CHAPTER 14

The Gravel Pit Murders David Burgess 1967

Jacqueline Williams and Jeanette Wigmore were the best of friends. The two nine-year-old girls were always together and things were no different on the evening of Monday 17 April 1967.

At some time between 4.30pm and 5.00pm on that Monday, the two girls left the village of Beenham on their bicycles, for a ride in the countryside. Shortly afterwards, at around 5.15pm, they were seen together by Jeanette’s father, Anthony Wigmore, in Webbs Lane. Soon after that, at approximately 5.30pm, the two friends were seen by William Goody. By now the girls had dismounted from their bicycles and were pushing them along, close to the junction of Webbs lane and Admoor Lane.

Charles Gillings was working in that area from about 6.00pm onwards. At 6.25pm, having finished what he needed to do, Mr Gillings let his dog loose for a run in the fields around one of the gravel pits. As the animal scampered off, Mr Gillings noticed two children’s bicycles lying on the grass near the entrance to the pit. Strangely, he could hear no sounds of laughter or children playing and saw no trace of whoever might own those bicycles.

By 7.30pm that same evening, Anthony Wigmore was growing concerned. It was not like Jeanette to stay out this late. He knew that when he had seen his daughter, she had been with her good friend Jacqueline, so his first port of call was the Williams’ house. There he spoke to Jacqueline’s father, Terence, and when he said that Jacqueline hadn’t come home either, the two men set off, with others, to find their daughters.

Although the talk amongst the men looking for the two girls was of children staying out later than they should, the events of the previous year must have been at the back of everyone’s minds. In October 1966, a seventeen-year-old nursemaid, Yolande Waddington, had been sexually assaulted, and murdered, in the village and the killer had never been found. Pushing such thoughts to the backs of their minds, the search party went on looking for the two girls.

It was then that Anthony Wigmore remembered that Jeanette had said something about getting some frog spawn for a nature study class at school. All the children in the area knew that the best place to get spawn was in the pools around the gravel pits and, of course, Anthony had seen Jeanette earlier, heading off in that direction with Jacqueline. Anthony decided that he would go up to the pits and bring the girls home, possibly with a flea in their ears for staying out so late.

Anthony drove up towards the pits and, entering the same field where Charles Gillings had been an hour or so before, he the same two bicycles, one of which he instantly recognised as Jeanette’s. Walking on a little further, Anthony found his own daughter’s body, lying in a shallow pool of water. She had, apparently, been killed by a single stab wound.

The police were called in and a search of the immediate area organised. Just before 11.00pm, Inspector Mutch of the Reading Police found the body of Jacqueline Williams. She lay some 120 yards from her friend, and had been drowned in six inches of water. There were also signs that she had been sexually assaulted. The police were looking for a double child-killer.

Determined that this should not be another unsolved murder in the village, the local police immediately sought the assistance of Scotland Yard. They responded by sending Detective Superintendent William Marchant to take charge of the investigation.

One of the first things Superintendent Marchant did was to organise a series of house-to-house checks. He had come to believe that since the gravel pits in the area were secluded, the killer was most probably a local man. Thus, all males were interviewed and asked to say where they had been between 5.30pm and 9.00pm, on the evening of Monday 17 April.

The villagers of Beenham offered every assistance to the investigating officers. People came forward to report sightings of strangers they had seen in and around the area. Thus, within days, police were trying to trace a cyclist, who had been seen in the village a few hours before the two girls had been murdered. He was described as being forty to forty-five years old, about five feet six inches tall, thick set and with grey or white hair. He had a full, ruddy face and was dressed in a checked shirt and a pinkish-brown windcheater or anorak. He had been seen parking his bicycle in a gateway, close to The Stocks public house.

Another sighting had been made of a woman, who had been using binoculars close to the Mayridge gravel pit. She was not a suspect but might well have seen something. She was soon traced but was unable to take the investigation any further.

Officers were also seeking to trace the driver of a Ford Zephyr car, which had been parked not far from the scene of the crime. That driver, too, was soon traced and eliminated from the inquiry.

The area around Beenham was soon crowded with newspaper reporters. Not only was this a double murder but now three females had been killed in the area within six months. One of those reporters, George Hollingbery, whilst looking around the village, found a bundle of soiled clothing, apparently dumped underneath a hedge. These items, a blue jacket and grey trousers, were handed into the police and subjected to forensic examination. No trace of blood, or any other evidence, was discovered.

The inquest on the dead girls opened before Mr Charles Hoile, at Newbury, on Friday 28 April. Only basic evidence of identification and the injuries the girls had received were given before the proceedings were adjourned.

By 5 May, over 4000 questionnaires had been completed by the police. Blood samples and statements had been taken from all the men aged between nineteen and sixty, who lived in and around Beenham. It was this painstaking approach which led Superintendent Marchant to narrow his search down to just one man.

David Burgess fitted the profile of the killer very well indeed. He was nineteen years old, a local man, and worked as a dumper-truck driver in Fisher’s Pit, one of the gravel pits in Admoor Lane, close to where the girls had been found. On the day of the murder he had left work at 5.30pm and had been seen by other villagers in the area. Burgess worked with his brother, John, whom he told he was off to find some rabbit snares. He apparently returned to work soon afterwards, and was seen, by his brother, reading a book, at around 6.25pm.

There was one other curious piece of information. John Burgess had told the police that the day after the murders, Tuesday 18 April, he had casually mentioned to David that he had been missing from work at about the time the girls were killed and so might have had the opportunity to commit the crime. Instead of simply denying any involvement, David had snapped back: ‘It wasn’t me.’

David Burgess was taken in for questioning and his clothing taken for forensic examination. That examination revealed spots of blood on the side of one of Burgess’ shoes and when that was tested it was found to be of the rare group ABMN. This was the same group as Jeanette’s and only 1.5% of the population had such a group. It linked Burgess directly to Jeanette’s body and he was now asked to explain it.

Burgess began by denying everything. He could offer no explanation as to how Jeanette’s blood could have come to be on his shoe. Superintendent Marchant asked him again and again to account for this fact, but Burgess would only say he hadn’t been in that particular gravel pit on that day. Finally, after what seemed an age, Burgess finally broke down in tears and shouted: ‘You catch the man I chased away.’

Asked to elaborate, Burgess went on to say: ‘I was up the end of my pit, where I work, when I heard someone scream. When I went across, I saw him. The bloke stood there and she was in the water. I shouted at him.’

Continuing his narrative, Burgess claimed that he had then gone to where Jeanette’s body lay, and picked her up. He saw the blood on her and was sure that she was dead and there was nothing he could do for her. Rather than run for help, though, he simply placed her body back where he had found it and told no-one. He ended by claiming that he had never seen the body of Jacqueline.

The police believed that they had captured their killer and, on the evening of Sunday 7 May, Burgess was charged with the murder of Jeanette Wigmore. He made his first appearance before the magistrates on Monday 8 May, when matters were adjourned until Friday 12 May. Other adjournments followed and, on Friday 26 May, Burgess was also charged with the murder of Jacqueline Williams.

Burgess faced the magistrates for the last time in June 1967, when he was sent for trial at Gloucester. However, before that trial opened, Burgess had more information to give to the police.

The week before his trial was due to take place, Burgess said he wished to say more about the man he claimed to have seen with Jeanette’s body. Now he recalled that the man was named Mac. He couldn’t remember the exact surname but believed it might have been MacNab. Burgess claimed that he had first seen the man in the Viking Café on Caversham Road, Reading. He knew that Mac went there quite a lot so the police should have no trouble in tracing him.

Burgess went on to say that he had seen Mac again, after the murders, in the Six Bells public house at Beenham. Mac had followed Burgess to the toilets and warned him to keep his mouth shut about seeing him with the girl’s body. The story was checked out and proved to be valueless. There was no regular customer at the Viking Café named Mac and no-one had seen such a man in the Six Bells.

David Burgess faced his trial for murder on Thursday 13 July 1967, before Mr Justice Stable and a jury of nine men and three women. The case for the prosecution was led by Mr Kenneth Jones, and Burgess was defended by Mr Douglas Draycott. The proceedings would last until 21 July.

Burgess was questioned closely about his not reporting finding the body of Jeanette Wigmore, if his story was true. He claimed that he had not reported it as he did not wish to become involved. It did not, apparently, matter that had he raised the alarm, the killer might have been captured immediately. Nor did it matter that he had allowed a child-killer to escape, possibly to kill again.

The jury, it seemed, also did not believe the story told by David Burgess. They took just three hours and twenty minutes to decide, unanimously, that Burgess was guilty of both murders. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment. As he was led down to the cells, David Burgess had a broad smile on his face. As for the murder of Yolande Waddington, Burgess was never linked to that crime and it remains, to this day, an unsolved murder.