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.
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY: Thursday the 5th of June 1975, hairdresser William ‘Tommy’ Walker headed into Birmingham to buy supplies, he went to a few bars, and the nest day, his body was found 6 miles from his home, in a lover’s lane having been beaten to death and robbed. The police convicted two men of his murder, but how safe was this conviction?
SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to Murder Mile: Unleashed. (Engine) And I’m away. Goodbye London. Hello Britain. And as I cruise the UK’s canal network in my little boat, I shall bring you true crime cases from the cities, towns and villages I visit. This week, I’m in Bentley, Warwickshire to explore how solid the conviction of Tommy Walker’s killers really were. My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 360: Who ‘Rolled’ Tommy Walker? This killing began like any other; it had a victim (Tommy Walker), a suspect (Martin O’Halloran), a motive (robbery) and it ended after an investigation with two arrests, a trial and two convictions. It barely made the national press, yet it was called a miscarriage of justice, full of lies and corruption. In the eyes of the law, the murder was solved. The evidence was overwhelming, the culprits confessed, corroborated by witnesses, and Martin O’Halloran & Arthur Langford were convicted and imprisoned. So, why does a question mark hang over the killing Tommy Walker? Tommy hated his Christian name of William, so William Thomas Walker was known by everyone in his circle as ‘Tommy’. He also said he was 54-years-old, but being a little vain, Tommy wasn’t born in 1921 as he claimed, but in 1918, making him 57, but who doesn’t shave off a year or two as they age? Tommy was born and raised in the former mining village of Polesworth in North Warwickshire, living with his father, Christopher, who was a bricklayer and his housewife mother, Sarah, at 14 The Common with his older brother Albert and sister Dorothy, where they were educated at The Polesworth School. Generations of Walkers had lived and died in Polesworth, so everyone knew Tommy… or they thought they did, as although he never married or had a girlfriend – with homosexuality being only partially decriminalised in 1967 – few villagers knew he was gay, as many thought he was ‘eccentric’ or ‘camp’ like the other secretly gay or bisexual men of that era, Larry Grayson, Rock Hudson or Freddie Mercury. Aged 14, in the early 1930s, Tommy found his calling under the training of a local hairdresser and after a decade learning his craft, by the end of World War Two, he opened his own salon on the Tamworth Road which he ran for almost 30 years, becoming ‘one of the top ladies stylists in the district’. Many of his clients were wealthy, but his salon never expended being staffed by two assistants and his sister. As a man of sophistication and class, he was always stylishly dressed, he loved the finer things in life like fine wine, good food and high art. He was said to be pleasant and well mannered, if occasionally, a little bit sassy, but he was never embroiled in fights or arguments, as he always chose an easier life. For several years, he had lived in a small but tasteful flat at 23 Abbey Green Court in Polesworth, with his “friend” Tony Haynes, a bus driver with Midland Red in Tamworth, having met him 16 years before. Tony said “he was the kindest man you could wish to meet… if he saw anyone alone in a pub, he would buy them a drink. He was always smiling”, but he wasn’t a big drinker or a party animal. Described as a “perfect gentleman”, Tommy had no enemies, his business didn’t make a fortune, he had no secrets (except the obvious), and two months prior he’d holidayed with Tony in Morrocco, but he didn’t live an extravagant life. Some people said he was wealthy, but he wasn’t, as didn’t own his flat, his car was a nearly new Mark II Ford Capri in roman bronze, and in his will he left just £3400, £37,500 today. Tommy was murdered as proven in a court of law, but how safe was this conviction? Thursday the 5th of June 1975 was his last day alive, and also, although an important day for Britain, as a referendum had been called to see if we were to remain a member of the European Community, it was a typically ordinary day for Tommy Walker. He awoke, had breakfast, dressed in a white vest, blue blazer, a blue and red tie, a pair of hush puppies and – as a rare snow storm had hit a few days before, being a cool 12 to 14 degrees – he wore a distinctive suede jacket with a green flecked lining. Thursdays were the salon’s half day, so he closed at 1pm. At 2pm, he went to the poling station to cast his vote, Tony saw him chatting with two ladies and recalled “he said ‘cheerio, I’m going to Atherstone to tax my car, then I’m going along Watling Street to Birmingham”. All of this he did, and having filled up with fuel, at 4pm, he collected his stock at the wholesalers, leaving it in the boot of his Ford Capri. He bought a bottle of Bordeaux at Rackhams and at 5:20pm parked at the back of New Street Station. Far from the prying eyes and gossiping tongues of his village, this was where his secret life began… …but he wasn’t nervous or afraid, as he did this most Thursdays and Saturdays. Edwin Jowitt QC for the Prosecution unfairly stated in court “it was Mr Walker’s practice to spend the evening prowling the public houses and lavatories… to pick up a homosexual partner and take him back to Polesworth… he liked them manly and unkempt… younger men who looked down and out”. This is why robbery was said to be the motive, “as among the ‘gay set’, his nickname was ‘moneybags’ and ‘the millionaire’… he was often seen with rolls of notes in his hand”, and being an easy mark – not just for ‘queer bashers’ who violently attacked gay men, but also petty thieves who masqueraded as homosexuals – several times he had been assaulted, with his car stolen and his flat burgled. The pubs and clubs he visited were described as ‘dangerous’, ‘depressing’ and ‘grubby little hell holes’, and although he stood-out amongst the unwashed drunks, here he was known, liked and was a regular. At about 7:30pm, he was seen outside of the Toreador pub on Edgbaston Street, a dive for deadbeats, with an unidentified man, possibly Martin O’Halloren or Arthur Langford, but this is uncertain. At 8pm, he phoned Tony at his flat, “he said that he had met a friend” - someone nicknamed either ‘Irish’ or ‘Irish Thing’ but the line was crackly – he said nothing else, “but his last words were ‘I shan’t be late’”. At roughly 9:45pm, a short walk from the Bull Ring, he was seen by a friend, alone and outside of The Crown on the corner of Station Street and Hill Street, they talked and Tommy seemed his usual self. Then, a little after 10:10pm, he was seen near a set of notorious toilets at New Street Station between platforms 7 & 12, as used by gay men for cottaging, although the Police found few witnesses to confirm this, as that required them confessing to an illegal activity with Tommy just hours before his death. But is this where Tommy met his killer? In a pub in Birmingham’s gay district? In a public toilet for sex? Did they meet elsewhere as planned? And did Tommy plan to bring him back to his flat in Polesworth? Tony confirmed that Tommy often bought men back, “rough types”, so had no reason to hide it, and sometime after 10:40pm, Tommy drove his car 19 miles north-east in the direction of his village… ..and yet, he never made it home. Sometime between 11:10 and 11:30pm, five and a half miles short of Polesworth, Tommy’s Ford Capri pulled into the entrance of a dark secluded bridleway off the B4116 Coleshill Road in the tiny rural parish of Bentley. Opposite, the Horse & Jockey pub was closing, and at 11:40pm, as licensee Mary Taylor waved goodbye to her staff for the night, she saw Tommy’s car was parked up, dark and empty. No-one suspected that anything bad had happened, but 100 yards away, Tommy was dying in pain. The next morning, realising that Tommy was missing, Tony rang the hospitals to see if he had been admitted, then phoned the Police recalling “I can’t think who would want to do such a thing to him”. Around dawn, Alfred Stringer, a miner heading to the Baddesley Colliery walked down the bridleway, found a black pen and pocketed it, thinking nothing more of it. Passing again around noon with fellow miner Sam Keeling, “in the spot where I found the pen, the grass at the side of the path was lying flat. Being nosey, I saw a man in the ditch. He was lying face up with blood covering his face. It stunned me. He was partly covered in bracken”. He ran to the Horse & Jockey and Mary Taylor called the police. The investigation was headed up Detective Superintendent Harry Atkinson of Warwickshire CID. Timing-wise, a couple left the bridleway just after 11pm and didn’t see Tommy’s Capri, Mrs Mercer of nearby Meadow Cottage heard raised voices at around 11:15pm which she described as “cries of pain, then all went quiet”, and Mary Taylor saw the Capri parked and empty, but heard nothing at 11:40pm, which matches the fact that pathologist Derek Barrowcliffe established death as just before midnight. The crime scene was simple; tyre marks for a Ford Capri lay at the bridleway’s entrance, a flattened patch of grass suggested a struggle had taken place, his pockets were empty, drag marks led to a ditch, the body was dumped and covered in bracken, the car was stolen, and the culprits had vanished. Newspapers reported “Police believe that robbery was the prime motive for the killing”, which made sense, as everything of value or that could identify him was missing; two chequebooks, his credit cards, his wallet, his wrist watch, his keys, as well as his umbrella, his trilby hat, his suede coat, and his car. Police used tracker dogs to search the surrounding area, but none of these items could be found. For the police, this seemed to be the obvious timeline; Tommy went to Birmingham, met an unnamed man or men at 8pm as confirmed in a call to Tony, Tommy and both men had planned to drive back to Tommy’s flat, but instead stopped off at this lover’s lane in Bentley. All three – Tommy, and it is said Martin O’Halloran and Albert Langford, even though they both denied this - walked 250 feet into the isolated darkness of the bridleway, and either on the pretext of sex or masquerading as gay men mistakenly believing that Tommy was wealthy, they beat him and robbed him, but took it too far. Reports state “Tommy was about to engage in sexual activity”, it wasn’t clear how they determined this, whether his flies were undone or his penis was out, but he had partially undressed, as he had left his suede coat in the car, his tie was undone, his blazer was open, and his white vest was bloodstained. Prior to or during sex, in a surprise attack, one of the men (said to be Langford) grabbed Tommy from behind, pulled his blazer over his head and trapped his arms so he couldn’t fight back. With one culprit (maybe O’Halloran) described as “brutal, merciless, experienced in violence”, he viciously beat Tommy about the head, kicking him as he lay helpless on the ground, with pathologist Derek Barrowcliffe stating “his skull was fractured, he died in considerable pain and agony”, as haemorrhaging internally, it took at least an hour for Tommy to die, as he lay paralysed and barely conscious in the cold ditch. So, did this begin as a robbery by two down and outs masquerading as gay men… …and mistakenly end in a murder? Tommy Walker had no enemies or rivals, only friends, so that side of the investigation hit a dead end. His credit cards and his chequebooks weren’t used after his death, and his jewellery wasn’t pawned. His car, a bronze Mark II Ford Capri was one of 38,000 sold that year so it wasn’t exactly unique, but on the first day of the hunt, the West Midlands Police helicopter was called in to search for the car. Eight hours later, 105 miles north-west of Bentley, in the village of Rainford in St Helen’s, Merseyside, a farmer found the Ford Capri abandoned in a field, its registration plate TKV195J was missing, as well as Tommy’s driving licence, insurance certificate, MOT, registration book, and being forensically aware it had been wiped clean of fingerprints, with the carpet ripped out, and the console’s ashtray missing. Five days later, the licence plates were found not too far away, having been wiped clean and smashed. Were his killers from Merseyside? The Police thought not, as believing it was probably a smoke screen to throw them of the trail, they kept their focus local, thinking that Tommy’s attackers had initially planned to ‘roll’ Tommy and raid his flat, but realising he may be dead, they dumped the car, and fled. Four weeks into the man-hunt, the investigation’s HQ moved from the nearby village of Atherstone to Steelhouse Lane in Birmingham City Centre, stating “we are certain that the ‘twilight’ world in which Tommy lived could give us the answers we want” believing his sexuality was also a motive to his killing. But this side of the investigation was flawed from the outset, as their relations with the gay community was hostile, and their detective skills were peppered with ignorance and prejudice. Treating every gay man as a suspect rather than a potential witness, constables swarmed the gay district, and (laughably) undercover officers dressed in floral shirts and tight trousers tried to “blend in”. Many gay pubs were raided, regulars were “rounded up”, and the Police seemed shocked that “they were unwilling to talk”. And why would they, as back then, being one of the most corrupt Police forces in the country – who at that moment were fabricating evidence and forcing confessions leading to the wrongful convictions of the Birmingham 6, which in 1989, led to the disbanding of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad – the gay community went silent over the killing of one of their own, for fear of being ‘fitted up’. Details were sparse and sketchy at best, and said to be “corrupt to the core”, a month later, the Police announced “we have traced a witness to the murder who is being given full police protection”, yet in hindsight, it’s likely that this was either a lie, as they claimed “we have a photofit of the killer, but have decided not to release it”, which is an odd move in a nationwide man-hunt, or that this witness was actually Mrs Mercer of Meadow Cottage, who admitted she heard “cries of pain”, but saw nothing. One month in, and the Police didn’t have a name or a description of his killers. All they had to go on was a remark made by Tommy to Tony over a crackly phone line in which he though he said at 8pm, he met a man nicknamed ‘Irish’, ‘Irish Thing’ or ‘Irish Something’ suggesting he couldn’t recall the rest. Reports state “exhaustive inquiries pointed in the direction of Arthur Langford”, a 35-year-old Scottish born native of Birmingham, twice divorced, who was nicknamed ‘peg leg Jock’ due to his artificial limb. With fair hair, side burns and a handlebar moustache, his criminal record was so long he was on first name terms with the police, he was seen drinking with Tommy in Birmingham that night, he was broke and of no-fixed-abode, and admitted of Tommy, “I know the bloke. He was a hairdresser. I had known him a long time and he used to give me money. I knew where he lived and I liked his apartment”. Arrested in a pub in Vauxhall on the 15th of July 1975, Langford was charged at Atherstone Magistrates Court, he plead ‘not guilty’ to murder and said he was in the company of his friend, Martin O’Halloran. Two days later, O’Halloran was arrested at his sister’s home at Honeysuckle Gardens in Hatfield, where he is said to have stated to Police “I have been expecting you”. Martin Anthony O’Halloran was a 26-year-old Irish drifter from Kildare, who was known as ‘Gypsy Dave’ and ‘Kojak’, he had brown hair and arched eyebrows, and having a low IQ, it was said he couldn’t read or write, and had a poor memory. In his first statement, Langford said that on Thursday 5th of June 1975 (the day of the murder) himself, O’Halloran and a friend Alan Smith hitchhiked from Birmingham to London, met O’Halloran’s girlfriend Patricia Riorden, Alan left them, they slept rough in Charing Cross, and headed to O’Halloran’s sisters house in Hatfield, where they stayed for several weeks. And at no point did they return to Birmingham. Read Langford’s statement, O’Halloran agreed with this version, but the detectives weren’t having it, “I was arrested” O'Halloran recalled “and this copper said ‘you’re guilty, that’s it’. I told him he’d got it wrong but he slapped me across the face”. As far as the police were concerned, they had their man. And then, Langford entirely changed his story claiming he was in fear of the police’s brutality… …and put the blame on Martin O’Halloran, his friend with the low IQ and bad memory. Presenting himself as O’Halloran’s lapdog, Langford said they met Tommy in Birmingham on the night of the murder. Raymond Conners, manager of the Ringway Club on Bromsgrove Street recalled seeing ‘Peg Leg’ and ‘Gypsy Dave’ along with a woman, believed to be Patricia Riorden, they then went to the Rendezvous café, and was spotted by a bus conductor who recalled the man with the artificial leg. That night, between 9 and 10pm, a barman at The Crown on the corner of Station Street and Hill Street recalled seeing Tommy, Patricia, Langford and O’Halloran sitting in the back lounge, drinking together. The mid-section around the murder was sketchy in Langford’s retelling, and yet, backed-up by other witnesses, what happened next painted what was described as “a heartbreaking picture of betrayal”. In the early hours of Friday the 6th of June, after the body was hidden and the car was dumped, Martin O’Halloran’s sister, Mary, said they both arrived at her house in Hatfield, and she was shocked at their state, “Martin’s clothes were stained with blood and there were grass marks on his knees”. He told her he had been in a fight, so she washed his clothes, and she scrubbed his shoes with a nailbrush. In her statement, Mary recalled that O’Halloran had said they had argued, “Martin said ‘I hit him, he went down and didn’t get up’. Arthur said to me ‘I went to see if the bloke was dead’”, but he wasn’t. Keen to make it ‘look good’, “Martin hit and kicked him again”, and then emptied Tommy’s pockets. Some details in her statement make no sense, as she claimed “they put him in the car, and drove him to his flat”, which Arthur knew, recalling “I knew where he lived and I liked his apartment”, but for no known reason – except that Tony was in - “Arthur said they went back to the (bridleway) and put him in a safe place”. They covered the body in bracken, drove the car to Merseyside, stripped it and fled. When asked by the judge why Mary was testifying against her own brother, Martin O’Halloran said it was because she was in love with Arthur Langford, and O'Halloran had "taken him away from her". As for Patricia Riorden, O’Halloran’s girlfriend, even though in the first of six statements, she said she had been with both men in London, his alibi was shattered when she stated that he was supposed to meet her that night, but he didn’t turn up and threatened to hurt her if she didn’t corroborate his lies. According to the statements of his best friend, his girlfriend and his sister, Martin O’Halloran, the Irish drifter with the low-IQ and the bad memory had targeted Tommy Walker, attacked him, and ordered Arthur Langford, his patsy, to help get rid of the body. He had then ordered Alan Smith to claim they had hitchhiked to London together, providing him with a weak alibi, and forcing Mary & Patricia to lie. The Police believed this wasn’t a grudge attack or a targeted hit, as unlike Langford, O’Halloran didn’t know Tommy, so it was more likely he was a victim of ’queer rolling’. In court, an unnamed witness stated that O’Halloran told him he’d ‘rolled a queer’, and was seen wearing a watch, possibly Tommy’s. But why, if he had planned to rob a supposedly wealthy homosexual who was nicknamed ‘money bags’ and carried rolls of notes, why did O’Halloran not attack Tommy in one of the notorious public toilets where he was seen cottaging, where witnesses would be few and the Police would fail to investigate? Why did he travel, with Tommy and Langford, 19 miles from Birmingham, a few miles from his flat in Polesworth and stop at an isolated lover’s lane in the tiny rural village of Bentley? Did Tommy demand sex, and scupper their plans as heterosexual thieves masquerading as gay to ‘roll’ a wealthy stylist, or was the car stopped here as it had become clear that, he couldn’t rob Tommy’s flat as Tony was home. Either way, a robbery went too far, and instead of being beaten senseless, Tommy was murdered. Questioned over many days and weeks, O’Halloran broke down being interrogated by the police. So, had the Police finally uncovered the truth… …or was this illiterate drifter with a low IQ and bad memory just confused by all these statements? On the 3rd of March 1976 at Birmingham Crown Court, Martin O’Halloran and his ex-best-friend Arthur Langford pleaded ‘not guilty’ to murder. Initially both were defended by Faber & Co, but Langford’s defence was later presented by John Field Evans QC with Brian Escott-Cox QC for O’Halloran. Edwin Jowitt QC for the Prosecution pulled apart their alibis stating “both men have lied their way out of trouble”, with Alan Smith being charged with perjury for providing a false statement. With a wealthy of witnesses condemning them, 80 pieces of evidence against them, Tommy having stated before his death he had met an “Irishman”, and with O’Halloran portrayed as a drunk with a foul temper and Langford as his terrified lapdog, the jury took just three hours of deliberation to come to a conclusion. On 26th of March 1976, Martin O'Halloran was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence, with the judge describing him as a ‘very dangerous man’. Albert Langford was found guilty, but of the lesser charged of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to just four years in prison. Summing up, the Judge said to Langford “I accept on the evidence I have heard that you were the weaker element… you were dominated by O’Halloran… you were his lapdog, tagging along, willing to join in anything he was doing. I think one of the few things you said that was true was that you didn’t want this to happen to Tommy”. Both men were convicted, but how safe were these convictions? (End) Before the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the Police could decide which evidence they brought to trial, even if it unfairly favoured one defendant over another in an era of endemic Police corruption. After their convictions, Langford sent O’Halloran a series of letters (even though he was illiterate); one read "Martin, as you know, I did this killing on my own", another read, “every day I feel a little more sad knowing that you are walking around convicted of a crime you did not do”, and although he also sent a confession to O’Halloran’s lawyers, as it conflicted with the trial’s conclusion, it was dismissed. In 1995, he begged for a fresh investigation, but the Prisons Minister Ann Widdecombe rejected this. By then, he had served his eight-year minimum tariff, but still pleading his innocence, after two strokes and a heart attack left him partially sighted and paralysed, O’Halloran went on to serve a full 28 years. In 1996, Langford died, taking the truth with him. But Maggie, Langford’s daughter, later verified the letters as real and stated that her dad "was adamant that he'd done it… he wouldn't say that all this time if it wasn't true", and she said that her father went to his grave protesting O'Halloran's innocence. In June 1999, the BBC’s Rough Justice programme found a witness who admitted they lied under Police pressure, one lied in court, several retracted their statements including Patricia Riorden – who said that O’Halloran was in London at the time of the murder – and questioning Mary, O’Halloran’s sister, she said that the bloody clothes she washed actually belonged to Langford and not O’Halloran, and being illiterate, that she had no idea what she was signing when the police wrote up her statements. In 2003, Martin O’Halloran was released from prison, being nearly blind and disabled. For 12 years, his appeals were rejected, so in 2015, he submitted himself to the Utah Test, the most accurate polygraph test, and he passed. And even if that system is flawed, ask yourself this; given that he was illiterate, had a low IQ and a bad memory which Langford abused to get off a murder charge, could he have come up with this plan to use himself as a gay honey-trap, would he have known wipe Tommy’s car clean of his fingerprints, strip it of any documentation, destroy the licence plates, the carpet, the ashtray and anything which would have forensically linked to him? Or was this just a coincidence that it fitted the Police’s needs? Was the conviction of Tommy Walker’s killer safe, or was it a miscarriage of justice? 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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