Easy Kills

by Sebastian Murphy-Bates

Stephen Port was jailed in November 2016 after luring four young, gay men through dating apps so he could drug them to death and rape them. Easy Kills tracks Port’s life and crimes and questions the role of Barking and Dagenham Police, who were investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) as a result. Officers neglected to check Port’s electronic devices when the first overdosed body turned up outside his flat in June 2014. They found Port had called 999 trying to pose as a bystander after hiring the young man as an escort. He was not charged with murder, but perverting the course of justice. In August 2014, a second body turned up 400 yards from Port’s front door. The young immigrant’s corpse showed signs of being drugged. No investigation was opened. Less than one month later, another body turned up in the same churchyard. Port was jailed in March 2015 after being given eight months for perverting the course of justice. He served four. Had he served the full sentence, he wouldn’t have been free to murder his fourth victim, Jack Taylor. The case has garnered massive national media attention. It resulted in a series being filmed for the BBC starring Sheridan Smith. The yet-to-air drama, postponed during the Covid-19 lockdown, is called Four Lives and will propel the case back into the mainstream media.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Benny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack was my brother's friend, and he went missing after being out for my brother's birthday drinks. Nobody knew Jack was gay, and nobody knew where he'd gone that morning. When my brother told me that his friend's body had been found, propped up against the wall by the church, I immediately recalled that two other bodies had been found there, both also sitting up against the wall, and we believed that the police must be looking for a serial killer. We were understandably gobsmacked when Jack's sisters reported just how disinterested the police were. Jen and Donna couldn't convince them that everything about the situation made no sense - Jack had no reason to be there, he didn't like the dark, he wouldn't have sat himself down in the dirt, he wouldn't have done drugs. Then they had to push to have the CCTV footage released (which ultimately led to Port being identified and arrested). Jen and Donna Taylor got answers, and most likely saved lives.

I've therefore been obsessed with this case, and have been wondering when a book will be written that collects all of the information in one volume.

It is a bit repetitious, and the author sometimes opines at length about things unnecessarily. There are also a few times in the book where I was a little confused and uncomfortable: at one point I was uncertain whether the author might be crossing over into transphobia (mainly because he spent so long defending his reasons for possibly misgendering a possibly transgender person??) which seemed especially questionable in a book about institutional homophobia. At another point when discussing Port's poor writing ability and mocking Port's inability to spell, it seemed unnecessary and petty - we all know Port is a POS and that he lacked the intelligence to cover up his crimes effectively (and that made it all the more ridiculous that he got away with them for so long), but there are plenty of intelligent and capable people who struggle with spelling and grammar.

The author also discusses other instances of police incompetence/corruption, which strays from the main focus of the book being the Port case, but generally I found it an interesting read.

I would recommend this book to anyone else who is interested in this case. It gives a good overview of Port's early life and what he was like as a person, and also the area in which the crimes happened. It also does a decent job of letting us know something of the victims, ensuring that Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack aren't just seen as names and faces, or left in Port's shadow.

[Catherine Whitaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seemed like the author was trying to hit a word count, so after the case was drawn out to the point of being ridiculous, there was a ton of filler that had nothing to do with it. Pretty boring as a result.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative read about a true crime case which I wasn't too familiar with.

The structure of the book at the beginning was difficult to follow. However, the writing was engaging and easy to read.

This book was highly interesting and provided lots of information about this case including a damning report of the failings of the Met police in this case and the intrinsic homophobia in this case.

I do think some parts of this book went off on a bit of tangent which were relevant.

This book was quite a quick read, with short chapters but some of the info included felt like to it was included to draw the book out a bit.

However, overall it was a really fascinating and deeply disturbing read. I highly recommend to all true crime lovers.

[abi · Rating 1 out of 5]

on the whole this is probably a 2-3 star read. it summarises the case and some of the police failings but seems to do so in about half the book, and the other half is just waffle about other crimes.

however, this gets docked stars because:
- the author implies that gay men cannot be attracted to trans men. if they are then they can't be gay (what??) and iterates multiple times that an assault victim was actually amab (she was a trans woman) so that fits the victimology, because if she was a trans man with a vagina then that wouldn't be gay (again, what?? the logic??)
- outright says that anyone working for the police cannot be pro-blm or pro-palestine (what??)
- catfished the killer and recruited his friend to do it by asking to use his pictures because 'he looked like a twink' (this one was weird and just rubbed me the wrong way)

[Mattie Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enthralling book purely for what it is, although the writing itself I found sloppy. It is written by an ex-journalist for a low rated tattle newspaper and I feel this shows.

I read this book as the Stephen Port case has always been of interest to me. He doesn’t strike me as what is usually profiled as a ‘typical’ serial killer/psychopath/sociopath, in that I don’t think he is particularly likeable, smart, outgoing (etc).

This case is a modern example of police failings and homophobia, highlighting the extent of the problem and it’s stronghold in our society. Although, I must admit, the author does a great job at highlighting this as well as the poor state of the London borough the deaths took place and how this effects all aspects of society including the deaths of Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel, and Jack.

It also tells of the many other victims of Port who are not typically covered as they did not meet their demise but were sexually assaulted by him. This offers a voice for those who are sorely forgotten in this terrible case. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families.

[Mickey]

Stephen Port was convicted in 2016 for the murder of four young gay men. The fourth and final victim was a friend from school. While we still occasionally chatted on social media, we hadn’t seen each other in years. Hearing about his death was bad enough — but finding out what had really happened to him was so much worse.

This book looks briefly at the victims, not just the four he murdered, but also the numerous others who came forward after his arrest with their own stories of how he had drugged and raped them. For me, the victims felt like an afterthought. The focus was predominantly on the incompetence of our local police. And yes, we all know how bad they are — living in Dagenham, it’s something we’re used to — but I had hoped for more about the actual victims themselves. At times, the book became repetitive, and the author sometimes went off on tangents that pulled completely away from the case.

While I did learn some new information, it wasn’t what I would usually expect from a true crime book.

As always with memoirs or true crime, I won’t be giving this a rating. How do you rate a book about someone’s life or death?

—
Jack Taylor
20/06/90 – 13/09/15

[Lottie]

This was a really interesting non-fiction read about the life of Stephen Port (the Grindr killer) - who lured and murdered four young men in East London. We get given info about his life/crimes as well as learning that Barking and Dagenham police didn't investigate Port until it was too late.
I found reading about the investigation interesting as I grew up in East London & I was shocked when the police had every opportunity to arrest Port but never connected him to the murders. It's packed full of information and is a short read of roughly 250 pages. The book was engaging and really easy to follow.
Definitely recommend if you're interested in true crime! (Check TWs before reading)

Thank you to mirror books for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of the book flowed well and were compelling to read, but others were really disjointed. It contained a lot of unnecessary and unrelated detail at the end. The title of this book also feels a little insensitive. Would have liked to have had more detail about the case generally, and had I not already been aware of the case some parts of this book would have been confusing.

[Rebecca Fowkes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've struggled to get into this one and couldn't finish it. I've read the book A Life Stolen by Sarah Sak who is the Mum of Andrew Sak, the first man that Stephen Port killed and it explains in there about the others he also murdered and the mistakes the police made.
To me this book is just repeating everything I've already read.

[Evie Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative and in-depth analysis of the case of Stephen Port, however did feel very repetitive, analysing the same points over and over again towards the end of the book, making it feel very drawn-out as if he was trying to hit a word count, however an exceptional piece on the police failure of the homosexual men in London during the time period, linking it to other cases in history.

[Lord Bathcanoe of Snark · Rating 2 out of 5]

An account of yet another catastrophic Police investigation.
It's ok to commit murder, loot shops, and burn down buildings, but mis-gender someone and you'll have nineteen cops in riot gear kicking your front door down......or probably someone else's door by mistake.

[Emz Lear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having watched the documentary on this and now having read the book I just feel so sad for these boys, the perpetrator got sentenced but it should of been done much much sooner than it was, leading to less loss than what had occurred. Feel so sad for the family members of the boys involved.

[zoe marie haycox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book but didn't loke how ot moved on to other killings and focused more on the police than the actual people 🤔

[Simon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Police incompetence at play AGAIN which stops a serial killer from being caught

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read. I wrote my undergrad dissertation on this back in 2023 and wish I'd read this book back then, if nothing else, for the reference list at the end (363 references!!).

[readerofreallife · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, if you are entirely unfamiliar with the details of the Stephen Port case (as I was), then this book is for you. Had I read the online reports and watched the documentaries first, I would probably have felt a little shortchanged by it. Yes, 'Easy Kills,' written by a young journalist who covered the case from the start (so therefore had a good insight into this chain of events), used all of these easily accessible sources for his research, as evidenced by the endnotes.

However, Sebastian Murphy-Bates did speak to a few people who were willing to speak. Understandably, some of them didn't wish to see their real names in print. One particularly harrowing interview he conducted was with a man who met Port on Grindr and was drugged by him, leaving him with emotional scars and trust issues. The author attempted to (unsuccessfully) interview Port's father, and, using a fake name, sent the killer letters in prison, which he replied to. The author also discusses similar murderers towards the end of the book, as well as offering convincing arguments on homophobia and criticisms directed to those who deserve it. So there is definitely some new material here.

Written in a very chatty, personable manner, the author's prose kept me engaged throughout, although the timeline did (only very) occasionally make me a little confused, and one sentence initially didn't make much sense to me (I reread and realised it was a typo.) His account runs at a quick pace and emphasises how inept the police were leading up to Port's arrest. Gay men were being found dead in identical circumstances, and there was much to investigate. Alas, they didn't, and the killer walked off scot-free. Frankly, I was appalled, and had to remind myself that this wasn't even that long ago. These killings didn't happen back in the dark ages; it was only a little over a decade ago.

My heart ached for the boys' families: lives could have been saved had the cops just done things differently - the deaths were clearly suspicious. Stephen Port took four victims in total, and I shudder to think how many more there could have been. Even if Port stopped killing after the fourth murder, had it not been for the efforts of one victim's family, I do believe that he would have got away with them all.

'Easy Kills' is, in some ways, a pretty basic book about this shocking case. However, unlike many others of its type, it doesn't glamorise the offender, nor does it overly dramatise the events. What it really does is make one question how the officers involved handled everything about the victims' deaths, especially when Port left behind so many clues. It was a shambles.

After reading this, I watched an interview with Sebastian Murphy-Bates, who states that he was angry about the way the police did virtually nothing. As he intended, this book certainly draws attention to it brilliantly. For that, I applaud him. I believe he wrote his first book with honourable intentions.

If you are unaware of Stephen Port's reign of terror, I do recommend 'Easy Kills' as your first call of information. I now wish to read the book written by Sarah Sak, the mother of Anthony Walgate, Port's first victim

[David Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a very self-centred piece of writing. The author wants you to believe they had some impact on the case that it is clear they didn't.
The first half of the book is alright, detailing the crime (although still very liberal with open condemnation of any and all of the investigation). The second half is bad. Really bad. Very self-centred and all about the author's relationship with the murderer. I wouldn't try this author again after reading this.
Just remember, if you want to solve a crime - The Barking and Dagenham Post are far better at it than any other investigator (even though they didn't warn the public either).

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our February book club selection

This book is the story of Stephen Port who killed four young gay men after contacting them through escort and dating apps. The same story has recently been televised on TV as Four Lives staring Sheridan Smith and Stephen Merchant.

I can’t deny this was a tough read. A horrifying story of a dangerous man and police neglect that allowed him to keep killing. I’m glad to have finished it so I can go back to something more light hearted.

[Mark Beer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really disappointed. The author is a great writer but there were big chunks of this book that for me, were drawn out and didn’t really relate to the story.