By Kristy Stevens
“I can’t help the way I feel, what I did was wrong-I know that and I feel for them- but it doesn’t mean I won’t do it again”. – Stephen Akinmurele
The passage below is written in the killer's voice and is invented. It is not a quotation. See the editor's note at the end of this article.
They thought they had me. They thought they had it all figured out. They thought they were going to get the satisfaction of watching me die in prison or sentencing me to death. But boy did I have a surprise instore for them.
Stephen Akinmurele is a very mysterious serial killer on the list because there isn’t much known about him. It has been stated that he was born sometime in 1977, but little is known about his early life. It is known that he was born to a woman from the Isle of Man and his father was Nigerian. When Stephen was six years old, he moved back to the Isle of Man with his mother, and it doesn’t seem that his father was ever in the picture because it is stated that he was then raised by both his mother and grandmother during his time there.
Although he was known to be a friendly kid, he was often a troublemaker while at school. He was said to have suffered from some kind of mental health issues as a kid, but there were never any major incidents or concerns reported. By the time Akinmurele reached adulthood at the age of eighteen, he maintained residence on the mainland and worked as a civil servant for the Department of Benefits. He also supplemented his income but working for a local bar called Rumours as a back of house barman. It would be later in life that he would become known as The Cul-de-sac Killer who murdered the elderly and robbed them. His crimes took place in multiple locations in Blackpool and Lancashire, England between the years 1995 and 1998.
It was October of 1998, when the bodies of an elderly couple, Eric Boardman 77 and his wife Joan 74, were found murdered by their daughter at their home in Blackpool, England. They were found bashed to death, and when police began investigating the crime scene, they discovered a homemade “cosh” from which investigators were able to lift a fingerprint matching Akinmurele. Jemmimah Cargill 75, was originally suspected to have died in a flat fire, previously to the police finding the bodies of the Boardmans. However, it was later discovered that Akinmurele shared the flat with Jemmimah and it was then that police labeled her death a homicide rather than an accident. But it didn’t end there.
Police began taking a second look at some other cases they had open from a few years earlier and were able to link Akinmurele to other murders. He was linked to the death of Dorothy Harris, found in February of 1996, back on the Isle of Man, as well as the death of Marjorie Ashton, who was found strangled to death in her home in 1995. Akinmurele was officially charged with the murders of the Boardmans, Jemmimah Cargill, and Dorothy Harris, and during his questioning, police discovered that Akimurele had a Dr. Jekyll/Mr, Hyde complex. His demeanor would move very rapidly between moods. One minute he was very polite and quiet, while the next minute he flew into rages so terrifying that one of the detectives actually labeled him “one of the most dangerous men I have ever met”.
Before his trial, Akinmurele was remanded into prison, and during his time there, he managed to injure one of the prison doctors, as well as making numerous violent threats to other inmates. He also made claims that he committed another murder that police didn’t know about, however, although his story seemed plausible, it was later determined to be a false confession. Due to Akinmurele’s seemingly hatred for elderly people, police were inclined to take a look at many other cases that occurred in both the immediate area and also back on the Isle of Man. Their research resulted in cases dating all the way back to 1994 that could have potentially been linked to Akinmurele. However, it was Akinmurele that would have the last laugh in the end.
During his time in prison, while awaiting trial, Akinmurele was interviewed by many specialists, including numerous doctors and a forensic psychologist. It was stated by the psychiatrist that Akinmurele claimed he was “haunted by the images of his victims”, and that it was constantly on his mind. After attempting suicide while in the segregation unit, he was moved to the health center of the prison. He forged a weapon out of a toothbrush and stated that he fantasized about taking one of the female staff hostage, so he was put back in the segregation unit. Here is where Akinmurele would finally meet his end. Although he was placed on suicide watch, he managed to end his life two days later. Akinmurele’s body was found hanging in his cell on August 28, 1999. He used his clothing to fashion a ligature and made use of the window in his cell to hang himself. Although his trial was only weeks away, he left behind a suicide note for his mother. The note read “I couldn’t take any more of feeling like how I do now, always wanting to kill”.
Editor's note: this piece is one of five in the Murder and Madness series, which ran in Serial Killer Magazine. Each article opens with a passage written in the killer's own voice. Those passages are invented. They are the author's dramatisation, not a quotation, not a confession and not drawn from any letter, interview or statement, and nothing in them should be read as something the man actually said.
One correction matters more than the rest of this article put together, and the article does describe the ending correctly but never draws the conclusion from it. Stephen Akinmurele was never tried and never convicted of anything. He was charged with the murders of Eric and Joan Boardman, Jemmimah Cargill and Dorothy Harris, and he died in his cell on August 28, 1999, weeks before the trial was due to open. Nothing against him was ever tested in court, no jury ever heard the evidence, and the fingerprint on the cosh and the links to the earlier deaths were police case theory rather than proved fact. He is not in this archive's roster for exactly that reason. Where the article states as settled that he killed five people, read it as five deaths he was charged with or linked to, and the marker of how open the count is that police were looking at cases going back to 1994 when he died.
The quotation at the head of the article, unlike the invented voice that follows it, is attributed to Akinmurele himself, as is the line from the note left for his mother. Both come to the magazine secondhand and this archive has not seen a primary source for either.