Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today, we're going to
be exploring the brutal killing of Jean Bradley in Acton in nineteen ninety three.
This murder became headline news at the time due to the circumstances that Jean's murder
occurred in the street with a witness. Despite these circumstances, Jean's murder is
still unsolved and this begs many more questions as to why. This episode contains
descriptions that some people may find distressing, so listener discretion is advised. The
area of Acton is located in the London borough of Ealing in West London and
has long been famous as an industrial hub, with many factories being located there,
including the car firm Renout. Today, however, Acton is mainly made
up of residential housing, including the largest housing estate in West London, with
around two thousand homes and nearly six thousand residents. It's a very multicultural area,
with people from many parts of the world choosing to settle down there.
It's also famous for Gunnersbury Park, which is a large and popular park in
the area where many events take place. Actontown Tube Station therefore, is a
very important stop on the underground, as many residents and commuters use it regularly
to get into central London and they use it to visit tourist attractions like Gunnersbury
Park. It's a busy tube stop, served by both the District and the
Piccadilly lines. The tube stop is used by mainly people from the Acting area,
but also people further afield who drive to the location and leave their car
and get on the tube so as to avoid trafficking congestion in central London.
This is exactly why forty seven year old Jean Bradley had decided to park her
car there in nineteen ninety three when she got a new job which meant that
she would be commuting into London. Jean lived in Crowthorne in Berkshire, but
had recently got a job which had an office in New Bond Street in London.
Jeane worked for a company called Pricer Relocation, which was an American company
which specialized in helping companies move premises. Jeane was happy with the job move,
but was worried about the traveling situation, given that it was thirty miles
away from her home. Jean and her partner Nicholas, came up with a
plan together to make the journey easier for her, and they decided that traveling
around halfway and then getting on the tube would be the easiest route to take.
This was how Jeane ended up settling on Acton, as she could get
the Piccadillia Line into London from Actontown station. Jeane was a thorough woman and
wanted to know exactly what the area was like before she decided to park her
car there, and her and Nicholas traveled to the area to check it out.
First. They assessed the safety of the roads in the area and believe
that they were fine for her to leave the car and Jeane began her job
at making the commute in from Acton. Jeane would often leave her car earlier
around seven thirty and then travel back and arrive after tea time back to her
car. On Thursday, the twenty fifth of March nineteen ninety three, this
is exactly what Jean did. She arrived in her BMW and parked it on
carboy Anew in Acton before traveling the short distance to Actontown Tube station. To
go to work. Her partner, Nicholas, was a teacher during this time
and he was on a school trip in Rome. Nicholas later reported that he
spoke to jean regularly while he was away and she was eager to hear all
about the trip, as a week after Nicholas arrived home, they were going
on their own trip to Rome, and Jeanne was excited. That day,
Jeane arrived at work and did her work day as usual before returning back to
Acton on the Piccadilly Line from Green Park. When Gane arrived back into Acton,
it's reported that she nipped into some shops to grab something to drink for
the evening before returning back to her car. This was around seven twenty pm,
and while there were people around in the streets, they weren't crowded as
they would have been earlier in the evening. One woman remembers passing jean walking
along the road. That night, Jeane arrived back at her car on Carbrie
Avenue and started to put things inside the open door. This was such a
usual and everyday occurrence. However, this wasn't the case that night. As
Jeanne was leaning into her car, someone attacked her from the back. This
seemed to be an unprovoked attack on an oblivious victim. It would later be
established that this was not only an unprovoked attack, but it was a brutal
one. Jeanne was suddenly attacked by a man with what was later found to
be an eight inch knife. The man began stabbing jean and the pair ended
up tussling on the floor. This attack seemed to come out of nowhere,
and despite the fact that it was now dark, acting was still a relatively
busy area with people traveling along Carbree Avenue at the time that it took place.
Patrick Cunningham, who was employed as a carpenter, was driving along in
his van at the exact time that the attack took place, and he witnessed
it firsthand. He confronted the attacker as he began to run away, and
he later recounted this to crime Watch during the reconstruction. He said that the
man had very cold eyes and was wearing a strange black hat. He was
also very tall and held up what looked to be a black plastic bag in
his hand. The bag, he noticed, looked rigid, as though there
was something inside it. Patrick Cunningham wasn't the only person who was in the
area at the time. A woman and her son were driving along Carboree Avenue
in their car when they saw the man, and although they were initially unsure
about the situation, they knew that the man must have done something as he
was acting suspiciously and was fleeing the scene. The woman noted that he looked
very strange, around six foot to six foot three, and she described him
as wearing a silly hat. It was black and was one that looked like
a southwester hat, which is a plastic hat with an almost pointed top and
a strap that hangs under the chin. It almost looks like a fisherman's hat.
This was a distinctive hat in the area, particularly as it was cold,
but it wasn't raining. The woman knew that the man had been up
to something and told her son in the car to get out and head home
to ring the police. She stayed in the car and proceeded to follow the
man down the road. Patrick Cunningham was also doing this and by that point
had got out of the car and began chasing the suspects through the streets on
foot. The woman in the car decided to go home to check that her
son was indeed phoning the police, and she glanced back to see the suspects
and Patrick Cunningham running down the road towards Acton Road Tube Station. The chase
between Patrick Cunningham and the suspect continued as they went along North Circular Road before
the man turned off towards South Acton Estate. Patrick Cunningham explained that along the
way he tried to enlist as much help as he could from people passing by,
like pedestrians and stopping people in their cars to try and help, but
in the end he continued chasing the suspect on foot and alan. When the
suspect ran into South Acton Estate, Patrick Cunningham later told crime Watch that he
tried to hide behind trees and bushes so that the suspect would believe that he
had stopped following him. Cunningham explained that the suspect rarely glanced back around,
but did slow down enough that he was able to mostly catch up with him.
It was at this point in the chase that the suspect turned around and
saw Patrick Cunningham and immediately started running again through the park on the estate.
Cunningham noted that the suspeck didn't seem very fit, as when he reached the
edge of the estate there was a railing. He said he could have jumped
it to get away faster, but the suspect chose not to. He kept
running and rounded a corner, and when Patrick Cunningham himself got round the corner,
he could no longer see him. Cunningham got close to a pub named
The Prince of Wales, which was close to the intersection of Church Road and
Ragley Close on the South Acton estate, and he began asking people if they'd
seen him, but nobody he spoke to had While Patrick Cunningham had lost sight
of the suspect, there was another witness tracked down who had seen his next
movements. This witness was a man who lived in a flat on the South
Acton estate and had been out on his balcony at the time he saw the
suspects stalk outside one of the flats on the ground floor. He looked very
agitated and nervous and was moving side to side. He could see that the
man had a hat in his hand and that he had jet black hair.
He was wearing a cream colored three quarter length jacket and trousers that looked too
short for him as they were flapping around at the ankles. The witness said
he walked quite oddly, like he was flat footed, and held a black
bag tightly in his hand and didn't let go of it once. The man
said that the suspect looked around as though looking for a way out of the
estate, and the witness said he headed off on Buckland Walk, which led
out of the estate and towards the high Street. The witness said he realized
something was off about this man, but by that time he was out of
sight. He had traveled a mile and a half from Cardboree Avenue where Jeanne
was initially attacked. During this time, police and emergency services had been dispatched
to the scene where jean had been attacked. It was established that she had
been stabbed several times with an eight inch knife. This proved to be fatal,
and jean later passed away from her injuries. The attack seemed so completely
impulsive and random that it was difficult to know exactly what had happened and why.
It seemed like a completely random killing, and of course, catching the
person responsible for this was crucial to the police, given that nobody knew if
this was the start of a killing spree for this individual. The fact that
so many people did get a look at the suspect was important to the investigation,
and it provided the police with some idea of who they were looking for.
They knew from the information that had been given to them by Patrick Cunningham,
who had given chase for over a mile, the woman in the car
who'd been driving along, and from a witness at the flats and Southampton estate
that they were looking for a tall and relatively thin looking man with a gaunt
face and stubble that was described as looking two days old. The noticeable thing
that all of the witnesses pointed out was that the man seemed to be wearing
a strange hat that looked like a southwester style and really stood out in that
area. As the attack and the subsequent chase was seen by several people,
it was hoped that someone may know something that could help the police. They
turned a crime watch to appeal for information and provide the public with something that
might jog their memories. Detective Superintendent Bob Fenton spoke on the show, indicating
that the suspect had last been seen heading towards act in High Street, and
he appealed for anyone who may have seen someone fitting the description of the man
to come forward. He did add, however, that he may not have
continued traveling in that direction after he was last seen, and so he was
also appealing for anyone that may have not only seen the man, but also
the chase between the suspect and Patrick Cunningham. Protective Superintendent Bob Fenton explained that
there appeared to be no motive for the attack on Jean and that nothing had
been stolen, despite Jean having placed her bag on the seat before being attacked.
He added that the suspect appeared to be a strange character and that his
description may be recognizable to people working for certain agencies such as social services or
psychiatric services, who he might be known to, or even to local charity
shops where he might have purchased his clothes. A hat similar to the one
worn by the suspect was also shown on the show, and he appealed for
anyone who might know someone who wears that type of hat or owns that type
of hat to come forward. Detective Superintendent Fenton also explained that they wanted to
trace a man who was working that day in card Reavenue going door to door
as a street bender. He stated that he didn't want to look into whether
the man should have been selling door to door that day, but just wanted
to know what he knew, as it was hoped that he might have noticed
the suspect loitering around the area before the murder. There was a new piece
of evidence also shown on the episode, which police believe could be a crucial
piece of information. A fragment of a plastic bag was found at the scene,
and it was discovered that this did not belong to Jean or anyone else
who had been at the scene that night. The fragment of the bag was
about eight or nine inches and had some features that police believed that someone may
recognize. The bag was black with gold details, including some images of flowers
along with some words that could be made out. There was a larger s
visible as well as the words extruded printed and in the United but then nothing
else was able to be discerned. Police were able to do some investigation later
on and found out that it was from the brand Narcissus and that it had
been made by a manufacturing company in Ayrshire. It was explained that there was
a twenty thousand pound reward being offered for anyone who had information about Jean's murder,
and this was offered up by Jean's employers at Praeka. Jean's murder was
so violent and unnecessary, given that there was no motive or reason evident to
the police. Why had this happened and why had this suspect chosen to do
this at a very busy time in a very residential and commuter area like acting.
It was clear that the police believed that the suspect must have had either
mental health or addiction issues given what they reported on the crime Watch segment,
but narrowing this down was proving very difficult. Jean's family and her partner Nicholas,
had to come to terms with the unnecessary and brutal nature of Jean's passing,
and they couldn't comprehend why or how this had happened. Nicholas later recounted
to the newspapers the awful moment that he was told about the news that Jeanne
had been murdered. Nicholas had been on a school trip with his job as
a teacher, and it was in his hotel room during this trip that he
was told of the news. He said it was only when he got back
to Gatwick with the group that it began to sink in. He said,
I had to carry on with my job and get the children home. Initially
I put a brave face on it. All this gave way to shock when
I was met by police at Gatwick. He added later, Obviously the hardest
thing I have to face is not having Jeane around. The couple had been
together for twenty one years and now Nicholas face life without her. This must
have been horrendous, particularly as it was proving difficult to find anyone who could
have been behind the attack and murder. The murder seemed to hang over the
area of acting for several months afterwards, with the awful feeling that whoever committed
this was still out there. In July of nineteen ninety three, Patrick Cunningham
spoke to the newspapers, explaining that he was still haunted by that night and
the fact that he was unable to catch the suspect. He explained, if
I'd got the man to the ground, he would never have got up.
All I needed was one person willing to help me. Well, I did
I think any man should do if he's a man, But no one came
to help. All I needed was one person to help me, and the
murderer would be behind bars today. He talked about how the incident has affected
him, saying I passed the spot where the lady died. Every day of
the week, something drags me back. Sometimes I go around the area that
I chase the killer through. I suppose I'm just hoping I will see him
again. Patrick Cunningham had not only chased the suspect, but he confronted him,
saying, come on, you bastard, try me. I'm not a
woman, which is when the suspect began running. Patrick is clearly haunted by
the fact that he couldn't catch the suspect, but the police openly applauded him
for his actions. Superintendent Bob Fenton said what Pat did was very brave.
If he hadn't done what he did, we wouldn't have half the information about
the killer that we do. This information was clearly important to the investigation and
gave some clues, and in August of nineteen ninety three, it looked as
though there was a development in Jean's case, it was announced that an arrest
had been made. A thirty nine year old by the name of Francis Marnell
from north Hall in West London had been arrested. It was widely reported that
Marnell was unemployed and had been interviewed at length about the murder. The arrest
must have been welcome used to Jean's family and to the community who wanted this
violent murderer off the streets. Marnell appeared at ealing magistrate's courts in September nineteen
ninety three with his head covered with a blue blanket and was then formally remanded
in custody. The committal hearing took place in November nineteen ninety three and more
information was announced. It was discovered that Francis Marnell was schizophrenic and this may
have been one of the reasons police believed that he could have been responsible for
the murder. There was another bombshell piece of information announced The case against Marnell
wasn't going to proceed any further and the charges were being ropped. Magistrate Ian
Comfort listened to the information provided by prosecution and defense and decided to dismiss the
charges, given that Manelle seemed to have a watertight alibi for the time that
the murder took place. A woman who worked at a social club in West
Ealing told how she'd visited Marnell's flat with bedding that she collected for him,
and she saw and spoke with him at the flat at that time. Manelle
had a history of mental illness, but had always denied having anything to do
with the murder. The prosecution, for their part, stated that Patrick Cunningham
had picked Marnelle out of an identity parade, saying that the killer looked really
evil. Stephen Camliss, who led Manell's defense, explained that police had ignored
the evidence of an alibi that he had and also hadn't bothered to conduct DNA
tests that could have proven Manelle's innocence. Camlish stated that the alibi evidence was
so strong that it was incapable of disbelief when looked at with an open mind.
It would seem that Magistrate and Comfort agreed with him and decided that the
case shouldn't proceed. There were reportedly gasps of astonishment, and Stephen Camlish announced
that Marnell had been a victim of injustice. At the highest level. Marnell
made comment after the charges were dropped, saying we're going to have a party.
This was not the outcome that the police had clearly hoped for, and
Jean's family unloved ones were left back in limbo without the answers that they deserved.
Police, for their part, stated that they would be speaking with the
Crown Prosecution Service about this decision, but stressed that the Jeane Bradley Incident Room
remains open and there is still a team of officers working on the case who
would be happy to receive any new information. After the case collapsed, the
police investigation seemed to grind to a halt, with little progress being publicly made.
A year after Jean's murder in nineteen ninety four, her case was growing
cold, and an article in the Gazette spoke to residence in Carbree Avenue and
begged the question what still was being done to catch the killer. Roy Follett,
a resident in Carbree Avenue, spoke to the newspaper, saying the police
seemed to have dropped the case and we want to know what they're doing because
nobody knows what's happening. Police here were very upset and it does not help.
Knowing the man is still out there, he could do anything. These
thoughts were echoed by several residents of Carbree Avenue and the surrounding streets. Many
people were still distressed that the killer hadn't been found, and they wanted more
information about what was being done. A spokesperson Stay did that the case was
still open and would continue to be while it was unsolved, and it was
also confirmed that more lighting had been added to Carbury Avenue. By this point,
three hundred and forty two suspects had been questioned and eliminated from the investigation,
eighteen hundred statements had been made, and a thousand calls to police had
been followed upon. However, despite this, Jeane's murder remained unsolved. This
is unfortunately the way that it has remained for thirty years. With the thirty
year anniversary of Jean's murder being in March this year, there has been little
new information released and Jeane's murder remains one of the most notorious unsolved murders in
the Capitol. There has been lots of speculation about who could have possibly been
responsible for this, as well as links to other crimes that were seen as
similar. One of the crimes that have been discussed with reference to Jeane's murder
is that of Penny Bell, whose case we've covered on the podcast previously.
Forty three year old Penny Bell's body was founded a car on the car park
of the Gurnelle Leisure Center in Greenford in London. She had been stabbed over
fifty times and the motive for it was unknown. There didn't appear to be
any reason behind the attack and it happened during the day in a public place.
During the Crime Watch segment about Jean Bradley's murder, Penny's was in fact
brought up due to the fact that it also happened in London and a woman
had been attacked in public while they were by themselves. The similarities between the
two, however, were quickly dispelled as it was confirmed on there that police
believe that the two murders were not connected. There wasn't any reason given for
this, and of course Penny Bells, like Jean's murder, is still unsolved.
There has also been some other suspects brought up in relation to jean murder,
including serial killer Robert Nappa, professor David Wilson, criminologist, amongst others,
has suggested that he could have been responsible for the murder given his known
m Nappa had been convicted in nineteen ninety four for the murder of twenty seven
year old Samantha Bissett and her four year old daughter in their home in Plumstead
in London. What wasn't known at the time, though, was that he
had already committed another brutal crime that somebody else had been wrongfully convicted for the
murder of Rachel Nickel on Wimbledon Common in southwest London in nineteen ninety two.
Was a notorious, motiveless and awful crime given that it had taken place in
front of her two year old son and once again in a public place during
daytime, while walking the family dog. This was such a shocking murder and
what followed was a controversial investigation by the Metropolis and police in which a covert
operation was established focused on one of their potential suspects, Colin Stagg. Stagg
was known to walk his dog on Wimbledon Common and police sent out a female
officer to try and form a relationship with Stagg. The police were working on
a criminal profile that this suspect would enjoy violent fantasies, and the undercover officer
tried to get Stagged to admit the murder by implying that she enjoyed hurting people
too. Stagg never admitted to the murder, but he was arrested anyway.
At trial, it emerged that his descriptions weren't close enough to the reality of
the actual murder as police had stated, and the judge exclaimed that the way
in which police had gone about the investigation was using deceptive conduct of the grossest
kind. There was no forensic evidence produced to link him to the murder,
and his case was thrown out. He was acquitted through insufficient and evidence.
In the early two thousands, developments in DNA technology meant that a sample found
on some of Rachel Nickel's clothes were able to be retested and came back as
a match to Robert Nappa, who at that time was confined in Broadmoor Hospital.
It was revealed that he had been questioned in relation to Nikel's murder in
nineteen ninety five and had denied it. In two thousand and eight, he
was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility given his mental state. The whole
situation with Robert Napper was further exacerbated when speculation began to emerge that he could
have been responsible for a string of rapes that occurred in southeast London called the
Green Chain Rapes. Seventy incidents related to this over a four year period were
recorded, and Napa reportedly admitted to some of the incidents which had been attributed
to the Green Chain rapist in nineteen ninety five. He has been reportedly linked
to four of these due to DNA matching. He had been ruled out of
many of them, though due to his height. It was thought that the
suspect was around five feet seven inches and Nappa was around six foot two and
so much taller. The witness statements, however, are conflicting, and it's
reported that Napa did walk with a stoop. This description has caught the eye
of some, given that the suspect in Jean Bradley's murder was described as tall
and had a funny way of walking or running, as so described by Patrick
Cunningham and the witness who saw the suspect from the top of the block of
flats. He described him as flat footed, but didn't mention a stoop.
David Wilson also highlights the way in which Nappa attacked his victims a blitz style
attack, stabbing them multiple times, often in public places, and without provocation.
Interestingly, he also points out that Nappa often traveled on public transport and
knew his way around London extremely well. This was important in Jean's case,
as he appeared to have set off in the direction of the tube station initially,
and of course Jeane was coming from the tube station when she was attacked.
The ferocity of Rachel Nickelle, Samantha Bissett, and Jasmine Bissit's murders were
of no also, as they were so brutal and violent that they could only
have been perpetrated by someone who had a strong violent tendency and clear mental health
issues, as Robert Nappa had. This was a similar profile to that given
for Jean Bradley's killer, particularly the focus that the police had on someone with
no mental health issues or known addiction to drugs or alcohol. This, however,
has never been confirmed, as have many of the details surrounding Jean's murder.
A lot is still unknown almost thirty years later, and this must be
horrendous for her family and loved ones who just want answers to why this happened
and who did it. Since Jean's murder, her name has been included in
articles about other murders or crimes that occurred in London and has been cited as
one of the cases where DNA may help to solve her murder. Unfortunately,
this has not been what has happened up until this point, and the evidence
that they do have are the information that leads to this speculation is unclear.
This would be the best case scenario for Jean's murder, and it's perfectly plausible
that DNA may find her killer. I hope that this does happen in the
future, given the time that has elapsed, since there is also there always
the possibility that someone could come forward with information, and Jeane's case is still
open, so any information, no matter how small, could be crucial.
Many people saw what happened that night, and we have a lot more information
than most crimes like this. However, despite this, the perpetrator still hasn't
been found and we have no idea if they went on to commit more crimes
or what happened to them. Since this is a scary thought and Jeane's case,
like all of the cases we cover on the podcast, deserve to be
told and to be solved. Her loved ones deserve some closure and they need
answers. If you know anything about Jean Bradley's murder in nineteen ninety three,
then please contact the Metropolitan Police at one oh one. If you want to
know more about the murder of Penny Ball in nineteen ninety one, which was
mentioned in this episode, then find it on our feed. I covered it
back in January of twenty twenty one. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
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and in the show notes, as always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen