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Trunk murders

Photo:Kemp Street

Kemp Street

Photo by Peter Crowhurst

Kemp Street: Scene of a grisly murder
By Peter Crowhurst

If you wandered down Kemp Street today, a tranquil little street in the heart of the North Laine, murder would most likely be the furthest thing from your mind. Yet just over 70 years ago a most unusual murder was linked to this very street. In the early morning of the 16th July, the complete corpse of a woman was discovered in a trunk in a house in Kemp Street. The Daily Express had been given a tip off which they had reported to the police.

Violet Saunders dead
When the house at 52 Kemp Street was searched, a body, described by the Express as that of a professional toe dancer known as Violet Kaye, was found. Violet, whose full name was actually Violet Saunders, was 42 years old when she died and said to be quite attractive. She had been living in a basement flat in this street, which is near to the Lewes Road. The killing was achieved by a severe blow to the head, the body left to rot in a trunk.

A letter found
Dancer Violet toured the country in revue shows, and was said, by neighbours who were questioned by the police, to have been on her way to an engagement in France. Violet was the eldest of 16 children and when she was killed, a letter was found addressed to her mother who she had not seen for several years. It told of her recent divorce and re-marriage.

An arrest is made
Tony Mancini, a friend of Violet's, was soon arrested for the murder but claimed that he had found Violet dead on his bed at 44 Park Crescent, and, in a state of panic, had taken the body to Kemp Street. Mancini was put on trial but found not guilty.

Several years ago, I interviewed a local resident who had met Mancini in the 1930s whilst she herself was with a touring circus. She claimed that Mancini had told her he committed the crime. Indeed, in a newspaper article in 1976 Mancini did confess to the murder.

Former industrial usages still to be seen
Today Kemp Street is an attractive street of small terraced houses built in the 1840s, but on closer inspection the former industrial usage of some of the properties can be clearly seen. Number 34 has an original sign still visible, which reveals that in one of its former incarnations it was used as a warehouse or butchers for Argentinean frozen meat. Next door at number 35 a sign for Evening News is clearly visible. Such properties would have had many uses during their lifetimes. 100 years ago number 34 was the Camden Arms whilst 35 was a van works. Opposite them at number 29 was another pub, the Blue Anchor. A further 30 years before then, in 1869, 35 was in use as a corn and coal merchant with numbers 29 and 34 existing as pubs.

With thanks to the 'Encylopaedia of Brighton' by Tim Carder
Added to the site on 28-07-05
This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments:

Thanks for this little piece of Brighton history. I am now aged 61, being born in Brighton in 1944, and this is the first time that I have heard of this story. What is even more surprising is that I used to live next door at No.54 Kemp Street. My family lived there from about 1915 until 1947 and I have never been told this tale.
By Michael Drury (26/11/2005)
I am a relative of Violet Kaye/Saunders. On the site you mention she came from a family of 16 children. As far as I am aware the figure should be 9. I would appreciate any details you have in this respect or any other biographical information on her.
By Tom Watts (08/08/2006)

In these matters there is always so many versions of events, that one never knows what to believe. Henry Ford the First claimed history is bunk. The true facts are forever hidden.

By J.W.Risbridger (29/03/2007)

I have with me the front page of 'Evening News' dated 17th July,1934, published from Liverpool, reporting the arrest of Toni Mancini in a London suburb that morning. It also has a report on the scheduled opening of Mersey Tunnel the next day by the King.

By R.Pockyarath (09/04/2007)

I wonder where Michael Drury has been all his life. He must be the only Brightonion who has never heard of Tony Mancini. I lived at 51 Kemp Street from 1941 to 1959. This was next door, so Michael Drury must have lived next but one, on the other side. I knew Mrs Barnard and her son and grandson. She had let the basement flat to Tony Mancini and his infamous trunk (people in the street actually thought she had no sense of smell!) and she was still living there after I moved. I have to add that at that time this murder was still a topic in the street but maybe Michael you led a sheltered life.

By Teresa Nolan (nee Gaynor) (29/07/2007)

In 1967 I was regularly visiting Brighton as at the time I was going out with a girl who was a student at Sussex University. She had friends who lived in Kemp Street, either next door or next door but one to Mancini's old flat, and the story was well-known. In fact, I stayed there a few times, and it was a running joke that I should never use a suit-case large enough to contain my dead body....just in case.

By Big Gee (14/01/2008)

My Great great grandfather Frederick Vaughan and his first wife Catherine (nee Godard) lived at 29 Kemp Road as shown on the 1851 Census, presumably before it was The Blue Anchor. He is listed as a Boot Maker and she as a Shoe Binder. He became a Town Missionary, then a Congregational Minister, then an Independent Minister and moved from Brighton to Evesham and then Broadwinsor in Dorset. At the time of the Census, his brother Joseph (Apprentice Shoe Binder) is living with them. Frederick and Catherine had five children. After he was widowed, he took a second wife and they had two more children. The son of this second marriage is my Great Grandfather, Herbert Lawrence Vaughan. Not sure what my religious ancestor would have made of living in a property that went on to become a pub!!

By Nicola Hayek (03/03/2008)

It was my Great Uncle that used to own the house and rented out the flat to my dad. The rest of his family lived in Blackman Street.

By Mark Barnard (15/06/2008)

I read somewhere that the houses were renumbered after the 'trunk murders'. Does anyone know if this is true or not? (Reason for curiousity is that my great grandfather (Elvey Cork) was living at numbers 22, 28 and 38 on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses respectively; I would be interested to know if these houses have the same numbers now.)

By Jeanette (20/06/2008)

I was just searching for a map showing Kemp Street when I found this article. It has freaked me out, as I discovered only the other day that my Father's Mother's side of the family lived at 52 Kemp Street, according to the 1881 census! Their surname was Martin. Head of house was Isaac (aged 81) wife Sarah (74) born Ireland, son William (27) married to Florence (25) + 2 children Florence (3) & Catherine (5 months).
Isaac was a Carpenter & William a Paper Hanger & Painter.

By A Gardiner (04/07/2008)

Is it possible that the Tony Mancini mentioned in connection with the Brighton trunk murder is the same Tony Mancini who murdered a doorman outside a London nightclub in (I think) 1944 and was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint? I would dearly like to know as the doorman was my uncle.

By Arnold Desmond (26/08/2008)

In 1961 I was employed as a junior clerk with a firm of solicitors in Grand Parade: Messrs F.H. Carpenter & Oldham, who were Mancini's solicitors. I can remember being shown a pair of Mancini's blood-stained trousers and a hammer, both of which I was told had been used as evidence by the prosecution, but in spite of which he was aquitted. I wonder what today's DNA tests would reveal?

By Revd Peter Allsworth (13/10/2008)

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