Foul Deeds in Richmond and Kingston Read online

  Whiteway wrote to Hannam from his condemned cell on 12 November, taking the same line as his defence had. Part of the letter ran thus:

  Mr Hannam, you were wrong. Why you made up that false confession I can’t say but you know that your word would be more accepted than mine.

  An appeal was heard on 7 December. This was on the grounds that the jury were aware of Whiteway’s previous record and this may have swayed their judgement. The police evidence was alleged again to have been concocted and the defendant’s alibi was stressed. However, the appeal was dismissed and, on Tuesday 22 December 1953, Whiteway was hanged at Wandsworth prison.

  What actually happened on the towpath is difficult to ascertain. It was clearly a brief scene of terror and bloody horror, as Whiteway attacked one girl and then the other, perhaps stunning them with the back of the axe, before assaulting them. Perhaps he then used the knife because he recognised Barbara and feared she might identify him. Therefore, both had to be silenced and he proceeded to murder them with a great deal of violence. He then tossed the bodies and bicycles into the Thames, cleaned himself and his weapons up as best he could, and cycled home. Whiteway was motivated by lust for violent sex and the only consolation must be that he was speedily caught, tried and hanged.

  Conclusion

  As well as being a pleasant place to live and an enjoyable place for a day out, the Thameside villages which now form the boroughs of Richmond and Kingston have also been the scenes of suicide and murder. Some of these made national headlines.

  Of the murders recounted here, most of the victims were female and most of the killers were men, as is usually the case. To be exact, of these crimes, ten women, seven men and three children were killed. Their killers were fourteen men and two women. In most cases, the killer and victim were already been acquainted, often being family members or living in the same household, except in chapters 8 and 17. Two of the killers here claimed two victims and one killed three. Their methods varied, with seven being killed by gunshot wounds, six dying from bladed instruments; three were bludgeoned and four strangled. The motives of the killers were also diverse. Employment disputes, sex, insanity and unknown motives all accounted for three murders each, with rage resulting in one death and burglary another. In only two crimes was money the reason for murder. The criminals met different fates. Four committed suicide, four were hanged, four were gaoled and four escaped justice.

  In most cases the reader will pity the victims. Some of the killers, though, may evoke sympathy from the reader, Maurice Odell Tribe being one. Others, though, merit none, and perhaps Whiteway was the most vicious. Some of the cases recounted are puzzles. Did Dr Smethurst kill his wife? Probably not. Did Hadfield kill Mrs Mordaunt-Chapman? Probably. But who killed James Wells and why?

  In many cases, the amount of detection required by the police was minimal. Some killers simply gave themselves up, such as Jack Martin and William Baldwin, and in others, detection was assisted by the criminal committing similar crimes, such as Whiteway. The police were often painstaking in their enquiries, but in no cases was there a brilliant detective. Some cases were probably unsolvable once the crime had been committed and the culprit fled the scene – the murder of PC Atkins being one of these.

  In most cases, modern comparisons with crimes of years gone by are unfavourable. Yet Richmond and Kingston prove the exceptions. Police figures for April 2007-March 2009 indicate that there have been no murders at all in these districts; whereas the average for these places from the 1930s–1950s is one per year (still a relatively low number). Elsewhere in London, the figures are less impressive – there have been thirty-four murders in Lambeth from 2007–09. If current trends continue, the inhabitants of Richmond and Kingston are doubly favoured.

  Appendix

  Other murders committed in Richmond and Kingston, 1891–1957.

  17 August 1891: Frances Beresford killed her mother, Georgina, at Twickenham.

  1 December 1898: Mary Dick strangled her daughter, Dorothy, in Kingston.

  12 March 1899: Herbert Goodall killed his wife and two children, in Twickenham.

  8 March 1902: Charles Earl killed Mary Pamphilon, at Mortlake.

  9 November 1902: Rebecca Brown was killed by William Brown, in Mortlake.

  4 May 1904: Alfred Hedley was shot by his father, Reginald, in Richmond.

  11 September 1906: Alma Auspach was shot by his cousin, Carl Reynol, in Richmond.

  20 September 1913: Edith Court was killed by Wolfram Court, in Kingston.

  25 September 1914: Jane Weston was killed by her husband, Henry, in Richmond.

  17 December 1915: Ada Elms drowned her children, in Twickenham.

  19 September 1915: Sarah Poynter gassed Patricia and Doris Clearly, in Richmond.

  24 May 1923: Ada Kerr was killed by Henry Griffon, in Whitton.

  22 May 1933: Annie Bennett was killed by her father, William, in Ashford.

  6 November 1934: Louisa Harris was killed on the Barnes towpath, by George Newman.

  20 August 1935: Leonard Day killed his wife and three children, in Tolworth.

  3 March 1937: Douglas Scott killed Sarah Scott, in Worcester Park.

  30 May 1937: An unknown baby was found dead in Twickenham.

  2 September 1937: Gertrude Hogg was killed by Ada Walsh in Kingston.

  26 May 1938: Peter Rampton was killed near Barnes Station, by Mr Eastwood.

  5 January 1941: Annie Jopling was killed by Eva Jopling, in Mortlake.

  7 January 1942: Lillian Stuart was killed by Gladys, her mother, in Surbiton.

  26 December 1943: Joan Thompson was killed by Lucy, her mother, in Barnes.

  2 July 1944: Ernest Dawkins was killed by Mabel Minnion, at Surbiton.

  17 November 1945: Daphne Hartley was shot by Emmanuel Carday, at Barnes Common.

  20 January 1946: Ann Woolley was killed by Winifred Woolley, at Worcester Park.

  26 March 1948: William Silver was killed by Norris Megaw, at Teddington.

  26 September 1953: John Conroy was killed by Teresa Conroy, at Twickenham.

  8 March 1954: Patrick Webb was killed by Harriett Webb, at Surbiton.

  9 May 1954: Nellie Officer was strangled by Rupert Wells, at Kingston.

  3 March 1955: A baby was found dead in Twickenham.

  2 May 1957: Annie Waters was killed by Thomas Bennett, at Kingston.

  Information from The National Archives, Police Murder and Manslaughter files, MEP020/1-5

  NB: Method of recording murders from 1918-31 may mean the number of murders at this time not recorded here.

  Bibliography

  Primary sources

  (1) Manuscript

  The National Archives:

  CRIM 1/99/9 (Seddon); 1/583 (Seddon); 1/1103 (Desnos); MEPO3/107 (Martin); 129 (Earley); 1588 (Whitton); 1626 (Filson); 1632 (Oliver); 1665 (Isaacson); 1712 (Mordaunt-Chapman); 1724 (Dancy); 1737 (Key), 3001 (Martin); 9537 (Songhurst and Reed); 4/2 (police deaths); 20/1-5 (registers of murders, 1891-1958). WO339/ 29061, Maurice Odell Tribe

  Principal Division of the Family

  Indexes to Wills

  London Metropolitan Archives

  MS8241/6 and 8239/5 (Society of Apothecaries)

  MS 11936/541 Sun Insurance Company

  St Mark’s Kennington Bishop’s transcripts

  Surrey History Centre

  ES12/25/Bradish1

  (2) Printed

  Army Lists

  Baedeaker’s London and its Environs, (1900)

  M S Briggs, Middlesex Old and New (1934)

  Dickens’ The Thames Guide (1887)

  The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1812

  Kingston directories

  Medical directories, 1848-1977

  The Medical Times and Gazette, 1859

  The Richmond and Twickenham Times, 1877, 1879, 1894, 1905, 1927, 1936, 1937, 1953

  Richmond directories

  The Surrey Comet, 1861, 1881, 1888, 1938, 1939, 1948

  J Thorne, Environs of London (187
6)

  The Times, 1812, 1859, 1872, 1879, 1881, 1888, 1894, 1936, 1953

  The West London Observer, 1894, 1937

  Kingston and Richmond electoral registers

  Electronic resources

  Ancestry.com

  Oldbaileyonline

  The Times online

  1841–1911 Census

  Secondary Sources

  R Altick, Victorian Studies in Scarlet (1970)

  J Cloake, Richmond Past (1991)

  Dixon, Corridors of Times (1903)

  A Duncan, ‘Bloodshed in Barnes’, The Wick (June, 1995)

  M Fido, Murder Guide to London (1988)

  J H Lodge, Famous Trials (1961)

  L A Parry, Some Famous Medical Trials (1927)

  F Barker and D Silvester-Carr, Black Plaque Guide to London (1987)