Jeremy Bamber
England (Chelmsford CC)
Date of Crime: August 7, 1985
Jeremy Bamber, 25, was convicted of the shooting murders of
his father, Ralph Nevill Bamber, 61, his mother, June Bamber, 61, his
sister, Sheila Caffell, 27, and his twin nephews, Daniel and Nicholas
Caffell, both 6. Jeremy was adopted by his parents as was his
unrelated sister. The killings occurred at White House Farm in
Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex. At 3:36 a.m. on August 7, 1985, Jeremy
called the police from his cottage in Goldhanger, 3 1/2 miles away, to tell
them that Nevill had phoned him and said that Sheila, a paranoid
schizophrenic, had “gone crazy” and had got a gun. Sheila was known to
have considered ending her life and expressed an intention to kill her sons. After calling police, Jeremy drove to White House Farm and met up with
officers who were already there. Police staked out the farmhouse for
several hours before entering it at 7:34 a.m. where they found five people
shot to death. Sheila was found shot twice under the chin with a rifle
in her hand. Police initially thought Sheila had committed the murders
before turning the gun on herself.
Three days after the shootings a cousin of Jeremy found a
silencer in a gun cupboard and took it to the police. A scientist
found a speck of blood on the silencer and concluded it had come from
Sheila. Officers concluded that Jeremy must have committed the murders
as it was impossible for Sheila to have shot herself and then have returned
the silencer to the gun cupboard. Subsequent analysis cast doubt that
the blood was Sheila's. However, scratch marks found on woodwork at
the crime scene 34 days after the shootings were alleged to have been made
by the silencer. Prosecutors maintained Jeremy committed the killings
and then placed the murder rifle in his unstable sister's hand to make it
look as like a murder-suicide. They alleged he removed the silencer
before putting the rifle in his sister's hands as the silencer would have
made the rifle too long for her to pull the trigger and shoot herself. Jeremy was purportedly motivated to kill his family to obtain an inheritance
of £436,000 and 300 acres of land.
Jeremy had a girlfriend, Julie Mugford, who was supportive of
him at first, but a month after the killings turned against him when he
asked an old girlfriend out in her presence. Mugford, by her own
admission tried to smother Jeremy with a pillow, stating, “If I can't have
you, nobody can.” She then claimed Jeremy plotted to kill his family
for many months before their deaths and had even hired a hit man. The
man she named was found to have a solid alibi and was dismissed as a suspect
by police. Although Mugford was not deemed credible by police, her
testimony was used by the prosecution at trial. Jeremy was convicted
of all five murders by a 10 to 2 jury verdict. The trial judge called
Jeremy “evil almost beyond belief.” Jeremy was given five life
sentences and the Home Secretary ruled that he should never be released.
Years after Jeremy's conviction, his defence obtained evidence
withheld by the prosecution: (1) A telephone log indicates Nevill had
called police at 3:26 a.m. from White House Farm to report his daughter had
gone “beserk” and that “she has got one of my guns.” This call
occurred 10 minutes before Jeremy called them from his cottage. Since
the prosecution alleged Jeremy was at White House Farm and used a bicycle to
travel the 3 1/2 miles from it to his cottage, he could not have faked
Nevill's call and then made the second call from his cottage. (2)
Radio logs indicate police had seen someone moving within the farmhouse at
3:45 a.m. and stated they were in conversation with someone inside the
farmhouse at 5:25 a.m. This person presumably was Sheila as Jeremy was
with police outside.
(3) When police broke into the house at 7:34 a.m. they
reported finding a male body and female body in the kitchen, a situation
they described as a murder and a suicide. However, police later
maintained that only Nevill was found in the kitchen. All the other
bodies were found upstairs. Thus at some point Sheila's body was
moved. Sheila had two gunshot wounds under her chin, only one of which
was immediately fatal. A likely scenario is that she shot herself once
in the kitchen and was unconscious when police found her. She then
revived and ran upstairs while police were securing the house before
shooting herself with an upstairs gun.
(4) Sheila must have been dead seconds after receiving her
most critical gunshot wound, but crime scene photos taken at 10 a.m. show
Sheila's blood was fresh and still flowing, a finding that is inconsistent
with the theory that Jeremy had fatally shot her more than 6 hours before. The prosecution and case pathologist never stated Sheila's time of death,
not even an approximate one.
(5) Initial crime scene photos show the scratch marks that Jeremy allegedly
made with a silencer were not present immediately after the killings. The
details of the silencer's finding suggest Jeremy's cousins created the
scratch marks to get him convicted so that they would inherit the Bamber
estate. In 2010, Jeremy's case is being reviewed by Britain's Criminal Cases
Review Commission.
[11/10]
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References:
Innocent,
www.jeremy-bamber.co.uk
Posted in:
Victims of the State,
United Kingdom Cases, Mass
Murder Cases
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