THE TELEVISION AERIAL bracket was used by Daniel Raven to commit a murder that left many questions unanswered about his motivation.
Daniel Raven was 23 years old and, on Monday, 10 October 1949, had been visiting his wife, Marie, in a maternity home where she had given birth to their first child four days earlier. Raven had driven his parents-in-law, Leopold and Esther Goodman, to the maternity home and gave them a lift back to their own house. Whatever passed between Raven and the Goodmans, who were immensely proud of their daughter and their new grandson, was a mystery, but after they left the maternity home shortly after 9 p.m. that evening, Daniel Raven destroyed his wife’s family by battering the Goodmans to death using the base of a television aerial. Television had not become popular at that time, but Leopold Goodman was a partner in a radio business. The attack took place around 9.30 p.m.
1949
TV aerial bracket used as a weapon by Daniel Raven
At about 9.55 p.m., Esther Goodman’s brother-in-law, who was also Leopold Goodman’s business partner, called at the house with his wife and daughter to enquire about the new baby. When he received no response, he climbed into the house through an open window and found the murder scene. He telephoned the police and Detective Inspector Diller started the police investigation. The police telephoned Daniel Raven and asked him to come round to the house as they had some bad news. Raven soon arrived from his own home in nearby Edgwarebury Lane, a house bought for him and his wife by his parents-in-law.
There were bundles of banknotes in the house, including some under a mattress and over £2,500 in a safe, so it appeared that robbery was not the motive for the crime. Raven arrived at the house and appeared overcome with emotion. The police noticed that he was wearing a clean shirt and others noticed that he had changed his suit. Raven lamented that he had not stayed longer with his parents-in-law who, he said, were worried about being burgled. He had been present at the house during the crucial time and was asked to come to the police station for further investigation. He was asked to provide the keys to his house, and when Detective Inspector Diller went there he immediately smelt burning. A gas poker was alight in the kitchen boiler, from which the officer managed to retrieve the remains of a suit. Both victims shared a relatively rare blood group, AB, and bloodstains matching this group were found on the suit and on a pair of Raven’s shoes. Raven’s car seat had been recently cleaned. On this evidence, Detective Chief Inspector Albert Tansil charged him with the murders.
When Raven appeared at the Old Bailey in November 1959 he claimed he had left his parents-in-law alive, but had then called on his cousins, who had been out, so he had returned to his parents-in-law and found the murder scene, which is when he got blood on his clothes. He claimed to have driven to his own home in fear and then burnt his suit and washed his shoes. The unlikely story was rejected by the jury who found him guilty and he was sentenced to death.
Raven appealed and for the first time introduced evidence of mental instability, drawing on his record of having been discharged from the RAF because of ‘severe anxiety neurosis’ and on a doctor’s report that he had been suffering from ‘blackouts and brainstorms’. The appeal and a petition seeking a reprieve from the death penalty both failed, and he was hanged at Pentonville prison on 6 January 1950. The burnt clothing and a denture also became museum exhibits.
1943–53
Ruth Fürst’s vertebra with shrub root growing through it