Towpath murders

The towpath murders was a case in which two teenage girls were murdered on the towpath near Teddington Lock in Richmond upon Thames, London, England, on 31 May 1953. Alfred Charles Whiteway (1931 – 22 December 1953) was found guilty and hanged for the murders, which attracted much press attention, the case being described at the time as "one of Scotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".

At the trial, defence counsel Peter Rawlinson had subjected lead detective Herbert Hannam to what was at the time considered a very sharp cross-examination on Whiteway's contention that the main evidence against him had been manufactured by police.