Manchester nightwatchman George Camp, 58, died when his killer, after beating him up, dropped a plank weighing 48 lbs on his body. That was on August 12th, 1951, on a Wythenshawe building site at the Crossacres Estate. Two months later not a single lead to the killer had been established.
But on October 12th Alfred Bradley, 24, a prisoner in Strangeways Jail, who had been free at the time of the murder, confessed that he had hit out at Camp after an argument, although he had no intention of killing him.
He had known Camp, who was gay, for some years, and various indecent acts took place between them from time to time. Camp called him Joyce and paid him for sex, usually three or four pounds a time. But on August 12th Camp suggested they try sex acts that Bradley found distasteful.
Bradley was tried twice at Manchester. At the start of the first trial, when he was told to speak up, he threw a Bible at the judge. It crashed against the bench, showering the judge with water from a tumbler at his side.
The prisoner was overpowered and a doctor who examined him concluded that he was highly overwrought and in no state to continue the trial.
The second trial began a week later, on DECEMBER 7th, 1951, before another judge. This time a guilty verdict was returned and Bradley was sentenced to death. He was hanged at Strangeways on January 15th, 1952.