Jailhouse reveals thecharm of murderer

Dubbed the Acid Bath Murderer, he was also nicknamed ‘the vampire’ following his claim to have drunk his victims’ blood.

In his final days, Haigh had become a tabloid star, a ruthless charmer who killed at least six people in Sussex in the 1940s, dissolving their bodies in acid in Crawley - all because of a grisly misunderstanding.

During the police investigation, it emerged that Haigh was using acid to destroy his victims’ bodies in the mistaken belief that if their bodies could not be found, then a murder conviction would not be possible.

He was wrong.

Haigh pleaded insanity at his trial. Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross KC, (later Lord Shawcross) led for the prosecution at Lewes Assizes. He insisted that Haigh had acted with malice aforethought. It took just minutes for the jury to find Haigh guilty. Mr Justice Travers Humphreys sentenced him to death.

It was years earlier, while in prison for fraud, that Haigh had experimented with mice to discover that it took only 30 minutes for the body to disappear - a grisly discovery which led to his murderous reign.

By the summer of 1947 Haigh, a gambler, was running short of money. He found a couple to kill and rob - Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife Rose. Haigh rented a workshop at 2 Leopold Road, Crawley, lured the Hendersons there, murdered them and dissolved their bodies in acid.

His final victim was Olive Durand-Deacon. He invited her down to his Crawley workshop on February 18, 1949, shot her in the back of the head and put her into the acid bath. Two days later, her friend Constance Lane, reported her missing - all a tale about to be told in the most appropriate of settings.

The notoriously-haunted Arundel Jailhouse will be playing host to a new ghost from October 24-28. In Conversation With An Acid Bath Murderer tells Haigh’s chilling story.

Brighton-based actor Nigel Fairs will be Haigh for the night: “The jailhouse is the perfect venue for the play. It’s easy for the audience to imagine they’re joining the murderer in his grimy workshop and then listening to his confession in the hangman’s cell “I know it sounds like a pretty harrowing evening but it isn’t,” says Nigel, whose work has ranged from a year in the West End production of The Mousetrap to playing a Dalek.

“Haigh was an utter charmer, as most conmen are, so the piece has wit, even laughs; it’s almost a seduction! I love playing villains!”

Nigel, who also wrote the play 11 years ago and is now trying it out in Arundel as a taster prior to a bigger tour next year, was astonished to discover not only that Haigh had hired a car from his own grandfather but that his great grandfather put the shackles on him in Lewes Prison.

“It’s been one spooky co-incidence after another,” he laughs. “I fell off my bicycle earlier this year and managed to get myself an identical scar to the one that Haigh had. And then I discovered that one of my friend’s aunts was all lined up to be his next victim! Had he not been arrested, she would be dead.”

The play, directed by Louise Jameson, will be performed at the Jailhouse at 7.30pm from Sunday 24 to Wednesday 27 and then at 8.30pm on Thursday October 28. Tickets are available from the Arundel Jailhouse on www.arundeljailhouse.co.uk.