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John DaffyThe killer with the devil's eyes
Country:
 Great Britain |
Content:
Biography of John Daffy
John Daffy, known as the "killer with devilish eyes," was born into a devout Catholic Irish family. In his childhood, he was a member of the church choir. However, as he grew older, Daffy transformed from a quiet and kind boy into a cold and sullen sadist. His marriage to Margaret Mitchell was unhappy, possibly because of this drastic change in his personality. Daffy confessed to his wife that he enjoyed tormenting people and believed violence to be natural for any man. His sadistic tendencies were especially evident during their sexual encounters, where he would bind and derive pleasure from his wife's resistance. Daffy suffered from a dwarf complex, standing at a height of about 160 cm, and his hatred towards women intensified when he discovered that he was infertile and unable to have children.
Unsurprisingly, Margaret could not endure such a life with Daffy, and after six years of marriage, she left him in 1986. It was the cruelty he inflicted upon his wife that ultimately led the police to his trail. Daffy had a distinct modus operandi; he would dress in a railway worker's uniform, carry a foldable knife with a razor-sharp blade in his pocket, and have a "rape kit" consisting of matchsticks, rope or cloth, and a wooden piece known as a "Spanish windlass" that he would place around the woman's neck.
Daffy's first victim was a 24-year-old woman who was raped in June 1982 near the Hampstead station. With the help of an accomplice, Daffy committed the assault, then dragged the woman into an abandoned building, bound her, and gagged her. Although the woman survived, Daffy began killing in 1985. This change was prompted by an incident in a London court where he saw a woman he had previously assaulted. Though she did not recognize him, Daffy decided not to take any chances - his victims had to keep eternal silence.
On December 29, 1985, Daffy ended his first human life. His victim was nineteen-year-old Alison Day, who was traveling from Amminster to Hackney Wick by train. Daffy forced her to disembark earlier and, threatening her with a knife, dragged her to a garage where he raped and strangled her. He disposed of her body in a river. Over the next seventeen days, the evidence for Alison's disappearance vanished. Only a few fabric fibers from Daffy's railway uniform were found on the victim's body.
The next victim was fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Marty Tambeser. Daffy attacked her while she was riding her bicycle along a footpath beside the railway. Her body was found raped and strangled. The lower part of her body had been burned, destroying any traces of the perpetrator's semen. However, the police noticed that her neck had been broken using a technique only known to those skilled in martial arts. This detail would later be used as evidence against Daffy, who practiced karate. A barely visible footprint and a piece of Swedish rope were also found near the crime scene.
Daffy spared some of his victims, allowing them to live. He told one of them, before raping her, "It will be better for you if you do everything properly." Another victim, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl, was tied to a tree and blindfolded before being raped. However, when her blindfold fell off, Daffy, struck by her youth and beauty, hesitated on whether to kill her. In the end, he showed mercy and let her live.
In May 1986, Anne Locke, a twenty-nine-year-old newlywed who worked as a secretary for a London television company, became Daffy's next victim. She was killed shortly after returning from her honeymoon. Despite many similarities to Daffy's signature, it was never conclusively proven that he committed this crime, and the charges were dropped.
During the investigation into attacks on women, a computer database was created, cataloging the characteristics of known sexual offenders in Britain. Daffy's name appeared as suspect number 1505 out of 5000 individuals. If it weren't for his mistreatment of his wife, his name would never have appeared in the computer system.
To confirm the computer's accuracy, the police needed to catch Daffy in the act. They observed him for two weeks, closely monitoring his every move. Finally, on a night when he wore his railway uniform and carried his "rape kit," he was arrested.
A search of Daffy's apartment confirmed that the police had been on the right track. They found the clothing he used to attack his victims, a Swedish rope that matched the piece found near Martie Tambeser's body, and boots with soles that matched the footprints at crime scenes. Of particular interest was the "Anarchist's Handbook," a book Daffy cherished, containing various methods of murder. It was from this book that he learned the importance of erasing traces. Despite his numerous crimes, he managed to avoid suspicion for quite some time.
One of the lawyers involved in Daffy's trial confessed in an interview, "He could do nothing but look at you with those unblinking eyes. They resembled a vast black abyss, devoid of anything - neither soul nor emotion. I imagine my wife at the crime scene, and my heart aches for those poor women who saw those devilish eyes in their final moments. He said nothing and only occasionally whispered, 'What can they give me? Thirty years? No problem, I'll serve thirty years. No big deal.'"
