van der Kiste John - West Country Murders

NICOLA SLY & JOHN VAN DER KISTE

Devon Murders first published in 2006

Cornish Murders first published in 2007

Somerset Murders first published in 2008

Bristol Murders first published in 2008

This edition first published in 2009

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2012

All rights reserved

Nicola Sly & John Van der Kiste, 2009, 2012

The right of Nicola Sly & John Van der Kiste to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8407 5

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 8406 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

W hen I was involved in filming the last series of Murder Most Foul, first shown on Channel 4 in 2007, it occurred to me that in over thirty-five years of service in the police force I have seen an unbelievable change in the way that my colleagues approach the investigation of murder. In just those few decades, the advancement of scientific knowledge as well as technology has brought about a complete revolution in proving guilt or otherwise, of eliminating suspects and reducing the risk of missing microscopic, yet vital, pieces of evidence. This is a far cry from the early years of my service in the 1970s, when the stereotypical image of the big-footed copper destroying evidence as he blundered about a crime scene was perhaps more of a reality than we might like to admit.

What would our Victorian colleagues think when many of the crimes in this volume were committed of major investigation techniques of the twenty-first century? Is it perhaps any wonder that serious miscarriages of justice took place, that innocent men were sent to the drop, and that some offenders literally got away with murder in those formative years of rudimentary investigation?

This book brings together many accounts of murders throughout the West Country, from yesteryear to comparatively modern times. The individual stories are retold in a way that makes it quite clear that the authors have spent countless hours of painstaking research, approaching each subject in a non-judgemental way and bringing the facts of the case to the reader in a clear, independent and concise manner.

Browsing through the varied and intriguing stories has literally been a trip down memory lane for me. As a fresh-faced young constable it was the indefatigable Dr Denis Hocking, the county pathologist of Cornwall mentioned throughout many of these accounts, who taught me how to prepare a body for his examination. My first post-mortem with him was late at night in a dim gas-lit stone mortuary at the rear of Cornwalls Launceston Town Hall, when he had come direct from an evening function, still dressed in bow tie and evening dress. I was to meet him countless times throughout the county at various morgues until his retirement some years later.

Ive trod the beat along the streets of Falmouth, passing by the deserted and boarded up tobacconist shop (Murder on Christmas Eve, 1942) wondering at what horrors took place all those years before in that gloomy building. My time as Community Constable at Constantine and Mawnan Smith brought me into contact with those people of the village who well remembered the events of the murder of Mr Rowe (Murder of a Recluse, 1963) and made me realise that although years might pass, memories and pain last a lifetime. Even more recently during my service at Tavistock I rode my police bicycle along the same moorland lanes of Peter Tavy village that Constable Callard walked when he attended the double murder there (Atrocity at Peter Tavy, 1892), resulting in his early retirement due to the trauma he suffered during the investigation.

This book pulls no punches in bringing out the facts, but it does so in a compassionate and factual manner, without being ghoulish. If these following murderous stories, covering the length and breadth of the West Country, leave you better informed as to how dastardly events of the past have shaped the development of modern-day police investigation, then this volume is well-worth the effort it took to meticulously research it.

Simon Dell, MBE QCB

Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

O ver the last two or three centuries, a select few British murders more often than not those committed by serial killers have enthralled and horrified the nation. Others have been reported, made headlines and since then been little remembered except by the few, or by true crime historians.

The West Country may have few monsters of depravity on the scale of Jack the Ripper, the more recent Yorkshire Ripper, the Moors Murderers, or the Brides in the Bath Murderer, to name but a few, yet rural and urban Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Bristol have all had their fair share of cases, which held attention beyond the immediate locality for a while. John Babbacombe Lee, the man they could not hang in 1885, has achieved semi-legendary status; the unsolved triple murder in the Maye family in 1936 provoked endless discussion for many years; and the guilt or innocence of Matthew Weekes, hanged in 1844 for the murder of Charlotte Dymond, continues to be a matter of debate to this day in the Bodmin area of Cornwall; while the brutal slaying of Sarah Watts in 1851, for which the prime suspects were tried but acquitted, cast a spell for some time.

These and many other cases of domestic differences between married partners or lovers which ended in tragedy, atrocities involving children, robberies which went wrong, and others, all feature in the chapters which follow.

We would particularly like to thank members of our families for their constant help, encouragement and support, namely Richard Sly, John Higginson, Kim and the late Kate Van der Kiste; the many friends who have ably assisted us, particularly Simon Dell MBE, Stuart Edwards, Dr Ian Mortimer, and Derek Fisher; and our editors at The History Press, Matilda Richards and Beth Amphlett.

Nicola Sly and John Van der Kiste, 2009

ALSO BY NICOLA SLY

ALSO BY JOHN VAN DER KISTE