Frankenstein killer Allan Grimson’s former best friend today said she feared he was responsible for more murders and urged cops to probe his hidden reign of terror.
Kim Kaplan, 63, said the convicted rapist – who was best man at her wedding – was a “monster” who hid his sick thirst for death. She urged police to continue probing his killing spree, including the unsolved disappearance of Royal Navy radio operator Simon Parkes, 18, who vanished in 1986 and has never been traced.
Kim said: “Allan is an absolute monster. What he did to those boys was beyond horrific. Police must continue to investigate, the families deserve justice and they deserve closure.”
Kim met Grimson – who was found guilty this week of sexually assaulting four men and a 14-year-old boy – through her Royal Navy partner in 1981. She said Grimson would come and stay with her in Gosport, Hants., when her partner went to sea. And they became so close he was asked to be the best man at the couple’s wedding.
But Kim had no idea that Grimson was a predator who preyed on young recruits in the Royal Navy and lured them to his Portsmouth flat. Grimson – nicknamed the Frankenstein Killer due to his 6ft 2in frame and large forehead – was jailed for life in 2001 for murdering two young men who served on aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.
He was convicted of battering to death Nicholas Wright, 18, of Leicestershire, and barman Sion Jenkins, 20, of Newbury, Berkshire. Kim said his depraved killing spree was in stark contrast to the “funny, charming” man she spent hours drinking with in bars and pubs around Portsmouth. And she also revealed he would regularly be “rebuffed” by women because of his looks.
She said: “Everyone used to call him ‘Frank’, after Frankenstein, because of the way he looked. I always thought it was a bit disrespectful so I always called him Allan. When my husband went onto the ship in Portsmouth, Allan used to come and stay with me in Gosport because I didn’t know anybody.
“He got on with my parents and everything. It’s mad because my mum can see through anyone but she was just bowled over by him. He used to pull a chair out for her and everything, honestly, it’s crazy.
“I’ve been asked if there were any signs. There were none whatsoever. I can smell b*******t from a mile away. But nothing about that man worried me, he was our best mate. He was brilliant. When I got divorced after three years I lost contact with him. Then when the story came out, I thought, ‘This is crazy’. I still haven’t got my head round it.”
Kim added: “I only ever saw the funny, nice Allan. People in the Navy say he had a dark side, but honestly I never saw it. It’s terrifying. He was exceptionally funny, we used to bounce off each other and spend hours drinking and talking in the pubs late at night. He was funny, articulate, loud, hilarious.
“There were no signs he was a killer or a sex offender. He was so charming but maybe that’s all part and parcel of it, charming people can be very sinister, can’t they?”
Kim said she only discovered Grimson’s horrific offending after he was arrested for the murders of Nicholas and Sion, who were both murdered on the same date of December 12 in 1997 and 1998 – exactly 12 months apart.
It is the same date that Simon is feared to have fallen victim to evil Grimson when HMS Illustrious docked in Gibraltar in 1986. Simon, originally from Bristol, failed to return after a night out with crewmates, leaving his passport, belongings and Christmas presents on board the ship.
The ship returned to Portsmouth without him. Grimson was serving aboard the aircraft carrier at the same time. Detectives investigating Simon’s disappearance closed the probe into Grimson last December after drawing a blank.
Simon’s family – including mother Margaret, 80 – are adamant Grimson was behind his disappearance and have begged for answers. But Kim, who lives in Gosport, Hants., fears “controlling” Grimson may never give up the secrets to his offending because he still harbours hopes of freedom.
She said: “I just know Allan’s not going to admit to anything. They keep turning down his parole. He thinks he’s technically served his time, so he won’t admit to anything. And he wants control. When he was arrested for murder he kept control over the detectives by sending them to places where the bodies were.
“They’d get in the car and drive for an hour and a half and then when they got there he’d say, ‘Oh, I can’t remember’. It was all so he could keep gaining control oover them.”
She added: “Maybe Allan was the person I knew and he became a monster. Maybe I didn’t see the changes in him because it happened over time after we lost contact. But maybe he pulled the wool over my eyes for years and he was secretly a paedophile and a killer.”
Margaret this week issued a direct plea to Grimson for answers about her son’s disappearance. Speaking to the Mirror, she urged Grimson to come clean after nearly 40 years despite his denials of any involvement in Simon’s disappearance. She said: “How do you get in to the head of a man like that? We want him to tell us what he knows, where Simon’s body is, we would want that, but he’s in denial now. All these years we’ve done all we can to find out information and keep the investigation open.”
She spoke out after Grimson was found guilty of 13 offences against four other men and boys, including a 14-year-old, in the 1990s. Winchester Crown Court heard he told police one of his sex attack victims was “lucky” to be alive because he would have killed him if his friend was not sleeping on the sofa.
He brought the teenager to his flat in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and sexually assaulted him – weeks before his killing spree. Grimson is said to have told police in 1999: “If you’re going to rape some body, to get away with it, kill it. And that’s the only way you can do that.”
Grimson made the admission after he was arrested for Nicholas and Sion’s murder. Grimson bludgeoned Nicholas to death on December 12 1997 with a baseball bat after Wright rejected his sexual advances. He sliced off Nicholas’ ear with a diving knife, before slitting his throat.
The next day, Grimson wrapped Nicholas’ naked body up – later telling police he felt a “tingling” sensation while doing so. He then dumped the naval rating’s mutilated body in a ditch.
Exactly a year after Nicholas’ murder, Grimson attacked and raped Sion in the same Portsmouth flat. He tied Sion him up and put him in a bathtub as he begged to go home. Despite his pleas, Grimson beat him to death with a bat before dumping his body by the side of the A32.
Sion’s body was discovered four miles (6.44km) from Nicholas’ at the side of country lanes north of Winchester in December 1999. As he was sentenced in 2001, the judge branded Grimson a “serial killer in nature if not by number”.
The judge recommended that he serve a minimum of 22 years but this sentence was increased to 25 years by the then Home Secretary. In 2008, Grimson won a reduction in his life sentence by three years. Following Grimson’s conviction, Hampshire Police re-opened the investigation into Simon’s disappearance.
But last year they closed the investigation. A spokesman said that following advice of the Crown Prosecution Service, the investigation would be filed unless further information came to light.
