John Martin Scripps: The serial killer who murdered a tourist in Singapore
Known as the ‘Garden City Butcher’, and the ‘Tourist From Hell’, John Martin Scripps was an infamous criminal who murdered three tourists in Singapore and Thailand.
He was thought to have killed three more victims in Belize, Mexico, and the United States (US) — though this was never confirmed.
Scripps’ identified victims were Gerard Lowe, and Sheila and Darin Damude, whose bodies were dismembered before being disposed.
His murder of Gerard Lowe, a tourist in Singapore, in 1995, was said to be “one of the most grisly” ever seen in the Republic.
Scripps was arrested for his crimes and sentenced to death by hanging, making him the first Briton given the death sentence since Singapore’s independence.
An early life of crime
Born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, the United Kingdom (UK), Scripps was raised in a single-parent household after his father passed away.
In 1974, a 14-year-old Scripps was convicted of his first crime, burglary, and sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge by the youth court.
Scripps then left school at the tender age of 15 and started to travel, funding his journeys through odd jobs and selling antiques.
Source: Serial Killer Database Wiki
Throughout his youth and young adult life, Scripps persisted in stealing and burgling.
This continuous return to crime led to the failure of his relationship with his wife, MarÃa Pilar Arellanos, who he married in 1980.
Linked to 1.5 kilograms of heroin found in Singapore bank
Scripps would soon get involved in the illicit drug trade, smuggling heroin between Asia and Europe for a criminal group.
In 1987, he was arrested at Heathrow Airport for two drug offences.
During his arrest, British police found a key on him which belonged to a safe-deposit box in a bank on Orchard Road.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in Singapore subsequently discovered 1.5 kilograms of heroin worth about $1 million (S$1.35 million) stashed in the safe.
Scripps was sentenced to seven years in jail by Southwark Crown Court in January 1988.
In July 1992, the Winchester Crown Court extended his sentence by six more years after he attempted an escape.
While incarcerated, Scripps learned how to slaughter and dismember animals as a butcher — a skill that he would later put to nefarious use.
Scripps was meant to have stayed in jail until 2001, but the convicted criminal evaded authorities yet again in October 1994.
Ends up in Singapore after fleeing prison
Scrips pulled his escape while on home leave, using the birth certificate of another inmate to obtain a passport under his name ‘Simon Davis’.
Within a month of escaping, he surfaced in Mexico.
He told the British Embassy there that he had lost his passport and managed to get a replacement under the name ‘John Martin’.
35-year-old Scripps arrived in Changi Airport from San Francisco at around 2am on 8 March 1995 — the same day that Gerard Lowe, a South African design engineer was in Singapore for a holiday.
Little did he know the trip would be his last.
Source: LifeTime Asia on YouTube
After arriving at Changi Airport, Mr Lowe was approached by Scripps who struck up a conversation with him and suggested to share a room.
As a thrifty man who had never been to Singapore before, Mr Lowe readily agreed.
The pair then booked Room 1511 in the River View Hotel off Havelock Road, where Scripps would commit the unthinkable.
Source: Google Maps
Scripps murders South African tourist in Havelock hotel
Scripps took his victim by surprise in the hotel room, immobilising Mr Lowe with an electrical stun gun and handcuffs.
He then struck him in the head with 1.5kg camping hammer several times.
When he believed that Mr Lowe was dead, Scripps began to dismember his victim’s corpse in the bathtub with two Police brand and two Swiss Army knives.
Within an hour, he had removed the head, arms, thighs, and legs.
Scripps stored the body parts in trash bags — placing one into his suitcase and another one in a smaller bag, which he hid inside the wardrobe.
He then rummaged through Mr Lowe’s things, stealing his passport and credit card.
Uses victim’s money for shopping and leisure
The next morning, Scripps asked a hotel receptionist to remove Mr Lowe’s name from the room registration system.
He claimed that he had kicked his roommate out the previous night for being a homosexual.
Later that day, Scripps forged Lowe’s signature and used his credit card to withdraw S$8,775 from a bank at Raffles City shopping centre.
Over the next few days, he took out another S$2,400 using the same technique.
Scripps also bought a S$499 video recorder, which he sent to his sister in England, and a S$180 pair of Nike shoes using Lowe’s credit card.
He even attended a Singapore Symphony Orchestra performance.
During the cleaning of Room 1511 on 9 and 10 March, a chambermaid noticed nothing unusual apart from a strange smell in the bathroom and near the wardrobe.
However, she did not investigate the matter further.
On 11 March, before checking out, Scripps dumped the suitcase containing his victim’s body parts into the Singapore River near the hotel.
He later paid a visit to a Thomas Cook travel agency office in Anson Road to make a transfer of S$8,500 in cash and $5,000 (S$6,786) in converted traveller’s cheques to a bank account in San Francisco.
Scripps then bought a S$485 return ticket to Phuket via Bangkok, and left Singapore that same evening at 7pm.
Body parts found floating near Clifford Pier
On 13 March 1995, a pair of legs, severed at the knees, was discovered in a plastic bag floating near Clifford Pier.
Three days later, a pair of thighs and a torso were found in the same area, also in a plastic bag surfacing from the murky waters.
A senior forensic pathologist would later remark that the body parts had been skilfully dismantled, suggesting that the killer might have had professional training, either as a doctor, surgeon, veterinarian, or butcher.
Source: LifeTime Asia on YouTube
Initially, Singapore police could only confirm that the body parts belonged to a Caucasian person.
However, after receiving a missing person report for Gerard Lowe from the South African High Commission, they had a possible name.
Mr Lowe’s wife filed the report after her husband — who usually made daily contact when traveling — had not called or returned home by 12 March.
Investigators found that Mr Lowe had checked into the River View Hotel with a man named Simon Davis on 8 March but ‘Simon’ checked out alone on 11 March.
Officers later discovered blood on wall tiles, the door, and on the underside of the toilet bowl of the room they stayed in.
They would also uncover a paper trail based on the Singapore transactions made with Mr Lowe’s credit card.
Police obtained the suspect’s photograph from his passport application at the British High Commission, where Scripps had previously applied for a new passport after claiming to have lost his old one.
They then awaited to place him under arrest once he returned from Thailand, where Scripps would continue with his killing spree.
Killed two Canadian tourists in Thailand
During his stay in Thailand, Scripps befriended two tourists from Canada, Sheila Mae Damude, and her son, Darin Jon Damude.
The trio had met during their flight from Bangkok to Phuket on 15 March, and stayed at Nilly’s Marina Inn near Patong Beach.
Sheila and Darin were staying in Room 43, while Scripps was in Room 48.
Source: Lars Bindholt on YouTube
The next morning, after breakfast, the Damudes were never seen again.
At around 11 am, Scripps asked the receptionist to switch his room to Room 43 — claiming the Damudes had left and that he would cover their bill.
He occupied his victims’ room until leaving for Singapore on 19 March, when he was arrested at Changi Airport.
That same day, the Damudes’ skulls were found in a disused tin mine in Kathu district, Phuket.
Source: Murder Media
A torso, along with a pair of arms and legs, were discovered along a road five days later, about 9.7km away from the mine.
The remains were so badly decomposed that visual identification was impossible.
The Royal Thai Police used dental records to confirm the deceaseds’ identities, while forensic analysis suggested that the torso, arms, and legs likely belonged to Sheila. The rest of Darin’s body was never found.
Scripps faces murder charge in Singapore
During his arrest in Singapore, police found five additional passports in Scripps’ possession — two British passports belonging to ‘Simon Davis’, two Canadian passports belonging to Sheila and Darin Damude, and a South African passport issued to Gerard Lowe.
All the passports had Scripps’ photograph attached to them.
Source: Crimewatch 1996: S1E5
They also recovered credit cards belonging to Sheila Damude and Gerard Lowe, as well as Simon Davis’ birth certificate.
Alongside the stolen documents, officers uncovered a collection of weapons and tools.
These included a 1.5kg hammer, a battery-operated Z-Force III electroshock weapon, a can of mace, two pairs of handcuffs, a pair of thumbcuffs, two Police-brand foldable knives, an oilstone, and two Swiss Army knives.
Source: LifeTime Asia on YouTube
While being interviewed by police at Changi Airport, Scripps attempted suicide by smashing a glass panel and trying to cut his wrist.
He feared that he would be hanged like Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino national executed just two days earlier for a double murder.
Scripps sustained a minor cut to his vein and was taken to Alexandra Hospital for treatment.
On 21 March 1995, he was brought to court under the name Simon James Davis on an initial charge of forgery.
He was accused of forging Gerard Lowe’s signature on a DBS Bank credit card transaction slip to withdraw S$6,000 in cash on 9 March.
Three days later, Scripps was officially charged under his real name with the murder of Gerard Lowe.
Additional charges were later brought against him, including five more counts of forgery, vandalism, possession of an offensive weapon, and possession of a controlled drug.
Gerard Lowe’s wife arrived in Singapore on 28 March to identify her husband’s remains.
The deceased’s arms and head were never found.
Scripps linked to more mysterious disapperances
Scripps was linked to several mysterious disappearances while being detained in Singapore, including those of two British men.
One man disappeared in Belize in 1995. His dismembered body was later discovered in a river teeming with crocodiles.
The other man vanished a year earlier in the vibrant tourist destination of Cancun, Mexico.
Investigators found that money from his accounts had been traced back to Scripps, raising further suspicions about his involvement.
He was also wanted by American authorities for the 1994 murder of a male prostitute, whose dismembered body was discovered in a dumpster.
On 18 September 1995, a district court in Singapore held a preliminary inquiry to assess whether there was enough evidence for a trial.
After reviewing testimonies from 39 witnesses and examining over 100 exhibits and photographs presented by the prosecution, the magistrate ruled that Scripps would stand trial for Gerard Lowe’s murder on 2 October.
At the High Court trial, 77 witnesses were set to testify, including eight from overseas.
Among them were Mr Lowe’s wife, his sister Ms Terry Gillet, and a British forensic scientist. The rest were mostly police officers, hotel staff, and local experts.
Scripps accused deceased of sexually harrassing him during trial
Before the trial, Scripps claimed he killed Lowe in self-defense.
He said he woke up in his hotel room to find Lowe in his underwear, touching his buttocks.
Scripps, believing that Lowe was homosexual, kicked him away.
He then alleged that the deceased was angered by the rejection and threw a hammer at him which landed on his stomach.
It was under these circumstances that he grabbed the hammer and struck Lowe several times on the head, killing him.
Subsequently, he fled to a friend’s hotel in Sentosa, where he confessed to accidentally killing Lowe.
Scripps told prosecutors that his friend disposed of Lowe’s body in the Singapore River.
He said he didn’t remember much after the incident, describing it as a blur.
On 15 March, Scripps flew to Phuket and met his friend again, who gave him the passports and belongings of the Damudes, whom he allegedly never met.
Scripps refused to identify his friend, claiming it was a drug trafficker who had once employed him as a drug courier.
He also alleged that his friend would harm his family in Britain if he had given away his name.
Denied killing tourists in Phuket
In court, Scripps remarked that he wasn’t normally a violent person. He said:
I may have worked in the butchery at a prison, but cutting up a human body is another thing.
Scripps told the court that when he saw photos of Mr Lowe’s body parts, it made him feel sick.
He argued that he had only killed Mr Lowe in a panic, as he was tramautised by similar encounters in prison in Israel in 1978 and in England in 1994.
When prosecutors asked him what happened after he killed Lowe, Scripps said he couldn’t remember because he drank heavily and took Valium, an anxiety medication, until he was arrested.
Scripps insisted he didn’t kill the Damudes and said he returned to Singapore from Phuket to ease his conscience over Lowe’s death.
However, the prosecution questioned his memory loss and the logic of his claims.
They pointed out that despite being under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he was still able to write neatly and forge signatures in a similar way on the memo pad he used while in Phuket.
Existence of mysterious ‘friend’ questioned in court
DPP Jennifer Marie challenged Scripps’ story, arguing that his mysterious friend didn’t exist.
She presented evidence that he had signed a restaurant bill at the River View Hotel on the night of 8 March, which contradicted his claim of being at his friend’s hotel in Sentosa.
The prosecution also used statements from two hotel chambermaids, who noticed a “strange smell” in room 1511 while cleaning the room between 9 and 11 March, as evidence.
They additionally presented a statement from a hotel security guard who saw Scripps leaving the hotel with a large suitcase early on the morning of 11 March, and then returning without it 15 minutes later.
These details were used to suggest that Mr Lowe’s body had been stored in the hotel room for several days before Scripps disposed of it himself.
Prosecution rebuts claim of self-defense
The prosecution argued that Scripps had planned the murders for financial gain, linking the deaths of the Damudes and Mr Lowe.
They highlighted similarities in how he approached his victims, the methods he used to kill them, and how he handled their belongings and documents. These patterns suggested that Scripps was not acting in self-defense but was deliberately committing murder for money.
Receipts from his shopping spree using Lowe’s credit card further proved premeditation, contradicting his claim of being in a “dream world” after the killing.
Source: LifeTime Asia on YouTube
Additionally, Scripps had admitted to forging passport copies with his own photo to cash traveler’s cheques, reinforcing the prosecution’s case that his actions were financially driven.
Scripps found guilty and sentenced to death
On 7 November 1995, the trial was paused for three days for review before the verdict.
When the trial resumed, the judge ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond doubt and rejected Scripps’ account of events.
The British convict was found guilty and sentenced to death.
On 15 November, Scripps stated that he would appeal his death sentence.
However, on 4 January 1996, he withdrew the appeal without providing any explanation.
Source: LifeTime Asia on YouTube
In the days leading up to his execution, Scripps wrote a series of misspelled notes expressing a sense of “emptiness” inside him.
He lamented that no one had ever loved him except for his family and his ex-wife, MarÃa.
His mother was deeply upset about his execution, blaming the prison system for shaping him into the person he had become.
She believed that authorities had no right to end her son’s life.
However, no formal protest was made to stop the hanging.
‘They won’t hang me, I’m British’: John Martin Scripps
Just four days before his execution, Scripps gave an interview to criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee, where he provided a detailed account of how he killed Gerard Lowe and then dismembered his body.
“They won’t hang me, I’m British,” said Scripps. These would be his last known words before facing the gallows.
Source: Murder Media
On 19 April 1996, 36-year-old John Martin Scripps was hanged in Changi Prison after a last meal of pizza and hot chocolate.
His execution took place alongside two Singaporean heroin traffickers Richard Low Gee Boon and Lee Meng Hong.
Upon his death, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Royal Thai Police closed the Damudes case.
When Scripps’ ex-wife MarÃa learned about his execution, she said she could not believe he had begun killing people.
Her last memory of him was a message he had sent, promising that they would meet in the next life and that he would never let her go again.
At the time of his execution, Scripps became the first Briton to be executed in Singapore since its independence in 1959.
He was also among the first Europeans to receive the death penalty here.
On 31 January 1997, eight police officers were honoured with commemorative plaques by Barry Carin, the High Commissioner for Canada in Singapore, for their key contributions to Scripps conviction.
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Featured image adapted from Serial Killer Database Wiki and LifeTime Asia on YouTube.
