Arriving for work at the post office at Fforesfach, near Swansea, on NOVEMBER 16th, 1957, a woman assistant was surprised to receive no response when she knocked on the door. She looked through the letterbox, saw the body of the 73-year-old postmaster William Williams lying on the floor, and ran to fetch the police.

It was established that the postmaster had been beaten to death the previous evening with the bloodstained hammer that lay beside him. A trail of bloody footprints led from the scene to a nearby bus stop, but nobody had seen anyone in bloodstained clothing board a bus.

An informer then told the police that Vivian Teed, 24, had told him in October that he was planning to raid the post office. Then on the night of November 15th Teed had told him he had done the job, attacking the elderly postmaster, but had left empty-handed because he couldn’t find the safe-keys.

Arrested on November 18th, Teed at first denied knowing anything of the murder. After further questioning, however, he admitted responsibility. Although he had not stolen anything, he had entered the post office intending to steal, and as the crime was committed in the furtherance of theft he was charged with capital murder.

He had been in trouble ever since he was 13, and had twice been jailed for assault. At his trial the defence claimed he was mentally abnormal and a doctor testified that he had found Teed to be a psychopath. A prison doctor, however, said that Teed was perfectly sane, and the killer was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. His appeal was dismissed, and on May 6th, 1958, he became the last man to be hanged in Wales when he was executed at Swansea Prison.