True Detective November 2013

True Detective November 2013

£3.50

Out of stock

True Detective receives many letters but few more interesting than the one that recalls the case

Out of stock

SKU: 1593-True Detective November 2013 Categories: ,

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True Detective receives many letters but few more interesting than the one that recalls the case that happened years ago in South Shields, a reader recalled, her father was one of the men who discovered a woman’s torso in a storage tank. Perhaps we could look into the case, the correspondent suggested. We did and can report an extraordinary story that unearths a shocking miscarriage of justice.

London was shrouded by one of those thick, swirling fogs so vividly described in Sherlock Holmes stories. Pea-soupers were still commonplace in 1943, and it was in such a fog that Molly Lefebure and her boss, Home Office pathologist Dr. Keith Simpson, set out for a Luton crime scene that would have intrigued even Conan Doyle’s detective.

Patrick Drum may not have the presence of a Charles Bronson or the charm of his TV hero Dexter. But in the delivery of so-called vigilante justice, he was just as deadly and effective as his screen idols. To his supporters he became a cult hero on a one-man mission to clean up the streets and keep kids safe. But to his victims’ families and law enforcement, he was nothing more than a crazed, cold-blooded killer. What’s your verdict, hero or villain?

David Fairchild stared at the framed photo of his daughter Stacy – and wept. It had stood on his mantelpiece for 20 years, but now he took it down, and wrapped it carefully in a padded envelope. “Come on, darling,” said his wife, choking back her own tears. “Maybe today will bring us a kind of peace.” They arrived hand in hand at the court, David clutching the treasured picture close.

His tread was heavy as he climbed the steps to the witness-box, and looked straight at the man who’d murdered Stacy all those years ago. “This was our daughter,” he said simply, holding up the photo. “She’d be thirty-seven now.”

* TD’s Crime Photos/ Prize Competition
* The Airbag Murder
* “Why I Killed the Sex Offenders”
* Your Letters / More of your views
* Under The Spotlight: The Man Who Killed The Man President
* Killers Who Will Die In Prison Part 11: The Blackpool Murderer And The So-Called Man With No Feet
* Make A Break: Crossword
* Readers’ Jury
* Tagged Killer Released To Kill Marie
* The Luton Sack Murder
* Ireland’s Tragic Case Of The Baby Who Vanished
* Crimes That Made The Headlines: "The Torso In The Tank"
* A Father’s Agonising Story
* Questions & Answers: Torture House
* Execution USA

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