Force of Darkness

In 1942 Gordon Cummins attacked six women, killing four, the biggest challenge to Scotland Yard since Jack the Ripper

During the Blitz in 1942, one British serviceman begins his own private killing campaign – against London’s women. This is the story of the women who fought back, the family and victims who fell for his easy manner, and the hunt to stop him.

‘This . . . series of murders has no parallel, so far as can be ascertained, in the history of the Metropolitan Police’ – CID, Scotland Yard, 9 July 1942

February 1942. London’s wartime streets are blacked out whilst bombs rain from the sky. But there is another danger hiding in the darkest corners of the city. In the space of a week, six women have been brutally attacked, four of them fatally. Four months before that, two other women were found dead. Scotland Yard’s DCI Edward Greeno and Supt Frederick Cherrill are chasing a killer who is thriving in the upheaval of wartime.

Leading Aircraftman Gordon Cummins is handsome, affable and well liked. Not yet 30, he has a young wife and a loving family. But under this charming, blue-eyed veneer is a monster.

In Force of Darkness, Robin Jarossi uses victim statements, eyewitness accounts and police reports to both tell the harrowing story of the Second World War’s ‘Blackout Killer’ and offer insights into a society under siege.

‘[Robin Jarossi] sensitively examines the stories of the victims and the impact on the families with care, accuracy and respect.’ – Jackie Malton, Retired Detective Chief Inspector, Metropolitan Police