 White hall one two one two hurry the first time Scotland Yard opens its secret files to bring you the authentic true stories of some of its most baffling cases These records are drawn from the Scotland Yard files and only the names of the participants have been changed The research has been prepared by mr. Percy Hoskins chief crime reporter for the London Daily Express The stories for radio are written and directed by mr. Willis Cooper Here are the principal participants in Scotland Yard case number 397 mr. 381 Stanley Russell shock clerk Mr. Russell is not to be found Mrs. Hope Russell his wife Mrs. Russell was reported missing on the day before Good Friday Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe Chief Inspector Bryce Purcell of Scotland Yard, I should like to introduce Deputy Commander William Byrd of Scotland Yard My superior officer before we proceed. I believe it would be a good idea to visit the black museum Come along with me if you please After you good afternoon John This is Chief Superintendent John Davidson curator of Scotland Yards black museum How do you do? You came about case number 397 mr. 381. I believe you said sir, right will you tell us about it John? Well, this is the exhibit No, don't touch it, please. It's quite fragile And as you can see it has already been broken We have a great many other exhibits of crimes in these rooms murder weapons bloodstained garments Bullets that have snuffed out many lives death masks and many notorious criminals Almost every instrument of violence that can be conceived I should explain that these gruesome objects about us are not merely souvenirs Many of them have aided our men in solving other crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice This one tell us what this thing is John. This is Mrs. Hope Russell 16 months after the Easter blitz of 1941 the work of clearing out bombed-out areas of London was still progressing on The 12th, July 1942 the Scotland Yard Information Room received an urgent call from PC John Dunn of the Kennington district a Patrol car in which Chief Inspector Purcell was riding was dispatched to the scene a partially destroyed Baptist Chapel I was directed to the spot by PC Dunn who was on point duty at the road intersection What over there, sir? Will you see the men standing? They found some at sir the navies that's working here, right? Thank you morning boys What have you found? Who are you mate? I'm Chief Inspector Purcell of Scotland Yard What's up down sir down there in that all sir? Yeah, it's an old burying waltz, sir But what is it a skeleton sir? He's dead. Oh don't judge you in Sean with your touch. All right Here he is the standard one side with him I see him well What's so strange about a skeleton and a burial vault? I've ain't been anybody in there since 1934, sir 1935 I was in that gang that moved the old corpses out of here over it. It was 1934. We didn't leave a one Bishop Quick line How how quick line get down there? You're the detective. Mr. We just work here The badly burned skeleton was removed to the pathological laboratories at Scotland Yard together with the other articles found in the vault a Considerable amount of quick lime and a half burn straw pellets which had partially covered the remains There was nothing else. I stood beside Keith Briggs the home office pathologist while he completed his examination What do you think Keith I asked? Well? She's dead. She looks a woman all right no question about that The hip bones are A woman's so is the sacrum here and how old oh one Middle-aged I'd say He the bones are fully developed so we know she was full grown And there were one or two strands of long gray hair adhering to the skull You know And then the teeth here not about them. Well, you see they're pretty well worn Now you see here in the upper jaw Seven of the uppers are missing Oh See these ridges yes, they were caused by a dental plate Which probably consisted of seven teeth and then what are you looking for the measuring tape? Oh here the lady was lying on it. What are you going to do now? See how tall she was. She's rather Jumbled about and the feet. Where are they? Oh the thigh bones all I need. Oh hold it, please, huh? this one now see See 43 centimeters Well, that's all right, sir Well 43 centimeters multiplied by 3.6. What are you doing a sediment scale? You multiply the length of the thigh bone by 3.6 Man's that's 3.7 and you get the exact height Now see that's a hundred and fifty four point eight centimeters. We'll call it one meter fifty five And meters thirty nine point three seven and thirty five hundreds of thirty nine point three seven twenty one point six five Now thirty nine point three seven plus twenty one point six five It's seven five twelve six nine ten nine ten nine Fifa six sixty one point oh two inches. Yeah She was five feet one and two hundred inches tall in a word Five foot one. What was her name? Whatever her name sir. She was murdered Consider that I've asked the question, huh? Oh How do I know? Well this bone here. Where does it fit? This is what she talked with the voice box the trachea, you know the throat Look See these little wing things up here. Mm-hmm Now you see this one see it's broken. Well This is one of the most significant fractures in all forensic medicine, sir. Why there's only one way to do it Oh, come on man. Don't come Sherlock Holmes on me. How do you do it? Well? I was about to say by manual pressure on the throat, sir Strangulation you mean intentional strangulation, sir There's no other way and Then there's the quick line Surely you know that quick line will not destroy a body sir. Yes, I know it Keith, but murderers seldom do I Reference to the ARP record showed that every other casualty and missing persons in Kennington had been accounted for It was apparent that the victim had not been a resident of that district I caused bulletins and charts of the teeth to be sent to all the dentists in London for identification No results were forthcoming and we were forced to conclude that the dentist in question had become an arid casualty Or that the work had been done in some other city. I gave Purcell a very difficult assignment Difficult some well, it's not so difficult, but it's tedious. It'll take a long time I know but it's got to be done. I'm strongly of the opinion that it was murder. We check carefully, sir And the the only quick line on the entire premises was that in the vault with the skeleton I thought they might have dusted the entire place with quick line for sanitary purposes, but they hadn't Certainly looks as if someone had wanted to dispose of a body until we know who she was will never discover who he is Yes, well, I'll get cracking I'll need men to go over the missing persons rushes served to find the names and addresses Every woman five feet tall of middle-aged with gray hair who is still missing now And then I'll need more men to make inquiries of all the next of kin to see which of them wore false teeth And to find out which one wore an upper plate that matches the one in Briggs chart here Take a good many men and a good bit of time, sir You can get the men personal and we've got the time. Good luck. Oh Thank you, sir Nothing whatever happened for two weeks except for the unrewarded activities of Purcell's men. I had a minor inspiration about the seventh day Put me through to sergeant bowls, please Commander bird here sergeant. I should like you to send me all the file copies of the metro operations for the period two weeks before To two weeks after the Easter blitz of last year, please Yes at once if you please The metropolitan information is a daily newspaper containing digests of all the crime news it is usually Invaluable I poured over every issue looking assiduously for an item that might prove of some help I had reached the end of the first week after the date the Kennington Chapel was destroyed with no results Whatever when Purcell reported I'm sorry. Oh good here Here is the missing plate. It's much better than I'd hope for personal apparently the plate hurt her mouth She often left it at home as matter-of-fact. I found it at her sister's. Oh, I stopped upstairs to see Keith Briggs in the laboratory And they fit exactly allowing for the fact that there's no flesh on the jawbones Here's Keith now that right Keith That's right, sir And the marks on the skeletons teeth coincide exactly with these little clamps here. I've brought the skull down See sir, she looks very fine. Congratulations, Purcell. Thank you, sir. The only thing is She was reported missing three days before the raid that destroyed the chapel. She was it's in all the records up Where were you madam? She might have been hidden in the vault immediately. She was murdered, sir And then the fire when the place was bombed it must have been quite a hot fire. Let's see The Kennington fire brigade, please yes Oh, what's her name Purcell? Mrs. Hope Russell Russell hope Russell to use it. Oh, hello. Is that the Kennington fire brigade the senior company officer if you please I'll wait Hope Russell. I've run across that name somewhere. Yes. Thank you Hello, this is commander bird at Scotland Yard Do you remember during the Easter blitz last year when the Baptist Chapel was destroyed there in Kennington? What I wanted to know was that a very severe fire What? There was no fire. Why no fire. Whatever when the chapel was destroyed. Oh Two days later. Hmm. How very curious It was reported by whom the Kennington police wasn't there a look hero chap I'm sending it once for their divisional superintendent. Could you possibly come along with him to my office at the yard? Yes, I'm afraid it is rather important. I'll have him pick you up in his car Thank you so much at once. Yes No fire Keith will you mind get him in the fire chap over here at once use my name I asked them both to bring their records for that night, please All right No fire a what's that woman's name personal Mrs. Hope Russell. I knew I remembered it look at this Metro informations a look under articles lost and found I was just reading it Lost and found here the the third item read that found by Postmistress Guilford sorry in the post office yesterday a woman's purse black leather plain strap Contents lipstick comb mirror to London Fram tickets Levenpence in coin ration book identity card Issued to mrs. Hope Russell Well, oh was she doing in Guilford look at the date of the paper personal April what was she doing in Guilford three days after the air raid in Kennington? The divisional superintendent and the fire brigade officer from Kennington sat in my office with personal and me I Looked at the fire brigade records first Now yes, sir, this is the day of the big raid when the chapel was destroyed Good Friday evening 11th of April 1941. Yes, every call is set down in the occurrence book here Yes, I know together with all the calls to the auxiliary fire service the civilians, sir Yes, I know and you can see there's no report whatever of a fire at the Kennington Baptist Chapel from either source Right, but over here sir on this page Tuesday the 15th Four days later 11 o'clock p.m. See sir chapel and so forth Report telephoned him by Kennington police station. Do your records corresponds superintendent? I'll read it to you, sir 57 p.m. Tuesday 15th of April PC Allison telephone to report if fire at the ruins of the Baptist Chapel alarm telephone to Kennington fire brigade at 11 p.m. Your anger's a piss air from it. I did that indeed. Here's my initial. What do you think first of all? Why did the police constable report it? Yes, I was just going to ask that I don't understand sir wasn't there a fire watcher Wasn't there? Well, sir, there was a fire watcher. They were supposed to be well. Where was he asleep, sir problem Then or out catching a drink somewhere Not an ARP man. No, sir a private man employed for the wholesale chemist across the road from the chapel Thoroughly useless man completely undependable Employers caught up with him at last sir. He was sick six or seven weeks ago. I've not seen him since now That's why well sounds like a spiff to me. Yes, sir I knew him quite well had a great deal of trouble with his wife, and I used to see him quite regularly Oh, he agreed to pay in 18 shillings and 9th and I think it was weekly at the police station for her Which he didn't ever do Not ever never once to least a Monday last year right after the big raid He kept it up to till he was discharged and left. I suppose this chemical firm He worked for could put us on to him. I'd like to have a chat with the fellow. Wouldn't you personal? I certainly would I'll telephone them now and ask them if you'll give me the name of the firm and his name Oh, his name is Stanley Russell Russell, I wonder if you'd know his wife's name superintendent. I've seen it often enough Yes, sir. His name her name is Mrs. Hope Russell In the Pirates of Penzance Gilbert and Sullivan complain bitterly that a policeman's lot is not a happy one I subscribe most heartily to that sentiment. I would like you to hear Chief Inspector Purcell's report to me Just as he gave it in my office Well, personal I said did you find our mr. Stanley Russell all right? Ah Not there. Well, you've left men to wait for him hadn't you sir. I got the address of the place Sergeant Hatton and I drove there in a yard car driven by Constable small get on with it, man Your whole bloody place was gone sir gone the whole bloody block was destroyed Destroyed by an enemy bomb and an air raid six months ago One day after Russell moved in Not one person in the whole building's been heard of since Oh Sir, I respectfully request permission to go somewhere and get howling drunk You know personal I Think I'll go with you But we didn't we sat quietly in commander birds office and thought Long dark thoughts after a while Keith Briggs the pathologist observing the light inside stopped by and Almost at the same time John Davidson from the black museum came in to see what was up Nothing's up John. I said on the contrary what happened personal was just telling Keith here The chapters of blitz casualty did and may God have mercy on his soul I'd rather hope to hear a bloke in a black cap say that Keith I Thought we had him dead to rights. Oh, don't be so bloody American I think we could have proved it. He strangled her then hid her body in the vault Took her handbag to Guilford and lost it in the post office there cleverly putting Scotland yard off the scent Timing was a little bad And then when the blitz came tried quick lime first didn't work blitz came and he set her a fire If if he'd been a better fire watcher and not hiding in a hole somewhere He'd have known there was no fire that night. Oh, but he wasn't a good fire watcher. He wasn't good at anything. I Wonder what what do you mean John? Well? If I'd strangled my wife and burned her up Which God forbid because I haven't won I'd be very happy to have people think I was dead If I'd hear that my home was destroyed never bite in it dead, I should be delighted most delighted I'd change my name not in wartime. You wouldn't know that's right identity cars Russian books Absolutely, I'd forgotten getting new ones in the name of Ari Alkins or Sam small But even Scotland yard would stop looking for me if they thought I was dead Wouldn't they command a bird and you'd go around buying you clothing and whatnot if you could and presenting your own ration book in your own name and Where you going personal? I'm going to stagger home through the blackout sir with your permission I've a large number of men's clothing stores to interview beginning tomorrow And I'd like to get a good night's sleep Good night all The Stanley Russell crop was enormous Chief Inspector Persil discovered that 200 Let me see 234 of them had purchased clothing since the date our Stanley Russell had been reported dead by enemy action But not one of them was the Stanley Russell we wanted We made thorough inquiries of all his known acquaintances all to no avail the war office had no record of our man We were reluctantly forced to the conclusion that he was dead or the he had heard of our search for him And gone to ground most effectively as I said to a rather haggard personal personal shook his head I Like to keep on looking sir if I may I Have a hunch that he'll turn up Unexpectedly it will certainly be unexpected so far as I'm concerned. I'd like to keep on trying sir Well for a few weeks more, but I'm afraid Commander bird speaking Yes, he's here. It's for you personal. Well, I'll I'll take it outside sir. No don't take it here. Thank you, sir Chief Inspector Persil him Who is he oh? Well, I don't know him personally, but I know of him Yes Will you ask him to wait a moment? I'll bring you back sir, yeah, I've never been so shocked in all my life Really what's happened somebody dead somebody's alive. What I heard this on the radio. I wouldn't have believed it. Oh, what's happened? Mr. Stanley Russell is calling on us Well brother personal Let him enter and be received in due form Will you show mr. Stanley Russell in please? Thank you You sound like a spider Thank you, sir. I feel I am and a chair for our guests. Hmm. You think I sound like a spider Come in. Mr. Stanley Russell sir Good morning gentlemen. I was looking for Inspector Persil. Come in sir. I'm Chief Inspector Persil How'd you do sir? This is commander bird. Good morning. Good morning, sir May I sit down? Thank you Does one smoke in here? Yes, by all means Will you will you try an Abdullah? Tar. I'm afraid I always smoke woodbinds now I Hear Scotland Yard is looking for me. That's That's true Why may I ask you have been extremely hard to find? Oh, I've been in the country Dobbisher we should have come there eventually safety of the trouble What do you want to see me about You were a fire watcher mr. Russell in Kennington. Yes There was an unreported fire at the Baptist Chapel there Whilst you were on duty when two nights after the raid that destroyed the chapel. I didn't say any fire Is that all you want it No, mr. Russell Well, I don't recall any fire sir, you didn't see or hear the fire brigade No, sir you're 11 o'clock. Oh I Must admit I wasn't there. Where were you? I did see the fire be great moving away when I came back But where were you? Oh, I was out of cigarettes and I strolled around the corner to see if I could borrow one Out of you from the fire watcher at post four. He says he never saw you mr. Russell. Oh, he's probably forgotten It's a long time ago. He will swear he didn't see you that night Well the fire obviously didn't do any damage a woman was burned to death in it murdered You know anything about it? Of course not I'm very sorry to hear that anything like that the woman was your wife May I have one of your cigarettes, please? Thanks, so that's what became of her. Do you know anything about it? I'm afraid I must disappoint you gentlemen. I Wasn't on very good terms with her. We know I'm afraid I've no tears for her. She was Well, she's dead. No, I shan't say anything Actually, I'm shocked. I'm afraid. I'm not sorry. Do you know anyone who would have had a motive for murdering him? You had a motive didn't you mr. Russell? I can see how you might think so, but I didn't murder her. I show you when did you last see her I? Don't really remember Several months before she was murdered. I think how do you know she was murdered? Why you said so did I? I would have had good cause to Inspector, but I'd have been a fool to do it now. Wouldn't I? Yes Well, mr. Russell, thank you for coming to see us if there is anything else you remember please come back and see us again I think that's all for now How can we find you if we need you we may want your corroboration of certain facts well? I'll write down my address, sir. It's a sad affair and you have our sympathy. Thank you sir. I Admit I'm terribly shocked of course well Here's the address and telephone number sir. Thank you. Feel free to call on us at any time. Goodbye Goodbye gentlemen. I Was merely trying to do my duty. Well, you've done it admirably sir. Goodbye Thank you. Well He's a liar. I know it May I ask why you why I let him go? He thinks he's got it completely fooled. He'll be back with more helpful information Come in mr. Russell. I Just remembered something that might be of importance. Come in I remembered that an old straw pallious a mattress. I used to catch 40 winks on It was stolen about that time or Could that have been used to start the fire? Did you find it? Yes, we found it. Oh, that's good Well, I I must go now. Oh by the way Was the body destroyed by the quick line? Yes What's the matter you are a very clever man mr. Russell much too clever for your own good Why? Why may I no one had mentioned quick lime except you well? I thought I Mean I didn't I Wasn't even there. I tell you I didn't touch it. I Said you were much too clever for your own good you Think I I Didn't strangle her go ahead chief inspector No, I arrest you on the charge of willful. I didn't do it And I warn you that whatever you say will be taken down and writing a may be given in evidence The crime the painstaking evidence Scotland Yard had collected together with Stanley Russell's own statements Were sufficient to convince a jury that he had murdered his wife hope Russell and burned her body All his allegations of misconduct on her part were proved completely false It was demonstrated at the trial that he had planned the murder for a long time and having found a convenient time and place Had committed it The verdict The sentence prisoner the ball stand up It is the sentence of this court that should be hanged by the neck until dead and May God have mercy on your soul You have heard the true story of case number 397 mr. 381 from the files of Scotland Yard The names of the participants have for obvious reasons been changed Starting next week quite all 1212 will be heard at a new time 5 p.m Eastern Standard Time Research by Percy Hoskins of the London Daily Express stories for radio written and directed by Willis Cooper Next listen for tales of the Texas Rangers on nb