WEBVTT

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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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covering the nineteen seventy eight murder of
Bill Simpson at his garage in the area

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of Small Heath in Birmingham. His
murder was unexpected, incredibly violent and had

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some features of a gangland attack.
But who would have wanted to kill this

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well loved father and husband in this
awful way? This episode contains descriptions that

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

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Small Heath is located around two miles
from the city center of Birmingham and quickly

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grew in popularity during the Victorian era
due to its green space outside of the

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city and the number of terrace houses
that were being built to accommodate the growing

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population. During World War Two,
Small Heath gained more importance as it was

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the location of the Birmingham Small Arms
Company, which was the only factory which

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produced rifles in the UK. This
meant that the factory and Small Heath became

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very important to the war effort and
began to produce rifles and Browning machine guns

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an accelerated rate. The factory went
from six hundred guns per week in nineteen

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thirty nine to around sixteen thousand a
month in nineteen forty two. The amount

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of people involved in the production massively
increased and Small Heath was put on the

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map in terms of its relevance.
The factory was bombed three times by the

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Loftwaffer in nineteen forty and this caused
huge problem, with many people being injured,

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including residents workers, and resulted in
the loss of life of fifty three

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employees. The production of rifles was
also halted for around three months, which

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of course had a devastating effect on
the war effort. As a result,

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the production of rifles was spread out
throughout the country so that they could not

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be as much of a target for
German bombing raids. Since World War Two,

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Small Heath has continued to grow,
with many more houses being built.

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Today, it's a very multicultural area
and due to the popularity of the TV

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show Peaky Blinders, many people also
know it as a location where the Peaky

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Blinders street gang operated during the late
Victorian era. During the nineteen seventies,

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Small Heath was continuing to grow with
many people moving into the area to live

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and also to set up businesses.
In nineteen seventy eight, this included William

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Simpson, or Bill as he was
known. Bill lived in the area of

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Erdington, which is a suburb of
Birmingham, located around five miles from the

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city center. Bill lived with his
wife Mary, and they had three children

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together, who at that time were
all in their twenties. Bill was a

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mechanic who owned a garage in the
area where he lived in Erdington before renting

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out a new lock up garage in
a back street on Whitton Street in Small

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Heath in early nineteen seventy eight.
Bill had qualified as a mechanical engineer in

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the Army, and when he was
demobbed in nineteen fifty six he'd settled in

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the Birmingham area. He'd set up
his company, Sampson Motor Repairs and Welding,

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and now transferred it to this new
garage in the new area. He

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was known as a hard working man
who put all of the hours he could

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into his work at the garage,
and he was a family man. Reports

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from his family members stated that sometimes
he would be out from seven o'clock in

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the morning and didn't come home until
ten or eleven o'clock at night. This

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continued when he moved to the garage
in Small Heath in nineteen seventy eight.

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By all accounts, Bill Simpson was
a hard working family man who owned his

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own business and generally kept himself to
himself. It seemed that he'd gained an

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excellent reputation in the area in the
short time that he was there, and

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customers were happy with the work that
he completed. Sampson Motor repairs therefore were

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successful and continued this way during nineteen
seventy eight. On Friday, the twelfth

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of May of that year, however, Bill Simpson's garage was at the center

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of a very strange and tragic series
of events. That day, residents in

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the area of Whitton Lane noticed something
odd coming from the alleyway in which Bill

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Simpson's garage was located. It looked
as though there were flames coming out from

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the bottom of the door, and
as the door was shut, there must

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have been concern about whether anyone was
inside it or not. Firefighters arrived at

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the scene, and when they first
got there, they discovered that the garage

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door was locked. They had to
break down the door to gain access to

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the garage and put out the fire. The scene was initially a very confusing

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one, given that there was no
indication why the fire had started or what

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had happened. When the fire crew
got inside and the fire was under control,

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it became clear that something tragic had
happened inside. There, lay face

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down with his head and shoulders underneath
a blue Viva van was a man,

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and it was clear that he had
been caught up in the flames, given

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that his clothing had been mostly burnt
away and what remained was still on fire.

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When the fire crews arrived. On
first glance, it looked as though

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there may have been an accident when
the man had been working under the car.

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It seemed as though the jack may
have slipped and landed on the man

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and caused something else in the garage
to fall over and set the fire.

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The fire crew lifted up the van
and removed the jack, which enabled them

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to get a closer look at the
body. It was at this point that

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they realized that this couldn't have been
what happened. They discovered that the man

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had a bullet wound to his face, and from that point on, the

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theory of what happened in there changed
dramatically. This was now a murder scene.

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The remains were so charred that making
an official identification was difficult. The

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body and the underneath of the van
had been burned, as well as two

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of the rear tires. It's also
reported that a cop mattress that was inside

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the van was also burnt. Next
to the van was a new exhaust pipe,

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and it looked as though it was
about to be fitted into the van

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when the murder had occurred. As
the garage was owned by Bill Simpson,

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it was assumed that this body would
be his, and a later identification was

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made from his belongings that were inside
the garage. The murdered man was Bill

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Simpson. From the evidence in the
garage, it was clear that whatever had

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happened to him was brutal and the
perpetrator's intention had been to kill him.

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But why? What was the exact
motive behind this? While the garage was

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further assessed for any evidence, Bill's
family were told of what had been found.

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All of them were in complete shock
about it and couldn't believe what they

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were hearing. Bill's wife, Mary
was in such severe shock at the news

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that she had to be put under
sedation. Bill's three children couldn't grasp what

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had happened, let alone why.
It was reported that their eldest son,

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Bill, flew straight home from Germany
and was given compassionate leave from his role

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in the army with the Royal Regiment
of Fusiliers when the news reached him.

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The couple's youngest son, Terry,
spoke to the papers about his father's murder

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soon after it occurred, and he
told them that he couldn't understand it at

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all. He said, my father
didn't seem to have an enemy in the

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world. His whole life was the
motor trade, and he lived for the

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cars. The police have asked us
whether we know of anyone who might be

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responsible for the shooting, but we've
not been able to give them any lead

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at all. We just cannot think
of anyone or any reason for such a

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terrible thing. This was echoed by
Bill's neighbors, who all talked about his

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kindly nature, with one of his
neighbors, Stanley Watton, stating he was

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well liked around here and was always
helping people. He was very efficient and

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a hard working man. If anyone
had any trouble with a car. He

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would be round straight away, not
to make money, just to be helpful.

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This was the picture that was emerging
from the initial investigation into Bill Simpson's

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murder. However, police had to
try and figure out why someone wanted this

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kindly, hard working man dead.
From the post mortem, police were able

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to ascertain that Bill had been shot
and then the garage had been set on

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fire, and therefore could establish that
the shooting had taken place beforehand. This

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was crucial information and suggested that the
killer had been using the fire to cover

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their tracks or to get rid of
any other evidence that may have been left

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behind. The circumstances behind why this
had happened or when, however, was

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unclear. Police began doing door to
door inquiries in the local area around the

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garage in the hope that someone had
noticed something odd or heard something on that

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Friday. They spoke to the nearest
house to Bill's garage, a man named

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James Moroney. He was asked if
he'd heard a gunshot around the time that

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Bill was murdered. He told police
that he hadn't heard anything that sounded like

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a gunshot. He told the newspapers
later, although I was at home on

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Friday. I cannot remember anything which
I would describe as a gunshot. There's

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always a lot of noise from the
garages of cars being revved up or the

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banging of metal. As well as
interviewing people in the local area, the

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police also deployed dogs in the area
to try and find more evidence, as

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well as using mine detectors. Despite
these inquiries, information was not as forthcoming

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as it could have been, and
police had to appeal to the public.

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They announced that they wanted to hear
from people who were in the area of

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the garage between twelve noon and two
thirty on that Friday, or anyone who

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was a customer of Bills. One
person did come forward, and he was

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the owner of the blue Viva van
that Bill had been working on at the

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time of his murder. Sam Rafailia
Rashid had left his van with Bill on

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that Friday morning, and he reported
that he hadn't noticed anything strange or odd

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about him that day. He had
visited Bill's garage in the first place due

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to a recommendation from his brother,
who said that Bill's work on his vehicle

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had been quick and efficient. Sam
explained that when he dropped off his van

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on that Friday, Bill had appeared
relaxed and happy, and there didn't appear

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to be anything wrong at all.
Sam told the newspapers he was happy and

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relaxed when I saw him. The
van was due for its moot in July,

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and he said he would check it
over for me. I gave him

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the keys and he told me to
come back and pick it up on Sunday.

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Reflecting on when he'd heard about the
news of Bill's death, he said,

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I'm horrified. It all seemed perfectly
normal when I saw him the previous

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day. The news of his death
was such a terrible shock. I couldn't

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believe such a thing could happen.
It's clear that Sam was in shock that

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he had been there just that morning, and that something so terrible could have

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happened not long after. This was
unthinkable. The police knew that it was

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Sam's fan that he was working on
when he was murdered. The motive,

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however, still eluded everyone, including
his family. Bill's brother in law stated,

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this whole business has got us completely
baffled. He had no money troubles,

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and he was certainly not involved in
anything political. Police seemed to be

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at just as much of a stand
sill with Chief Superintendent Tom Mefferin from West

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Midland CID, stating it was a
murder without a motive, without a direction

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to go in this was proving a
difficult one to solve. Police had disclosed

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some information about people who they were
speaking to, and one of the avenues

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they seemed to be heading towards was
speaking to a man named Tony Walsh,

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who had previously shared the garage with
Bill. This appeared to be in an

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effort to learn as much as they
could about Bill and about his life.

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Tony Walsh was later eliminated from inquiries. Police also made a statement which initially

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seemed quite vague and brought up many
more questions than answers. At a press

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conference on the thirteenth of May,
Detective Superintendent Mike Murphy stated that Bill Simpson

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had been known to police, but
not in any drastic This was an odd

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statement given that the murder had been
and continued to be described as motivelest Just

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two days later, however, this
statement seemed to be explained. The Birmingham

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Mail reported that Bill had been at
magistrate's court in January of nineteen seventy eight

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as he had been found to be
in receipt of three stolen MOT certificates.

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It was later reported that during the
investigation, police uncovered that there was an

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illegal mot business running in Birmingham at
the time, and that there was a

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scam involving a batch of three hundred
stolen MOT certificates. This meant that certificates

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could be used to pass off cars
as roadworthy when they weren't, or could

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be sold on to other people at
a profit. Four of these certificates had

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been found at Bill's garage. Seven
men were later arrested for their part in

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this scam. This was of course
of interest to police, However, whether

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it had any bearing on Bill's murder
wasn't clear. Neither was Bill's possible role

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in this scam. There was no
direct evidence that showed that Bill was involved

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in it, and it couldn't be
proven. This did provide an explanation for

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why police had made the statement,
explaining that Bill had been known to them,

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but not in a drastic way.
They stated they were doing more investigation

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into the criminal underworld to see if
this could in any way provide a motive

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for the crime. On the same
day, police announced that they did have

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descriptions of some people who they wanted
to speak to who had been spotted in

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the area at the time during the
two hour window between twelve and two when

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police believed that Bill had been murdered. Descriptions of these three men were given.

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The first man was described as being
white, between the ages of thirty

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to forty, around five feet eight
inches tall, with ginger hair. He

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was described as being well built.
He'd been wearing a PVC hip length zip

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jacket, black trousers with flared bottoms, and black high heeled shoes. Another

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man was described as mixed race,
aged between thirty to thirty five and about

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five feet nine inches tall. He
was well built with curly hair. He

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also had a goaty beard. He
was wearing a brown V neck jumper and

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a T shirt. The third man
was also described as mixed race, aged

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between thirty eight and forty, about
five feet seven inches tall and of medium

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build. He had a long face
and mustache and a light beard. He

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had curly receding hair and was wearing
an orange jumper with a double blue line

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around the neck and was wearing dark
blue trousers. Detective Superintendent Mike Murphy told

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the press these people were seen in
the vicinity of the murdered man's workshop between

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noon and two pm on Friday.
We would like them to contact us so

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that we can eliminate them from our
inquiries. A mobile police station was set

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up at the scene for anyone that
might know a vital piece of information.

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Despite these appeals, however, weeks
began to pass without any further movement on

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the case. During this time,
Bill's family had to try and figure out

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life without him, and they were
attempting to rebuild their lives in such tragic

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circumstances. Mary Simpson, Bill's widow, spoke to the press at the beginning

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of June nineteen seventy eight and described
how she'd been affected. She stated,

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he could never have done anything so
wrong that he deserved to die like that.

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I still cannot understand why the murderer
did it, and that's the worst

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thing of all. I lie awake
at night trying to figure it out,

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but it's still a complete mystery.
This worries me more than anything. At

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the moment, I feel like I'm
about to snap. My husband was my

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whole life. By July nineteen seventy
eight, the family were continuing to struggle

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00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:19.920
as they had no closure to what
happened, and personally their lives were being

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torn apart. Reports from July nineteen
seventy eight indicate that Bill and Mary's son,

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who was also called Bill, had
to quit his career in the army

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to return home to look after his
mother. She'd been unable to return to

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her job as a factory worker as
she had a major internal operation was not

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00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:47.119
entitled to widow's pension. They were
also dealing with the issue surrounding Bill's funeral

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00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:52.119
and burial as his body was still
in Birmingham City Marchery, as he couldn't

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00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:56.359
be buried as a second post mortem
may have been needed to be carried out

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00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:02.279
if a suspect was arrested, this
causing the family a lot more distress as

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00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:07.799
he couldn't be later to rest.
Bill said, this is making my mother

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00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:11.240
even more upset. This thing just
won't go away, and we're just as

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00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:18.400
baffled today as we were when we
heard of the murder. Police addressed the

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00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.799
fact that the investigation seemed to be
going nowhere, saying that they hadn't forgotten

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00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:26.880
about it, but they couldn't keep
as many officers on the investigation as before

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00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:33.559
Detective Superintendent Mike Murphy said, we
found the rest of the divisional work was

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00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:37.400
suffering with such a large scale murder
operation, so we've been forced to cut

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00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:44.880
back to twelve officers on the inquiry. This was clearly a very upsetting idea

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to Bill's family, who just wanted
answers as to who did this to him

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00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:53.559
and why. It wasn't until October
nineteen seventy eight that Bill's family were able

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00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:59.440
to finally bury him. He was
buried in Whitton Cemetery with his friends and

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00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:03.720
family present, and they were able
to finally gain some closure. After the

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00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:08.920
police instructed the coroner to release his
body, Mary Simpson spoke to the press

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00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:15.119
and appealed for anyone with information to
come forward. She said, I appealed

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00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:19.119
to anybody who knows anything to contact
the police immediately. If I knew had

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00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:23.319
done it, then I might know
why I sit for hours trying to figure

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00:20:23.319 --> 00:20:26.799
it out. I was trying to
get over it, but the funeral has

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00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.880
brought it all back again. All
I can hope for now is that the

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00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:38.400
murder can be solved and my mind
put to rest. Detective Superintendent Mike Murphy

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00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:45.000
also commented on the investigation, saying
we're still baffled as to the motive for

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00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:48.960
this murder. We're quite satisfied the
death was in no way connected with stolen

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00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:55.880
mot certificates. This appeared to put
to rest the previous rumors that this had

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00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:03.720
somehow contributed to his murder. Bill
Simpson's family were finally able to lay him

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00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:07.200
to rest, but unfortunately Mary Simpson
never got her wish for the case to

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00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:14.559
be solved. Many years in decades
passed without any movement or progress being made,

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00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:19.559
and sadly Bill's murder is still unsolved
today. Many of the facts that

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were known immediately after Bill's murder are
the only facts that we still know today,

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00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:29.240
and there doesn't appear to have been
any new evidence or information found.

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00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.279
The only more recent information I can
find comes from an article from the Birmingham

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00:21:36.359 --> 00:21:41.079
Male, which describes much of the
information that appears in the contemporary news reports.

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00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:45.960
There is nothing new added to this. Sadly, forensic evidence was not

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00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:51.880
known about when Bill's murder took place
and so was not something collected, and

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00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.680
also the killer had set fire to
the scene before leaving. This means that

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00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:02.559
unfortunately, evidence that might have been
recovered couldn't be. This has ultimately led

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00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:07.000
to just speculation. In this case, was this someone who knew Bill?

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00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:11.839
Was it something to do with his
work? Why had someone been so angry

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00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:17.720
with Bill that they would commit such
a horrendous crime. Many of these questions

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00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:22.039
don't have answers, and this remains
a crime without motive given that there isn't

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00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:29.200
enough evidence to prove any potential theory. Bill Simpson's murder remains unsolved and his

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00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.440
family never got the answers they deserved. His murder seems to have just been

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00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:40.119
forgotten since nineteen seventy eight, and
this is so sad what happened to him

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00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:45.960
and why. Another worrying thing is
that this murderer has never been brought to

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00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:52.119
justice and has been free this whole
time in society. Bill's murder should be

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00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:56.400
solved. If you know anything about
Bill Simpson's murder in nineteen seventy eight,

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00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:03.440
then please contact West Midland's Police one
oh one. Thank you for listening to

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00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:07.359
today's episode. If you want to
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You can also subscribe and listen to
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you listen and in the show notes. As always, I'm Caprice and this

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has been unseen