Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be exploring the case of Jacqueline
Speaker 1: Thomas in nineteen sixty one. This case has taken me
Speaker 1: longer to research and write as it has many interesting
Speaker 1: nuances and connections to other cases which I believe are
Speaker 1: important to highlight. This will also be one of the
Speaker 1: few times that I cover a case that, while technically unsolved,
Speaker 1: is also closed. This murder of a fifteen year old
Speaker 1: girl caused a large police response at the time and
Speaker 1: uncovered some important evidence. This episode contains descriptions that, while nevergraphic,
Speaker 1: may contain details that some listeners find distressing. This episode
Speaker 1: discusses the murder of two children, and so listener discretion
Speaker 1: is always advised. On Friday, August twenty fifth, nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: eighteen year old James Ponting was out walking his dog
Speaker 1: called Mick, in the inner city suburb of Bardsley Green,
Speaker 1: around two miles from the city of Birmingham. It was
Speaker 1: around five thirty p m. Ponting later explained that he'd
Speaker 1: been walking along the path and had decided to take
Speaker 1: a side path as he saw a man with a
Speaker 1: dog up ahead and wanted to avoid any confrontation. He said,
Speaker 1: as I walked down the main path, I saw a
Speaker 1: man with a dog further up the path. To avoid
Speaker 1: any dog fight, I took a small side path. Mick
Speaker 1: ran into the long grass, and although I called him twice,
Speaker 1: he would not return. I thought that he was after
Speaker 1: a rat, so I went into the long grass to
Speaker 1: fetch him. Then I saw a head. I thought at
Speaker 1: first it was a young man. I looked closer and
Speaker 1: saw that there was a body sprawled there in the
Speaker 1: waist high grass in an area known as the Allotments,
Speaker 1: James Ponting had found the body of a young woman.
Speaker 1: He quickly informed the Badsley Green Police station of his
Speaker 1: discovery and Superintendent Nick Brennan responded to the scene. This
Speaker 1: scene was clearly distressing for those that witnessed it. However,
Speaker 1: fact finding was the most important part of this initial investigation.
Speaker 1: Upon close inspection, police were able to establish that this
Speaker 1: was the body of a young woman dressed in a
Speaker 1: black sweater, white jeans and a suede at jacket. She
Speaker 1: was found with a floral piece of multicolored material wrapped
Speaker 1: around her neck. It was initially thought that this was
Speaker 1: a multicolored scarf. However, it was later found that it
Speaker 1: was the young woman's floral slip which had been worn
Speaker 1: underneath her clothes. This detail raised some flags about whether
Speaker 1: a sexual assault had taken place, and it would later
Speaker 1: be confirmed that the young woman had indeed been assaulted
Speaker 1: at some point during her attack and murder. There was
Speaker 1: no handbag found with the young woman, and all they
Speaker 1: recovered from her body was some matches in her jean's pocket.
Speaker 1: It was clear that her clothing had been disarranged. However,
Speaker 1: officers could find no evidence of a struggle taking place
Speaker 1: or any defensive injuries on her body. Her cause of
Speaker 1: death would later be established as strangulation. Whatever had happened
Speaker 1: to this young woman, there were not many clues as
Speaker 1: to her identity at the scene or on her person. However,
Speaker 1: looking through missing person reports from the local area gave
Speaker 1: the police a name, Jacqueline Thomas. Fifteen year old Jacqueline
Speaker 1: Thomas lived on Everton Road in their area of Alan Rock,
Speaker 1: less than a mile away from Bardsley Green. Jacqueline, who
Speaker 1: went by Jackie, lived with her very large family. Her
Speaker 1: mother and her seven sisters, who were both older and
Speaker 1: younger than her. Her father also lived with them, However,
Speaker 1: it appears that he had had significant health issues and
Speaker 1: had been in and out of Winston Green Hospital as
Speaker 1: a patient since nineteen forty nine. Growing up, Jackie's mother
Speaker 1: explained that she'd been a good girl and was always
Speaker 1: helpful with her sisters. As she reached young adulthood, she
Speaker 1: got a job at the local Hughes biscuit factory. She
Speaker 1: enjoyed doing things that many teenagers liked during the early
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. She enjoyed socializing with her friends, going out
Speaker 1: to cafes, and meeting people. Jackie was interested in any
Speaker 1: event that was going on in that area and could
Speaker 1: be found chatting and having fun. On the evening of
Speaker 1: the eighteenth of August nineteen sixty one, Jackie and her
Speaker 1: younger sister, Dorothy, who was thirteen, were very excited to
Speaker 1: go and have a look at the Bob Wilson's Funfair,
Speaker 1: which was taking place at ward End Park. Wardend Park
Speaker 1: was less than a mile from Everton Road, where the
Speaker 1: sisters lived. The pair left shortly after tea time at
Speaker 1: around six thirty pm, and headed out to the fair
Speaker 1: This seemed to be a routine Friday night, and it
Speaker 1: was not unusual for Jackie, her sisters, or her friends
Speaker 1: to go out together in the evening. At some point
Speaker 1: during the night, however, thirteen year old Dorothy turned to
Speaker 1: look for Jackie, but reportedly couldn't find her anywhere in
Speaker 1: the crowd or at the park. As she couldn't find her,
Speaker 1: Dorothy decided to go home. She arrived home and told
Speaker 1: her family that she couldn't find Jackie. However, is the
Speaker 1: evening had not yet ended, this was not necessarily a
Speaker 1: concern straight away, her sister Carol said about the evening,
Speaker 1: they went to the fairground at ward End together. After
Speaker 1: they had been there a bit, Dorothy turned around and
Speaker 1: Jacqueline had gone. I waited up until eleven thirty, but
Speaker 1: she didn't come home. Jackie's disappearance that evening did alarm
Speaker 1: her family, and they reported her missing to the police
Speaker 1: that night when she still had not come back. When
Speaker 1: she had still not come home by the next morning,
Speaker 1: they went out to look for her. Dorothy put on
Speaker 1: Jackie's coat and went out to look for her on
Speaker 1: the Saturday and then again on the Sunday when she
Speaker 1: still hadn't returned. She hoped that she would be able
Speaker 1: to find Jackie somewhere. However, she didn't, and she even
Speaker 1: came across some of Jackie's friends, who all said that
Speaker 1: they didn't know where she was. It was strange to
Speaker 1: her family that nobody knew where Jackie was or what
Speaker 1: she might have been doing. In articles would appear during
Speaker 1: later reporting that Jackie had been frequenting cafes in the
Speaker 1: area of Alan Rock More and More in recent months,
Speaker 1: and that her family had noticed that this had been
Speaker 1: having an impact on her behavior. Her mum told a
Speaker 1: newspaper she was going out every day as I thought
Speaker 1: to go to work and returning home in the evening.
Speaker 1: I've since found out that she had not been going
Speaker 1: to work, but she'd been spending her days hanging around
Speaker 1: the cafes. Police were also aware that Jackie had been
Speaker 1: reported missing once before, a few weeks previously. She had
Speaker 1: returned the next day, and police labeled this as a
Speaker 1: one off, saying she was missing for one night and
Speaker 1: after she returned, the matter was treated as an escapade.
Speaker 1: This was clearly not the same situation, however, given that
Speaker 1: as the week passed, Jackie had still not been heard
Speaker 1: from or seen by anyone that knew her. The discovery
Speaker 1: that was then made on Friday the twenty fifth, a
Speaker 1: week after she'd last been seen, was an immediate worry
Speaker 1: for both the police and her family. Sadly, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be long before she was identified as the young woman
Speaker 1: that had been found murdered at the allotments. She was
Speaker 1: officially identified by her family and a murder investigation was launched.
Speaker 1: There was a huge gap in information about Jackie's whereabouts
Speaker 1: after she arrived at the fair that night. There was
Speaker 1: also the task of trying to narrow down when Jackie
Speaker 1: had been killed and her body left in the site
Speaker 1: where it was discovered. A week had gone by since
Speaker 1: she disappeared, and it wasn't clear what exactly had happened
Speaker 1: during this time. Doctor Benjamin Tillott Davis, lecturer in pathology
Speaker 1: at Birmingham Union, later stated at the inquest into Jackie's
Speaker 1: death that he believed that she'd died between four days
Speaker 1: and a week before the discovery. However, he believed that
Speaker 1: it had been around the eighteenth or nineteenth of August,
Speaker 1: very soon after her disappearance. Dr Ernest George Gregory The
Speaker 1: police divisional surgeon who attended the scene after the discovery
Speaker 1: of Jackie's body, agreed that there had been some time
Speaker 1: elapsed between the murder and the discovery, saying that she
Speaker 1: had been dead for three days, before correcting himself and
Speaker 1: saying by that, I mean she's been at dead at
Speaker 1: least three days. The common theory was that Jackie had
Speaker 1: been murdered either on the evening that she went missing
Speaker 1: or very soon afterwards, with doctor Benjamin Tillett saying that
Speaker 1: he believed it was an estimate of forty eight hours.
Speaker 1: Another clue as to what Jackie may have been doing
Speaker 1: during her time at the fair was the toxicology analysis
Speaker 1: that was conducted. They found that Jackie had consumed the
Speaker 1: equivalent of a pint of beer or two measures of
Speaker 1: whiskey or three measures of port before her death. Police
Speaker 1: began to conduct interviews with people who knew Jackie had
Speaker 1: been at the fair that night or that lived in
Speaker 1: the general vicinity of Wardend Park or of Badsley Green,
Speaker 1: where the allotments were located. Chief Detective Superintendent Gerald Bomber
Speaker 1: Head of Birmingham CID was in charge of the investigation
Speaker 1: and began to trace Jackie's friends and peers in the area.
Speaker 1: He was very open about who he believed would have
Speaker 1: the key to their case, telling the press, I feel
Speaker 1: that the answer to this murder can be supplied by
Speaker 1: teenagers in the city. The issue was speaking to teenagers
Speaker 1: who were out most weekends and socialized with many people
Speaker 1: each evening, was that information was not always consistent, and
Speaker 1: there was also another problem. As Jackie had been missing
Speaker 1: for a week before her discovery, many people didn't realize
Speaker 1: that that Friday was so significant and so did not
Speaker 1: remember exact times. There were several people who came forward
Speaker 1: with information about Jackie on Friday the eighteenth. However, these
Speaker 1: are contradictory at times and clearly cannot have taken place
Speaker 1: at some of the times that were stated. They do
Speaker 1: give some idea of a timeline of where Jackie may
Speaker 1: have been or what her evening had been like. The
Speaker 1: earliest witness in the evening that I have been able
Speaker 1: to find is Nellie Beale. She said at around eight
Speaker 1: forty pm, she saw Jackie sitting on the floor in
Speaker 1: the doorway of the Pelham Arms with another girl and
Speaker 1: two boys. Jackie left at nine pm. She then added
Speaker 1: that She saw her again at eleven twenty pm, hurrying home,
Speaker 1: and she came from the direction of the allotments. Another teenager,
Speaker 1: mag Maureen Stewart, aged fourteen, then explained that she was
Speaker 1: with Jackie at the fair and they left together at
Speaker 1: around nine to fifteen pm. She stated, as they went
Speaker 1: down slade Field Road with her younger brother, they met
Speaker 1: a big gang of teddy boys. The boys chased them
Speaker 1: and her and her brother ran across the road. Maureen
Speaker 1: said that they quote got Jacqueline by the railings, but
Speaker 1: she caught up with them in a few minutes. She
Speaker 1: asked her and her friend Yvonne if they would go
Speaker 1: back to the fair with her, and they said no.
Speaker 1: She was last seen at around nine thirty five pm,
Speaker 1: heading down Pelham Road as though back to her home.
Speaker 1: Her friend Olive Rhodes then added on some more detail
Speaker 1: about the evening. She said that she'd been with Jackie
Speaker 1: that Friday night and they were with three boys and
Speaker 1: three girls. She said, we had a drink at a
Speaker 1: public house and then they dropped me at home. Jackie
Speaker 1: pans a boy called Tony, but I don't know his
Speaker 1: other name. We went to a public house on Hodgehill Common,
Speaker 1: halfway between Wardend and Castle Bromwich, where we had a drink.
Speaker 1: We left about closing time and came back home. Jackie
Speaker 1: was her usual self, but did tell me that she
Speaker 1: was not going to go home that night. She was
Speaker 1: friendly with a number of boys, but there was nothing
Speaker 1: serious about any of the affairs. They dropped me near
Speaker 1: my home at around half ten and I never saw
Speaker 1: Jackie again. This information was interesting given that they knew
Speaker 1: from the toxicology report that Jackie had been drinking on
Speaker 1: the evening that she went missing, and this may well
Speaker 1: have been the time that this happened. It's also interesting
Speaker 1: as she'd made the comment that she didn't plan on
Speaker 1: returning to her home that night. Two further witnesses who
Speaker 1: claim to have seen are spoken to Jackie that night
Speaker 1: both confirmed that she was not alone. In fact, they
Speaker 1: both said that she was with a man. Jackie's friend
Speaker 1: June Frank, said that she'd last seen Jackie at ten
Speaker 1: pm that night and had seen her walking with a
Speaker 1: man from the park. The man had either blonde or
Speaker 1: ginger hair, however, she didn't know him directly. She said
Speaker 1: she did later see the same man about a week later,
Speaker 1: going through the gate at Wardend Park. She said that
Speaker 1: when she told police about this sighting, she attended an
Speaker 1: identity parade but did not recognize the boy from the
Speaker 1: line up. Twenty three year old Malcolm Perry also said
Speaker 1: that he saw Jackie twice that evening. He stated that
Speaker 1: he had met her at the fair on the day
Speaker 1: she disappeared. He said that he'd taken his dog to
Speaker 1: the fair and he remembered that Jackie had started to
Speaker 1: make a fuss of it. He said he was sure
Speaker 1: that it was her. At about ten twenty five to
Speaker 1: ten forty five pm that night, he saw her again
Speaker 1: with a man on the corner of Belcher's Lane and
Speaker 1: Cotterill's Lane. He said she was coming from Pelhams accompanied
Speaker 1: by a chap. It appeared to me that the chap
Speaker 1: was a yard or two in front of her. They
Speaker 1: appeared to be shouting at each other. It was a
Speaker 1: loud conversation. They were bawling at each other. The man
Speaker 1: looked as if he had a scar on his cheek.
Speaker 1: He described the man as five feet ten, maybe touching
Speaker 1: six feet. He looked a adverage build and had on
Speaker 1: a suit or sports jacket and was carrying a coat
Speaker 1: or something over his arm. He said that the name
Speaker 1: that he heard Jackie shout sounded something like Johnny. This man
Speaker 1: called Johnny was a line of inquiry for the police,
Speaker 1: and they issued a description of him to the public
Speaker 1: in the hope that someone would recognize him and they
Speaker 1: could eliminate him. He was described as about seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: with crew cup blonde hair, a leather jacket, tight blue jeans,
Speaker 1: black pointed shoes, and a light colored shirt. The jacket
Speaker 1: may have had an animal's head or flashes on the back.
Speaker 1: He was sometimes referred to as Johnny and frequented the funfair,
Speaker 1: who was thought that he might have been irish. It
Speaker 1: appears that they did eventually find Johnny, and there does
Speaker 1: not seem to be much in more information about him,
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that there were two young men
Speaker 1: called Johnny who frequented the funfair regularly. It appears at
Speaker 1: by eleven pm Jackie had been spotted in several different locations,
Speaker 1: and some people even believed that they spotted her after
Speaker 1: Friday night. Jannis Gloria Robinson said she saw her on
Speaker 1: a bus on the Tuesday after she disappeared. She was
Speaker 1: sat with a man. Police believed that this couldn't be true,
Speaker 1: but the public were being cooperative and people were coming
Speaker 1: forward with information. One person was certainly on their radar
Speaker 1: as being an important part of the puzzle, and that
Speaker 1: was a young girl between the ages of fourteen and
Speaker 1: sixteen who had been seen speaking to Jackie at the
Speaker 1: fair on that Friday night. The girl described as being
Speaker 1: freckled and wearing heavy makeup. She was also thought to
Speaker 1: have had an issue with one eye. This girl would
Speaker 1: come to be known as bubble cut Girl in the
Speaker 1: papers due to her haircut. This girl was of interest
Speaker 1: to the police because she'd been seen speaking to Jacqueline
Speaker 1: at the fair not long before she disappeared. She seemed
Speaker 1: to be one of the last people who had been
Speaker 1: seen speaking to her that night. Police made significant inroads
Speaker 1: in trying to locate her, and they created an e
Speaker 1: fit of the girl they wanted to speak to. They
Speaker 1: also went to all the schools in the city in
Speaker 1: order to try and find out where she might have
Speaker 1: attended school or anyone who knew her. There were many
Speaker 1: appeals in the newspapers to try and find her, with
Speaker 1: detectives reaching out to ask her to come forward. Several
Speaker 1: months passed in the case, with investigations ongoing. Police stated
Speaker 1: that the public had been a great help and there
Speaker 1: had been several people who had come forward to speak
Speaker 1: with them. On September thirteenth, Jackie's funeral took place at
Speaker 1: Saint Matthew's Church, where Jackie and her family had attended
Speaker 1: and Jackie attended the Sunday School before they moved due
Speaker 1: to redevelopment plans in the city. It was reported that
Speaker 1: hundreds of people attended to mourn Jackie's death and celebrating
Speaker 1: her life. It was a tragedy for many people who
Speaker 1: lived in the city, and the community as a whole
Speaker 1: was mourning the loss of such a young life. Despite
Speaker 1: the huge loss at the community felt there was a
Speaker 1: sense that Jackie had recently begun to be a part
Speaker 1: of the lifestyle that had put her at risk. This
Speaker 1: idea that Jackie had been engaging with risky lifestyle choices
Speaker 1: before her murder permeates into the narrative in the newspapers,
Speaker 1: with Jackie's father telling a newspaper at the time, I
Speaker 1: blamed myself. Jackie had become a good time girl. I
Speaker 1: gave up my job to try and save her, but
Speaker 1: it was too late. The idea that Jackie had somehow
Speaker 1: played a part in the murder and became a good
Speaker 1: time girl is very much representative of the time that
Speaker 1: this took place in the early sixties. The police had
Speaker 1: been diligently following up leeds into the murder throughout this time,
Speaker 1: and it was only in December of nineteen sixty one
Speaker 1: that more information became available about the investigation. This is
Speaker 1: when the inquest took place in front of the coroner,
Speaker 1: mister George Billingham, and they could piece together all of
Speaker 1: the known events of August eighteenth, including many of the
Speaker 1: witnesses such as her friends June Franks and Malcolm Perry.
Speaker 1: There were two very noticeable and important witnesses. One of
Speaker 1: them was fifteen year old Annie Broughton. This was the
Speaker 1: girl known as Bubble Cup, who the police had been
Speaker 1: trying to locate during the investigation. She had eventually been
Speaker 1: found through their inquiries at local schools. Annie testified at
Speaker 1: the inquest, stating that she had seen Jackie at the
Speaker 1: fair that night and that she did not come forward
Speaker 1: sooner as she didn't know that Jackie was actually missing.
Speaker 1: She dismissed a question asking whether she'd been too scared
Speaker 1: to come forward and said this wasn't the case. She
Speaker 1: just didn't know that she knew anything important. She stated
Speaker 1: that she thought she had also spotted Jacket on the
Speaker 1: Monday evening as well as the Friday evening. This seemed
Speaker 1: to be at odds with the medical testimony from the experts,
Speaker 1: and there was also something else that the coroner wanted
Speaker 1: to take into consideration. If this Monday sighting was incorrect
Speaker 1: based on the medical evidence, then there was someone else
Speaker 1: who was seen with Jackie after Annie Broughton. A twenty
Speaker 1: four year old man named Anthony Ian Hall. Hall testified
Speaker 1: that he had been with Jackie that evening. He said
Speaker 1: that he'd met her at the fair, but did not
Speaker 1: know her name at the time, so he called her Sugar.
Speaker 1: He said that he asked her to go for a
Speaker 1: walk and they went to some grass next to the
Speaker 1: boat in lake. He said he kissed her and admitted
Speaker 1: to trying to have sex with her. He said, I'd
Speaker 1: been drinking, I saw her there among the bright lights
Speaker 1: and bustle of the fair, and on the spur of
Speaker 1: the moment, I asked her to go for a walk.
Speaker 1: Jackie didn't speak much. We both just sat there in
Speaker 1: the warm night. I began thinking about my wife. Then
Speaker 1: suddenly Jackie jumped up and she must be off as
Speaker 1: she had someone to meet at the fair. The last
Speaker 1: I saw of her was the flash of her white
Speaker 1: jeans as she hurried back towards the lights and the music.
Speaker 1: Hall had representation in the form of a solicitor at
Speaker 1: the inquest, who said Hall wanted to give evidence to
Speaker 1: prove that he had nothing to do with this murder
Speaker 1: and wanted to clear his name. He said, his instructions
Speaker 1: to me have been that he wants to give evidence
Speaker 1: that though he may not be an angel, the finger
Speaker 1: of suspicion over him can be cleared up. The coroner
Speaker 1: responded by saying that he didn't need to give evidence,
Speaker 1: as this was just to prove how Jackie had died.
Speaker 1: Hall stated that he left Jackie at the fair around
Speaker 1: ten thirty pm and then went to break into some
Speaker 1: shops afterwards, arriving home at around two am. It's evident
Speaker 1: during his testimony at the inquest that police had spoken
Speaker 1: to Hall quite soon into the investigation, and that he
Speaker 1: had been questioned and had three small, superficial abrasions on
Speaker 1: his hands, looked at only a day after Jackie's body
Speaker 1: had been discovered. At the inquest, he explained that he'd
Speaker 1: given a false alibi to police. During this questioning. He
Speaker 1: told them that he'd been at his mother's house at
Speaker 1: eleven thirty PM speaking to a friend outside of the home.
Speaker 1: He later admitted that this had not been true, and
Speaker 1: that he'd asked his mother to tell police he'd been
Speaker 1: there talking to the friend. He said he lied initially
Speaker 1: quote jokingly and out of bravado, and because he didn't
Speaker 1: want his wife, who had just had his baby, to
Speaker 1: know what he'd been up to. Is Jackie at the fair.
Speaker 1: He said he didn't make up the alibi because he'd
Speaker 1: murdered Jackie. He stated, when I left that girl that night,
Speaker 1: she was alive and well, I never saw her again.
Speaker 1: The coroner explained that, as far as he was aware,
Speaker 1: Paul had been the last person to see her alive.
Speaker 1: He said, it may be a very important matter for
Speaker 1: us to ascertain if we can the day she actually
Speaker 1: came to her death, whether it was Friday or some
Speaker 1: other time. You may hear some teenage girls saying that
Speaker 1: they think they saw her on the Saturday, the Sunday,
Speaker 1: or even on the Monday or the Tuesday. The last
Speaker 1: person who can definitely be identified as being with her
Speaker 1: is a young man aged twenty four, Anthony Ian Hall
Speaker 1: explain this could not be confirmed as Annie Broughton had
Speaker 1: said that she had seen her on the Monday and
Speaker 1: this could not be ruled out. The coroner corrected himself
Speaker 1: and replied, what I should have said was Anthony Hall
Speaker 1: was the last person seen with her on the night
Speaker 1: in question, Friday, the eighteenth of August. Paul later gave
Speaker 1: an interview at home with his wife and his baby, saying,
Speaker 1: the mental torture of the past weeks has made me ill.
Speaker 1: Only the knowledge that I was innocent and that my
Speaker 1: wife fully believed in my innocence kept me going. Powells
Speaker 1: and neighbors have been wonderful. They assured me right from
Speaker 1: the start that they were behind me. But there are
Speaker 1: still a few people who think I'm the killer, and
Speaker 1: for them I have a message. You can tell these
Speaker 1: people that all I am waiting for is the day
Speaker 1: when the killer is caught. I will do all I
Speaker 1: can to speed that day. When it comes, I will
Speaker 1: have the last laugh. The inquest was not a criminal
Speaker 1: case and was merely to a stab what may have
Speaker 1: happened to Jacket to have caused her death. A verdict
Speaker 1: was reached which was murdered by person or persons unknown.
Speaker 1: This will have been a fact already well known to
Speaker 1: the police, who from the outset knew that this was
Speaker 1: a murder case. The inquest, however, had brought out some
Speaker 1: very interesting facts. Police had investigated many angles and had
Speaker 1: tracked down as many leads as they could, even sending
Speaker 1: papers to the Crown Prosecution Service in November nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: shortly before the inquest. This meant that they sent evidence
Speaker 1: they had to the CPS to assess whether an arrest
Speaker 1: could be made. However, the decision was made that they
Speaker 1: did not have enough evidence and so could not proceed
Speaker 1: with any charges. Jackie's case was far from being an
Speaker 1: unsolved case. However, having evidence and having enough evidence was
Speaker 1: something completely different, and it appears in this case there
Speaker 1: was simply not enough for a conviction. This would normally
Speaker 1: be where I would leave a case on the unseen
Speaker 1: with little coverage over the years and the case remaining unsolved. However,
Speaker 1: this is where Jacqueline's case differs to many others that
Speaker 1: I have covered. In two thousand and seven, there was
Speaker 1: an interesting and surprising development. Having been reinvestigated by Glenn
Speaker 1: Moss at the West Midland's Major Crime Review Team, a
Speaker 1: seventy year old man was arrested for Jacqueline's murder. The
Speaker 1: man's name was also well known to anyone who read
Speaker 1: about the case at the time. The man arrested was
Speaker 1: antony Ian Hall. Hall had been extensively investigated during nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty one, and while an arrest was not made, he
Speaker 1: had been the last person to see Jacqueline alive and
Speaker 1: had admitted to trying to have sex with her that night.
Speaker 1: Following this reinvestigation into the circumstances surrounding Jackie's murder, police
Speaker 1: believed that Hall was responsible. In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: the case went before Judge Frank Chapman at Birmingham Crown Court.
Speaker 1: He came to a conclusion which no doubt was a
Speaker 1: disappointment to the police who investigated it and Jackie's family.
Speaker 1: He stated that the case was just too long ago
Speaker 1: to give Hall a fair and balanced trial. As twenty
Speaker 1: one witnesses from the original investigation had since died and
Speaker 1: others were too ill or could not be traced. As
Speaker 1: well as this, he said that although these witnesses gave
Speaker 1: statements at the time, it was too long ago for
Speaker 1: any of them to realistically recollect it now. He also
Speaker 1: stated that the prosecution had not brought forward any new
Speaker 1: evidence in the case, and this would have made all
Speaker 1: the difference, as well as the poor record keeping that
Speaker 1: meant that the defense in a new trial would not
Speaker 1: be able to investigate properly. He stated, I'm aware of
Speaker 1: the strong public interest in bringing a killer to justice.
Speaker 1: I'm aware that this must be the very last chance
Speaker 1: to bring someone before a court for the death of
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Thomas. But I must not let these pressures compound
Speaker 1: one injustice on another. In my view, any trial which
Speaker 1: was to follow in this case would not be balanced unfair.
Speaker 1: The prosecution said that they were not looking to charge
Speaker 1: anyone else with the murder and were not looking for
Speaker 1: any other suspects for the crime. Glenn Moss from the
Speaker 1: Major Crime Review Team said, clearly, we are not looking
Speaker 1: for anyone else, but we respect the decision of the court.
Speaker 1: This must have been a blow to the police, who
Speaker 1: liked the officers back in nineteen sixty one believed that
Speaker 1: Anthony Hall had committed this crime. There were now other
Speaker 1: reasons for West Midland's police to believe this. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, at the time of his arrest for
Speaker 1: Jacqueline's murder, Hall was already in prison serving a life
Speaker 1: sentence for the murder of another teenager in nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: a murder for which he had remained in prison for
Speaker 1: since nineteen sixty eight. While Hall could not be convicted
Speaker 1: for the murder of Jacqueline Thomas, he had been successfully
Speaker 1: convicted of the murder of sixteen year old Sylvia white
Speaker 1: House in Marston Green in Warwickshire in December nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Sylvia white House was working as a shop assistant in
Speaker 1: the area of Great Bar in the northwest of Birmingham.
Speaker 1: As she was working in that area, Sylvia was staying
Speaker 1: with her married sister, who lived closer to work. This
Speaker 1: seemed to work out well for both of them, as
Speaker 1: Sylvia was closer to her job, but she also helped
Speaker 1: her sister out with babysitting. During that time, Sylvia's brother
Speaker 1: in law was in the hospital and so she babysat
Speaker 1: for her sister on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. While
Speaker 1: her sister visited her her husband. Tuesday evenings were for Sylvia,
Speaker 1: and she often chose to head down to the Tangent
Speaker 1: Club in Small Heath to meet her friends and go
Speaker 1: for a dance. This was Sylvia's night to let her
Speaker 1: hair down and enjoy herself. On Tuesday, December twelfth, Sylvia
Speaker 1: did as she usually did and headed out to the
Speaker 1: Tangent Club. She met up with some friends and one
Speaker 1: of them, her friend, Kenny, later testified about what happened
Speaker 1: that night. He said, I did not arrange to meet
Speaker 1: her there, but I go to the club nearly every night,
Speaker 1: and so does Sylvia whenever she can. She came into
Speaker 1: the club on her own and I knew her well.
Speaker 1: We had been classmates since the second year at Oakley
Speaker 1: Road Secondary School. We got talking and we spent most
Speaker 1: of the evening at the dance together. She danced either
Speaker 1: with me or her friend Jenny Peacock. The group danced
Speaker 1: for most of the night together, and Kenny stated that
Speaker 1: the dance ended at ten thirty and the friends left
Speaker 1: the club at around ten forty pm. Kenny said that
Speaker 1: there around three of his mates and a couple of
Speaker 1: other girls who walked out of the club together. He
Speaker 1: said that some of the rest of the group left
Speaker 1: to get their own buses, and he walked up to
Speaker 1: the bus stop with Sylvia. It turned out that Sylvia
Speaker 1: had missed the earlier boss that she wanted to get
Speaker 1: and so had to get on the midnight service instead.
Speaker 1: Kenny said that he walked up to the depot with
Speaker 1: her between eleven and eleven thirty pm. He said that
Speaker 1: when they approached the depot it was well lit and
Speaker 1: there were lots of other people stood there waiting for
Speaker 1: the same bus. He later said, I thought she would
Speaker 1: be okay. Kenny then returned home, and his mother confirmed
Speaker 1: that he walked into the house at around eleven thirty
Speaker 1: as a TV program called The Court Martial was just
Speaker 1: coming on. Sylvia did not return home on that midnight service,
Speaker 1: and the next day, Ali d named John Swain, who
Speaker 1: was going to pick up some supplies from a scaffolding company,
Speaker 1: had stopped just off the road in Bickenhill Lane in
Speaker 1: Marston Green, just off the A forty five. As he stopped,
Speaker 1: he spotted what looked like a body hidden behind a hedge.
Speaker 1: This would turn out to be sylvia White house, and
Speaker 1: she was partly clothed and hidden under her coat. This
Speaker 1: area has been described as a lover's lane and appears
Speaker 1: to be somewhat secluded. Sylvia had multiple stab wounds, forty
Speaker 1: five in total, and it appeared that she'd been viciously
Speaker 1: attacked with what looked to be a screwdriver. There seemed
Speaker 1: to be several items missing which had been with Sylvia
Speaker 1: when she'd been waiting at the bus stop. These included
Speaker 1: a black patent barrel handbag, a square pink scarf, beige
Speaker 1: high heel shoes, and black framed glasses. These items would
Speaker 1: have been with Sylvia that night, so it would appear
Speaker 1: that the killer had taken them with him. A large
Speaker 1: investigation was launched into what might have happened to Sylvia,
Speaker 1: including interviewing other people who were at the bus stop
Speaker 1: that night and examining the bus route. Sylvia was known
Speaker 1: as a responsible girl who cared deeply for other people,
Speaker 1: even being called the good little Samaritan, given that she
Speaker 1: would help the elderly people who lived on her street.
Speaker 1: Nobody who knew her thought she would willingly get into
Speaker 1: someone's car of their own accord and thought this would
Speaker 1: be very out of character. She had a loving family
Speaker 1: who would deeply upset by her murder and could not
Speaker 1: believe what had happened. Police were very vigilant of any
Speaker 1: cars that had been seen in the area, as during
Speaker 1: that time they had around twenty reports of women being
Speaker 1: accosted by a man in the small Heath area. This
Speaker 1: man was known to be a curb crawler who had
Speaker 1: try to pick up women once the dance halls closed
Speaker 1: and women who were waiting for a bus or a
Speaker 1: lift from someone. A witness had spotted a green Morris
Speaker 1: Oxford type car with a white roof. This car had
Speaker 1: been spotted at around three thirty am on December thirteenth,
Speaker 1: traveling from Birmingham City Centre to Coventry Road. Another witness
Speaker 1: saw a man in an Austin Cambridge or Morris Oxford
Speaker 1: car looking over at people who were stood at the
Speaker 1: bus stop. This lead about the Morris type car would
Speaker 1: prove to be the key to the case. When police
Speaker 1: managed to track its movements, they found that a car
Speaker 1: matching the description had been stolen from Manchester on December
Speaker 1: the eleventh. This car was a Morris Farina with two
Speaker 1: odd wheels at the front. When analyzed, these matched tire
Speaker 1: tracks that were found at the crime scene. Police were
Speaker 1: able to trace the car to a house in Olroy
Speaker 1: Was in Staffordshire, where at five point thirty am on
Speaker 1: December thirteenth, a fire broke out inside and woke up
Speaker 1: the neighbors. When firemen attended the scene, they found a
Speaker 1: fresh trail of blood from the house, as well as
Speaker 1: a number of items in the grate that had been burnt,
Speaker 1: the handle of a handbag, some cosmetics and a pair
Speaker 1: of shoes similar to that that Sylvia was wearing. As
Speaker 1: well as this, they found antony Ian Hall inside the
Speaker 1: house that he had been allowed to stay in by
Speaker 1: some of his friends. Police were able to match fibers
Speaker 1: from underneath Sylvia's fingernails and on her body to the
Speaker 1: carpet that was in the stolen Morris Farina. Sylvia also
Speaker 1: had an unusual blood group, and this same blood type
Speaker 1: was found inside the car. From the police's perspective, Hall
Speaker 1: had access to the Morris Varina, which has been shown
Speaker 1: to have Sylvia inside, and had been found burning objects
Speaker 1: that looked like they belonged to her. This appeared to
Speaker 1: be an open and shut case. Haul, on his part,
Speaker 1: stated he did have access to the Morris Farina, however
Speaker 1: he had not been driving it. He said he lent
Speaker 1: the car to his friend Dobie on December twelfth. However,
Speaker 1: when he got the car back, he found the blood
Speaker 1: and the blood stained bag inside. He then put the
Speaker 1: objects on the fire to get rid of them. This
Speaker 1: did not convince investigators, who charged him with Sylvia's murder.
Speaker 1: Just over a week after her murder. Paul pled not guilty. However,
Speaker 1: at trial, the jury heard about the evidence that police
Speaker 1: had collated against him during the investigation. The jury found
Speaker 1: him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
Speaker 1: Just as Stable said, you have been convicted of the
Speaker 1: murder of this nice sixteen year old child standing on
Speaker 1: the threshold of life. The sentence imposed by law is
Speaker 1: that you will be imprisoned for life. I think that
Speaker 1: sentence in your case means what it says. As Hall
Speaker 1: was led out of the courtroom, Sylvia's dad shouted, may
Speaker 1: your black soul rot in hell. Hall appealed his sentence. However,
Speaker 1: Lord Justice Fenton, who was asked to consider this appeal,
Speaker 1: said there was overwhelming forensic evidence that the murder had
Speaker 1: taken place in a car that Hall himself said that
Speaker 1: he had access to, and so he would not consider
Speaker 1: an appeal. Hal's background in Jacqueline's case becomes all the
Speaker 1: more sinister when looking at what happened to Sylvia just
Speaker 1: six years later. It's clear that the large amount of
Speaker 1: forensic evidence collected in Sylvia's case was at odds with
Speaker 1: the lack of evidence that could be collected in Jacqueline's,
Speaker 1: and as a result, Jacqueline's case remains unsolved, although officially
Speaker 1: now a closed case. The difference in the way that
Speaker 1: both cases were discussed in the press is very noticeable,
Speaker 1: given that Jacqueline seems to have been portrayed as a
Speaker 1: good time girl and almost as though her behaviour contributed
Speaker 1: to her death, while Sylvia has been portrayed as a
Speaker 1: good girl who helped the elderly. Both women were deserving
Speaker 1: of having their stories told, but it's always interesting to
Speaker 1: see how and why women are portrayed as so in
Speaker 1: the media and how this affects the progress made on
Speaker 1: the case and the care that the public has for them.
Speaker 1: Did Jacqueline's image in the media have an impact on
Speaker 1: the evidence collected or the people who came forward with information.
Speaker 1: We don't know. And it's important to say that antony
Speaker 1: Ian Hall was never convicted of Jacqueline's murder. The police, however,
Speaker 1: have never looked at any other suspects since their attempt
Speaker 1: to convict him. Hall died in twenty twelve in custody
Speaker 1: from a long illness, and so it seems this chapter
Speaker 1: for both Jacqueline and Sila's family's over. However, the devastation
Speaker 1: that's left behind will never leave them. The question of
Speaker 1: what really happened to Jacqueline Thomas that night remains a mystery.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like
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Speaker 1: YouTube and other social media. As always, I'm Caprice and
Speaker 1: this has been unseen