The Kingsclere Murders
On the fifth of October 1944, a shooting incident occurred in the village of Kingsclere. This incident was kept quiet by the allied forces at the time. They were worried that Anglo American relationships may be damaged. They also suppressed information as the incident mainly involved coloured American soldiers. Approximately ten percent of the American forces based in Britain were coloured, and government at the time described it was an unwelcome intrusion to British shores.
Until these coloured soldiers arrived on British shores many people in Britain, especially in rural areas had never seen a coloured person before, and the coloured population in Britain was negligible. This incident may point toward the underlying suppressed feelings of the American coloured soldiers.
On the evening of the 5th Of October 1944, The Crown Public house in the village of Kingsclere, was to become the scene of a gruesome triple murder. Earlier that day, a U.S Army engineering the all-black 3247 Quartermaster Service Company, had arrived in Kingsclere from Exeter, and were stationed at Sydmonton Court. The camp was about a mile from Kingsclere.
The men arrived at around 4.30 in the afternoon, and after cleaning their barracks they prepared their bunks. It was normal practice while on the move, for each man to have his own weapon, usually a rifle or a carbine, these were not taken away until around 10.45 that evening. After eating, some of the men decided that they would leave the barracks, even though they had been issued no passes to do so.
The men made their way to the Bolton Arms, one of several pubs in the village. They arrived shortly before 7pm, when they were approached by a group of American auxiliary military policemen. They were instructed to return to camp, as they had no passes and were improperly dressed. It was later claimed that one of the M.P’s cocked his rifle at the one of the men. An hour later, they were headed back towards the base in a truck, and it was then they decided they would return to get the M.P’s. They were going to take their rifles away, and beat them in revenge for the earlier humiliation.
At the camp, the men decided not to get changed as they had earlier been ordered. Instead they cut through the chains of a rack of M1 carbines and took 100 rounds of ammunition. The men made their way back to Kingsclere. They searched the town pubs for the M.P’s eventually finding the M.P’s were drinking in the Crown Inn. The soldiers waited for the M.P’s to exit the pub.
Two of the M.P’s exited the Crown Together. They were immediately confronted by the soldiers. One shot was immediately fired, followed by another flurry of gunshots. An M.P named Anderson cried out in pain, he dropped his flashlight. He had been shot in the chest. The other M.P named Brown dropped to the floor, he managed to dive back inside the pub without being hit.
Anderson managed to get to his feet and run for 150 yards. He then collapsed in the garden in North Street, he took his final breath while, laid between beanpoles in the garden of Mr Freddie Digweed. Meanwhile the soldiers continued to shoot randomly into the pub.
Private Coates was sat with his back to the window, he was killed outright with a shot to the back of his head. The landlady, Mrs Rose Napper was the most unfortunate of the three victims. When the firing had started, the landlord had dragged his wife to the ground, a stray ricochet bullet had entered her left cheek, passed through her tongue, and out through the right of her neck.
At around 10.17 pm, Station Sergeant Dudman at Kingsclere rang the CID office at Andover. Detective Sergeant Dick Whitehead picked up the phone and heard:
"You'd better get over here right away Dick. All hells let loose."
It was eleven o’clock by the time Sergeant Whitehead arrived at the Crown. Private Coates lay dead. Mrs Napper was in a critical condition. A U.S Colonel took her to Newbury hospital, where sadly she died on arrival. The suspects had fled, but the first was caught by 3am, all ten had been rounded up by Friday the 17th.
Whitehead never believed that the men regretted what they did. All he saw was that they were still full of hate. One of the murderers even fell asleep in the dock during his trial for a full ten minutes. At their court martial in Thatcham nine of the men were sentenced to imprisonment for the whole of their natural lives. The tenth man was sentenced to 10 years but later received equal penalty when he was retried at Shepton Mallet.
General Eisenhower himself became involved and at some time later, requested his second-in-command to apologise to the people of Kingsclere for the affair. The spirit of Private Anderson is said to haunt the inn to this day. Mr Napper moved out of the Crown in 1951.
Sweet Fanny Adams
Saturday the 24th of August, 1867 was a remarkable day, in that it gave rise to a saying that is still in common use today. However its gruesome origins are not commonly known. When this day ended, the small Hampshire town of Alton, would never be the same again.
Nothing much ever happened in Alton. It was a small and safe community. None of the residents had ever witnessed a murder in the town that they could remember, but this was about to change forever.
Harriet Adams (the mother of Fanny Adams), certainly thought that the town was safe enough place to live. So much so, that she allowed three small children to wander off towards flood meadow just 400 yards from the family home.
Fanny and her friend Minnie Warner, were both eight years old. They set off up Tan Lane with Fanny’s seven year old sister Lizzie. At some point they were approached by a man. The man was dressed in a black frock coat, and propositioned Fanny, the manner is chillingly familiar to too many stories told to children today.
The man looked respectable, but it was obvious that he had been drinking. He offered Minnie three halfpence that she could go and spend with Lizzie, if she would accompany him up The Hollow. This was an old road, which lead to the nearby village of Shalden. Fanny took a halfpenny, but then refused to go with the man.
The man then picked the child up and carried her into a nearby Hopfield, she was taken out of the sight of the other children. The time of the abduction was around 1.30pm. The other children played until around 5pm, then the girls made their way home.
One of the neighbours noticed the two girls returning, but without Fanny, she questioned the girls about the whereabouts of Fanny. The girls explained to Mrs Gardiner, about what had happened earlier. She ran to tell Mrs Adams the story that the children had relayed to her.
The women were anxious, but made their way to the Lane, where they chanced upon the same man walking coming toward them from the opposite direction. Mrs Gardiner confronted the man, she asked him:
"What have you done with the child?"
He simply replied,
"Nothing."
The man maintained his dignity and composure through the further questions he was asked. He admitted that he gave the child money, but it was simply to buy sweets, and he often did this for children. He claimed that Fanny had left him to rejoin the other children at play. He informed the women that he was a clerk of a local solicitor William Clement, and they believed his story, so they allowed him to leave.
At 7pm, the child was still missing. Worried neighbours formed a search party. In the nearby Hopfield, they made a sickening discovery. The child’s severed head lay on two poles, she had been deeply slashed from mouth to ear, and across the left temple. Her right ear had been removed, and sickeningly, both her eyes were missing.
A leg and a thigh were both found nearby, after widening the search, they found the dismembered torso. The entire contents of the girl’s chest and pelvis had been cut out. Some of the organs had been slashed or mutilated. It took days before the rest of her body parts were found. Her eyes were finally found in the River Wey.
Mrs Adams was distraught upon hearing the news of her daughter’s death. She ran to inform her husband of what had happened, upon reaching The Butts where her husband was playing cricket, she collapsed from grief utterly exhausted. George Adams then returned home to fetch his shotgun.
George Adams set out with his gun. He was headed towards the Hopfie
ld’s intent on finding and dealing with his daughter’s killer. He was intercepted by some of his neighbours, and fortunately they managed to disarm him.
Later that very evening, the obvious suspect was arrested at his workplace. He did indeed work at a solicitor’s office in Alton High Street. When Superintendent William Cheyney questioned the man, he simply said:
"I know nothing about it."
It was the first of his many claims of innocence.
Cheyney escorted the man to Alton Police Station, leading the suspect through an increasingly angry crowd.
For 29 year old Frederick Baker, the evidence was mounting against him. His trousers were spotted with blood. His boots, socks and trouser bottoms were still wet.
"That won't hang me, will it?"
He said nonchalantly, explaining that whilst walking, he had a habit of stepping into the water. He could not however explain the bloodstained clothing.
When Baker was searched, more evidence appeared in the form of two small knives, one of which was stained with blood. The suspect was locked away, while the officer checked on bakers movements that afternoon. Witnesses had confirmed, that he had left around 1pm, and had not returned until around 3.25pm. He then went out again and returned around 5.30pm.
Baker had been seen by the child’s mother at around 5pm, walking away from the Hopfield. If he had indeed murdered the child earlier in the day, then why had he returned to the scene of the crime, perhaps it was to admire his handiwork, or possibly to mutilate the girl’s body even further.
Baker’s fellow clerk, named Maurice Biddle, had recalled seeing Baker in the office at around 6pm. He said that Baker had seemed disturbed. Baker had commented:
"It will be very awkward for me if the child is murdered"
Later the two men had visited The Swan for a drink, where Baker commented that he may have to leave town the following Monday. His colleague made an observation, that he may have trouble in finding a new job, to which Baler had replied: "I could go as a butcher".
On the following Monday, Cheyney searched the office where Baker worked. He struck gold when he found Baker’s diary. It contained a damning entry which stated calmly:
"24th August, Saturday - killed a young girl. It was fine and hot".
During his trial, Baker maintained his innocence, and said that the entry was written while he was drunk, it simply meant that he knew that a girl had been murdered. Around this time, a local painter named William Walker had found a large stone in the Hopfield, it had long blonde hair and a piece of flesh stuck to it.
The police surgeon claimed that this was probably the murder weapon. His post mortem had revealed a crashing blow to Fanny’s head. The following Tuesday an inquest was held at The Duke’s Head Inn. After hearing all the evidence, and viewing the gruesome remains, the handcuffed prisoner was asked if he wished to say anything. He replied:
"No Sir - only that I am innocent"
The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Frederick Baker for killing and slaying Fanny Adams. Baker was remanded to Winchester Prison to await the formal committee hearing.
The hearing was held at Alton Town Hall on Thursday 29th August. Baker still protested his innocence. Baker was committed to trial at the next county Assizes. As he left the town hall, he almost himself became a victim to the waiting mob outside. The police struggled to protect him from the baying crowd. Baker’s trial date was set for December the 5th.
Fanny’s little sister Minnie, was called and testified in court. The defence challenged the girl’s identification of Baker, and also claimed that it was impossible for the two small knives to have been used to dismember the body so thoroughly, there would certainly seem that it would have been difficult considering the size of the knives.
The defence case was based on Baker’s mental health, which was a tale of hereditary insanity. His father had "shown an inclination to assault even to kill, his children"; a cousin had been in asylums four times; brain fever had caused his sister's death; and he had attempted suicide after an abortive love affair.
The jury rejected the plea, after retiring for only 15 minutes, the jury returned with a guilty verdict. Frederick Baker was hanged before a crowd of 5000, a large proportion of whom consisted of women, in front of Winchester's County Prison at 8am on Christmas Eve, 1867. Following his execution, it was made know that Baker had written to the parents of the murdered child to express deep sorrow over the murder of their daughter.
He wrote:
"In an unguarded hour and not with malice aforethought". He sought their forgiveness, adding that he was
"Enraged at her crying, but it was done without any pain or struggle".
The prisoner denied emphatically that he had violated the child, or that he had even attempted to do so.
Fanny Adams headstone was erected by public subscription. It sill stands in the town cemetary on the Old Odiham Road.
The saying, ‘sweet Fanny Adams’,
Was first coined by the macabre sense of humour of British sailors. When they were served with tins of mutton in 1869, they gloomily declared that the butchered contents of the tin, must be that of ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’.
The term was gradually accepted throughout the armed services as a euphemism for 'sweet nothing' it passed into common use. Large tins, in which the meat was packed for the Royal Navy, were often used as mess tins and it appears that even today mess tins are commonly known as 'Fanny’s'.
The Combe Gibbet
Between Andover and Newbury, at the Inkpen Long Barrow, is a sight of remarkable natural beauty. It is almost impossible to find without a guide, or satellite navigation. On the very top of this hill stands the Combe Gibbet. It is named after the village of Combe, but it is also close to Inkpen.
The original Gibbet was erected in 1676, as a warning to deter others from committing crimes. There are many stories as to the purpose behind the erection of the double Gibbet, but the most popular story is this.
In the town of Combe, there lived a labourer named George Bromham. He was married, but was having a relationship with a woman named Dorothy Newman. They decided that George’s wife Martha was in the way of their relationship, so they decided to remove her. Divorce was not an option, at the time it was only available to nobility.
George drove his unsuspecting wife to market in Newbury. On the journey, he enquired if his wife had ever seen a hornet’s nest. She said that she had not, so he offered to show her one, that he had found a few days earlier. Her curiosity would prove to lead to her untimely demise.
As she gazed into the hornet’s nest, her husband grabbed her from behind. He forced her head into the nest. The insects were enraged and stung Martha to death. When he was sure his wife had died, he placed her body in his cart and returned home, he was prepared to act the part of the bereaved husband, shocked by the accident that had befallen his wife.
His wife’s death was accepted as an accident, and he visited his lover to announce the success of his plan. His lover had two sons, and as they discussed what had happened, the eldest son heard the story and listened in horror. His mother then mentioned to her lover, that he should check to see if her children were awake, and that if they had heard the story, then he should also do away with them.
Her son desperately feigned sleep, and by doing so, saved his own life. The next day, he went to his schoolteacher and told the teacher what had happened. The pair were soon to be arrested, ready to be brought to justice.
While the pair waited to be hung, a dispute arose over which parish should bear the cost of the hearing. It could not be proved if the deed had been planned in Inkpen or in Combe. A compromise was soon reached and both parishes agreed to share the expense. The execution would be held. At the highest point on the border between the two parishes. The point would be where it crossed the Inkpen Beacon.
A date was set for the event, and on the day a crowd of thousands had assembled to witness the execution. Death records later show that they we
re hanged for the murder of Newman’s children, and no mention was made of the murder of Martha, so perhaps the children were not quite so lucky.
The original Gibbet lasted for some time, but it was replaced in 1850 as the original had rotted away. This second Gibbet was struck by lightning, and was replaced by a third in 1949. A fourth was erected in 1950. It was again replaced in 1965 and then in 1969. It blew down in the gales of 1977-78 and the current Gibbet was placed there in 1979.
The Andover Workhouse
No book on the haunting history of Andover could ever be complete, without a mention of the Andover workhouse. In 1845 the Andover workhouse was run by a tyrant named Colin McDougal and his wife. He was inhuman man known or his cruelty. If the paupers miss-behaved, he would lock them in the mortuary as a punishment. The female inmates were sexually abused by both McDougal and his son.
McDougal once whipped a two year old child, who would not stop crying. He ran the workhouse like a concentration camp. He spent the bare minimum he could on food, and most of the inmates were starving.
The paupers ground bones to make fertiliser. They were often so hungry, that they would eat peelings that had been left for the pigs. They even sucked the bones dry that they were grinding in search of nourishment.
Women who would not sleep with McDougal, were also brutally treated. They were locked away in solitary confinement in a workhouse cage, known as ’The Black Hole’. Here, they stayed without any food or water, bedding or any access to toilet facilities.
The Killers Trilogy Page 3
