The Royal Navy ‘Frankenstein’ serial killer who battered two young men to death with baseball bat: How petty officer Allan Grimson is now linked to 20 killings
By Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent For Mailonline[1]
Published: 09:58, 17 January 2024 | Updated: 10:10, 17 January 2024
The crimes for which the Royal Navy's so-called 'Frankenstein Killer' has already been convicted[2] are horrific enough - but the truth may be darker still.
Allan Grimson, who gained the moniker for his large forehead and hulking 6ft 2in frame, is serving a life sentence for battering two young Navy recruits to death with a baseball bat.
He is long suspected to have also killed Simon Parkes, an 18-year-old Rating who disappeared in Gibraltar in December 1986 - and police are this week digging up a car park in a new hunt for his body.
But his offending is believed to be even more widespread, with police linking him to 20 other unsolved killings stretching from the UK to New Zealand[3].
Experts are in no doubt about Grimson's boundless capacity for evil, with a psychiatrist describing him as the most dangerous psychopath out of the 250 he had examined.
Allan Grimson - dubbed the Frankenstein Killer - has been convicted of two murders but linked to many more
Grimson was sentenced to life for killing Nicholas Wright (left), 18, on December 12, 1997. He also admitted murdering Sion Jenkins (right), 20, exactly a year later, on December 12, 1998
Simon Parkes, a teenager from Bristol, was last seen in December 1986 and is believed to be another of Grimson's victims
Labelled the 'Royal Navy's Dennis Nilsen' after the serial killer who slaughtered at least 12 young men and boys, Grimson murdered Nicholas Wright, 18, on December 12, 1997, and Sion Jenkins, 20, exactly 12 months later.[4]
The homosexual firefighting instructor lured each victim back to his Portsmouth flat, where he battered them both to death with a baseball bat after they rejected his sexual advances. He then buried them in roadside graves.
While he had denied his murders had a sexual element, he told police that killing was 'better than sex' and admitted to scouring the ranks of trainees and cadets so he could dominate and kill the best looking ones.
But detectives suspect Grimson began his spree with 18-year-old radio operator Simon Parkes' murder before then carrying on killing.
The naval rating from Bristol was serving on aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious with Grimson in 1986.
He was one of hundreds of crewmen who left the ship when it docked in Gibraltar on December 12. But unlike his shipmates, he never returned.
Despite numerous searches over the years, the 18-year-old's body has never been found and he is presumed to have been murdered. Grimson, who preyed on young men, was serving on Illustrious at the time and is the prime suspect.
Hampshire Constabulary this week said it is now carrying out a 'small amount of further excavation work' at the Town Range Car Park in Gibraltar in connection with Simon's disappearance.
The force added that it will be 'carrying out the work... during the week of 15 January' and the activity is part of its work to 'assess a new line of enquiry' that has recently emerged.
Chillingly, Mr Parkes' disappearance came exactly 11 years before the murder of fellow sailor, Mr Wright and 12 years before the killing of Mr Jenkins - who was raped, tied up in the bath and beaten to death.
Detectives believe the date of December 12 in all three cases is an unlikely coincidence.
'The link between Grimson and December 12 is unclear, but it could be the death of a relative, pet or some matter inconsequential to the rest of us but important in the evil mind of Allan Grimson,' retired Met detective chief inspector Mick Neville told The Sun.
Police are this week excavating part of a car park in Gibraltar as part of a hunt for Mr Parkes' body
Mr Parkes (pictured) had gone to shore in Gibraltar on December 12 but unlike many of hundreds of other crewmen, he never returned to the ship.
Born in Suffolk, in 1959, but raised on Tyneside, where he still has family, it emerged during his trial that Grimson had always loathed his 'ugliness' and suffered low self-esteem.
When he became a firefighting instructor in the Navy, he told police after his arrest, he would run his gaze over young recruits lined up before him, single out the handsome ones, and set about trying to seduce them.
In a BBC documentary screened in 2005, detectives were said to have had information that he committed a string of murders annually over a 10-year period.
Allegedly, the murder spree had begun after his advances were humiliatingly rejected by a young sailor.
It's believed Grimson might have been referring to Mr Parkes, whose mother Margaret Parkes insisted - with '100 per cent' certainty - was not gay.
In the TV documentary, it was said that, after a pause of some seconds, Grimson withdrew this bombshell 'confession' to being a prolific serial killer.
Grimon's first confirmed victim was 18-year-old seaman Mr Wright, who he lured back to his flat and bludgeoned with a baseball bat before slitting his throat, hacking off part of his ear and performing a sex act over the body.
Grimson claimed the young man had spurned his attempted seduction, telling police how he punched the air in triumph and gave out a roar as he launched his brutal attack.
'It was such a feeling. I have never had that feeling. It was a feeling of power, a good feeling.
I felt good about it,' he told police.
The following day he wrapped Nicholas's body in bin liners and buried it near Cheriton, Hampshire, in a shallow grave off the A272.
Precisely 12 months later, he murdered Sion Jenkins, 20 - who had left the Navy to become a barman - in a similarly horrific manner.
He hoped the killing would provide a similar thrill, but on that occasion, he said, he 'felt nothing'.
Grimson and Mr Parkes were both serving on aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (pictured) when the teenager vanished
Simon Parkes' parents David and Margaret Parkes.
Simon is believed to have been killed by Grimson in Gibraltar in December 1986
The bodies of these two men were not found for two years. But then, in 1999, Hampshire police re-examined their disappearances and questioned Grimson. They had learned that Nicholas had complained to his parents, shortly before he went missing, that the fire instructor had been pestering him sexually.
Almost immediately Grimson admitted murdering Nicholas, and led detectives to his remains, which had lain undiscovered in the undergrowth near a busy road in Hampshire. 'There is one more body,' he then told the stunned officers.
They were led to another lonely spot, a few miles away, where Mr Jenkins' body had been dumped.
Detectives then began exploring the possibility he might have killed many more young men, looking into the disappearances of some 20 sailors, visiting ports around the world where he had been ashore while teaching on former naval flagship Illustrious and the Type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh.
Grimson is also said to have had had a Manchester United season ticket which he is suspected to have used as a cover to travel the country seeking victims.
One former colleague told The Sun: 'He never actually went to games. It was a cover for something else.
'He would make sandwiches and take a flask and then go and seek out young homeless boys in different cities.'
And although Grimson repeatedly denied murdering Simon, police said they found circumstantial evidence to suggest he may be lying.
Grimson claimed to have 'felt good' after killing his victims
When Mr Parkes was last sighted, at around 10.30pm, he is said to have been drinking in the same pub as Grimson, The Horseshoe (pictured)
When Simon was last sighted, at around 10.30pm, he is said to have been drinking in the same pub as Grimson, The Horseshoe.
A fellow crew member also claimed to have walked back to the ship with Grimson and a man resembling Simon.
The witness reportedly said that, on reaching the aircraft carrier, the two men decided to return to town, leaving the other crew member to board alone. But when he was interviewed, 13 years later, he said he could not be certain it was Simon.
During Grimson's 2001 trial for the murders of Sion and Nicholas, Mr Justice Cresswell told him: 'You are a serial killer in nature, if not in number.'
When sentencing the twisted killer, the judge added: 'You are a highly dangerous serial killer who killed two young men in horrifying circumstances.'
In 2002, The Sunday Mirror reported that Grimson had confessed to killing Mr Parkes but refused to say where the teenage sailor's body was.
He later denied killing him.
In 2019, his heartbroken mother Margaret revealed she had written to the caged killer begging to know what happened to her son, but Grimson again denied any involvement.
Grimson's murder spree allegedly began after his advances were humiliatingly rejected by a young sailor.
It's believed Grimson might have been referring to Mr Parkes (pictured), whose mother says - with '100 per cent' certainty - was not gay
'I wouldn't want him to be out. I think he's a dangerous person. How can someone with that mentality change?' Mrs Parkes said.
Grimson was initially given a minimum 22-year prison term, which was extended to 25 years by then Home Secretary David Blunkett.
But the Court of Appeal later reduced it back to 22 years because of the time Grimson spent on remand and his guilty pleas.
MailOnline revealed last year that Grimson has been given a parole date after serving 22 years behind bars for the two murders.
He is due to go before the Parole Board in February.
A release could then follow within weeks if green-lit by justice chiefs.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said in a statement: 'Officers investigating the disappearance of a young sailor more than 30 years ago are carrying out a small amount of further excavation work at Town Range Car Park in Gibraltar[5] as we follow a potential further line of enquiry.
'A working group led by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary comprised of detectives and specially trained search officers both from the police and military, will be carrying out the work in Gibraltar during the week of 15 January as we continue to investigate what happened to Simon Parkes.
'The operational activity is part of our work to assess a new line of enquiry that has been presented to us.
'This latest activity follows work carried out in August 2023 where a small amount of excavation work was undertaken at Town Range Car Park.
'Whilst nothing was found to progress the investigation a further potential area of interest within the car park was identified to us.
'This investigation continues to be a collaborative operation between Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and Royal Gibraltar Police with support from the Ministry of Defence.
'Anyone with information about the disappearance of Simon can call us on 101 quoting Operation Thornhill, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.'
New Zealand[6]References
- ^ Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent For Mailonline (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ convicted (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ New Zealand (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ murdered Nicholas Wright, 18, on December 12, 1997, and Sion Jenkins, 20, exactly 12 months later. (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ carrying out a small amount of further excavation work at Town Range Car Park in Gibraltar (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ New Zealand (www.dailymail.co.uk)