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Police deadly secrets could go on show
Mayor investigates possibility of putting ‘Black Museum’ crime evidence in new collection
MURDER weapons and evidence used in some of Westminster’s grisliest criminal cases could go on public display for the first time as part of plans to open up parts of the notorious Black Museum.
The famous archive held at New Scotland Yard – a collection of real life exhibits taken from crime scenes and executions – has traditionally been off limits to members of the public.
But London Mayor Boris Johnson has backed a plan to see what material from the Black Museum – officially known as the Crime Museum – could be used in a new tourist attraction being developed to celebrate the capital’s emergency services.
Items in the museum include objects and case papers from the murder investigation into the death of actor William Terris, who was stabbed by another actor outside the Adelphi theatre in the Strand in 1897. London folklore has it that Terris’s ghost still haunts Covent Garden Tube Station.
There are also exhibits relating to wartime serial killer Gordon Cummins, who murdered four women at random over six days in 1942 after picking them up in nightspots around Piccadilly, and the case of Harry Michaelson, a cartoonist bludgeoned to death with a chair by a thief in his Paddington flat over Christmas 1948.
And there is material from the case of Dennis Nilsen, the 1980s serial killer who cruised West End bars for victims. It is not clear whether evidence from more recent police investigations is in the collection but experts said it is kept as up to date as possible.
Mr Johnson is working with Brian Coleman, Camden and Barnet’s representative at the London Assembly, on a so-called “Blue Light Museum”.
He said in a City Hall debate: “There is a huge opportunity for us to look at the scope for a Blue Light Museum which would actually incorporate some of the elements of the Black Museum, which is completely unseen by the public at the moment. The police have a fantastic reservoir of cultural material.”
The idea is seen as a way to breathe new life into the exhibits at the London Fire Brigade Museum in Southwark which has been threatened with closure.
In a separate meeting, Mr Coleman said: “The Mayor has come up with an excellent proposal that we should investigate the possibility of a Blue Light Museum for London which would include the London Ambulance Service Museum at Ilford, as well as, I would hope, some of the Black Museum.”
He added: “I suggested that if we had a Black Museum we would have them queuing round the block and never mind the London Dungeon.”
Other politicians at City Hall have already advised the Mayor to tread carefully over what goes on public display.
True crime writer Martin Fido said: “It is permanently in use as a training museum, showing officers the kinds of things they might expect to find in certain criminal locations. Since trainee police are sent from many different forces, its curator’s time could easily be overwhelmed if it were open to the public.
He added: “A further objection is the questionable taste of some items. These items might reasonably be considered gruesome objects likely to attract and maybe encourage the morbid and unbalanced.”
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