Kevin Mison
At around lunchtime on Wednesday August 6th 1980 a young married couple went to visit the house they were about to purchase. The property stood on Hartismere Road in Fulham, west London, and the previous owners had vacated the house a fortnight earlier. The buyers had decided to go to their new home to measure for carpets and curtains and, at first, all seemed fine. That is until they went upstairs and into the back bedroom. Here the couple received the fright of their lives as they discovered the bound and mutilated body of a young man.
Police inquiries soon established the victim to be a local 18 year old man, Kevin Mison. Just a note about the pronunciation of the surname. The name can be pronounced My son but I have also heard Mee son. I’m not sure how Kevin said it but I am going to say My-son.
Kevin lived a mere five minute walk away from the house where his body was found, in Edith Summerskill House, which was part of the Clem Attlee Estate. The council estate was built as part of the post-war labour government’s drive to provide affordable housing across the country's capital. Kevin had lived there with his mother, two brothers and two sisters.
When Kevin was found his hands were tied tightly behind his back and a gag was firmly pushed into his mouth. His throat had several superficial slash marks, which as far as I can see were done when Kevin was alive. These wounds could have been caused by a knife but they were not the cause of death. A post mortem carried out by pathology professor David Bowen concluded that Kevin had died from asphyxia. It was suggested Kevin had choked on the gag which was embedded deep inside the mouth.
Kevin’s clothes indicated that they had been burned and I believe part of the body also had burn marks. This action had possibly been done in an attempt to burn the body after Kevin had died. There was no evidence that Kevin had been sexually assaulted, although as we will see a sexual motive for the killing is thought probable. It was estimated that Kevin had been killed the night before his body was found, so late on Tuesday August 5th or in the very early hours of August 6th.
The investigation into Kevin's murder was led by Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Mike O’Leary from Fulham Police station. The first task was to establish some facts about Kevin and his life, so attempts were made to trace all his friends and associates.
Kevin had been a pupil at Chelsea School for Boys but had left two years earlier when he was 16. At the time of his death Kevin was unemployed and his mother Pauline told newspaper reporters that he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. Kevin enjoyed football and would go along with his brothers to watch his favorite team Fulham at nearby Craven Cottage. He never missed a home match. Pauline described her son as a quiet boy who was no trouble. According to Pauline he had some friends but kept himself to himself. He had no enemies and Pauline was at a loss to explain why he was targeted in this way.
A family friend who lived on Munster Road, a 15 minute walk south west of Hartismere Road, said Kevin did have a gang of friends that he hung around with from Hartismere Road but that he was a quiet lad who had a mind of his own. The family friend added that Kevin was secretive and kept things inside.
Police asked the public if anyone had seen Kevin near the empty house where his body was found on the evening of August 5th. No one had seen Kevin on Hartismere Road but a witness did see Kevin on nearby St Thomas Way at 11pm on the night of August 5th. St Thomas Way runs horizontally to Hartismere Road and is a couple of minutes away on foot.
Following media publicity a 13 year old boy immediately came forward to police to tell of an incident that had happened to him on the night of the murder. As an aside some newspaper reports say this incident occurred the day before the murder but I don’t think this is correct. In fact there are other errors concerning the date of the murder in at least two contemporary news articles as they give it as August 13th. Getting back to the narrative, the unnamed 13 year old boy told police that at 10.25pm on August 5th (just hours before Kevin was killed) he was approached by an older youth who lured him into the backyard of the house on Hartismere Road.
The youth had initially called over to the 13 year old boy to come into a street known as “Baths Approach”, so-called because the route led to a public baths or swimming pool situated on North End Road. The area is now called Palace Mews and, although the baths were demolished in 1981, the facade is still there today as it is a listed building. The Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle August 15th 1980 states that the youth asked the 13 year old boy to come and help him as an old lady had fallen down some stairs. The youth then took the boy into the yard of a house which backed onto Baths Approach.
In the backyard of the house there were two chimney pots and the youth said he would give the boy money if he helped move them to Farm Lane, which is a ten minute walk to the east. The youth told the boy that there were two more pots inside the house that also needed moving and went through the back door and into the house. The 13 year old boy was nervous and became frightened. Where was the old lady that had fallen over? And the story about the chimney pots made no sense. Seeing his opportunity to flee the boy ran out of the yard and did not look back.
The 13 year old boy did not know the youth or his name but he was able to give a description of him. Subsequently a police artist provided a sketch of the suspect which was widely circulated. The youth was black and aged 15-18, with a slim build and about 6ft or 183cm tall. He wore a brown checked peak cap and black harrington jacket.
It seemed that the 13 year old boy narrowly escaped the fate that would within hours befall Kevin. Had Kevin simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been lured to the house under some ruse? It was obvious that the suspect had known the house was empty. The property was up for sale so there may have been a sign outside alerting people to this fact. The people who were selling the property were out of the country at the time but came back on hearing the news about the murder. They went through the property and confirmed that two items were missing. The Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle listed these as a water heater and a wooden staircase. Which makes no sense to me so I wonder if it should read a wooden bookcase. Either way, odd items to steal and it is not known if Kevin's killer had anything to do with the missing items.
A couple of weeks after the murder 46 year old actress Liz Fraser, known for her roles in bawdy comedies like the “Carry on" series of films was out walking her basset hound in Fulham. While she was out she saw a teenage boy being chased by two grown men. Something didn't seem right and what's more she spotted two men lying in wait around the next corner ready to pounce on the fleeing boy. Liz rushed over to help the boy but by the time she arrived at the scene the men had caught up with the boy and were tackling him to the ground. She told them to leave the boy alone but to her surprise the men turned to Liz and said they were plain clothes police officers. The boy they had been chasing and now had in their grasp was a suspect in the murder of Kevin Mison. Officers had seen the boy on Fabian Road, which was close to Liz's house, and he was said to resemble the suspect description. When the teenage boy was approached by the officers he ran off.
The boy was taken to the police station but within 20 minutes was released without charge as it was obvious he had nothing to do with the murder. This incident illustrates the tense atmosphere in the area at the time as police attempted to hunt down the suspect.
Police inquiries in the locality did turn up some useful information. A woman witness said she saw a youth matching the suspect description on Hartismere Road twice on the night Kevin was killed. From details given at the inquest I believe a second witness also saw the suspect near to the murder house.
The unnamed woman witness saw the youth on Hartismere Road at 11pm. He was alone at this time. Then at 11.50pm she saw the youth again, only this time he was talking and laughing to a group of white youths (described in one report as being skinheads) opposite Baths Approach and right next to the murder house. The witness noticed that one of the white youths was wearing braces. As an aside I assume this means the type that is used to hold up a pair of trousers as opposed to those worn on teeth.
Police were very anxious to speak with these youths who they thought lived locally. Investigators stated that they did not believe they were involved in the murder but hoped they could identify the suspect with whom they were talking.
During the search of the murder house forensic technicians found 30 separate sets of fingerprints. Every effort was made to eliminate individuals who had legitimate access to the property. After this process there remained a number of unidentified prints and police appealed for help from the local community to find who the others belonged to. Young people who matched the description of the suspect were asked to voluntarily go to Fulham police station so they could be cleared of involvement. Police were at pains to say their fingerprints would be destroyed and not kept on file.
There were some local people who were wary about giving their fingerprints to the police but one young lad told the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle that it was better to comply and be fingerprinted rather than face up to two hours of questioning at the police station.
Police orchestrated a huge drive to fingerprint hundreds of 15-20 year olds in the Fulham and Hammersmith area. A team of 17 detectives led by DCS Mike O’Leary went systematically from house to house to do this. Partial focus was given to Fulham Court flats which housed 400 apartments. Police aimed to speak to every family on the estate. By Tuesday September 2nd 1980 police had gone through about three quarters of the flats in Fulham court and found most people to have been cooperative.
In spite of this effort, at Christmas 1980, just four months after Kevin's murder, the investigation was effectively brought to a halt. Due to a lack of leads the murder room at Fulham police station was closed. Detective Sergeant Gerald Ryan told the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle that they had used all the information they had been given. A squad of detectives could not be kept on the case without something to follow up. While the full time investigation was stopping police maintained that inquiries would continue in the background. One avenue being explored involved asking local schools for assistance.
Thirteen schools from across west London displayed posters of the suspect identikit. This proved a controversial move as some headteachers and local people were wary of this idea and objected to young people being exposed to this element of a murder investigation. One local resident told the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle that the showing of a murder poster would not be a good influence on young people and they feared it was part of a growing acceptance of violence in society.
The vast majority of teachers, parents and other members of the community recognised that it was a necessary measure. DCS Mike O’Leary said there were no detrimental effects to displaying the posters and indeed it could only be beneficial to the investigation. For one thing it could alert young people to the suspect's appearance, as there was a chance he could attempt to kill again. What’s more it was for the public good and was aiming to bring justice for Kevin's family. Of course most teachers believed the killer couldn’t possibly be part of their school but it was worth doing as their students might recognise the killer from around the area. No headteacher wanted to contemplate the idea that one of their own pupils could be a sadistic killer.
A few weeks after the murder room was closed the police released Kevin’s body for burial. The 18 year old was laid to rest at North Sheen cemetery in Richmond, London. Residents from the Clem Atlee estate and Fulham Conservative Club collected money to pay for the funeral and the headstone for the grave.
In early February an inquest into Kevin's death was held at the coroners court on Fulham Palace Road. It was heard that despite police inquiries and appeals in the media the four youths seen talking with the suspect had not been traced. Likewise the suspect himself remained at large and unidentified. Police had been met with a wall of silence and DCS Mike O'Leary said he was sure there were people who knew the identity of the killer. Sadly, no one was forthcoming with that vital information.
One other important thing to note from the inquest is that while there was no direct evidence of what was referred to as “sexual interference”, DCS Mike O’Leary stated that the motive for the murder was both sadistic and sexual.
Coroner Dr John Burton gave a verdict of unlawful killing.
And that seems to be the last development on the case. The murder of Kevin Mison has had next to no publicity in 45 years.
Someone once commented to me that they do not like podcasts about unsolved or unresolved cases because there is no closure, which in turn doesn't make for a satisfactory listening expereince. The comment made me baulk because, while that may be the case, the stories I cover are real life with real people and families who are living this reality. Kevin’s story is one that needs to be heard. While I am sure his killer believes they have escaped the consequences of their actions, perhaps it is not too late for the wall of silence to be broken.
If you have any information about the 1980 murder of Kevin Mison you can contact crime stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
