Queen, Peter, d.1958, Scot. Peter Queen fell in love with Christina Gall, who worked as a maid for his parents until she was fired for a drinking problem. The couple dated for several years, and Gall became increasingly depressed as Queen repeatedly denied her requests to get married. On Nov. 12, 1931, Queen turned to friends for help, saying Gall had threatened to commit suicide and had recently tried to hang herself. On Nov. 21, Queen reported Gall’s death to police, noting she had been on a two-day drinking binge and had apparently killed herself. Investigators found Gall’s body with a thin rope around her neck. Because one of her arms was covered by the smooth bedclothes lying at her side, they determined she could not have killed herself and arrested Queen for murder.
Queen’s murder trial began on Jan. 5, 1932, and featured British pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury as a witness for the defense. Spilsbury maintained that a light bruising suffered by Gall before her death contradicted evidence pointing to a murder and that the position of the rope around her neck convinced him that she had, in fact, killed herself. Other witnesses testified that there were no signs of struggle at the crime scene, but prosecutors maintained that at the time of her death, Gall had been too drunk to put up a fight. Police officers also testified that Queen had said: “I think I have killed her.” Although no records of his alleged confession existed and all the evidence against him was purely circumstantial, Queen was found Guilty and sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted and he was later released from prison.
Queripel, Michael, 1938- , Brit. On Apr. 29, 1955, Michael Queripel, a 17-year-old government clerk at Potters Bar, was walking on the golf course, trying to get rid of a migraine headache, when he saw a woman walking her dog nearby. Queripel later said he had a sudden urge to rape the woman. When he grabbed her, she struggled so he hit her on the head with an iron tee marker, killing her. He then fled home where he cut his arm with a razor blade to explain the blood on his clothes. At 11:15 p.m., the woman’s husband called police to report her missing. The next morning, her body was found in the rough near the seventeenth hole. The only clue was a small section of a palm print left on the tee marker. After searching their fingerprint archives and taking prints from several thousand men, including the entire population of Potters Bar, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Queripel. He pleaded guilty and, as a juvenile, was to be held for as long as Her Majesty’s pleases.