Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
Only around 15 per cent of serial killers are female. One such killer, whose murders were particularly brutal for a woman, is the British woman Joanna Dennehy. In March 2013, within the space of 10 days, she murdered three men and attempted to kill two others, without any apparent motive and purely for the thrill of it. Joanna was a ticking time bomb that suddenly exploded. But why? Joanna was born in Saint Albans in August 1992. She left home at the age of 16 after running away with 21-year-old John Treanor. Just one year later, Joanna – who had never wanted children – became pregnant. After the birth of her daughter Shianne, Joanna not only began to consume alcohol and drugs, but also started cutting herself with a knife. In 2005, Joanna became pregnant again. Joanna couldn’t cope with her day-to-day life; sometimes she would disappear for days or even months at a time. When she was there, she would drink her first beer at breakfast, followed by one or two bottles of vodka throughout the day. As Joanna was cheating on John, he decided to call it quits. He left Joanna and took the two children with him. After that, Joanna, who had moved to Peterborough, lost all sense of stability in her life. She funded her addiction through sex work, which caused her to develop an incredible hatred of men, triggering murderous fantasies within her. Her aim was to become as famous as the gangster couple Bonnie and Clyde. Shortly after moving to Peterborough, she met her ‘Clyde’. He was the 47-year-old Gary ‘Stretch’ Richards, who stood over 2 metres tall and fell head over heels in love with Joanna. He, along with 36-year-old Leslie Layton, became Joanna’s accomplices in her killing spree, which began after Joanna had been arrested for theft in February 2012. She was admitted to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, where she was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. A year later, she began her incredibly brutal series of murders. First, she murdered 31-year-old Lukasz Slaboszewski, whom she had met a few days earlier in Peterborough. They had been drinking together. She then invited him to her landlord’s house, blindfolded him and stabbed him in the heart. She disposed of his body in a rubbish bin. Just 10 days later, she murdered her 56-year-old flatmate, John Chapman, in the same way. A few hours later, she also killed her 48-year-old landlord and lover, Kevon Lee, whom she had previously made to put on a black sequinned dress. Gary Richard and Leslie Layton had to help her dispose of the bodies. They dumped the bodies in ditches on the outskirts of Peterborough, which is why the series of murders became known as the ‘Peterborough Ditch Murders’. Once the bodies had been disposed of, the ‘trio infernale’ drove across the countryside, where, in the town of Hereford, Joanna first attempted to kill 56-year-old John Rogers and then 63-year-old Robin Bereza, who were out walking their dogs. Joanna stabbed Rogers over 40 times. She stole her second victim’s dog, Archie, and took him with her. However, both survived and were able to provide a detailed description of their attacker, noting the distinctive star tattoo on her face, which exposed Joanna as the knife-wielding assailant. Two days after Kevin Lee’s murder, his family reported him missing. When he was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Petersborough, Joanna immediately came under the investigators’ scrutiny. Even before the trial began, the police found a diary belonging to Joanna, who was in pre-trial detention. In it, she outlined an escape plan. She intended to cut off a female prison officer’s fingers in order to use them to circumvent the biometric security system. As a result, Joanna was placed in solitary confinement at HM Prison Bronzefield, following which she sued the Ministry of Justice for damages, claiming that this had left her ‘weeping and distraught’. However, the claim was unsuccessful. In February 2014, Joanna Dennehy was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Old Bailey in London for three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, becoming the third woman in the UK to receive a life sentence. Her accomplice, Gary Richard, received a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 years’ imprisonment. Her co-accused, Leslie Layton, was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment. In 2018, Joanna became engaged to Hayley Palmer, who was also in prison. The pair wanted to tie the knot, but Hayley’s family opposed the marriage, which led them to attempt a joint suicide. Afterwards, they had an on-off relationship. Joanna had another partner in the meantime. Despite Hayley Palmer’s release from prison, the couple’s love is said to have been rekindled and may still be ongoing today. The fact is that after Joanna was transferred to Low Newton Prison in County Durham in 2019, the notorious serial killer Rosemary West had to be moved from there because Joanna had threatened to kill her. So things remain intriguing as far as Joanna Dennehy is concerned, who continues to make headlines to this day despite being in prison.
