THE moon does strange things to me,” Allan Dennis Witcomb once admitted to his sister.

It was an odd thing to say, but Witcomb was known to be that way.

What Witcomb’s sister couldn’t have realised was that, in the light of the moon, he DID become a figurative, if not literal, werewolf and turned to dastardly deeds.

Dubbed ‘‘The Moon Killer’’, he would later admit to three killings in a case that stunned the city.

On the morning of March 30, 1950, the body of 57-year-old widow Elsie Ivy Aston was discovered in the bedroom of her home in Hingeston Street, Hockley.

Her daughter Ivy Watkins, who lived nearby, had called round to help her mother do the housework before going to work when she made the grim find.

Mrs Aston, described by neighbours as a “friendly old lady”, had lived alone following the death of her husband four years earlier.

She had last been seen the previous night after returning from the pub with friends.

Her body was found in a first floor bedroom. There was a pillow lying across her face and head and there was blood on the pillow and sheets. The fingers on her left hand were also cut, possibly while trying to defend herself.

Within hours, police were convinced she had been murdered.

It was thought the killer could have crept into the house through grating that led to the coal shelter beneath the property.

A door was heard to slam shut at about 5.50am, possibly as the killer fled – but he simply vanished into thin air.

A police officer said: “If, as we think, that foul play has taken place – that this woman has been murdered – then we are most anxious to find someone who may have someone leaving the house at that particular time.”

They went on: “This particular individual might have bloodstained hands, or blood on his clothing or scratches to suggest he might have been involved in a struggle.

As strange as that was, it was soon eclipsed by another more shattering discovery.

Deep in the police files, officers dusted off the casefile relating to the death of a Harriet Mills.

The connection? The 69-year-old was found dead in her home in similarly strange circumstances in October 1948 – and she lived just a few doors away from the latest victim.

She too was found lying across her bed. This time police found a bruise on her throat about the size of a thumb.

Despite the concerns of pathologist Prof J M Webster, who had ruled out the possibility of natural causes and concluded she had died of “manual constriction of the neck”, the inquest jury returned a verdict of “accidental death”.

The coroner Dr W H Davison called the case “most puzzling”.

“Naturally we have consulted our files,” said one detective. But they refused to be drawn on the links, no matter how obvious they were.

Within hours, a prime suspect was in custody at Kenyon Street police station.

Baker’s assistant Allan Dennis Witcomb, 34, lived just doors away from the two women had been arrested that afternoon. He had scratches on his face and bloodstains on his coat.

Cautioned about his arrest, he told officers: “I understand. I remember part of it. I will tell you what I can remember.”

The following day he appeared in court charged with the murder of Mrs Aston.

Prosecutor Mr M Pugh told Birmingham Stipendiary Lord Ilkeston that Witcomb had admitted, in a statement, to being in the house with the victim “at the time she must have received her injuries from which she afterwards died”.

The statement said: “I undressed and remember going to sleep. Sometimes I cannot sleep and feel I must get up and have a walk round.