The World - News from July 31, 1986

A drifter suspected of being London’s “Stockwell Strangler” was charged with two of the eight murders linked to the serial killer. Kenneth Erskine, 23, was accused in the slayings of Janet Cockett and William Downes--two of the elderly victims strangled in their beds in South London since April, police said. Erskine was arrested in the rundown Brixton neighborhood of South London on Monday. The “Stockwell Strangler” was named after South London’s Stockwell neighborhood, where five of the victims were found. The eight victims--ranging in age from 68 to 94--all lived alone.