Body Parts Murderer Hanged
Friday, 19th April 1996
John Martin Scripps, age 36, became the first Westerner to be hanged in Singapore for murder and only the second for any offence. Known as the Body Parts Murder, British national John Martin killed a South African Gerard George Lowe at River View Hotel. The body was dismembered and dumped at the Singapore River.
John Martin Scripps, a butcher by trade, he used his profession to grisly ends after he targeted three people in the Far East. Amazingly they were all foreigners like him. But that was all part of the grand plan. You see he was after their money and credit cards. And so to that end, in Singapore he managed to nab a tourist from South Africa, plus a mother and son from Canada who were visiting Thailand. But he is believed to have also targeted a fellow Brit in Central America. Why, because Scripps is said to have siphoned funds from the dead person’s bank account.
The murders were truly gruesome, with body parts popping up all over the place, getting washed ashore in bin bags along Singapore harbour. It was like something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with headless torsos, alongside a pair of legs, only to be followed a few days later by a set of thighs etc all butchered with precision.
Scripps became the second Westerner to be hanged in Singapore and the last Brit to date to be hanged since Britain stopped doling out capital punishment in 1964.