Strange Stories : Double murder at Cadno Farm, Wales.

Ronnie Harries was in his mid twenties, newly married with a baby girl living in rural South Wales, a member of a community where he had lived all his life. How did he think he could kill relatives he called uncle and auntie and take over their farm without anyone asking where they were and what was going on? Recorded in one take with the usual shortcomings. The description says send fan mail, I am not asking this, it comes up automatically and I cannot delete the request.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, strange stories, UK here again. Well, this is the Cadno Farm case, which was the 1953 double murder of John Harry's and his wife Phoebe Mary Harries, who lived at Durwyn Farm, Lan Ginning, near St. Clears in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The man accused was Thomas Ronald Lewis Harries, usually called Ronald Harry's or Ronnie Harry's, a young farm worker from Cadno Farm, Pendine. He was a distant relative of the couple, described as a second cousin, and he called them Uncle John and Auntie Mary. Ronald Harries was born on the 19th of December 1927. He was the only child of John Lloyd Harries and Muriel Harries of Cadno Farm Pendeen. Pendeen the farm was 62 acres and it adjoined the Pendeen Red Roses Road. Ronnie Harries left school at 14 and worked with his father, who farmed and ran a butcher's business. Ronald helped on the farm and delivered meat locally. In 1949 he'd been injured in a motorcycle accident when he collided with a stray horse and he fractured his jaw. I think this fact was later included to suggest that it somehow affected his personality. By nineteen fifty three Ronnie Harris was married, but although he slept at his wife's house at Ashwell Farm, he still spent most of his time at Cadno Farm with his parents. Ashwell Farm was next door to Cadno Farm. John Harris was born in eighteen ninety. He was a farmer and an agricultural contractor. His wife Phoebe Mary Harris was born in eighteen ninety nine, and as said they lived at Durwyn Farm, Langinning near St. Clare's in Carmarthanshire. Durwyn Farm is still there today. It was a small holding situated on the St. Clare's Land Body Road in the village of Langinning. In the nineteen fifties, Langinning was a small dairy farming village of about twenty houses, farms, a school, a post office and a general shop. Durwyn Farm was a small holding of about eleven acres. It had four fields with the usual outbuildings. John Harris and his wife had lived there for the past seven years. They owned the property and farmed the holding, keeping five milking cows and about sixty head of poultry. Durwyn Farm was about three miles from St. Clear's and about thirteen miles away from Cadno Farm, Pendine. The road outside Durwyn Farm was a class three road and was little used by traffic. John Harris was also an agricultural contractor in the locality. He did ploughing and various forms of harvesting for neighbours, and he kept a number of agricultural implements at Durwyn Farm for this purpose. These included an Ellis Chambers tractor, and he also owned an Austin A forty saloon motor car, registration number LPK one one five. The farmhouse at Durwyn Farm was detached, double fronted, and had a ground floor and first floor, and the outbuildings were situated to the left of the house. The important dates in this case were the St. Claire's Fair on the twelfth of october nineteen fifty three, the Harvest Thanksgiving service on Friday the sixteenth of october nineteen fifty three, and the Pembroke Farm on Saturday the seventeenth of october fifty three. These events helped witnesses fix the timing of what happened. The Pembroke Fair was a traditionally linked with Micklemass on the twenty ninth of September. Micklemass was an important date in the farming and legal year, and fairs held around this time often served practical rural purposes. The fair had begun as an agricultural and trading event. Farmers, craftsmen, traders and local people came into the town, livestock goods and farm produce were bought and sold, and it also became a hiring fair where farm workers from South Pembrokeshire could make agreements with farmers for the year's work. Over time the fair changed from mainly agricultural in hiring into a pleasure fair. By the Edwardian period, travelling amusements were a regular feature, and crowds came into Pembroke for rides, stalls and the spectacle spectacle rather than a mainly for business. In the year 1953 Pembroke Fair was a major local annual event, a busy autumn fair in Pembroke, and it was important for young people and families from the surrounding areas to attend. John and Phoebe Harris were last independently seen alive on Friday the sixteenth of October. This was in the evening after a harvest Thanksgiving service at Brynn Chapel near Durwyn Farm. The service started at about seven PM and finished about eight twenty PM. A neighbour Robert William Morris went to Durwyn afterwards and found the couple at home. Ronald Harris also arrived whilst Morris was there. Morris left at about eight forty five, and it was later thought that the murders happened in the period between eight fifty and ten twenty. Earlier on that evening, Ronald Harris had borrowed a hammer from a neighbour. The postmortem report later treated this hammer as a likely murder weapon. The police theory was that Ronald Harris may have persuaded John Harris to leave his home on the night of the sixteenth of October by saying that the Austin A forty car was ready to be collected after repairs. Phoebe Harris was described as nervous and unlikely to stay at home alone, so the theory was she may have gone with her husband. The next morning, Saturday the seventeenth of October, at about eight thirty, Ronald James, who was age thirty two, and a packer with British Railways. He lived at Langinning, and he called at Durwyn Farm. He knew John Harris and his wife very well. He knocked on the door but got no answer. He then went to the cowshed and saw the cows had not been milked. The cowshed floor was perfectly dry, and there were no signs of cows having been there since the previous evening. Between eight and eight thirty that same evening, Ronald Harry's called at number one council houses Pendine. This was the home of Martha Ethel Powell, who was a housewife aged forty one, and her son Richard Brian Powell, who was aged fifteen. We'll call him Brian Powell. That's the name he went by. He was an apprentice fitter at the Ministry of Supply Experimental Establishment at Pendeen. He had known Ronald Harris for as long as he could remember. Ronald Harris lived at Cadno Farm and number one council houses was next to the farm. When he'd been at school, he worked at Cadno Farm in the evenings and during holidays. He'd started work at the ministry about nine weeks earlier, and he had not been at Cadno Farm since that time. His mother told got him up and told him Ronnie wants you to go to Langin with him to help milk the cows and feed the chickens at his uncle's farm. Brian asked Ronald why he had gone to his uncle's farm to milk, and Ronald replied My aunt and uncle have gone to London on holiday, and I'm in charge of the farm until they come back. Brian agreed to go with him and they left at once. Ronald Harris had a car outside the house which Brian had not seen before. Brian asked whose car it was. Ronald said it's mine, I bought it. He did not say from whom he bought it from or how much he'd paid for it. It was a Black Austin A forty saloon, registration number LPK one hundred five. They first drove to Ronald Harry's home at Cadnow Farm where they had a quick breakfast prepared by Ronald's mother. About twenty minutes later, as they were leaving Cadneau Farm, Ronald told Brian Don't tell my mother and father where we're going. They then drove to Durwyn Farm. They arrived about nine thirty. Ronald took a bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked one of the outbuildings where the cattle food was kept. The cows were in the field. They were driven into the cow shed and tied up. They were given cake and then they were milked. They also fed the ferret. Ronald fed the chickens before Brian had finished milking. Ronald searched the back kitchen annex and found milk churn labels. The two boys carried the milkchurns to the sand at the front of the house, then washed out the cow shed, which took about ten minutes. They were at the farm for about an hour, leaving at about ten thirty. At about eleven AM the same morning, Ronald James returned to Durwyn with his brother Justin. They then saw the two milk churns on the stand awaiting collection by the milk lorry. They looked in the cow shed and noticed that the cows had been in there, and the cow shed had been washed down after milking. This meant that milking must have taken place between eight thirty AM and eleven AM. John Harry's normally marked milked each morning at about seven AM, so the evidence indicated that the couple were already missing by eight thirty AM. Brian Powell, the fifteen year old, was to give a fuller statement to the police on the twenty eighth of November about entering the farmhouse at Durwin that morning. After milking the cows, he and Ronald returned to the back door to lock the back kitchen to lock the door. At the outside door of the back kitchen, Ronald said Let's have a look inside the house. Brian said Righto. The key of the door leading from the back kitchen into the house was in the lock. Ronald turned the key and they both entered a passage. Brian later described items he saw inside the house which were later stolen by Roland or Ronald. This included a large clock, a jug and a sugar basin. The jug and basin were a matching set, brownish in colour. Ronald gave some items to Brian, which Brian later gave to the police. They then went upstairs. Brian noticed that the stairs were painted cream and looked new. They went into all the bedrooms and the bathroom. Ronald took a paintbrush from the bathroom and put it in his pocket, saying they won't miss this one. The room opposite the bathroom was full of tins of paint and looked unfinished. In the bedroom next to the paint room there was a bed and a dressing table. A dark suit was on the bed. Ronald looked through the pockets of the suit. Bran saw Ronnie take what looked like a white woolly clothes from the drawer and put them in a paper bag. They looked like baby's clothes. Ronnie then carried the paper bag in his hand. Brian later remembered that Ronnie also took a belt from a drawer of a wardrobe. After going through the upstairs rooms, they came downstairs and stood again in the passage. Ronnie took a coat from the hook and gave it to Brian to wear to Pembroke Fair that night. Brian later gave this coat to Detective Constable Lamford. Brian did not want to admit he had been inside the house because he thought he would get into trouble. From the passage, Ronald and Brian went into the kitchen. On the table there was a case with spectacles in it, some dishes, a sixpenny piece and a few pennies. Ronnie picked up the sixpence and pennies and put them in his pocket. They then went into the room opposite, where the wireless was. Brian switched on the wireless. Ronnie went in first and searched through the drawers of the dresser. Ronnie told Brian to turn the wireless off. When Brian turned round he saw Ronnie searching the drawer of the dresser nearest the fireplace, and he took a white whitish envelope which he put in the inside pocket of his jacket. On the way home in the car, Ronnie told Brian I'm gonna hide the jug and basin until after tonight. Then I'll say that I won them at Pembroke Fair. Ronnie then dropped Brian outside his house at number one council houses. Ronnie went on to Ashwell Farm to collect his wife and her parents, as he'd promised to take them and Brian to Pembroke Fair in the Land Rover. Brian went in the home for a few minutes. His mother asked him where he got the coat. Brian told her that Ronnie had lent it to him to go to Pembroke Fair. His mother didn't ask any more questions. Brian went into the roadway where Ronnie picked him up in the Land Rover with the rest of Ronnie's family. They went to Pembroke Fair and returned home at about half past twelve on Sunday the eighteenth of October. At about nine AM on the Sunday, Ronnie called for Brian Powell in the Land Rover again. They drove to Cadno Farm and they took the Austin A forty and went to Durwin Farm. On the way, Ronnie said Don't you tell anyone that you were with me on Saturday morning at Langy? If the police come and ask you, say that you were up there on Sunday and Monday, but whatever you do, don't say that you were there on Saturday morning. Ronnie also told him someone has broken into Uncle Johnny's farm at Lan Ginning and stolen on a clock which was hanging on the wall. Brian's mother was present and she heard Ronnie tell her son not to tell the police that he was at Durwyn Farm on the Saturday morning. Ronnie also told Brian I don't want to stay here too long or the police will think that I've come here to put ideas in your head because they think that we may have stolen the clock. On the evening of Sunday the eighteenth of October, Ronnie continued going to Durwyn with Brian to milk the cows and feed the animals. That evening Ronnie took a sack of potatoes and a sack of coal from Durwin. On Monday the nineteenth of October, while at Durwyn, Ronnie told Dewey Adams and Justin James, who was visiting the farm, that John Harris was away and that he was looking after the farm. That evening Ronnie returned with Brian Powell. Desmond Bayliss, another neighbour, arrived, and Ronnie said that he'd taken over the farm. His uncle had given him the cows and implements, and that the milk was going to St. Clear's for the last time. Ronnie then arranged to move the five cows and a calf from Durwyn farm to Cadno Farm. Brian later said that when he was inside Durwyn house on the Saturday morning, he saw two tilly lamps in the passage, not far from where the coats were hanging. He and Ronnie did not take them out on that Saturday morning. Brian said he was never in the house again. But on Monday night, the nineteenth of October, when the cows were taken to Cadno, Ronnie carried two lamps that had been in the house into the cow shed, so Brian believed that Ronnie had must have gone back in the house to fetch them. And Ronnie took one of the lamps to Cadno that night in the Land Rover. Tuesday the twentieth of October. Ronnie took Reese Tom Williams to Cadno Farm, apparently to show him the cows and the Austin A forty car. He claimed that he had bought the cows for about four hundred pounds and he had bought the car from a rich uncle. A later police report suggested he may have wanted to show off the property he was claiming as his own. By the twentieth of October people in Langinning were beginning to say that John and Phoebe Harris had not been seen since the previous Friday evening, and a stranger had been milking the cows. By Wednesday the twenty first of October, relatives were suspicious. John Harris had failed to make the expected telephone calls and he had missed other appointments. The couple had not been seen since the Friday night, the house was locked, and Ronnie's explanation about the keys and access to the house seemed very suspicious. That same day Lawrence Davis, Phoebe Harry's brother, and Simon John Phillips went to Doolwyn Farm and found Ronnie there feeding the chickens. Ronnie told them that John and Phoebe Harris had gone to London by train, and that he had driven them to Camarden Station, and he had been left to look after the farm, the car, the cows and the poultry. He also said he had moved the cows to Cadno Farm because they were difficult to manage at Durwyn. Davis and Phillips did not believe him. John Harris had been expected to telephone Phillips, and neither John or Phoebe had mentioned any holidays. Davis reported the disappearance to St. Claire's police station at eleven PM that evening. In the early hours of the twenty second of October, Inspector Fox and other officers interviewed Ronnie, who repeated the story that John and Phoebe Harris had gone to London and he'd driven them to cod he had driven them to Carmarthan railway station. He signed a written statement saying he'd driven them to the station and he'd stopped with them at the Willow Cafe and left them at the railway station. Police noticed that Ronnie was using John Harris' Austin A forty car. twenty third of october nineteen fifty three. Police called at Cadno Farm to interview Ronnie Harry's again. This visit was in consequence of information obtained and developments in the case regarding Harry's possession of a motor car, farm implements and a check all connected with the late John Harry's. Ronnie Harris was at first interviewed in the presence of his mother and later his father. To cut a long story short, Ronnie Harris told the police a complicated story about money transactions he had with his uncle who had gone missing. His parents, who were described as respectable people, clearly did not believe what he was saying. His mother told him in front of the police that she didn't care if he was given three years for forgery as long as Uncle John and Auntie are safe. Ronnie Harris then said to his mother, I was going to buy a threshing machine and start a little business buying and selling. The mother expressed the opinion that her son Ronnie must have been off his head, and he had an accident a few years back, and that might be the reason. They continued arguing, but Ronnie insisted on saying that he was speaking the truth. Mrs. Harry stated that a doctor should be sent for, as Ronnie was not all right in his head. Ronnie's father then said to him in the presence of two officers, What do you want to borrow money from Uncle Johnny for? Why not come to me? Ronnie said, That's my business. I can do as I like. I'm over twenty one. The father and son continued to have a chance. Heated argument over the matter. The mother and father then pleaded with the accused to speak the truth, and Ronnie repeatedly said everything I have told the police is the truth. Everything is above board. Sergeant Perkins then asked Ronnie Harris to produce the registration book and certificate of insurance for the Austin A forty motor car LPK one one five. They were produced and Sergeant Perkins saw that the certificate of insurance did not cover Ronnie Harris whilst driving the car and pointed this out to him. Ronnie Harris told the Sergeant Perkins that he would tell him about it, and Sergeant Perkins again wrote out a caution which Harris signed and a further statement was taken from him regarding the car. The statement read as follows I wish to explain that the car is with me since St. Clear's Fair Day. That was the twelfth of October. I've had it in my possession all this time. It has not been taken for repairs because there's nothing wrong with it. My uncle lent me the car for me to come back into whilst he was going to be away on holiday. An appeal was launched to find John and Phoebe Harry's. Posters were issued with their photographs and a description. The description saying they'd last been seen on the evening of Friday the sixteenth of October. In the appeal, police described John as having his own teeth, with just a few false ones on the bottom. And Phoebe was described as having a very thin face and false teeth. As the investigation got underway, police began questioning local people who suspected that something was seriously wrong. People who knew John and Phoebe closely said the couple had not been on holiday for more than twenty years, and they had not mentioned any intended trips to friends or family members. In the unlikely event that they had packed their bags and gone away on holiday, London would not have been an obvious destination for a quiet and reserved couple from the rural calm of West Wales. Relatives thought that it was common knowledge amongst neighbours that there was anything between five hundred to a thousand pound in cash kept somewhere in the house. Scotland Yard's expertise was called to reinvestigate the case, and the well known detective or the superintendent John Capstick, a senior policeman from New Scotland Yard, arrived in Carmarthenshire from London to oversee the inquiry. The obvious suspect was Ronnie Harry's, and Capstick became convinced that he was responsible for John and Phoebe's disappearance. Ronnie had given different explanations about the couple's disappearance to different people. At first he told people who had asked him about their whereabouts that they were at Pendine. Later he said he had driven them to Camarthen Railway Station to catch a train to London for a holiday. He gave variations of this account to local police, Detective Capstick, and to various local concerned people. Ronnie had told people that the missing couple had gone to the Willow Cafe, the shops at King Street, to London, to Reading, and to Stockwell, all to visit relatives. Inquiries at Commartlandshire Railway Station and the Willow Cafe and the King Street shops found no one who had seen John or Phoebe Harry's. Ronnie also claimed that the couple had asked him to look after Durwin farm, to use their car, milk the cows, feed the chickens, collect eggs, and move the cattle to Cadno. Witnesses heard him say that his uncle had given him the cows, the farm implements and the car, or that he'd bought them. He told different people different things. He told people he'd bought the Austin A forty himself, that his father had bought it, or that it had come from a rich uncle. All these accounts conflicted with each other. On Saturday the thirty first of October, while Brian Powell was collecting the daily papers, Ronnie asked him if the police had been to see him. Brian said no. Ronnie said, Well don't tell the police that you were with me at Langinny on the Saturday morning. I don't mind you telling them about Sunday or Monday. Brian's mother told him to give the coat to to give the coat that Brian had worn to Penmouth Fair back to Ronnie. Ronnie said, Oh, it was given to me. It doesn't fit, you can keep it. Brian then read in the local newspaper that Ronnie was saying that he had taken his uncle and aunt to Carmarthen station on the morning of Saturday the seventeenth of October. The paper said on that day Ronnie had arrived at Durwin at ten thirty. He'd helped his uncle lift the milk onto the stand. The uncle had come out of the house with a suitcase and he put that in the boot. Auntie followed him and sat in the back of the car. Ronnie said Uncle sat in the driving seat and he sat beside him. He drove to come out and they stopped by the master's shop at King Street, and then they walked a Willow Cafe. They sat at a small table just near the door. Uncle John bought cakes and tea. Auntie did some shopping at the gift shop. Uncle then drove them to the railway station, they got out the car, and they went into the railway station. The time that they got there was just after twelve noon. Just before he left, the uncle had told Ronnie, be a good boy and do everything right until I come back. Bryan thought this was impossible, because there'd been no one at Durwyn Farm that morning when he and Ronnie went there on the Saturday, and because Brian had been with Ronnie from about nine AM to eleven AM. Bryan decided to tell the police the whole truth, and he told the police that he and Ronnie had entered the rooms of Durwyn Farm and examined the contents of the room. Bryan admitted they took some worthless items, and he'd been afraid to admit being in the house because of this. The police report noted that the property that he took had no value and they thought that Bryan would make a good witness. On the third of November, the police challenged Ronnie's claim that he had been to Carmarthen on the Saturday morning. Ronnie denied seeing Brian Powell that morning, although the police had not mentioned his name. Police concluded that Ronnie had not taken his uncle and Auntie to Camarthen and instead spent the morning of the seventeenth of October at Durwyn with Brian Powell. John Thomas was the father in law of Ronnie Harris. He lived at Ashwell Farm at Pendine, with his wife and his daughter, Doris Maud Harry, and his son in law, Ronnie Harries. Mr Thomas had known Ronnie Harries all his life, as Cadno Farm had joined his own. He said that Ronnie Harris married his daughter on Saturday the fourth of April nineteen fifty three at Pendene Church. Since being married, he had always slept at Ashwell Farm, but he had his meals at Cadno Farm. Mr Thomas said he did not want Ronnie Harris as his son in law, but as he had got his daughter into trouble, he thought it was the only way to make the best of a bad job. They had one child, a girl that was born on the eighth of january nineteen fifty three. Mrs. Ronnie Harris worked on her father's farm. Mr Thomas said that Ronnie Harris usually goes out in the morning at about quarter to eight, and his usual time of getting home at night is about ten thirty PM. On three or four occasions he's not been home when the rest of the family had gone to bed, and they locked the door, and misses Harris has had to get up to let her husband in. On Friday the sixteenth of october, nineteen fifty three, Mr Thomas and his wife and daughter went to bed before Ronnie Harris came in, and they'd locked the downstairs door. Ronnie's wife went to bed first and Mr Thomas and his wife followed a little later. He believed they were all in bed by about quarter to eleven. He was not asleep when Ronnie either knocked on the back door or shouted out Doris to his wife. Thomas called out to his daughter to let Ronnie in, which he which he did, and they both passed through the Thomas' bedroom to get to their own bedroom. On the way, Ronnie said Good night, mister and Mrs. Thomas. It was thought that Ronnie Harris had left the house later that night, possibly to dispose of bodies. There were three witnesses that saw the Land Rover GBX ninety eight that was always driven by just Ronnie Harris, although nobody could positively ID the driver, which was seen a couple of times on the road after midnight. Ronnie Harris' father in law had not renewed his driving licence since 1945, and only Ronnie Harris used the Land Rover. Thomas was up the next morning, Thomas the father-in-law, and he does not remember seeing Ronnie Harry's until about 8 PM when his wife, daughter, and Mrs. Harris from Cadno Farm, Brian Powell, all went with him in the Land Rover to Pembroke Fair. Between the 8th and 16th of November, large search parties involving about 400 farmers searched roughly 80 square miles between Langinning and Amruth without result. No one from Cadno Farm had joined in the search for the missing couple. During the search, Stanley Harding, who was a photographer employed by the Daily Mirror, who had been engaged on the case for some weeks, called at Cadno Farm. He was led in the house by John Lloyd Harris, Harry's Ronnie's father, and a few minutes later Ronnie Harris came down from upstairs and entered the living room. Harding told Ronnie Harris that he'd called to say goodbye, as he was anticipating being recalled very shortly. Back to London. Ronnie Harris said to him, Are they digging up there? Pointing in the direction of the police in the top field. Harding said he thought that there were workmen digging drains. Ronnie Harris said, I don't care what they find, I know that I'm innocent. Harding said to him, If your conscience is clear, then you've got nothing to worry about. Ronnie Harris said Searching everywhere they are, something could have found something, and then dumped it on our farm. Everybody's against me. It's the god's truth, I know nothing. Ronnie Harris then said people are talking about me and think I battered them. Harding said, Well why should people think that? Then their conversation drifted along general lines for a short while, but it seemed to him that Harris was anxious about all the digging going on. Harding then realised the significance of what had been said that morning, and he had made a written note when he was left alone on leaving the farmhouse. These notes were used as part of the prosecution's prosecution's case in court later. Other witnesses were later recalled Harris claimed that he was digging a well in the kale field near where the police were digging. There seemed to be a certain amount of folklore attached to the case. There was a theory that the police had planned a trap for the person responsible for the couple's disappearance. They knew that Ronnie Harris had been taking an interest in what the police had been searching, where the police had been searching, and the police had put cotton tapes around gateways and gaps in the hedges at Cadno Farm. Then they proceeded to make a commotion to draw attention to the fact of what they were doing, hoping that Harris would be frightened into acting. Next day, by following broken tapes, police hoped that there would be a trail towards the location of possible bodies. Other stories are about the case including that of a policeman going into a field to urinate and noticing that crops not growing over what were later turned out to be the grave site. Whatever the story was, on the 16th of November 1953, police searching the top field at Cadno Farm near the Pendine Red Roses Road, the whole top of the field is on raised ground and is not visible from the main road and is scarcely visible from the farm side. And this applies in particular to the corner by the farm gate entrance. The top field was roughly approximately triangular in shape, with a narrow point terminating at the front and the farm gate roadway. Roughly the first thirteen yards of the corner of the field were overgrown with bracken and brambles, immediately after which there was a surface drain and the remainder of the field being planted with kale. Police found disturbed ground, cut bracken and kale plants without roots. Beneath cut bracken and kale they found a newly dug grave. Phoebe Mary Harris's body, fully clothed, lay above John Harris's fully clothed body. The grave was about thirty seven inches deep and was near the hedge in a distant part of the field. Wheel tracks led through the kale to near the grave. The tracks the track width matched the Harry Harry's family Land Rover. Test driving a Land Rover through the same gap in field showed that it could easily reach the grave site. When the bodies had been found, Ronnie said he was sorry because his uncle and aunt were dead and he had been their favourite. At St. Claire's police station he made another statement, still maintaining that he had seen them alive on the Saturday morning when he had driven them to Carmaven and gone with them to the Willow Calf and then left them at the railway station. After making this statement on the advice of his solicitor, he refused to answer further questions. Later that day he was detained and charged with the murders of John Harris and Phoebe Harris. When charged, he said he was innocent, not guilty, adding, God is my judge above. The police charged Ronnie that on or about the 16th of October 1953 he did murder John Harris and Phoebe Harry's, and he was to be remanded in custody at HM Prison Swansea. The postmortem examination was carried out by a doctor Frieza. They found that both victims had died from severe head injuries caused by repeated blows from a heavy blunt instrument with a circular outline. Death was described as instantaneous, although there had been rumours that Mary Harries was still alive as she was buried. Both bodies had been buried shortly after death. The hammer that Ronnie had borrowed on the evening of the 16th of October was treated in the postmortem report as the likely murder weapon. The suspected motive was partially financial. Ronnie had obtained a cheque from John Harry's which was originally for nine pounds. The prosecution said that Ronnie had altered it to £909 and changed the date from the seventh of October to the seventeenth of October. He had sent it to Lloyd's bank, asking for £509 to be paid into his parents' account and four hundred pound into his own account. But the check was returned because the signature and amount needed confirmation. Forensic examination supported the view that it had been altered. Different ink types were used for changing the amount shown on the check. The police case was that Ronnie Harry's had financial problems and began treating John Harry's property as his own before the murders. He had John Harry's car, had allegedly altered a check, and given false and changing stories about the couple's disappearance. He was at Dilwyn shortly before the likely time of death. He'd borrowed a hammer that evening, and later took control of the farm, the animals, the car and the property. The bodies were eventually found buried on his family's land at Cadno Farm, in a place reachable by the family Land Rover. The story was widely reported, especially in Wales and across Britain. It also reached overseas newspapers, including the Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia. An article on the fourteenth of march nineteen fifty four. That article described Ronnie Harris denying the murder charge and repeating his claim that he last seen his uncle at Carmarthen Station before the supposed holiday. The British newspaper archive referred to the case as the Welsh murder charge and the bodies in the kale field. In the police files there were reports that a crime reporter of the People Newspaper, who was the well known Duncan Webb, who was described by the police as an unscrupulous individual well known to the police for his sharp practice methods in clear claiming news and the writing of fantastic articles. Duncan Webb had caught at Cadno Farm on the seventh of november nineteen fifty three to interview Ronnie Harris to obtain a fantastic story from him. Webb told Harris in the presence of his parents that his uncle and aunt had returned to Camarthen, and he wanted Harris to come and meet them. Webb said that Ronnie Harris said nothing but looked at him steadily in silence, pale and breathing hard. Then he started laughing hysterically and suddenly changed the conversation. The police thought that this indicated Webb's trickery, deception, and dishonest methods. The trial attracted considerable public interest in Camarvan. Crash barriers made of trestle tables and rope were put up outside the Shire Hall. People queued from three thirty AM in the morning, some with blankets and flasks of tea. Several hundred people gathered outside the Shire Hall, many from the Pendine area, and crowd control was required. Thomas Ronald Lewis Harries was tried at Camarthen Assyries in March 1954 for the murders of John Harry's and Phoebe Mary Harry's. As the trial unfolded, it was believed that John and Mary had been summoned to the farm by Harry's, well summoned to his farm, Cadno Farm, by Harry's, on Friday, october sixteenth, under the guise that he wanted to show the couple a well that he had been constructing on his land. First John went out with him to see what he'd made. Once there he was struck on the head with a hammer and killed. Harris then went to get Mary, enticing her to the same area, by saying something had happened to John and she should come in and assist him immediately. She was then struck with the same hammer and shoved into the gravesite on top of her husband. There was evidence that suggested Phoebe was not dead when she went into the ground. Despite the evidence against him, Ronnie Harry's seemed illusional and seemed convinced that he would be acquitted when his trial got underway at the Guild Hall in Camarthen on march sixteenth, nineteen fifty four. A policeman that Harry's was handcuffed to attending court, claimed that Harris said he was going to buy him dinner once the case was over and he was released. Harris was found guilty of murder. He was only charged with one, which was customary at the time, the other murder charge being held on file. His defence appeared to have raised the insanity clause, but the jury convicted him. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. One archive description called it the last recorded death sentence passed at Camarthenus Izes. Harris had been said to be in blase ever since his conviction, but when the public executioners, Albert Pierpoint and Robert Stewart, came to his cell on that final morning, he is said to have collapsed and had to be assisted to the gallows. He was hanged at Swansea Prison on Wednesday the twenty eighth of october nineteen fifty four. A woman called Margaret Phillips said her grandfather, Mr Howells, had a haulage business, and Ronnie Harris had been the person that knocked on his door asking if cattle and implements could be moved from Durwyn Farm to Cadno Farm, as his uncle and auntie had gone to London on holiday. Margaret said a later request came for the cattle and implements to be moved back to Durlwyn Farm. As the implements were being loaded onto the lorry, someone backed on to backed into a hedge and trod on something hard in the undergrowth. This turned out to be the head of a hammer, thought to have been the murder weapon. It looked as if it had been pushed in shaft first and was well concealed in the hedge growth, but the hammer was given to Detective Capstick. As it had been in the ground for five weeks there didn't s there was no forensic evidence found. There were other rumours that Roland Ronnie Harris had killed two other people, but these allegations were never acted upon. Durwyn Farm still exists under its original name. Cadno Farm still exists, but changed its name to Bronwid. Well so ends that podcast. I dare say that my Welsh pronunciations were well off the mark. But I'd like to thank anybody listening and I'd like to thank thank Damselfly for providing the background music. And until next time, I'll say goodbye.