Maria Boyne, committed a crime so savage, so merciless, and so stupid that the newspapers and TV media fed like frenzied sharks on the titbits that emerged from the sordid event. A part of the horror of Boyne's crime came about because it contrasted so sharply with the mundanity of the suburban streets in which it took place. Barnehurst had, like much of that part of London, suffered at the hands of the Luftwaffe in the second world war. Vast areas were laid flat as planes targeted the nearby East End of London.