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Practically every day of the year is a landmark of some sort in the annals of crime. Here’s where you can find out what happened this week in years gone by... Stories from the week beginning July 16th. Was It A Burglar In The Basement?Twenty-one-year-old Thomas Anderson had some awkward questions to answer. What was he up to, dining with his father’s mistress while his father lay dying in the basement, shot in the head? It was the evening of JULY 16th, 1910, and at 9.30 a chauffeur was driving down Battersea’s Prince of Wales Road when he heard two shots and saw a man run from a house in the terrace of Clifton Gardens, cross the front garden and climb over the wall. When police went to 17 Clifton Gardens their knock on the door was answered by Elizabeth Earl, who lived there in a flat. Thomas Anderson was with her, and both confirmed the chauffeur’s story. They said they too had heard shots and had seen a man climb over the garden wall. A search of the house revealed Anderson’s father breathing his last in the basement. A 43-year-old small-time actor whose stage name was Wendon Atherstone, he had been shot in the face. Curiously, he was wearing carpet-slippers and had a cosh in his pocket. It transpired that Miss Earl was his mistress, and detectives at first suspected that she and his son had plotted to kill Atherstone who had become financially dependent on them and a general nuisance. He was known to suspect that his mistress was being unfaithful to him, and his carpet-slippers and cosh suggested that he was lurking in the basement, hoping to surprise her with a lover. The man fleeing the scene was described as being in his 30s, at least 10 years older than Atherstone’s son, and the investigators finally accepted Anderson’s story that he often dined with Miss Earl, who he regarded as a second mother. It was believed that while Atherstone waited to ambush her with a lover he was shot when he encountered a burglar in the basement. And that was as far as the investigation went, the case remaining unsolved. His Head Was Hanging By A ThreadDarlington Police were always being called to the local Salvation Army hostel, usually to deal with drunken arguments. But in June, 1958, they were scarcely prepared for the result of the latest fight there. After a row with fellow-lodger William Newton, 55, unemployed labourer Lawrence Johnson, 47, had crushed Mr. Newton’s head with a chair, leaving it hanging from the rest of his body by only a small strand of flesh. At his trial at Leeds Assizes on JULY 18th Johnson claimed that he was a paranoid schizophrenic. He was acquitted of murder after his plea of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility was accepted by the Crown. The judge ordered that he be detained in prison for life rather than sent to Broadmoor. Decided To Die TogetherThomas Clay, 27, who lived in poverty in the Epping Public Assistance Institution, had a short and unenviable life. He had TB, and had spent many years in sanatoria. He badly wanted to marry his girlfriend, Phyllis Brace, 24, but his poor state of health prevented it. Phyllis called at the Institution on JULY 22nd, 1936, and the couple went for a walk in Epping Forest. Twenty-four hours later Clay was found lying by a roadside in an exhausted condition. Next day police found the body of Phyllis in the forest, with her throat cut. Clay made a statement in which he said they had decided to die together. They went into the forest and took barbitone tablets. He went to sleep and when he woke up Phyllis was lying in a swamp. At the sight of her he tried to cut his own throat with his razor, but when his courage failed he used it on her instead. “The only motive for his act was misery and despair,” says the official report. Thomas Clay was sentenced to life, but died in prison after serving only 20 months. |
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