Murder of the Black Museum 1875-1975: The Dark Secrets Behind a Hundred Years of the Most Notorious Crimes in England by Honeycombe Gordon

Author:Honeycombe, Gordon [Honeycombe, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781857829228
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

25

BROWNE AND KENNEDY

THE MURDER OF PC GUTTERIDGE, 1927

Apart from soldiers, the uniformed men most likely to be killed are policemen. Unarmed, unless in special circumstances, for well over a hundred years they had little defence against the law-breakers they attempted to apprehend in the execution of their duties.

At dawn on Tuesday, 27 September 1927, a post-office worker called Bill Ward was driving north across Essex from Romford to Abridge, delivering mail. He stopped at Havering and Stapleford Abbotts. His next port of call was Stapleford Tawney. Just before six o’clock, as he approached Howe Green, he came to a right-hand bend in the road on a slight incline and on rounding the bend he saw a man propped up against the opposite bank with his legs sticking out into the road.

Mr Ward stopped his car and investigated. A thick trail of blood led across the road to where the body lay; it was that of a uniformed and caped policeman. His helmet lay near him, as did a pocket book. A pencil was still clutched in his right hand. Despite the fact that the policeman’s head was a bloody mask, Mr Ward recognised the dead man as PC George Gutteridge.

Ward ran back up the road to Rose Cottage. His knocking awakened Alfred Perritt, an insurance agent, who dressed and went back to the body with Ward. Mr Perritt, picking up the feet, swung the body round so that it lay parallel to the hedge and was not in danger of being run over. Next on the scene was the driver of a country bus. Ward drove on to Stapleford Tawney, from where he telephoned Romford police station.

By about quarter to eight, Detective Inspector Crockford had arrived. He saw that PC Gutteridge had been shot in the face. The dead man seemed to have been taken completely by surprise by the attack, as he was clearly about to make a note in his pocket book: his truncheon was in its place at his side, his torch was in a pocket. His whistle hung loose, however, outside his tunic.

Dr Robert Woodhouse was called out from Romford by nine o’clock and surmised that the murdered policeman had been dead for four or five hours. The body was removed to a cart-shed at the Royal Oak public house and taken the following morning to Romford mortuary, where Dr Woodhouse made a post-mortem examination. He found that PC Gutteridge had been shot four times at close range, twice through the left cheek near the ear – and once in each eye.

PC Gutteridge had lived with his wife, Rose, at Stapleford Abbotts. He had been out on night patrols on the 26th and 27th, covering his beat on foot. It was his custom and duty to meet up with another policeman PC Taylor, for a conference about 3 am outside Grove House at Howe Green. Taylor was a little late in the early hours of the 27th and when he turned up at the rendezvous the two men stood chatting in the quiet autumnal night until 3.

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