Research Paper On Malcolm Fairley

Malcolm Fairley: The Fox
Great Britain is well known for its share of serial killers. Ian Brady and Myra Hindly; The Moors Murderers, William Burke; The Body Snatcher, John George Haigh; The Acid Bath Murderer, and who can forget, the infamous Jack the Ripper (The web infoguy, n.d.). However, Britain also host an array of non-murderous villains, whose stories are just as captivating but fortunately didn’t end in death. One such character is Malcolm Fairley. Fairly was nicknamed “The Fox”, due to a particularly strange signature (Norfolk, Payne-James, Squires, & Wyatt, 2011). Although not as popular as Jack the Ripper or The Body Snatcher, The Fox does offer a great case study into the world of crime scene investigations and the forensic technology

Giving in to the urge, Malcolm Fairley decided to take a pit stop in a small town called Brampton (Owen, 2009). Malcolm stopped on the outskirts of the town and hid his vehicle amongst the trees of a field. Realizing he had left his hood at home, he cut a make-shift one from a pair of overalls he had in his car. Fairley walked to the town and broke into a home (Owen, 2009). His victims this time were a husband and wife. Malcolm tied up the husband and raped the wife. Fairley then calmly cut out the piece of bedding as to avoid any traces of his semen. This act, was a positive indicator that Farley know the capabilities of forensic science (Norfolk, et al., 2011).
Although Fairley may have been aware of the possibility of DNA sampling through semen, he underestimated the drive and determination of the law enforcement investigators on his trail. Police responded to the crime scene and soon discovered Fairley’s tracks leading back to the field. After following the lead, they discovered where he left the gun and buried the mask and gloves in a pile of leaves. The items were very poorly concealed. The next discovery however, would be the coup-de-grace of evidence that would give investigators the lead they so desperately needed (Norfolk, et al.,

The information was run through the system and produced over 3000 registered vehicles. To limit the search, investigators filtered the registrations by known burglars that were from the north that moved south and owned this make and model of vehicle. Although the list was extensive, detectives commenced to hitting the streets investigating each address (Owen, 2009).
On September 11th, 1994, two detectives made contact with Malcolm Fairley at an address in Kentish, North England. Malcolm was washing his vehicle when investigators approached him. They immediately observed the scratches to the paint on the car, which would correlate with where it scraped the tree (Norfolk, et al., 2011). They also picked up on the very heavy northern accent, that all the victims reported hearing. To further solidify their suspicions, the investigators asked Fairley to put on his watch, which was laying in the back seat of the car. Fairley confirmed that he was left handed (Norfolk, et al.,