Either of two 1920s murder cases in England
The Crumbles Murders are two separate and unrelated crimes which occurred on a shingle beach located between Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay, England—locally referred to as "the Crumbles"—in the 1920s. The first of these two murders is the 1920 bludgeoning murder of 17-year-old Irene Munro, committed by two men: Jack Field and William Gray. The second murder to occur upon the Crumbles is the 1924 murder of 38-year-old Emily Kaye, who was murdered by her lover, Patrick Mahon.
The three perpetrators of the two "Crumbles Murders" were all tried at Lewes assizes before Mr Justice Avory. All three were executed by hanging at Wandsworth Prison. The executioner of all three men was Thomas Pierrepoint.
Murder of Irene Munro.
Background.
Irene Violet Munro was a 17-year-old typist, employed by a firm of chartered accountants based in Oxford Street, London. In August 1920, Munro informed her mother, Flora, of her intentions to vacation alone in the seaside resort of Eastbourne rather than visit relatives in Portobello, Edinburgh, as she and her widowed mother had traditionally done for many years. Her mother agreed to these plans and assisted in the arrangements for her only daughter to spend two weeks at Seaside, Eastbourne, before returning to the family home in South Kensington. She herself travelled by sea to visit her family in Scotland on 14 August, embarking from Wapping Pier.
On 16 August, Munro travelled to the South Coast. She soon found lodgings at 393 Seaside and is known to have written a letter to her mother that evening, informing her of her safe arrival in Eastbourne and of her intentions to purchase gifts for family members.
By prearrangement, Munro paid her landlady, a Mrs Ada Wynniatt, the weekly cost for her room (30 shillings) in advance, and Mrs Wynniatt later stated she quickly "warmed" to the young Londoner who still had a slight Scottish accent.
Vacation.
Shortly after her arrival, Munro is known to have penned a second letter to her mother as she relaxed upon an Eastbourne beach, again informing her of her safe arrival and detailing her having visited local landmarks such as Beachy Head the previous day (17 August). She closed this letter by writing: "Goodbye for the present. Please give my love to Granny, Auntie, Jessie, and everyone. Your affectionate, Rene. XXXX."
Although Mrs Wynniatt stated Munro had been "fairly cheerful" during the initial days of her vacation, she later testified that, by 18 August, the girl had become somewhat melancholy, stating to her: "My mother wanted me to go to Scotland with her. I should have gone. I wish I had gone now."
Encounter with Field and Gray.
Three days after her arrival in Eastbourne, on 19 August, Munro encountered two local men: Jack Alfred Field (aged 19) and William Thomas Gray (aged 29). The two struck the pretence of a friendship with her, offering to show Munro some local landmarks before the trio had a drink in a local pub. Munro then returned to her hotel for lunch, having agreed to meet the two men at a bus stop located opposite the Archery Taven, close to the village of Pevensey, that afternoon. Before leaving her hotel shortly before 3:00 p.m., Munro informed her landlady of her intentions to travel to Hampden Park.
According to subsequent eyewitness accounts, Munro was already waiting at the bus stop when both men alighted from the platform of a bus to meet her. One of the last individuals to see Munro alive observed her talking amicably with the two as they walked in the direction of the Crumbles. According to this eyewitness, the younger of the two men was walking arm in arm with Munro at approximately 4:00 p.m.
Murder.
Once the three had reached a secluded section of the Crumbles, approximately 300 yards from the closest inhabited property and within sight of Pevensey Castle, Munro exclaimed she was tired, before reaching into her silk handbag for a handkerchief, which she used to dab her face. As she did so, the two men looked at each other, and Gray nodded to his companion. Field then raised the walking stick in his possession and poised the weapon at shoulder height as Gray attempted to snatch Munro's handbag. Although startled, the girl maintained her grip on her handbag, shouting, "Hey, what do you think—?" In response, Field struck Munro across her mouth with the metal ferrule of his walking stick, dislodging two of her teeth, loosening two others and causing her to fall backwards and scream in pain as Gray shouted, "Shut up!" Field then exclaimed to his companion, "For God's sake, do something!"
In response to both Munro's screams and Field's panicked exclamation, Gray grabbed a section of ironstone brick weighing 32 lbs located close to where she had fallen. She was then extensively bludgeoned about the face and head with this section of brick by Gray, sustaining several fractures and causing her to die of shock. Although most likely rendered deeply unconscious, Munro may have lived for up to thirty minutes before succumbing to her injuries. Gray then concealed the girl's handbag beneath his coat before removing a 9ct. gold ring from one of her fingers. Both men then hastily buried her body on the beach in a makeshift grave measuring four feet in depth, first covering her body with her coat and placing her hat over her face. One of her feet remained exposed above ground.
Within hours of the murder, both men are known to have visited the Albemarle Hotel, where they insisted on the two barmaids sharing a drink of their choice with them, also purchasing drinks for several local women with the money from Munro's purse. Later that afternoon, the two men visited the Eastbourne Hippodrome, where Field paid two local men sums of money he had borrowed from them several weeks earlier.
Discovery.
At 3:30 p.m. the following afternoon, Irene Munro's body was discovered by a 13-year-old boy named William Weller, who almost tripped upon her exposed foot while running across the beach. Her body was buried upon a bank alongside a light railway typically used for the transport of gravel. The grave itself was some 700 yards from the sea.
Police were summoned, with officers from both Hailsham and Eastbourne arriving at the scene. A large bloodstained stone was found two yards from her body, and two rusty shovels were also recovered at the crime scene. Her body lay on her left side, with her right leg and left arm extended, her left leg bent beneath her right, and her right arm folded across her chest. The makeshift grave was markedly shallow, with the shingle covering her body measuring between three and six inches in depth. The area of the Crumbles where Munro's body was discovered was promptly cordoned off, and an experienced investigator from Scotland Yard named George Mercer was dispatched to Eastbourne to supervise the investigation on 21 August.
Upon conclusion of a forensic examination of the crime scene late on the evening of 20 August, Munro's body was removed to the mortuary at Eastbourne Town Hall. Her body was informally identified by her landlady at the morgue the following day, and officially identified by her aunt on 22 August. The following morning, Jack Field read of the discovery of Munro's body in a local newspaper. At 10:30 a.m., both Field and Gray are known to have visited a military camp near Eastbourne, hoping to re-enlist in the army.
Autopsy.
An autopsy revealed Munro had been deceased for approximately twenty-four hours before her body was discovered. She had been attacked with such savagery that both her upper and lower jaw had been fractured, and several teeth had been dislodged or loosened. In addition, Munro had been extensively bludgeoned about the head, with a fracture wound to her left cheek extending to her left temple. The first severe blow to the left side of Munro's head had rendered her unconscious, with her death resulting from injury to the brain. Her right temple had also suffered a laceration wound. Initial suspicions the murder had been sexually motivated were disproven when the coroner discovered the girl had not been subjected to a sexual assault.
Investigation.
Having discovered the decedent's identity and learned via Mrs Wynniatt of Munro's intentions to visit Hampden Park, investigators visited numerous local cinemas, lodgings, and private hotels in their enquiries. Questioning the barmaids of the Albemarle Hotel revealed two local men named Billy and Jack had been regular patrons at the hotel's saloon bar in the weeks prior to the murder, although neither seemed to spend much. According to the barmaids, both men had been "broke" when they had visited the premises just hours prior to Munro's murder on 19 August. "Billy" had been wearing a herringbone suit; "Jack" had worn a dark suit and a cloth cap. Both had remained at the Albermarle until approximately 2:30 p.m., with Billy becoming flirtatious with one of the barmaids, a Miss Dorothy Ducker. When they returned to the bar that evening, both men had been "flush" with money which they had been "fairly throwing about". Both drank expensive bottled beers and purchased drinks for the barmaids and acquaintances as they smoked Turkish cigarettes.
Ducker also recalled that shortly before the two had left the premises at 2:30 p.m., she had refused to serve the two men a free drink. In response, the two had promised to return to the bar later that evening, with Billy stating to Ducker: "Very well, if you wait until the evening, we shall have more money by then." Upon their return, Ducker noted Billy's hands were "filthy dirty," to which he had claimed Jack had pushed him into the sea a few hours previously.
Police enquiries soon established Munro had been seen by numerous individuals talking with two men in the early afternoon of 19 August. Five of these witnesses were labourers who had been working on the Crumbles on the afternoon of the murder and who had seen Munro walking along the light railway line in the direction from Eastbourne. According to these witnesses, the girl had glanced in their direction and smiled as she passed them before reaching to stroke a stray kitten before the trio continued walking in the direction of Pevensey. Each unhesitantly identified Munro as being the girl they had seen with the two men. One of these men had been notably older than the other, who had been closer to the girl's age. Although the clothing the younger of the men had worn could not be precisely described beyond the fact it was most likely a blue suit, the older man had worn a new suit with a distinctive herringbone pattern. The individual walking arm in arm with Munro had been carrying a stick with a metal ferrule shaped like a dog's head at one end.
Another witness, Frederick Wells, informed Chief Inspector Mercer on 23 August he had also seen Munro walking in the direction of the Crumbles in the company of these men, the younger of whom he had often seen in Eastbourne in the fortnight prior to the murder, adding this individual often carried a yellow stick with a Bulldog's head upon the handle. Wells added he had last seen the trio climb beneath a fence some fifty yards from the railway line crossing the shingle. On 24 August, Wells accompanied police around Eastbourne, where he soon observed the two men talking to three young women. Wells indicated to police these were the two men he had seen in Munro's company five days earlier.
Initial release.
Police arrested both Field and Gray on suspicion of murder on the afternoon of 24 August. The two were driven to Eastbourne's Latimer Road Police Station, where Field is known to have remarked to an inspector: "We have been expecting this, as we both wear grey suits." Both men provided detailed statements regarding their movements on the early afternoon of 19 August, in which each claimed to have been in the company of the other at the Albemarle before returning to Gray's home, where they had eaten a meal prepared by Gray's wife before spending the remainder of the day at the Hippodrome. The five labourers who had seen Munro walking along the light railway line failed to identify either Field or Gray from an identity parade, and both were initially released from custody on 26 August.
Further witness statements.
Investigators had obtained ample