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Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?

What a coincidence! I only found out about this today and said to Mr. Cherrybomb that we have to visit it. Great minds eh, Escargot :evil:
 
The Heartwood Institute released an album inspired by Bella (and Charles Walton).

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https://www.discogs.com/release/19834054-The-Heartwood-Institute-Witchcraft-Murders-
 
Caroline Wilkinson, professor of craniofacial identification at Dundee University recreated Bella’s features:

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Bella's skull (which has been lost by the police):

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A police handout with details of the victim:

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The Wych Elm tree in the Hagley woods

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The Hagley obelisk with graffiti:

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Actress and Singer Clara Bauerle, a possible identity for 'Bella':

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Tommy Willets, who together with Fred Payne, Robert Hart and Bob Farmer found the body while hunting for birds' eggs:

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Images Sourced From Here:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-after-75-years-face-14329271
 
Kondoru said:
How did they know it was a mock wedding ring?
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Well quite. There were a lot of very speedy weddings during wartime, and not everyone had the time or resources to buy gold rings.

Also, it strikes me that wartime was an excellent time to commit murder and dispose of a body. Everything was in such turmoil and the police were often otherwise engaged. I wonder if this young lady had had a very speedy wedding to a man who turned out to be not very nice, who murdered and disposed of her.
 
catseye said:
Well quite. There were a lot of very speedy weddings during wartime, and not everyone had the time or resources to buy gold rings.

Also, it strikes me that wartime was an excellent time to commit murder and dispose of a body. Everything was in such turmoil and the police were often otherwise engaged. I wonder if this young lady had had a very speedy wedding to a man who turned out to be not very nice, who murdered and disposed of her.
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Indeed, there was a murder of a 19-year-old near me during the war, Joan Pearl Wolfe, known as the Wigwam Murder. A French Canadian soldier was found guilty and hanged at Wandsworth Prison. At one time there was an author trying to argue that it was a wrongful conviction based on the fact that the soldier was indigenous and illiterate (therefore an underdog). Having read through the facts of the case, I think it more likely than not that they hanged the right man.
 
SimonBurchell said:
Indeed, there was a murder of a 19-year-old near me during the war, Joan Pearl Wolfe, known as the Wigwam Murder. A French Canadian soldier was found guilty and hanged at Wandsworth Prison. At one time there was an author trying to argue that it was a wrongful conviction based on the fact that the soldier was indigenous and illiterate (therefore an underdog). Having read through the facts of the case, I think it more likely than not that they hanged the right man.
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One of the famous Home Office pathologist Prof Keith Simpson's more lurid and well-known cases.

Simpson held strong views that were perhaps of his time, especially with regard to race, homosexuality and female promiscuity. (It's all there in his autobiography.)

While he might have considered the 19 year-old Joan Pearl Wolfe to be 'no better than she should be', his term for a woman he considered promiscuous and possibly a casual sex worker, he'd certainly have also looked down on August Sangret who was hanged for her murder.

As you say, Sangret was guilty. But Simpson wasn't above massaging the evidence to fit another, more likely suspect if he felt the need arose.
 
catseye said:
Well quite. There were a lot of very speedy weddings during wartime, and not everyone had the time or resources to buy gold rings.

Also, it strikes me that wartime was an excellent time to commit murder and dispose of a body. Everything was in such turmoil and the police were often otherwise engaged. I wonder if this young lady had had a very speedy wedding to a man who turned out to be not very nice, who murdered and disposed of her.
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You'll know all this -
When I was a kid Woolworths sold 'imitation wedding rings' which a woman would buy to wear for a dirty weekend with a man, usually booking into some B&B as Mr and Mrs Smith.

Woolies also sold tinny engagement rings. 'She's got a Woolworths' ring' was said about a woman whose fiancé was a cheapskate. :chuckle:
 
Frideswide said:
finger?
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If it was on the wrong finger they'd have no reason to suppose it a wedding ring. It would just be jewellery. I think it's most likely it was a brass ring (or some other non-precious metal). I know some people would use curtain rings as a mock wedding ring, if they needed to pretend to be married for any reason.
 
catseye said:
If it was on the wrong finger they'd have no reason to suppose it a wedding ring. It would just be jewellery. I think it's most likely it was a brass ring (or some other non-precious metal). I know some people would use curtain rings as a mock wedding ring, if they needed to pretend to be married for any reason.
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Curtain ring? At least the 2/6 Woollies ring showed a little commitment. :chuckle:
 
Can't they do some DNA tests to resolve her identity? It's possible that the child is still alive and grew up thinking his/her mother abandoned him/her also in these cases it also throws up the likely suspect
 
Robbrent said:
Can't they do some DNA tests to resolve her identity? It's possible that the child is still alive and grew up thinking his/her mother abandoned him/her also in these cases it also throws up the likely suspect
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If they've lost the skull, there's no DNA to test.
 
Robbrent said:
I thought the bones had been found at a local university ?
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I'd worry about 'found' bones (ie, discovered in the university) may have been misattributed after all this time, or mixed up with others. Unless they'd been kept by a pathologist, separate and correctly labelled since collection, any amount of contamination could have occurred, including them being the wrong bones altogether.
 
Like many people, I've been intrigued by this case for a long time, any new investigation might turn up something, I shall listen to the new podcast with interest.
 
I wonder if, as time passes, more war time murder cases may be solved. I suspect there were a fair few husbands/wives/lovers who used the turmoil and upheaval of bombing raids etc to cover up their crimes.
 
Gordon Cummins, 'the blackout ripper', took advantage of the blackout to murder and there are claims that John Christie used bombed properties to disguise victims as bombing casualties when he was a special constable during the Blitz.
 
Erinaceus said:
Gordon Cummins, 'the blackout ripper', took advantage of the blackout to murder and there are claims that John Christie used bombed properties to disguise victims as bombing casualties when he was a special constable during the Blitz.
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Yep, those are the ones we know about. I'm betting there were many more.
 
catseye said:
I wonder if, as time passes, more war time murder cases may be solved. I suspect there were a fair few husbands/wives/lovers who used the turmoil and upheaval of bombing raids etc to cover up their crimes.
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The famous pathologist Dr Keith Simpson describes such a case in his book Forty Years of Murder.

A woman's body was found after a wartime bombing in London. Her husband had murdered her and as I recall, her makeshift grave was discovered when ruins were being searched after a bombing.
 
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