Death In A Market Town + Video

It was a July afternoon in 1943. The place - a quiet market town only a couple of miles away from me. The skies were clear. Enemy bombers had been seen flying overhead earlier in the day but they were intent on dropping their loads elsewhere.

Lunchtime was just over. Nurse Mitchell was preparing her patient for a pleasant afternoon stroll. Mr. Archibald B. was dressed in his pyjamas and dressing gown and had his cloth cap on his head. Nurse Mitchell and Mrs. B. helped him into his invalid chair and covered his legs with a woollen blanket and a travelling rug and two pillows were placed at his back.

The nurse and the patient then set off for their outing. Archibald B. was never going to come back.

Archibald B. was born in 1896. His family owned the local windmill and ran their business from there. Archibald married Dorothy in 1922 and they had two sons, Eric born in 1923 and Colin born in 1927. On the death of his father, Archibald B. took over the running of the family business. Several years earlier Archibald had been involved in a motor cycle accident. It caused permanent spinal damage and possibly brain damage because he suffered a change in personality

The family lived in a substantial home close by the windmill. As the years passed, Archibald became increasingly more difficult. He became a grumpy invalid and expected Dorothy to do everything for him without any help. She hired private nurses but he complained about each one and dismissed them. That is until nurse Mitchell came along. He took a liking to her and allowed her to stay.

By now son Eric was working in a bank (I have been in the branch many times) However, his behaviour was erratic, he would be rude to customers, burst into tears for no reason, bang his hands up and down on the counter and was not liked by his co-workers. There was also the matter of missing cheques and he stole money and stamps. He could give no explanation and immediately returned the money. The bank dismissed him and did not press charges. He was a loner who did not mix with other people. In 1942 he was called up to serve his country and joined the army. He must have found the life hard in the services where camaraderie was the norm. The following year he applied for compassionate leave due to his father’s declining health. He was granted three months leave to sort out the family business and find someone reliable to run it.

Then came the day in July. Nurse Mitchell was walking along, chatting to her patient. He decided he wanted a cigarette and began fumbling in his dressing gown pocket. Nurse Mitchell stopped, walked around in front of him and helped him to light his cigarette. He then settled himself back down in the chair. The next thing Nurse Mitchell knew, was a sense of tremendous heat, the smell of her own hair burning and not being able to hear much. The invalid chair had exploded. The nurse look down to see her legs covered in blood. Then she heard a thump she was never to forget. Looking around she saw the torso of Archibald B. lying in the roadway. He had been severed at the waist. Nurse Mitchell began screaming at the top of her voice.

The remains of the invalid chair

Help was soon on hand. She was taken to hospital. The pillows had shielded her from most of the blast. One of Archibald’s legs was found 48 feet away in a front garden, the other was hanging from a tree in the churchyard. Enemy action was ruled out. It was obviously a case of murder and the police had to start looking closer to home.

The police superintendent questioned Dorothy B. It transpired that things were a little less than normal that day. The invalid chair was normally kept in a shelter outside. When the nurse went to get it, she discovered that the inner door was locked which it had never been before. She went to get the key from Dorothy. Both women returned together only to meet with Eric emerging from inside. He said he had been looking for something. They had no idea he was in there.

Piecing the debris together from the murder scene, it was determined that the explosion had been caused by a Hawkins no.75 anti-tank landmine. Eric had been trained in the assembly and ignition of mines. The police conducted experiments which showed that such a mine placed under the seat of an identical chair would not be noticed. Eric was taken to the police station where he signed a voluntary confession. He was then arrested and charged with murder.

A lot more information emerged after his arrest. Dorothy had not wanted to say much but truth will out. Archibald had loved his younger son but had taken a dislike to Eric from when the boy was very young. He would hit his son under any pretext and constantly make his life hell. He was locked in dark cupboards or made to run up and down the hallway until he fell from exhaustion. His father then sent him away to boarding school where he failed to thrive. Dorothy did not fare much better. Archibald forbade her even to see her own mother. When she bought him food, he would throw it on the floor, constantly ring a bell to keep summoning her for such trivial things as his not liking the way a certain flower was positioned in a vase. In the last two years of his life he threw hot tea over her, tore her clothes and even tried to strangle her.  Dorothy B. had written to Eric telling him some of what she was undergoing.

Eric B. said in court that for years his mother’s life had become a complete drudgery and he had decided that the only way in which she could lead a normal life and for his father to be released from his sufferings was for him to die mercifully. Arguments then raged as to whether Eric was sane and if he knew what he was doing at the time. Three relatives had been mentally unstable, including his grandfather and great-grandfather. One of them committed suicide. Eric would often talk in a slow and halting matter and break off in mid sentence and go into a sort of trance. At other times he said he had done God’s will. He made a feeble attempt at suicide whilst in jail awaiting trial.

The defence said he was clearly unstable but there was a great difference between being unstable and actually insane. There is no doubt he had a personality disorder. In the end the jury returned the verdict that Eric B. was guilty of the murder of his father but was insane. He was committed to an asylum.

Nurse Mitchell returned to nursing although she walked with a limp and was left with a disabled arm.

Eric was neither unobservant nor unintelligent. He was clever enough to pilfer money from the bank, clever enough to plan the murder in advance, to steal the mine from the army stores, to rig it so that it would go off only if there was a shifting of weight of the person sitting above it. He had also shown a lot of sympathy towards his father in the previous two years,trying to win his favour. On the other hand he showed a total disregard for human life. He said he loved his mother and wanted to improve her lot and yet he knew that she and the nurse routinely put his father into the chair ready for his daily walk. His mother and the nurse could both have been killed and what about any innocent bystanders?

Was it simply years of pent up hatred and rage at his own treatment by his father? He also stood to inherit the family business if his father was out of the way. As bread was an essential during the war and the mill would have been active, he would probably have been able to leave the army. Maybe his father's liking for Nurse Mitchell angered Eric when he saw what his mother had to bear. We can only speculate as to what his true motives were.

This murder remains the only one ever carried out by means of  an anti-tank mine.

Eric was released in 1975 and disappeared  into obscurity. He may still be alive.

You have read the story of a local murder, now perhaps you would like to see where it actually happened:-

As you can hear from the video, I am still battling this cold.

Have a good day everyone.