Seven time nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at the True Crime Awards, Independent Podcast Award and The British Podcast Awards, and voted 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
Hildas Murrell's home at 'Ravenscroft'
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR: On Wednesday 21st of March 1984, 79-year-old Hilda Murrell of Shropshire was attacked in her own home by an unseen assailant. Double killer, David McKenzie had already been convicted of the murders of 76-year-old widow Barbara Pinder in 1984 in Battersea and 86-year-old widow Henrietta Osbourne in Chelsea, which had similar hallmarks. McKenzie had confessed to HIlda's murder and several others. But was he a serial killer?
SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: 30th of March 1990, The Old Bailey, Judge Kenneth Richardson QC summed up: “David McKenzie, you have been found guilty of two of the most appalling killings I can recall. You are a frighteningly dangerous man and my duty is to protect the public. You will remain in Rampton until such time that it’s absolutely clear to those responsible for your care that you are no longer a danger to the public”. Found guilty of five counts of raping a 14-year-old girl, endangering the lives of two elderly women by setting fire to their beds as they slept, and the manslaughter by diminished responsibility of 76-year-old Barbara Pinder and 86-year-old Henrietta Osbourne, this burglar, sadistic rapist and self-confessed paedophile with a violent hatred of women was placed on a hospital order for an indeterminate term. As evidence, his confession was solid, his recall was vivid, and even though some details he had added or embellished such as laying the blame on an accomplice (who was never charged), having confessed “I want to tell you about the old lady”, even though Robin Grey QC who defended this notorious blabbermouth stated “there was not one shred of evidence besides the confession to link him to the old lady killings”, according to detectives “he revealed details that only the killer could have known”. When interviewed by Police, being wracked with guilt which ate at his soul, Scottish-born and London-bred David McKenzie - who was diagnosed as a paranoid psychopathic schizophrenic - confessed to further crimes, and although his vocabulary was limited having only a basic education, blessed (or haunted) by a very retentive memory - with no emotion, just a cold hard delivery - he recalled the details of ten or twelve unsolved murders he had committed, like he was reading a set of instructions. He confessed to the murders of 27-year-old Keith Church in Hertfordshire, 79-year-old Hilda Murrell in Shropshire, 11-year-old Susan Maxwell on the Scottish border, 18-year-old Carol Lannen in Dundee, 5-year-old Caroline Hogg in Edinburgh, and with two stabbings of victims who had survived – like 60-year-old Eileen McCarthy, who was randomly stabbed in the face in an unprovoked attack in Pimlico – his confessions were checked against the evidence in the hope of bringing their killers to justice. But was David McKenzie, the convicted double-murderer, one of Britain’s most sadistic serial killers? One specific case was unnervingly similar to the killings of Barbara Pinder and Henrietta Osbourne. Hilda Murrell was born on the 3rd of February 1906 at All Stretton in Shrewsbury. Shropshire born and bred, she was one of two daughters to Owen & Lily. Being middle-class, she was Cambridge educated, and like her father, she became a successful rose-grower which suited her nature being a woman of peace, and although unmarried and independently wealthy, she didn’t dress like she had any money. Described as ‘highly intelligent, independent and defiantly individual’, 78-year-old Hilda was a die-hard supporter of CND (The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), a political group advocating for the unilateral worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. If there was a march, she was on it. If there was a protest, she was in it, whether at Greenham Common or Hyde Park, US or Soviet embassies, breaking into military bases, nuclear power stations or missile sites. But her big bugbear was ‘Sizewell B’, a nuclear power station in Suffolk. Three month before she was murdered, Hilda was due to present a paper at the public inquiry into ‘Sizewell B’, which obviously led to a wealth of conspiracy theories. One year before Henrietta’s murder and nearly seven months before Barbara’s, just before noon on Wednesday 21st of March 1984, Hilda left Abbey Foregate in Shrewsbury having done some shopping, gone to the bank and purchased some tickets to a charity draw, and said by friends who saw her to be in a good mood, in her battered white Renault 5, Hilda returned to her pleasant three-bedroomed detached house called ‘Ravenscroft’ at 52 Sutton Road, where for many years she had lived alone. As she always did, she put away some shopping, and dressed practically – in a brown woollen coat, two jumpers, a woollen skirt, moccasin type boots, a wide brimmed hat and spectacles – and as she always did, she went up to her bedroom to take off her outdoor clothes, and that is when he struck. As before, Police were uncertain whether (as with Henrietta) she’d disturbed a burglar who had gained entry via an already open door, or (as with Barbara), he’d followed her in when she had unlocked it. The rooms were ransacked, her purse was open and the cash was taken, but not her chequebook, and although it was claimed her report into ‘Sizewell B’ was stolen, the Police would state this was untrue. It was also said that the wires to her telephone were cut, some say professionally, but some say not. But again, the theft didn’t seem to be the attacker’s primary motive. During this 45 minute attack, in her bedroom, she was beaten and violently assaulted, rendered semi-conscious as she fought for her life against a cruel, psychotic sadist who had easily overpowered her. With a cotton ironing board cover, he tied her hands to the upstairs bannisters, locked the doors and drew the curtains. With her screams impossible to hear, having partially stripped her and exposing her abdomen and chest, he sexually assaulted this elderly lady, and masturbated over her, ejaculating on her body, mopping up his filthy seed with some tissues, and then, he helped himself to a car of beer. But his attack was far from finished. With a knife taken from her kitchen, he untied her, and either unconscious or semi-conscious, her dragged to her car, and with her slumped in the passenger’s seat, at speed, he drove six miles from her home, far from anyone she knew and any place she felt safe. Between 12:45pm and 1:10pm, the white Renault 5 speeded and swerved up a back route to Newport; up Monkmoor Road, Telford Way, Heathgates island, Sundorne Road and to Haughmond Hill. As she slowly came to, Hilda saw that she was nowhere, speeding down an unrecognisable isolated lane with fields for as far as she could see, and sat next to a man with a knife in his hand, and very bad intentions. With no houses, farms or people nearby, she was alone, but she knew to survive, she had to fight back. As it drove along Hunkington Lane, she grabbed the steering wheel, and forced it into a ditch. With it having stalled, he tried to get it moving again, but it wouldn’t, and even though he tried to put a book under a wheel to attempt to give it grip, while he was distracted, she pocketed the car key, and fled. 78-year-old Hilda ran as fast as she could in her light moccasin boots, fleeing down the lane from this man who meant to do her harm, but being younger, stronger and faster, he soon caught up to her. And with a foul rage brewing and his attack far from finished, it was in a cornfield that he savaged her. No-one heard her cries, no-one came to her aid and no-one saw her die, except the sadist himself. A man in a grey-suit was seen running nearby, but no-one thought anything of it. At 3:30pm, Mr Scott, a local man was walking near the Moat where her body lay, barely alive, but being in a hollow and her brown clothes blending into the cornfield, he saw nothing. Later that afternoon, with her paralysed but still breathing, a police patrol spotted Hilda’s car, but not her, and radioed it in as a traffic accident. With licence plate, LNT 917W, identified as Hilda’s, they called at her home, which was locked-up with the curtains drawn, and by the next day, with her having failed to return home, Police gained entry. Inside, post was on the floor, milk on the doorstep, and although the lights were on, no-one was home. With no signs of forced entry, they only suspected a burglary when they saw that the rooms had been ransacked. But it was as they ascended the stairs, that they saw something more sinister had occurred. No blood, but a sexual assault had occurred in the bedroom, she was restrained using an ironing board cover on the stairs, the landing phone was severed and sperm-soaked tissues lay upon the floor… …and for three days, Hilda was remained missing. On Saturday the 24th of March 1984 at 10:25am, a gamekeeper’s wife from Hunkington was walking by the Moat, 500 yards from the road where the car had ploughed into a ditch, when she found Hilda. 200 yards from the body, her boots were found apart in the cornfield, with her glasses and hat further away, which showed a trail of fear as she had fled for her life, only to be chased and dragged back. Dumped in a hollow next to a tree, her body was found lying on its right hand side, her right arm bent and in front of her as if she was reaching out for help. Still wearing her semen-stained brown woollen coat and two jumpers, the stocking on her left foot was initially missing, but encircling her body were the clothes he had scattered; the stocking, her skirt and suspender belt, but her knickers were gone. With bruises to her face, she was beaten when he caught up with her. With both knees and shins cut, muddied and scuffed, it was clear she was dragged by her front or made to kneel as he assaulted her. In a nearby hedge, the knife he’d took from her kitchen was found, stained with her blood, the blade matching the defensive wounds to her hands, as – four times – she was stabbed in the abdomen, with pathologist Dr Nathanial Carey stating “a weapon had been held to her stomach, penetrating the skin in several places… which may have led to pain and distress”, as if his plan was to punish or torture her. But his cruelty was far from finished. Having been viciously stabbed multiple times through the stomach and liver, slowly she bled to death, but it wasn’t this that killed her. Being dumped into an isolated part of a remote field, from just after 1pm when she was stabbed, she was alive and lying there - silent and afraid – until the early of the next morning, when after hours of pain and confusion, being only semi-clad, she died of hypothermia. Like Barbara Pinder & Henrietta Osbourne, the murder of 78-year-old Hilda Murrell was a massacre. But was she murdered by the convicted double-killer, David McKenzie? The similarities were startling; a lone elderly lady initially attacked in her bedroom having disturbed a burglar who had broken in, ransacked the room and stolen little, if anything, only to dedicate most of this time to beating her unconscious, stabbing her frenziedly, torturing her for fun, and fleeing unseen. This was miles from Pimlico and Chelsea, but he came from Scotland and moved around the country. Of the ten or twelve killings he confessed to, Hilda’s was the one most similar to Barbara & Henrietta. Being the earliest of the three ‘old lady’ killings, his recall was sketchy, his retelling sometimes drifted from reality to fantasy, he had embellished certain details and some he had even made up – which he was known to do, and with the motives impossible to pin down as even he couldn’t say why he had killed her, when questioned by detectives, he confessed to her killing recalling the facts from memory. On the 11th of March 1990, as was mentioned to the jury in his double-murder trial, having passed the bar of proof to be tried in a court of law, the Director of Public Prosecutions accepted the case against David McKenzie in the murder of Hilda Murrell, but just like before, it was suspected that the trial might not go ahead, as being declared mentally unstable, he would be charged, but “unfit to plead”. Housed at Rampton High Security Hospital in Nottinghamshire, again he was assessed by psychiatrists to continually monitor his mental capacity, but it seemed unlikely this case would ever go to trial. Then, seven months later in October 1990, the case against David McKenzie was dropped by the DPP, as even though he had confessed, “there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges against him”. The community was shocked, outraged, a beloved woman had been brutally murdered and left to die, a psychopathic maniac had confessed to her killing, and the British Justice System had excused him. Rob Green, Hilda’s nephew, said of the case “I do no accept the McKenzie story. This man has a guilt complex and by confessing to the murder, he expiates it. I really do not believe that he is the answer”, as although Rob, a former naval intelligence officer believed she was killed because of ‘Sizewell B’… …there was some truth to his words, as McKenzie was never Hilda’s killer. In 1992, following the collapse of the trial, Labour MP Tam Dalyell raised the matter in the House of Commons and petitioned for the case to be reopened. With no suspects, now that McKenzie had been dismissed as his fingerprints didn’t match those at the scene, and according to Geoffrey Robertson QC “McKenzie could not be linked to the killing of Miss Murell”, as his blood was of a different group, and having examined to the semen-stained tissues, “her killer was infertile, but McKenzie was fertile”. According to the medical data, the killer had undergone a vasectomy, whereas McKenzie had not. West Mercia Police re-examined over 3000 statements, 500 police reports, 6000 lines of inquiry and more than 3000 exhibits, and although this re-investigation led to no new suspects, with the tissues being stored, in 2003 when technology had caught up, being sent for testing at the Birmingham DNA Testing Centre, Detective Superintendent Mick Brunger, the senior investigating officer in the cold case review, said: "It was DNA that eventually led to the breakthrough that they didn't have in 1984". In June 2003, West Mercia police arrested 37-year-old builder's labourer Andrew George of Meadow Farm Drive in Harlescott, Shrewsbury, three miles south of Hilda’s home. Back in 1984, he was living in a children’s home and was 16 year old when he attacked, sexually assaulted and murdered Hilda. When first questioned, he lied about knowing her. But in custody at Blakenhurst Prison, when asked by his girlfriend at the time, Anne Goode, how his fingerprints were found in Hilda’s home, he told her a door had been open for a couple of days at her home and he had gone in to "have a look around". He had consistently denied murdering her, he admitted to only telling a “half truth” to the Police, he confessed to using some of the conspiracy theories about Sizewell B being the reason for her murder to "save my neck when I was in prison", and even though – like McKenzie – he too tried to pin the blame on an innocent man, he could never explain how his semen got on the tissues, or Hilda’s clothes. Tried at Stafford Crown Court, Andrew George admitted to burglary and being in Hilda’s home, but he denied her kidnap and murder. In May 2005, found guilty of all charges, Justice Wakerley sentenced him to life for a minimum term of 15 years. He summed up "the last hours of poor Mrs Murrell were truly awful", and although – given the sadism and cruelty he had inflicted – the sentence was unduly lenient as the judge had to pass it on the basis that it was done while a juvenile, "if you had committed that crime recently, as an adult, I would have considered a whole life order: no release ever". Detective Chief Inspector Chris Knight said "Andrew George left Hilda Murrell to die a slow and painful death. He has lived with this knowledge for more than two decades”, exacerbating her family’s grief and pain, “and with the fear that one day justice would catch up with him. Today is that day"… …but with Andrew George convicted and categorically confirmed using fingerprints and DNA evidence to be the killer of Hilda Murrell, where does that leave us with the confessions of David McKenzie? Alongside the killings Barbara Pinder and Henrietta Osbourne, he confessed to ten or twelve murders. One which seemed at odds with the others from the beginning was the unsolved murder of 27-year-old Keith Church in July 1982, who was stabbed to death while riding his bike down Hoddesdon High Street in Hertfordshire by an aggressive man in a Red Cortina or Vauxhall Viva for no known reason. Dying on his way to hospital, Keith Church described his attacker as 5 foot 10 and stocky, a description not unique but also not dissimilar to McKenzie, but with McKenzie having no links to Hoddesdon or Hertfordshire, he was thoroughly investigated as a suspect, but there was no evidence against him. And although widely reported in the press, locally and nationally, it remains unsolved to this day. But why would McKenzie randomly attack a man… …when his chosen victims were always old women and young girls? Born in Inverness and raised in Dundee, one of the most high-profile unsolved murders that McKenzie was a suspect for was Carol Lannan, an 18 year-old sex-worker and mother-of-one from Dundee. Last seen in Exchange Street, the city's red light district, being driven away in a red Ford Cortina taxi at 8pm on the 20th of March 1979, 11 days later, her naked body was found strangled in Templeton Woods, with her handbag and clothes later found on the banks of the River Don, 85 miles away from Dundee. Over the years, this case had been linked to Bible John in Glasgow and the World’s End Murders in Edinburgh, and with 20-year-old Elizabeth McCabe found naked and strangled just a few yards away 11 months later, these two murders have frequently been linked together, but not to David McKenzie. It lacked the same level of sadism, torture and sex, they didn’t come off the back of a failed burglary, and as a coward, McKenzie never attacked in public, but always behind the locked door of a bedroom. McKenzie was a self-confessed paedophile with a conviction for the rape and buggery of a young girl in Pimlico in 1986, so it made some sense to take seriously his confession that on the 30th of July 1982, he abducted 11-year-old Susan Maxwell as she walked home in Coldstream on the Scottish borders, and on the 8th of July 1983 that he abducted 5-year-old Caroline Hogg from outside of her home in the Edinburgh suburb of Portobello. Being stripped, bound and raped, their bodies were found in ditches miles from their homes, having been driven away in a van. But we know this wasn’t David McKenzie. He never abducted girls, he always lured them in, or broke into their homes and raped them in private. These murders were entirely sexual, as (based on Barbara Pinder and Henrietta Osbourne’s murders) McKenzie had a hatred of women, which is why he tortured them and stabbed them in the neck and face. And besides, forensic evidence and a criminal trial has confirmed that these girls were murdered by the paedophile and sadistic serial killer, Robert Black, and McKenzie’s retelling was sketchy at best. As for the other murders or crimes he confessed to, they were investigated but no evidence was linked to him, and in many cases, he wasn’t even in the same city, county or country at the time of the killings. So why did he confess to them; out of cruelty, for sadistic fun, or was he compelled to? Following the collapse of the trial into the murder of Hilda Murrell, David McKenzie was charged with wasting police time, as although this blabbermouth had confessed to her murder and seemed to know many details about it – even though the DNA sample was 20 years away from proving conclusive – his confession was a mix of reality and fantasy by a known liar with the facts widely reported in the press… …and that’s where he got everything from, the newspapers, as even though he had a low IQ owing to a limited education, burdened by a very retentive memory, he could reel off all of these details at will. When asked how he felt about the fact that that he had wasted police time, as his fingerprints and blood group had proven he hadn’t murdered Hilda Murrell, McKenzie said “I feel guilty. I feel I did it”. In his defence, when asked about the murders of Carol Lannen, Elizabeth McCabe, Keith Church, Hilda Murrell, Caroline Hogg & Susan Maxwell who he had confessed to partially derailing the investigation, Robin Grey QC asked “If someone said to you that they were with you miles away at the time of the killing so you could not have done it, what would you say?”, he replied “I would still believe I did it”. So was this a game for him, did it give him a sexual thrill, or was something else plaguing his mind? On the 30th of March 1990, at The Old Bailey, found guilty of the murders of Barbara Pinder & Henrietta Osbourne, Judge Richardson QC summed up: “David McKenzie, you have been found guilty of two of the most appalling killings I can recall. You are a frighteningly dangerous man and my duty is to protect the public”, with the jury told he was due to be tried for the murder of Hilda Murrell. Justice was done. From the 7th to the 25th July 1992, McKenzie appealed his conviction at the Court of Appeal before the Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor, Mr Justice Simon Brown and Mr Justice Roch. The defence pleaded that McKenzie was convicted “based on his confession despite false admissions to a dozen others he could not possibly have committed”, in short, “David McKenzie is not a serial killer, he is a serial confessor”. At his original trial, both the defence and the prosecution agreed that; he had an “inherent personality disorder”, that he was manipulative but also susceptible, that six psychiatrists gave differing opinions on whether he knew the difference between reality or fantasy, and that even when faced with the proof that at least eight of the murders he confessed to, he didn’t commit, he “felt guilty”, so in his mind, he was guilty. But the jury chose to reject this, and stuck with the only evidence, his confession. On the 25th of July 1992, two years after his conviction for the brutal double murders of Barbara Pinder & Henrietta Osbourne, the Judge ruled “cases depending solely or mainly on confessions have given rise to miscarriages of justice”, so with changes made to the law, David McKenzie was acquitted. (End) McKenzie remains at Rampton on a hospital order, being convicted of rape and endangering life. Assessed by one psychiatrist for his original trial, when McKenzie was given the details of an entirely fictional murder case, he confessed it to. When told it was fictional, he stated “I still feel I did it”. This was used in his defence, but dismissed by the court, already weighed down by a wealth of evidence. All of the cases he confessed to, McKenzie had read about in the newspapers, and although he had a low IQ, blessed or burdened by a retentive memory, an inability to tell reality from fantasy, and a guilt complex stemming from a disturbed childhood, even with a sketchy confession, the detectives said “he revealed details only the killer could have known”, but - being very susceptible – although some details were deliberately not reported in the press to trap the killer – like the knitting needle, the ball point pen or the chopstick used to torture Barbara & Henrietta – these confessions were taken during a week of police questioning in the absence of a solicitor when slip-ups or coercion may have occurred. When told there was no fingerprints or DNA to link him to Barbara Pinder’s murder, McKenzie said “I still feel I done it”, even though Police would later prove he was in hospital at the time of the killing. With Barbara & Henrietta’s killings most likely linked to the same maniac, as well as the attacks on the women of Pimlico & Chelsea, McKenzie’s confession and the Police’s reliance to use (and maybe) abuse it to solve a series of unsolved cases has let the real killer go free. And with both investigating officers in Barbara’s case dead and the exhibits lost or destroyed, it once again will remain unsolved. There’s no denying that David McKenzie was a deranged and dangerous man, but what’s deadlier; a law system willing to convict an innocent man using only his confession, a mentally-ill man who claims to be a serial killer even though there’s no evidence he committed any, or the fact that so many cases were derailed and their killers walked free, as the Police believed the confessions of a blabbermouth? The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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