Tuesday 2 February 2016
The UK's most notorious pub murders - when terror strikes the heart of our communiti
The UK's most notorious pub murders - when terror strikes the heart of our communities.
Fear: Many pubs have also been the setting of some of the country’s most appalling crimes
For centuries the British pub has been the life and soul of our communities.
But many have also been the setting of some of the country’s most appalling crimes and heinous murders.
From landlords bumping off wealthy guests for their gold to truly terrifying gangland killings, The Sunday People looks back at some of the most infamous and terrifying murders carried out at Britain’s pubs..
The Moor Cock Inn
Saddleworth, Lancs
Killing: Bill o' Jacks Murders took place at the Moor Cock Inn on Saddleworth
In 1882 the bloodied and battered bodies of a landlord and his son were discovered at the Moor Cock Inn.
The savagery of the case shocked locals around Saddleworth Moor.
William Bradbury, 84, was found beaten in his bed while his 46-year-old son Thomas, a gamekeeper, was found downstairs in his own blood.
Old Bill lived long enough to utter a word that sounded like “Platts” but the murders went unsolved. Many people speculated that Thomas’s gambling debts were at the bottom of it.
Another suggestion was that a poacher due to stand trial had bumped the men off because Thomas had been called as a witness against him.
Neither theory was ever proven.
The Ostrich Inn
Colnbrook, Berkshire
Deadly: The Ostrich Inn, Berkshire
A sure contender for Britain’s most bloody pub.
More than 60 murders are said to have been committed at this inn that dates back to 1106.
The most notorious case was that of 13th century landlord Mr Jarman.
The story goes that Jarman would ply his wealthy guests with strong ale then send them off to bed in one of the guest rooms, the Blue Room.
Jarman built a trapdoor in the room and as his guests slept, they would be tipped through the trapdoor and into a vat of boiling liquid below so he could steal their possessions.
The White Hart
Newcastle upon Tyne
Born and bred on the streets of Newcastle, Geordie pirate Edward Robinson was said to have claimed his first victim at the White Hart.
While he went on to become part of a gang of pirates that marauded across the Atlantic, Robinson was believed to have been a young boy when he slit a man’s throat and pushed him in the river Tyne in the late 1700s.
The pub has since been redeveloped and is now the site of a nightclub.
The Fir Tree
Croxteth, Liverpool
PARhys JonesTragedy: Rhys Jones was gunned down in a pub car park
In one of the most shocking crimes in recent memory, schoolboy Rhys Jones was walking home alone from football practice in August 2007 when tragedy struck.
The 11-year-old was crossing the car park of the Fir Tree when he was gunned down by a youth on a bicycle.
His mother Melanie raced to the scene and he died in her arms.
Scumbag Sean Mercer, 16, was found guilty of his murder and jailed for at least 22 years.
The landlord Keith Doyle was accused of allowing criminals to have the run of the pub and was banned from working there.
Eleanor Bull’s tavern
South East London
The death of celebrated poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe in 1593 has remained a mystery for centuries.
He went to the tavern to meet his friend Ingram Frizer, a businessman.
They had dinner with two other men who were working for Queen Elizabeth’s intelligence chief Walsingham, who had also had contacts with Marlowe, 29.
A fight broke out, said to be about the bill. Marlowe was stabbed by Frizer and died.
Frizer pleaded self defence and got off. Some believed Marlowe was murdered because of espionage.
Most fanciful of all is a theory he faked his death and continued to write under the name of... William Shakespeare.
The Blind Beggar
Whitechapel, London
MirrorpixHistory: The Blind Beggar Public gained notoriety when when George Cornell was shot
The East End pub was the scene of the gangland killing of George Cornell by Ronnie Kray in 1966.
Cornell, a member of the Krays’ rivals the
Richardson gang, was rumoured to have called Ronnie “a big fat poof” earlier.
Ronnie shot him in the head with his Luger. Cornell, 38, died in hospital that night.
Nobody was surprised when not one witness came forward.
But some associates of the Krays feared for their own future and fed information to the police.
It was enough to charge Ronnie and he was jailed for life in 1969 after an Old Bailey trial.
The Heights
Loughinisland, Co Down
Six men were shot dead as they watched Ireland play Italy in the 1994 football World Cup in this small village pub.
The bar, mainly frequented by Catholics, was packed when the Ulster Volunteer Force burst in firing assault rifles.
Despite a history of Northern Ireland conflict, the World Cup Massacre shocked the world.
The White Hart Inn
Edinburgh
Notorious duo Burke and Hare, who were believed to have had 16 victims between them, frequented the Grassmarket pub in the late 1820s.
There they would befriend their unsuspecting victims before luring them back to their nearby lodgings where they were murdered and their bodies promptly sold on a “no questions asked basis” to Dr Knox for dissection by his medical students.
The Magdala
Hampstead, London
Passion: Last woman to be hanged in Britain Ruth Ellis
It was a crime of passion that was to lead to the last execution of a female in Britain.
On Easter Sunday in 1955, Ruth Ellis shot her boyfriend, David Blakely, 25, five times outside the pub killing him.
Ruth, 28, gave herself up immediately but went down in UK history as the last woman to be hanged.
The Black Horse
Sidmouth, Devon
Pensioner Brian Kemp was on holiday in the seaside Devon town when he was attacked by local Nicholas Jamieson in September 2013.
Jamieson, 42, had pestered Mr Kemp to buy him a pint but the 71-year-old had politely refused.
Then out of nowhere, Jamieson pulled out a First World War bayonet and stabbed him. Schizophrenic Jamieson was found guilty of manslaughter based on a plea of diminished responsibility.
The Brass Handles
Salford, Greater Manchester
PAKilled: Carlton Alveranga.
They had been hired to perform a gangland hit but when Richard Austin, 19, and Carlton Alveranga, 20, walked into the Brass Handles in March 2006 the tables were quickly turned on the would-be killers.
After firing off six shots at their targets they were tackled by the pub’s regulars and ended up being shot themselves – with their own weapons.
After stumbling outside, the pair were left to die on a grass verge.
Later, witnesses said the young men looked nervous, even reluctant to go in to the pub in the first place.
In 2011, Bobby Speirs, 41, was jailed for life for masterminding the bungled hit but no one was ever convicted of the pair’s murders.
Hitmen: The scene inside the Brass Handles
The Prince Arthur
Euston, London
This 1998 pub killing became the first murder case solved thanks to the power of the internet.
Landlady Carol Fife was brutally stabbed to death during an after-hours burglary by one of her bar staff – Australian backpacker Gregory Mills.
The killer, 28, fled the country with his £2,500 spoils.
But he was brought to justice after he was stopped for speeding in Colorado, US.
The cop had kept an eye on Interpol’s website and recognised Mills’s name.
He was extradited back to the UK, convicted and jailed for life.
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