Shocking Double Murder and Suicide

In 1951 a man shot his wife and mother in law dead before going on the run. He turn the gun on himself the following day as the police net closed in on him.

The double shooting took place on 16th April that year at 32 Underley Street, off Smithdown Road, where Archbishop Blanch school now stands. Lilian Parr lived there with her 25 year old daughter Lilian (known as Beryl) and 29 year old son in law Walter Beech. The young couple were in disagreement over Walter's decision to rent two rooms locally, as Beryl didn't want to leave her 55 year old widowed mother living alone.

At around 6.50pm their neighbour in number 30, Mrs Barber, heard a scream. After getting no answer when she knocked on the front door, she and her husband went round to the backyard and saw the bodies of Lilian and Beryl lying on the kitchen floor. Both had been shot in the chest. Another neighbour,Thomas Gladwinfield from number 34, ran to a phone box and dialled 999.

A huge manhunt was launched, with fifty officers searching local parks, gardens, cemeteries and wasteground for the murder weapon. A warning was issued to the pubic regarding approaching Walter, with the Liverpool echo stating "He may still be armed and is likely to be dangerous". He was described as five feet eleven and three quarter inches tall, slim build, fresh complexion, dark brown hair, clean shaven with blue eyes. He was last seen to be wearing a navy blue raincoat, brown gloves,a collar and tie.

Lilian was a cleaner at Olive Mount hospital and described as very nice and exceedingly popular. Beryl, a nurse at nearby Sefton General hospital, had been married to Walter,a gas welder, for five years and was expecting their first child. For three years of the marriage, Walter had been in prison after being found guilty of housebreaking with firearms in Blundellsands. Friends of Lilian described her as "one of the most pleasant of girls" but that Walter did not like her having friends and was jealous of the mother-daughter relationship.

Around 24 hours after the killings, police received a tip off that Walter was in the Princes Park Hotel, on Upper Stanhope Street. Two detective sergeants went there and saw him at the bar with a lady, then asked him to step into another room of the pub. He have his name as Ray Lewis and said he was a seafarer from a Dutch ship, who had taken rooms across the road. On being told by the detectives that they knew who he was, Walter then took the gun from under his armpit and shouted "Stand back or you will get it, you are not taking me".

In an incredible act of bravery, DS John Beaverstock edged forward and said "Don't be a fool, put that gun away". Walter then pointed the gun towards the stomachs of Beaverstock and his colleague DS Joseph Gillbanks, shouting "Stop, it is loaded and you will get it". He then turned the gun around and shot himself in the head, toppling over. A search of Walter found he was carrying  copy of a newspaper containing reports of the killing she had committed.

The lady Walter was with identified herself as Elizabeth Pierce, a 25 year old waitress from Ireland. She said she had first met him on the Monday evening and had a drink then arranged to meet him the following afternoon, but denied spending the night with him. Elizabeth described Walter as "a nice quiet young man".

Lilian and Beryl were buried together at Allerton Cemetery, while Walter was laid in an unmarked public grave at Anfield Cemetery. Neither grave has any maker indicating who is buried there.

Murder at the Blind Home

A partially sighted man in his seventies who killed a fellow resident of the care home where he resided was detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. 

At 1pm on 1st December 1951 police were called to Connolly House in Balliol Road, a Bootle Corporation's home for the blind. On arrival they found 46 year old Margaret Hughes lying on a landing with a throat wound. She as taken to hospital but was dead on arrival.

Later that afternoon detectives took Frederick Wilson, a 76 year old partially sighted resident of the home, into custody.  Wilson admitted cutting Margaret's throat with a razor but when examined by Dr Brisley at Walton gaol, was found to be suffering from a progressive disease of the mind. At the Liverpool assizes on 14th February 1952, the judge accepted that he was unfit to plead and detained him at Her Majesty's pleasure. 

Connolly house later became a home for elder persons and was demolished in 2010 to make way for an extension to Hugh Baird College.

Uncle Strangles Baby Nephew

A man who killed his baby nephew because he was 'squawking' was declared unfit to plead when he appeared at court charged with the murder. 

At 920am on 6th November 1951 George Thomas McCready, a 35 year old seaman, walked into Rice Lane police station and said to the desk sergeant 'I have just strangled my nephew.' McCready was kept in custody while Superintendent Balmer of the murder squad went to his home at 30 Burleigh Road South, Everton. After seeing the body of 19 month old Thomas Boston, who was the son of McCready's sister, Balmer returned to Rice Lane and formally charged him with murder.

McCready was taken straight to Dale Street to appear before the Stipendiary Magistrate Arthur McFarland. Prosecutor Mr J. R. Bishop said that on being charged, McCready had replied 'I took the baby into the front bedroom and strangled him because he was squawking.' McCready remained silent throughout the hearing, during which he was granted legal aid and remanded.

The following February McCready appeared before Mr Justice Streatfield at the Liverpool Assizes. Evidence was heard from Dr Brisley, Chief Medical Officer of Walton Gaol, that he suffered epileptic insanity and suffered a number of fits while one remand. The judge accepted that McCready was unfit to plead and detained him at His Majesty's pleasure. 

The Bootle Bath Murder

The killing of a Bootle woman who was found drowned in a bath in 1951 remains unsolved after her friend was tried for her murder but acquitted. It was a case which the defence barrister described as 'the most harrowing she had ever dealt with.'

Emma Grace was just 22 years old when she separated from her husband in the mid 1930s, going on to bring three children up on her own whilst working as a clerk for a pools firm. She lived in Irlam Road in Bootle in a house that was also occupied by Martin and Anna Neary and their three children. Each family had a floor in the house and they shared a bathroom.

On 25th May 1951 Emma's nineteen year old daughter Mary, a student nurse, returned home at around 5pm to find Anna sobbing hysterically. She described how she had heard Emma go to the bathroom and then raised voices, so when she went up to see what was happening a man had threatened her with a revolver then lifted Emma into the bath and drowned her before making off. When 39 year old Emma's fully clothed body was removed from the bath it was badly bruised and there had clearly been signs of a struggle.  

Anna was questioned by the police who were sceptical about her story, as they simply did not believe that the bathroom was big enough for one person to face great difficulty in drowning another while another escaped unscathed. As some of Emma's wages were found hidden within the fireplace in Anna's room, they concluded that she had committed the murder with robbery as a motive, refusing to believe her statement that a large man with hairy hands had committed the deed.

At lunchtime the following day Anna was charged and replied 'Why should I kill her, she has been awfully good to me.' A special court in Bootle was convened and Anna was formally remanded, leading to her shouting out 'This is not justice, God help me.' She was led away to the cells on what was her 27th birthday leaving her husband in the public gallery holding a young baby

Anna was 26 years old and had been born in France to Polish parents. After growing up near Lille, she had come to Britain after the war, during which she met her husband who was a serviceman with the RAF.

Martin's sister Margaret took the couple's children into her care, telling them that their mother was in hospital.

The trial opened at the Manchester Assizes on 11th July, with the the prosecutors outlining the case that the man with hairy hands had not been traced and as nobody else was in the house or could have gained access, then Anna was guilty. 

When Anna gave her evidence on the second day she stood by what she had told the police on the fateful night, that she had gone to the bathroom where she was locked in by a man with 'big ugly hairy hands' who then threatened her with a gun before drowning Emma. Anna then went on to to describe how there were a number of unknown male visitors to Emma and her daughter, one of whom she had expressed a wish never to see again as he had a nice wife. When asked by her defence counsel Rose Heilbron if she had killed Emma she replied 'No, never' and broke down crying, leading to a five minute adjournment to allow her to regain her composure.

In her closing speech, Miss Heilbron said there was no evidence of ill feeling between the two women and that Anna was not short of money so robbery could not have been a motive.

After retiring for two and a half hours the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. There was a round of applause from the public gallery but this came to an abrupt halt as Anna fainted in the dock and it took two minutes to revive her. She was still sobbing as Justice Barry said 'You may be discharged'. Anna then turned to the jury and said 'Thank you, I swear I did not do it.'

Outside the court, Anna buried her head into the arms of her husband as she was rushed to a waiting car. Miss Heilbron said that it was the most harrowing case she had ever been involved in and family members said that Martin and Anna planned to take a holiday in France. Although Martin's four sisters and two brothers had been of great help, Anna's mother was too poor to visit England during her daughter's imprisonment and trial.

The killing of Emma Grace remains unsolved.

The Cranborne Road Murder

Widowed recluse Beatrice Rimmer was battered to death in her Wavertree home, leading to the execution of two youths in what may be a miscarriage of justice.

On 19th August 1951 Beatrice was seen returning to her house at 7 Cranborne Road after visiting her son in Madryn Street, Dingle. The next day, when her milk remained on her doorstep and the morning paper was left stuck in the letterbox, neighbours became worried. When her son visited that night he saw his mothers body lying in a pool of blood, still clutching the flowers he had given her the previous day.

Detectives arriving on the scene found that entry had been made through a kitchen window. Local gossip suggested that there was a large sum of money in the house and it was summised that having been unable to find the money, the killer(s) opted to force Beatrice to disclose where it was.

A post mortem revealed that 2 weapons had been used and that individually none of the 15 blows would have been fatal. Beatrice appeared to have suffered a slow agonising death by killers trying to extract information, rather than by a homicidal maniac.

A month after the murders an army deserter, George McLaughlin, claimed to have known the murderers from his cell in Walton Gaol. He told how he had met a Manchester man in an all night cafe and agreed to rob a house in Wavertree with him. He was later introduced to another man who would also take part in the robbery. The idea was that Jane Bury, a local waitress would knock on the door to distract Beatrice, allowing the others to enter through the back, ransack the property and run off with what they could. McLaughlin was arrested two days before for his desertion and the robbery went ahead without him. As McLaughlin's aunt lived at 109 Cranborne Road, it may be that he knew that Mrs Rimmer lived alone and supposedly had money and valuables in the house.

When June Bury was questioned, she named the robbers as Alfred Burns and Edward Devlin, aged 21 and 22 and both from Manchester. Head of the investigation, Chief Superintendent Bert Balmer spoke to Burns' girlfriend, Marie Milne ('Chinese Marie'), who claimed that she had initially been asked to act as lookout but later told she wasn't needed. She had When she met the men later, Devlin was agitated and frightened that they may have killed Beatrice. Another man interviewed said that he was asked to take part after McLaughlins arrest, but dropped out after initially agreeing.

With enough evidence to question the suspects, both were arrested in Manchester and brought to Liverpool. Devlin claimed to have been breaking into a warehouse in Manchester with Burns at the time of the murder. Burns did not offer an alibi. They were picked out of an identification parade by McLaughlin, but not by the man they had asked to assist them in the robbery. Forensic tests on bloodstains found on the defendants clothing proved inconclusive, nor were any fingerprints or murder weapons found, meaning only eyewitness evidence was available. The defence case was simple -that nobody had seen the accused enter the house or commit the murder, therefore any prosecution evidence was purely circumstantial.

Burns and Devlin claimed to have been committing a robbery at Sun Blinds Ltd in Manchester at the time and a man convicted of that crime swore on oath that he had been accompanied by them. Both defendants accounts of the robbery were unconvincing and told in no more detail than they could have learned from the newspapers. The Prosecution then told that the Manchester robbery actually happened 24 hours before the Cranborne Road murder, rendering both alibis useless.

After a 10 day trial, the jury took 75 minutes to find the pair guilty of murder, with appeals immediately being launched. A friend of June Bury, Elizabeth Rooke, claimed that her testimony was only made as she was covering up the real killer, her lover Austin O'Toole. However, the Prosecution told how he had been in jail at the time of the killing. June Bury swore that her original statement was true, knowing that she faced a lengthy spell of imprisonment for perjury otherwise.

The appeal was dismissed but the Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe ordered an inquiry into the investigation, postponing the execution for one week. The report concluded there were 'no reasonable grounds to suggest that a miscarriage of justice had taken place'.  Pleas to Queen Elizabeth II failed and both were hanged on 25th April 1952. Relatives continued to insist the men were innocent, but two days later a Sunday newspaper claimed that one of them had made a confession shortly before the execution.

However, extensive research over a ten year period by George Skelly has placed considerable doubt on the convictions, especially in light of the quashing of the verdicts of the two men found guilty of the Cameo cinema killings, a case which bore a remarkable similarity to this in the way the convictions were obtained. In February 2013 he published Murderers or Martyrs but the Criminal Cases Review Commission has so far refused to look at it again.