WEBVTT 1 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.560 London in January is a particular kind of dark. The 2 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.679 city doesn't go quiet, but it empties out in a 3 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:54.200 different way in the small hours of a winter morning. 4 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.560 The bus is then out, the straights narrow around a 5 00:00:57.560 --> 00:00:59.960 few people still in them. Eight and a half mine 6 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.640 miles northeast of Chasing Cross lies Edmonton. It's a time 7 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:08.359 that most Londoners have driven through without stopping, crossed in transit, 8 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.560 glimpsed from a boss or the elevated sections of the 9 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:15.159 A four oh six. It sits in the London borough 10 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.480 of Enfield, and it isn't a glamorous part of London. 11 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:22.439 Edmonton has a long history as a settlement, and by 12 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:26.120 the nineteen thirties it had become a popular North shopping destination, 13 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.519 but the decades that followed weren't kind to it. In 14 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:35.120 the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, the town was substantially redeveloped. 15 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:40.640 The old street patterns disrupted, tar blocks erected a large 16 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:44.079 indoor shopping center built at Edmonton Green that pulled what 17 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:48.120 retail life remained away from the older roads. By the 18 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:52.079 nineteen nineties it was a working class area. Silver Street, 19 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.959 which ran east to west through Upper Edmonton had once 20 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.920 been part of the A four oh six before road 21 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:02.799 reconfiguration shifted the main traffic flow and left it running 22 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:06.640 parallel to the new alignment. The stretch of road now 23 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:10.159 called Sterling Way, where Silver Strait meets the junction of 24 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:14.719 the North Circular carried the through traffic. It wasn't a 25 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:16.840 place where you would choose to be alone at nearly 26 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.960 two in the morning in January. The night of the 27 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:23.599 twenty seventh of January nineteen ninety seven was cold. The 28 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.400 temperature had dropped through the evening, and the straits around 29 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:30.479 Sterling Way were largely empty. A driver was coming along 30 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:33.840 the North Circular Road that night when he saw flames 31 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:37.319 in the distance. As he drew closer, he could see 32 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:39.400 a figure on the grass verge at the side of 33 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:43.080 the road. It was a man, and he was on fire. 34 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:46.199 He was pulling in his own clothing, trying to take 35 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:49.680 them from his body, staggering and stumbling in the dark. 36 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:08.039 Michael Tachi Manson was born in Moscow in July of 37 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:12.159 nineteen sixty six. He was the son of a Ghanian diplomat. 38 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:15.960 His father, Alfred Manson, was posted to the Soviet Union 39 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.159 at the time, and so Michael's earliest years were shaped 40 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.560 or shaped by the grey corridors of Cold War diplomacy. 41 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:26.560 It was a life that was defined by movement, adoption, 42 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:29.840 and the particular resilience required of children raised at the 43 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:34.240 edges of other countries. Alfred's work took the family across 44 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.280 a number of different countries before they eventually settled in 45 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.560 the United Kingdom in nineteen sixty eight, when Michael was 46 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:44.360 just two years old. He was the seventh of eleven children, 47 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:47.759 and by all accounts, the Menson household was a close one. 48 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:51.520 As one sibling would later recall, they were a quiet 49 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:54.879 family in their way. They didn't do a great deal 50 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:59.400 outside the home, but they entertained each other. Michael's sister 51 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:03.000 Essie roma for a long time, we only spoke gannion 52 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:06.560 at home. It was also a religious household. My mother 53 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:08.599 was a Methodist, so we all went to church and 54 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:12.199 we all sang in the choir. The siblings became accomplished 55 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:16.639 choristers and joined the English National Opera, touring the country 56 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:21.480 performing in productions of Dare Rose and Cavalier. Michael's brother 57 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:25.319 Quezi remembered it was a first real experience of London, 58 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.120 being up in the city, being up there at night. 59 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:32.560 Michael did well at school. He studied a levels of 60 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:36.240 Brent College and went on to obtain higher national qualifications 61 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:42.959 in microelectronics at Middlesex Polytechnic. He was bright, and quiet 62 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.160 and diligent, and for a time it seemed to his 63 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:49.959 future lay somewhere in the orderly world of engineering and electronics. 64 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.480 But London in the late nineteen eighties had other ideas. 65 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:57.839 It was during Michael's college years that the dance and 66 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.160 Ray of Seine began to quietly run through the Capitol, 67 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:04.560 and Michael's love for dance music was born. He became 68 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.759 a regular DJ, drawn into a world that felt very 69 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:11.600 different from the one he had been raised in. Alongside 70 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.839 his friends Carl Brown and Lee Guest, he formed a 71 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:19.240 group called Double Trouble. They were producers and DJs in 72 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.399 the hip houset scene, and they caught the attention of 73 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:27.399 the Desired label. Their collaborations with the Rebel MC produced 74 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:31.000 two records that broke through in nineteen eighty nine, Just 75 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:34.839 Keep Rocking, which reached number eleven on the UK Singles charts, 76 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.639 and Street Tuff, which climbed to number three and became 77 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:42.439 the biggest hit of their careers. Street Toff also became 78 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:46.680 a top ten hit across several European countries. The three 79 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:49.240 men traveled around Europe, and they appeared on Top of 80 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.879 the Pops, performing on a stage that millions of households 81 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:58.600 tuned into every Thursday evening. Michael's family was surprised and delighted. 82 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:02.360 His sister Essie later recalled watching him in those moments 83 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.800 and being struck by how alive her brother seemed, how 84 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:11.639 inclusive and joyful. Michael wanted his success to include the family, 85 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.879 she said. He wanted to make sure the music career 86 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:17.839 he was building was still in line with who they were, 87 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:22.160 with their values. She remembered herself and some of the 88 00:06:22.199 --> 00:06:26.800 siblings going to his recordings. She said Mike felt very 89 00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:30.319 strongly about getting recognition, not just for himself, but for 90 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:33.920 the whole family. He saw himself as a representative of 91 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:38.720 his culture. Double Trouble released their debut album as One, 92 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:43.000 which spawned further singles including Don't Give Up and Take Back, 93 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:46.639 But the momentum that had carried them into the charts 94 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:51.879 began to slow, as it so often does. The recession 95 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:55.000 hit in the early nineteen nineties, and their last track 96 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.240 made it only to sixty six in the charts. They 97 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:02.600 spoke about a set second album, but it never materialized. 98 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:08.000 The band then broke up in nineteen ninety three. For Michael, 99 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.319 the years that followed were difficult ones. He suffered a 100 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:15.560 mental breakdown and was subsequently diagnosed and traded for schizophrenia. 101 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.439 The condition was serious and unpredictable, and it changed the 102 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:23.879 shape of his life considerably. From nineteen ninety one onwards, 103 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.680 he was in and out of hospital and his social 104 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:31.360 world contracted around him. He was sad and confused by it, 105 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:35.160 one family member said, desperate to get back on track, 106 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:39.639 always apologizing, but his sister said that he was always 107 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:43.519 determined that his mental health problems would not defeat him. 108 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:46.959 He remained close to his family throughout all of it. 109 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:51.879 That much never changed. Whatever the illness had taken from him, 110 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:55.600 the career, the certainty, the forward momentum of a young 111 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.360 man who had once stood on a BBC stage at 112 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:02.720 the age of twenty two. It didn't take that. Over 113 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:08.360 Christmas nineteen ninety six, Michael stayed with family members. When 114 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.279 he left them after the holiday, they described him as 115 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:15.839 upbeat and lively. It was the last Christmas the family 116 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:32.200 would ever spend together. The night of the twenty seventh 117 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:36.120 of January nineteen ninety seven was cold. Michael had been 118 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.240 given lay from Chase Farm Hospital and he was staying 119 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.960 at Holden Lodge, a supported housing unit in North London 120 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:47.320 where he had recently moved. That night, at about ten pm, 121 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:50.279 his sister Chay pound him to tell him a message 122 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.720 had come through from the hospital. He was needed back 123 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:57.840 for a ward rund. It was a routine thing. Michael 124 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:01.600 had made the journey countless times. So he left Holding 125 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:05.799 Lodge and he caught a bus somewhere along the way. However, 126 00:09:06.200 --> 00:09:09.279 he boarded the wrong bus. He ended up getting off 127 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:12.600 in Edmonton, in North London, not where he was meant 128 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.639 to be. There were four men on the bus. One 129 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:19.279 of them had been wearing a black leather jacket. When 130 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:23.960 Michael got off the bus, they followed him. He remembered 131 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.799 leaning on the gates of a church and then he 132 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:30.440 felt something on his back. They had robbed him first, 133 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.240 then doused him inflammable liquid and set him on fire. 134 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:38.120 Michael managed to stagger more than three hundred and fifty 135 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:42.519 yards while on fire before collapsing semi conscious on the street. 136 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:46.159 He had ripped off all his burning clothing and left 137 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:50.360 behind a trail of charred flesh and clothing. At around 138 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:53.600 one forty in the morning, an off Judy firefighter was 139 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:56.799 driving home along the North Circular Road when he came 140 00:09:56.840 --> 00:09:59.919 across a man burning at the roadside near the junction 141 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:04.759 of Sterling Way in Silver Street. He stopped immediately, dampened 142 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:09.200 out the flames and called nine one one. Michael had 143 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:12.519 sustained full thickness third degree burns to thirty percent of 144 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:17.159 his body, his black, his bodocks, his upper thighs. He 145 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.960 was in severe shock. An ambulance arrived and Michael was 146 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.519 taken to North Middlesex Hospital before being transferred to the 147 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.279 Regional Burns Unit at a nearby hospital where the severity 148 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.840 of his injuries could be better treated. But then something 149 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:36.240 went wrong, not with Michael's treatment, but with everything around it. 150 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:43.120 The two police officers who had attended the scene didn't 151 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:48.960 treat the circumstances of Michael's discovery as suspicious. They assumed, 152 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:54.759 without investigation that Michael had set fire to himself. He 153 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:58.399 told them that he had been attacked. The officers left 154 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:02.039 the scene. When Michael was taken the hospital. They didn't 155 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.120 cordon off the area, they didn't preserve the crime scene. 156 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:11.080 They said in motion, no investigation whatsoever. Because Michael was 157 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.840 a psychiatric patient. The police had concluded that the injuries 158 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:19.720 must have been self inflicted. That assumption had been made 159 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.279 in the dark at the roadside in minutes, and it 160 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:28.360 would prove extraordinarily difficult to dislodge. Meanwhile, at the hospital, 161 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:34.759 Michael was conscious. He underwent skin grafts and operations. His brother, 162 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:38.120 Questy was able to visit him in the hospital. He 163 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:42.080 found Michael lying on his back in his hospital bed, awake, 164 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:46.600 alert and lucid. Michael told them he had been attacked 165 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:50.080 by some boys near a phone box. He had tried 166 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:53.080 to put himself out. He had rolled around on the ground. 167 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:56.919 He then asked his brother, why did they do this 168 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:01.000 to me? Despite the pain and the trom Michael appeared 169 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:06.679 to be optimistic about his recovery. Michael's brother telephoned Edmonton 170 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.799 Police station that same morning and told them what Michael 171 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:13.960 had said, that he had been attacked by four white boys. 172 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.600 That evening, another sibling called the hospital and spoke with 173 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.399 Michael directly. He was in pain, but he was coherent. 174 00:12:23.559 --> 00:12:26.639 He described the boss, four white boys, the one in 175 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:32.600 the black leather jacket. The family told the police. In hospital, 176 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:36.320 Michael repeated the same account to nurses. He told at 177 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:39.200 least six people he had been set on fire by others. 178 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:43.639 A policewoman he spoke to at the scene didn't pass 179 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:48.600 that information to anybody for a fortnight. At no point 180 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:53.000 did Detective Inspector Williams or any other officer take a 181 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:57.000 formal statement from Michael Manson, despite the fact that he 182 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:01.720 was alive and speaking and asking to be heard. The 183 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:06.080 family begged police to take a statement from him. They refused. 184 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:09.679 The police didn't coordinate off the area where Michael had 185 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.159 been attacked. There were no forensic clothes to recover because 186 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:18.559 no one had thought to preserve them. On the morning 187 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:22.399 of the third of February, Michael seemed cheerful and relatively well, 188 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.639 but later that day he developed sept to see me you, 189 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:30.799 He suffered a heart attack, and then he fell into 190 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:35.240 a coma. Ten days later, Michael was dead. 191 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.519 Hi, this is Mike Ferguson and I'm Mike Morpher and 192 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:50.039 we're the host of the true crime podcast Criminology. Launched 193 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.240 in twenty seventeen. We've covered a variety of cases, both 194 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.279 solved and unsolved, from missing persons to mysterious murders. 195 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:00.399 Some of the cases we cover are well known and 196 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:02.519 historic ones that you may be aware of well. Other 197 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.039 ones may be intriguing ones from small towns that you've 198 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:07.200 never heard of. A lot of the cases we explore 199 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:08.519 currently breaking in the news. 200 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.840 We have about four hundred episodes for you to binge 201 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:15.879 on right now, including full seasons on The Zodiac Killer, 202 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:18.440 The Golden State Killer, and Ted Bunt. 203 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.679 You can find Criminology on every major podcast platform, and 204 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.639 new episodes drop every Saturday night. Subscribe today so you 205 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:25.759 don't miss an episode. 206 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:29.159 The Manson family were repeatedly told that Michael had set 207 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:34.440 fire to himself. They didn't accept it. Initially, police told 208 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:36.399 them that they had so many leads they didn't need 209 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.879 to do any public appeals. The family's grief was combined 210 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:45.960 by the police's apparent unwillingness to haunt Michael's killers. As 211 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:48.960 one of his sisters put it, the things they failed 212 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.879 to do were so wilful and so blatant that it 213 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:55.720 just has to be wilfully deciding not to take appropriate action. 214 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.679 Letters between police and solicitors made it clear that officers 215 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:03.720 still perceived the incident as self inflicted and felt that 216 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:07.600 no crime had occurred. This was despite the fact that 217 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:13.519 their own fire expert described the evidence as suspicious. A 218 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.399 forensic scientist who specialized in fire investigations, James Monday, had 219 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:21.080 told police at an early stage that they should be 220 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:26.159 treating the circumstances as suspicious. The family submitted a formal 221 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:31.559 complaint to the Police Complaints authority. They pushed, they organized, 222 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:36.000 They refused to be moved. As sister Alex remarked in 223 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:40.080 the media, Michael was a gentle, placid and caring person. 224 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:45.000 He died in the most painful and ghastly way. In March, 225 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:48.159 police finally announced that they were training Michael's death as 226 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:51.600 a murder. They claimed they had begun an investigation in 227 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.519 twelve hours after Michael was found on fire. They eventually 228 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.919 had cordoned off the singe, but yet they still believed 229 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:03.840 that it was self inflicted. Nevertheless, they appealed to the 230 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:08.279 public for any information. Scotland Yard said it has now 231 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.080 become clear that mister Manson was already on fire several 232 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:14.879 minutes when he was found, they admitted that they never 233 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:19.720 interviewed Michael before he died. This posed a significant problem. 234 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:24.320 Unlike formal police statements, statements to family wouldn't have as 235 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:29.279 much weight in a courtroom. Michael's family, meanwhile, were searching 236 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:33.200 for their own clues. They launched a local leaflet campaign. 237 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.519 Alex said, we know it was late, but surely someone 238 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.000 must have seen or heard something, maybe a passing motorist. 239 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:43.799 We're still pleading with anyone who can help us to 240 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.399 do so. The family's leaflet campaign drew some attention, but 241 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:51.879 the silence that surrounded Michael's death was beginning to fail, 242 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:55.559 less like an absence of witnesses and more like an 243 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:59.840 absence of will. It was impossible by the spring of 244 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.159 nineteen ninety seven to look at the Menson case and 245 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.240 not see the shadow of another case that was falling 246 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:10.799 across it. Four years earlier, eighteen year old Stephen Lawrence 247 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:14.079 had been stabbed to death at a bus stop in Eltham, 248 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:18.680 Southeast London by a gang of white youths. The investigation 249 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:21.119 that followed had been mored by a series of failures, 250 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:24.519 and for years his family had campaigned against a wall 251 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:30.039 of official indifference racist attacks against young black men had 252 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:33.519 been increasing in London throughout the early nineties, and anger 253 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:39.000 towards the Metropolitan Police had been building steadily. The parallels 254 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:43.279 between the two cases weren't abstract, they were structural. A 255 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:45.799 young black man had been killed in a racist attack, 256 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:49.440 the police had failed to act with urgency or competence. 257 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:53.200 The family had been left to push for answers themselves. 258 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:57.079 Every mistake and assumption made by the Metropolitan Police in 259 00:17:57.079 --> 00:18:00.400 the Lawrence case had been repeated in the Men's inn case. 260 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:06.640 Same institution, same failures, different victim, different family left to 261 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.119 carry the weight of it. The Mensons later said that 262 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.160 officers refused to give them basic information about what had 263 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.680 happened to Michael, or any news of how the investigation 264 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:20.759 was processing. As in the Laurence case. They dismissed the 265 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:25.240 police's family lays on as little more than tea and sympathy. 266 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:31.240 One of Michael's sisters described the experience plainly, it felt 267 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:34.440 like police were saying you don't matter, and Michael doesn't matter. 268 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:39.400 That's what drove us on. The Menson family pushed on regardless. 269 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:43.240 They kept the case visible in any way that they could, 270 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:47.279 and through the spring and summer of nineteen ninety seven, 271 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:52.559 they waited for something to break. Nothing did. Then, in 272 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:55.720 October of nineteen ninety seven, another young man died in 273 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:01.400 London following a racist attack Lackville. Their real known as Ricky, 274 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.960 was twenty years old and a student at Brunel University. 275 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:08.519 He had been with friends in Kingston upon Thames Town 276 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:12.640 Center when they were racially abused. His friends were able 277 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:17.160 to regroup, but Ricky never did. Seven days later, his 278 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:21.880 body was recovered from the River Thames. The Metropolitan Police 279 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:25.839 deemed the racist attack unrelated to his death and initially 280 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:30.599 closed the case as an accidental death. Three racist attacks, 281 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:35.119 three young men, three investigations undermined from the start by 282 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:40.319 the same assumptions, the same dismissals, the same institution. Anger 283 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:45.039 towards the Metropolitan Police was becoming palpable across London. The 284 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.160 Lawrence case had exposed the rot. The Menson Unrail cases 285 00:19:49.160 --> 00:20:00.960 were making clear that nothing had changed. By the end 286 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.839 of nineteen ninety seven, the Manson family were no closer 287 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:06.240 to answers than they had been the mourning that Michael 288 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:12.319 was attacked. The investigation remained, in all practical terms, a suicide, 289 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:16.279 inquiry wearing the clothing of a murder one, the police 290 00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:19.680 had continued to do very little. In August of nineteen 291 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:22.359 ninety eight, Scotland Yard announced they were going to re 292 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:26.279 examine unsolved murder cases and unexplained deaths with a possible 293 00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:29.519 racist motive. This decision had been made in the wake 294 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:33.000 of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which found that the Metropolitan 295 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:38.240 Police's initial investigation into his murder was marred by professional incompetence, 296 00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:42.799 institutional racism and a failure of leadership. One of the 297 00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:46.680 cases they were going to be investigating was Michael Manson's murder. 298 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:51.599 They set up a one million pound task force. Local 299 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:55.599 communities were briefed on confidential aspects of the murder cases. 300 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:00.119 An advisory group was created to advise on race matters. 301 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:05.279 Assistant Commissioner Dennis O'Connor, who was in charge, announced the 302 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:08.920 Lorren's inquiry has raised the question of weather racism played 303 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:11.519 a part and that is sufficient for us to think 304 00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:16.400 we have to operate differently in the future. The following month, 305 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.440 it was announced that four senior Scotland Yard officers were 306 00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:24.480 under investigation. The four officers under investigation were those who 307 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:27.480 had handled the initial response to Michael's attack in the 308 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:31.279 early hours of the twenty seventh of January nineteen ninety seven. 309 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:34.599 They were the officers who had stood at the roadside, 310 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:38.119 looked at a burning human being, and then decided he 311 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:41.880 had done it to himself. Their decisions in those first 312 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.279 hours had shaped everything that followed. The loss of the 313 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:49.119 crime scene, the absence of forensic evidence, the failure to 314 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:53.160 take a statement from a conscious, speaking yet dying man. 315 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.279 The police had been working against the family from the 316 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:05.880 very beginning. The inquest opened at Hornsey Coroner's Court on 317 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:10.440 the seventh of September nineteen ninety eight. The questions before 318 00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:13.880 the jury were stark. Had Michael Manson been failed by 319 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:17.359 the police because of racist assumptions made from the moment 320 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:21.000 of first contact. Had the officers approached him the same 321 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:25.200 way officers had approached to Stephen Lawn's case. What if 322 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.519 Michael Manson had been white? Would he have been treated differently? 323 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:32.640 Throughout the proceedings, the police pushed to convince the jury 324 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:36.519 that Michael had set fire to himself, even as every 325 00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:39.880 piece of evidence that emerged pointed in the other direction. 326 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:44.880 Detective Chief Inspector Robert Scott said that there was an 327 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:48.799 even circumstantial evidence to support that Michael had been attacked. 328 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:53.960 He said, not one witness of any substance has been found. 329 00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.480 We have found no evidence to consider a prosecution of 330 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:01.279 any kind. They went so far as to challenge their 331 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:05.799 own witness. One of those witnesses was James Monday, a 332 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:11.880 forensic scientist specializing in foreign explosion investigations. Monday testified that 333 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:14.599 the nature of the burns found on Michael, the way 334 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:17.960 the flames had spread was consistent with his jacket having 335 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.160 been ignited by a naked flame while he was lying 336 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:24.599 face down. He told the Inquest that while he couldn't 337 00:23:24.680 --> 00:23:27.839 entirely eliminate the possibility that Michael had lit the back 338 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:30.759 of his own clothing, to do so while lying down 339 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:35.599 would have been unique in his professional experience, the scenario 340 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:38.319 that police had maintained for over a year, the one 341 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:41.039 they had told the family, the coroner and the press, 342 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:46.440 was quite possibly physically implausible. Monday also told the Inquest 343 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:50.000 that at the very early stage of his investigation, he 344 00:23:50.039 --> 00:23:53.599 had informed the police that, in his view, the circumstances 345 00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:57.839 should be treated as suspicious. The police had been told it, 346 00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:01.680 yet they did nothing with it. A week before the 347 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:06.319 inquest opened, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Townsend had written to 348 00:24:06.359 --> 00:24:11.599 the family staring, despite a very thorough investigation, we are 349 00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:14.799 still uncertain about how Michael came to be found on far. 350 00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:18.599 The letter arrived while the family was preparing to finally 351 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.720 have a jury hear the truth. During the inquest, consultant 352 00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:27.279 psychiatrist doctor Rajiev Sharma said that he had diagnosed Michael 353 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.440 as schizophrenic, but said he wouldn't have said he was 354 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:34.480 a major suicide risk. He said that Michael had spoken 355 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:37.920 about suicide in the past and said that ghosts had 356 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:41.039 suggested he'd take his own life, but he was adamant 357 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.359 he would never hurt himself. He had said, I haven't 358 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:48.319 got it in me. I couldn't do it. I want 359 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:52.279 to live. On the sixteenth of September nineteen ninety eight, 360 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:55.519 after just over a week of evidence, the jury at 361 00:24:55.519 --> 00:25:00.480 Hornsey Coroner's Court returned a unanimous verdict of unlawful killing. 362 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:06.640 Michael's family wept and hugged one another. They immediately demanded 363 00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:09.759 to know why police had waited so long before deciding 364 00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:14.359 to investigate. Guessie said, how is it that a black 365 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.759 Man tells a number of police when he is found 366 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:19.880 on fire that he has been attacked, and it takes 367 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:24.920 twelve hours before an initial investigation is attempted. Despite the findings, 368 00:25:24.920 --> 00:25:28.519 the coroner, doctor William Doeman, said the police shouldn't be 369 00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:33.920 blamed for failing to find Michael's killers. The reactions from 370 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:36.920 sections of the police was immediate and reveiling. 371 00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:38.799 D C. I. 372 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.279 Scott, who had led the original investigation, gave an interview 373 00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:44.519 to Channel four News on the day of the verdict 374 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:49.079 and said that despite everything, he still believed that Michael 375 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:54.799 had killed himself. A representative from the Police Federation, Mike Bennett, 376 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:58.279 who hadn't attended the inquest and hadn't heard any of 377 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:03.000 the evidence, criticized the verdict. He alleged that the family 378 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:07.440 had crowded out the proceedings and intimidated the coroner, and 379 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:13.200 said that the whole thing stinks. The family solicitor Mike Schwartz, 380 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:17.440 was also interviewed. He pointed out that Mike Bennett had 381 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.680 been proven wrong and that he hadn't even been present 382 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:26.519 for the evidence. Bennett then criticized Schwartz and insulted the family. 383 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:32.039 As for the four Scotland Yard officers under investigation. They 384 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:36.759 were given words of advice. In the hours after the verdict, 385 00:26:36.759 --> 00:26:40.599 the Metropolitan Police issued a statement admitting that serious mistakes 386 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:44.519 had been made, but confined their admission to the first 387 00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:50.559 twelve hours of the investigation. Michael's sister later reflected on 388 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:56.279 that phase sixteen months of a man lying dead, no arrests, 389 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:01.160 no crime scene, no statement ever taken, and the institution 390 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:05.039 responsible had chosen to draw a line at twelve hours. 391 00:27:06.519 --> 00:27:08.960 It was as though everything that had followed those twelve 392 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:24.640 ours had been acceptable. It wasn't. That verdict forced the 393 00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:29.319 Metropolitan Police's hand. They could no longer maintain publicly or 394 00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:33.799 legally that Michael had set fire to himself. Now the 395 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:37.279 institution that had spent almost two years obstructing the truth 396 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:42.079 was required to find it. The family solicitor wrote to 397 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:47.440 Home Secretary Jack Straw and a meeting followed. Operation Chichester 398 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:50.039 was created and the case was handed to the Racial 399 00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:56.000 and Violent Crimes Task Force at Scotland Yard for reinvestigation. Understandably, 400 00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:59.000 the family didn't want the Metropolitan Police handling the case. 401 00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:05.160