John J Eddleston - Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Reading

TRUE CRIME FROM WHARNCLIFFE

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First Published in Great Britain in 2009 by

Wharncliffe Books

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Limited,

47 Church Street, Barnsley,

South Yorkshire. S70 2AS

Copyright John J Eddleston, 2009

ISBN: 978 1 84563 113 0

eISBN: 978 1 78303 753 7

The right of John J Eddleston to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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Introduction

T he city of Reading, and the surrounding areas, hold some fascinating stories of murder.

The early chapters of this book carry a theme of women, driven to distraction by unwanted pregnancies, who, at their wits ends, deposited their offspring into the cold waters of one of the rivers flowing through the area. The exception, of course, was Amelia Dyer, the infamous Reading baby-farmer, who turned this practice into a lucrative business. We will never know just how many innocent victims died at her hands.

There is, also, the still unsolved murder of Alfred Oliver, who was murdered in his tobacconists shop; a crime for which an American actor suffered, in effect, a trial by coroners inquisition.

There are those where the person found guilty of the crime suffered death by hanging. One of these was George Russell in 1948. Read his story for yourself and decide if he really was guilty of the crime which claimed his life.

Finally, there are the more modern murders including the red-mini murder and the gravel pits murders. There are even crimes which involved an Elvis Presley Fan Club, and religious sacrifice.

The foul deeds in this book involve murders over a period of more than one hundred years and show a darker side of parts of the county of Berkshire.

Acknowledgements

T here are a number of people and organisations I would wish to thank for their valued assistance in the preparing of this book.

My deepest appreciation must go to Yvonne Eddleston, my wife. Not only did she help with the research, making copious notes on some of the cases, but she also proofread every chapter. Her efforts only served to make this work better.

I must also thank the staff of The National Archives at Kew. It is always a pleasure to work there and the staff are amongst the most helpful I have encountered. They also assisted with many of the illustrations within the book.

My thanks too must go to the staff of the British Librarys newspaper archive at Colindale, north London, for producing many newspapers covering the later cases.

Finally, I would wish to offer my thanks to my publishers, Wharncliffe Books, and especially Mr Rupert Harding.

CHAPTER 1

An Unkind Man Mary Newell 1858

S amuel Mortlake, the master of the Henley Union Workhouse, travelled up to Reading on business, on Wednesday 11 August 1858.

At one stage, Samuels business took him past the local police station and he could not help but notice a small crowd gathered around a photograph, pasted up near the main door. Curiosity having got the better of Samuel, he too stopped to take a look at whatever seemed to be generating so much interest.

The photograph was of the body of a male baby, aged some three months or so, recovered from the river near Kings Meadow the day before, 10 August. Whilst the rest of the small crowd gazed at the picture with idle curiosity, Samuel looked at it with something approaching horror, for he had recognised the child.

That evening, Samuel returned to the workhouse and made some further enquiries. These appeared to confirm his worst fears, so the next day, 12 August, he returned to Reading, called at the police station and asked to be allowed to view the body itself. Permission was granted and, finally, a positive identification was made. The body recovered from the river was that of Richard Newell.

The river at Kings Meadow where Mary Newell put her child into the water. The author

Samuel Mortlake went on to make a full statement to the police. In that statement he explained that on 11 January, twenty-two-year-old Mary Newell had been admitted to his workhouse. At the time, she was pregnant but refused to give any details as to who the father might be.