No body no crime

Donald was born into a Plymouth Brethren family at the beginning of the twentieth century, theirs was a meagre existence in their East London family home. At the age of sixteen he was competent forger and con man, when he left school, he put these skills into practice, swindling small amounts of money off elderly women who’s greed led to their loss. For a time he was also a chauffer for a local family who owned properties in West London, but when he got caught swindling an old dear out of her nest egg he ended up in prison for two years. In prison he honed his skills as a con man and reinvented himself as an engineer, he also learnt about chemicals and acids in the prison works. When he got out he hung around The Goat pub in West London where he knew that his old employers son frequented. After a few days Daryl McSwain turned up as Donald knew he would and the two renewed their acquaintance, Donald told McSwain that he had been abroad developing his own engineering works, which was now located in Crawley. Soon Donald was being reintroduced to Daryl’s parents, his old employers and he lodged there for a few weeks ingratiating himself into the family.
One day Donald invited Daryl down into the basement where he told him he had some blueprints for an extension to his works. Daryl followed him down the stairs, in the basement there stood a large steel barrel, some bottles and the blueprints. Pointing at various parts of the plan Daryl lent forward to get a better look at the detail. Reaching down into the drawer of the work unit Donald pulled out a lead bar, standing behind Daryl he brought it down on his head and Daryl dropped to the floor dead. Donald put on his rubber apron, waders and gloves and donned a gas mask. He pushed Daryl into the barrel and started filling it with acid, when it was full he gave it a stir and went back upstairs. After a few days Daryl’s parents enquired whether Donald had seen Daryl around, Donald told them that he had fled to Scotland to avoid conscription but that he was still in contact with him and would tell them when he heard anything, this endeared the elderly couple to Donald even more and they employed him to collect the rents on their properties in the west end of London. This went on for a few weeks in which time Donald had tipped the acid and the sludge, all that remained of Daryl, down the drain in the basement. There was now two steel barrels in the basement and more bottles.
After the fourth week Donald spoke the Mr McSwain telling him that Daryl had made a surprise visit to London and was in the basement, Donald led him down for the reunion. In the basement Mr McSwain looked for Daryl, behind him Donald raised the lead bar and brought it down on the back of Mr McSwain’s head, he dropped dead. Donald then went back upstairs and waited for Mrs McSwain to come home, when she did he told her the same story, excitedly she followed him down into the basement then she saw her husband laying on the floor and knelt down beside him, Donald brought the lead bar down on her head and she slumped dead across her husband’s chest.
Donald put on his rubber clothing and gas mask and pushed the two McSwains into their steel barrels and filled them with acid. Then he went about forging the documents detailing that they had emigrated to America and transferred the deeds to their six properties into his own name. Now Donald could start living in the lifestyle that he should have been accustomed to, now he was rich. For three years Donald lived on the proceeds of the sales of the McSwain properties going to all the clubs and hotels of west end London making a name for himself as a gentlemen and entrepreneur.
He befriended a number of women in one particular Hotel that he stayed at a lot, enquiring about their various wealth and enterprises. His third victim was Gladys Williams , who he got interested in investing in his engineering company, he was so affluent in appearance and such a gentlemen that she didn’t feel him to be any threat at all. Three days later Donald invited Ms Williams to his engineering works in Crawley they travelled down on the train down to Crawley, they talked of Donalds engineering company and the opportunities for investment, soon they were walking up the road where Donald had rented his works, it was a rundown workshop and yard, not much to look at. Donald let Ms Williams into workshop and led her over to some blueprints, she bent over to take a closer look, she hadn’t noticed the bottles and steel barrel in the corner. As Ms Williams was reading the blueprints Donald raised the lead bar and cracked her over the head, Ms Williams gave a small whimper and fell to the floor dead. Taking off her fur coat he noticed it had gotten blood on it, he would have to get it cleaned, then he unceremoniously dumped into the vat of acid. A few days later he came back and tipped the sludge of Ms Williams into a pile of rubble in the corner of the yard.

In the meantime Ms Williams’ niece had grown concerned about the whereabouts of her auntie, she went to the police who in turn visited the hotel Ms Williams had been staying in. One detective noted the somewhat younger man doing rounds around the elderly ladies that stayed there, they interviewed him and discovered that it was Donald Scrubbings who had spent time in prison for coning an elderly women. They discovered that he rented an engineering works in Crawley and escorted him down there. When they entered the workshop they discovered Ms Williams fur coat hanging in the corner and an empty steel barrel with assorted bottle of acid laying around. Donald Scrubbings smiled politely at the officers and admitted to killing four people although they would not be able to prosecute him because they had no body of evidence. It was a cruel twist of fate that Donald had believed a long time inmate he had shared cell with that a corpus delecti was necessary for the police to prosecute someone for murder. In fact the dentures that the police later found in the pile of rubble in the yard was enough for the Jury to find Donald Scrubbings guilty of murder, his confession did not help either, nor did his insistence that the bodies of evidence did not exist. Donald Scrubbings was hanged until dead on the 10th August 1949.