The cleft chin murder was a killing which occurred as part of a string of crimes during 1944, and was mentioned in George Orwell’s essay “Decline of the English Murder”.

It became known as the “cleft chin murder” because the murder victim, a taxi driver, had a cleft chin.

The culprits were Karl Hulten, a Swedish-born deserter from the U.S Army, and Elizabeth Jones, an eighteen-year-old waitress.

Jones later said she dreamed of “doing something exciting,” and fantasized about being a stripper. At the time, Hulten described himself as an officer and as a Chicago gangster, both of which were false.

Karl Hulten was born in Sweden in 1922. His family emigrated to the United States and grew up in Massachusetts. After leaving school he worked as a grocery clerk, driver and mechanic.After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hulten joined the United States Army. He was trained as a paratrooper…