The Essex Murders: Who Killed Goldfinger?: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

June 24, 2015. A quiet, secluded Essex garden. John "Goldfinger" Palmer, once one of Britain's richest and most feared gangsters, lies dead.

At first, police attending the scene think it's nothing suspicious. Six days later came the bombshell revelation , Palmer had been shot six times. There were no witnesses and the killer left no forensic trail. This was an underworld murder that shocked the world and left the global press asking, "Who killed Goldfinger?"

Now, 10 years on from that fateful day and with police no closer to solving Palmer's murder, this gripping Sky Documentaries series will re-examine his death and investigate the multiple theories that still linger to this day on why he was killed.

Across three propulsive episodes The Essex Murders: Who Killed Goldfinger? will take viewers on a dark journey through the changing face of crime over a thirty-year period from the zenith of 80s armed robbery, The Brink's-Mat gold heist, through to the sun-soaked 90s timeshare scam that would offer Palmer untold riches but also bring him into dangerous contact with the Russian mafia and then through to today's global narco-traffickers and the shadowy world of international assassins.

Series details

• Title: The Essex Murders: Who Killed Goldfinger?
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2025-10-04
• Status in TVmaze: Running
• Network listed by TVmaze: Sky Documentaries
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 87470
• TVDB ID: 468908

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2025-10-04; final listed air date 2025-10-18; episode order: 3.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Essex Murders: Who Killed Goldfinger? on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.