West End Road 1988

Forward: Murders In Ruislip


It should be note that Ruislip Online does NOT own copyright to any of the words or pictures on this page and the information here is offered by way of local interest.


Ruislip is, statistically, a very place safe to live. However over the years there have been a handful of murders committed in the area and the known ones are set out below in date order. I am grateful to those that wrote the articles in the first place and all I have done is chronicled them together.

By a strange coincidence the murders of Jean Townsend (1954) and Osman Shidane (2018) occurred in more or less the exact same spot. (The latter was eventually deemed manslaughter.)


Rosa Keen 1988

Rosa Keen
Very little is known about this and if you can add to the information please contact Ruislip Online where a link to do this at the foot of the page.

In early April 1988, Rosa Keen, a reclusive lady in her seventies, who lived in a house in West End Road, Ruislip, was bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer after answering her door to David Taylor (of Wiltshire Lane). 

He and his wife had been drinking heavily, latterly at the Bell, but the wife stayed outside possibly at the gate. 

The force of the (probably four) blows threw Miss Keen out of her slippers. There was much blood spattered in the hallway. 

He was convicted at the Old Bailey of the murder and also an attack six weeks earlier on Sally Monk another elderly lady of Coniston Gardens. He was sentenced for "life" and this was actually recommended her serve a minimum of 15 years. 

The wife, Karen Theresa Taylor, had disposed of the bloodstained sheepskin coat he wore, but investigators were able to locate it among tons of rubbish. They had only been married about six weeks and whilst she may have served some time for protecting him, charges of murder were dropped in her case as it was thought she was not aware of his darker side.

It was rumoured that David Taylor commitetted suicide in prison but this cannot be confirmed. 

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