Stadium Steps Murder

A quarrel on the steps of the old Liverpool Stadium (a boxing venue) in 1961 led to the death of a 19 year old girl and her lover narrowly escaping the gallows.

Valerie Sellers, a waitress from Flintshire and her boyfriend, 23 year old John McMenemy who lived in Lorne Street in Fairfield, had been together nearly a year. Wedding plans had been postponed however and Sellers father confronted McMenemy on 30 July 1961 to ask his intentions. Despite replying in the affirmative, he later told Valerie he would never marry her.

Two weeks later McMenemy returned to Flintshire to repay some money he owed to Mr Sellers and was told not to return again. During the night, Valerie sneaked out and would not be seen alive by her father again. In the early hours of 20th August, McMenemy telephoned the operator and advised that there was a body on the top of the stadium steps. Officers arriving at the scene found the body of Valerie, who had died from stab wounds, with a tie next to it. 

The telephone call was traced to the Pier Head and McMenemy was there when police arrived. Noticing that McMenemy wasn't wearing a tie and had a bloodstain on his cuff, he was questioned and admitted the stabbing. When he was taken into custody a cigarette lighter, purse and bracelet of Valerie's were found on him. McMenemy made a full confession, stating that her refusal to give him some money had cost him her life. Initially intending to run, he realised it was hopeless and he went to the Pier Head. 

At McMenemy's trial, no witnesses were produced for his defence, with his counsel arguing that as he was in love with Valerie he regarded his property as his own. Although the death penalty had been abolished for plain murder, killing in furtherance of theft remained a capital charge. McMenemy was sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life imprisonment on the recommendation of the Home Secretary. An earlier appeal to reduce the verdict to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility had failed.

Knotty Ash Murder

A murder on a foggy December day in 1961, in which  27 year old Maureen Dutton was killed in front of her two children in her own home, has never been solved.

On the afternoon of 20th December 1961 Mrs Dutton wanted to take her two year old son to see the Christmas crib at Childwall Church, having arranged for her mother-in-law to babysit her new 22 day old baby. However heavy fog meant the trip had to be cancelled. 

When husband Brian returned to the house at 14 Thingwall Lane at 6.10pm, he found Maureen dead from stab wounds on the living room floor. A half eaten lunch was on the table and David was in some distress, having apparently witnessed the killing.

Searches around the area found no trace of a murder weapon or any immediate reports of people seen acting suspiciously. There was no motive for the killing, as nothing had been stolen and there had been no forced entry into the house or any sign of a struggle.

Despite several possible leads, no hard breakthroughs occurred. A bus conductor said an Irish woman boarded a bus near the scene of the murder and told herself she had to get out of Liverpool, muttering 'Oh my God' for the duration of the journey. 

The day before the murder, a bogus doctor seems to have called to the house of a woman who, like Mrs Dutton, had recently given birth. In yet another lead, neighbours talked of a suspicious looking young stranger in a leather jacket seen nearby. As enquiries were made over Christmas, this man was mentioned again and again. Perhaps the most bizarre twist was when detectives believed for a while that Mrs Dutton had been killed ritually by a Polynesian cult who had members in Liverpool, as a sacrifice to their God Tiki.

Four weeks and 20,000 statements after the murder, an identikit picture of the man in the leather jacket was released as he had continually been mentioned by those questioned. One woman then told how a youth similar to the one in the picture was seen vomiting nearby, not taking his hands out of his pockets, while another believed he may also have called at her house.

The killer remains uncaught to this day, as leads gradually dried up over the months and years.