Cutting - Peter Manuel not Guilty (1958)

29th May 1958

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Peter Manuel was born in the USA of Scottish parents and moved to Scotland when he was 5. He was arrested in January 1958 and confessed to killing 18 people, but he was only tried on 8 counts of murder. As detailed above one of the charges was dropped due to lack of evidence, but despite conducting his own defence and almost convincing the jury of his insanity, he was found guilty of the other 7. He was hanged on July 11th 1958.

Also see this post. 

Cutting - Police Moves in Gang Murder (1936)

29th January 1936

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The bullet-riddled body of Emile Allard, an elderly itinerant jewellery dealer, was discovered

under a hedge near St. Albans on 23^rd January 1936. The police believed he had been taken to the spot by car either already dead or shot at the scene.

Police soon discovered that Allard, a French-Canadian also known as Max Kassel, had French criminal connections and had been imprisoned for 8 months in France for sex trafficking. They suspected the murderer or murderers had fled to France possibly by plane.

Later in the year French police arrested and charged a man, George Lecroix (aka Roger Vernon) and a woman, Susan Betrand (aka Susan Naylor) with the murder and rather than extradite them to England, tried them in Paris. He was found guilty and got 10 years.

Neither the murder of the prostitute Josephine (French Fifi) Martin the previous November nor that of the French acrobat Martial Lechavelier were ever solved.

Cutting - Birching (1961)

April 1961

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Courts had not been able to sentence anyone to be birched since 1948 although the birch could still be used in prisons. On 11th April 1961 67 Conservative MPs voted in the Commons to bring back the birch but it wasn't. I wonder what UKIP's stand is?

Cutting - Embankment Motor Smash (1923)

March 1923

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Back in 1923 there were no breathalyzers or specific limits to how much alcohol would make a driver incapable, but when, as in the case above, a death occurred, then the driver would be charged with manslaughter. Annual figures for road deaths have been kept since 1926 and show that year's figure as 4,886 whereas last year (2013) it was 1,713. The peak year was 1941, possibly due to the blackout and removal of road signs during the War, when it was 9,169. The good news is that the figure has been steadily falling year on year since 1970.

Cutting - Sawn-Up Body Riddle (1938)

4th February 1938

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After the man’s torso was found in the Severn near Haw Bridge, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, the river was dragged and police turned up two legs and two handless arms. Home Office pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury carried out a post-mortem on the torso and other remains and decided they belonged to a missing man, Captain William Butt of Cheltenham.

Brian Sullivan, the son of a nurse who looked after Butt's invalid wife, had committed suicide a few days after the Captain's disappearance in January and his bloodstained coat was found under the floorboards of the house.

Further searching failed to find the head and hands of the body, and the inquest left the identity of the remains and cause of death officially open. The crime has never been solved.

Cutting - Blonde Spy in Flat (1938)

4th February 1938

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The trial of the Woolwich Arsenal spies and a tale worthy of John Le Carre complete with the mysterious Miss X. The whole story is very nicely written up at this website.  

Cutting - I'm Not Bank Raid Mr Big (1977)

June 1977

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The Bank of America in Mayfair, London was robbed of £8million in 1976. After the inside man turned informant 7 of the gang were jailed but the mastermind Frank Maple fled abroad. He was later sentenced to 9 years in Austria for a hotel robbery. 

Random Cutting - Hermoine Baddely Death Threat (1926)

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Click to Read

Born in 1906, Hermoine Baddely began her stage career at 8, playing a page in The Marriage of Figaro. She went on to appear in plays, musicals and revues in London's West End. She also appeared in over 90 film and TV productions, including a memorable performance as the kindly barfly Ida in the 1947 'Brighton Rock', which starred Richard Attenborough. In 1960 she was nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar for her part in 'Room at the Top' 

Random Cuttings - Kenya Crime, Witches and Gold (1998)

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Click to Read

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This was Kenya on 10th October 1998. Kenya had, and still has, the death penalty for murder, treason and armed robbery but no-one has actually been hanged since 1987.  In East Africa the traditional belief in the powers of witchcraft is widespread and witch hunts continue to result in police action or, more frequently, the murder of suspects by the accusers. A Kilo of pure 24 carat gold - free!. For the life of me I can't see the catch, but there must be one. Mustn't there?

Random Cutting - Escaped Gunman (1958)

July 15th 1958

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James McKensie who was serving a 3 year sentence for armed robbery escaped from Wormwood Scrubs on July 13th 1958 along with 2 other men. I can't find out if he was caught.

Random Cutting - Richard Loeb Murdered in Prison (1936)

29th January 1936

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Back in 1924 the two rich friends Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14 year old Booby Franks, caught and put on trial. They both received life plus 99 years. It was probably the efforts of their famous defence lawyer, Clarence Darrow, that saved them from being executed. James Day was never convicted of killing Loeb and served the rest of his original sentence, being released in 1942.

Murdered by Madmen (1984)

Daily Mirror dated Wednesday April 18th 1984

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25 year-old WPC Yvonne Fletcher was a British police officer fatally shot during a protest outside the Libyan Embassy in St. James's Square, London, on April 17th 1984. Her death resulted in the Metropolitan Police laying siege to the Embassy for eleven days, and the UK cutting off all diplomatic relations with Libya. No one has ever been convicted for the murder.

Random Cutting - Georgi Markov affair (1978)

30th September 1978

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Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian novelist, playright and disident who defected to the West in 1969 and subsequently worked for the BBC. He was attacked at a bus-stop near Waterloo Bridge on the 7th September 1978 and died in hospital on the 11th of ricin poisoning. The killer, believed by British Security to have been working for the Bulgarian Security Forces, has never been identified.

Random Cutting - New York World's Fair bombing (1940)

5th July 1940

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The New York World's Fair ran from April to August in both 1939 and 1940. By the second season World War II had started and some exhibitors dropped out. On July 4th 1940 an unexploded time-bomb was found in the British Pavillion and taken outisde by a security man. Two officers of the NYPD Bomb squad arrived and tried to defuse it, the bomb exploded killing them and injuring by-standers. A police manhunt failed to find who had planted the bomb and the case remains open and unsolved..

Random Cutting - Nelson Mandela (1962)

23rd October 1962

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Although Mandela was initially committed to non-violent protest, he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party in 1961, in association with the SACP, to carry out a sabotage campaign against the white apartheid government. In 1962 he was serving a five-year sentence for inciting workers to strike and leaving the country illegally, when he was charged with - recruiting persons for training in the preparation and use of explosives and in guerrilla warfare for the purpose of violent revolution and committing acts of sabotage; conspiring to commit the aforementioned acts and to aid foreign military units when they invaded the Republic; acting in these ways to further the objects of communism; and soliciting and receiving money for these purposes from foreign sympathizers. He was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He served 27 years.

Random Cutting - Kray brother escapes (1958)

28th May 1958

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This is an early bit of press coverage for the Kray Brothers and reading the article it is obvious that the general public didn't know who they were at that time. Ronnie Kray had been sentenced to 3 years for GBH in 1957 but had been transferred to Long Grove Mental Home in February 1958. After the escape he became more unstable and paranoid. He was finally given up to the police by the Kray family for his own sake. 

Random Cutting - IRA Letter Bombs (1976)

26th May 1976

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26th May 1976

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Lord Justice Sebag Shaw was an IRA target because in 1973 he had sentenced 8 IRA members to life imprisonment for car bombings. Back in 1955 he had been part of the defence for Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged in England.

Random Cutting - Crippen awaits trial (1910)

23rd September 1910

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Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen had been arrested in Canada on the 31st July 1910 and was being held in London awaiting his trial for the murder of his wife, Cora, which was to start on the 18th October.  The prosecution team was actually led by Mr Muir, not Sir Rufus Isaacs, assisted by Mr Humphreys and a Mr Oddie. Defence council was led by Mr Tobin KC. Crippen was found guilty and hanged.

If you are really interested you can read the whole trial proceedings in this 1919 book by Filson Young online and free here.

Random Cutting - Myra Hindley O-Level (1969)

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Hindley went on to get a Humanities Degree from the Open University. She died in 2002 while still in prison.

Random Cuttings - Teenagers, Rock'n'Roll and Violence (1956/1958)

13th Spetember 1958

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September 1956

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18th September 1956

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27th May 1958

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The song 'Rock Around the Clock' by Bill Haley and the Comets was featured in the 1955 film 'The Blackboard Jungle' and was the trigger for some incidents of teenage violence in cinemas, so when the success of the song spawned a whole film, local councils, which had the right to ban film showing, got their collective knickers in a twist. Two years later 1958 teenage violence and lack of morals had become tabloid bread and butter. 

See this post for more on the Jerry Lee Lewis scandal.