John Straffen

John Straffen
Mug shot of Straffen, taken after his August 1951 arrest
Born	John Thomas Straffen (1930-02-27)27 February 1930 Bordon Camp, Hampshire, England
Died	19 November 2007(2007-11-19) (aged 77) HM Prison Frankland, County Durham, England
Motive	Inconclusive (likely revenge with grandiosity accompaniment)
Criminal penalty	Death (24 July 1952) Commuted to life imprisonment (29 August 1952)
Details
Victims	3
Span of crimes	15 July 1951 – 29 April 1952
Country	United Kingdom
Location(s)	Somerset, England (1951) Berkshire, England (1952)
Date apprehended	9 August 1951

John Thomas Straffen (27 February 1930 – 19 November 2007) was a British serial killer who committed the murder of three prepubescent girls between the ages of five and nine in the counties of Somerset and Berkshire, England, between 1951 and 1952.

All three of Straffen's victims were murdered by strangulation. His first two victims were murdered in Bath, Somerset, in the summer of 1951. Arrested shortly after the murder of his second victim, Straffen denied any sexual or sadistic motive for the murders, which he insisted he had committed to simply "annoy" the police, whom he blamed for most of his problems.

Tried before Mr. Justice Oliver at Taunton Assizes in October 1951, Straffen was found unfit to plead on the grounds of diminished responsibility and committed to indefinite detention within Broadmoor Hospital. He briefly escaped from this facility in April 1952 and murdered a third child in the village of Farley Hill, Berkshire, in the four hours he remained at liberty prior to his recapture.

Straffen was brought to trial for this third murder at Winchester Assizes in July 1952; he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death, although his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Home Secretary. He remained incarcerated until his death within HM Prison Frankland in November 2007.

At the time of Straffen's death, he was the longest-serving prisoner in British history, having served over 55 years' imprisonment.

Early life

John Thomas Straffen was born on 27 February 1930 at Bordon Camp in Hampshire. He was the third of six children born to his parents, with one older brother and sister, and three younger sisters. At the time of Straffen's birth, his father served in the British Army, and his mother was a homemaker. When Straffen was two years old, his father was deployed overseas and the family spent six years in British India.

Straffen's early childhood was unremarkable. His mother would later recollect her son displayed no signs of mental limitation or behavioural problems until after he was stricken with encephalitis at age six during his father's tour of military duty in British India. Shortly thereafter, Straffen began to exhibit traits of antisocial behaviour. The family returned to the United Kingdom in March 1938, settling in Bath, Somerset. Shortly thereafter, Straffen's father was discharged from the Army.

Shortly after his family returned to England, Straffen began committing acts of petty theft in addition to frequently truanting from school. He was referred to a child guidance clinic for this behaviour in October 1938. Eight months later, Straffen first appeared before a juvenile court for stealing a purse from a young girl and was given two years' probation. His probation officer found that he did not understand the general difference between right and wrong, or the meaning of probation. The Straffen family was living in crowded lodgings at the time, and his mother had little time to help. As such, Straffen's probation officer referred him to a psychiatrist, who officially diagnosed Straffen as mentally defective.

In June 1940, the local council sent Straffen to St. Joseph's School, a residential school for mentally defective children in Sambourne, Warwickshire, with instruction he remain housed within structured facilities of this nature until age sixteen. He would remain at St. Joseph's until 1942, when he transferred to Besford Court School in Defford, Worcestershire. Here, he was observed by staff to be something of a solitary individual and markedly resentful of having being placed in a structured environment by authorities. A second intellectual assessment conducted in the mid-1940s revealed Straffen's IQ to be 64; his mental age was revised to nine years, six months. He would remain at this facility until March 1946.

Adolescence

Straffen was released from Besford Court School shortly after his sixteenth birthday; he returned to live with his family in Bath. The same year, an examination by the Medical Officer of Health concluded he still warranted certification under the Mental Deficiency Act. After several short-term menial jobs, Straffen obtained more stable employment as a machinist in a clothing factory. This employment lasted ten months before he was made redundant in 1947. Shortly thereafter, Straffen began to enter local unoccupied homes and steal small items; he is not known to have taken these stolen artifacts home or given these items to others, but instead typically hid or discarded them. As Straffen had no close friends, he committed these burglaries alone.

On 27 July 1947, a 13-year-old girl reported to police that a blond-haired teenager named John had sexually assaulted her after putting his hand over her mouth and saying: "What would you do if I killed you? I have done it before." The police were unable to locate the assailant and would only link Straffen to this offence much later. Six weeks after committing the sexual assault, Straffen is known to have strangled five chickens belonging to the father of a teenage girl with whom he had recently argued.

HM Prison Horfield

In the autumn of 1947, Straffen was arrested for burglary; he willingly confessed to the offence in addition to having committed thirteen other burglaries—many of which police had not linked to the same offender. He was remanded in custody, and on 10 October, was committed to HM Prison Horfield in Bristol under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, with his committal paperwork stating Straffen was "not of violent or dangerous propensities." Straffen would remain at this facility for twenty months, during which he underwent a psychiatric examination by the medical superintendent, who officially classified Straffen as being intellectually disabled.

Straffen was isolated from other inmates at Horfield and well-behaved. As a result, in July 1949 he was transferred to a lower-security agricultural hostel in Winchester. Here, he initially functioned well, but soon relapsed into committing acts of petty theft. When he stole a bag of walnuts in February 1950, he was sent back to Horfield. Six months later, he was disciplined by staff for leaving the facility without authorisation and resisting police when they attempted to return him to HM Prison Horfield.

Unsupervised home leave

In early 1951, Straffen was examined at a Bristol hospital, where an electroencephalograph reading revealed he had suffered "wide and severe damage to the cerebral cortex"—possibly originating from his being stricken with encephalitis at the age of six. However, Straffen was considered sufficiently rehabilitated to be allowed short periods of unsupervised home leave. He used the time to obtain a job at a market garden using the skills he had honed while residing in Winchester.

Rehabilitation into society

News of Straffen independently obtaining employment greatly impressed Hortham officials, and he was allowed to keep his job. Shortly thereafter, staff authorised Straffen to be returned to the care of his mother. By law, under the Mental Deficiency Act, Straffen underwent a further psychological assessment by Hortham medical staff shortly after his twenty-first birthday; these officials recommended he remain classified as mentally deficient for a further five years. His family disputed the outcome of this assessment and appealed the decision. Shortly thereafter, 10 July 1951, the Medical Officer of Health for Bath re-examined Straffen and found an improvement in his mental age to ten years; he recommended that Straffen's certificate of mental deficiency be renewed only for six months with a view to discharge at the end.

Two days prior to this re-assessment, a seven-year-old girl named Christine Vivian Butcher had been murdered in Windsor, Berkshire. The child had been raped and strangled. Her murder was never solved, and although Straffen is not considered a suspect in this case, according to author Letitia Fairfield, the intense police and public outrage generated by the case may have led Straffen—with his lifelong "intense resentment" and "smouldering hatred" of police—to believe the act of strangling young girls would cause maximum frustration and outrage to the authorities.

Murders

Brenda Goddard

Brenda Goddard

On the afternoon of 15 July 1951, Straffen visited the local cinema unaccompanied, as he typically did on a Sunday. His route took him past 1 Camden Crescent in Bath, where 5-year-old Brenda Constance Goddard lived with her foster parents. Although the child was not allowed to venture out of her garden when playing while unsupervised, on this day, she evidently crossed the road to a meadow close to her home to gather buttercups and daisies.

According to Straffen's later statement to the police, he initially observed Brenda as she gathered flowers in this meadow and the child "looked up and smiled" at him before he asked her, "What are you doing?", to which Brenda replied "Picking flowers" before extending her arm to display a "bunch of white flowers" as she continued to smile. After learning Brenda's name, Straffen stated: "I know a place where there are even more flowers; they're in that wood. Shall I show you?" Brenda eagerly agreed.

At the entrance to a nearby copse, Brenda allowed Straffen to lift her over a fence. Almost immediately thereafter, Straffen manually strangled the child although as he was both confused and frustrated that Brenda did not attempt to scream prior to lapsing into unconsciousness, he then repeatedly struck her head against a large stone. Straffen did not make any attempt to hide the body and simply continued to the cinema to watch the film Shockproof, after which he returned home.

Brenda's foster mother reported her missing at 3:15 p.m.; her body was discovered by a police officer at 7:10 p.m. No effort had been made to conceal her body, and numerous clipped white convolvulus flowers were found at the crime scene. The child had bot been sexually assaulted, and investigators were unable to determine the actual motive for the crime.

After eliminating Brenda's biological and foster family as suspects, police began questioning all locals with criminal records. Straffen was questioned by Bath City Police in relation to Brenda's murder on 3 August. He admitted to having worn a blue suit on the date of the child's death and that he may have been the individual in such attire seen by Brenda's foster mother walking past her home shortly before she had noticed Brenda missing from her front garden, but he denied any involvement in the murder. As police had no physical evidence linking Straffen to Brenda's murder, they were unable to charge him with the crime.

In a later interview with a prison psychiatrist, Straffen confirmed that although he was not charged with Brenda's murder, he had known he remained under suspicion and resolved to continue to antagonise the police, whom he also blamed for his losing his job.

Cicely Batstone, c. 1949

Cicely Batstone

On 8 August, Straffen encountered 9-year-old Cicely Dorothy Batstone at the Forum Cinema in Bath as the two watched Tarzan and the Jungle Queen. He engaged the child in conversation and, upon the film's conclusion, offered to accompany her to another local cinema to watch the Western She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Cicely agreed, and the two travelled via bus across town. Shortly after alighting the bus, Cicely was strangled in a meadow known locally as "The Tumps". Straffen then walked home, purchasing fish and chips en route. Cicely's body was discovered the following day.

Numerous eyewitnesses had observed Straffen in Cicely's company prior to her murder. These individuals included Violet Cowley, the wife of a policeman who observed the two walking in the direction of the meadow, the driver of the bus, the bus conductor—who also recognised Straffen as a former work colleague—and a courting couple.

Prior to learning of Cicely's disappearance, Cowley—mindful of the recent, unsolved murder of Brenda Goddard—mentioned to her husband having observed a young, dark-haired girl dressed in a grey cardigan and a coloured dress walking in the direction of The Tumps in the company of a blond-haired, slender young man and how the sighting had made her uneasy. Upon learning of Cicely's disappearance the following morning, Cowley directed police to the location she had seen the two, and Cicely's body was discovered.

Arrest

Police drove to Straffen's home to question him in relation to Batstone's murder on the morning of 9 August. According to investigators, when informed of the purpose of their visit, Straffen replied: "Is it about the girl I was at the pictures with last night?" He was then driven to the police station for formal questioning.

Confession

Straffen admitted to investigators he had been in Cicely's company on the afternoon of her murder; however, he initially denied any culpability in her death—insisting the child had been asleep in The Tumps when he last saw her. Shortly thereafter, he revised this statement to admit he knew Cicely was deceased, stating: "She is dead, but you can't prove I did it because no-one saw me." He also willingly confessed to the murder of Brenda Goddard, stating: "The other girl, I did her the same", adding he had committed both murders to give the police "something to really do" as opposed to continually pursuing him for relatively trivial offences. He was charged with Cicely's murder the following day.

Formal charges

Straffen formally appeared at the Guildhall in Bath on 24 August 1951, charged with both child murders; he pleaded not guilty to the charges on this date and was remanded in custody until 30 August. On 31 August, after a two-day hearing at Bath Magistrates' Court, a formal date was set for Straffen to stand trial for the murder of Brenda Goddard.

First murder trial

Straffen stood trial at Taunton Assize Court on 17 October 1951. He was tried before Mr Justice Oliver.

The only witness to testify was the medical superintendent at HM Prison Horfield, Peter Parkes, who testified to having reviewed Straffen on numerous occasions between 1947 and 1951 and that his current mental deficiency remained "very much the same" as in 1947. Parkes also testified as to Straffen's inability to appreciate or understand the circumstances and procedures of the legal process.

Following Parkes' testimony, Judge Oliver instructed the jury: "In this country we do not try people who are insane. You might as well try a baby in arms. If a man cannot understand what is going on, he cannot be tried." As such, the jury formally returned a verdict that Straffen was insane and unfit to plead. As such, he was ordered to be detained at His Majesty's pleasure at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire.

Committal to Broadmoor

Broadmoor Hospital had originally been termed a criminal lunatic asylum, but by the Criminal Justice Act 1948, responsibility for the institution had been transferred to the Ministry of Health and those committed to the facility had been renamed "patients". Sortly after arriving at this 40-acre institution, Straffen was assigned work as a cleaner.

Broadmoor Hospital. Straffen was able to escape from this facility due to security lapses on 29 April 1952.

Escape

At 2:25 p.m. on 29 April 1952, Straffen—wearing his own civilian clothing beneath his assigned work uniform—managed to surmount Broadmoor's ten-foot (3 m) wall by climbing onto the roof of a lean-to shed during an assigned work detail to clean a dilapidated outbuilding, then scaling the remaining eighteen inches to the top of the ten-foot perimeter wall after the guards supervising his work detail briefly left him unattended as they oversaw the cleaning work of other inmates. His escape was quickly noticed, and local police notified. A manhunt to re-apprehend Straffen was immediately implemented.

Murder of Linda Bowyer

Upon escaping from Broadmoor, Straffen is known to have discarded his work uniform before travelling approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) over the course of two hours on foot before arriving in the village of Farley Hill. Approximately two hours after his escape, Straffen encountered five-year-old Linda Bowyer randomly riding her new bicycle around the village; the child was lured to a nearby field and manually strangled to death before Straffen walked to a nearby household to ask the occupant, a Mrs. Kenyon, for a cup of tea and directions to Wokingham. Shortly thereafter, Straffen was arrested by two Broadmoor staff members, having observed these individuals at a local bus stop and attempted to flee across a field.

Linda's mother first noted her daughter's disappearance at 7:30 p.m. when the child failed to return home or respond to her subsequent calling her name aloud from her garden gate. Her strangled body was found beneath an oak tree within a bluebell copse by Sergeant Percy Axford at 5:25 the following morning. An autopsy revealed the child had been deceased for between twelve and fifteen hours.

Investigators immediately travelled to Broadmoor to question Straffen as to whether he had committed any further crimes while he had escaped from the institution. When awoken and politely asked by Chief Inspector Ernest Francis whether he had committed "any mischief" the previous day, Straffen simply replied, "I did not kill her" before elaborating: "I did not kill the little girl on the bicycle."

According to contemporary press reports, Straffen later claimed before court officials his escape had been to prove he "could be out without killing little children."

Straffen, pictured on 2 May 1952 en route to Reading Magistrates' Court to be formally charged with the murder of Linda Bowyer

Formal murder charge

On 1 May 1952, investigators successfully applied for a warrant to formally charge Straffen with the murder of Linda Bowyer. He appeared at Reading Magistrates' Court the following day to hear the formal murder charge and was detained in the hospital wing of HM Prison Brixton to await trial for her murder.

Within months of Straffen's recapture, his escape and further murder had inspired the implementation of the activation of a system of warning sirens around Broadmoor to alert staff and the public alike upon the event of an inmate's escape from the facility, with the sirens tested on a weekly basis. This system would remain in operation until 2016.

Trial

Straffen was brought to trial at Winchester Assizes for the murder of Linda Bowyer on 21 July 1952. He was tried before Mr. Justice Cassels. The prosecution was led by Solicitor-General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller. Straffen was defended by Henry Elam.

Upon advice from his defence counsel, Straffen pleaded not guilty to the charge and on the trial's opening date, his defense lawyer informed jurors his client would not testify on his own behalf as he was mentally defective. The defence also opted to leave the question of his sanity as an issue to be determined by the jury.

At the request of the prosecution, the judge ruled that evidence about the prior murders in Bath would be admissible as similar fact evidence, and the lack of a motive for Bowyer's murder much like those of Goddard and Batstone, the ages of the children, the fact that none of the crime scenes bore any evidence of a struggle between the child and her murderer, and the fact no effort had been made to conceal any of the children's bodies was discussed at trial by the prosecution and witnesses to testify on their behalf.

Witness testimony

On the evening of the trial's opening date, one of the jurors attended a local club and declared that one of the prosecution witnesses had murdered Bowyer. The next morning the judge announced that the jury would be discharged and the trial rebegun with a new jury. The judge required the errant juror to remain in court throughout the trial, before calling him to apologise for his "wicked discharge of your duties as a citizen".

On 23 July, the pathologist who had performed the autopsy on Linda Bowyer, Dr Robert Teare, testified that the pressure applied to the child's neck had been inflicted had been "determined and applied at exactly the right points, as if by a person experienced in this method of killing". Teare further testified that, having studied post-mortem photographs and the autopsy reports of the two children Straffen had confessed to murdering in Bath, he had noted "many similarities" in the method of strangulation applied to Goddard and Batstone that had been applied to Bowyer.

Straffen's defence called several individuals who had previously evaluated their client to give evidence about his mental condition in addition to a woman and her son who had heard the scream of a young girl emanating from the direction of the copse where Bowyer's body was discovered at approximately 6:45 p.m. on the date of her disappearance—thus suggesting the child had been murdered after Straffen had been re-apprehended.

In rebuttal to the defense's arguments regarding Straffen's limited intellect and inability to differentiate right from wrong, the prosecution called several Broadmoor prison medical officers and psychiatrists to testify as to their treatment improving Straffen's knowledge and IQ to the extent he knew the difference between right and wrong, and was able to understand the basic principles pertaining to the consequential legal process as a result of his actions. One of these individuals, Dr Thomas Munro, who was a specialist in mental deficiency and had treated Straffen, testified that he had said that to murder was wrong because it was breaking the law and because "it is one of the commandments".

Conviction

After retiring for just under an hour, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty, which implicitly declared Straffen sane. Mr Justice Cassels sentenced him to death. Straffen appealed on the grounds that the evidence about the Bath murders was wrongly admitted, and that his statements on the morning after Linda's murder were wrongly admitted because they had been made before he was cautioned. Both grounds of the appeal were dismissed on 26 August, and Straffen was refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords. His execution date was fixed for 4 September; however, this sentence was commuted to one of life imprisonment by Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe on 29 August, following his personal recommendation to the Queen that Straffen be reprieved.

Reprieve and prison

After his reprieve, Straffen was moved to HM Prison Wandsworth. In November 1952, the Home Office denied a rumour that he was about to be moved to the Rampton mental institution. Four years later, in 1956, Straffen was transferred to HM Prison Horfield after staff uncovered an impending escape attempt by prisoners—including Straffen—to escape from the facility, with other escapees reportedly choosing to initially take Straffen with them to divert primary police and public focus away from themselves. The news of his return to Bristol caused intense public outrage in the city, and a petition demanding his transferral from the prison was signed by 12,000 people.

While incarcerated at HM Prison Horfield, Straffen was described by former politician Peter Baker, briefly a fellow prisoner, as always being conspicuous when he was exercising, being much taller than anyone else and wearing distinctive clothing for a special watch prisoner. Baker thought the "long, emaciated, miserable figure" looked "like a dying butterfly or a caged animal" and reported rumours Straffen made application to the governor each month on the chance a date had been set for his release. In August 1958, Straffen was moved to HM Prison Cardiff when the regime at HM Prison Horfield was changed to a more liberal one. However, by June 1960, he had been transferred back to a maximum security block within HM Prison Horfield.

A new 28-cell high-security wing at HM Prison Parkhurst was built and ready for opening in early 1966. The Home Office pointedly did not deny rumours that Straffen had been secretly transferred there on 31 January 1966.

In May 1968, Straffen was moved to HM Prison Durham. Placed in the top security E wing, he was joined by another child killer, Ian Brady (who would eventually succeed Straffen as the United Kingdom's longest actively-serving prisoner). Crime author Jonathan Goodman wrote that "the shambling lunatic [Straffen] ... is in prison only because no mental institution is secure enough to guarantee his confinement." Many years later, a prison officer recalled seeing Straffen "circling, banging the fence every couple of minutes" and that one fellow officer described him as aloof and hostile: "Never talks unless he has to ask for something. Always on his own".

Sentencing terms

For most of the time that Straffen was in prison, the Home Secretary had to agree to the release of any life sentence prisoner; no occupant of the office was ever willing to let Straffen out. In 1994, Michael Howard decided to compile a select list of about twenty prisoners serving life sentences who must never be released, and Straffen's name was said to be on it. The whole list was published by the News of the World in December 1997; this report confirmed that Straffen would spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2001, with the fiftieth anniversary of Straffen's imprisonment approaching, his solicitors called for his case to be reopened on the grounds that he had not been fit to stand trial. Investigative journalist Bob Woffinden, who examined previously confidential records, uncovered that Straffen had been reprieved after a majority of doctors who examined him found that he was insane. Woffinden also doubted Straffen's guilt in the murder of Linda Bowyer, because at the time of his arrest, he had bitten his fingernails to the hilt, whereas fingernail marks were dicovered on the child's neck and because some local witnesses placed the time of the murder after his recapture. However, Straffen's application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission was turned down in December 2002.

HM Prison Frankland. Straffen died of natural causes within this facility on 19 November 2007.

In May 2002, the European Court of Human Rights began ruling upon decisions made in a case brought by a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment who challenged the authority of the Home Secretary to refuse to release him after the parole board had recommended he be freed. The court decided that politicians should not interfere in life sentences and, therefore, current practice was unlawful. It was immediately observed that this meant an opportunity for release for Straffen, who was then incarcerated at HM Prison Long Lartin.

Death

John Straffen died of natural causes within the health care centre of HM Prison Frankland on 19 November 2007 at the age of 77 following a brief illness. At the time of his death, he had been incarcerated for 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days and was the longest-serving prisoner in British criminal history.

Three days after Straffen's death, Guardian columnist and investigative journalist Robert Woffinden penned an obituary article in which he opined that Straffen would be remembered by many within the United Kingdom as "one of the country's most notorious child murderers".

Media

Literature

• Fairfield, Letitia; Fullbrook, Eric P., eds. (1954). The Trial of John Thomas Straffen. London: William Hodge. ISBN 978-1-561-69191-3.
• Lowe, Gordon (2013). Escape from Broadmoor: The Trials and Strangulations of John Thomas Straffen. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-752-49292-6.
• Pender, Patrick (1994). "Murder in the Meadows". Real-Life Crimes (99). London, England: Eaglemoss Publications Ltd.: 2174–2181. ISBN 978-1-856-29970-1.

Television

• The Crime & Investigation Network have broadcast an episode focusing on the murders committed by John Straffen as part of their Murder Casebook series. Presented by Fred Dinenage, this 45-minute episode was first broadcast in November 2012 and features interviews with criminologist David Wilson.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
• HM Prison Frankland
• List of prisoners with whole-life tariffs
• List of serial killers in the United Kingdom
• Mental Deficiency Act 1913

Cited works and further reading

• Adamson, Iain (1964). A Man of Quality: A Biography of the Hon. Mr. Justice Cassels. Edgware Road, London: Frederick Muller Limited. ISBN 978-3-936-33735-8.
• Blundell, Nigel (1996). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. London: Promotional Reprint Company Ltd. ISBN 978-1-856-48328-5.
• Buck, Paul (2012). Prison Break: True Stories of the World's Greatest Escapes. Sussex, England: John Blake Publishing. ISBN 978-1-857-82760-6.
• Butler, Ivan (1973). Murderers' England. London: Robert Hale Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7091-4054-2.
• Fido, Martin (1995). Chronicle of Twentieth Century Murder. London: Bracken Publishing. ISBN 978-1-858-91390-2.
• Frasier, David K. (1996). Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted or Accused Killers. McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0-786-40184-0.
• Gaute, J. H. H.; Odell, Robin (1979). The Murderers' Who's Who: Outstanding International Cases from the Literature of Murder in the Last 150 Years. North Yorkshire: Methuen Publishing. ISBN 978-0-458-93900-8.
• Goodman, Johnathan (1973). Trial of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley: The Moors Case. Exeter: David and Charles Publishing. ISBN 978-0-715-35663-0.
• Gordon, R. Michael (2018). Murder Files from Scotland Yard and the Black Museum. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-476-67254-0.
• Lane, Brian; Gregg, Wilfred (1992). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. London: Headline Publishing. ISBN 978-0-747-23731-0.
• Morris, Jim (2015). The Who's Who of British Crime: In the Twentieth Century. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-63924-6.
• Newton, Michael (2002). The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings. New York: Facts On File, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-438-12988-4.
• Parker, R. J. (2002). Serial Killers Encyclopedia: The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers from A to Z. Toronto: RJ Parker Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-671-02074-3.
• Richards, Cara (2000). The Loss of Innocents: Child Killers and Their Victims. Scholarly Resources. ISBN 978-0-520-28287-2
• Rowland, John (1965). Unfit to Plead? Four Studies in Criminal Responsibility, London: John Long Ltd., ASIN B0000CMMVU
• Schiff, Stanley A. (1993). Evidence in the Litigation Process. Toronto: Carswell. ISBN 978-0-459-55755-3.
• Wilson, Colin (2000). The Mammoth Book of the History of Murder. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-786-70714-0.
• Wynn, Douglas (1996). On Trial for Murder. London: Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-09-472990-2.
• Weir, Nigel (2011). British Serial Killers. Milton Keynes: Author House UK. ISBN 978-1-467-88140-1.
• Wilkes, Roger (2011). The Mammoth Book of Famous Trials. London: Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-1-780-33372-4.
• Williams, J. E.; Kirman, Brian H. (1955). The British Journal of Delinquency. Vol. 5. Oxford: Oxford Uiversity Press.

External links

• 18 October 1951 Adelaide News article pertaining to Straffen's trial for the murder of Cicely Batstone
• Contemporary news article detailing Straffen's recapture following his escape from Broadmoor
• John Straffen: Crime Files at crimeandinvestigation.co.uk
• November 2007 BBC News article detailing the death of John Straffen
• SomersetLive news article detailing the crimes of John Straffen