Dark truth behind UK’s ‘forgotten’ serial killer who stalked seaside town and murdered 5 pensioners with chilling motive

WITH fish and chips, candy floss and sandcastles, seaside towns offer coastal charm and draw joyful crowds from far and wide – but one popular tourist spot was left gripped by fear amid a murderous rampage.

Britain’s “unknown” serial killer sparked terror on the streets of Blackpool and got an unusual kick out of slaying local pensioners. The Sun can now reveal the full details of his sick spree as we delve into why he’s been all but forgotten about 25 years on.

Stephen Akinmurele was charged with murdering five elderly people between 1995 and 1998, all before he was 21 – but, despite cops fearing he claimed more lives, he never stood trial.

The majority of his victims were completely random and strangers to him, with the only exception being his former landlord, and, unusually, he didn’t appear to seek notoriety; rather, he simply couldn’t stop killing.

Some were beaten to death, others strangled, and two died in mysterious house fires – with the lead investigator in the case noting that throughout his life, Akinmurele had a “pathological hatred” of old people.

Geoffrey Wansell, veteran crime journalist, brought the chilling murders to light as part of the TV series Murder by the Sea, after 25 years.

He told The Sun: “He’s often referred to as Britain’s unknown serial killer. 

“If he’d been allowed to go on, he certainly would have killed more people. 

“He wasn’t mad, that’s the interesting thing about him – he was just obsessed with old people.”

He believes Akinmurele’s lack of sophistication, the short span of time between his crimes becoming known and his arrest means he has mysteriously slipped from public knowledge.

Tragically, Akinmurele, who was also dubbed the cul-de-sac killer due to his choice of elderly victims all living in quiet suburban streets, would take his own life behind bars before he could be tried for the murders.

Here, The Sun delves into the killer’s chilling psyche and takes a deeper look at the case that left residents of the seaside town terrified to leave their homes.

Killer told cops ‘there’s more’

During a desperate manhunt, police raided the shared house where the Akinmurele lived in November 1998 and found him sitting in the living room, topless and calmly eating a bag of chips.

48 hours earlier, he’d killed his final victims: Eric Boardman, 77, and his wife Joan Boardman, 74, just a few doors away. 

He calmly asked officers if he could finish eating before they took him to the station.

Speaking about the arrest, Detective David Cassidy said: “I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.

“He was more concerned about his chips than being arrested on suspicion of murder.”

He added: “When you looked at him, he was emotionless, he didn’t appear to be scared or concerned, he just seemed empty.

“When you looked into his eyes, he was cold.”

After his arrest, Akinmurele was quickly charged with murdering the Boardmans, and the subsequent investigation unearthed further horrors.

As he sat in the holding cell on the first night, he told Detective Mick Crook: “There’s more.”

Akinmurele would then be charged with the murder of his former landlady, Jemima Cargrill, 75, who had been strangled before her flat was set on fire weeks before the Boardmans died.

Her death, in the same town, had initially been put down to smoke inhalation.

Akinmurele had even stayed in her home after the murder to eat food from her fridge, before setting off the blaze and fleeing.

Over the next few weeks, he would be charged with two more murders on the Isle of Man, where he’d previously lived, amid a joint investigation between cops in Lancashire and the Irish Sea island.

Dorothy Harris, 68, who was partially deaf and blind, was killed in February 1996, with her body found also after a house fire at her home in Ballasalla.

While Marjorie Ashton, 72, was found strangled in her home in the same village the previous May, when Akinmurele was barely 18.

I’ve interviewed him personally and regard him as one of the most dangerous men I have ever met

Detective Superintendent Bob Denmark, Lancashire Police

Cops began frantically re-examining at least 10 more sudden deaths and house fires in the areas Akinmurele had lived, before he confessed to three more murders.

But it’s believed he may have fabricated these killings in a bid to throw detectives off his real motive for murder – that he simply liked killing old people.  

Detective Superintendent Bob Denmark, of Lancashire Police, said: “I’ve interviewed him personally and regard him as one of the most dangerous men I have ever met.”

‘Like a stage had been set’

Both the Boardmans, a retired married couple, were murdered at their home in Seafield Road, Blackpool, on October 30 1998 – with their bodies found hours later by their daughter, Marelyn Manning.

Mr Boardman had been beaten to death with six torch batteries bound together with masking tape and wrapped in a sock to make a cosh, which was also found at the scene.

The pensioner was left under a wardrobe in the hallway – while Mrs Boardman had been strangled and dragged into the spare bedroom, where Marelyn found her under a pile of washing.

Akinmurele lived just a few streets from their home in the seaside town and had regularly watched Mrs Boardman go about her daily routine before entering their home for the brutal attack.

The killer had left two sets of fingerprints at the scene – on the cosh and the ceiling, where he’d rested his hand as he stood on Mr Boardman’s neck.

Known to the police following a string of offences on the Isle of Man, the system quickly matched him to the prints.

During a routine drop-in at their home, Marelyn said she had an eerie feeling “like a stage had been set” before finding the bodies.

Despite the heartbreak, however, Marelyn said she “didn’t feel hatred” towards Akinmurele, and actually felt sad when she heard he’d taken his own life weeks before his trial in his cell at HMP Manchester, better known as Strangeways.

Origins of evil

Born in Nigeria in 1977, Akinmurele moved to the Isle of Man aged 10 with his mum after his parents split up.

It’s understood he was largely raised on the island by his grandmother, but found it difficult to fit in as a child, leading to run-ins with the police for petty crimes.

These would be scolded by his grandmother, and he would go on to attack a pensioner aged 11 before years later committing the murders of Mrs Ashton and Mrs Harris – fleeing the island for Blackpool soon after the latter’s death in February 1996.

Mr Wansell believes his strange hatred for the elderly perhaps stems in part from his disciplinarian grandmother. 

He told The Sun: “She was obviously very strict and he got very, very angry as a result, and he was dangerous.”

Akinmurele is believed to have had gerontophobia, the irrational fear or hatred of older people or the fear of ageing itself.

Mr Wansell said: “He didn’t kill young women, a man like this you expect to kill young women. 

“You’d think of him preying on young girls in nightclubs… I think it really does go back to his childhood and his grandmother.”

But he said most serial killers “grow into” their crimes, and are usually much older when they begin – with the true origins of Akinmurele’s evil nature likely to remain a mystery.

“He doesn’t fit any of those crucial stereotypes that we’re used to,” he explained.

“He just popped up straight out of the chrysalis. As soon as he got to puberty – bang, it all kicked off.”

He just popped up straight out of the chrysalis. As soon as he got to puberty – bang, it all kicked off

Geoffrey Wansell, Veteran crime journalist

Mr Wansell said Akinmurele likely fled the island for the seaside town, a short ferry ride across the Irish Sea, in part due to paranoia about being caught – but also due to his growing feelings of bisexuality, likely not accepted by his family.

He began working by day at a benefits office, and by night as a barman at popular venue Rumours – a risqué bar where male staff wore only waistcoats and shorts, and barmaids were often topless.

Akinmurele was known to lead a particularly promiscuous lifestyle in the town and was sexually active with both men and women.

And for a long time, his urge to kill seemed to have disappeared, going over two-and-a-half years before killing again.

Mr Wansell said the reasons why Akinmurele began killing again are another mystery, and adds to why he is “a very interesting character”.

He drew comparison to Scottish-born serial killer and necrophile Dennis Nilsen – who murdered 12 young men and boys – but also worked in a job centre.

He said: “If you knew him (Akinmurele) at the job centre or were served by him in the pub, you wouldn’t think anything particular about him. He was good-looking, had girlfriends, and was quite charming.

“But he was a man capable of extreme outbursts of violence.”

Mr Wansell said police who interacted with Akinmurele often found him “quite agreeable” when he “wasn’t going mad”.

He added: “The same was said of (fellow serial killer) Fred West – they used to say he could charm the birds from the trees; the prison officers loved him and so did the cops. 

“You don’t have to have horns or a black cloak to be dangerous.”

‘He was no master criminal’

Akinmurele was found hanging in his cell at HMP Manchester – known as Strangeways – on August 28 1999, with a handwritten letter in his pocket, admitting “I can’t help the way I feel”, and in a separate note to his mum, he added he was “always wanting to kill”.

Asked why few people seem to recall the case, and it rarely gets mentioned in the media, Mr Wansell said it’s something of a mystery.

“It doesn’t go on a long time, I suppose, and there’s no extended period of the police hunting him,” he said.

“And he wasn’t Professor Moriarty, he was no master criminal, he got nicked a day-and-a-half after he killed the Boardmans.”

He added: “Akinmurele also didn’t kill for notoriety. Some serial killers love the fame, and they’re going to hang it out as long as possible.  

“A town in fear, wondering where he’s going to strike next? There are so many stories like that. 

“Akinmurele just did it because he felt he had to do it. It wasn’t that he wanted to be on the front page. It was ‘I can’t stop myself’.”