All language subtitles for The.London.Underground.Killer.2024.720p.WEB.h264-OPUS

[Ian] He Just leapt
up and pushed him

and the train came in.

[tense music]

[Rob] Keiran Patrick Kelly,
he'd been killing people

by pushing them in
front of tube trains.

[Kelly] And then you've
been captured for a while

so what do you
think you do then.

[Officer] You tell the
truth is what you're saying,

you then tell the
truth about everything.

[Ian] We were expected
to believe he got away

with all these crimes because
no one noticed them happening.

I just don't believe that.

[Nicola] Psycho Kelly.

They were very
vulnerable sleeping rough

on the streets in London.

[John] When they had
nothing left they had would

go out and rob
others in the street.

[Officer] You were
caught bang to rights.

You know there is
no way out of that,

you then decide to come clean

and tell us all the truth.

No one had heard
of Kieran Kelly.

[Nicola] I don't
think he's lying.

I think he genuinely
believes that he's done this.

[Ian] He was like a
stick of dynamite,

once you lit the fuse
there was no stopping him.

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

Was the underground once
stalked by a serial killer,

who push people from tube
platforms to their deaths

and then got away with it?

This former detective says yes.

Astonishing claims
that you're making.

Why do you think that
this is the case,

that there was an actual serial
killer on the underground?

[tense music]

He just leapt up and pushed him.

And the train came in.

There's a pit, and he fell
into that and the train went

over the top of him.

[tense music]

A man was arrested for
robbery on Clapham Common.

He was taken to
the police station,

detained in one of the cells.

[Officer] And that's
the man you pushed?

[Kelly] I didn't push him.

- Well- - I gave him a wallop.

[Officer] Why was that?

[Kelly] And I caught him
on one of the shoulders.

And he went, gone, and
I wasn't worried whether

there was a train
coming in or not.

Another one he'd thrown
in front of a tube.

He'd admitted to the police

that he actually killed all
these people on the Underground.

He was like a stick of dynamite.

Once you lit the
fuse, it would go,

and there was no stopping it.

[tense music]

[Announcer] This
is an emergency.

Please evacuate.

[tense music]

In the early summer of 2015,

I was actually on a
job in London Bridge,

and a colleague of mine in
Ireland just sent me a link

to a newspaper article,
about an Irish guy,

who, you know, according to
the report that he sent me,

you know, had committed
multiple murders

in London all the
way back to the 1950s

and just said,

you know, you've been
in London a few years,

did you ever hear of this
guy pushing his victims onto

in front of trains and
from the tube lines?

[tense music]

The initial headline was
a former cop who claimed

that he was on the Case.

He was revealing the crimes of
a then unknown serial killer.

My name is Jeff Edwards.

For 35 years I was a Fleet
Street crime reporter.

I saw those 2015 headlines,
and I thought to myself

at that time, I don't know
who this guy is: Keiran Kelly,

who was being called
a serial killer,

and he was called the
London Underground Killer

because he allegedly
pushed a lot

of people in front
of tube trains

on the London
Underground Network.

[tense music]

The police prepared a
report which was submitted

to the Home Office
and to the Director

of public prosecution to decide

what charges were appropriate.

As a result, the
Home Office got back

and instructed the police
that the story was not

to be released to the
Metropolitan Police Bureau

or to the media direct.

Society had to be
protected from this maniac

or people just wouldn't use
the trains, the Underground

if they knew the truth
of what was happening.

People would simply say,
I'm not going on the tube.

If, if there's a, you
know, if there's a lunatic

at large, it's just
not conceivable.

I think the fact is
there was a chance

of mass hysteria there
was also a chance

that people might
not go to work.

We did contact the
British Transport Police,

they said today that they
know about the claims.

They they said it's
difficult to substantiate

your claims because of
the passage of time.

We're talking about something
that happened in the '70s.

This was an exceptional story

that I'd never heard anyone
share in all those years.

So, I guess, you know,
the story arrived

like a bolt out of
the blue like that,

I guess you were just
kind of interested,

intrigued, you know,

why they never heard
of this story before.

Was it true?

Was this a serial killer
hiding in plain sight?

[tense music]

[train rumbling]

[tense music]

[Ian] I'm Detective
Inspector Ian Brown,

at Clapham Police Station,

today is the 17th
of August, 1983.

I broke serial number
HGG702 on a new tape.

The time is now 3:56, and
the machine will remain on.

[tense music]

The unique thing about
this case is the fact

that there's actually
tapes of the interview

still surviving
some 40 years later.

There were originally three
tapes, but one of them

is the only one
that I've got left.

The other two were lent
and never returned.

My name is Ian Brown.

I'm a retired detective
superintendent

from the Metropolitan Police.

I was detective inspector

at Clapham Police
Station in South London.

A role that I certainly
wasn't happy with

because I'd always
been active and now,

I was sitting behind a
desk telling other people

and checking on
other people's work.

And then along
came Kieran Kelly.

[tense music]

How are you, Kelly?
- [Kelly] All right.

- Do you want a cup of tea?
- Cup of tea please.

Cup of tea, one sugar?

One sugar, please.

This, of course,
is the only picture

of the infamous Kelly.

And I don't think you
really need to be a genius

to look in those
eyes and realise

that there's not a lot there.

He's somewhere else,

or they're looking
straight through you.

I mean, there's just
certainly a look of

somebody that could
easily be a killer.

Kieran, Patrick Kelly

Never heard of Kieran Kelly,

so never knew a word
about him growing up.

He's not somebody I
knew about at all.

[Ian] What I wanted to do
was go through a few things

with you again.

Because what we're both
after is the truth.

You got the truth as
far as I'm concerned.

Psycho Kelly or Mad Kelly.

A couple of years.

Like I heard, heard about,

something appeared in
the papers or something.

That was the first
I heard of him.

This is the most bizarre
story I've ever heard

in my career.

Do you mind if we go through
it just a few points again?

- Ask the points.
- Okay.

Fair enough.

And hopefully this will be
the last time we speak to you.

A lot of what Kelly is alleged

to have done happens
down the tube station.

Well, if you're homeless
and a drunk, alcoholic.

It's raining, it's cold,
where are you going to drink?

When he was apparently
murdering people,

this was in the period,
sort of in the early 1980s

when I was at my, you know,

in the heyday of my
career, in fact, 1983,

I was the crime reporter
on the News of the World.

And I thought, if
this is all true,

how come I don't
remember this chap

He was taken out of the cell,

he was loaded with
testosterone and adrenaline,

he was really fired up
he started unloading.

[Kelly] You put yourself
in my shoes, right?

[Ian] Yeah.

[Kelly] You go and
kill a geezer, right?

And years go by.

Jumps and you do another few.

Right.

And you're not captured.

Right?

And then you're
captured for one.

So what do you do?

Think.

What do you do then?

[Ian] You tell the truth,
is what you're saying.

[Kelly] That's it.

[Ian] You then tell the
truth about everything.

[tense music]

Kieran Kelly was
essentially, you know,

in part pushing his
victims on the tube.

I think in the
beginning it was north

of a dozen murders that Kieran
Kelly was being, you know,

then reported to have committed.

Who were these victims?

Who was Kieran Kelly?

What can we find out?

And I guess, I suppose
like any story,

you begin by asking
questions and trying

to find the people
who might have answers

to those questions.

There were so many stories
that were incapable

of being substantiated,
and yet there were

so many stories that were
so accurate, but no proof.

The real reason I think
that he never, ever emerged,

you know, until almost 20
years after he was, you know,

at his most active
apparently, is because,

I think there's real
doubts about, you know,

how much of a serial
killer he really was.

It was really difficult
to find people

who knew Kieran Kelly or
were familiar with the story.

[tense music]

I mean Kelly's life at
times was half normal.

Two children, a wife, looking
after another five kids.

He would get day's work
as a building labourer,

and apparently, I'm
told he was very,

very good when he was sober.

But the minute he
got a drink on him,

he changed personality
and completely.

I know he worked
for a few builders,

but only on a daily basis

and certainly not for
more than a couple of days

before he went
back on the booze.

And then he basically
stopped working

and took to the
road as they say.

There's no record of him
ever having worked again.

He just purely led that
life of a petty thief.

[dramatic music]

Come clean and tell
us all the truth.

[Kelly] Yeah.

- And that is right, is it?
- That's right.

And that's what I've done.

It wasn't frustrating
because it was something

that I'd never
experienced before.

And in actual fact, I
most probably enjoyed it

because it became a game
of who's telling the truth

and who can get the truth.

A cat and mouse game more
than anything else, really.

[recorder clicking]

[siren wailing]

[tense music]

We're stood in Clapham
common in southwest London.

The commons today, like
many commons in London,

are used, I guess as
recreational spaces for sports,

for picnicking
families, whatever.

But back during Kieran
Kelly's time in the 1970s

and early 1980s, the
commons were places

that street drinkers
like Kieran Kelly

and his cohorts would retreat
into to feed their habits.

[tense music]

My name's Andy Baker.

I was a detective sergeant
at Clapham Police Station

from 1981 to 1984, and
I worked with Ian Brown,

who was a detective
inspector there.

The CID office at
Clapham dealt with

about 15 burglaries a
day, every day at Clapham.

Two or three robberies.

Nothing really unusual occurred
two or three murders a year,

some domestic,
some on the street,

but nothing more than
that back in 1983.

[tense music]

Members of the public had long,

the parks had long ago ceased
to be places of recreation.

The public didn't go there
anymore for relaxation.

You had to be living in 1983
to understand this community

of misfits of people
who were all alcoholics

and wanted to live on the streets
or they didn't want homes.

Clapham, Balham,
Tooting, Kennington,

all that sort of South
London area was their home.

That was their home.

[dramatic music]

I am Benjamin, former
homeless and yeah,

a former addict.

I grew up around this area,
it was an environment I knew

and Clapham Common,

it's not a park,
it's common land,

so you can get away with
sleeping rough there.

So I started sleeping
rough on Clapham Common.

It's easy to tell
a homeless person

'cause they've got
the fullish rucksack,

they've got their whole life
in the rucksack you know,

and that's how you live.

You live in a bag
and that's your life.

[dramatic music]

I'm Dr. Nicola Davies.

I'm a behavioural scientist

with a special interest
in criminal behaviour.

I think you can tell a
lot about human nature

from analysing the extreme ends.

Homelessness is a
whole new subculture.

It's kind of under the legal
radar, under the moral radar,

it's a totally
different environment.

Clapham had its fair
share of homeless people,

street drinkers, they would
drink in church yards,

on the Common, on park benches.

The street drinkers,
considered their park bench,

their property and
they'd protect it,

they would fight for it as well.

Wino jungle was a place
where chronic alcoholics used

to be congregate in the parks.

These parks were
small little parks.

They were stretched from
John O'Groats to Land's End,

and the police used to pen
the winos in these parks.

They all knew each other,

but they didn't
know their names.

There was no need
to know their names.

The only thing they needed to
know was did he have a drink?

[tense music]

I'm John Healy, I started to
drink when I was about 15.

Of course, it's nothing
now, but them times.

And it went from bad to
worse, you know, the drink.

But I was boxing
at the same time.

I became a junior ABA champion.

I was frequently turning up
drunk for a training session.

So I sold all my cups and
medals and that for drink.

And just ended
up, on the street.

I started drinking worse.

And then I ended up
in the winos jungles.

We weren't able to do
anything except drink

or fight for the drink.

And the drink was cheap.

South African red,
it was the dregs

of South African wine.

Well no one cared about winos.

I mean, why would
they care about winos?

They were sort of the
scum of the earth.

And that was it.

No one cared about them.

I mean, why should
they care about them?

Who'd care about winos?

[dramatic music]

An awful lot of them
were from Ireland

because it was at a time when
the Irish immigrant society

was very, very big
coming into England

and a lot of them couldn't find
jobs and resorted to drink.

Most of the wealth of
this country is in London.

Most of the opportunities
is in London.

And London's always been
cosmopolitan, always.

And not just in wealth,
the different blue-collar,

rich, working class, homeless,

there's always been
these subcultures.

So, it's just which
one you fall in.

I am Pauline McKeown,
Chief Executive

of Coolmine
Therapeutic Community,

and that's a national drug
and alcohol treatment centre

here in Ireland.

As I worked with the homeless
Irish community in London,

I quite quickly realised
that whilst there was alcohol

and other drugs sometimes
featuring for people,

everyone had a backstory.

They'd left Ireland at a time

where there wasn't
many opportunities.

There wasn't, work a plentiful.

So going over to London or
to Manchester or anywhere,

they very much were hoping
for a better future.

But when they arrived,
they realised that they had

to make their own way.

And there was loneliness.

And there was
isolation featuring.

And for a crutch and to
enable them to participate

in any way in daily
life, drinking, alcohol,

going to the pub, then onto
street drinking became a very,

very natural way of life.

They were very
vulnerable, sleeping rough

on the streets in London.

[tense music]

It's impossible to
say for certain,

to kind of measure
Kieran Kelly's decline

as to kind of why he
ended up in this space.

But you know, the
considered context

I guess would've
been his alcoholism.

He was obviously a heavy
drinker and, you know,

by his own admission
alcohol was something

that drove him and was an
addiction that needed to be met.

When you are on the
street with addiction,

your mindset is just set.

The most important
thing is your addiction.

It becomes the most
important thing

because it's the
tool that you use

to escape the immediate
environment that you're in now.

And your life quickly
comes down to just

living a day-to-day
existence anyway.

Alcohol really is a
blessing and a curse

to homeless people, and it
definitely was for Kelly.

Alcohol can become a
bit of a barter system.

It can propel you to the
top of the social hierarchy.

It might allow you to enter
a particular social circle,

and if you can supply
alcohol, you're going

to be the favoured one as well,

I mean, the drinks and
food would be shoplifted.

And their method is that if
they go in absolutely drunk

and collapse on a few
tins or something,

they can slip a few in their
pocket and walk out again.

But of course, they
always managed to collapse

and fall on bottles of booze.

It was very
difficult to shoplift

'cause you smell and stank.

People would smell you
if they couldn't see you.

And so a lot of violence,

then the winos were
termed predate felons,

predatory felons.

And because of the way

they would attack
people for money.

That's why the
violence was so bad.

[tense music]

It was just another day at
Clapham or another night

when two young police
officers were patrolling

and found a well-known
man of the night,

a guy called William Boyd.

He was laying on a bench in
the edge of Clapham Common,

and these two young
officers came across him

and for some unknown reason,

decided that they
would arrest him.

William Boyd had
been picked up for,

I guess being homeless and
just, I guess, you know,

being on the streets

or because somebody
complained about him.

I guess William Boyd had,
essentially, been brought in

to Clapham Common Police
Station to sleep off the drink.

If they fancied it, they'd
nick you for nothing.

Just suss.

[tense music]

In that society.

They were quite
happy to be arrested.

They weren't sleeping outside.

They have a cell, even if
it was a floor or a mattress

to sleep on, perhaps a
blanket to keep them warm.

This was luxury.

So William Boyd was quite happy.

He went to the cell
and layed on the floor

and started snoring.

He would be there
until he'd sobered up,

which might be
tomorrow afternoon.

[door clicking]

[tense music]

The day after William Boyd

was picked up, two
homeless street drinkers,

Kieran Kelly and Paul
McManus approached a man

who was sitting on a bench
here in Clapham Common

and mugged him,
took a ring off him,

took some money off him.

[tense music]

Luckily, there were local
police walking the streets

and they arrested both
Kelly and McManus.

They took them to
Clapham police station,

so there were only three cells
at Clapham police station,

and he decided that
it would be wise

to put all three
together in the cell.

It would save contaminating
the other two cells.

And so at two o'clock
in the afternoon,

that's exactly what happened.

The three of them
were put in the cells.

[tense music]

At about five o'clock, I
decided it was time to go.

I walked out, and as
I got into the yard,

a young constable ran out and
shouted, "Governor, Governor,

quick down the cell."

McManus was banging on the
door, screaming to get out.

[door banging]

So I turned and went down
the cell, opened the door,

and there before me was William
Boyd laying on the floor,

prone on his back and
a young police sergeant

giving him the kiss of life.

[tense music]

Round his neck was
a pair of socks

that had been knotted together,

and he'd just been strangled.

I looked round and sitting in
the corner was Kieran Kelly,

sitting on the floor
cross-legged with no socks.

Now we now have a situation
where we have a murder

in the cells at
Clapham Police Station.

[tense music]

Now I haven't heard of
Kieran Kelly until now.

But unfortunately, that's
the way of the world

and that's been going
on since before society

that we know anyway.

There's good and bad
people in the world.

If we want to do something,

well we can be really
good at that want.

It's just that want,
knowing what you want.

Life is choice.

You could choose to be good
or you can choose to be bad.

[tense music]

Keiran?

We didn't know
much about Kieran.

He lived in London.

I met this girl across the road.

She knew him in London and,

didn't have much to
say about him, really.

[soft violin music]

Kieran Kelly was born in 1930.

He was born in a small
village, in the Midlands

in Ireland called Rathdowney.

[gentle orchestral music]

My name is Michael Ryan We're
in the town of Rathdowney,

a small town in Southwest
Laois Midlands of Ireland.

It's a wonderful town,
wonderful people,

growing up in
Rathdowney was lovely.

We had our primary
school, it was very,

you know, there was no social
distinction whether you were,

any way well healed or
on the poverty line.

[gentle orchestral music]

Kieran Kelly's father owned
a small shop in Rathdowney.

At another time, his father
was in the Irish Police Force.

He had brothers and
sisters and yeah,

I guess had an unremarkable
childhood, really.

[gentle orchestral music]

There's no date in
this old photograph,

but it's about I'm guessing
1900, give or take.

The men typical at
clothing, three-piece suits,

caps, so I suppose his parents

could well be standing there
if one thinks about it.

[gentle orchestral music]

The house I lived in,

where I was reared to the house,

who Mr. Kelly was
reared in as well.

My family wouldn't really
have known him very well.

There are Kellys
here around Kelly's

down the road with no
relation to that at all no.

Kelly is a common enough name.

In fact, I think
it's maybe the second

or third most common
name in Ireland.

[clapboard clicking]

My name is Mary Delaney.

Well, I have lived in
Rathdowney 60 years now.

You probably heard there was a
brewery here for a long time.

A lot of people
were employed there.

A lot of men were employed
in the brewery for years.

My husband worked there
for, until they closed down.

And that was really, oh yeah,

there was a textile
factory up here as well.

Yeah.

It employed a lot
of people as well.

And that was about all
there was here, and 17 pubs.

- 17?
- Yes.

It was 17 pubs here at one time.

[soft violin music]

We don't know much about
Kieran Kelly's childhood.

We know from some sources

that he was maybe a
little bit insecure.

We know his father started
off as a policeman,

to an insurance
broker, to a labourer.

So, he somehow went
down the status.

We don't know a lot, and we
usually do look at the childhood

to understand how someone's
behaving as an adult.

It doesn't give us
the entire answer

'cause we're the product
of nature and nurture.

But it does give
us some indicators.

[soft music]

He joined the Army at
18 and was out by 19.

He got kicked out of the army.

I guess Kieran Kelly only
really pops up in terms

of official marking of his life

in court records in the
early 1950s when he begins

to be picked up for petty
crimes, stealing, theft,

housebreaking, public
order, that type of thing,

and then comes to
England in the 1950s.

[grand orchestral music]

An awful lot of young
people, at that time

who went over to England.

An awful lot of
them stayed there

for their, most
part of their lives.

[dramatic music]

Someone like Kieran Kelly
coming from Ireland to London,

it would've been very
daunting for him.

If you think of London,
just how busy the hustle

and bustle of it
compared to Ireland.

He's trying to find his place
and his place was London.

[train horn blowing]
[soft music]

I'm Anna McGuire.

I'm lecturer in public history
at University College London.

So if you were arriving
into London on the train

in the 1950s, you could've
encountered a city

of contradictions
and kind of tensions.

Bomb damage would
still be evident.

There'd be houses that
are crumbling around you,

different parts of the
city that are still

in that kind of
post-war recovery.

I must say that most Irish
people did very well over here.

Well, they did okay.

They settled down, had families,

but the ones we're
talking about are people

who never get that opportunity.

My name is Alex McDonald,
I'm the coordinator of the

Aisling Return to Ireland
project, which works with

homeless vulnerable Irish people

in London who've lost
contact with their families

and their homeland.

[train clacking]

When they got there, that
work wasn't there for them,

and they didn't have any money.

So when you don't
have any income,

your choices are pretty limited,

your choices are pretty limited,

and that would've led
to the rough sleeping

and the homelessness
on the streets as well.

[wind whooshing]

We see so many different
sides to Kieran Kelly,

depending on who
you ask as well.

What was he like?

You're going to get
a different story

from past employers,
family, children.

Obviously, we know that
Kelly was a father.

He was married for
a period of time,

he was a hard worker and
he was also kind of popular

with his workmates, but also
feared, gregarious, you know-

So thinking particularly
about work on building sites

in this period, high rates
of injury, really high risk.

Being paid in cash, kind
of like danger money

that they used to call it.

That would be great
if you could get it.

But knowing that you
have no backup plan

if you get injured or
if something goes wrong.

Working in the rain and
digging trenches in the rain

and the rheumatism sets
in and they go straight

in the pub when they
get off the lorry

to dry out and 'cause
they've got nowhere

to sleep and or if they've got
a room, it's got no heating.

There was a thing
called the Lump,

which meant you got paid cash,

and typically you'd
get paid in the pub,

there'd be a gang man.

And he'd pay people in the pub

and he'd have an arrangement
with the landlord

of the pub that he'd
keep the lads in the pub

as long as he could
before he paid them.

So [laughing] by that time,
they'd run up a big tab.

[all chattering]
[lively music]

It was like a conspiracy
to keep people drinking.

And you can see how sort of
casual life became for people.

That kind of chimes

with Kieran Kelly's
personal experience

where he would've
worked in construction.

He would've had, you know,
multiple addresses in London,

you know, kind of a transient
lifestyle around South London.

[tense music]

The men from the second World
War, they were disturbed

and they would rob
their own kind.

And when they had nothing
left, they would go out

and rob others in the street.

So there was a lot
of mugging going on.

That's the whole truth about it,

because there was no other way.

[tense music]

Kieran Kelly had been brought
in for the theft of a ring,

and now there's a body, a
dead body inside in the cells

in the police station.

Ian Brown is thinking,
who is this guy

that's just committed
this terrible,

brutal murder
inside in the cells?

Round his neck was
a pair of socks

that had been knotted together,

and he'd just been strangled.

I looked round and
sitting in the corner

was Kieran Kelly sitting
on the floor cross-legged

with no socks.

[dramatic music]

Now, I'm not the best detective
that there's ever been,

but I managed to
solve that crime.

Kelly's moved to another
cell, the coroner is called,

and Boyd is declared
dead at the scene.

Kieran Kelly knew what
prison life was like.

He was in and out of it
most of his adult life.

And I suspect that by the
time we get to William Boyd

and killing him in
that prison cell,

[dramatic music]

perhaps he had come to
the realisation that life

might be better and easier
in prison with a roof

over his head with
food, with a bed,

because clearly he was going
to get caught for this one.

[dramatic music continues]

I get Kelly's file, and
before we ever interview him,

we want to know what
we're dealing with,

and I sit down and
read Kelly's file.

Kieran Kelly, the man
who just confessed

to murdering somebody
in the cells,

had been acquitted on a murder
charge from years previous

of another man
called Edward Toal.

[tense music]

Toal was another one
of the Vagrant society

who was sleeping on a tomb.

That community was very,
very protective of its,

what they called their skipper,

the place that they slept.

If it was a tombstone,

nobody would dare sleep
on that tombstone,

or they did so at their own risk

because the person who
slept there would make sure

that they were evicted and
usually violently evicted

because violence was never
very far from the surface

as alcohol was the
main purpose in life.

[dramatic orchestral music]

There's certain nights of
the week that you know,

you're more at risk like a
Friday or a Saturday night

because a lot more
people are intoxicated.

And when you're intoxicated,
you're not right in your mind.

Most of the time they're
hurting themselves, they're not,

they're just lashing out
and hurting themselves.

But you constantly
feel like you know,

you need to be
ready for something.

You never relax, you
never feel comfortable.

[tense music]

Edward Toal not
dissimilar to Boyd,

had been strangled to death.

Kelly was picked up for that.

It went to court, but by
the time it went to trial

Kelly had been
remanded in prison

for a number of months.

He hadn't had a drink.

He was well dressed,
he was fresh,

he'd kind of had months of
sleep, he'd months without drink,

and the two key
witnesses who were there

to testify against him were
basically pulled off the street,

still in the grip of addiction.

If there is a
murder, they'll have

to gather enough evidence.

And the homeless community
closes up shop, they don't talk.

You don't talk because
you ain't going to survive

if you're grassing
on fellow people.

So how could they put
any more resources

into a place where no one
willingly wants that to be solved?

If I witnessed something like
that, I'd be reporting it.

If I saw someone struggle
with somebody as an assault,

I think I'd raise
my voice at least,

depending on how brave
I felt or how capable

I would try and intervene

if I felt it was safe to do so.

Not everybody's
like that though.

People will turn a blind
eye and look the other way,

feel threatened themselves by
witnessing something like that,

thinking that someone's
going to come after them.

Obviously some sort
of violence would be,

some sort of revenge
would be enacted after,

but inherently in themselves
they wouldn't do that.

That's informing.

They wouldn't do that.

And What would you care?

Why would you want
to track 'em down?

You want to get a drink.

You're not worried whether
they're dead or alive.

Any witnesses he did have
were seen as unreliable

by the police, and they
probably were unreliable because

of drugs and alcohol.

Kelly was subsequently
acquitted.

[tense music]

In the file in front of me
was this story of murder.

And before I went into
interview Kelly, I thought,

I wonder now he's caught
bang to rights for murder

in the cell.

I wonder if he'll
actually tell the truth

and admit that he killed Toal.

I questioned him about why
he did the thing to Boyd

in the cell, and he said,
"He was snoring, he was loud,

"he ain't now," and that
was Kelly's attitude.

He'd done it.

So, he was quite happy.

You're caught bang
to rights with Boyd.

You know there's
no way out of that.

You then decide to come clean
and tell us all the truth.

As far as the police
were concerned,

that was still an
unsolved murder.

So, I won't mention
it, but I'll just say,

what about the others?

[tense music]

He said, "You're talking
about Fisher, aren't you?"

Fisher?

I didn't have a
clue who Fisher was.

[tense music]

Would you tell me
again how you did him?

[Kelly] I give him a whallop.

And I cut him, I don't
think they were stabs.

I'm not sure.

[tense music]

And he said, "I was too
clever for you, wasn't I?"

I said, "Yep."

I didn't know anything.

And winked at the sergeant who
flew out the door to find out

who Fisher was.

We see a big kid here,
he's very childish

and very emotionally
immature in this sense.

It's kind of, yeah,
I've got one over you.

He's playing with them.

He's goading them.

Yeah, and we see him
thriving from doing that.

[Kelly laughing]

[tense music]

In 1975, a businessman
called Hector Fisher,

his body was found on a
park bench behind me here,

stabbed and beaten.

[siren wailing]

Nobody had ever been arrested.

It was just another
murder by some vagrant.

So I said to Kelly, "Okay,
let's talk about Fisher.

What happened?"

Now, funnily enough,
Hector Fisher

was not actually
part of that society.

He had a house, I
think he had a pension.

[tense music]

His business failed.

He fell on hard times,
and he found himself

in the company of homeless
people like Kelly.

They'd drunk together
on numerous occasions.

How many times did you stab him?

[Kelly] I don't know.

I was, I had a good drink on me.

He said, "Dirty bugger
wanted my arse."

So I cut him, I
cut his bollocks.

So then I stabbed him,
and then I hit him

"over the head with a brick."

He said, "But you
never knew it was me."

I said, "No, I didn't."

[dramatic orchestral music]

He said, "I robbed him as well."

I said, "Oh, did you?"

"Yeah."

He said, "He had a wad
of money in his pocket,

and I took it all
except for 40 quid,

and I left the 40 pounds,
two 20 pound notes, it was,"

he said, "And I left
them in his pocket."

We look at the report from
the pathologist who went

to the scene, and sure enough,

inside Fisher's pockets
was two 20 pound notes.

Nobody could have known that,

it had to be right.

[dramatic orchestral music]

All of the details match
that he would do that apart

from one, he says that
he cut in his word,

his bollocks, which wasn't
found to be the case.

I think this is just a
simple embellishment.

He embellishes,
that's Kelly to a T.

He's got to tell a story.

He's got to do his performance.

Ian and I conducted the
first few interviews

with Kelly when he was arrested
at Clapham Police Station.

Kelly told us that he
was actually interviewed.

He must have been a person
of interest at that time,

or a suspect.

So Brown now has a
file in front of him

that Kieran Kelly, the
man who just confessed

to murdering somebody
in the cells,

had been acquitted
on a murder charge

from years previous
of another man.

He subsequently confessed

to murdering Hector Fisher
here in Clapham Common.

[dramatic orchestral music]

I said, "Okay, when did
it all start, Kelly?"

He said, "Coronation."

[grand orchestral music]

I said, "What do you mean?"

"1953," he said.

"Baker Street Tube Station."

Suddenly you're
sitting there thinking,

I had a simple murder here,
one person dead in the cells.

And suddenly I haven't
got a clue what I've got.

[dramatic orchestral music]

[Announcer] And with what
pride shall those who watch

recall in after years, "I saw
the queen on Coronation Day."

[crowd cheering]

[dramatic orchestral music]

[Rob] Brown says, "Okay, Kelly,
when did this all start?"

And Kelly says, "It
started in 1953"

when I pushed my friend
in front of a tube train

"at Baker Street Tube Station."

[dramatic orchestral music]

He said, "I came
over from Ireland"

with a friend of mine,
Christy Smith, and two tongs,

two prostitutes.

One was Kathleen, and that
was Christie's girlfriend,

the other one," he said,
"I can't remember her name,

but I didn't want
anything to do with her."

They had travelled to London
for the Queen's coronation.

And after a day on
the town in London,

they're in Baker
Street Tube Station.

[Officer] Alright then-Mr.
Brown's gonna ask you now

about Christy Smith
and go over that again.

[Ian] Yeah.

It's interesting Kelly
that when we talk to you,

you usually come
back to Christy Smith

'cause that's where
it all started.

[Kelly] Well yeah, that was,

I would've never
mentioned none of them.

According to Kelly on
this particular day,

they were had a good
drink and they were

at Baker Street Tube
Station when Christy Smith

called him a queer.

And Kelly got upset and
threw him under the tube.

[train whooshing]

Now that's Kelly's story.

Did it happen?

We'll never know, but
there's no record anywhere

of anybody being killed

at Baker Street Tube
Station in 1953.

Kelly says he killed
Christy Smith.

And he absolutely believed
that he killed Christy Smith.

[tense music]

The London Underground
Network it's a big system.

It's one of the biggest
systems in the world,

and it's very busy.

It's carrying literally
millions of people every day.

And of course, death on
the London Underground

is quite a common event
because unfortunately,

it's the method of choice
for a lot of people

who decide to end
their own lives.

[dramatic orchestral music]

I'm John McDermott and I
was homeless in the '80s,

never really settled down for
more than five years anywhere.

There were people who
basically lived down

underground really, and they
knew there was passing traffic.

They knew they could
blag a 10p or whatever.

Back in those days, it
was like for a cup of tea

or something, so they
could pass the day.

It was reasonably safe.

It was dry.

It was frightening being in
a packed tube station waiting

for a tube coming in at
20 miles an hour even.

Somebody who's malicious,
who's psychopathic,

sociopathic, yeah, sure.

Yeah, I can imagine that
would be ideal opportunity

to go and hurt someone.

Yeah, I mean, there's some
horrible, nasty people out there.

[tense music]

Kelly never, ever showed
emotion except for one thing.

And that was Christy
Smith where it all started

and it's on your mind.

He said so many times
it's on your mind.

Not all the time, but
it's on your mind.

I don't think he had
regret, but it was one

that kept coming back to him

because he was
actually a friend.

Had he not murdered
Christy Smith,

his life may have
gone down another road

than the road of murder that
he ultimately travelled.

That time period when
Christie Smith died

had some significance for him,

and that's why it's become
ingrained in his memory.

We know Kelly liked
to tell a story.

We know he liked to perform.

So, I believe he's
been telling people,

probably homeless people
to boost his status.

He's been telling them

that he did this
Christy Smith murder,

and after 30 years of telling
that story mixed with alcohol,

mixed with loads of other
violent crimes and other murders,

he genuinely believes he did it.

[Kelly] But I want, I just
wanted to [indistinct].

[Ian] You really want to get
Christy Smith off your mind,

don't ya?

[Kelly] I wanted to get
'em all out my mind, right?

Yeah, but that's the
first- that's the big one.

[Kelly] That was the one
that started it, yeah.

[tense music]

Could it be that Kieran
Kelly heard somewhere

down the line that Christie
Smith died under a train

and thought that maybe
he was responsible

and that it happened
at Baker Street

and that he didn't have all
the details of the story.

[tense music]

In 1983, we didn't have
ticket gates on Tube Stations,

so it was easy to pass
without being checked.

And a lot of the street dwellers
drinkers, homeless people,

would go down the
underground, the tube,

to keep warm and
out of the rain.

It was a case of surviving
out in the elements,

knowing that you're going
to wake up relatively dry

or safe and not so cold as
you were the night before.

There's a lot of
violence in this world.

I guess it naturally
follows with Kelly

that they get into an
altercation on the tube train.

This is something that he did
on more than one occasion.

[tense music]

When you are down
a tube station,

they run every two
minutes and you are going

to have a fight, the likelihood

is that somebody will
finish up under the train.

And I think that that is
purely and simply the facts

of Kelly's life.

If somebody tried to steal
his drink, he'd hit him,

he'd assault him, he'd
push him, he'd shove him.

Well, if there happened to
be a train going by, well,

so what, didn't matter.

[tense music]

Millions of people use the
London Underground every day.

Probably lots of people think,

somebody could push me
in front of that train

if somebody was deranged,
was standing behind me.

But you know, it could happen.

I honestly don't think he
said, "Oh, this is fun.

I'll push people under a train."

I mean, he said
about Jock Gordon,

"I just gave him a whack."

Why did you?

[Kelly] I told you I was
sitting on the station waiting

to get the tube.

Had no ticket, right?

[Ian] Yes.

[Kelly] And he came along
and he was a bit drunk.

He wasn't really drunk, but
he had the drink on him.

He said, "Hello
there, you any drink?"

I said, "No fucking drink.

I am waiting on the tube."

And he said "You must have."

And I said, "Fuck off."

And I'm sitting down.

He came by me.

He told me, "What did you say?"

So I let fly at him,
but I missed him.

I caught him on the-

- Shoulder?
- On the shoulder,

and he went, gone.

And I wasn't worried, if there
was a train coming in or not.

Fair enough.

[dramatic music]

If he got into a
fight, he wouldn't care

whether there was a
train going by or not.

10 fights, three people
finish up under a train.

It's just law of
averages they've got to.

[tense music]

We've got this
perfect storm here

where you've got a
violent man living

in a subculture where he could
get away with that violence.

[tense music]

I really couldn't see that
it was possible for anybody

to commit that number of murders

on the London Underground
Network, and nobody noticed.

'Cause that's what we
were expected to believe,

that he got away
with all these crimes

because no one noticed
them happening.

I just don't believe that.

[tense music]

Kelly confessed to killing
another homeless man in 1976,

in a squat used by Kelly and
other kind of homeless people,

or kind of people
looking for somewhere

to kind of bed
down for the night.

The man was called Patsy Waters.

[Ian] So you knew Patsy Walters.

Is that Correct?

[Kelly] Pardon?

[Ian] Come on, you're
laughing again.

Come on, Kelly.

You told me that you didn't
know who the man was.

Now I've just said to you,
was Patsy Walters there?

And you said yes, he
was there, haven't ya?

Now, you knew Patsy
Walkers, Kelly.

Come on now.

Will you tell us the truth?

So when Kelly described the
murder of Patsy Walters,

he described it in detail of
how they were in this skipper,

as they call them,
place to sleep.

It was a derelict building.

Patsy Walters had
upset him, how?

We don't know, but Kelly
had a bottle of whisky.

[Kelly] That one
photograph you just shown.

[Ian] The photograph, yeah.

[Kelly] That's the man I done.

But I didn't know who he was.

[tense music]

Kelly said he
killed Patsy Walters

by force-feeding him
a bottle of whisky.

He sat across Patsy
Walters when he was drunk

on the floor and
essentially stuffed a bottle

of whisky down his
throat and that Walters

was bringing up and kind
of essentially choked

on his own vomit.

[Ian] The way you described to
me that you killed him before

when you, remember you got down

on your knees in this office,

and you showed me
with the towel.

[Kelly] Yeah.

He demonstrated how he
got down on his knees,

put his head between his
legs, pulled his chin down

and poured the whisky
down his throat.

When he's explaining
that he's very graphic

about putting a towel
or some kind of fabric

around the neck, up to the
ears, pouring the drink down,

hearing the man gurgling.

[Patsy coughing]

[Ian] Patsy Walters
died in exactly the way

that Kelly said he did.

But according to the
records, Kelly was in prison

at the time of that death.

Even if he didn't do
that, this is something,

I believe he had
done in the past.

So even if it wasn't
that particular man,

he has killed someone this
way, I suspect before.

This is the whole
Kelly Case to a T.

Just utter chaos.

He doesn't even remember
who he's killed.

[Ian] But you were in prison
when Patsy Walters died.

[Kelly] Then that's
not the same one.

[Ian] But you, see you're
playing a game with us Kelly.

You're laughing again.

And you're playing-
- That's it.

Right?

I could go make a fella.

He could turn around
and say I'm Paty Walters

and I'd fucking kill him.

Right.

Simple as that.

They don't use all the one.

[Ian] No, listen,
you are laughing.

[tense music]

So if the records are right,
he couldn't have done it.

There's a few instances where
Kelly introduces stories

that would indicate he's lying.

I don't think he's lying.

I think he genuinely believes
that he's done these.

Kelly was so drunk for so much

of the time that his
recollection can't be pure.

It's got to be alcohol
induced or alcohol affected.

So, I don't know if Kelly lied

or if he just didn't
know the truth.

[tense music]

If we think about the
Christie Smith case,

he said that that
was his first murder.

It was what set him
off down this road.

Ultimately, we
traced Christy Smith,

or we traced his
family back in Ireland,

and they tell us that
yes, Christie did die

under a tube train.

[tense music]

But it wasn't at
Baker Street Station,

and it wasn't in 1953.

[Ian] Tell us the truth.

Tell us the truth, Kelly.

[tense music]

He died under a train in Pinner,

where he was kind of
working, for a rail company.

And the dates didn't match,
and the location didn't match.

Christy Smith was
hit by a train,

so we know that Keiran
Kelly didn't do that.

So why is he
claiming that he did?

[Ian] Tell us the truth.

[Kelly] I'm telling
you the truth.

[tense music]

Alcohol affects the executive
function of the brain.

So that's the part of the brain
that controls our impulses,

controls our emotions, and
helps us regulate our emotions.

It also helps us make decisions.

Alcohol reduces your impulses,
and here we've got a man

with impulse control issues.

So once you add
the two together,

it's just an explosion
waiting to happen.

The big problem is that
you really don't know

when you're talking to
Kelly what to believe

and what not to.

[tense music]

Kieran Kelly was I think
primarily intoxicated.

He was drunk more
than he wasn't.

So, you've got this
boiling pot of a man

with impulse control issues,
pouring alcohol and all

of the stresses of homelessness
into that boiling pot.

It's a disaster waiting
to happen really.

Kieran Kelly existed in
a word where violence

was the currency of justice,
Kelly was a violent man

who could kill people when he
was rubbed up the wrong way,

I guess, for want
of a better word.

He's a walking contradiction.

So you have some people
saying how charming he was,

yet you're seeing this completely
aggressive side to him.

In the police interview,

you see a polite side to him.

He's putting in that effort
to say, please and thank you.

Yet this is a man who has
just strangled someone

to death with his own socks.

It just doesn't match up.

Kelly always had some
kind of love interest.

Granted the relationships
didn't last for that long.

When you're
investigating murder,

you have to
investigate the victims

as well as the murderers,

and you want to know
their life story.

Kelly told us that he, in
fact, had married someone

who had five children
before he married her.

So Kelly would've spent

a lot of time in
and out of prison,

most of his adult life
in and out of prison.

So, he would've been on
a constant rollercoaster

of intoxication and
coming off alcohol.

And we do hear reports of
Kelly being a lot nicer

when he's not on alcohol.

So not as impulsive,
not as aggressive,

and also quite charming.

[dramatic music]

[Ian] It appears
that for a few years,

Kelly seems to have
gone fairly straight.

His rap sheet kind of pauses
in terms of the offences

that he'd been getting
picked up for by the cops

in Ireland and England.

He was busy with his family.

He was working.

I'm guessing, you
know, things were good.

[tense music]

You might hear people
saying, Kelly was charming,

but he had a temper on him,
or "I really like Kelly,

but yeah, he's
capable of murder."

You've got that constant
contradiction going on.

And that's another factor
that I think made him

so dangerous as well
because he could just snap

at any moment.

[tense music]

So if we think of the
intermittent explosive disorder,

which is usually
someone being violent

or aggressive when
there's something

that has evoked them
that's out of proportion.

Imagine living with
someone who's like that.

You'd be constantly
walking on eggshells.

And I think that's why he
couldn't hold down his marriage.

He couldn't hold down his work,
he couldn't manage to live

in what we might see
as normal society

because his behaviours were
just so socially unacceptable.

Well, the drink and
people are disturbed

and paranoia used to set in.

People think someone
said something

or someone said something
and then it kicks off.

Broken bottles, everything.

Well just broken bottles,
fists or broken bottles.

[tense music]

The next episode in his life
is the robbery of a house

where he held people hostage.

And for that, he gets sent away

under the Mental
Health Act to Broadmoor

where he spends two years.

[tense music]

Broadmoor had a notorious
reputation then.

I think he may have been
there during the same period

as one of the Kray's
was in Broadmoor

and other high-profile people
in the criminal landscape

in Britain of that period.

The psychiatric report of
those days put him there.

I vaguely remember
that he was diagnosed

as incorrigible and untreatable.

I think those were the
words on the bit of paper.

Today there's debate whether
psychopaths can be treated,

but we do know it is
resistant to treatment

and certainly during the time
that Kelly was being assessed,

it would've been
seen as untreatable.

What that means, I don't know.

Well, what it means is
that they chucked him

back into society even though
he was a danger to society,

but no treatment.

[tense music]

A lot of mental health
issues aren't picked up on.

And it is a factor in
homelessness, a lot of people

become homeless because
of their mental illness.

Alcohol, drugs can only
exacerbate the problem,

make it worse.

And that happens a lot.

A lot of people are undiagnosed
with mental illness.

There's a lot of people
are schizophrenic.

When you've got no fixed
abode, you've got no address,

how do you get
treatment from anyone?

How do you even sign
on with a doctor?

People would just be surviving,

and it just becomes
something you're known for,

you know, being paranoid
or being a bit crazy.

[tense music]

When we were looking
for the witnesses

to any of the cases,
they were concerned

that they were gonna
be safe from Kelly

if he wasn't locked up.

He was labelled Mad Kelly.

No doubt he deserved that from

what he'd done to people
and, and had been seen to do.

Quite a violent person.

[tense music]

Psycho Kelly or Mad Kelly
become his stage name

in so many ways.

I think he crafted
that stage name as well

in order to survive homelessness

and in order to get to the
top of the pecking order.

Kelly definitely
was a performer.

We see him performing in
so many areas of life.

His boss said he used
to do the Grand National

and football
commentating in the pub.

So he liked an audience.

He liked to be
having the crowd look

at him and to entertain them.

And I think that's
exactly what he was doing

on the streets with
his violence and rage.

He was getting his
audience, he was performing.

He was a performer.

I think that was
building up his ego.

He knows he's good at being
violent at scaring people,

and that is why he feeds
that into his performance.

And that's why he would
often release his rage

in front of people.

He wanted them Chinese
whispers to go around

that you don't miss
mess with Kieran Kelly.

[dramatic music]

He had so many strange quirks,

but basically put a drink
on him and he was violent,

violent to anybody around him.

And a killer.

[dramatic music]

You know the more serious
crimes happened post him

being sent to Broadmoor.

[car horns honking]

That become an addiction
for him, killing people, no?

If he started doing it

and he'd done it more than once

it become a drug, it
becomes a suppressant

for himself really.

So like anything you get
good at it, don't you?

And you'll learn how
to get away with it.

The main thing really
is don't tell anyone,

you'll get away with it, really.

[tense music]

There is an exception
to the chaotic nature

of Kelly's murders, and
that is Mickey Dunne.

With Mickey Dunne, this
seems much more thought out.

He says that he wanted
to kill him slowly.

And the difference here
is that Mickey Dunne

testified against him
on a different case.

[Ian] Mickey Dunne.

That's the same Mickey
Dunne that gave evidence

against you in that
other murder, isn't it?

The Toal murder.
- [Kelly] Yeah.

The story of Mickey Dunne,

again goes back to Toal.

The murder of Edward
Toal, one of the witnesses

who testified against
Kelly in the Old Bailey

was Mickey Dunne.

He said, Toal was
sleeping on his tombstone.

The trouble was it
was Kelly's tomb.

So, he went over to
him, took the rope

from round his trousers,
that he kept his trousers up

and put it round Toal's
neck and garrotted him.

[Kelly breathing heavily]

As he walked away, another
one of the people there said,

"Oh, you might've
killed him, Kelly."

And Kelly went back and
garrotted him again.

And as he walked away, he
said, "I fucking have now."

[tense music]

But Kelly was acquitted
for on the murder charge

of Edward Toal.

Subsequently Kelly finds himself

in the company of Mickey Dunne.

They're in a churchyard
in Balham drinking.

Kelly tells Ian Brown

and the other detective that
he had a score to settle

with Dunne.

He said, "Yeah, I got him."

I said, "How did that happen?"

He said, "I got
some white spirit

orange juice mixed
up a cocktail."

He had held him in a
skipper, pinned him down

and poured, a toxic
cocktail down his throat.

Did you know that the stuff

that you were giving Mickey
Dunne was gonna kill him then?

Or did you hope it would?

You hoped that it would?

[Kelly] Yeah, I hoped it would.

I killed him slowly.

Didn't kill him there and then.

I gave him a few marks.
- A whack?

You cut his face with hits?

By hitting him?

Punching him?

[Kelly] Huh?

[Ian] What did you
use to cut him with?

[Kelly] I don't know,
like a fucking tin opener

or some fuck...

[Ian] Did you give him
a few whacks as well?

[Kelly] Yeah.

[Ian] When you say whacks

with your fists or give him
a few kicks or was he down?

[Kelly] He went
down, but he got up.

So, we checked that one out,
and sure enough, Mickey Dunne

had gone to a
shelter in Clapham.

He'd staggered in there
and immediately been rushed

to St. Thomas' Hospital,
where a day later he died

of what was on the
death certificate,

was sclerosis of the liver.

But then an awful lot
of them died of that.

[tense music]

We don't see that
premeditation with any

of the other murders.

At least he doesn't
tell us any of that.

So, this is really
a bit of an anomaly

to how he usually does things.

You wouldn't want to
get on his bad side.

He could either snap and
kill you without meaning to,

or he could make that
conscious decision to kill you.

[tense music]

Kelly kept confessing to
more and more murders.

It's so and so, it was him.

It was them, I did it here.

I did it there.

We were talking, is that it?

And suddenly he said, "Oh,

there's one in the skipper
on Clapham Common."

The skipper being
where they slept.

He said, "That was a
fires I set them alight."

[tense music]

"I watched them go up."

You said one burnt to death
somewhere, didn't you?

Or somebody was
burnt in a skipper.

[Kelly] We were the ones in
Clapham Common. [laughing]

[Ian] Clapham Common?

[Kelly] We were them
going up to cunts?

[Ian] Yeah?

- We were there when.
- Was that you?

- Huh?
- You're rubbing your hands?

Was that you?
- No no.

- Who was it?
- I don't know.

- You did it that?
- What? [laughing]

Well put them down
now, what's then

that's fucking 11 then.

[tense music]

And he just burst out laughing
and rubbed his hand said,

we said, "Well, was it you?"

"Oh, well put it down.

Put it down.

That's 11."

And you think, well, "What
the hell is going on?"

[tense music]

His audience, the
detectives are engaged,

he's got to 11 murders.

The more engaged they are,

the more he notches
that performance up.

[Ian] Kelly, have you done
anything else you want

to tell us about?

[Kelly] I forget now, honestly.

[Ian] Is there that many, Kelly?

[Kelly] There is boss,
but I'm doing the,

my brain has been mithered.

I don't murder, I don't
mean murdered but mithered.

[Ian] By alcohol?

[Kelly] Yeah, and I
go and deal with him-

[Ian] Well, you haven't had
a drink for a few days now.

[Kelly] I don't give a fuck.

[Ian] Now, when
you've had a drink

you don't give a
damn what you do?

[Kelly] Yeah.

Could he really have done
all these terrible things

that he claims?

Is it credible?

[tense music]

The impact of drinking
alcohol for a sustained

length of time at
such a high level,

certainly impacts the memory.

I think whether it's
a diagnosed psychosis

or the long-term
impact from that,

memory recall can
very much be impaired.

[tense music]

He'd stabbed somebody
in Bournemouth.

Well, that was never traced.

He then named another tramp

that he killed, and exactly
the right circumstances.

He'd hit him over
the head with a brick

and he'd gone down to a
basement down some steps.

The autopsy on him
was accidental death

because he got wounds on
his head, but he was a drunk

and he'd fallen down the steps.

[recorder clicking]

Everybody's identities
are obscured,

and the police aren't
really interested

because you're off the
streets and you're in parks

and you're to your own group.

They're getting this kind
of like wandering confession

of murder from Kelly
that spans 30 years.

[tense music]

They never got investigated

'cause it's difficult
to investigate them.

They wouldn't be able
to classify them.

Like there wasn't like
scientific stuff like now.

You know, people used to rot
in them derelict buildings.

They'd die without violence.

You know, the rats
would start eating them.

People often did go missing

and they'd be never seen again.

They were lost into this
kind of street life.

[tense music]

Nearly everybody had
some sort of nickname

and a name like
Kelly's very common.

And if you are Keiran Kelly,

there's probably a couple
of dozen of them around,

so they'll have
to have a nickname

so you'd know which one
you're talking about.

When you live on the streets,

you've got to be in constant
fight or flight mode.

I'm either going to run
or I'm going to fight.

And Kelly was in
constant fight mode.

That was what worked for him.

That's what he saw as being
successful on the streets.

Kelly admitted all these
murders, all these victims.

We don't know how many he did.

I don't think he
knew how many he did.

He just kept throwing out names,

he walked off and didn't know
if they were alive or dead,

we just don't know how
many victims there were.

We definitely knew
there were two.

The whole object became
Let's just get him put away.

We need him convicted
and sent to prison.

He can't get out of two murders.

That's two life sentences.

And that'll do.

[tense music]

Why he got away
with it that long.

When you are actually
on the drugs and that,

yeah you're more vulnerable,

you are more susceptible
to everything.

Even though there's times
you're around other people,

you are alone.

You're very isolated.

You feel that, that's the most
prominent thing about being

on the streets, is
that loneliness.

And you are just trying to
survive by any means necessary.

You don't recognise the law
in the same way, do you?

You just recognise surviving.

That is a really natural
praying ground for people

that want to do
things like that.

[dramatic music]

Ultimately, we charged Kelly
with, obviously, the murder

in the cell, of William Boyd
and also the murder of Fisher.

McManus was the witness
to the murder in the cell,

and McManus was
out getting drunk,

and I actually gave
McManus two pounds a week

providing he came to the
police station on a Friday,

and for the whole time,
Kelly was awaiting trial.

He religiously came every
Friday for his two pound.

[dramatic orchestral music]

Kelly would come in and
we'd interview him again,

much more lucid, less alcohol
in his, his body then,

because he'd been in custody,
he admitted more cases

or gave us more facts

about the cases he'd
already told us about,

the murders he'd committed.

If I wanted to interview Kelly,

I would send a young
apprentice detective

to Brixton Prison to collect
Kelly and bring him back

for his interview, and then he
would be returned to Prison.

And the guy that I used for this

was a guy called Geoff Platt,

who actually started
all this going

by writing a book

called "The London
Underground Serial Killer".

[dramatic orchestral music]

Suddenly you are struck
that Keiran Patrick Kelly

is standing next to them,
he was seen by Policeman

at the scene next to the body.

"You start to think, Well, maybe
he is telling us the truth."

In the 1980s, you know,
when Kieran clearly says

he was killing people by
pushing him in front of trains,

you wouldn't have had
that CCTV coverage.

However very few London
underground stations

are what you would
call a remote location

where nobody's around
to see what happens.

Most of the London
underground stations

are busy right around the
clock, even late at night,

early in the morning, most
of the underground starts

about five a.m.,
finishes about midnight,

lots of witnesses around.

And there's also
underground, you know,

station staff around.

And there are, most
critical of all really,

are the Tube train drivers
who've gotta have, you know,

the best view possible of
the events taking place

in front of them.

And if they aren't
all saying, yeah,

somebody was pushed
in front of my train,

my argument is it didn't happen.

I mean, the Kelly Case
never hit the headlines,

most probably because
of who he was,

what he was and his victims,

because they were the
hidden society, if you like,

the people that people
didn't want to know existed.

It wasn't until the book came
out with an absolute load

of rubbish about how
the police had conspired

with the home office
to stop people knowing

about this man who
was running around

pushing people under trains.

The detail of it sounded
quite convincing,

I'm not quite sure why no
action was taken at the time?

[Speaker] They said at the
time apparently the detective

was told that it
was something to do

with the Home office not
wishing to spread panic.

But I do wonder if
its an investigation

you might consider
reopening then?

Well, first of all
that's an off reason.

I find that not very
persuasive if I am honest-

I just don't believe,

I can't say I don't
believe it I just find,

I'll take some persuading
about the reason.

[tense music]

I'm quite surprised that
this former police officer

who wrote the book

should take at face value
the confessions of Kelly,

because if it's done properly,

you should get that person
to go back and say, well,

who did you murder?

What exactly did you do?

When did it happen?

Where did it happen?

How did it happen?

I want detail, detail, detail.

I want absolutely
forensic detail.

In the case of
Kelly, he's vague.

He can't talk about specifics
and the devil is always

in the detail.

[tense music]

We went to the Old Bailey
and McManus turned up,

or we got him there.

We had to clean him
up, put him in a suit,

make him presentable.

We thought he ought
to have a tie.

So, he actually wore that tie

to give evidence at the
old Bailey against Kelly.

Kelly appeared at the old
Bailey later that year,

first for the murder
of Hector Fisher,

where he is tried for murder
and convicted of murder.

Jury found him guilty.

And then a second trial,
which was for the murder

of William Boyd in
Clapham Police Station.

The jury couldn't
come to a decision,

so the judge gave them the
alternative of finding him guilty

of manslaughter, and
they returned a verdict

of guilty for manslaughter.

He was sent off to Brixton.

[tense music]

I'd heard about the murder

in the police station cell
as soon as it happened.

It was news in the paper.

The prison was locked
down, we had to go

to the gate because they
brought him to reception.

I went to the gate and we
brought in Kieran Kelly,

who had just been released
by the police from Clapham.

He was not an aggressive person.

He just came in and he wasn't
in handcuffs or anything,

he just walked in.

Just an ordinary little fella.

He would just mingling.

You wouldn't even notice him.

He was just easy going.

The governor knew him,
having been in Brixton

many, many times.

Mainly drunk and
disorderly and things,

fights and things, whatever.

And the governor said to him,

"What the hell have
you been up to?"

He'd committed a murder.

So he would ultimately go
into the hospital wing.

They're all doctors there,
and they just assess him,

talk to them, and if
they had no problems,

they're located in the wing.

He'd be assessed on the wing

and he'd probably be kept
in one of the rooms of pads

that was just for safety
for the prison itself.

I think that in some ways
that the time of Kelly spent

in prison was most probably
the happiest of his life,

because he had
somewhere to live.

He wasn't drinking,
he was eating.

He had company.

[dramatic music]

Kelly was no fool.

He was devious.

He was cunning, but
he wasn't stupid.

They loved to be in Brixton

because they got
three meals a day,

and it was full board and they
didn't need to do anything.

[dramatic music]

Kieran Kelly might've
been ready to go to prison

where he was guaranteed a bed
with a blanket every night

and three-square meals.

And that might've been
just all he all he wanted,

because there was no
real remorse in terms

of what Kelly was admitting to.

[gentle music]

Killers are usually motivated
by one of four things.

It could be anger, it could
be power, it could be lust,

or it could be financial.

And he's definitely
motivated by the anger,

and it's not just
any type of anger.

It's an extreme rage
that he has in him.

So it doesn't take much
for that rage to erupt.

[ominous music]

In terms of the intermittent
explosive disorder,

I think that also explains
why he doesn't stay around

to see if his victims are dead.

His priority is to
get rid of his rage.

If someone happens to die
because of that, then so be it.

[ominous music]

We do know that certainly
in two instances

in the early 1980s,
Kieran Kelly was proven

to have pushed two
people onto train lines

of the London
Underground Network.

So, this is something
that Kieran Kelly did

and was proven to do.

He was out of sight, out
of mind, so to speak,

because of the subculture
in which he lived in.

He's working
underneath the radar

and getting away with
it for a very long time.

Both Kelly and his
victims were underground,

and that is why it
did go on for so long.

There was no real
identity to these people.

They will have probably
not be in contact

with their families, not
have any kind of paper trail,

be lost to drugs, alcohol.

The whole case is underground.

[dramatic music]

There was a thing
called the Vagrancy Act.

Police could arrest you
for merely being homeless.

It was a different
policing environment then.

And, you know, they were
considered to be vagrants,

were considered to be, you
know, a very low form of life.

[dramatic music]

The social divide and
keeping yourself hidden,

was a lot more important
then, with the legal threat

of vagrancy and the
stigma attached,

people made themselves more
invisible in some ways, I think.

My view of homeless people
before I was homeless

was naive, no.

Oh, most of them
want to be there.

They put themselves there,
and they deserve it.

I didn't want to be there.

But I was just, I couldn't
think of, I knew as long

as I was an addict, that's
all that was important to me.

And the streets offers that.

It offers that you can just
focus all your resources

on just being an addict,

but then you just get trapped
in this vicious circle.

That time the psychology
was different.

We knew we were winos,
it was against the law.

Begging was against the law.

Everything was against
the law, sleeping rough.

So you, you just, there was
no other, you accepted it,

you didn't like it,
but that was the law.

Yeah I think there's
a lot more compassion

or understanding or
acceptance nowadays.

There's a lot more people, well,

the society is more
fractional, fractionalized.

So it's become more
accepted, I think, anyway.

I mean obviously
you still get sort

of an angry response
occasionally

or people will be
abrupt or abusive,

but I didn't find
that very often.

There's a lot more support,

consideration for
people's mental health.

You learn a lot of humility
being on the streets,

and you learn that you don't
need so much that alone,

that in itself is an addiction.

Just going out and buying
or you're trying to,

there's better ways to
fulfilling that emptiness

in your life and you
use them, you know.

[tense music]

This London underground network

was essentially a
killing field for Kelly,

the man who just murdered
somebody in the cells

and had now confessed
to a spree of murders

across 30 years,

this was something that
the police were forced

to take very seriously.

[tense music]

When I heard about this
supposed serial killer,

the first thing that I thought
was, if he's a serial killer,

how come I've
never heard of him.

1983, I was at the
height of my career.

I thought to myself, there's
gotta be some mistake here.

You know if this really

was a serial killer
investigation,

it would've been
headlines everywhere.

And clearly it wasn't.

So there has to be
a reason for that.

[tense music]

When you're killing people
who no one cares about,

no one cares about them.

So, there's no real need
to follow up or investigate

or respond and whether
it's a serial killer

or whether it's a
one-off, the coroner

or whoever investigated a death

would've probably passed it
off as something as simple

as possible so it
wouldn't take up finances

or time or energy resources.

Yeah, it's disappointing,
isn't it really?

[dramatic orchestral music]

An unnamed anonymous
rough sleeper

is found dead
somewhere in London.

You're not gonna get
television crews descending

on the scene to find
out what happened.

They're just not, it's
just a fact of life.

There's no great
interest in that.

And I would say that it's
entirely possible that for a man

like Kieran Kelly
could, could have killed

more than once in his life.

[dramatic orchestral music]

How many murders
did Kelly commit?

Nobody really knows.

Nobody will ever know.

He died in 2001
in Durham Prison.

[dramatic orchestral music]

In the first interview,

we talked to Kelly about the
robbery from the old bloke up

in Clapham high street,
and Kelly had put his hand

under his tongue and pulled
out the ring and said,

"You better have that."

and laid it on the
table and gave it to me.

Two days later when
we interview Kelly,

the third time he
demands the ring back.

I mean you were arrested
over the ring, weren't ya?

[Kelly] No.

[Ian] What were
arrested for originally?

[Kelly] Yeah.

[Ian] Right, so the ring
is an exhibit to show

why you got arrested.

All right.

It's for a court to decide
whether you stole it

or whether you didn't-

[Kelly] I'm pleading not
guilty to the whole lot.

[Ian] All right.

[Kelly] That's it, I'm
not guilty to this one.

So you can go now and chase,

chase all your- -
All right Kelly.

[Kelly] All right, that's it.

Sorry.

That's the way it stays.

You can chase, I am not guilty
to the murder in this cell.

- Because of the ring?
- What?

[Ian] Because we won't
give you the ring?

[Kelly] I am not
guilty to the murder

of the man down in this cell.

[Ian] And you're saying that

because we won't
give you the ring?

[tense music]

The interview
concluded at 5:20 p.m.

Kelly returned to the
cells, tape switched off.

[Speaker] Identify Yourselves.

[Adams] Detective Chief
Superintendent Adams

in the presence of
Detective Inspector Brown.

[tape clicking]

[tense music]

[tense music]