Strange Stories UK: Windrush Men, Marriage and Murder

Windrush Men, Marriage and Murder” examines a series of domestic homicide cases involving Caribbean and African migrants in postwar Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on police files, psychiatric reports, witness statements and court records, it explores how jealousy, marital breakdown, sexual insecurity and fears of abandonment were understood within the social pressures of migration and the Windrush era. The cases reveal recurring themes of emotional dependency, masculinity, racism, economic strain and changing gender roles, while also exposing how British courts and psychiatrists often treated so-called “crimes of passion” with sympathy. 

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Transcript

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Hello Strange Stories UK here again calling this one Winrush Men Marriage and Murder. Well attitudes towards domestic killings connected to jealousy and marital rejection were very different in Britain during the nineteen sixties. There was a widespread belief that a crime of passion could be understandable in certain circumstances, especially where a man claimed emotional devastation, infidelity or humiliation within a marriage. Courts often treated intense emotional attachment and jealousy as factors that reduced culpability, which could influence whether a defendant was convicted of murder or manslaughter. Today relationship rejection is much more or more often understood through frameworks such as coercive control, domestic violence, possessiveness and femicide, rather than romantic desperation. Modern interpretations are generally far less sympathetic towards claims that jealousy or emotional pain explained violence against women. In cases involving Caribbean and African migration to post war Britain, there does appear to be a connection between migration, family stress, changed ideas of masculinity. Researchers have explored how racism, unstable employment, overcrowded housing, isolation, marital strain, and changing gender roles affected family life amongst some migrants who came to Britain during the Win Rush era. At the same time, historians and criminologists are careful not to argue that black Caribbean culture caused domestic violence. Instead, these killings are usually understood within a broader pattern of intimate partner violence that affected men across different ethnic and social backgrounds. One striking feature of these files is the repeated similarity in the psychiatric and legal language across different cases. Themes such as fear of infidelity, sexual humiliation, impotence, emotional dependency, family breakdown, and sudden rage after rejection appeared repeatedly. What may be distinctive in these cases is the combination of migration stress, postcolonial displacement, racial discrimination and changing expectations surrounding a woman's independence after migration. There's also the important scholarship showing that British courts in the 1950s and 1960s often treated domestic killings sympathetically when men claimed provocation or adultery or humiliation or fear of abandonment. This leniency was not limited to black defendants but reflected a wider legal culture surrounding masculinity, marriage, and emotional provocation. A modern scholar would probably frame these cases less as stories of unfaithful wives and more as examples of intimate power, partner homicide shaped by coercive control and other forms of violence. Well the first case we're looking at is that of John Reginald Butcher, who on the 17th of december nineteen sixty eight appeared at the Old Bailey charged with murdering Waltrine Butcher. Well, John Butcher was born on the twenty ninth of june nineteen thirty nine of Victoria near Georgetown, Guyana. His mother still lived there in nineteen sixty nine. His father died when Butcher was about three years old. Butcher didn't know the exact cause, he believed it may have been a heart attack or poisoning, he said. He also had a younger sister in the United States. His mother remarried, but his stepfather had died in 1960, and there was no children from the mother's second marriage. Guiana had become independent from the United Kingdom on the 26th of May 1966, and later became a republic in February 1970. It's one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with hundreds of mammals, bird, and reptile species, thousands of plant species. Its population is ethnically mixed with communities of Indian, African, European, Chinese, and indigenous people. The main religions were Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. Culturally, Guiana has strong links with the English-speaking Caribbean countries because of its history within the British Empire. One noticeable natural feature of Guiana is Shell Beach, a long coastal area of about 140 kilometers, known for its shell-covered sections, its rich biodiversity, and importance as a nesting site for sea turtles. Butcher attended school in Victoria until about 14, and then high school in Georgetown as a day boy until he was aged 18. He appeared to have done well at school and obtained certificates. Despite this, his school record was described as not wholly happy, and he apparently did not get on well with his stepfather. After leaving high school, he worked about six months as an assistant teacher in a village near his home and then gave this up to join the British Guiana Police. Butcher left the police force after about 18 months and decided to come to England or the UK, and he arrived in November 1961. His first employment in England was as a station foreman at London Underground Station, but after about 10 months he gave it up to learn electrical work. In 1963 he was first employed as a trained electrician and worked as an electrician thereafter. He worked with a firm based in South Kensington. Well Butcher married Waltrine Rodney on the 22nd of December 1962. They had three children, Colin aged five, Dion aged four and a half, and Robert aged two and a half. They lived at 23 Loxwood Road, Tottenham, N17, which Butcher described as his house. His work sometimes took him away from home for a week or two at a time. He said he had had friendships or sexual relations with other women since the marriage. His wife had heard about these rumors and was upset. Walterine said her husband was looking after other people and neglecting her. From September 1968, he had been working regularly in London. He tried to patch things up with his wife, but could not cope satisfactorily with financial commitments. Butcher said this made his wife awkward, and he'd tried gambling to get money, but this had not worked. Because of this he thought his wife had the impression that he was carrying on elsewhere. They quarrelled about this, and during December 1968, Butcher had been employed for about thirteen months with the company of electricians in South Kensington. And it was on the 17th of December that Butcher came home from work at about half past six in the evening. His wife was at home. They all had a meal together. Afterwards he did some painting in the passageway and laid some carpets on the stairs. Butcher was good at providing for his family and working on his home. The evening passed quietly. He got up and went to work in the morning and was out all day. He came home about five past six in the evening. His wife was upstairs in the passage going towards the children's room, and he heard her talking to Mr Facy, the tenant who lodged with them. He called out hello, but she did not answer. He went to the kitchen to wash his hands. When he had finished he went to the bedroom and gave cakes to the children in the sitting room. He then went into the kitchen where his wife was preparing dinner. Butcher noticed that he thought she was sulking. He tried to find out the reason why. She said nothing was the matter and walked towards the bedroom. He followed her in and asked her again what was the matter. She said she was not feeling well, but she had not been ill. She had had stitches in her head about five or six weeks earlier at the Prince of Wales hospital after falling down after Butcher had pushed her. Then his wife, Walterine, told him that it had been about six months since she'd seen her blood, meaning her period. Butcher thought this was not possible, as he'd taken precautions. He said that in the past they usually had sex about four or five times a week. He inferred that because she knew he'd been with other women, that she had been with another man. She denied this. They argued about it and eventually said she was leaving. Butcher asked well what happened to the children. She said that if he allowed it, she would take the children. He said that he could take the girl but not the boys. She said she would take the girl and go. He suggested that a woman would not just walk out of the house unless she had made some arrangement already. She said she was fed up and moved towards the door. Butcher said he pushed her back as she moved towards the fireplace. He asked her whether she realized how difficult it would be for him to work and look after the children. She said she did not want to take any more of this, and she was going. Butcher said that he was very upset. He had a.41 shotgun by the bed near the door, where he always kept it loaded. In 1968 it was legal in the UK for a private person to own a.410 shotgun. It's a small ball shotgun, it's not a rifle. Under the Firearms Act, 1968, ordinary shotguns were controlled by shotgun certificates, rather than the stricter firearms certificate system used for rifles and some other firearms. Shotgun certificate allowed the holder to possess buy or acquire shotguns, provided that the gun met the legal definition, being a smooth bore gun, not an air weapon, with a barrel at least twenty four inches long, and a bore not over two inches. So in 1968 it would not be inherently illegal for someone to own such a shotgun, if he had a proper shotgun license. The more important question would be whether he held a valid certificate, whether the gun was stored lawfully, and whether ammunition was legally held. The four ten shotgun was used for small game hunting and pest control. There wasn't much call for this in North London at the time. As I said to, so his wife could protect herself from burglars. The purchase would have been possible at the time if licensing requirements were met, but keeping it loaded by the bed as he claimed, would have obviously raised safety concerns. We're back to the story. Walterine was sitting on the foot of the bed facing the dressing table. Butcher picked up the gun from beside the door, pointed it towards her and fired. She slumped over the end of the bed onto the floor. She was bleeding, and he knew she didn't stand a chance. The children were still in the kitchen, so he took them upstairs and put them to bed. He went to Northacton Station, where his cousin Winston Huntley worked. He told Hunley what had happened and asked him to send the children home to Guiana for him. Huntley said he would, and Huntley's wife said that she would look after the children. A statement by Amory Samuel Winston Huntley. He was a booking clerk, and he lived at Nine Western Court, Rosebank Way, London. He was a cousin of John Reginald Butcher. Huntley knew that about five years earlier Butcher had married a girl named Walterine Rodney. Huntley had not attended the wedding but had gone to the reception at Islington. Since the marriage, Butcher had visited Huntley from time to time alone. Huntley could not remember seeing Butcher's wife since the wedding reception. About two years earlier, Huntley had discussed with Butcher a letter his wife had sent him. In it she claimed that he had slapped her. Butcher explained this by saying that he thought that she had gone with another man. Although she denied this, he was not satisfied. After that meeting, Huntley was not aware of any further trouble between Butcher and his wife. On the Tuesday, seventeenth of December, when Butcher came to see Huntley at the Northacton Underground Station, where Huntley was at work, Huntley said that Butcher appeared disturbed, and he said that he was in serious trouble. He'd shot Waltrine, she was dead, and the children were upstairs asleep in bed. Huntley suggested that the children were the main concern and that Butcher should go and see Huntley's wife, telling her as little as possible, but asking if she would look after the children. Butcher left, then returned twenty minutes later to say Huntley's wife had agreed. Butcher returned to Tottenham, collected the children and some clothes for them. He left the room very untidy. Clothing was left on the bed, wardrobe doors were left open. He left some cottages for the shotgun on the dressing table. One of them he'd broken open a few days earlier to see what was inside it. Once he got the children back to Acton, he telephoned the police. Huntley finished work about midnight and went home. He learnt that Butcher's children had been at the house and he had just left. Huntley went out and walked towards the station and found Butcher walking along Wales Farm Road. Huntley realized it was too late to catch a train and suggested a taxi from Western Avenue. He told Butcher that it was not sensible to pay for a taxi if he was going to see the police. Butcher said he had tried to telephone Tottenham Police a couple of times, but he could not get through and had no sixpences left. Huntley told him that he wouldn't need money if he phoned nine, the emergency number. They went to a phone box in Wales Farm Road. Butcher went inside and phoned the police. He said on the phone that a woman had been shot at twenty three Loxwood Road, and that the person responsible was at nine Western Court, and if the police came they would find him there. Shortly after this call, the police arrived. Butcher was taken away in a police car. Huntley identified the body of Walterin Butcher at a Hornsy Mortuary. Police Sergeant Brian Scott Coates stated that on Tuesday the seventeenth of December, he began duty at Tottenham Police Station. A telephone message was received, and he went with police sergeant Bundock two hundred twenty three Loxford Road. They banged on the door but got no reply. Occupiers of an adjoining house allowed them to pass through their house and into their into the garden. They climbed the fence into the garden of number twenty three. The back door appeared unlocked but jammed at the top. It's forced open. They entered the kitchen and put on the light. Nothing unusual was seen in the kitchen or the passages leading from it. But in the passage beyond the front room, Coates saw a closed but unlocked door with a key on the hall side. He entered it and switched on the light. The room was furnished as a bedroom and was very untidy. On the floor immediately in front of him he saw the legs and lower half of a woman. She was fully clothed. Her head was between the wall in foot of the bed, and she was lying on her right side with a large pool of blood under her head. She appeared to be dead. Coates called Sergeant Bundock into the room. He noticed the gun. Nothing was touched in the room, and he called the divisional surgeon doctor Gourmney, who pronounced life extinct. Coates then returned to the station. Bundock said that whilst waiting for the divisional surgeon he searched the rest of the house, knocking the doors or the knocking the locked doors loudly, but getting no reply. In a room to the rear of the front room, which was also locked, he knocked loudly again, again no reply, so he forced the door. When he entered he switched on the light. A man in bed seemed to awake a awaken as Bundock entered. The man said his name was Nathan Facy, and he lived there. He had apparently slept through the whole incident. Dr. David Bowen at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Charing Cross Hospital attended twenty three Loxford Road Road in the early morning of the eighteenth of December. He met the police officers and was shown the body of the deceased lying on the floor. Bowen made a preliminary examination by lifting the head and noticed a typical entrance wound consistent with a shotgun to the right temple. At Hornsy Mortuary at 3 30 PM, Mortarine Butcher aged about 29 was examined further. She was described as five foot seven inches in height, quite well nourished. Rigomortis was firmly developed in the limbs. The head was heavily bloodstained, particularly on the right side. On the back of the head there was an irregular scar several inches long, in keeping with the heeled laceration that was caused four or five weeks earlier. On the right temple one inch from the edge of the eyelid and two inches from the right ear, there was an almost oval entrance wound, half an inch in diameter, surrounded by a one inch rim of grease and black staining. The skull was extensively fractured and embedded with tiny fragments of lead shot. A large number of flattened fragmented shot were found in the wound, along with wadding.

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Bowen concluded that she had been a healthy person and was pregnant of a few weeks' duration. Cause of death was recorded as laceration of the brain with fracture of the skull due to a gunshot wound to the head. Later prison records, medical records, said the butcher was in good physical health, with no evidence of bodily disease except an appendicitis operation in 1963. There was no evidence of mental illness. He could give his own account of what happened. The doctor believed that at the material time he knew the nature and quality of his acts were wrong. He found no mental abnormality substantially impairing responsibility. His opinion was that Butcher was fit to stand trial and fit to plead. Butcher told prison doctors that he admitted unfaithfulness in himself, but also had suspected his wife of being unfaithful. He said he loved her and might have let her go, but he was blinded by the thought of her being pregnant with a child that could not have been his. He had occasionally fits of depression, not because of his wife, but because he was worried about his elderly mother. People seemed to like him. He had no black hats or fits, but twice he had venereal disease, which he thought was gonorrhea. In the police for in the police files there's no record of the verdict of the court, or if in fact the case ever went to court. There was a similar case which dated from February 1965. This was Donald Edward Lawson. So Donald Lawson was born in Jamaica on the 9th of October 1927, and he was the third of four boys. According to latest psychiatric reports, his childhood was shaped by instability and exposure to mental illness within the family. His mother experienced reoccurring episodes of what was described at the time as insanity, involving alternative excitements, sadness and suspicion towards neighbours, and features resembling manic depressive illness. Between episodes she was reported uh reportedly recovered completely. Lawson also described his maternal grandmother as being mentally unstable. His parents separated when he was eight years old, and at fourteen he was sent to live with a strict aunt who worked as a schoolteacher. Although he was described as quiet and generally manageable, he'd been in trouble for repeated stealing at school. He left school at about age of seventeen and a half years old. As an adult, Lawson worked for several years as a rubber molder and later as a postman. He had no criminal record, he owned a car and was in the process of buying his house. People who knew him described him as being somewhat reserved and someone who'd made friends. With difficulty. He married Maureen Adama Lawson, and together they had a young son. The family lived at 8 Penhurst Road in Hackney, London. There wasn't any record of when he actually came across to the UK. A man named Alfonso Tilburt Hoffman had also known Lawson for about 20 years since their time in Jamaica. He rented the upstairs flat with his own family while Lawson, his wife and child occupied the ground floor. The marriage was going through difficulties. Lawson became increasingly distressed because he believed his wife was involved with another man. He claimed to have seen her kissing somebody else. She denied this, and she denied committing any infidelity when confronted. Lawson was described as being deeply attached to his wife and child and fearful of family breakdown, possibly because of his own disrupted childhood. The report also referred to sexual difficulties within the marriage. Because the couple worked different hours, opportunities for intimacy were limited, and Lawson reportedly became anxious and sometimes impotent when the opportunities arose. He said his wife laughed at him during these moments, something the psychiatrist believed increases humiliation and emotional strain. Lawson visited his doctor irregularly, complaining of anxiety, restlessness, and physical symptoms. He reportedly lost weight and appeared increasingly worried, although he refused to discuss details of his problems openly. twenty fifth of february nineteen sixty five. Alfonso Hoffman returned home from work and briefly saw Mrs. Lawson in the kitchen. Mr Lawson then entered the kitchen and found his wife preparing herself to go out. During their conversation she implied that she could not see any possibility of reconciliation between them. A little later in the afternoon, Alfonso Hoffman heard Maureen Lawson scream out Sabu! Leonard's killing me. Sabu was Hoffman's nickname, and Leonard was Lawson's first name. Hoffman hurried downstairs and entered the flat. Inside he found Mrs. Lawson lying on the floor in a curled up position surrounded by blood and making no sound. Lawson was standing nearby, holding a knife. Hoffman later said Lawson appeared furious, gasping for breath with staring eyes. When Hoffman asked him why he had done it, Lawson replied, I had to, because I love her so much, and she says she doesn't love me anymore, and she's got no use for me anymore. Hoffman then left to collect his wife from her workplace and later returned. By then Lawson was walking around the front room. Lawson attempted to harm himself after the killings by drinking caustic soda and disinfectant fluid. Police were called and Lawson was taken away. A psychiatrist later suggested that Lawson had become emotionally exhausted and physically weakened by prolonged stress, poor eating and lack of sleep. He also suggested that Lawson may have taken sleeping tablets shortly before the killing and may not have eaten for many hours beforehand, leaving him drowsy and unsteady. The report of the psychiatrist suggested that when his wife said that she saw no future with him, this moment was potentially significant because Lawson may have experienced it as a final rejection after months of emotional turmoil and fear of abandonment. Dr. Hugh Robert Norton Johnson was the pathologist. He found Maureen Lawson had suffered nineteen stab wounds, together with additional cuts and bruises. The fatal injuries penetrated the heart, lungs and liver. Dr. Johnson stated that at least three of the wounds were independently could have been fatal, and possibly as many as five. During March nineteen sixty five Lawson was examined in Brixton prison by another psychiatrist who concluded that Lawson was intelligent, grief stricken, and filled with self-blame. But he wasn't mentally ill. He considered whether Lawson may have inherited manic depressive illness from his mother, whether he suffered from pathological jealousy, or whether he was mentally unimpaired by intoxication or physical exhaustion at the time of the killing. Ultimately he rejected all of these explanations as sufficient grounds for diminished responsibility. The psychiatrist did not believe Lawson was psychotic, delusional, or un incapable of understanding his actions. However, he did believe that Lawson had been under exceptional emotional strain and thought there were strong grounds for a defence of provocation. He highlighted Lawson's fear of family breakdowns, his wife's rejection, his exhaustion and possible starvation, and the possibility that she may have briefly picked up the knife herself during the confrontation. On the thirteenth of april nineteen sixty five, Lawson appeared at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, where he was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder and sentenced to five years imprisonment, as the killing had taken place in an emotionally explosive situation rather than as a coldly planned murder. The reason we know the court's verdict is because in the police file there was a letter from the Inner London probation and aftercare service written several years afterwards, referring to the efforts to help Lawson obtain employment in the Postal Service after his imprisonment. The letter confirmed that he had been convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey on the thirteenth of april nineteen sixty five and was sentenced to five years in prison. Well the next case is of Stephen Riley. Riley. He was born on the eighth of November 1931 at Bathurst in the Gambia. It was then part of the British West Africa. Bathurst is now called Banjul and is the capital city and is threatened by rising sea levels as the result of climate change. Anyhow, Riley attended Stanley Street Methodist Elementary School in Bathurst and left school at the age of fourteen. Riley later refused to provide many details about his background, but it was known that after leaving school he worked as an electrical worker with the Gambian Police Works Department. His childhood and early life were later described as generally uneventful, apart from a sphere of illness involving a disease of the leg, which caused him to miss some schooling. In August 1961, Riley came to Britain and settled in Hackney, East London. For about two years he worked as a packer, and over the following years he held numerous labouring jobs in the Hackney and Dalston districts. His last known employment was a machinist with the Metal Box Company on Lower Clapton Road. On the 25th of August 1962, he married Lillian Nancy Foster at Hammersmith. The couple had two daughters, one was aged two years and the other six months at the time of the events when Lillian lost her life. Riley was said to have been of previously good character and had no known criminal history. But by 1965 the marriage had broken down. Probation and other reports stated that Riley and his wife had separated and the two children had been placed in private foster care in Kent during June 1965. Riley told others that his wife was involved with another man and said he did not want the children raised in these circumstances. He claimed that he still loved his wife and did not object to her having access to the children, but he wanted to prevent her from taking them away permanently. Riley was renting a house at ninety two Middleton Road, Hackney. Sarah Alberta Fleming was another tenant in the house. She had known both Riley and his wife for about three years, and that Riley had moved into the property in June or july sixty five after separating from Lily. Riley had told her that his wife had left him and that their children were living with foster parents. Riley was unemployed on the morning of the thirteenth of september nineteen sixty five when he spent the morning trying to locate his wife Lilyian. One witness said that around a during the course of the morning Riley arrived at her front door carrying some objects and asked to see Lily. The witness told him that she'd left the previous week and did not know where she had gone to. Riley showed her an envelope which he claimed contained a letter from his wife asking him to call on her, although the witness only saw the envelope itself. When told again that mister Mrs. Riley had left, he reportedly stared blankly, appearing shocked, and then walked away. Later the same witness saw Riley standing outside with another woman, showing her a group photograph. It seemed he was trying to ascertain who Lillian's male companion was now, the man that he called the fat man. He was telling a story that their baby had been discharged from hospital and he needed to find her to give her the baby. The police reports are a little confused and do not make it clear if the baby was discharged from hospital and given to Riley. But it seems that Riley did have a baby in his room when the following events occurred. At ten forty five AM Riley had returned to his room at ninety two Middleton Road. In the shared kitchen of the house he asked Sarah Fleming if he could use her room. She agreed and went upstairs to tidy it. Shortly afterwards, Fleming saw Riley's wife arrive with a welfare officer, whom she'd recognized from a previous visit. Riley wanted to speak with his wife alone and asked the welfare officer to leave the room, but Lilyian refused, saying I'm not going without the welfare lady. Riley then asked for another appointment. During the conversation the welfare officer asked him whether he intended to keep the child and care for her or return her to her mother. Riley responded angrily. All I want to do is to mend my marriage. Lily and then attempted to leave with the welfare officer, saying that she wanted to go home and look after the baby. Riley repeatedly urged her to sit down because he wanted to speak to her. When she continued trying to leave, he grabbed her arms and pulled at her while insisting that she stay. Fleming described him as becoming annoyed and agitated. He repeatedly said I want to speak to you, and Lily continued saying I want to go. Fleming heard Riley tell his wife get the child. Lily replied that she would only go into the room if the welfare officer came in with her. The welfare officer entered first, followed by Lilyian, and Riley shut the door behind them. Fleming then went downstairs to the kitchen. While she was there, she heard shouting from upstairs. She briefly went into the basement to speak with the landlord, Mr Mackenzie, and when she came back upstairs she saw the welfare officer standing by the open door before leaving the house. Moments later Fleming saw Lilyian appear at the top of the staircase, bleeding heavily from the face and nose. She shouted for the welfare officer, who ran back into the house. Lilyian stumbled and fell down the stairs, and went towards the front door crying, Let me get out, let me get out. She'd struck her head near the step by the front entrance and was covered in blood. Within mistress within seconds, Mr McKenzie came running downstairs, followed shortly afterwards by Riley. As Riley passed his injured wife, he reportedly said Now it's finished, I'm going to the police station, and he walked out of the house. Ursula McKenzie, who lived in the same property with her husband, Winston Mackenzie, later gave evidence about the disturbance. She said she heard shouting from the upstairs at about twelve twenty PM, and later saw the welfare officer running downstairs and out of the house. Seconds later she saw a woman she recognized as Lily and fall down the staircase covered in blood. She heard her husband shout Riley, you're mean. Why did you do this? Mr Mackenzie ran outside while Riley came downstairs shortly afterwards, apparently concealing something as he passed the front door before leaving the property. Police and ambulance crews arrived soon afterwards, but Lily and Riley died from her injuries. Detective Superintendent Tuff said he arrived at the house at one o five. He saw her the body of Lily and lying in the hallway near the front door. Police believed Riley had stabbed her in the neck with a knife. The murder weapon itself was never recovered. Later psychiatric reports suggested that sexual difficulties within the marriage may have also played an important role in Riley's mental state. Riley said that after treatment for venereal disease at Hackney Hospital in 1963, he became relatively impotent. Before that he claimed that the couple had sexual relations frequently, but afterwards intimacy became much less common. He alleged that his wife mocked him and told him he could not satisfy her, saying I've seen something better, I've made up my mind, and I'm going. Riley insisted that he had been faithful throughout the marriage and believed he could only have contracted disease from his wife, although she denied this. The psychiatrist later considered these issues, potentially important, understanding emotional tension that preceded the killing. On the sixteenth of September, Detective Superintendent Tuff and DS Dennis John Williams interviewed Rip Riley and Hackney Hospital in the presence of legal representatives. Riley had apparently attempted suicide immediately after the killing by drinking disinfectant fluid purchased from a chemist shop. Doctors considered him fit enough to be interviewed. He was cautioned and informed that the police believed he had caused his wife's death by stabbing her in the neck. Riley made very few comments during the interview. When shown a leather sheath knife, a leather knife sheath found in his room and asked if it belonged to him, he said yes, this is mine. It had been given to him by a seaman he met in a pub. When asked where the knife was, Riley responded I can't say anything new. He was told he would be charged with murder once fit enough to leave hospital, to which he replied all right. A medical report dated the nineteenth of october nineteen sixty five summarized Riley's background and repeated that it had been he had been a previous good character, with no history of violence or criminal behaviour. It confirmed that he had also been in custody since his arrest and that he was unemployed at the time of the stabbing. On the 22nd of October, Riley was examined in Brixton prison by a psychiatrist. Riley initially claimed to have little memory of either the killing or parts of his earlier life, although his memory had gradually improved. Riley told the psychiatrist that he loved his wife and did not want to speak badly of her after her death. He admitted freely feeling depressed, unable to sleep, worried about the children, and emotionally distressed before the killing. He denied being a heavy drinker or having any history of having a violent temper. He also denied having any mental illness. Throughout the interview he appeared cooperative and deeply upset by what he had done. The psychiatrist found no evidence of psychosis or insanity. He described Riley as having a hysterical personality rather than a severe mental disorder. He thought that Riley's alleged impotence and venereal disease treatment may have contributed significantly to his emotional collapse and sudden violence. If his wife had taunted him about his inability to satisfy her sexually, this may have had a big impact on what happened. And there was also the old chestnut of a blow to the head many years earlier that may have had some significance. Again, in the police files there is no record of a court case or a verdict. Well, the last case, the short one, is Joseph Edward Tewett, who was born on the 8th of March 1915 in Montserrat in the Leeward Islands, and he moved to Britain in 1955 to join and marry Frances Elizabeth Tewett, who had arrived from Montserrat the previous year. They'd married at Stepney Methodist Church in April 1955 and had two sons. Tuart worked in a series of manual jobs in East London and eventually became a wagon repairer for British Rail at Temple Mills in Leyton. The family lived at Four Cranbourne Road, Leyton, in a house that they were buying on a mortgage from the GLC, Greater London Council. He had no previous criminal convictions and was generally described as a man of good character. Despite this outward stability, the marriage was deteriorating badly by the mid-1960s. From 1964 onwards, the husband and wife were sleeping in separate bedrooms. In July 1968, Frances Tuett brought maintenance proceedings against her husband at Stratford Magistrates Courts, claiming that he had failed to support her and the children. Although the summons itself was dismissed, she was granted custody of the children, and Joseph Tewett was ordered to pay maintenance for them. During the early hours of the thirty first of December nineteen sixty eight, police officers driving along Cranbourne Road were flagged down by Tewitt himself. He calmly told him that he lived nearby and gone into his wife's room to clear the air for the new year. According to his account, his wife poured a hammer from beneath the bed and struck him on the arm. He said he took the hammer from her, they fought and he hit her on the head with it, and he said that he thought that she was dead. The officers accompanied Tewett back to Four Cranbour Road. Upstairs they found Frances Tewitt laying face down on the floor of the bedroom surrounded by blood. The room was in disarray, with clothing and furniture scattered around. A hammer lay on near the bed. Tewett identified the woman as his wife and said the incident happened at about twelve thirty, just after midnight. Police later noted that he had changed his clothes before going out to find them. He also remarked to one officer, I didn't realise it was so serious. A detective later recovered a hammer along with clothing believed to have been worn during the attack. Chewett was arrested and taken to Leyton Stone Police Station. At Whipp's Cross Hospital Mortuary later that morning, Frances Chewett's body was formally identified by her brother before a post-mortem examination took place. The surviving records present the killing as a combination of years of marital breakdown and separation within the household. The evidence for the murder centred on a violent domestic confrontation between the middle-aged couple, whose marriage had been feigning for several years. But again, in the police notes, there is no mention of a court case. Well, that ends that particular podcast. I'd like to thank Damsel Fly for providing the background music. I'd like to thank anybody listening. Until next time, I'll say goodbye.