Disturbed 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright went on a 56-hour killing spree in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, in 1988
A twisted killer who was desperate to be the next Jack the Ripper never gained the notoriety of his hero despite carrying out three of the most brutal murders in British history, a new documentary revealed today.
Disturbed 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright went on a 56-hour killing spree in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, in 1988 after getting the sack and believing he was the child of an incestuous couple.
First he killed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas who he brutalised using an axe and a sledgehammer before locking his body in a shed on August 26.
Hours later he donned a devil mask before disemboweling his neighbour Raymond Ford – who was also stabbed 500 times – so he could hang his entrails around the room ‘like bunting’.
He then turned on wheelchair bound neighbour Marcus Law who he stabbed more than 70 times. He sliced open his stomach and speared him with a crutch.
Arkwright also tore out his eyes and stuffed cigarettes in the sockets, up his nostrils and in his ears so he would look like a ‘birthday cake’.
But despite the brutality of his murders he never gained the infamy he had hoped for, a new documentary on the Crime and Investigations channel
Arkwright donned this devil mask before disemboweling his neighbour Raymond Ford (pictured) – who was also stabbed 500 times – so he could hang his entrails around the room ‘like bunting’
The killer spent 30 minutes murdering Mr Ford having taken off all his clothes (pictured)
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, who worked on the When Life Means Life show, told Sun Online: ‘This was a grotesque and macabre spree – one of the most gruesome cases I have ever seen.
‘But it wasn’t well-known, which was a good thing as Arkwright wanted notoriety, which he never got.
‘He idolised Jack the Ripper and spent time in the library pouring over books about him because he was a figure of power and horror. It’s clear he enjoyed the theatre of his killings and wanted to be this figure of mystery and power like Jack’.
Arkwright was arrested after he murdered three people, including his elderly grandfather, a two-day killing spree.
He flipped after being sacked from his job at a scrapyard because he kept failing to turn up for work.
The killer, who had been in and out of care as a child, wrongly believed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas was actually his father, so went to kill him.
Mr Puidokas was working on his allotment in Ruskin Drive, Mexborough and was stabbed in the neck on his shed before because hacked up with an axe and beaten around the head with a sledgehammer.
He locked the door before heading to the pub to get drunk.
At 3am on August 27 1988 he broke into the home of neighbour Raymond Ford, a former teacher he had fallen out with.
He killed neighbour Marcus Law, who was in a wheelchair after a motorcycle accident and the pair had fallen out over a packet of cigarettes.
Mr Law was severely paralysed and was completely powerless to prevent his stomach being cut open
His crutch was shoved into his stomach during the brutal murder – his third
Wearing just pants and a Prince of Darkness devil-mask he woke his victim before stabbing him 250 times.
His bowels were hung around the room and nearly all his organs were removed, much like Jack the Ripper had done.
A hardened Yorkshire police officer later said the killings were ‘the most brutal act of slaughter I have ever seen. It is all the more chilling when you realise he must have spent at least half an hour inflicting these terrible wounds’.
The following day he killed neighbour Marcus Law, who was in a wheelchair after a motorcycle accident and the pair had fallen out over a packet of cigarettes.
He was stabbed 70 times and had his stomach cut open and cigarettes shoved into parts of his body.
First he killed his grandfather Stanislav Puidokas. He is also believed to have killed his grandfather’s housekeeper Elsa Konradaite, but he was never prosecuted
Mr Puidokas was brutalised using an axe and a sledgehammer and his body locked in his allotment shed (pictured)
The following day Mr Law’s mother popped around to check on him and found her son brutally murdered.
Police, who had questioned Arkwright over a burglary in the area, arrested him for the three murders.
In 1989, at Sheffield Crown Court, he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.
A year later he was given a whole life sentence by the Home Secretary, becoming the youngest person in Britain to be given one in legal history.
But he is still relatively unknown despite the killings and he has never spoken about why he carried out the murders.
When Life Means Life airs tonight on the Crime and Investigations channel.