the car, Dennehy took the time to pose for this selfie.
It seemed unbelievable to imagine, but she wasn't finished. Having felt the thrill of attack once,
she hunted out her second victim of the day. -Ten minutes after the first attack,
she spots another man walking his dog, and it was the same bloodthirsty scenario all over again.
She got out, and she told Stretch to stop the car. She got out with this very small knife,
walked up to him, and plunged it into him time and time and time and time again.
Can you imagine the shock? This man wouldn't have known what was happening. It's broad daylight.
She's licking the blood off of the knife, his blood. He feels himself getting dizzy and sick, and then he collapses,
and she takes his dog, walks casually back to the car. Another car passes, and she waves at the people in it.
They get in the car, and off they go. -This second helpless victim was John Rogers,
a 56-year-old Hereford local. Dennehy stabbed him more than 30 times. It was an horrific and entirely spontaneous act
completely lacking in reason. -It is a reflection of a brutality, a viciousness,
a lack of any kind of control that makes Dennehy very unusual. She is a most frightening figure who behaves
in the most obscenely violent way imaginable, almost defying belief. -When we look at the two attempted murders,
you know, towards the end of her spree, this is something all together different.
These are strangers. These are men that she doesn't know. So I think what was happening here
was that she was upping the ante. She was getting bored. You find that psychopaths tend to have a proneness to boredom
and a need for stimulation, so she was even applying that to her murders. -Remarkably, both men survive these attacks.
Although their injuries were life-threatening, they were still able to give the police descriptions of Dennehy
and the instantly recognizable star tattoo on her cheek. -By now, the police sirens are going all round.
Blue lights are going all around Hertfordshire. They're panicking. It's like somebody has kicked over a wasp nest.
-The local police had been alerted to her spree and were about to put an end to her bloodshed.
They cornered Dennehy and Stretch on Newton Close in Hereford. -Two officers turn up, and they spot this car with Dennehy
in it talking to the dog on the back seat while Gary Stretch is trying to negotiate stolen property
at the front door of one of his associate's house. They arrest Dennehy on the spot.
Gary Stretch and one of his friends do what they call in police parlance a runner.
They jump in another car and speed off. Something like a car chase goes on for about 20 miles,
and then Stretch decides to get out and run for it. Now, Mr. Stretch is not built for speed,
and of course, he's very unfit, and he's soon stopped, and he turns around to the police officers and said,
"Ah, you've arrested me. Jo and I would've been the next Bonnie and Clyde." -Footage of Dennehy in custody at Hereford Police Station
just 40 minutes after stabbing two men and leaving them for dead showed her laughing and joking with the arresting officers.
-Joanna Dennehy is like a chameleon. She's become a very accomplished actor, so she will play to whatever audience is in front of her.
She can be charming and sound very educated and literate, and at the same time, to another audience,
she could sound quite rough and quite downbeat, so she's really honed these skills of responding
to the people that are around her. -The following day, April the 3rd, 2013, the bodies of Dennehy's other two victims
were discovered just outside of Peterborough. In a ditch on farmland at Thorney Dyke,
investigators found 31-year-old Lukasz Slaboszewski and 56-year-old John Chapman,
a close friend of Michelle Bowles. -We wasn't concerned until we actually noticed he was missing.
No one had seen him at all, and next thing we knew, the forensics were around the back of the house.
We were praying outside thinking, "Please, don't let it be John. Let him live." If we had known what he meant
and what she was going to do at the time, we would've got John out of that house
and let him live with us. But how were we supposed to know she was a serial killer?
To take John's life, Lukasz's life, and Kevin's life, why? -Joanna Dennehy's pretrial hearing
was set for the 18th of November. -It's very difficult to understand quite how far the road is from
a nice suburban upbringing to a ditch in Peterborough where you're dumping the bodies of men you've stabbed to death.
It's an extraordinarily long road, a very dangerous one and a very destructive one,
but she certainly traveled it and took some pleasure in the traveling. -At the hearing at Old Bailey, Dennehy was devoid of remorse.
She laughed as proceedings took place and stunned her legal team when she chose to plead guilty.
-The fact that Joanna Dennehy decided to admit murdering these three men and denying them a lawful burial
took the whole of court too by surprise, including her defense barrister, who said the proceedings weren't going as anticipated.
So the judge asked Joanna Dennehy in the dock what she'd said. She told him, "I have pleaded guilty, and that's that."
-Karim Khalil, defending Gary Stretch, remembers the shock that rippled through the courtroom
when this unexpected plea was heard. -It surprised all, I think, but the judge seemed entirely satisfied with that result.
Her counsel asked for time to speak with her, to see whether she really had meant what she just said
and returned to tell the court that, "Yes. She entirely understood the charges against her.
She meant to plead guilty," and that was the end of it. -Many of the serial killers I've interviewed,
obviously as guilty as sin, try to hide behind the criminal justice system and use it as a defense,
to retreat back into it, to use mitigation, "I didn't intend to kill somebody. I had a drink disorder or a drug disorder,
or I'm not culpable of committing these crimes. Basically, I'm innocent." Joanna Dennehy is not like that.
She just loved it. -Kevin Lee's widow, Cristina, couldn't bring herself to face the woman
who dragged her husband down into her own sordid world and destroyed her family.
-I went to court, but I stayed in the family room. I didn't want to be in there because I didn't want that thing to ever see my face.
I thought, "You haven't got the luxury to grace my face, so therefore, you shall not see me."
She was that cocky and pathetic, and it's so predictable, and I just thought it's just so abhorrent that I thought,
"No, it's just best off in another room." -During the hearing, Dennehy's partner in crime,
Gary Stretch, argued he was manipulated by her throughout the killing spree. -Gary Stretch's position was that he had not known
that she was going to kill any of the people that she killed whilst accepting that, after the event,
he was made aware that she had killed people, and the difficulty, of course, that he confronted was the assertion
that he was a willing participant in covering up those killings once he became aware of them.
There's no question in my mind that Dennehy did influence Gary Stretch hugely. -Joanna Dennehy is somebody
who was very much in the driving seat all the way through the murders that she committed,
and the men were just there in a supporting role. You know, she was the center-stage actor here,
and I think the fact that she was doing this on her own, she wasn't coerced or compelled by anybody else,
does make her quite unique. -In a final act of defiance, Dennehy refused to relinquish control of her fate
over to the legal system. She stood up in court and told the judge exactly how she felt.
-"I don't want to be controlled by anybody. I don't want to be in control by my lawyers,
by the police, by anybody," and that's what she told the judge, "Get stuffed," basically, "Get stuffed, Your Honor."
-On February the 28th, 2014, Mr. Justice Spencer sentenced Joanna Dennehy to a whole life term.
She became the first woman in British history to directly receive this highest of custodial sentences
in a courtroom. Dennehy was immediately sent to Bronzefield Prison. She will never be released.
Dennehy's accomplices were also imprisoned for their part in her crimes. Leslie Layton, who helped dispose of two of the bodies,
received 14 years, and Gary Stretch received two life sentences. It was a bittersweet relief for Michelle Bowles.
-It's the victim's family, as well, that are carrying the life sentences, aren't they?
Kevin Lee is not going to see his kids, not have kids. Lukasz is never, ever going to have kids.
John, you know, is never going to be around again. None of them are. He wasn't a horrible person.
He was one of the loveliest, generous people you could ever meet. He really was.
He would've done anything for anybody. -It'll take years for Cristina Lee and her family
to get back to normal after Dennehy callously ended the life of her husband. -Personally, it makes you want to rethink the death penalty.
To me, that would be too easy for somebody like that. Let them rot wherever they are really,
so, yeah, I expected that. I think it was just so hideous how a female -- You know, it's hard to even think that's a woman.
Could I say she got what she deserved? Not at all. She didn't get what she deserved.
She just is where she needs to be. It's just -- everything has changed. You know, what was a family unit
and people just going about their business, everything came crashing down. He was a laugh a second.
He was one of the most optimistic persons I've ever come across, never moaned about anything,
not negative about anything. Any problem would be overcome. We laughed a lot, so, yeah, we had a lot of fun.
-Joanna Dennehy has refused to disappear quietly. Even in prison, she's continued to wreak havoc.
-From the day Joanna Dennehy was sentenced to prison, she has exhibited more anti-social behavioral traits
in as much as she's tried to escape twice. She wanted to chop the fingers off a prison officer
and use that on the electronic keypads to get out. Dennehy's absolute lack of remorse
and the savagery involved in her crimes are beyond the public's understanding of what a woman would usually be capable of.
-Joanna Dennehy was unusual in that the most notorious women murderers in this country
have tended to be associated with a man, either Myra Hindley associated with Ian Brady or Rose West
associated with her husband, Fred. Dennehy was kind of acting alone, although she had people helping her a bit
afterwards covering things up, but she was a kind of self-motivated murderer. -I think the reason that we're so fascinated
and so shocked by female serial killers is because of our general expectations of the role of women in society.
We expect them to be the carers and the nurturers and the givers rather than the takers of life.
-Dennehy touched the public imagination because she was a young woman and one who seemed to contradict
everything that most of us expect of women and to do so in such a cavalier and violent way
that she set herself apart from the female population. -She's in prison now, and she's going to be in prison for the rest of her life,
but Joanna Dennehy will not stop manipulating. She will manipulate the system. She'll work the system, and when the time is right,
she'll definitely kill again. -It's difficult to comprehend the insatiable killing spree
of Joanna Dennehy. With a lust for blood and a twisted lack of morals, she manipulated others along her way
as she murdered three men and brutally attempted to kill two strangers in broad daylight.
The safest place for a dangerous individual like Joanna Dennehy is behind bars, which is where she will remain for the rest of her life.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

Joanne Dennehy violently stabbed three men to death in March 2013. She killed for her own entertainment and has been diagnosed as a psychotic sadomasochist.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Joanna Dennehy murdered three men in 2013, displaying sadistic tendencies and manipulative behavior, shocking the public and investigators alike.

Key points

Joanna Dennehy's Killing Spree. In March 2013, Joanna Dennehy embarked on a brutal killing spree across the U.K.
The Arrest of Joanna Dennehy. Dennehy was arrested in April 2013, marking the end of her violent rampage.
The Transformation of Joanna Dennehy. From a seemingly normal upbringing to a sadistic killer, Dennehy's life took a dark turn.
The Brutality of Dennehy's Crimes. Dennehy committed horrific acts of violence, shocking the public and law enforcement.
Joanna Dennehy's Arrest. Dennehy is arrested after a violent spree, laughing with officers in custody.
Dennehy's Guilty Plea. In a shocking turn, Dennehy pleads guilty to multiple murders, surprising the courtroom.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Killing you would be good for me.

Joanna Dennehy to Christopher Berry-Dee during a prison visit.

3:16WatchJul 8, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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