Gray Atkins, 2021 Promo
Gray Atkins is a serial killer who was active in Albert Square from September 2020, until March 2022 who claimed the lives of three individuals. Gray became a murderer on the 18 September 2020, when he killed his wife, Chantelle Atkins, by pushing her onto a loaded dishwasher with knives facing upwards- Chantelle was impaled to death. His reign ended on 10 March 2022 when he was arrested after his second wife, Chelsea Fox, recorded his confession while on the phone to the police. The residents of Walford are now aware of all three of his murders, and several attempted murders.
Backstory[]
Gray's exact birth date is unknown, but it is assumed that he is somewhere between his early to mid thirties. Very little is known about his parents and is childhood, other than the implied backstory that his father possibly had anger and drinking issues which would then clearly rub off onto Gray when he grew up. Gray's father is named Alex Atkins, while his mother is an unnamed character.
At some point in 2011, Gray met his first wife, Chantelle Atkins. They got married on an unknown date, and renewed their vows on 27 December 2019. Gray and Chantelle had their first child, Mia Atkins, on the 10th August 2012. They had their second child, Mackenzie Atkins, on the 15th March 2014. At some point in Gray and Chantelle's marriage, Gray became abusive- he punched her, often forced her to stay home from friends and family, stalked her whereabouts, forced her to drown herself, raped her (heavily implied), as well as emotionally and verbally abusing her.
Gray and Chantelle moved onto Albert Square on the 12 April 2019, after Chantelle had told Gray that she wanted to move closer to her family, the Taylors. They moved into number 1 Albert Square with their 2 children, and it was assumed that Gray, Chantelle, Mia and Mack were a happy family. This was until it was revealed that Gray was abusive towards Chantelle on the 12 July 2019, when Gray punched Chantelle in the stomach after he thought she was laughing at him. This was the first time the EastEnders audience saw the inside of Gray and Chantelle's house, 1 Albert Square.
Facts[]
- Gray is EastEnders' second serial killer, with the other being Corrupt policeman Ray Kelly who killed three people prior to arriving in Walford, gangsters such as Phil Mitchell (who has never intentionally killed any one but has been involved in five deaths) and Johnny Allen who have both technically by law killed more people than Gray, but they do not fall into serial killer category as they have killed for financial gain (although Johnny could be classed as serial killer by law as he killed six people), They do not hunt people down and kill them for personal gain or pleasure which Gray and all serial killers do.
Killers like Janine Butcher, Nick Cotton and Lucas Johnson are usually wrongly labelled as serial killers because they have high kill counts, however in all their cases they all only have two victims as some of their murders where accidental, instigated and/or manslaughter.
- Gray killed 3 residents of Albert Square: Chantelle Atkins, Tina Carter, and Kush Kazemi.
- Gray didn't have a specific method of murder, and killed his victims in very different ways.
Victims[]
Gray is not the kind of Serial Killer who kills for personal pleasure, however he is a ruthless and nasty man, who has killed people to cover his tracks or people who he thinks have wronged him. Gray has no particular method for killing, he will just do whatever it takes to silence his victims, he also attempted to kill characters on eight different occasions but ultimately failed (this can be found in the Kill Count section at the bottom of Gray's main page or alternatively keep on reading).
Gray killed his first victim, Chantelle, during an argument- and so this was not for his personal pleasure, however it is still a ruthless murder. He killed his second victim, Tina, after she found out that he had killed Chantelle and she threatened to expose him to Karen Taylor, Chantelle's mother- it is very clear that this murder of Tina was to cover his tracks. His third victim, Kush, was killed by Gray because Gray was furious that Kush was planning to leave Walford with Whitney, who Gray was supposedly in love with.
| Name | Date | Circumstance | Cause Of Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chantelle Atkins | 18 September 2020 | After suffering years of abuse at the hands of Gray, Chantelle finally found the courage to stand up to him, and she attempted to escape Walford with Kheerat Panesar. Gray found out about Chantelle's plan and confronted her about it on the night of her murder. During the heated argument Gray snapped and pushed her into a dishwasher rack which impaled Chantelle in the back with several knives. Gray was supposedly horrified by what he has done but did not help Chantelle. He instead left the house to make sure he is seen by other residents of Albert Square and that he had an alibi. He returned to the house and watched Chantelle as she died. He then staged a scene to make it look like Chantelle had tripped on one of their kids toys and fell onto the dishwasher. Chantelle's death was initially marked as a domestic accident, and Gray got away with it for over a year and a half. | Impaled on knife after being pushed by Gray |
| Tina Carter | 28 December 2020 | When Tina was told by Kheerat Panesar that he believed Gray murdered Chantelle, Tina confronted Gray and after a heated argument she threatened to tell everyone the true circumstance of Chantelle's death. Knowing he couldn't let that happen, Gray tackled Tina to the ground and strangled her with his bare hands off-screen. Gray then puts her corpse in his car and hides the body under the floorboards at the abandoned Argee Bhajee. No-one searched for Tina as it was believed she had gone on the run after Sharon and Phil Mitchell had framed her for the attempted murder of Ian Beale. Her body was then found by Phil Mitchell during an argument with Tommy Moon's bullys, in the Argee Bhajee. | Strangled to death |
| Kush Kazemi (also attempted murder) | 19 April 2021 | Gray started to develop feelings for Whitney Dean, who was in a relationship with Kush Kazemi. Whitney and Kush decided to go on the run to avoid Kush going to prison for robbery. Gray became furious when he found out about the plan and he followed the pair, and Kush's son, Arthur, to the tube station. When Kush was alone, Gray attacked him but Kush easily out-strengthened him, accidentally pushing Gray into the train track, Kush saved Gray from the visible oncoming train and gets him back onto the safe platform. However, when Kush exclaimed to Gray "you could've killed yourself", and visibly let his guard down, Gray pushed him onto the train track, where Kush was ran over by the train. CCTV was not retrieved from the night of the incident and Gray got away with the murder, until he admitted it to Whitney Dean on the night of his arrest. | Pushed in front of oncoming train |
Attempted Murder Victims[]
| Name | Date | Circumstance |
|---|---|---|
| Mia Atkins | 15 October 2020 | Gray initially felt extremely guilty for murdering Chantelle and decided to kill himself and his two children in an attempt to "be with her again". He turned on the gas of number 1 Albert Square and was about to ignite his lighter which would have blown the entire house up. However, before he could go through with it he was interrupted by Shirley Carter, who eventually persuaded Gray not to go through with it. |
| Mackenzie Atkins | 15 October 2020 | Gray initially felt extremely guilty for murdering Chantelle and decided to kill himself and his two children in an attempt to "be with her again". He turned on the gas of number 1 Albert Square and was about to ignite his lighter which would have blown the entire house up. However, before he could go through with it he was interrupted by Shirley Carter, who eventually persuaded Gray not to go through with it. |
| Whitney Dean | 22 October 2021 | Whitney confronted Gray over his very visible aggressive behaviour to everybody around. Gray had just discovered that Whitney had went with Chelsea Fox, Gray's ex-fling, to the abortion clinic to abort Chelsea and Gray's baby- Chelsea did not end up going through with the abortion. Gray was livid with Whitney for not telling him about the trip to the abortion clinic and gets visibly aggressive with her. Whitney had just cooked herself and Gray a steak dinner to celebrate them becoming "official" in their relationship, and during his outburst, Gray looked over to a steak knife and clearly considered picking up the knife and stabbing Whitney. However, before he could do this, Whitney stands up, calls him pathetic and an 'insecure coward', before walking out of the house. |
| Kheerat Panesar | 21 February 2022 | After discovering Kheerat was working with Whitney to expose him for killing Chantelle and sending cryptic messages posing as her, Gray lured Kheerat to his house by pretending he needed Kheerat to drive him to the hospital to see his sick newborn son. Gray told Kheerat he did kill Chantelle, which lead to the two men having an argument and an eventual fight- which Gray managed to gain the upper hand on and pressed his elbow into the back of Kheerat's neck to suffocate him, however Kheerat managed to grab a bottle and hit it over Gray's head, knocking him out. Chelsea returned to the home to see Kheerat standing over Gray's unconscious body, and phoned the police. |
| Chelsea Atkins | 10 March 2022 | Chelsea had found out all about Gray's abuse of his first wife, Chantelle, on the night of their wedding day, 25 December 2021, after Whitney Dean sent her every screenshot of the abuse forums that Chantelle had been posting on during Gray's domestic abuse of her. Chelsea initially didn't confront Gray about these forum posts for 3 months because she thought that she needed him by her side to be able to care for their new son, Jordan Atkins. During this 3 month period, Gray emotionally and physically abused Chelsea, manipulating her. Whitney did not give on trying to persuade Chelsea to get Gray arrested for his abuse and murder of Chantelle. On the night of Gray's arrest, Chelsea finally decided to confront Gray about the proof she had against him for Chantelle's abuse, and lied to him- telling him that they could leave the country together with their son if he admitted to everything, as she 'needed to trust him.' He initially denied everything, claiming it was an accident. Later on, he admitted to brutally abusing and murdering Chantelle and admitted that he covered it up as an accident. Chelsea was on the phone to the police while Gray made his confession. Chelsea dropped her phone as Gray went into apparently hug her. Gray picked up the phone to see a call to 999 active. Gray pushes Chelsea into the open dishwasher, exactly where Chantelle died, but she manages to stay balanced and not fall over. Gray verbally abuses Chelsea and chokes her, telling her that Jordan wouldn't remember her if he killed her. He lets go of Chelsea, and apparently goes to grab a knife, when Chelsea punches Gray around the face and runs towards the front door of the house. However, Gray catches up to Chelsea and grabs her hair, pulling her into the living room. Gray leaves Chelsea in the living room as he escapes through the back door to flee from the police. |
| Shirley Carter | 10 March 2022 | Gray runs into the Queen Victoria after being chased by police around the square, expecting the pub to be empty due to most of the residents being on a manhunt to find him. However, Gray runs into Shirley who physically beats him up, after finding out that he had murdered her sister, Tina Carter. Shirley kicked him in the groin, punched him twice, hit him with a vodka bottle and a broken bar stall and attempted to choke him with a broken bar stall leg. This was Shirley's revenge plan against Gray for killing Tina. However, Shirley is stopped by Mick Carter, who doesn't want Shirley arrested for murder, and convinces her to let the police deal with Gray justly. However as Gray gets up from the Vic floor, he hits Shirley on the back of the head with the bar stool leg, knocking Shirley out and causing her head to bleed. Gray then fled the scene. |
| Whitney Dean | 10 March 2022 | Gray attempted to commit suicide by jumping of a bridge so he didn't have to go to prison for his crimes, but Whitney grabbed on to him to stop him. Gray then confessed to the killing of Kush, hoping Whitney will let him, but she refused, knowing that the police were coming for Gray and that he would be dealt with nonetheless. Gray tells her that if she doesn't let him go he will take her down with but she still didn't let go of him. Whitney struggled to keep Gray up on the bridge, but Mitch Baker comes from behind and also grabs Gray. Him and Whitney manage to pull Gray away from the edge of the bridge and Gray is arrested. |
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