Not long after this, at some time between 6.30pm and 6.45pm, Cecily Elaine Wood, Mrs Cox’s next door neighbour, saw Alice in the garden of her home at 55 Salisbury Road, Reading. For the rest of the evening, all was quiet in Salisbury Road.

At 1.00am the following morning, 1 April, Mrs Avenell, who lived at number 59, was woken by the sound of a window rattling nearby and what sounded like a woman screaming. As she strained to hear for any other sounds, Mrs Avenell heard nothing more and drifted off back to sleep.

At 10.15am that same morning, Mrs Sear, who lived next door to Alice Cox at number 53, spoke to Elsie Edith Porton who lived on the other side of the road, almost directly opposite. The two ladies were growing rather concerned. Mrs Cox was a creature of habit and was usually up and about by this time of day. The curtains were still drawn at number 55 and there was no activity to be seen.

Elsie Porton had a key to number 55, given to her by Alice Cox in case of emergencies. Perhaps the old lady had been taken ill and it would surely be nothing more than neighbourly to check on her. Elsie took her key and gingerly unlocked the front door of Alice Cox’s house but immediately she could see that something must be wrong. The house, normally neat and tidy, was in a state of disarray. Not sure what she should do next, Elsie returned to her own home and telephoned for Mrs Cox’s son.

Harry Arthur Cox soon arrived and he now went into his mother’s house, accompanied by Mrs Sear and Mrs Porton. The house was indeed in disarray and, as they passed from room to room, it became clear that someone had broken in and ransacked the place. Going upstairs, Harry Cox found his mother lying in bed with one of her legs dangling over the side. She appeared to be dead and Harry dashed back downstairs and telephoned for the police.

Constable Edward White was the first officer to arrive. He noted that the bedroom curtains were still drawn, a point that would prove to be crucial later, and then removed a bolster from the bed in order to confirm that Alice Cox was indeed dead. Then, mindful of a need to preserve the crime scene, Constable White replaced the bolster and waited for other officers to arrive.

The police soon determined that the most likely scenario was that this was a robbery, which had gone wrong. Someone had broken into the house by smashing a window at the rear and since only a sixpence and a half-penny had been found in the house, it was reasonable to assume that other cash had been stolen. Perhaps Mrs Cox had disturbed the burglar, or woken when he smashed the window or came into her room. Either way, she had then been subdued, stabbed, although that wound was only slight, and subsequently suffocated.

No time was wasted in seeking the help of Scotland Yard. The same day that the body was discovered, a telegram was sent to London, asking for assistance. So it was that Detective Superintendent Herbert Guiver and Detective Sergeant Leslie Emment travelled over to Reading to take charge of the case.

A very large number of fingerprints were found inside the house at 55 Salisbury Road. Meticulously a list was drawn up of anyone with legitimate access to the house such as friends, relatives, neighbours and even tradesmen. Their fingerprints were taken for elimination purposes and after all that had been done, one set of prints remained unidentified. These almost certainly belonged to the intruder but the problem was that, whoever that person was, he had no criminal record. His prints were not on file with the police.

It was then that Superintendent Guiver decided that the only way forward was a mass fingerprinting of all males within the area. Over the next few days, officers called at homes and workplaces and took more than 10,000 sets of prints. None of them matched the set found at Salisbury Road.

It was 23 April, more than three weeks after Alice’s body had been found, when Constable Allan Charles Kennerley called at 3 Cambridge Place to take the fingerprints of a lodger there, a man who went by the name of Frank. Going into Frank’s room, Kennerley saw that it was in a state of disorder but of Frank, there was no sign. The officer decided that he would have to call back at another time.

In fact, Kennerley returned later that same day, accompanied by Detective Sergeant Ivor Dyer but there was still no sign of Frank. Determined not to miss out on fingerprinting a possible suspect, the two officers decided that they should fingerprint certain items within the room, including a tin of boot polish, which had an excellent surface for holding prints. After all, they reasoned, the occupant must have touched the items and it was just as valid a way of obtaining his prints. In fact, it was a very wise decision indeed for when the prints of the elusive Frank were checked, they were found to be a match to those left at the crime scene.

Further checking revealed that Frank was actually Benjamin Frank Achilles Comas, a native of St Vincent in the Caribbean. A full description was circulated and all officers were warned to be on the lookout for him. In fact, the very next day, 24 April, Constable Kennerley and Constable Hounslow were in the centre of Reading when they spotted a man fitting Comas’ description sitting in a café.

The two officers went in to speak to the man and asked for his name and address. He said that he was Benjamin Brown and lived at 11 Waylen Street. Not satisfied with his explanation, the suspect was taken to the police station and asked to give his fingerprints for comparison. Brown refused at first, claiming that he had already given them as part of the mass fingerprinting of the area. Told that he would be detained, Brown finally agreed to give his prints. They were duly checked and found to be a match for those found at both Salisbury Road and Cambridge Place. Benjamin Brown was none other than Benjamin Comas and he was then duly charged with murder, wounding with intent, housebreaking with intent to steal, and larceny.

After various appearances before the magistrates, Comas faced his trial on the four charges on 11 July 1966, before Mister Justice Stable. The trial lasted until 14 July, during which Comas was defended by Mr Douglas Draycott and Mr RM Talbot. The case for the prosecution was led by Mr F Blennerhassett assisted by Mr John Wood. Asked how he wished to plead, Comas replied that he wished to plead guilty to housebreaking, but was then spoken to by his defence barrister. After some discussion, Comas changed his plea to not guilty on that charge and the charge of murder, but did plead guilty to housebreaking with intent. He was basically admitting that he had broken into Alice Cox’s house but had not taken anything and was not responsible for her death.

A total of twenty-nine witnesses appeared for the prosecution, many of them serving police officers. However, another one of the most important witnesses was a gentleman named Mark Fletcher.

Mark Fletcher lived next door to Alice Cox, at 57 Salisbury Road. He testified that three years before Alice’s death, Comas had called at his house, asking for lodgings. Mr Fletcher owned a couple of houses in the area and was known to take in lodgers. He agreed to take in Comas, who then stayed with him for about a year before moving on. Some six weeks before Alice’s death, Comas had returned to Fletcher’s house and asked for lodgings again. This time he was given a room in another of Fletcher’s properties, at 3 Cambridge Place. Comas moved into that address on 27 March 1966 and Fletcher had not seen his tenant since that date.

This testimony was important because it contradicted what Comas had told the police after his arrest. Comas had begun by denying any involvement whatsoever in the break in at 55 Salisbury Road. Faced with the fingerprint evidence he then changed his story and claimed that he had broken in but it was paid by Fletcher to do it.

Comas claimed that he had borrowed £30 from Fletcher but was unable to repay it. Fletcher had suggested that he would pay him to break into the old lady’s house next door. No sooner had this claim been made than Comas changed his story slightly, saying that he had only broken in so that he could get some money to repay the loan to Fletcher, again at the latter’s instigation.

A third statement was then made in which Comas now claimed that he had not been alone in the house. Fletcher had now been with him and if anyone was responsible for killing Alice Cox, then it was Fletcher. Finally, a fourth version had it that Comas had broken in alone and Fletcher had not been present after all.

Every part of these various statements was totally denied by Mark Fletcher. He said that he had not seen Comas for six weeks and had never been in Alice Cox’s house. This was confirmed, in part, by Cecily Elaine Wood, who lodged with Fletcher at number 57. She agreed that Comas had not been back to the house after his visit in March.

The judge summed up the case on the fourth day of the trial. The jury retired at 2.20pm and returned to court at 3.55pm to announce that they had found Comas guilty of all the charges. As a result, Comas was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and also received sentences of fifteen years for wounding with intent and fourteen years for housebreaking and larceny.

An appeal was entered but dismissed on 17 January 1967. Comas, however, was not prepared to let the matter rest there. On 7 July 1967, he wrote a long letter to Superintendent Guiver, from Wormwood Scrubs prison, seeking that Mark Fletcher should be charged with perjury.

The letter was littered with errors of grammar and spelling, but in it Comas claimed to have proof that Mark Fletcher had lied in court. Comas claimed to have a finance form for the purchase of a car, countersigned by Fletcher acting as guarantor and dated 1962. In his evidence, Fletcher had said that he first met Comas three years before the crime, that is, in 1963.