True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

 (Robert Black. Picture credit: Daily Record)

When it comes to real-life monsters, Robert Black certainly was one. With his cold, lifeless eyes, hard face, creepy demeanour, and not to mention his lack of personal hygiene, his outer shell wasn't exactly appealing but what was beneath the surface was even more monstrous. His face will no doubt be recognisable to many of you who have read serial killer books or watched related documentaries. When it comes to documenting the most sickest and evilest of killers from the United Kingdom, you'll find Robert Black's name somewhere near the top of the list. 

I've written about many horrendous individuals who have committed the worst things imaginable but one of the groups of killers that I intensely hate (I'm not going to use the softer term of 'dislike', I'll be honest) is child killers. Robert Black was a dangerous sexual predator with a sinister addiction to children and nobody knows for sure how many beautiful and innocent children met their end at his sickening hands and that is a frightening thought. 

I sit here and I think about the fact that he was working as a driver (the only job that he managed to keep for a decent length of time as he tended to drift from one to the other and had a habit of getting fired for creepy behaviour) for 15 years and had been all over the UK mainland and Ireland. Children were disappearing all of the time in the 1970s and 1980s, some were sadly found deceased and their remains returned to their families, some were never found. Some children just seemed to vanish without a trace and it's impossible to know what happened to them, we may never know. But Robert Black loved to use his job as an excuse to carry out his sickening acts and the constant driving around enabled him to kidnap children and bury them in remote locations across the UK and Ireland. 

A lot of serial killers tend to have these types of jobs where they can drive from place to place. It's very difficult with these types of murderers when it comes to trying to place them in a particular crime scene or specific location. They may have committed a murder in Scotland but spend most of their time in England and it never seems to cross anyone's minds that the killer is choosing sporadic locations to cover his tracks and keep the police off of the scent. Killers who are mobile and travel to various locations are particularly scary because they can strike anywhere and that's what Robert Black did. He was an opportunistic killer and because of the laid back attitude in those days with children playing outside or riding about alone on their bikes, it made it the perfect hunting ground for monsters like Robert Black. 

From my research on him I think that Robert Black had murdered and disposed of that many children that he himself could not remember.

In this post I will be delving into the sickening story of Robert Black and his crimes. As you are probably aware from the beginning of this post, I will be sharing disturbing details about a serial killer and sex offender which will be disturbing so I completely understand if you feel that you need to skip this post. 

It'll come as no surprise to you that Robert Black was born into difficult circumstances to a mother who didn't want him and an absent father. He was born on the 21st of April 1947 in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire (Scotland) and the red flags seemed to be there from day one. Throughout his childhood he was involved in all sorts of trouble and had a difficult temper. He'd be placed in different care homes and adults found him difficult to deal with. As well as his outbursts and disruptive behaviour, he constantly urinated his bed despite various attempts to get him out of that habit. He later claimed that he would be physically assaulted by his carers for this. His school life was no better, he was often bullied because of his lack of personal hygiene (an unpleasant trait that he maintained right up until his death). The children at school who were in his class would bully him and call him ''Smelly Bobby Tulip'', this further created that sense of feeling rejected and not belonging. Because of the lack of control in his life, Robert would take to bullying younger children or children who he deemed to be helpless. He enjoyed the power that he had over the younger children. He also began experimenting with sexual things such as touching other girls his own age or asking to see under their skirts, he also began an obsession with placing objects up his anus. 

Somewhere along this sickening line, Robert realised that having the power over younger children and placing objects inside of himself anally was something that turned him on. He realised that he was very different from other children and this continued as he got older. He was convinced that he was supposed to have been born female but had the wrong genitalia and this further reinforced his obsession with children's bodies, especially female children's bodies. This 'phase' of sexual experimentation or dark fantasies that he was having never diminished, they just grew stronger and he was determined that he wanted to carry out these sick thoughts in reality. 

When his foster parents passed away he was placed with another family but that soon turned sour when he indecently assaulted a young girl. The family wanted him removed from their home immediately and so he was placed again into care. Things just continued to get worse as he had been placed in a mixed care home. He began trying to assault the girls and expose himself. He was out of hand and would probably have been better suited to a psychiatric hospital but he was sent to an all male facility care home where he later claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a male member of staff and this abuse was said to have gone on for a period of three years. 

(Robert Black. Picture credit: The Guardian)

After spending time at this care home he was moved on to yet another one which was located in Greenock. Whilst staying at this home he started employment for a local butcher shop, helping deliver groceries. He learned how to drive from a young age and was even driving before he actually had a licence. It was during his rounds as a delivery boy that he claimed to have molested various children he encountered at their homes.

Robert soon realised that having a vehicle and the role as a delivery boy, gave him easy access to different locations and people's homes. Children would often be playing in the garden unattended which gave him the opportunity to carry out his sickening acts. Apparently he had committed around forty assaults but these were never reported and as usual with Robert his sickening behaviour escalated to the next level. 

This time he tried to abduct a child by claiming that he had some kittens to show her. The little girl was taken to a shed where he choked her until she passed out before he proceeded to masturbate over the child's body. It was sickening and this time he was caught and arrested but managed to get away with it. Apparently a psychiatrist (who should have been barred from the profession) claimed that this disgusting sexual assault and let's face it, attempted murder, was just a one off, spur of the moment thing and Robert just got a slap on the wrist and sent on his way. it is a wonder what that little girl's parents must have felt. It's utterly unbelievable and again we see this time and time again with cases that I have covered in the past, the signs and red flags are all there for everyone to see, there's no excuse for any of it and for Robert Black to have been let off the hook time and time again and just passed from one place to the other because people didn't want to have to deal with him. I think because he was such a disturbing individual that people just didn't know what to do with him and didn't want the responsibility of him so they all turned a blind eye. 

Some people are surprised when they find out that some peadophiles are able to have a full on relationship with a woman of their own age. In some cases these monsters will deliberately target a single mother in the pretense of a romantic relationship just so that they can get closer to the woman's child. It's horrible to think about but it happens. I used to live next door to a single mother who had two daughters and her new boyfriend moved in. He seemed creepy and as a child I always had a bit of a radar for these types of people so I tried to stay away from him. It turned out that he'd been molesting the two girls, it was so terrible and even worse was the fact that their mother had a baby with him and he was suspected of horrible behaviour there too. The whole thing came to light and the police and authorities were involved but it is very frightening. You have to be very careful who you trust or let into your families lives. Robert was able to have what appeared to be a normal relationship with a woman of his own age but he couldn't resist his urges and tried to engage her in extreme sexual acts to which she refused. The relationship soon fizzled out when the woman got fed up with his creepy behaviour and dumped him, this had a profound affect on him and he seemed to have lost his confidence at the idea of having another relationship with another woman of his age. So he turned his behaviour back towards children because that's where he felt that he was in complete control. 

Being the sick and perverted person that he was as well as constantly getting on the wrong side of people. He'd managed to ruffle feathers with the older couple that he had been staying with. Apparently he had began acting inappropriately with their granddaughter. Again, red flags, obviously sick behaviour on display and nobody does a thing about it. Instead of playing hell and calling the police, the family decided that they didn't want to put their granddaughter through any further trauma and swept the whole thing under the carpet whilst telling Robert to leave. He must have thought he was invincible at this point because no matter what he did, he seemed to get away with it. At this point it is unknown if he had murdered a child but what it certainly looks like in my research is that he grew more and more bold, almost like he was doing that little bit more and more, almost pushing the boundaries to see how much he could get away with.

Paedophiles, unless carefully monitored and in a secure environment (as well as medicated) are constant ticking timebombs. There is no cure (despite what some devious paedophiles will say to try to convince a parole board), this is what drives them. We have no control over what drives us as humans, what sexually attracts us. The minute these monsters are out of prison and on the streets, it's dangerous, it's a risk. They interpret everything in a different way than we do. We see children and we want to look after them, bake cakes with them, protect them. These monsters are thinking something else and in their twisted minds, the child is very much involved and happy to go along with their plans. There are also those that like seeing a child in pain. When there's nobody to stop them it's just a matter of time because they escalate the more time goes on. It goes from watching disturbing child p*rn on the dark pages of the internet and looking at these disgusting images to them hanging around outside schools (and a lot of them just get a slap on the wrist for that). They might move on to exposing themselves in a public park or a family restaurant in front of children. If this behaviour isn't abolished they move on to something more risky. Some have dolls or take popular cartoon characters and make the characters of video games do disgusting acts before they grow bored and want the real thing. All peadophiles desire to carry out their fantasies in reality and this is why recognised behaviours such as what Robert Black was displaying, should have been addressed properly before it spiraled out of control. 

After being kicked out by the grandparents of his latest victim, Robert managed to land on his feet again by moving in with another family who also had a young daughter. As predicted, Robert assaulted the child and this time some punishment followed, he spent a year at the infamous Polmont Borstal (I've known young men who have stayed there for a variety of reasons and put it this way, at that time and the time of when I was informed of the place, it was very harsh and let's just say that these boys that I knew, came out of there almost traumatized and refused to speak about their time there). Later when talking about his past, Robert Black would paper over the time he spent at Polmont and refused to talk about it. 

When he left Polmont it did nothing to change the error of his ways, he moved to London and flitted between jobs before he was fired from working at a swimming pool for indecently touching children. He managed to get away with this incident too. 

Like a lot of paedophiles, he disguised himself as a keen photographer. It's frightening to think that the likes of Robert Black and Thomas Hamilton (who I wrote about back in 2019 with my post on the horrific and heartbreaking story of the Dunblane Massacre), in the days before the internet, could have easy access through magazines and 'photography' clubs to exchange child p*rnographic materials. The way these people operate is like a military operation, they are devious and use codes. Robert would take his camera to a local park and pretend to be taking pictures of flowers and birds when he was actually taking pictures of children. Robert had a private collection of sickening photographs together with films of these poor children locked in various suitcases.

In 1972, Robert found himself living with another couple as a lodger staying in their attic. He met the couple in a local pub and enjoyed playing darts with them. Robert also had a fondness for playing darts and he had gotten to know the couple over time so they didn't see any harm in renting out the attic to him. The couple just saw him as a quiet guy, a bit of a loner and did also notice that he had a bit of a hygiene issue but they were willing to look past that. After a while they started to feel a bit uncomfortable with Robert's creepy behaviour, they noticed that he had a large stack of videotapes and magazines, various packages being delivered to the house but they didn't know what they were and didn't want to invade his privacy. They suspected the materials were pornographic but never imagined that they were the abhorrent materials that they actually were. They just thought it was standard, run of the mill pornography. They were happy to keep him on as a lodger and just thought of him as a bit odd and eccentric. 

Robert decided to buy a white van and originally he claimed that this was with the intention of helping him gain more steady work plus he enjoyed travelling. He managed to get a job delivering posters all over the UK and seemed to be quite happy in the position as his employers seemed to be happy with him. However, the long drives and obscure locations soon became a temptation for Robert. He would drive down isolated country lanes and past little houses in the middle of nowhere and he'd see a lone child just playing in the street or their garden and began to fantasize about kidnapping them and driving off to another location with the victim before disposing of their remains in another area. He thought he'd come up with the perfect plan, all these child abductions and deaths scattered about throughout the UK and Ireland, he thought they'd never be able to trace him and put all of the puzzle pieces together. 

As I mentioned before, Robert had been driving long before he actually obtained his licence and we know that he had always had this predatory and disturbing addiction to children so we can't say for sure when he first began killing. On paper, he is known to have sexually assaulted and murdered a nine year old child by the name of Jennifer Cardy and this beautiful little girl was abducted and murdered in Ireland. Jennifer had been out cycling to her friend's house when Robert Black struck. Her body was sadly found six days after she went missing. Her death was ruled to be as a result of drowning and strangulation. 

His second reported known murder took place in July of 1982. Susan Claire Maxwell was abducted by Robert Black as she walked home from playing tennis in a place called Comhill-on-Tweed which is a little village in England. Susan's deceased body was sadly found on the 12th of August 1982. Forensic investigators noted that she had been gagged with some sort of sticking plaster and her underwear had been folded and placed underneath her head. There were signs that she had been sexually assaulted but the manner in which she died could not be determined because of the state of decomposition. 

When the local community was questioned about any unusual behaviour in the run up to and around Susan's abduction. A number of the locals mentioned seeing a suspicious white van driving around. Robert Black had been actively driving around intentionally looking for children. 

On the 8th of July, 1983, Robert Black reportedly struck again and this time it was in Edinburgh. Caroline Hogg was just five years old when she was abducted, she was reported to have been the youngest known victim of Robert Black. Disturbingly, Caroline's naked body was discovered in a ditch on the the 18th of July 1983. She had been sexually assaulted but due to the level of decomposition the forensic team could not determine how she had died. 

After Caroline's murder, Robert Black reportedly abducted, assaulted and murdered a little girl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah Jane Harper was just 10 years old when Robert Black snatched her off the street on the 26th of March 1986. She had been going to get some bread for her mother. Sarah's body was eventually found on the 19th of April 1986. She had been found in the River Trent near Nottingham, she had been bound, gagged, sexually assaulted and beaten before being thrown into the river. Her death was determined as drowning due to the severe injuries that she sustained before being thrown into the river, she would have been unconscious. The pathologist that carried out the autopsy said that her injuries were some of the worst they had seen. 

Local members of the community were questioned by police and again, the white van and a strange looking gentleman hovering around the area, was mentioned. 

Investigators began piecing together the similarities of each of the girl's deaths and realised that they could all be the same killer. They sought out information from the general public and a full investigation was launched into the connections between each of the girls and they quickly figured out that the killer must have been employed as a delivery driver. The FBI were in touch with UK police and they came up with a profile of the killer and it matched Robert Black to a T. 

''The abduction of this victim from a public area within walking distance of the victim's residence represents a desperate act by a man whose need for little children is greater than his fear of being exposed as a paedophile. He was relaxed and comfortable while ''buying'' the victim's favour in a public area, because he spends a great deal of time in such places watching and seeking out young victims.'' - Section of the 1988 FBI Psychological Profile of Robert Black, pertaining to the abduction of Caroline Hogg. 

The FBI's profile of Robert Black who had not yet been formally identified is chillingly accurate. They described him as: A white male, aged between 30 and 40 who was a classic loner and unkempt in appearance with a low level education. He was likely to have lived alone or in rented accommodation. They stated that they believed that the killer's motive was sexual and that he had a fixation with child p*rnography. 

The manhunt was on and it was only a matter of time before Robert Black was caught. He was eventually caught but the circumstances of his capture are terrifying. On the 14th of July 1990, a man witnessed what he believed to be a child abduction in a location known as Stow, a village in Scotland. The man noticed the daughter of his next door neighbour walking past a van when she was suddenly dragged inside. The man (who was amazing with his help) noted the registration number of the van as it sped off and he ran to his neighbours to tell them what happened and the police were called. 

The police arrived in the village pretty quickly and asked the witness for more information. During the conversation the exact same van was heading towards them and the witness shouted to police that it was the same van that was there during the abduction. The police stopped the van and Robert Black's days of hurting and murdering innocent young children was finally over. 

In a shocking and heartbreaking twist, one of the officers was the father of the girl who the witness had seen being abducted. Her poor father had to go into the back of that van not knowing if his daughter was going to be in there and what horror was going to await him. He noticed that there was a sleeping bag and initially thought the worst, he thought it was too late until he saw some movement. he dashed over to the bag and ripped it open to find his daughter, bound and gagged with a hood over her head. It was a horrific sight but she was breathing, she was alive and he thanked the Lord for that moment. 

''It was a rush of blood to the head. I have always liked little girls since I was a lad. I tied her up because I wanted to keep her until I dropped a parcel off. I was going to let her go.'' - Robert Black.

Robert Black admitted the abduction of the girl and sexual assault, he claimed that he didn't do more because he didn't have time. Investigators pieced together all of the evidence that left a trail that led back to Robert Black, they suspected him of many more murders but didn't have the evidence. 

His van was thoroughly and searched and along with evidence that the victims had been inside, they found a mattress, various items of little girls clothing - some of which did not belong to any of the victims that were identified or known to the police. There was also sex toys, hoods, sticking plaster, rope. The search of his accommodation which he was still living in (the couple who suspected him of being creepy and watching pornography continued to have him as a lodger right up until his arrest) proved to be a disgusting treasure trove of horrendous materials, more sex toys, books, videos, magazines, photographs of the worst and most graphic child abu*e you don't want to imagine. Just when you thought the nightmare of Robert Black could not get anymore sickening, the police found a copy of a newspaper which was reporting one of his attempted abductions (in 1988, Robert had tried to lure a young girl by the name of Teresa Thornhill into his van, she managed to get away) and there was semen all over the article. 

With the horrendous mountain of evidence against him, his trial only lasted one day. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment which he claimed that he was going to appeal but later gave up because he knew it was a losing game for him. 

The judge said as he sentenced him: 

''The abduction of this little girl was carried out with a chilling, cold calculation. This was no 'rush of blood', as you have claimed. This is a very serious case: a horrific, appalling case...you will go to prison for life, and your release will not be considered until such time as it is safe to do so.'' - Lord MacArthur Ross on the abduction of the Stow schoolgirl. 

In 1994, Robert Black was found guilty and convicted of the murders of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper. He was further convicted of the murder of Jennifer Cardy in 2011. 

''I'm not exactly proud of the way I feel towards young girls.'' - Robert Black 

Robert Black never showed any remorse for his crimes and took a lot of secrets to this grave. He had suffered from poor health even at the beginning of his sentence. He suffered a stroke two years into his prison time and was a heavy smoker who suffered from high cholesterol. He died of a heart attack on the 12th of January 2016, he was 68 years old.

At the time of his death, investigators were just weeks away from charging him with the murder of another young girl by the name of Genette Tate. Genette was just 13 years old when she was murdered in 1978 and the police believe very strongly that evidence suggests that Robert Black was responsible. Robert Black had many victims not yet identified but the case remains open. 

Robert Black was cremated in Ireland and nobody came to his funeral, his ashes were scattered at sea a month later. Nobody cared, they were just glad to see the back of him but wished that he had identified the unknown victims, maybe he forgot because he murdered, abducted and harmed that many children that he lost count? Who knows? He was a true monster, a wicked, evil thing (I don't even want to say man) to ever have existed. He was on this planet for 68 years and all he brought was pain, misery and suffering to innocent children and their families all because he wanted to satisfy his sickening perversions. 

Further Reading & Sources;

- A History of British Serial Killing | Book by Professor David Wilson

- Serial Killers And The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Book by Professor David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley, Adam Lynes

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- End of Innocence: The Untold Stories Behind The Victims of Child Killer Robert Black | Book by Zoe Apostolides

- The Face of Evil: The True Story of Serial Killer Robert Black | Book by Chris Clark, Robert Giles

- Robert Black | Wikipedia

- Robert Black: News Article | Daily Record

- Robert Black | Murderpedia

- Robert Black: News Article | The Sun

- Robert Black: News Article | Examiner Live

- Robert Black: News Article | Daily Express

- Robert Black: News Article | Edinburgh News

As well as everything else, I hate the fact that this guy, thing (whatever we want to call him) was Scottish. I know that has nothing to do with it but when you find out that this horrible individual who inflicted such pain and suffering, was from your place of birth, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I feel the same way about Ian Brady (one half of the infamous Moors Murderers). I know they are not a true reflection of Scotland but you just don't want a beautiful place with such warm people, known for it's beauty and hospitality, to have any sort of association with these horrendous monsters. 

RIP to all of the beautiful little angels who's lives were stolen. These girls should be with us today but they are never forgotten. Thinking of the victims that we know about and their families. I'm also thinking of the victims who are still not identified and their families because the pain of never knowing what happened to your loved one is a pain that I cannot imagine. RIP Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg, Sarah Harper, Jennifer Cardy, Genette Tate and many more x

Thank you for joining me in this installment of my 1980s Serial Killers series. I will be back next time with a case which features a disturbing story of another American serial killer. You may not have heard about this one, who knows? Hope you will join me and thank you again for your support. 

Check out the cases that I have covered already in my 70s and 80s Serial Killer series: 

- Who Is The Connecticut River Valley Killer?

- The Dating Game Killer

- I Murdered Over 90 Women

- The Killer Clown

- The Monster of The Andes

- The Many Faces of Ted Bundy

- The Butcher of Rostov

- BTK: Bind. Torture. Kill

Comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this case or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

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See you in the next post, take care x