Kill Total:	2	Kill place:	London
Kill date:	31 May 1953	Victim(s):	Barbara Songhurst Christine Reed
Date of Birth:	1931	Marital Status:	married
AKA:	Tow Path Murders	Occupation:

Teenage girls Barbara Songhurst (16) and Christine Reed (18) had been out on their bicycles on 31st May 1953 they were seen on the Thames Tow Path at between 11:00 - 11:30pm, they failed to return home to Teddington in Middlesex.. The next morning Barbara's body was found in the river Thames near Richmond, she had been badly beaten, stabbed in the back and raped, five days after Christine's body was also found, she too had been beaten, stabbed and raped. 

At the end of June two women were attacked, and one brutally raped. Alfred Whiteway was arrested for the attacks. During his arrest he had hidden an axe under the seat of the patrol car, this was not found until later when an officer was cleaning the car. It was matched for blood, and  Whiteway was then questioned, first he claimed he was with his wife on the night in question, but, when confronted about the axe, and about blood on his shoes, he confessed to the "Tow Path" murders. 

Whiteway was charged with the murders of Barbara Songhurst and Christine Reed, at the trial at the Old Bailey he claimed that he never confessed, his barrister claimed that the confession was a "work of fiction by the police". He was, nevertheless, found guilty, and was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22nd December 1953 by executioner Albert Pierepoint.