Emily Armstrong

Emily Armstrong (c. 1880 – April 14, 1949) was a British victim of an unsolved murder in which she had been beaten to death and later found in dry cleaners shop on St. John's Wood High Street which she managed. Police later determined she had been killed roughly an hour before her body was found around 4:00 pm. A postmortem examination also showed her skull had been shattered by at least 22 blows from a blunt object later believed to be a claw hammer.

Although her handbag had been missing at the scene, it was later found near the scene with a bloody handkerchief nearby bearing a laundry mark H-612, although no leads resulted from that piece of evidence.

While authorities pursued several theories, police failed to find a suspect. Witnesses reported a "suspicious man" around 30 years old and between 5'5 or 5'6, however police were unable to identify the individual. A murderer who had recently escaped from Broadmoor hospital, was also considered before witnesses failed to identify him in a police line up. Several army deserters were also questioned, however all were eventually released.

One possible theory suggested a link to a similar murder which took place ten years before when 65-year-old Gertrude O'Leary was similarly found beaten to death on June 30, 1939 although no known connection has been proven.

Police eventually concluded that Armstrong's murderer had either been a transient or "a man who had fled to Ireland."

References

* Newton, Michael. "The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes". New York: Facts On File Inc., 2004. ISBN 0-8160-4980-7