UK UK - Suzy Lamplugh, 25, Fulham, 28 Jul 1986 #7

[Konstantin]

It was a great time to be young and ambitious.

I was too young to understand the wider culture of the 80s but know that the high unemployment in the north of the UK was very tough for a lot of people. Music seemed to be huge and very creative and fresh compared to today (maybe every generation thinks their generation's music and TV shows are the best though and in 40 years' time today's yoof will be banging on about how great skibidi toilet was. Those were the days...

 

[Terryb808]

gigantic mobile

My boss made have one, very embarrassing being on it (like Del Boy) in the check out queue at the supermarket.

 

[Konstantin]

As far as I can recall life in London was work hard play hard.
The week before Suzy went missing Queen played at Wembley Stadium (The Magic Tour), I went in at 2.30pm and left at 10.00pm.
Queen who were incredible live and were supported by bands like Status Que & INXS.
It was an amazing experience, you could also go to a local pub and bump into celebs of the day. Had a memorable few beers with John Thor & Dennis Waterman, they were great company.

That sounds amazing.
I saw the Queen concert in 2005 that was put on as a tribute to the emergency services after 7/7 (I went with a friend who is a fireman who was working that day). That was fantastic. I can only imagine how amazing the one you saw was.
London must have been buzzing.
Life as an estate agent selling flash property in a nice part of London must have been very exciting.
I do feel this was a business deal (or a fake one) gone wrong.

 

[lee sumner]

I took a look today, it’s not exactly clear, however, the CCTV sightings start around Gallow Bridge (can’t say for sure it is the bridge). They end someways well away and she was found close to the last CCTV sighting.
Goss’s deposition sight isn’t near Gallows Bridge, anyway, there’s 28 years (approximately) between Lamplugh & Goss. Given this and the fact that the canal will have been dredged many times within this period, it’s unlikely any trace of Lamplugh’s remains would still be present in 2014.
I feel this is the reason that the police refused JD’s request to dredge the area around Gallows Bridge.
I confirmed the dredging policy with the senior canal & river trust chemist, plus what the policy was regarding the disposal of the dredged materials.
I also did research on the degradation of materials used to manufacture Suitcases & canvas bags. This was inconclusive because I don’t know exactly what material the bag may have been made from.
Generally, I feel that if JD’s lorry driver did see JC disposing of SJL, then after all these years there will not be anything left to find.

As far as I can recall life in London was work hard play hard.
The week before Suzy went missing Queen played at Wembley Stadium (The Magic Tour), I went in at 2.30pm and left at 10.00pm.
Queen who were incredible live and were supported by bands like Status Que & INXS.
It was an amazing experience, you could also go to a local pub and bump into celebs of the day. Had a memorable few beers with John Thor & Dennis Waterman, they were great company.

i grew up in the 1980s. i was 11 yrs old in 1986, so i remember it well. i started high school in sep 1986. i always think to myself SL had been missing 6 weeks when i started school.

 

[lee sumner]

A bit off topic..

Its 9pm here in Aus. In 1986 I was 13 years old. Tonight watching some old music videos from the 80s - and thinking about SJL in that time
We only had Countdown (a show here thats now long defunct) on a Sunday night on the ABC to show us all the new music from the UK (Wham, Spandau, Phil C, Bowie, Peter Gabriel, A-Ha, Communards TFF, I could go on for ages). No Top of the Pops here! - I hung out for it every Sunday night at 6.30pm -then wait for the cassette tape to come out in the stores - omg they were the best times!).

As a 25 year old young woman she must have been living such a great life in that time. It seemed so simple back then, albeit we have the benefits (and downfalls to some degree of technology today). But life was not safe was it, not in London at that time? I would love some insights into life in London-UK then.

Bit of a sentimtental post I know ! She would have been 64 this year on 3 May. Pretty sad. I can not imagine for the life of me if that was our own daughter missing for all those years

I think that is one of the reasons iam obsessed with the lamplugh case. because it happened in the 1980s. not just that, but the era does play a part.

 

[lee sumner]

As far as I can recall life in London was work hard play hard.
The week before Suzy went missing Queen played at Wembley Stadium (The Magic Tour), I went in at 2.30pm and left at 10.00pm.
Queen who were incredible live and were supported by bands like Status Que & INXS.
It was an amazing experience, you could also go to a local pub and bump into celebs of the day. Had a memorable few beers with John Thor & Dennis Waterman, they were great company.

I think i have seen concert footage of queen live/magic tour. its awesome that you was there. there will never be another decade like the 1980S.

 

[lee sumner]

My boss made have one, very embarrassing being on it (like Del Boy) in the check out queue at the supermarket.

the first call ever made on a mobile phone in the UK was 1985. love the big brick phones, ha, ha.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

In the organisation I was working for, we had some training from the Lamplugh Trust, not long after sjl went missing. DL must've really got her skates on to set it up. We were advised not to have "fluffy things" on display in our cars, in case we drew attention to our female-ness, I suppose. Found it a bit patronising.

 

[tes1984]

I remember being terrified as a child at school, having to watch a Stranger Danger video, full of 80s Crimewatch style child abductions.

It didn't help that the video's presenter was Jimmy Savile.

 

[tes1984]

In the organisation I was working for, we had some training from the Lamplugh Trust, not long after sjl went missing. DL must've really got her skates on to set it up. We were advised not to have "fluffy things" on display in our cars, in case we drew attention to our female-ness, I suppose. Found it a bit patronising.

The Lamplughs had the trust up and running very quickly. Perhaps it was a coping ,mechanism of sorts for them.

DL did a lot of good in the end, but was definitely a liability in 1987. Maybe the realisation Suzy was dead, and the investigation was stone cold, hit home after a while.

 

[Konstantin]

In the organisation I was working for, we had some training from the Lamplugh Trust, not long after sjl went missing. DL must've really got her skates on to set it up. We were advised not to have "fluffy things" on display in our cars, in case we drew attention to our female-ness, I suppose. Found it a bit patronising.

I mean I know the Trust meant well (it has done some good work) but "don't exist in public" is not a great message to give to women.

 

[lee sumner]

The Lamplughs had the trust up and running very quickly. Perhaps it was a coping ,mechanism of sorts for them.

DL did a lot of good in the end, but was definitely a liability in 1987. Maybe the realisation Suzy was dead, and the investigation was stone cold, hit home after a while.

the lamplugh trust kept DL and PL busy. like you said it was a coping mechanism, but it did not change any laws. it simply made women in the workplace more aware of there surroundings. it did not stop female estate agents meeting clients alone. look what happened to SS in 1992 when she was kidnapped by MS. he was able to get SS to an address all alone.

 

[lee sumner]

The problem with that Fox / Wilson effort, if it's the one I recall, is that it assumes its own conclusion. Let's assume it was JC, here's a bit of forensic geography, oo look, that proves it was JC.

There are a number of details and people I'd like to think were properly looked into at the time, or have been since. In no particular order:

1/ TS / PSS. Everything we think we know about these two came from PSS, none of it is corroborated especially the stuff about blind dates with Arab princes, PSS later accused TS of being scary, SJL was said to have told her sister (or was it a friend?) she was seeing a married man with kids; TS was a married man with kids, and one under financial stress - he went bankrupt 8 days later.

2/ The house next to SJL's was being done up into flats by a Cypriot property developer. The Greek for Cyprus is Kiprus. Kiprianou's a common name there. Mr who, again?

3/ CV. DV is ex-LE and cannot possibly imagine that what's in his book amounts to a case against him. So what has he found out about CV that's not in his book?

4/ JT. This man appears to have been the police's principal informant against JC. What was he able to remember in 2000/2001 about JC's activities in 1986 that he completely failed to think suspicious at the time? Did he know JC a bit and tell the police some juicy stuff in exchange for something he wanted from them?

5/ Superhire, JC's day-release employer. Did they use hard-shell packing cases to move stuff around, that a body would fit into? Did they know where all their large cases were? Had any gone missing?

6/ JD is confident JC had access to a BMW. Did JT tell him this? Would it have been possible in 2000 to access records from 1986 as to who'd bought or sold such a car around then?

As I've said before, if this wasn't JC, it was a ghost who managed to stay out of the inquiry and about whom we hence know nothing. The Yorkshire Ripper wasn't caught by the investigation, but his name was actually in the inquiry's card index at least. JC's name was not, so although I tend to assume this was JC (because he does at least exist i.e. we don't have to posit a ghost as SJL's killer), he actually was such a ghost in 1986 so far as the Lamplugh investigation's knowledge of him (zero) went.

And where there's one, there can be more than one. Until Dennis Nilsen was arrested, nobody even knew there was a serial killer at work. Not only was his name not in the investigation, there wasn't even an investigation.

JC boss at the prop hire company said he got on with JC. he said he was a good worker. he found him easy to get along with. this made me wonder was he there everyday working hard in the 6 months before his release, if so, he was not going off stalking SL around fulham if he was in work.

 

[lee sumner]

I mean I know the Trust meant well (it has done some good work) but "don't exist in public" is not a great message to give to women.

none of the original detectives on the case had anything to do with the lamplugh trust. what does that say. i think they thought it was pointless.

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

Where did JC get his money from to rent in Bristol, buy flowers, Champagne, dine out etc?

 

[Kasparthecat1]

the lamplugh trust kept DL and PL busy. like you said it was a coping mechanism, but it did not change any laws. it simply made women in the workplace more aware of there surroundings. it did not stop female estate agents meeting clients alone. look what happened to SS in 1992 when she was kidnapped by MS. he was able to get SS to an address all alone.

I kind of admire the Lamplughs for setting it up, but I don't think anything has changed. I gave up one recent job because I was threatened by a customer when alone with him. The organisation blamed me and refused to take any responsibility. I was not able to even leave an honest report of the incident on the person's file for the attention of my colleagues.

DL was accused by some of enjoying the attention of the media rather too much. The Lamplugh Trust gave her a platform.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Where did JC get his money from to rent in Bristol, buy flowers, Champagne, dine out etc?

At some point he inherited some money from an uncle. I think it was £7k, and he also inherited a further £2k from his dad iirc. This would have been a substantial amount of money back then. I'm not sure when this would have been though, or whether he was in a position to take advantage of it whilst still at the hostel.

This info is in CBD's book, but the timelines are sometimes quite difficult to follow.

He does seem to have been able to create a lavish lifestyle for himself. Foye House was a good address, his flat was tastefully furnished, and he was apparently able to book the best suite at the Avon Gorge Hotel on occasions. He was able to buy a decent car on hp - a black BMW. He must've looked every inch the successful businessman he posed as.

 

[OnlyS]

In the organisation I was working for, we had some training from the Lamplugh Trust, not long after sjl went missing. DL must've really got her skates on to set it up. We were advised not to have "fluffy things" on display in our cars, in case we drew attention to our female-ness, I suppose. Found it a bit patronising.

the lamplugh trust kept DL and PL busy. like you said it was a coping mechanism, but it did not change any laws. it simply made women in the workplace more aware of there surroundings. it did not stop female estate agents meeting clients alone. look what happened to SS in 1992 when she was kidnapped by MS. he was able to get SS to an address all alone.

I had the training too and we were given a rape alarm from the Trust. It was a canister which had a push down top which the air was pushed through to make the noise. It was loud, though if you had a bunch of keys, property details and car keys in your hand, you wouldn’t bother carrying it. I remember we were also given code words to use when we called the office if there was an issue out on a viewing by ourselves. However, not everyone had mobile phones and whether you could call if there was an issue would be another matter. I was lucky, though I once had a viewing where there were squatters which was an interesting challenge.

 

[OnlyS]

I kind of admire the Lamplughs for setting it up, but I don't think anything has changed. I gave up one recent job because I was threatened by a customer when alone with him. The organisation blamed me and refused to take any responsibility. I was not able to even leave an honest report of the incident on the person's file for the attention of my colleagues.

DL was accused by some of enjoying the attention of the media rather too much. The Lamplugh Trust gave her a platform.

Sorry you had that experience. That doesn’t sound good at all from a management perspective. Any issues we had were dealt with at an office level and we would refuse viewings, I don’t remember escalating any higher. It was always a difficult situation.

 

[lee sumner]

Where did JC get his money from to rent in Bristol, buy flowers, Champagne, dine out etc?

JC was a armed robber. he would target building society/post office and petrol stations. this was another part of his criminal career that is often overlooked. when arrested for SB murder. he had a lot of cash on him from armed blags he had pulled off.