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International
This first case shows how ballistic work led to a killer and disproved a defence of accidental shooting.
In 1971, Angela Wooliscroft, a twenty year old bank clerk working at Barclays Bank in Ham, Richmond, was confronted one lunchtime by a dark skinned man, aiming a double barrelled shotgun and demanding ‘Give me some money’. However, having handed over all the money in her till the gun went off and Angela died shortly afterwards. The gunman fled.
Jim Sewell who was a chief superintendent in Scotland Yard’s murder squad, and led the inquiry, recounts the hunt that went on to identify the murderer and bring him into custody. While Sewell and his team were interviewing hundreds of witnesses and suspects, ballistics experts were analysing the shot that had killed Angela Wooliscroft.
Sometimes the police just get lucky
It was found to be a particular make, Eley game shot, fired from a double barrelled shotgun. Still, the murder weapon had not been found. Sewell explains how it was a stroke of luck that pointed to the killer.
A robbery outside of London turned up an abandoned getaway car. The car was found to contain guns and the robber was thought to be a known criminal named Michael Hart.
With this tip-off Sewell had officers search Hart’s home and ammunition which appeared to match the shot fired at Angela Wooliscroft was found. Scotland Yard put out an order to get Hart, but he was arrested after he went to collect money from a building company where he occasionally worked.
Sewell then describes how he realised that the shot he had removed from Hart’s home appeared to be different from that found at the murder scene, but when he opened the cartridges and had the shot analysed tests showed it was in fact the same; a batch of shot had been wrongly labelled by the company Eley.
Eventually Hart admitted that he had killed Angela Wooliscroft, but said that it had been accidental, that the gun had just gone off. He then told police where he’d dumped the weapon and it was recovered from the River Thames.
Ballistic tests showed that the pressure needed to pull the trigger on the gun, which was over eighty years old, was considerable, making it highly unlikely that it could have gone off accidentally. Hart was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The second case in this programme is legendary in crime history. It is the story of Browne & Kennedy, two hardened criminals who were convicted for the murder of a policeman PC Gutteridge in the quite town of Stapleford Abbots, Essex. When Gutteridge’s body was discovered, it was found that not only had he been shot in the face, but that both of his eyes had been shot out completely.
