Met Police's infamous black Museum of chilling evidence could become a tourist attraction

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The Crime Museum includes serial killer Dennis Nilsen's cooking pots and Jack the Ripper artefacts

As mementoes go, these are some of the most gruesome around – a grisly catalogue of more than a century of crime.
From the pots serial killer Dennis Nilsen boiled the flesh of his victims in, to the gallstone of one of acid bath murderer John Haigh’s dissolved corpses, there is enough horror on show to send a shudder down the strongest of spines.
They are hidden away from public view in the Met Police’s infamous “Black Museum” – but they could soon become a major tourist attraction in a bid to raise cash for the force.
A Greater London Authority report says letting people see the chilling items could generate millions of pounds. Even a three-month exhibition at £15 a head could make £4.5million – enough for 100 officers for a year.
The museum is in room 101 at New Scotland Yard, Victoria – an L-shaped space crammed with glass display cabinets containing items going back 150 years. It was created in 1874 as an educational resource for new recruits.
Founder Inspector Neame thought keeping crucial bits of evidence from crimes could be used to teach rookie officers how crooks operated. There are death masks of hanged felons used by police to study the lumps and bumps on the skull which the Victorians believed were signs of a deviant.
Possibly the most fascinating exhibit at the site, now called the Crime Museum after complaints, is a letter sent to London’s Central News Agency on September 27 1888 from Jack the Ripper – at the height of his murderous reign of terror in the East End.
The note taunted detectives for their failings. It read: “Dear Boss,
“I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they talk about being on the right track. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. I love my work and want to start again”

The historic Jack the Ripper letter

PA

  The letter was signed Jack the Ripper, the first time the name was used.
The museum also holds another trophy from a notorious murderer. Dr Hawley Crippen was the first criminal caught thanks to ­wireless ­communication – as he fled to Canada after killing his wife Cora in Camden, North London.
On display is the piece of Cora’s pyjama jacket that police used to nail him. The captain of the ship Crippen was ­travelling on sent a message to Scotland Yard after he became suspicious.
A detective was despatched on a faster ship and arrived in Quebec in time to arrest the medic as he disembarked. But the museum is more than just a hall of fame for London’s most infamous killers.
There is also an array of disguised weapons, with everything from walking sticks to umbrellas holding concealed guns. One sword, called the cop killer, contains a small dagger in the hilt which was drawn on an officer who went to tackle the holder.
Officers are ­regularly shown round to see the hidden dangers they face on the streets. As part of the Met’s Crime Academy, lectures are given.
But there is also the macabre. Haigh’s oil drum, in which he dissolved six victims in sulphuric acid is there – along with the gallstone.
Only police are allowed inside the museum and their badges, from forces around the world, adorn the walls.
They provide a little light relief to some of the darker exhibits, such as ­necrophiliac John Christie’s tobacco tin. He confessed to killing seven women after he was held for the murder of his wife in 10 Rillington Place, London.
The killer gave testimony against his lodger Timothy Evans, who was hanged for two murders Christie carried out. The execution led to the abolition of the death penalty.
One exhibit that may be too grisly to go on public display is a crucial piece of evidence against Nilsen, who murdered 15 young homeless or ­homosexual men back at his home.
He kept their corpses for long periods. When he began cutting up, boiling body parts and flushing them down the toilet, drains became blocked, leading to his arrest.
A sample of the revolting brown sludge is on display as is his cooker and pan. Some of the exhibits are so horrible, it is said even some hardened police officers faint during the tour.
Among other items on display is the umbrella and the tiny ricin pellet used to assassinate Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov as he crossed Waterloo Bridge on September 7, 1978.

Should the museum be opened to the public?