'Murder' Harvey Cole Milton Frank Kermode, A. E. Dyson Chalk

From Cheese Clive Barnes The New Bible David Holbrook Living with a Butterfly George Ordish, J. H. Flint In Hospital with my Son Jane Thomas Press Council Philip Moleman Pollyanna Mercia Mason Open Plan Correlli Barnett Trading Stamps Leslie Stubbings Within the Family? Paul Lynch 'MURDER'

SIR,—During the course of February, Mr. Cyril Os- borne informed the House of Commons that there had been over fifty murders since the beginning of December. Mr. Gresham Cooke added a gloss of his own with a statement that he had a list of seventeen

murdered women and girls. The clear inference to be drawn from these remarks was that the murder rate during this period was extremely high; that fe- males were in particular need of additional protec- tion; and that extension of capital punishment was much to be desired.

While many of the cases occurring during the period between December and February have still not been officially closed, there is now a great deal of factual information available on some of them. Although facts are widely regarded as superfluous where murder is under discussion, it should at least be of some relevance that many of these cases have since been decided, by the Courts, not to have been murder at all.

1. On Jatmary 10, Neil Kane was found not guilty of the murder of Keith Muncey, but guilty of man- slaughter, for which he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

2. On January 17, Samuel Ashworth was cleared of murdering his wife, but sentenced to four years for manslaughter.

3. On January 19, Owen Johnson, who was await- ing trial on a charge of murdering a workmate, com- mitted suicide by putting his head on a railway line.

4. On January 20, Jack Day was found guilty of the capital murder by shooting of Keith Arthur, and subsequently executed.

5. On January 31, Arthur Wells, who was await- ing trial on a charge of murdering Josephine Holdich, was found hanging in his cell at Brixton and subse- quently died.

6. On February 10, Robert James was found not guilty of murdering his wife, but guilty of man- slaughter. The Judge endorsed the jury's strong re- commendation to mercy and sentenced him to re- ceive treatment in a local hospital for not more than two years.

7. On February 15, Patricia Warnock was ac- quitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter, and given an absolute discharge in respect of her man- slaughter.

8. On February 17, Sgt. Willis Boshears was found not guilty of murdering Jean Constable, having been asleep at the time of her death.

9. On February 27, George Sutton was found guilty of murdering Jean Mellors, whom he strangled and mutilated, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was stated that his victim was a well-known prostitute and that Sutton had been de- clared to be suffering from early schizophrenia in 1950. 10. On February 27, Horace Barrett was found guilty of murdering his ten-week-old daughter and sentenced to life imprisonment.

II. On February 28, Gordon. Davy was found guilty of murdering Kathleen Conway by stabbing her. The jury recommended him to mercy: he was sentenced to life imprisonnient.

12. On March 1, Ronald Sweary was found guilty of strangling Sylvia Coleman, with whom he had been living, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, He was stated to have a mental age of ten and a half.

13. On March 2, Ronald Herbert; who had been found not guilty of. murdering Gordon Rees, was bound over for twelve months for manslaughter, having killed him by oareless firing of a pistol.

14. On March 2, the murder charge against Philip Greenstone arising out of the death of Georgina Smith was withdrawn.

IS. On March 8, the charge against four young men of murdering Thomas Coomber was withdrawn.

16. On March 9, Walter Faulk& was found not guilty of the murder of his wife, whom he had strangled. He was found guilty of manslaughter, the prosecution not disputing that he was of abnormal mind.

17. On March 13, Harry Swift was found insane and unfit to plead on a charge of murdering his sister.

18. On March 15, Samuel Poynion was acquitted of the murder of Annie Miller, but was given a life sentence for manslaughter.

19. On March, 15, Roger Grist was found not guilty of murdering Susan.Whitlock, but was sent to Broadmoor for not less than five years for man- slaughter. 20: On March 20, Christopher Duffy was found guilty of the capital murder of Frederick Skinner, but being only sixteen, was sentenced to be detained during the Queen's pleasure.

These cases are probably numerous enough and spread over a sufficiently long period to give some general guide to cases loosely classified as murder when they occur. Eight of the twenty, or some 40 per cent., were finally classified as manslaughter; three resulted in acquittal or the equivalent, and one in an 'unfit to plead' finding; two of the accused com- mitted suicide (neither incidentally being held on a capital charge); and only six people, or 30 per cent., Were found guilty of murder. Of these only one was sentenced to death, and he was executed.

Of the sixteen cases involving murder or man- slaughter, four, or one-quarter, involved the wife of the accused as the victim, and in two other cases the dead person was a workmate of the accused. In three others, the person killed was a girl-friend, using the term rather loosely, of the accused, while two concerned the child of the accused, and one his sister.

It is quite clear that the vast majority of these cases would never have involved the death penalty even before the Homicide Act, and that of those which might have, most would have been the sub- ject of a reprieve. Nor does it seem that severer penalties would have protected the innocent victims from strange attackers, since in about three-quarters of all cases, the killer and his victim were on terms of considerable intimacy. Of Mr. Osborne's fifty murders it looks as if about seventeen will be con- firmed as such by the Courts, as will no more than about five of Mr. Cooke's seventeen. These figures are very much in line with the statistics for previous years, demonstrating once again how an apparent crime-wave can be manufactured by irresponsible brandishing of statistics, The most irresponsible as- pect of this, which is brought out by a closer study of the actual cases, is the suggestion that the wider application of capital punishment would have acted as a deterrent in a majority of these instances: ab- normality of mind and sudden provocation are the commonest factors in them, and the penalty pre- scribed by law cannot have been uppermost in the minds of more than a very small minority of these killers at the time of their crime.—lours faithfully,