World's Most Evil Killers - Season 4, Episode 19 - Anthony Arkwright - Full Episode | Forensic Files

- MALE NARRATOR: Over the August bank holiday weekend in 1988 the mining village of Wath upon Dearne
in South Yorkshire, England was rocked to its core. The body of 25 year old Marcus Law was discovered
in his home, he'd been tortured and mutilated. - There were blood all over the place and then he got
cigarettes stuck in every orifice in his face, he got 'em in his nostrils, even in his eyes,
his ears, mouth. And he just looked like a birthday cake with candles in. - NARRATOR: In a final act of callousness, the killer
had inserted one of Marcus' own crutches into his abdomen. - The sheer enormity of the violence used in this case
is extreme. It is, to use that word, truly evil. - NARRATOR: The killer was 21-year-old
Anthony Arkwright. Over the coming days more bodies would be discovered in similarly horrific circumstances.
- He didn't just kill his victims, he completely obliterated them, he humiliated them, and he didn't feel bad about doing it.
If anything, he quite enjoyed it. - NARRATOR: Even the police were wary of what they might
discover next. - I was frightened, no two words about it, and I said to my colleague, "You know what we're gonna find."
And he said, "Yes, Sarge." And I said, "You have to brace yourself for this." - NARRATOR: In less than a week, four victims
were discovered. Anthony Arkwright had been revealed as one of the world's most evil killers.
- ♪ - NARRATOR: August, 1988, Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, England. Late in the afternoon on the same day
as disabled resident Marcus Law's badly mutilated body was discovered, a neighbor, Anthony Arkwright,
was arrested for his killing. Just two days later, 45-year-old retired teacher Raymond Ford was found brutally murdered.
He'd been stabbed 250 times before his organs and intestines were removed and trailed around his flat.
- Marcus is bad enough, you know with cigarettes poking out of his gouged-out eyes and his crutch
stuck into his stomach, but this is worse, if possible. There's virtually no organ left inside his body.
Raymond's entrails are all around him, they're in the bathroom, they're in the bedroom,
and they were in the hallway. - NARRATOR: As Arkwright's lawyer proclaimed his client's
innocence to the press, news of a second neighbor found slaughtered after his arrest began to spread.
A wave of fear descended on the community. Retired Detective Constable David Winter discovered
the second victim. - It did spread a lot of unrest because of the fact that the second body were found while he was in custody.
That gave credence to, "We've got a madman running loose at Wath." So everybody's thinking that it's not him that, you know,
it's got to be somebody else. - NARRATOR: There was more to come, within days two further victims were discovered, including
Arkwright's own grandfather Stanislav Puidokas. Former Detective Sergeant Richard Venables grew up
in the village and remembers how inconceivable it was that these horrific crimes had happened there.
- RICHARD: Wath on Dearne, a little sleepy mining village, which it would be, we were on the verge of pit closures
at that time, it was just, it's the last place on Earth you would have thought that this thing could happen.
And I even think about it now and say that Wath on Dearne had a serial killer, as long a shot as a lottery win really.
- The impact of crimes like this on any local community are going to be devastating because here's somebody
who has been in this area for a while, people know who he is, he's a familiar face, this isn't some monster
that's come in from the outside, it's the evil within. - NARRATOR: This killer's story begins on
the 24th of March, 1967. Anthony Richard Arkwright was born in a row house in Wath upon Dearne in South Yorkshire.
The son a milkman, he was the middle child of five siblings and his family life was dysfunctional
from a very early age. - DR. YARDLEY: Arkwright spent a lot of his early years in and out of children's homes
and this for me means that he has a very insecure attachment with his caregivers.
So this is a child who doesn't feel security, he doesn't feel warmth, and what that can sometimes translate into
is this kind of defensiveness, this sense in which, "I can't depend on other people, it's just me
and I've got to look after myself." - NARRATOR: Arkwright struggled in school and was
teased by his peers as people began to speculate about the true nature of relationships within his family.
- Arkwright was bullied at school because there were rumors that were completely untrue that he was the result
of an incestuous relationship between his mother and his grandfather. - LOUIS: The reality is not what counts, it's what he thought
and what he experienced that was out there, and the kids thought it was true. And so he was teased a great deal and when an individual
is teased repetitively in childhood it affects them emotionally in very, very significant ways.
- DR. YARDLEY: Off the back of the bullying, Arkwright kind of retreats into himself, he spends a lot of time
on his own, he's a loner. And when people don't have those social connections with others, they ruminate, they spend a lot of time
thinking about things, especially ways in which they've been wronged by other people.
So, you've got this kind of undercurrents of rage, I think, that's developing in him.
- NARRATOR: The resentment that young Anthony Arkwright harbored for his family smouldered inside him
and he became a troubled teenager. He often found himself on the wrong side of the law
and he was a well-known face in the local police stations. David Winter remembers him as one of their regulars.
- I've known Arkwright since he was about 14 years old. He were a petty thief and we were forever locking him up
when he were a juvenile. - NARRATOR: Over the coming years he became obsessed with weapons and had a reputation
for being a habitual troublemaker. - MICHAEL: He got quite a few convictions for petty crime,
you would call it, not petty to the victims, but burglaries, damage, small assaults
and things like that. He was forever getting into trouble and he'd been sent to youth custody and various other penalties that
had been imposed on him over the years. But he was a troublesome lad altogether.
- GEOFFREY: And while he was in prison, perhaps he saw a way of... making himself glamorous.
He took a great interest in Jack The Ripper and The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe,
reading books about them. Perhaps for the first time in his life a subject engaged him.
He developed this fascination with mass murder and I think perhaps he saw it as a way of making his mark
in the world. - NARRATOR: By the Summer of 1988, the 21-year-old was working at a scrap metal merchants in Mexborough
and living in nearby Wath upon Dearne in public housing on the Denman Road estate.
Neil Hurst was one of his neighbors. - NEIL: Anthony Arkwright seemed very weird to me.
He looked like a young Clint Eastwood and he were very, very frightening, kept his self to his self.
He used to wear long coats and cowboy hats and he also had rollup coming out of the side of his mouth.
- DAVID: He were one of them people that he wanted to draw attention to himself, he really loved himself.
Tall, a lot taller than me. But he'd spike his hair and he'd bleached the points
of it and things like that to get a distinctive look. - NARRATOR: Another of Arkwright's neighbors
was 45-year-old Raymond Ford. - He was a gentleman who lived opposite Arkwright in a block of flats.
He was a retired school teacher suffering from ill health and kept himself very much to himself.
- Raymond and Arkwright had history, Arkwright liked to bully him. At one point he shoved excrement through his letter box.
- NARRATOR: In August 1988, Raymond was burglarized. Several items had been stolen including a microwave oven
and a mantle clock. He reported it to the local police. - DAVID: One of the secondhand dealers came up
to the police station and mentioned that he'd bought, um, a microwave oven from Tony Arkwright,
given his name, and he paid £20. So then it were decided that Arkwright were gonna
be arrested. - NARRATOR: On the 26th of August, the Friday before the bank holiday weekend, Arkwright was fired
from his job at the scrapyard for poor attendance. He was extremely aggrieved. To add insult to injury, early the next morning
the police were knocking on his door and he was arrested for the burglary of Raymond's flat.
The officers were surprised to find a whole arsenal of knives in his home, but there was something else
that sparked their interest. - They found in his flat a pocket watch and it was the pocket watch that was unique, that they'd not seen
before, and decided that that, it wasn't right that he would have such a pocket watch, it was an old person's
pocket watch. And so they decided to bail Arkwright on the Saturday evening in order that they could make further inquiries.
- NARRATOR: Having just started his evening shift, Detective Constable David Winter was tasked with
getting a statement from Raymond Ford about the burglary. He offered Arkwright a lift.
- I took him back home and as he's going into his flat, which is on the right hand side, I went to the left hand side
to Raymond Ford's. Knocking on the door and he hadn't gone in at that time. And he said, "Oh, he'll be out now, he'll be around pubs,
he's a drunk." So, you know, I said, "Well, I'll come back." And I left it at that.
- NARRATOR: At the time it seemed like an innocent remark, but Arkwright would do everything he could
to stop the police from getting a statement from Raymond. In less than 24 hours, Arkwright had lost his job
and been arrested. He needed an outlet for the pent up energy simmering inside him.
- I were coming down the steps and Tony approached me and he said, "Are you going out tonight?"
And I just said, "Yeah." He said, "Do you mind if I come wi' ya?" Well, I thought, "He's never done naught wrong to me."
You know what I mean? It might be a chance to get know him a bit better. - NARRATOR: Later that evening Arkwright met up
with Neil and his cousin. As the three men got into the car, a neighbor, 25-year-old Marcus Law, blocked their way.
- I started the engine and then Marcus came in front of me in his wheelchair. Shouting, "Where you going?"
And I says, "Get out of the road, Marcus, we're going out." And then all I heard next from the back of the car were
Tony Arkwright said, "I'm gonna kill that bastard." And then that's when I thought, "Wowee."
I says, "No, he's only having a laugh." He says, "I'm gonna kill that bastard." And I looked at his face and I could see from his eyes
that he meant what he said. Yeah, and I believed it. - NARRATOR: Once at the nightclub, Arkwright's behavior
didn't improve. He was so aggressive that they were eventually thrown out by bouncers.
Arkwright's whole demeanor that night made Neil incredibly nervous. - To be honest, I didn't feel safe meself at that time.
And I'm just lucky that we managed to get home and he got out of me car. Then what happened next were unbelievable.
In them days you used to have a bin, like a metal bin, and I saw him, he just picked it up and threw it
straight through Raymond's flat's window. I'm thinking, "What's he gonna do? "Is this ticking bomb now going off?
Is--what's he doing that for?" All I needed to know were I didn't need to be there
and I said to me cousin, "Let's go." - NARRATOR: Whilst Neil and his cousin called it a night
and made a hasty retreat, Anthony Arkwright was only just getting started. He had a score to settle with his neighbor.
The bin was merely the beginning of what he had in store for Raymond Ford. - Raymond, according to Arkwright, had told the police
about the burglary, had suggested Arkwright was responsible, and in doing so, he'd taken the power away
from Arkwright, and Arkwright wanted that power back. - NARRATOR: In the early hours of Sunday the 28th of August,
Arkwright entered Raymond's flat using a key that he'd stolen during the burglary.
Bizarrely, he was dressed in just a pair of underpants and a devil's mask. - But he didn't want to leave any forensic traces
on clothing, that was why he was wearing the devil mask and also a pair of underpants.
- DR. YARDLEY: Not only did Arkwright kill aymond Ford, he stabbed him 250 times, that's 250 decisions
to cause harm to this individual, and then he draped his entrails around the home.
- NARRATOR: The force that Arkwright used to stab Raymond was so great that several of the knives actually
broke in two. - He must have been stabbing and stabbing for a very long time. There are broken knives, he would have had to go
and get another knife. You would suspect that he'd probably have to have a rest during that because simply the repetitive action 250 times
would be incredibly physically difficult. - Worse still, he takes out just about every single entrail
from Raymond's body and drapes them not only in the bedroom but all around the flat.
Imagine the scene. - Arkwright is somebody who has always felt a sense of humiliation, a sense of shame and now he's projecting that
onto his victim. He's saying, "I'm the powerful one now, I can do what I want to you."
- NARRATOR: Shortly afterwords, Neil Hurst was woken by loud banging. Arkwright, having washed off Raymond's blood,
was pounding on his door. - NEIL: I heard some banging at the door and when I looked
through the peephole there were Tony and I just didn't answer the door. And I went into me cousin's bedroom and opened the door.
'Cause he went, "Who's fucking banging?" I just said, "It's Tony from downstairs, just leave it,
he can't get in." And that were last we heard. - NARRATOR: Later that day, David Winter was back on shift,
he was conscious that he needed to get a statement from Raymond about the burglary.
- Went straight to Raymond Ford's see if I could catch him before the pubs were open and still no reply.
And still Arkwright comes out and he says, "Well, he'll be "out now, he's been drinking all day and he'll be out,
you'll not get in." And I'll keep coming back, I did that all evening. Knowing that the file's got to be in the Monday morning
I were desperate to try to get this statement. And each time I knocked on Ford's door Arkwright came out
and it was strange, you know, it were like he were waiting for me. - NARRATOR: Arkwright spent much of that
Sunday afternoon with Marcus Law, the same neighbor that he'd recently threatened to kill.
25-year-old Marcus had been injured in a motorbike accident as a teenager and lived in a bungalow
on the Denman Road estate. - Arkwright had shared his cigarettes with Marcus Law
and he didn't have any money with which to buy any more cigarettes. And so he was quite sure that Marcus Law would have
cigarettes in his bungalow but he'd not shown him where the cigarettes were. So that was what caused the argument later on
in the night. - NARRATOR: On the Sunday evening Arkwright paid Marcus another visit to try to persuade him to give up
some cigarettes. Still, Marcus insisted he had none and so Arkwright proceeded to search the bungalow.
- And then Arkwright discovers that there are some cigarettes in a drawer and he feels, you know, that,
"I've been lied to." So it's this sense of real disproportionate reaction to a kind of everyday situation.
- GEOFFREY: We're now dealing with someone who's... disintegrating into a desperate, horrific, sadistic fantasy.
All we know is that, in what can only be described as utterly-depraved manner, Arkwright attacks Marcus
relentlessly. - DR. YARDLEY: Marcus is not just killed, he's brutalized. Arkwright stabs him over 70 times and when he's there
with his body in the flat afterwards he takes cigarettes and puts them into his ears, his nose, his eyes.
- LOUIS: You look at that and say, "Well, how could he "possibly be so angry at this neighbor?
What did the neighbor do to deserve that?" And the answer is nothing. But it was a displacement from all of the anger
than Arkwright felt over the years onto other people, the neighbor being one. - NARRATOR: The following day was the bank holiday Monday.
Marcus's mother was moving away for a new job and at 11:30 in the morning she called round to say
goodbye to her son. - And was unable to get in originally, which was unusual, and she managed to slip the chain on the front door
and get access to the place. And she found that he'd been very brutally murdered.
- NARRATOR: Marcus's distraught mother ran to the police station. David Winter was one of the first officers on the scene.
- DAVID: He were laid out on the floor and all his chest cavity were open. There were a crutch through his body, sticking--
it was actually sticking up. There were blood all over the place and then he got
cigarettes stuck in every orifice in his face, I mean, his nostrils, even in his eyes, his ears, mouth.
And he just, it just looked like a birthday cake with candles in. - NARRATOR: The quiet mining village
of Wath upon Dearne now had a major murder investigation on its hands. Detective Superintendent Michael Burdis was called in.
- MICHAEL: It was bank holiday Monday and I was at home gardening and got a call to attend at the scene
of a murder at Wath. - NARRATOR: As Michael made his way to Wath Police Station, an officer leaving Marcus' bungalow
saw Arkwright in the street. - MICHAEL: And they expected Arkwright to speak to him
because they were on good terms and spoke to each other whenever they met, Arkwright crossed the road
away from him and Humphreys was very suspicious of that because it was very unusual.
And so called him across and decided that he would invite him back to the police station
so they could have a chat. - NARRATOR: When Michael arrived, Arkwright was already
in the interview room. - MICHAEL: So far as we knew, Arkwright was a friend of Marcus Law's
and we were following that line of inquiry. What did he know about the movements of this friend?
So we, we had no reason to really suspect Arkwright of any particular crime except that he'd ignored
this particular detective, which was unusual. - NARRATOR: Investigations into Marcus' killing continued
with officers making door-to-door inquiries in the hope of finding witnesses who may have seen his killer.
On the Monday evening they spoke with a lady who recounted how Arkwright had visited her that morning
and he'd broken the news that Marcus was dead. - He said to her, words to the effect,
"It's a pity about Marcus." And then explained that Marcus had died and she thought that Marcus Law had probably committed suicide,
but that was an hour before Marcus Law's mother had found the body. So it was quite clear that Arkwright must be a prime
suspect for that crime. - NARRATOR: Clearly, Arkwright had inside information, and he was arrested on suspicion of Marcus's murder.
- Arkwright wasn't admitting that offense Arkwright was merely grumbling on all sorts of subjects and talking anything
but the actual response to the questions about the crime itself. At the same time, we had a major investigation
to undertake with house-to-house inquiries, with searches of the scene, the searches of the area, the postmortem,
and the rest of the material that goes on with a major crime investigation. - NARRATOR: On Wednesday the 31st of August, as officers
continued to speak to residents, David Winter's thoughts return to Raymond Ford.
He'd been so involved with the murder investigation that he still hadn't managed to get a statement
from Raymond about the burglary. Coincidentally, he was the only resident that the house-to-house team hadn't managed to get in contact with.
- So I went down with a uniform lad and at that time his front window was smashed, so looking in,
we could see this sea of bottles that went from the window right to the back of the room like a--
like a slope, and his chair was in front of the TV, big piles of newspapers all over the place.
He wasn't sat in his chair but the television were on. So they said, "Well, you better go in and have a look."
- NARRATOR: David made his way in through the broken window, it was immediately obvious that something was amiss.
- DAVID: I could just see blood all over the wall and all over the floor, you know, big piles of it so I'm stepping over it.
Detective Inspector came down, he's in the door. I says, "I can't let you in, there's no keys."
But I'm talking to him. He said, "Well, what's it look like?" I said, "Well, it's carnage in here, there's blood everywhere.
Blood's-- it's dried on the floor." So, "Is he in there?" "I'll have a look." So then I looked through into the bedroom and behind
the door was his body, but it were all covered up with cloths and that, but I could see a hand.
So I said, immediately, "Yeah, he's here." - You couldn't call it anything other than a tip but it was
literally three feet deep in clothing and underneath that was the body of Raymond Ford,
having suffered grotesque injuries. - NARRATOR: Whilst the police were making their
grizzly discovery, Arkwright was appearing at Rotherham Magistrate's Court, charged with the murder
of Marcus Law and the burglary at Raymond Ford's flat. Detective Superintendent Michael Burdis now had
a second horrific crime to investigate. But he already had a good idea who was going to be
their prime suspect: Anthony Arkwright. - MICHAEL: Two of the detectives that had been talking to him
were sitting in the canteen area and waiting for his solicitor to attend so they were merely sitting waiting.
And during that time on the table was a pack of cards and Arkwright was flicking through these cards
and eventually he said to the detectives, "I can read the cards," and he turned over the four of hearts.
And he said, "One you've got, two, three, four to come." That prompted alarms in the officers because they,
as far as they knew there was just the one body. And so they rang that information through to me
at the incident room. But of course by that time, we'd found Raymond Ford's body,
which meant then that there were two more. - LOUIS: He didn't wanna act like the ordinary criminal,
the ordinary murderer who goes there an confesses or start crying, "You got me, oh my God."
He didn't want to do that at all, he wanted to do the opposite of that, he wanted to be newsworthy,
to be notorious, to be infamous in some way. - NARRATOR: The case had just been blown wide open.
The police now believed there were more victims, but they had no leads as to who these unfortunate souls
may be. Both known victims had been from the Denman Road estate and all available police resources were sent to the area
to knock on doors and make sure that every resident was safe and well. - MICHAEL: And we used the local authority who provided us
with a joiner to help us to break into properties if we couldn't get in, in the fear that there might be a body there.
But at the same time we had another team of officers trying to trace his family background
and his family relations and other people that he may well have been in contact.
- NARRATOR: Detective Sergeant Richard Venables was part of the team investigating Arkwright's
background. - So, I was actually tasked, with my local knowledge in mind, to look at Arkwright's family, to try and build up
a picture of the guy in custody, who had allegedly committed these horrific murders.
- NARRATOR: Through his inquiries Richard learned that Arkwright's grandfather, a 68-year-old Lithuanian
gentleman named Stanislav Puidokas, lived with his partner Elsa Konradaite in nearby Mexborough.
- We made several visits to that house from about Tuesday the 30th of August, went once, twice a day.
We didn't get any [unintelligible]. - NARRATOR: By Friday, September the 2nd, the police
still hadn't managed to speak to the couple, but neighbors had noticed normal activity at the house.
The bottles of milk left on the doorstep had been taken in each day. - DR. YARDLEY: They assumed that either the grandfather or Elsa
were collecting it and taking it into the house, but actually the milkman was going by later on in the day, noticing
that it hadn't been taken in and he was taking it away. - MICHAEL: So that meant that we knew there had been no activity
in that house and so we feared for the safety of his grandfather. - NARRATOR: On the Friday afternoon Richard paid
a final visit to the house in Mexborough. When yet again there was no response he had no option
but to break in. - I noticed that the upstairs window of the front bedroom was open.
I needed to source something to get up there so the next-door neighbor, he loaned me his ladder.
When I looked through the window and I saw the untidy ransacking of the bedroom, I knew there was a problem.
- NARRATOR: The scene was reminiscent of many burglaries they'd seen before. And so Richard and his colleague made their way
through the window and into the bedroom. - And when I got into that room, I've smelled death before, many times,
and I knew the house had got the smell of death. What I was gonna be confronted by I didn't know.
And that's when the heart started to quicken. - NARRATOR: After a search of the upstairs room revealed
nothing but ransacked belongings Richard prepared himself to go down the stairs.
- RICHARD: If I just asked you to transport yourself into this position: you're an investigator, you've been
briefed as to what this guy's allegedly done, he's disemboweled a guy, he's stabbed him 250 times,
he's stabbed another disabled guy 70 times, he sliced his body open, he rammed a crutch up that body,
and then all of a sudden you know you're gonna discover this guy's work. I was frightened, no two words about it.
And I said to my colleague, "You know what we're gonna find." And he said, "Yes, Sarge." He says, "I know."
And I said, "Remember the pictures, you have to brace yourself for this." We walked down the stairs together and as we got
to the spot where the landing and the bannister opened up sufficiently, I leaned forward
and I looked back towards the kitchen. The old lady was laid in the kitchen door and I saw
the axe protruding from her head; clearly she was dead. - NARRATOR: The body was that of 72-year-old
Elsa Konradaite, Arkwright's step-grandmother. She'd been ironing on the kitchen table
when she was attacked. - She's struck in the head with an axe but there's none of the excess that's shown with the other victims,
it's not the sort of clear message that he's trying to send with the others, it's simply getting rid
of a problem. - RICHARD: My next consideration was, "Where is Grandad?" And Grandad wasn't there but I had an idea where he was,
because as part of our investigation that week, I'd been told by locals that Grandad had an allotment.
- MICHAEL: The allotment was locked, the allotment shed was locked, it was quite a substantial home-build.
His grandfather had been a miner and it was a really well-made piece of equipment.
And we had to open that first. - NARRATOR: Once they'd broken through the door, Michael and his team made yet another gruesome discovery.
- MICHAEL: Inside the she itself was--was a workshop, really. And Arkwright's grandfather was jammed against
the legs of this workbench and again, he'd been very savagely attacked. - DR. HAMILTON: Arkwright stabbed him, first of all,
he stabbed him with such force he severed the spinal cord, that in itself is an incredible level of violence.
That wasn't enough for him, he then strikes him with an axe, almost certainly when he's paralyzed and unable
to respond, and with a large heavy hammer. So this is not just killing, this is sheer needless brutality.
- NARRATOR: Later Arkwright would tell investigators that he'd killed his grandfather partly because of the rumors
that he may actually be his father. Rumors that had tainted his whole life. And it perhaps gives a clue as to why he would exercise
such extreme brutality on the old man. - This was much more violence than was needed
to end his grandfather's life, so these are these feelings of shame, of humiliation, of rage
really coming to the surface. And I think it's, it's a way of kind of retaliating,
it's a way of taking back power. - Although Arkwright was obviously the prime suspect,
you take all the right steps to make sure that you gather all the scientific material that you can gather.
- NARRATOR: As crime scene investigators meticulously gathered evidence, 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright
remained in police custody at Rawmarsh Police Station charged with murdering four people, including his own grandparents.
Although he was confident they had identified the serial killer, Detective Superintendent Michael Burdis
knew that proving the case might not be that simple. - One of the problems that we had was that Arkwright
had a right to be in some of the premises, the grandfather's house, the grandfather's allotment shed,
so any traces of fingerprints or DNA could have been legitimately there and so it didn't really
provide us with, with tangible evidence. So it was a matter of proving that Arkwright had actually
committed the murder rather than merely being present at the scene. What did give us evidence was the fact that there were
items that were stolen from those premises. - NARRATOR: In particular, one item seized when
Arkwright was first arrested for the burglary at Raymond Ford's flat now became very significant.
- The pocket watch that was found in his flat, that we believed originally had come from Raymond Ford,
was actually his grandfather's. - NARRATOR: With difficulties gathering evidence
conclusively linking Arkwright to some of the murders, Michael knew that what they really needed
was a confession. However, despite already having spent several days in the interview room being questioned about
Marcus and Raymond, Arkwright had refused to give up any information. - MICHAEL: He refused to answer questions; he did talk,
but he wasn't answering questions that were rational and wasn't giving responsible answers to anything
that we were asking him. - NARRATOR: When he learned that the bodies of his grandparents, Stanislav and Elsa,
had been found, and another two murder charges were to be brought against him, Arkwright made
an unusual request. - He asked if he could be interviewed on tape. Now, we weren't using tape recordered interviews
in those days but we were about to start the process, so we decided to go ahead and hope that Arkwright
would then find the facility useful for him and would be able to talk to us. Didn't work quite like that, because he merely enjoyed
the experience and rambling on tape about horror films that he'd watched and experiences that he'd tried
to relive himself but none of it was a response to the questions about the murders.
So I put a stop to that. - NARRATOR: Michael Burdis was getting tired of Arkwright
stringing his officers along. Later that evening, Arkwright was fetched from the cells
and the Detective Superintendent himself started the tape in the interview room.
- I asked him questions, he didn't respond at all, I continually asked him if he would identify his name
for the purposes of the tape and he didn't respond to that. I asked him questions about his family,
he didn't respond, he never spoke at all. So then I sweeped the tape off and I came out
of the interview room quite frustrated, and about five minutes later the solicitor came down the corridor
and said that, "He wants to speak to you." So I refused to go through the scenario again.
But the solicitor really was very persuasive and said, "I think he does want to talk to you."
So I went back into the interview room. As I was setting the machine up again he sang a little song,
something like, "Da-dee-da dee-da." And I said, "Strangers in the night." And he said, "You've named that tune, you won,
I'll speak to you." - GEOFFREY: And then of cours,e the reality begins to pour out
of Arkwright. Because in a period of just 56 hours he's brutally killed, and you cannot say more strongly, brutally,
savagely dispatched four people. - MICHAEL: And he then went on to make a full confession
of the murder of Raymond Ford and Marcus Law. And then started to speak about his grandfather
and the tape ran out. - NARRATOR: He'd had to endure more of Arkwright's games, but Michael had managed to get confessions
for two of the murders. The following morning the interview resumed, and Michael hoped Arkwright would also confess to killing
his grandfather and Elsa. - MICHAEL: He didn't have a problem reacting to the grandfather's murder,
they'd argued over the fact that they did not rebuild this motorcycle he was supposed to be working on.
And he felt justified in committing that particular crime. - NARRATOR: He also began to speak about something
that had haunted him since he was a child. The local folklore that his grandfather
was in fact his father. - Whether Arkwright ever believed that to be the case, it wasn't true, it's certain that he wasn't the father
of Arkwright. But Arkwright did, did give that information and imply that that was maybe why he murdered his grandfather.
- NARRATOR: When it came to talking about Elsa's murder, however, Arkwright's whole demeanor changed.
- His voice went particularly quiet, he was talking about darkness and light, black and white,
he was black and Elsa was white. And the fact that Elsa was Lithuanian like his grandfather
and didn't speak any English, he was concerned that she didn't understand the language and he felt
that he was doing the right thing by taking her life. - Her killing, it wasn't as violent as the other murders
in this killing spree, which suggests to me that she wasn't part of this kind of project of vengeance,
she hadn't done anything to, in his mind, justify or deserved the kind of violence that he enacted
on other people. So she was literally a barrier that had to be removed. - NARRATOR: Arkwright revealed that his killing spree
had started on Friday the 26th of August, the day he was fired from his job at the scrapyard.
- GEOFFREY: And in the wake of that firing, he set off on a 56-hour killing spree which would leave
four people dead. - NARRATOR: The victims were found in the opposite order to that in which they'd been killed.
His grandfather might have been the last to be discovered but he was Arkwright's first murder.
For his neighbor Neil Hurst, this was a shocking revelation. It meant that Arkwright had already killed at least
two people by the time he was trying to get into Neil's flat in the early hours of Sunday, the 28th of August.
It put a different perspective on Arkwright's motive for the visit. - I reckon if I'd have answered that door,
I would have been killed that night me self. Definitely, if I'd have answered the door to him.
I think he would have to do what he could and [unintelligible] all in one night, so yeah, I think
he'd have took my life if I'd have answered that door. - NARRATOR: In July 1989, Anthony Arkwright appeared
at Sheffield Crown Court, he was charged with four counts of murder. - At the trial, Arkwright really is the director and star
of his own movie. - MICHAEL: He was most flamboyant, he appeared wearing a jacket and a bowtie in court and he waved
at the journalists and waved at people. - GEOFFREY: If you look at pictures of him at the time,
you see the face of a man who's almost sneering at the camera. As if, "Look what I've done, look at me, I'm so clever."
He wasn't at all clever. - Our understanding, and the understanding of the judge,
was he was pleading guilty to all four murders. It was quite the bizarre event because
when he was arraigned before the judge and the clerk of the court put the charges to him he pleaded not guilty
to everything. Which took everybody by surprise, including his own barristers. - NARRATOR: The hearing was adjourned whilst
his defense team attempted to find out the reasoning behind the last-minute change in plea.
Eventually, Arkwright returned to the court on the understanding that he was permitted to read a poem
that he'd written. - DR. YARDLEY: There's a very clear reason why he does this, 'cause he's enjoying the attention, he's enjoying
the notoriety, and a poem is something that's quite unique, it's something that is quite unusual.
He knows that this is something that the media will pick up on, something that he will be remembered by.
- MICHAEL: Wasn't really a poem, it was just a rambling of words and after a few minutes the judge said,
"No, I think we've had enough, and we'll stop the trial there. How do you plead to these charges?"
And he pleaded to the three charges murder against Raymond Ford, Marcus Law, and Stanislav Puidokis,
and not guilty to the murder of Elsa Konradaite. - NARRATOR: The judge ordered Elsa's killing
to remain on file and on the 12th of July, 1989, Arkwright was sentenced for the other three murders.
- GEOFFREY: The judge describes him as an evil fantasist and calls the crimes grotesque sadism.
It's impossible not to agree with him. He sentences Arkwright to life with a minimum term
of 25 years. - NARRATOR: In 1990, his case was reviewed by the Home Secretary, who imposed a whole life tariff.
Arkwright is the youngest person ever to have received this term in the UK and has been condemned to die
in prison. - Life would mean life as far as he was concerned, and I think that that's a proper sentence.
I don't think this is a safe man to ever allow out on the street again. - His goal was not just to kill and to destroy
and to release all of the anger and rage he carried with him his whole life, but he wanted to be infamous.
- RICHARD: I have to say that the discovery of both bodies, really, was probably the most horrific sight
I've ever seen. And remains the worst injuries I've ever seen that a human can deliberately inflict upon another human.
- GEOFFREY: Arkwright took exceptional pride in killing in the most grotesque way.
To take someone's life is bad enough but to then to destroy what remains of their body either by...
eviscerating it or by gouging the eyes out or by stabbing it several hundred times,
these are the acts of a man who clearly deserves to be called evil. - NARRATOR: Arkwright grew up harboring
a vendetta against his own family, he cared only for himself and would do whatever he wanted
to those he deemed less worthy. He was a habitual criminal who craved recognition.
And by engaging in a killing spree fueled by rage and revenge, was determined to emerge infamous.
He slaughtered his grandparents before torturing and mutilating two vulnerable neighbors,
making Anthony Arkwright one of the world's most evil killers. - ♪ ♪♪ - [swishing sound]

Anthony Arkwright slaughtered his grandparents before murdering and mutilating two neighbours in a rampage over a four-day period in 1988.

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

Brief Summary

Anthony Arkwright's brutal murder spree in 1988 shocked a small English village, revealing deep psychological issues and community fear.

Key points

The Discovery of Marcus Law's Body. In August 1988, the body of Marcus Law was discovered, brutally mutilated and tortured.
The Brutality of Raymond Ford's Murder. Raymond Ford was found brutally murdered, stabbed 250 times, with his entrails displayed.
Arkwright's Chilling Threat. Before the murder, Arkwright threatened Marcus Law, revealing his violent intentions.
Arkwright's Arrest. Arkwright was arrested on suspicion of Marcus Law's murder after suspicious comments.
Gruesome Discovery. David Winter finds a horrific scene filled with blood and a covered body.
Arkwright's Confession. Anthony Arkwright confesses to the murders of Raymond Ford and Marcus Law.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He just looked like a birthday cake with candles in.

Describing the horrific scene of Marcus Law's body.

0:33WatchAug 17, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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