UK UK - Amala Ruth De Vere Whelan, 22, Maida Vale; 12 November 1972

[wfgodot]

BBC:

Amala Ruth De Vere Whelan: New appeal over 1972 'ripper' murder

A new appeal has been made for information about the 1972 murder of a woman whose living room wall had the word "ripper" sprayed onto it.

Amala Ruth De Vere Whelan, 22, was raped and strangled with a stocking on 12 November and her body was not found until several days later.

There was no forced entry to her flat in Maida Vale, west London, leading police to believe she knew her killer.

No suspect has been linked to the murder.
---

more at the link

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Another report in the Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...strangled-stocking-1972-DNA-breakthrough.html

 

[wfgodot]

from Jan Bondeson's 'Murder Houses of London.' Worth a read.

 

[badhorsie]

I lived very near to Randolph Avenue in the 80s, not a wonderful area despite being in Maida Vale

 

[Fede]

Here is another article: Fresh appeal over 'ripper' murder of west London woman

 

[jojojaja]

The Birmingham Post​

November 18, 1972

Mainly this refers to the police being puzzled about the case and the fact no witnesses have come forward at this time on Amala's movements since the previous Sunday, a painter working at the White House found her body on Thursday.

Amala lived in a bed sitting room on the fourth floor of the White House, Randolph Avenue, Maida Vale. Before this she had lived in Hampstead Heath and Camden Town.

Amala's room was in such a state as to show she fought for her life. But nobody in the house or area heard anything.

Amala was previously a student at Warwick University where she lived in the University lodgings, she was in her first year of a degree in English and American Literature, but failed her first exams and dropped out.

The last live sighting of AW was the previous Sunday at 10.30pm

The Birmingham Post 18 Nov 1972, page 25 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from The Birmingham Post dated 18 Nov 1972, page 25.

www.newspapers.com

Photo of Amala would have been supplied by police to try and find her contacts and witnesses so should not be under any copyright.

 

[jojojaja]

The Sunday People 19 Nov 1972, page 13 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from The Sunday People dated 19 Nov 1972, page 13.

www.newspapers.com

The Sunday People
19 Nov, 1972

Police stated the great lengths the killer went to, to remove evidence from Amelia's body and room.

The murderer washed her body with washing up liquid. Using the same process around the room to remove fingerprints & any other clues. This shows a methodical, cool and calculated way of thinking.

Amelia had obviously put up a massive fight to save herself.

Amelia was lying face down and had a towel around her head.

Police are considering the idea she may have known her killer.

Amelia was strangled with a pair of black tights.

Amelia had come to take up a job in local government after dropping out of university.

The last time she was seen alive was when she went to The Warrington pub with friends the Sunday before being found an are appealing for anyone who can help put together her movements and anyone who saw her running the 200 yards home in the rain after leaving her friends.

The police say the murderer missed something when cleaning and that item may point towards it being a black suspect. Police won't disclose what.

 

[jojojaja]

Cambridge Evening News 17 Nov 1972, page 1 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Cambridge Evening News dated 17 Nov 1972, page 1.

www.newspapers.com

The postmortem showed how much Amala had fought her attacker, she was covered in bruises.

Neighbours decribed Amala as "very good looking". Amala only moved in around 3 weeks before (I think some press said it was 4).
Amala had been out of work for some weeks.

Cambridge Evening News
November 17, 1972

 

[jojojaja]

Nov 20, 1972, page 5 - Evening Standard at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Evening Standard dated Nov 20, 1972, page 5.

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Evening Standard
20 November, 1972

Before going to the pub she was last seen leaving, Amela had had s party at her bedsitter. Then going with a woman and a chartered accountant to the pub on her street, The Warrington, for a drink. The man and woman, already interviewed by police, left the pub by taxi, when leaving they saw Amela standing out in the rain talking to a black man she had met for the first time, in the pub. Police want to trace the taxi driver to see if he can supply a better description of the man she was seen talking to.

Police found an address book, mainly female contacts, in Amela's room and are working through those listed for any further info.

 

[jojojaja]

Western Daily Press and Times and Mirror 20 Feb 1973, page 7 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Western Daily Press and Times and Mirror dated 20 Feb 1973, page 7.

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Western Daily Press and Times and Mirror
Bristol, Avon
February 20, 1973

Branding the killer "The New Ripper" of bedsitter land.
This article is written after the inquest.
The pathologist stated there were grazes on her forehead, face, breast, hip, knee, wrist and hand that he felt were from fighting.
That she had been dead 3 or 4 days.
While it didn't look like she had been raped, he removed semen from her body.

A witness called Stephen Hyams spoke of an unknown man seen following Amala 3 days before her death and that she had met him outside his Bayswater flat. Amala invited him to her home and he came a day later when they had sex.
The police state this was a normal pattern of behaviour for her and that they have the witness statements to prove it.
The police have taken 320 statements and spoken to 360 people.

Mrs Veronica de Mistral and Mr Alwxander Jefferson visited her on November 11th, they were wet as it was raining and Amala made them hot teddies with whisky, they deny they had group sex with Amela.

(The usual jumping to conclusions if people are uninhibited in the face of society in that period of time, even people who lived together as boyfriend and girlfriend were often seen as sinful and having loose morals back then, my opinion from everything I have ever read from the 1970s and further back)

The police refer to her as "a friendly girl"

 

[jojojaja]

Evening Standard
February 14, 1973

Evening Standard 14 Feb 1973, page 12 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Evening Standard dated 14 Feb 1973, page 12.

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This piece it's obvious they are going for her easygoing attitude to sex and looking for it everywhere like she's a nymphomaniac and I haven't seen evidence of that plus it's not a crime or an excuse to be sexually assaulted or murdered...or for people to assume anyone deserves it.

It mentions the man and woman in my previous post, the ones who came to her flat then the pub, the chartered accountant is wishing to remain anonymous although he is named in the orevious post, he is married and states that he went to Amala's flat for an orgy, something the lady had denied. Hardly an orgy with two women and a man plus it states he won't say what happened so although he states there was something sexual, it may have been just between him and Amala and the lady just introduced them, they make it sound like it sound luke a full on Roman orgy. This must be the "party" alluded to previously.
They name a bar man who previously worked with her and it sounds like they are questioning him about whether they had sex because he sounds quite taken back while previously he sounds quite laid back. It seems they were friends and had been planning a sightseeing trip to Oxford. The man states that he was not interested in her in any way for sex, but her mind as she had an outstanding mind and very intelligent though he felt her unhappy in many ways.

An ex boyfriend who lived with her for a few years commented that she has a brilliant mind and had planned to study art in London, an A level in English literature she took after only 5 months of study was supposed to be leading up to that, and she got a place in Warwick University however she wasn't happy being away from London. Then she looked after him for a a good few months as he was I'll before they split and he went to Spain. He went to her funeral at Golders Green Crematorium and felt very sad at her loss.

Basically it sounds like the press were looking for anything sordid and trying to make her look luke a nymphomaniac however her intelligence seemed to outshine anything and imo she was rather ahead of her time plus of her time in the sense of the sexual revolution. If she did have sex for money as has been hinted at, it may partly because she wasn't working and had Bill's to pay. I always find people are branded a prostitute as if it sums up their whole being and like it's what they always have been and always will be, when often it's seen by many as a temporary affair to get by. It doesn't sound like Amala was inhibited on any way.
I'm not bothering with names, it seems obvious to all IMO it was the man seen following her from the pub but who removed all trace of himself apart from the one thing the police didn't name. I wonder if there was any DNA on it and if it has been kept safely

Funny they do this story looking for sleazy details on Valentines Day plus who in the police let slip the people in her diary to the press.

 

[jojojaja]

Feb 23, 1973, page 3 - Marylebone and Paddington Mercury at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Marylebone and Paddington Mercury dated Feb 23, 1973, page 3.

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Marylebone and Paddington Mercury
February 23, 1973

Orgy denied at inquest as is sex individually. Visitors, I have named in a previous post, arrived very wet and it as raining, took off their wet coats etc and had hot toddies served by Amala, the lady visitor had brought the whisky with her. The chartered surveyor complimented Amala's figure and she proceeded to remove most of her clothes. This they say is fairly typical behaviour of Amala's sexually emancipated attitude (they as in the police regarding the many statements from people who knew her giving examples on her liberated attitude).

They mention the pub trip and seeing the man with Amala outside....already been posted previously, nothing new.

They then give another example of her sexual freedom in that she was walking along a street and asked a man standing outside his flat (who noticed a man was following her) in Hyde Park Place, Paddington, for a light, it was his birthday and she gave him her address, on their third meeting they had sex at her bedsit, 9 November.

Again it's stated she was found after being dead 3-4 days by the painter. Face down, towel in head, strangled, covered in cuts and Mark's showing the struggle. Amala's skirt was pulled up and her underwear pulled down. Semen on her body. Strangled by a nylon stocking.

Amala's mother said she had rang her previously to say she was going to Zurich at the start of December and was staying in her flat an extra week to sort her things, plus she had a place in a London University to start the following term.

 

[jojojaja]

Herald Express 19 Feb 1973, page 1 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Herald Express dated 19 Feb 1973, page 1.

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Herald Express
Torquay, Devon.
February 19, 1973

Here it mentions the yellow liquid on Amala's body and the writing on the wall, in a previous link I posted they described the washing up liquid as being lemon.
This mentions her being face down, but her head was tilted to one side and the towel lying over her face when found on Novembet 16.

The pathologist stated a torn stocking was stuck in her throat.

 

[TheRockingRev]

I'm surprised that this one doesn't get more attention. It's interesting that the killer took time to try and clean up the evidence, but then to leave a calling card of sorts with the word Ripper. Thoughts?

 

[jojojaja]

I'm surprised that this one doesn't get more attention. It's interesting that the killer took time to try and clean up the evidence, but then to leave a calling card of sorts with the word Ripper. Thoughts?

They write RIPPER by squirting the yellow, lemon washing up liquid/detergent, which they had been using to clean up.
1972 was pretty early to be so advanced with forensic knowledge.

Police seemed to think it may have been a black man through something they found in her rooms, I don't think they disclosed what.
Before returning home from the pub with friends, she had been seen outside talking to a black man. This is all circumstantial, they may not have anything to do with whatever was found in her place.
I am not sure they could date whatever they found in her room to when she was murdered, she had friends over, ahe had a wide circle of friends. Also she obviously believed in free love and was quite bold with inviting men over.
Anyway it's been around 53 years and no answers.

 

[dotr]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/750555/ripper-murder-Amala-Ruth-de-Vere-Whelan-1972-maida-Vale-fresh-police-appeal

2017

 

[Yellowbelly]

Given the amount of casual sex that seems to have been going on in the flat, a lot would depend on what items the police have retrieved the DNA from and what the source of the DNA was. I posted on the Louisa Dunne thread that this seemed similar to Ryland Headley's other crimes, and he was living in Willesden in the early 1970s. I see from a report from the time posted further up this thread that Amala had been seen talking to a black man in a pub, but the DNA is clearly not from Headley as he would have been arrested by now if it was.

Scientists have retrieved a DNA profile from items left amid the chaotic scene in her flat and have launched a fresh appeal for information.

Find the Ripper of Maida Vale: 45 years on, police find DNA clue

Scotland Yard is on the brink of untangling a murder mystery almost half a century old. A new lead means it is only a matter of time before police unmask the killer of Amala de Vere Whelan (pictured).

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[tes1984]

IIRC this case was featured in a book about unsolved London crimes.

Rumours that a suspect left the country, never to return. He might have been a Nigerian student, although I may be mis remembering things.

Amala also had a couple of female neighbours who were drug dealers. She had another neighbour who committed several vicious attacks on people. All his attacks were on men though and he seems to have been in custody on remand when Amala was murdered.

 

[tes1984]

Given the amount of casual sex that seems to have been going on in the flat, a lot would depend on what items the police have retrieved the DNA from and what the source of the DNA was.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have two DNA profiles, like in the Eve Stratford case.

Definitely one from semen, and possibly another one from clothing or hair.

My guess would be that they suspected a black perp from hairs they found in the initial enquiry.