By Tim Lambert
An Unsolved Trunk Murder in Brighton 1934
An unsolved murder took place in Brighton, England in 1934. A body was found in a trunk but the victim was never identified and the case was never solved.
On 17th June 1934, a railway employee named William Vinnicombe noticed a horrid odour coming from a trunk in a left luggage room in Brighton Railway Station. The trunk was locked, but Detective Bishop of the Railway Police was called to deal with it. Inside, they found the torso and arms of a woman. The head and legs were missing.
The following day, 18 June 1934, a stinking suitcase was found at Kings Cross Railway Station in London. It contained the woman’s legs.
The famous pathologist Bernard Spilsbury said the victim was a woman aged about 25. She was well nourished and probably stood about 5 feet 2 inches tall. Sadly, she was 5 months pregnant at the time of her death. Her head was never found, making identification very difficult.
From the condition of her hands, feet, and nails, Spilsbury thought the woman was middle class. He also gave his opinion that whoever dismembered the woman had little surgical skill.
The police appealed for information about missing women, but the dead woman was never identified. The motive for the murder is unknown, and the whole case is a mystery.
Tony Mancini
Another trunk case murder also occurred in Brighton in 1934. By a strange coincidence, police investigating the murder described above discovered a second one. They were searching houses when they found the body of Violet Kaye hidden in a trunk in Kemp Street, Brighton. The unfortunate woman died from a blow on the head.
The police found that a man named Tony Mancini lived in the flat. He was arrested in London. Mancini claimed that he came home and found Violet dead. He assumed that she had been killed by one of her clients. He said he panicked because he had a criminal record and he was sure the police would blame him for the murder.
They did. Macini was arrested for murder and he went for trial in December 1934. However, the defence lawyer argued that it could have been a client who killed Violet while Mancini was out. The jury acquitted him.
However, in 1976, Mancini confessed to a newspaper that indeed he did kill Violet during a row. He said he threw a hammer at her that struck her on the temple. At the time English law stated that nobody could be tried twice for the same crime so Mancini could not be prosecuted again. He died shortly afterwards.
