John Martin Scripps

Status

John Martin Scripps was executed by hanging in Singapore on April 19, 1996.

Timeline

• 8 Mar 1995 — Martin arrived in Singapore on a flight from San Francisco and met South African tourist Gerard George Lowe at Changi Airport, agreeing to share a room at River View Hotel.
• 8 Mar 1995 — Martin and Lowe shared Room 1511 in the River View Hotel between noon on 8 March and 8:00 am on 9 March.
• 9-10 Mar 1995 — Lowe's name was removed from the hotel registry at Martin's request.
• 9-10 Mar 1995 — Martin used Lowe's credit cards, withdrawing $8,775 in cash and buying a $499 videocassette recorder.
• 10 Mar 1995 — Martin attended a Singapore Symphony Orchestra performance on March 10.
• 11 Mar 1995 — Security guards observed Martin walking out of the hotel around 6:35 a.m with a heavy suitcase; about 15 minutes later he returned without the suitcase.
• 11 Mar 1995 — Martin checked out of the hotel and left for Bangkok.
• 13 Mar 1995 — Human body parts including torso, thighs and legs in black plastic bags were recovered off Clifford Pier.
• 15 Mar 1995 — Martin flew to Phuket from Bangkok.
• 19 Mar 1995 — Martin returned to Singapore and was arrested at Changi airport.
• 21 Mar 1995 — Martin was charged for forgery and told police he was Simon James Davis, age 29, the same named he used to check into River View Hotel with Lowe.
• 24 Mar 1995 — Martin was convicted of Lowe's murder under his true identity.
• 2 Apr 1995 — A third bin bag with body parts was found floating off Clifford Pier.
• 4 Apr 1995 — Martin gave a statement to Singapore police claiming an anonymous British friend was responsible for disposing of Lowe's body.
• 18 Sep 1995 — Martin was formally charged for Lowe's murder in Singapore court.
• 2 Oct 1995 — Martin's trial began in Singapore high court.
• 10 Nov 1995 — Martin was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
• 4 Jan 1996 — Martin withdrew his appeal.
• 10 Mar 1996 — Martin declined to seek pardon from President Ong Teng Cheong.
• 19 Apr 1996 — Martin was executed by hanging at Changi Prison.

Background

John Martin Scripps, a.k.a. John Martin, was executed by hanging in Singapore on April 19, 1996. He was born in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, in December 1959 to Leonard and Jean Scripps. He had an elder sister, Janet.

His parents moved to London when he was very young. His father was a lorry driver and committed suicide when Martin was 10. Martin left school when he was 15 because of dyslexia. He had been described as mild-mannered, reserved and polite, with “no friends”.

Martin spent most of his adult life behind bars for petty crimes and drug-related offences before the “body-parts” murder. He was said to have been linked to murder cases in Thailand, Mexico, Belize and San Francisco. His only love outside his family was said to be his Mexican ex-wife, Maria Arellanos, whom he married when he was in his 20s and who divorced him while he was in prison.

Martin’s background included:

• 1973 (age 14) — Martin disappeared in France from a cadet training camp.
• 1974 — Martin was convicted for burglary and theft in juvenile court.
• 1978 — Martin had his first adult conviction for indecent assault.
• 1978-1982 — Martin committed burglaries in London and was jailed in Israel for burglary.
• 1982 — Martin was jailed for burglary and assault in Surrey; he absconded and traveled to Southeast Asia and America.
• 1985 — Martin was jailed again in Surrey for burglary; he absconded again to smuggle drugs through various countries.
• 1987 — Martin was jailed in London for heroin offences.
• Jun 1990 — Martin absconded from London jail.
• Nov 1990 — Martin was jailed for heroin possession at Winchester.
• 1993 — Martin acquired butchery skills in prison.
• 31 Oct 1994 — Martin absconded from Mount Prison in Hertfordshire, traveling via Holland, Belgium, Paris, Spain.

In October 1994, Martin escaped again while on home leave. His home leave was granted only two days after he had been refused parole. His mother said prison authorities should have realised the risk because he had been selling his possessions openly to raise money.

The offence

Martin was convicted in the “body-parts” or “Black bin-bags” murder of South African tourist, Gerard George Lowe, 32, in March 1995. The police were alerted when various parts of Lowe’s dismembered body were found floating in black bin-bags off Clifford Pier.

Martin and Lowe shared Room 1511 in the River View Hotel between noon on 8 March and 8:00 am on 9 March. Lowe’s head and arms were never found.

The prosecution alleged that Martin had killed Lowe, dismembered the body and disposed of the body parts by throwing them into the river behind the hotel. The prosecution also alleged that Martin robbed Lowe of wallets, credit cards, cash and passports.

The defence argued that Martin killed Lowe unintentionally when he rebuffed Lowe’s unwanted homosexual advances in their River View Hotel room, and that during the ensuing fight Martin hit Lowe with a camping hammer. The defence suggested that Martin panicked and fled when Lowe was dead, and that an anonymous British friend disposed of the body.

The judge found that Martin was a calculative killer who set out to murder and rob the unsuspecting Lowe. The judge found that Martin had dis-articulated Lowe’s body into separate parts and disposed of the body parts by throwing them into the river behind the hotel. The judge also found that the judge was convinced that Martin killed and dismembered Sheila and Darin and disposed of their body parts found in different sites in Phuket, and that the dis-articulation of the body parts of Lowe, Sheila and Darin had “the hallmark signs of having been done by the same person.”

Investigation

In mid-March 1995, dismembered parts of a human torso and lower limbs were found floating in black garbage bags in the waters off Clifford Pier in Singapore. Body parts were identified as belonging to South African tourist Gerard George Lowe, who had gone missing.

Positive identification of Lowe was made by his widow. A third bin bag with body parts was found floating off Clifford Pier on April 2, 1995.

Police investigations led to Martin’s arrest, conviction and death sentence.

The investigation also extended to Thailand, where Martin was linked to murders of Canadian tourist Sheila Mae Damude, 49, and her son Darin, 22, on the Thai island resort of Phuket. Thai investigations involved forensic evidence before deciding whether to file charges. Security guards and police witnesses gave testimony connecting Martin to documents and items found at his arrest.

Arrest

Martin was arrested at Changi airport on March 19, 1995.

At the time of arrest, Martin had knives, a 1.3 kg hammer, an electrical stun device, handcuffs, a can of mace, credit cards, possessions and the passports of Lowe and the Damudes with him. Police found swabs from the hammer that matched bloodstains across the carpet of the Damudes’ hotel room.

Martin was charged under an assumed identity initially. He told police he was Simon James Davis, age 29, the same name used to check into River View Hotel with Lowe. Police had put the name on their wanted list on March 14 after they determined Lowe had checked in to River View Hotel with someone using that name.

In a police interview room in the airport, Martin smashed a glass panel and cut his wrist with a shard of glass in a suicide attempt, fearing he would be hanged. He was taken to Alexandra Hospital for treatment.

Police found five passports on Martin in addition to his own:

• two British passports issued to Simon Davis,
• two Canadian passports issued to Sheila and Darin Damude,
• and a South African passport issued to Gerard Lowe, all with Martin’s photograph affixed.

Police also found credit cards belonging to Sheila Damude and Gerard Lowe. Police found Simon Davis’ birth certificate and items used to immobilise and kill, including:

• a hammer weighing 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb),
• a battery-operated Z-Force III electroshock weapon,
• a can of mace,
• two pairs of handcuffs,
• a pair of thumbcuffs,
• two Police brand foldable knives,
• an oilstone,
• and two Swiss army knives.

Martin also had a money belt containing four different passports, each with different names but with his own photograph, and one of the passports belonged to Lowe.

Trial

Martin was charged in court to stand trial for the murder of Lowe. He entered no plea but “claiming trial,” contesting the charges. Singapore does not have jury trials.

Acting for the prosecution were Jennifer Marie, Noral Huda and Toh Han Li. They highlighted that Martin had a reputation of befriending tourists, killing them and then dismembering their corpses, and robbing them of wallets, credit cards, cash and passports. The prosecution also stated Martin had considerable skill as a prison butcher and that Lowe’s body showed signs of being dismembered professionally.

Acting for the defence were Edmond Pereira and Joseph Theseira.

Evidence and witness testimony

A prison officer, James Quigley, a Prison Officer at Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight, testified that he had taught Martin how to dismember and bone slaughtered animals. Quigley said:

“He was instructed in butchery over a six-week period in March and April 1993. He was trained to bone out fore quarters and hind quarters of beef, sides of bacon, carcasses of pork, and how to portion chicken”.

Quigley said that Martin, who was serving a 13-year jail term for drug-related offences, had been a quick learner.

Chao Tzee Cheng, a government pathologist, testified that the manner in which Lowe’s body was cut up indicated that only a doctor, a veterinarian or a butcher could have dismembered it, and said:

“Look, you are dealing with a serial killer.”

Security was heavy throughout the court session. Martin sat between two uniformed armed police officers in a glass and metal cage, with his legs in irons. He was allowed to speak briefly to his mother and sister before and after the proceedings.

Martin’s statements during trial

Before the trial, Martin made a statement explaining that he killed Lowe in self-defence.

He stated that he had fallen asleep after checking in, then woke up after someone touched his buttocks, and that it was Lowe, who was clad only in his underwear and smiling at him. Martin said:

“I am not a homosexual and at that time it appeared to me Mr. Lowe was a homosexual. I freaked out, I kicked out and started swearing ”

Martin said he used a three-pound camping hammer “to hit Lowe several times on the head until he collapsed onto the carpeted floor.” He said:

“My right hand was covered with blood. Everything happened so quickly,”

After realizing Lowe was dead, Martin said he sought the help of a British friend, refusing to name him. He said the friend disposed of the body without telling him how. Martin denied that it was he who cut up Lowe’s body.

Martin later denied dismembering Lowe while also maintaining that he did not remember buying a concert ticket and that he did not attend the performance. When pressed on his movements between March 8 and March 11, he said:

“You've got a good memory. I haven't,”
“I'm dyslexic. I get things mixed up.”

Martin testified that he tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists to escape being hanged, saying:

“I believed I was going to be hung,”
“I kept thinking about Lowe and the Filipino lady that got hanged.”

Martin said he did not report killing Lowe because he feared he would be automatically hanged under Singapore’s tough laws, and he said:

“Because this man died at my hands, and under Singapore law that is an automatic death sentence,”
“That's what I understood at the time.”

He disputed the prosecution’s assertion that he had ample time and opportunity to chop up Lowe’s body, pack the parts in a suitcase, and throw them in the river.

Prosecution and defence arguments

Jennifer Marie, in closing arguments, told the court:

“The conduct of the accused after the killings suggested that he was cold, callous and calculating a far cry from the confused, dazed man walking in a dream world, the picture he gave of himself”.

Marie said Martin was “a man very much in control of his faculties” and said:

“He is a man who has no qualms about lying continuously, consistently and even on the (witness) stand, in any and every matter,”

Marie concluded that the homosexual-advance excuse was a “string of lies” to mask a premeditated murder by a greedy serial killer “who preyed on tourists.”

Lowe’s widow testified that her husband, who had gone to Singapore on a shopping holiday, was not a homosexual.

Edmond Pereira’s closing statement urged the court to find Martin not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and said:

“we urge this court to come to a finding that the accused is not guilty of murder, but is guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.”

Pereira said:

“The killing occurred in a sudden fight in the heat of passion upon a sudden quarrel,”
“He is not a man prone to violence.”

Pereira also urged the judge to ignore information from Thailand, saying:

“There is no evidence to suggest that the accused is responsible for the deaths of the two Canadians,”
“he said, calling the Thai information “nothing more than circumstantial” and “prejudicial.””

Verdict and sentencing

On November 10, 1995, Martin awaited sentence and said:

“Karma is karma. It's in God's hands now.”

The judge told the court:

“I'm satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Scripps had intentionally killed Lowe.”

The judge stated:

“After that, he dis-articulated Lowe's body into separate parts, and it was he who subsequently disposed of the body parts by throwing them into the river behind the hotel.”

After announcing the guilty verdict, Justice T.S. Sinnathuray sentenced Martin to death by hanging. Martin showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

In the verdict, the judge also said:

“The dis-articulation of the body parts of Lowe, Sheila and Darin have the hallmark signs of having been done by the same person.”

The judge said Thai evidence was “materially relevant” because it rebutted Martin’s defence that he killed Lowe unintentionally during a sudden fight.

Appeals

Defence lawyers indicated they would appeal after the sentence.

Scripps withdrew his appeal on January 4, 1996, which was scheduled to be heard on January 8. His lawyer Edmond Pereira declined comment on why he decided against appealing, stating Martin had written to the prison authorities that he did not wish to pursue the appeal.

Martin declined to seek pardon from President Ong Teng Cheong on March 10, 1996.

Outcome

Martin was executed by hanging in Singapore on April 19, 1996.

On April 19, 1996, his sister Janet and mother Jean said goodbye to him 12 hours before his execution. Janet said:

“How do you say goodbye to your own brother like that? We didn't actually say the word. I just couldn't.”

On April 19, 1996, Martin was hanged at Changi Prison together with two Singaporean drug traffickers. He asked for a pizza and a cup of hot chocolate as his last meal. He was woken by guards at about 3.30am and prepared in a waiting room with the other two prisoners. He was allowed to speak to a priest and a prison chaplain before the execution.

He left a final, rambling note that read:

“One day poor. One day reach. Money filds the pane of huger but what will fill the emteness inside? ”
“I know that love is beyond me. So do I give myself to god. The god that has betrad me. ”
“You may take my life for what it is worth but grant those I love peace and happiness. Can I be a person again. Only time will tell me.”

The note also stated:

“when you are told every day that you are not a member of the uman rase (sic)”.

Martin wrote about a fantasy suicide hanging, saying:

“I tied the rope around my little neck before I got up on the old creaky chair. I reached down and picked up a handful of earth and put in my mouth. Then I crawled up to the old creaky chair and pulled the rope tighter and tighter still. I was tiptoe, just one more pull, then my feet left the chair knocking it over and darkness embraced me as the heavens opened. ”

He wrote:

“I woke up in darkness and felt a heavy weight on my chest. I cried out 'Mummy, I am here.'”

Other details

Prosecution witnesses, lawyers and court events (verbatim remarks)

Jennifer Marie said in cross examination:

“You were not dazed enough, to think of all this,”

Marie also told Scripps:

“On the contrary, you were clear in your mind what you were doing.”

During the trial adjournment period, on October 24, 1995, Scripps said:

During his sixth day on the witness stand, he replied to prosecutor Jennifer Marie about fear of the automatic death sentence:

Before the verdict, defence lawyer Edmond Pereira told reporters that Scripps had a right to an appeal and said:

“Scripps has a right to an appeal, which he can exercise within 14 days and he shall be advised of that right.”

Family

Martin’s mother, Jean Scripps, 58, said from Sandown, Isle of Wight:

“I brought John into this world. I am the only person who has the right to take him out of it. ”
“I cannot believe how my boy could have changed from a kind, human being into the monster described in court.”

In prison, Maria Arellanos learned for the first time that the death sentence had been carried out on the Friday he was executed. She said:

“I knew this would happen to John but I didn't know it would hurt so much. The last memory I have of him is a message he sent promising we would meet in the next life and that he would never let me go again.”

Unconfirmed or linked cases and additional suspects

Scotland Yard suspected Martin could have been responsible for the disappearance of management consultant Timothy McDowell, 28, who went missing while holidaying in Belize in Central America. It was suggested his body was never found and may have been dumped into a crocodile-infested river by Scripps. Scotland Yard believed there was a transfer of money from McDowell’s bank account to Scripps’s account in Britain after his arrest in Singapore, and that the sum was later moved to another account in the United States under Scripps’s name.

Scotland Yard suspected Martin of having separately killed two men from south London: financial adviser Timothy McDowall and accountant William Shackel. The only suspicious activity uncovered regarding MacDowall involved a transfer of £21,000 from MacDowall’s bank account to an account in San Francisco, California under Martin’s name. Martin refused to be interviewed by Scotland Yard while on death row, leaving whether he killed MacDowall unconfirmed.

Martin was also wanted in San Francisco in connection with the murder of homosexual prostitute Tom Wenger on March 28, 1994. Wenger’s body was chopped up and drained of blood; it was found in a garbage skip in Myrte Alley, in the Polk Street district. Martin’s photograph matched a facial composite picture.

Claims during trial regarding Thailand

The judge stated he decided Martin’s guilt independently of the Thai evidence. The judge nevertheless considered Thai evidence “materially relevant” because it rebutted Martin’s defence of an unintentional sudden fight killing.

Execution arrangements and conduct

Singapore’s execution rules carried out hangings in private on Friday mornings on a large gallows within the prison accommodating up to seven prisoners. The measured drop method was used. It was normal practice in Singapore to hang several prisoners simultaneously, and no details of the executions were released to the media.

After being left to hang for an hour, bodies were taken down and released to families during the morning. Martin’s body, wrapped in a white sheet, was taken to a funeral parlour for cremation prior to his mother and sister taking his ashes back to Britain.

Post-death coverage

In May 1996, Tan Ooi Boon, a reporter from The Straits Times, wrote a book titled Body Parts: A British Serial Killer in Singapore. In July 1996, the murder case of Gerard Lowe and the investigation was featured in an episode of Crimewatch shown on Television Corporation of Singapore’s Channel 5 and Channel 8, where actual photographs from the autopsy were shown and the programme received the PG warning tag.

In April 2002, the story was re-enacted in an episode of MediaCorp TV’s Channel 5 docu-drama True Files. On January 31, 1997, eight police officers who made significant contributions towards Martin’s conviction were awarded commemorative plaques by the High Commissioner for Canada in Singapore, Barry Carin.