by Al Baker, New York Times
An English fugitive suspected of killing and dismembering an acquaintance and cooking part of his body was arrested in Central Park yesterday, the authorities said.
When officers on scooters approached the fugitive, Richard Markham, at 1 p.m. in the park near West 67th Street, he told them, “You got me,” they said, and lifted his shirt to reveal a tattoo that rings his navel and reads, “Made in England.
The police said they had been searching for Mr. Markham, 27, since shortly after he landed on Friday at Kennedy Airport.
On the same day he left England, a man walking his dog in a public park there found the head of Tristian Lovelock, 25. A trail of blood led to Mr. Markham’s residence on an estate in Hampshire, southwest of London, officials said. There, one of Mr. Lovelock’s arms was found in a garden and another, on a baking pan, had been placed in the oven and cooked, said Deputy Chief Robert Giannelli of the New York City Detective Bureau.
Yesterday, two tourists recognized Mr. Markham sitting on a bench and reading accounts of himself in two New York newspapers. The two pointed him out to police officers on scooters nearby. The officers approached Mr. Markham, cutting him off with a scooter when he tried to walk away. When they asked for his name and birthdate, Mr. Markham lifted his gray button-down shirt to reveal the tattoo, they said.
Later, as he was led in handcuffs from the Central Park station house, Mr. Markham shouted to reporters, “America is great, mate,” and declared his innocence.
Chief Giannelli said Mr. Markham was first spotted in the park on Saturday. He spent time at the St. Marks Hotel in Midtown, the police said, and when he was caught, he had $80 in his pocket, along with ticket stubs for the Museum of Natural History and a showing of the movie “Spider-Man.”