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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

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exploring the case of the murder of
eighteen year old John Biankee, who in

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January nineteen nineteen was murdered by an
unknown perpetrator while he was just walking down

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the road. The strangeness of the
murder and the little known evidence that is

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available truly makes this case a mystery, and this was one of the reasons

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that I wanted to cover it,
as well as the fact that I do

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love the research that comes with a
historical case. This episode contains some descriptions

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that listeners may find distressing, so
listener discretion is advised. The area of

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walker Gate is located in the east
of the city of Newcastle. In twenty

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eleven, there was around nine thousand, five hundred people living there. It's

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a relatively small area of the city, making up less than four percent of

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the population. During the late Victorian
era, Walkergate was well known for its

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hospital. Walkergate Hospital was built in
eighteen eighty eight and was originally built as

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an isolation hospital for people with infectious
diseases. This is how it commonly got

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its name as the walker Gate Fever
Hospital. The hospital was situated on Benfield

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Road, and during World War One
it was also used for military use,

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and two adjoining pavilions were added onto
the hospital to treat soldiers. These were

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reportedly in use until nineteen seventy nine, when they were then demolished. The

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walker Gate Hospital was a well known
place in the area and it was here

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that twenty six year old Elizabeth Phillipson
worked in nineteen nineteen. Elizabeth lived in

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the area of Thornton, a village
between the areas of Blackpool and Fleetwood.

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Her family had moved to this area
around twenty seven years earlier, when Elizabeth's

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father got a new job as a
joiner at the salt works in the area.

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They had moved from Hibburn in Newcastle, and this is where some of

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the families still lived in nineteen nineteen. Elizabeth often visited her family in the

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area and would travel up at the
weekends. It was during one of these

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occasions that Elizabeth found her self employment
at the Walkergate Fever Hospital, working as

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a laundry maid. Elizabeth seemed to
enjoy her job working there, and it

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meant that she could see her family
more often, including her an uncle and

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her cousin John Bianche. Elizabeth spent
her time working visiting family, and also

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reportedly had a fiancee who was a
soldier working overseas. I have, however,

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only heard of this information from one
source. On the twenty fifth of

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January nineteen nineteen, Elizabeth had spent
the afternoon and evening with her cousin John

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and her uncle. John was eighteen
years old and working as a drillers apprentice.

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Elizabeth would later state that she had
arrived on the ferry at around five

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pm that evening and that John had
come to meet her. She said that

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she went back to her uncle's house
and that she went to church with John

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and went for a walk with him
and another man named Robert Brown, Elizabeth's

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uncle and John's father. Later said
that they all had supper together and then

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he left the home around nine pm
that evening. Elizabeth stated that her and

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John then left shortly before ten o'clock. Elizabeth to get to work, and

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John offered to take her to the
hospital. Elizabeth said that they were laughing

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and joking on their way there,
and that they were relaxed in a later

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account, she said that as they
were walking, they passed a couple who

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were walking the other way. She
said that she then spotted at all what

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she described as well made man in
the distance. She said that she mentioned

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to John when she saw him,
I wonder if that's that man from Benton

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Road. This was in reference to
the fact that she had heard that two

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of the nurses who worked at the
hospital had been molested and assaulted by a

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man on Benton Road, and another
employee had also been followed along the same

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stretch of path. The way that
the man looked already made her suspicious of

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this person who appeared to be lurking
in the dark. It would appear that

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Elizabeth was right to be suspicious that
evening and along that particular stretch of road.

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As the pair were walking along and
were around four to five yards from

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the man that they had just spotted, he suddenly lurched forward from behind a

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hedge, and a loud bang was
heard. The bang reverberated through the street,

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and a man named Charles Finlayson heard
it from where he was stood.

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Charles had just passed John Biankee and
Elizabeth Phillipson on the road only a minute

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or two before, and he later
explained that he knew a gunshot when he

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heard it. He ran back to
where he thought the noise had come from,

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and it was at this point that
he spotted Elizabeth running back towards him.

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Elizabeth then headed towards John Biankee's home
on Chapel Row and found her uncle,

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telling him, oh, uncle John
has been shot. Before police assistance

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was sought, with Sergeant Russell gaining
the report that someone had been shot.

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During this time, John had been
taken to Charles Finlayson's house so that he

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could have tained some medical help.
A doctor McGregor took a look at John

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before he was later taken to the
Royal Infirmary at Newcastle. John had been

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shot in the left side of his
stomach, and it would appear that the

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bullet had passed through him, his
clothing and his coat. This was important

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as the doctor thought that at this
point John may have been in no danger

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from his wound. Elizabeth was also
injured. She had quite a large caught

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on her left eye, and she
later explained that the man who had shot

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John had then lunged forward and with
the butt of the gun, had hit

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her on the face. While her
hat took the brunt of the hit,

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she was still cut above the eye. The man had then run off.

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This had been on what seemed to
be a random attack upon innocent people who

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were simply walking along the road.
John's family were horrified by what had happened

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and hoped that he would pull through. While John was being treated at the

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hospital, police attempted to try and
locate any evidence that could help them figure

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out who had committed this random and
awful crime. Elizabeth provided a description of

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the man that she had seen,
which was helpful. He was reportedly a

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tall, well built, broad shouldered
and around five feet eight inches tall.

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He was around twenty six years of
age and was wearing a dark overcoat and

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a light cap. This was useful
to the investigation, but it didn't point

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the police to the exact perpetrator.
There was some evidence left behind at the

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scene which may help figure out what
happened. When police assessed the scene,

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they found the gun that had been
used to shoot John. The gun was

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a Webley Scott self loading pistol marked
nineteen seventeen. The gun and several cartridges

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were recovered, which all bore a
government stamp. This gun matched the bullet

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that had been extracted from John's body. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Brunton Angus stated that

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he extracted a revolver bullet from a
wound below John's left nipple. The bullet

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had effected no other Organs except his
spleen. Finding the gun that had been

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used in the attack was a step
forward in the investigation, and police hoped

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that it would help narrow down who
may have committed this crime. They did

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get a lead from the recovery of
the gun. It turned out that this

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particular weapon had been illegally taken from
one of the HM ports in the northeast.

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This indicated that whoever had been using
the gun had some sort of access

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to these ports and was able to
get hold of a weapon like this.

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The gun was described as having a
piece of black composition on the right bottom

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side. Some of this had broken
off. It was hoped that someone would

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recognize it and come forward with information. There was also more evidence that had

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been left behind at the scene.
A piece of rope around seven feet long

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and a quarter of an inch in
diameter was recovered. It had a bowline

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knot on one end. It was
thought that this had something to do with

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the crime, However, the connection
was unclear. It's reported that this type

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of cord was often used by the
Navy, so could it have come from

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the port like the gun had.
This crime was callous and violent, and

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it was very confusing as to why
someone wanted to harm John or Elizabeth.

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It seemed that they may have been
in the wrong place at the wrong time,

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and this became even more tragic when
on the twenty eighth of January it

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was announced that John Bianche had succumbed
to his injuries and had passed away.

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This came as a shock for everyone, given that it was initially thought that

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he may pull through. This must
have been devastating to his family, and

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the random and awful crime was incomprehensible
to them. Police were doing everything they

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could to try and track down the
perpetrator, however, it was proving difficult.

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While they did have evidence, this
evidence did not point to any one

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person in particular. Many people worked
in ports in the Northeast or had access

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to them, and so the profile
they were looking for could fit many local

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men. They issued a reward of
fifty pounds, which was around two thousand

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pounds in today's money for anyone with
information that could help them find John's killer.

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There were some theories in the case, with one of them being that

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this may have been a case of
mistaken identity and that the perpetrator thought that

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they were someone else. If this
was the case, then it makes it

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all the more tragic. At an
inquest into John's death in February nineteen nineteen,

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the coroner addressed the lack of evidence
that the police had in the investigation.

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During his summing up, he said
that the police had no other evidence

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to produce for the jury in relation
to this outrage and tragedy. He reportedly

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said that the duty of the jury
was quite plain in terms of this case.

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John had simply been walking along the
road when he had been shot by

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a man who was still unknown to
authorities. The jury didn't even retire to

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consider the verdict in this case.
They announced a verdict of willful murder.

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This was clear to everyone. John
had been murdered in cold blood are almost

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point blank range. This was a
heartless crime and it shocked to the community

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where it happened. John was a
young man who had his whole life ahead

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of him, and he had now
had it cut short due to the actions

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of a killer. Police began trying
to assess what the motive was for this

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crime. They probed whether this could
have had anything to do with Elizabeth.

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It's reported that they looked into her
life and any previous love interests that could

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have had a grudge against her.
Despite looking into this angle, they could

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find no evidence that anyone in Elizabeth's
past had anything to do with this.

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They also began looking into the area
where John and Elizabeth had been walking that

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evening. It has often been referred
to as a lover's lane where couples would

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go together, and police even theorize
that this could have been the work of

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a religious fanatic who disagreed with couples
go out together and had turned his rage

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on them. Again, there was
no real evidence to prove this hypothesis.

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With this lack of concrete evidence,
John's murder case began to stall and little

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could be done to progress the investigation. With this, the case grew cold

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and remained unsolved. Unfortunately, this
is the way that the case remains to

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this day, one hundred and four
years later. The murder of John Bianche

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has never been solved, and this
is such a tragedy for a life cut

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so short. Despite the time that
has elapsed, his case has not been

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forgotten in the area that he lived, and particularly will not have been forgotten

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by his family, his mother,
father, and six siblings whom he lived

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with at the time. In twenty
nineteen, on thee hundred year anniversary of

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his murder, Chronical Live did an
article bring John's case back to the forefront

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of people's minds. This is,
of course, a case that probably now

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will never be solved. However,
the senseless nature of this crime made me

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want to cover it because there does
seem no rhyme nor reason behind it,

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and the fact that someone was shot
at point blank range while walking in the

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street is quite an unusual crime for
this time and for the UK in general.

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Why did someone do this, who
were they and where did they go

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after? This was the perpetrator of
the same man who had been following and

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assaulting women who worked at the hospital. All it makes me think is if

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this person was willing to shoot someone
in the street, then they were clearly

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dangerous. Were they responsible for any
other crimes that we simply do not know

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of? This is the scary part
of this case. For me as they

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were never brought to justice. John
Biankee did not deserve to die that evening,

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and this is something that is clear. Thank you for listening to today's

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episode. If you'd like to support
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the link in the show notes to
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ten Minute True Crime, which tells
infamous crimes in a short form,

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bite size ten minutes for people on
the go or who just like the facts.

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Find that wherever you listen, and
in the show notes, as always,

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I'm and this has been unseen paste
tie inste