Foul Deeds in Richmond and Kingston Read online

  Oxshott Heath. Author’s collection

  On the previous night they had been with Joy Woolveridge, and had been at York House, Twickenham, at a dance. They returned to Christine’s home at 12.45 pm. They left the house after breakfast to go to Barbara’s. Joyce went home at some point. The other two went out for a cycle ride, returning to Christine’s home for lunch at 2 pm. They returned for tea at 5 pm and then left again, being at Christine’s house from 7–7.30 pm.

  York House, 2009. The Author

  Much of their day, and certainly all the evening, from 8 pm, however, had been spent with three lads at their riverside camp, at Ham Meadow, not far from Teddington Lock. One of the youths was John Alan Wells, of Roy Grove, Teddington, aged twenty-one. He had known Barbara for six weeks and Christine for five years. His companions were Albert Edward Sparks and Peter Raymond Warren. They had talked and kissed, but there had been nothing more than that. The girls left the camp at about 11.30 pm that night and rode on the towpath towards the lock. Only one man ever saw them alive again.

  The Thames at Richmond. Author’s collection

  On the following day, Barbara’s corpse was fished out of the river by PS George Hays. She had been floating on the Thames near to Water Lane, Richmond; clearly the ebb tide of the previous night had washed her that way. It was George Coster, a fifty-three-year-old, employed by the PLA (Port of London Authority) as a foreman, who first saw her; he initially thought the corpse was that of a boy. Her mother, Gertrude, identified her. Although there was a wound in her head, she had been stabbed to death after having been assaulted. Her shoes were missing and there was no sign of her bicycle. Blood was found on the towpath near to the Teddington Locks, which were about a mile and a half from where her corpse had been found. Upon investigation this was found to have been from two blood groups. Two pairs of girls’ shoes were also found here. There was no sign of her friend, and police issued a description of her. Police launches began to drag the river and grass near the verges was mowed in the hope that a clue might be found.

  The police continued their searches on the following days. Open land near to the river as well as that adjacent to the towpaths were examined, dogs being used, as were mine detectors. A charred waist coat and blue serge trousers were discovered. More usefully, on 2 June, Christine’s bicycle was located at the entrance to the lock gate, about 100 yards from the spot where the crime had occurred. Chief Inspector Herbert Hannan, who was put in charge of the investigation, began questioning anyone who might be able to help. These included American Air Force personnel from their base in Bushey, and about fifty people who said that they had seen the girls on Sunday. An eighteen-year-old leading aircraftsman in the RAF who knew the girls was sought. House-to-house enquiries were made, including among the large estate at Ham, in order to ascertain the whereabouts of the adult male occupants and for anyone who had seen the girls. Malcolm Else, who was questioned, was from Newcastle, and he had been in Richmond on 31 May, seeing his fiancée, but he could not shed any light on the crime.

  Teddington Lock, c1900s. Author’s collection

  The inquest on Barbara was set for 4 June, at Kingston, but was postponed. Meanwhile, the police considered applying to the Port of London Authority to have the river drained from Teddington to Richmond weir. This was granted and led to, on Saturday 6 June, Christine’s body being found, near Duke’s Hole and Glover’s Island (about a mile upstream from Richmond Bridge). As with her friend, there were blows to the head, but it was the multiple stab wounds to the body which had caused death. The sexual assault on her took place after death. There was also an injury to her arm, suggesting that she had tried to defend herself. Her father, Herbert, identified her.

  Physical clues were still being sought. Much of the girls’ clothing was missing and the river from Richmond to Erith in Kent was searched by the river police. Bicycle dealers were told to be on the look out for anyone selling them a new Phillips maroon-coloured sports cycle, K.29421. This was Barbara’s bicycle. Lodging house keepers, hoteliers and cleaners were asked to watch for any bloodstained clothing. Appeals for any information about anyone who was missing from home on the night of 31 May and lived near Teddington were also issued.

  The inquests on both victims were held at Kingston on 9 June. Dr Mant, a Home Office pathologist, detailed the medical evidence. In the case of Barbara, these were a fractured skull, a stab wound to the forehead and three to the chest. She had been sexually assaulted. Christine’s injuries were similar, but rather more numerous; with ten stab wounds to the chest and two skull fractures. She had likewise been assaulted. Mant stated, ‘Both the deceased were virgo intact before the assaults took place and in both cases the injuries were inflicted with great violence and were of similar nature and appeared to be inflicted with the same weapon. In both cases the sexual assault was of the most violent type.’ The type of weapon used was a double-edged knife of about seven inches in length. The coroner then concluded:

  These are appalling crimes, and it may well be that there is some member of the public who could, even at this stage, assist the police with their difficult enquiries by coming forward with some information even if it appears to that member of the public to be information possibly of a trivial or insignificant nature. The police are obviously faced with a difficult and protracted inquiry.

  Unfortunately, the next few weeks were inconclusive, despite a number of leads emerging. The disused Ham dock was dragged. Likewise, gravel pits near Teddington Lock were dragged. Nothing significant was found in any of these places. Grass near to the Thames was mowed in order to find clues, especially the weapon used. An anonymous letter from a Miss AG, who claimed she knew both girls, was received. A bloodstained towel was located in a train in Bournemouth, but its provenance was discovered and dismissed. Suspicious men were reported. One was a man seen on a woman’s bicycle on the towpath on 31 May. Another was a man seen that night with a gleaming object in his hand, walking down Fairfax Road in Teddington at 11pm. He was aged between thirty-thirty-five, of medium build, wore glasses and was five feet eight or nine inches in height.

  Altogether, the police held a press conference twice a day. They interviewed 7,000 people and called at 4,000 houses. A total of 1,657 written statements were taken, 4,987 questionnaires returned and 2,052 telephone messages were taken. This was a major investigation and it made national news.

  It was noted that the murders had occurred on the night of a full moon. On 27 June, there was another full moon. Some thought that the killer might strike again or might revisit the scene of his crime. Some even thought that the murders were motivated by some kind of moon insanity. Police patrolled the towpath that night, but found nothing.

  Although the police seemed to be making little progress, the killer struck again. On 12 June, Mrs Mary Birch was taking her dog for a walk in Windsor Great Park. A man asked her the way to Holly Tree. He then grabbed her mouth and throat and tried to pull her into the bushes. She briefly broke free and shouted for help. Then he attacked again. Although he did not rape or kill her – he was probably too frightened to do so – he took 17s from her before escaping.

  Five days later, two policemen (PCs Howard and Oliver) were travelling in their patrol car along Oxshott Common. It was 5.40 pm. They were travelling to Kingston with two labourers, Bernard Hannam and Henry Bedford. Apparently, the latter had seen one Alfred Whiteway and contacted the police and they sent a patrol car there for him. On the Common they saw another man. He was taken into the car and sat in the back alone when the other two were dropped off, whilst the policemen sat in the front seats.

  Alfred Charles Whiteway was a labourer who lived on Sydney Road, Teddington, and had been born on 21 June 1931. He had recently been employed for three months at the Decca Record Company. One of a family of eight, he was poorly educated, as was the rest of the family. Few had fond memories of him at this time, one Albert Newcombe, a school fellow, recalling, ‘He regarded him as a bully.’ The headmaster of Cotswold Approved
School where he was sent in 1946 said he was ‘foul mouthed, cruel to animals and lethargic’. Yet he was not a sociable man, he ‘never had a mate and did not mix with other boys’. Since leaving Stanley Road Boys’ Senior School in 1945 he had had a number of menial labouring jobs, including being an errand boy, a sprayer at a factory, a treefeller, a builder’s labourer and a lorry driver’s mate; none of which lasted very long.

  On 27 February 1952, he married Nellie Mary Jones (born 6 January 1935), who was pregnant (her mother would not give her permission to marry him otherwise) – she gave birth on 20 May 1952 and another child was due in August 1953. Mrs Jones retained her dislike for him, the police noting, ‘Her mother with who she lives does not like her husband and will not allow him in her house.’ Apparently he met his wife to be in May 1951 when he followed two young women along a street late one night – the other girl (Miss Isaac) later thought she had seen a knife in his hand, but his wife claimed this was not the case.

  Whiteway already had a criminal record. He had five previous convictions for theft. On 21 April 1952, he had been sentenced to six months for stealing clothing and jewellery to the value of £20. Because he was in prison for most of the remainder of the year, he was unable to commit any more assaults.

  Although strong, he had a poor heart so was not accepted for National Service. Not everyone had bad words for Whiteway. His wife, who was not very bright, said of him, ‘He has always been perfectly decent to me and our sex life was perfectly normal.’ His sister said, ‘He was always good tempered in the house, used to lark about and sing.’ She added that he had only hit her the once. Harry Bedford, who had briefly been Whiteway’s employer in 1952, said of him, that he was ‘quiet and inoffensive’, but a fellow worker, Bernard Hannam remarked that ‘he did not think he was all there’. He was seen as a good worker, but a bad time keeper. He was briefly detained at Kingston police station, before being allowed to leave.

  On 29 June, he was asked to account for his movements in the early hours of 1 June. Clearly he was a suspect for the double murder. He was ready with an answer, stating, ‘I can tell you where I was, because I visited my wife.’ Whiteway lived apart from his wife (who lived in King’s Road), not because of any ill feeling between them, but because of the housing shortage, and resided with his widowed mother. He met his wife that night, but did not travel anywhere near the towpath and came home via Kingston Bridge and Sandy Lane at 11.55 pm. He was cycling. He added that he had been acquainted with the Songhurst family, having lived near her family, ‘I knew Barbara when she was about six, but I have not seen her since. I did not know Christine Reed.’

  Police enquiries into Whiteway continued. On 1 July, Hannam questioned him because he had been seen with a bicycle similar to one seen by Kathleen. He confessed to attacking her, adding, ‘I don’t know what made me do it.’ Whiteway was then asked about the Teddington murders, and he told him, ‘Guessed this would come before long. It looks like me, I grant you, but I will save you a lot of time by telling you that when that job was done I was with my wife at home.’ He was further evasive when pressed about whether he knew where the girls were murdered, when he answered, ‘I am going to keep my mouth shut, or you will pin this one on me. I had nothing to do with the girls. I would not go that far. You are wasting your time. The bloke who did that job was mad.’ Hannam then had Whiteway’s house searched for the axe he believed was used in the crime. It was not found.

  On the next day, Whiteway was charged with the attack on Mrs Birch. He confessed to the deed, saying, ‘I am the person who attacked the woman. I want to get it squared up.’

  This added fuel to the police’s case against him. Hannam thought he was on the track and kept questioning Whiteway. On 8 July, he made a significant and lengthy statement, which was taken down in writing. It was then that Whiteway’s fascination with knives became apparent. He said, ‘I have always been very fond of knives. I have only one at the present time, a sheath knife. Sometimes I carry one or more knives in the saddlebag of my bicycle. That is when I go out for a bit of practice throwing. The last time I had knives in the saddle-bag was about eight weeks ago.’ He further told how he had once been near the Teddington Lock, and, meeting a stranger, had a knife throwing contest, though they lost the two knives, one being a sheath knife, the other being a Gurkha knife. He also liked axes, stating, ‘I can also throw a chopper at trees, in fact I throw it better than I do knives. Sometimes I take my mother’s chopper in my saddle-bag when I go throwing.’ When asked where the chopper was, he said that the police at Kingstonhadit, ‘I put it in the police car under the seat. When they picked me up I had it tucked in my shirt… I pushed it under the seat with my foot.’

  Next day, Whiteway was charged with assaulting Kathleen Ringham. This was even more damning because part of it directly impinged on the double murder at Teddington. Again, he confessed, saying, ‘I made up my mind to seduce her and had got the chopper out of my saddle-bag. I caught up with her on the footpath, and I hit her on the head with the blunt end of the chopper.’

  On 15 July, PC Arthur Cosh, a patrol car driver, had an embarrassing revelation to make. On 18 June, the day after Whiteway’s ride in the patrol car, Cosh had found an axe in the back of the same car, hidden under the driver’s seat, with the handle protruding. He took the axe and put it in his locker in the police garage. He went on sick leave on 23 June, returning to work on 8 July. He then took the axe home and put it in his tool box. He later used it to chop up sticks. He did not examine it and on 15 July he talked to PC Oliver about the matter. It was then that Cosh handed the axe over to Hannam. The axe was later identified by Miss Ivy Whiteway, Whiteway’s sister.

  On the same day, Whiteway was asked to account for his movements on the night of 31 May. That afternoon he had had an argument with his wife, then returned home, but at 7.45 pm, cycled around Richmond Park. At about 10 pm he went to see his wife at a shed in Canbury Gardens. They made up and then went to her home and had a cup of tea on her doorstep. He said that he left his wife between 11.30–11.35 pm. He then cycled home via Bentall’s clock, Sandy Lane and Broad Street (a longer route than taking the towpath, but an easier ride), arriving home at five to midnight. He did not cycle anywhere near the towpath, so he said.

  Whiteway was questioned again by Hannam on 30 July and was confronted with the physical evidence against him. He was shown the axe, and commented, ‘Blimey, that’s it. It’s been – about. It was sharp when I had it. I sharpened it.’ The Gurkha knife which he had mentioned had also been found and Whiteway remarked, ‘That’s it. You got it out of the water, didn’t you?’ Another piece of evidence was the fact that bloodstains had been found on Whiteway’s right shoe. Whiteway denied this, stating, ‘I don’t believe it. I think you are putting one over me.’ He later added, ‘Were you kidding about blood on my shoe?’ Hannam assured him he was being deadly serious. Hannam then saw Whiteway tremble and reply, ‘You know well it was me, don’t you? I didn’t mean to kill ‘em. I never wanted to hurt anyone.’

  He also made the following statement:

  It’s all up. You know well I done it, eh? That shoe’s me. What a mess. I’m mental. Me head must be wrong. I must have a woman. I cannot stop myself. I’m not a murderer. B- them, yes, every time, but not kill ‘em. I only saw one girl, she came around a tree where I stood and I bashed her and she was down like a log. The other screamed out down by the lock. Never saw her till then I didn’t. I nipped over and shut her up. Two of ‘em and then I tumbled the other one knew me. If it hadn’t been for that it wouldn’t have happened. Put that chopper away, it haunts yer. What more do they want to know. I b- them both, that is what I cannot stop. Why don’t the doctors do something. It will be mental, won’t it? It must be. I cannot stop it. Once you tell you a lie. Give us it. I will sign it.

  A statement was written and signed, and Hannam told him that Barbara’s bicycle and the knife used to commit the murders were still missing. Whiteway ignored the comment and told him, ‘You have don
e it on me. I shall say its all lies, like the blood. You can tear that last one up. I didn’t do it.’

  When Hannam next spoke to Whiteway, the latter had a solicitor with him. Whiteway was charged with the double murder, which he denied.

  On 15 September, Whiteway appeared before Richmond magistrates, in order to determine whether there was enough evidence for him to be put on trial at the Old Bailey. The facts of the case and the examinations of Whiteway by the police, which have already been stated, were gone through by Mr J F Claxton, prosecuting. Mr A C Prothero, defending, announced, ‘My instructions are that the defendant emphatically denies the conversation which Mr Claxton told you about.’ Prothero suggested that the statements allegedly made by Whiteway were highly dubious and should not be admitted as unbiased evidence. Yet the magistrates concluded on 18 September that the case should be heard before the Old Bailey.

  The trial began on 27 October. The forensic evidence was discussed; although there were human bloodstains on Whiteway’s right shoe, as if attempts had been made to wash the rest off, there was no blood on the axe that was his. The knife and the axe from the lads’ camp had also been checked but nothing untoward was found on these, either. The next witness was Kathleen Ringham, who was about to recount her experience with Whiteway on Oxshott Heath, but she was interrupted by the defending counsel, and not allowed to finish her testimony – after all, the case was about the double murder, not her assault. The prosecution also relied heavily on the statements that Whiteway made to the police, but the defence said that these could not be taken as proof of anything.

  The defence said that their task was not to show who the killer was, but to show that it was not Whiteway. They claimed that the bloodstain on the shoe occurred when he had an accident at work, and that he was nowhere near the towpath when the murders occurred. Whiteway admitted that he had once worked with Daniel Songhurst, Barbara’s brother, and did know her slightly, as they lived in the same road as he did, eight years previously. He said that the statements he had signed were not true and that he did not kill the two girls. Although his wife and mother-in-law testified to his being with them on that night, they admitted that they might have got the times wrong. The trial concluded on 2 November. However after forty-five minutes of discussion, the jury decided that Whiteway was guilty and so he was sentenced to death.