The 'Steeltown Murders' Trailer Raises Old Ghosts
In the 21st century, most of us take DNA testing to solve crimes for granted, but it was not that long ago that such evidence was not even possible, let alone routinely used. Moreover, it certainly wasn't possible for anyone to trace the DNA of someone after they died to prove that they committed murders. The case that changed that was that of the "Saturday Night Strangler," Joseph Kappen, a Welsh serial killer now known to have committed the rape and murder of three teenage girls in 1973. (He's also suspected of a fourth one, but that was never proven.)
Kappen's conviction came nearly 30 years after his crimes in 2002. However, they were unique and groundbreaking because Kappen was no longer alive then. He'd passed away 12 years previously, dying of lung cancer in 1990. He is the first person ever to be posthumously identified as a serial killer and the first Welsh serial killer in U.K. history. In May 2023, the BBC released a true crime drama, Steeltown Murders, which takes its name from the fact that Port Talbot is a heavily industrial town dominated by a giant steelworks that still produces over 5 million tons of steel slab a year.
The series now comes to this side of the pond, arriving on Acorn TV at the end of November. Told over two timelines, one in 1973 and one in 2022, it traces how the cases first went unsolved and then how the evidence collected in the past was used in the present once technology caught up with it. Check out the trailer.
