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It's the case that has had police stumped for more than half a century.

To this day the brutal murder of Coventry mum Penelope Mogano remains one of the city’s most baffling murder mysteries.

The story of the killing of the popular and attractive woman could quite easily fit into today’s Telegraph – even though it happened more than 60 years ago in January 1954.

Mrs Mogano, a mother of two known in dancing circles in the city, was at her home in Holland Street, Radford, when the killer knocked on her door.

Whether he, or she, was known to the 44-year-old or whether the caller was a bogus meter man who had been preying on women in the area has never been clear.

What is known is that when Mr Mogano returned home at 4.30pm he found his wife’s badly beaten body slumped in an easy chair.

Police said that “extraordinary force” had been used to murder Mrs Mogano and mutilate her body.

A blood-stained carving knife was found beside her body but the murder weapon – thought to be a hammer – was never found.

An investigation was launched by Coventry Police, who called in detectives from Scotland Yard.

Fingerprint experts were even asked to assist police, but the evidence provided would only help police if they managed to identify a suspect – something they struggled to do.

A team of 50 police officers relentlessly pursued every lead, grilled a staggering 25,000 people and even asked mental hospitals if any of their patients had been missing on the day of the murder.

But it wasn’t to be. Mrs Mogano’s killer was never apprehended.

To this day Coventry residents who remember the horrific murder, or heard relatives speaking about it, have their own theories about who killed her.

Some suggest that she was killed as part of a mafia hit while others believe the killer was well known to Mrs Mogano.

Police explored a number of other theories.

Firstly they launched a search for a con artist who had tricked his way into Mrs Mogano’s neighbour’s home.

The black haired man, with a slight London accent and a dirty dark blue overcoat, made sexual advances towards the neighbour before leaving.

The same man visited five houses in the city in the space of a week, all under the pretence of inspecting electricity meters.

As well as the bogus meter man police also said they were searching for a “mysterious prowler” who torched the pantry of a home in nearby Bassett Road a few days before the murder.

The owner of the property organises old-time dances and police were exploring the theory that the prowler – who was also the killer – was a “dance-hater” who disliked Mrs Mogano’s dance background.

The Moganos themselves were well known in dance circles and police looked at this during their investigation.

One informant suggested that Mrs Mogano had been upset by a change of dance partners the previous summer.

Another witness said an attempt had been made to torch the Moganos’ car, suggesting that someone might have a vendetta against the family.

As the investigation continued police uncovered questions about Mrs Mogano.

They started to ask where she went in the afternoons in the weeks before her death.

Five days after she was murdered the Telegraph reported those mystery trips – which may have been to the shops or to visit friends – were not always explained to her husband.

On the day of her murder a dress had been laid out on the bed ready for her to change into before leaving the house.

She had planned to meet friends at 3pm but by then she had been brutally murdered.

The mystery around where Mrs Mogano went in the afternoons continued when it was reported that she resigned from Radford Townswomen’s Guild four months before her death.

She told other guild members that she was tired in the afternoons and needed to rest.

Police always suggested that Mrs Mogano knew her killer, and welcomed him or her into her home before she was killed.

They handed out 1,500 questionnaires and spoke to thousands of people, but never charged anyone with murder.

Documents from the investigation are in the national archive, but won’t be available for another 25 years.

Until then it looks unlikely that any further light will be cast on an investigation that stumped investigators for more than half a century.