First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword True Crime
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Barnsley
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Copyright Gary Dobbs 2016
ISBN 978 1 47386 178 7
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47386 181 7
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47386 180 0
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47386 179 4
The right of Gary Dobbs to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Acknowledgments
I am deeply in debt to Roni Wilkinson for commissioning this work in the first place, and I also owe thanks to South Wales Police who have patiently answered many questions during the production of this book. Neil Milkins, author of Every Mothers Nightmare, was especially helpful regarding the Harold Jones murders, of which he knows more than most. I also owe much to Mr Milkins for his permission to use several of the photographs from his book.
I would also like to mention the team at Cardiff Library for their help in locating information and tracking down obscure documents. The vast archives of the South Wales Echo, Western Mail and Cardiff Times have also proved invaluable in the research needed for a book such as this.
And finally thanks to the proofing, editing and design teams at Pen and Sword Books who transformed my scribbles into the book you now hold.
Gary Dobbs, 2016
Introduction
T he South Wales Valleys, Cymoedd De Cymru, are in a constant state of flux. These restless hills stretch from eastern Camarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east, and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal areas around Swansea and Bridgend. Until industrialisation in the mid-nineteenth century the Valleys were only sparsely inhabited, with secluded farmhouses, hamlets and small villages dotted here and there on a map that largely showed a rugged, mountainous landscape.
With industrialisation came great growth. For instance, in the Rhondda Valley, the most famed of the coal-mining areas, there were fewer than 1,000 souls in 1851, but by 1870 this had increased to 17,000 and by 1911 there were 153,000 people living there. At this time Merthyr Tydfil, situated at the extreme north of the Taff Valley, was the biggest town thanks to its growing iron works. The iron and steel works consumed an incredible amount of coal, and with the increased importance of coal many immigrants came into the valleys to live and work. This resulted in rows upon rows of terraced houses springing up on the mountainsides, seemingly grafted into the valley walls, and soon Cardiff, Swansea and Newport were ranked among the most important coal ports in the world.
The coal industry had been artificially buoyed during the two world wars when demand for good-quality coal grew year on year. However, following the Second World War the decline in coal-mining was a country-wide issue but the South Wales Valleys, the Rhondda in particular, were hit especially hard. The 1947 nationalisation of the coal fields were seen as a way to save the industry but each coming decade saw a continued reduction in output from the Welsh mines. By the mid-twentieth-century, oil had replaced coal as the fuel of choice in many industries, thanks largely to political pressure designed to lessen the countrys reliance on coal. There were, however, other factors contributing to the decline of Welsh coal-mining, one of these being under-investment in the industry. Many of the Welsh mines had been sunk during the mid- to late 1800s, which meant that they were far smaller than most modern mines and the method of extracting coal was becoming antiquated. In 1947 there were 15,000 miners employed in the Rhondda alone but by 1984 the valleys had just one single pit still operating and this was in Meardy situated at the head of the Rhondda Fach Valley.
In 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister her free market policies soon clashed with the loss-making, government-owned National Coal Board, and in 1984 the government announced that they were to close many of the coal-mines. This led to a bitter strike which ultimately proved unsuccessful with the result being the virtual destruction of the coal industry. The South Wales Valleys paid a heavy price and since the mid-1980s they have seen some of the highest unemployment rates in the United Kingdom, and this tragic trend continues to the present day.
Today the valleys are once more green as signs of the once-incredible levels of industrialisation vanish beneath the reclaiming hand of nature. But the people of the South Wales Valleys are fiercely proud of the history that has gone before them, keenly aware of the hardships endured by those who have lived and died in years long gone. Today these people continue to face economic hardships but they are aware of the fact that the South Wales Valleys have taken on an iconic status. For many people around the world, the Valleys are the abiding image of Wales itself.
Like anywhere else the history of the South Wales Valleys is coloured in many shades, but it is the darker side of history with which this work is concerned. For this book offers a glimpse into their criminal history.
Murder is the most terrible crime of them all. It is the unlawful killing with malice aforethought of another person. In law it is defined as the premeditated state of mind which distinguishes the crime from other unlawful killings such as manslaughter. However, many of the murders detailed within this book were not in fact premeditated.
Often the killer would find himself or herself driven by an uncontrollable series of events, leading to a tragic and deadly conclusion. Outside influences can and often do result in murder, alcohol and drugs can play a part, as can extreme poverty and that old chestnut, greed. But no matter what the reasons it is a fact that we are all ultimately responsible for our own actions and we must bear the cost when these actions are unlawful.
The cases contained within this book have reasons as varied as the methods of killing jealousy, greed and revenge are among the motives. Victims are decapitated, strangled, shot, and even drowned. The heartache of a spurned lover can turn to brutal violence, greed can have terrible and unforeseen consequences and in one case the desperation of a thirteen-year-old girl suddenly finding herself a mother leads to the murder of her new-born baby.
