‘You mean he was responsible?’ Hunter interjected.
Kevin rolled his head. ‘This is not my official comment, but yes I thought so. I probed him several times about this during many sessions but he never expanded on the circumstances. All he would repeatedly say is that there was an inquest and that the coroner ruled it was an accident.’
‘But you believe he pushed the man.’
‘As I say, I have my belief, but no confession.’ He locked onto Hunter’s eyes. ‘See what I mean when I said interesting?’
Hunter nodded back.
‘After that he said it was just him and his mum, but she drank heavily and he had to sort out everything for the both of them. His life became very chaotic. He got a job as a butcher’s delivery boy and they just about scraped through on his wages. He said that despite his best efforts to stop her drinking she wouldn’t give up. He told me that sometimes she would go on a bender and get hysterical and crazy and then be out of it for days. Regularly, when he came home, she’d be lying in a pile of vomit and he’d have to clean her up and put her to bed. He said that she died when he was seventeen. It was another “accident”, as he put it. He told me he’d gone out on his deliveries one Friday, and when he’d got home at tea time he found his mother dead at the bottom of the stairs. She’d broken her neck. The police put it down to a drunken fall. The neighbours confirmed her problem with alcohol.’
‘You think he killed his mother as well then?’ asked Hunter.
Responding with a quick shrug he replied, ‘Again I talked to him several times about this, but he never changed his story, other than to say it was an accident, though I have to say he never showed any remorse or sympathy when he talked about her or the incident.’
‘So what happened to him after that?’
‘He said he fended for himself. He progressed from delivery boy to butchers’ apprentice and made a living. He kept on the flat and kept himself to himself. And I mean that literally. When I asked him about friends, all he would say is that he was too busy earning a living for friends.’
‘What about socialising – going out for a drink.’
He told me it never really bothered him. He said he used to go out but he’d been banned from his local for fighting so kept away. He said it wasn’t his fault – he was picked on, like at school, and just stood up for himself.’
‘What about relationships?’ asked Grace.
‘Didn’t have any as far as I’m aware. He never admitted to dating or having girlfriends. He used to say he was never really interested in girls.’
‘But he got married. How did he meet her?’
Kevin nodded. ‘Sheila you’re on about. Circumstances brought them together, not any arrangement. She was seven years older than Terry. Lived at sixteen Chapel Street. He used to deliver to her apparently. Terry said that he just used to chat with her when he delivered. He used to tell her about his upbringing and about the death of his mother, and he told me that she offered him empathy and kind words and she used to make him a cup of tea whenever he made his delivery. Then her husband got killed in a mining accident and things got hard. He said he returned the kindness by helping her out with her rent and bits of meat. He eventually moved in with her. He told me it was the first time anyone showed any kind of love for him.’ Kevin shook his head, ‘Quite sad really. I’ve met a lot like him in my work.’
Hunter said, ‘Not an excuse to be a killer and rapist though?’
The counsellor cracked a grin, ‘No, I’ll give you that. I’m not defending him, believe me. In fact, Terry’s upbringing mirrors that of a lot of the people I deal with – a bit like the ones you come across?’
Hunter acknowledged with a nod. ‘Can I just ask you something else about Terry?’
‘Fire away.’
‘We’ve spoken with the community bobby for the Chapel estate. The officer’s retired now, but he told us about Terry being caught for some burglaries in the late sixties. Did you ever talk to him about those?’
‘Yes, as part of Terry’s programme we discussed those during many of our sessions. You always needed several sessions with Terry before you got something from him. He used to ask me why I needed to know all this, so I told him that I wanted to know how he got involved in those offences, especially given the fact that he had a regular income and also that he’d found solace and love after all the sadness of his early life. I was surprised by his answer.’
Hunter’s eyebrows knitted. ‘Oh, what was that then?’
He paused momentarily and looked away thoughtfully. Then, bringing back his gaze said, ‘Before I tell you what he said about the burglaries let me tell you about a session I had with him before that. I’m telling you this because it was something that happened in Terry’s life before he committed the burglaries and I think you’ll find this more interesting and relevant.’ Pressing the tips of his fingers tightly together he steepled his hands. ‘I used to focus a number of his sessions on his personal life. Once he introduced the subject of his wife I was interested in the relationship he had with her and so probed him about that and his home life. Again, he skirted around a lot, but there was one time when he told me he’d got depressed once because he’d lost his job at the butcher’s. I asked him about that, thinking he’d brought it about himself, but he told me that the shop started to struggle in the mid-sixties because a supermarket had opened on the High Street and the butcher couldn’t afford to keep him on so let him go. He wasn’t out of work long though. He got a job at the pit but he said he hated it. Hated going there every day he told me, but it was the only job he could do which gave him the wage they needed. The strange thing about this conversation was that in one breath, what he said came over as being very bitter towards the butcher for giving him his cards, and in the next, he said it was a good thing because the shop got burned down and he would have been out of work anyway.’
‘What!’
Kevin nodded sharply, ‘A familiar theme appearing here eh? I asked him if he knew how that had happened and he just shrugged his shoulders, but he started grinning again when he told me that the fire brigade put it down as an accident. Apparently the butcher used to boil the bits of pork he couldn’t sell – pigs heads and feet, that kind of thing, in a huge floor-standing vat to make pork pies. Terry told me that used to be one of his jobs. Well, the way he told the story, was that the fire was put down to the gas burner setting fire to some bits of sawdust that were sprinkled around the floor. The butcher and his wife had to be rescued from their flat above the shop and the place was gutted.’
Hunter delivered a wry smile, ‘I suppose it’s too much to ask if you got a confession out of him?’
‘Terrence Braithwaite never confessed, even to the murder and the rapes he was found guilty of. Although I correct myself on that, he did confess about the burglaries he’d done, which is where I get back to your original question.’
‘What did he say about those?’
‘We talked a lot about the burglaries. In fact, it was the one series of offences he didn’t mind talking about, but what was strange about this was, when I asked him why he’d carried them out, expecting him to say something along the lines of “for gain,” he didn’t say that. What he actually said was that he did them for the buzz. He told me that he got a real thrill from carrying out a crime.’
‘That’s the first time I’ve heard a burglar say that. They usually come up with some lame excuse that they were drunk or high on drugs.’
‘It’s not exactly a surprise to me. Therapy is the one time prisoners can get things off their chest without repercussions and so they usually are a little more honest. I have had other offenders say similar things, but I wasn’t expecting that answer from Terry, especially because of how he’d skirted around all the other things.’
‘One of the things I’m particularly interested in is what the bobby told us, that during one of his burglaries, an allegation was made by a fifteen-year-old girl who was in bed at the time with flu, that he se
xually assaulted her. She said that he fondled her breasts, but he denied this and he was never charged with it.’
‘I am aware of that allegation and I did put it to him. He went into some depth to explain that job. Basically, he said that he never expected her to be in the house. He told me that he’d seen the back upstairs window open, got up onto the outhouse and climbed in and found her in bed. She woke up, and he said he’d panicked and tried to stop her screaming, by putting a hand over her mouth. He said he hadn’t fondled her. She’d made that up.’
Hunter caught something in his voice as he trailed off. He said, ‘I’m sensing that you didn’t believe him?’
‘It didn’t fit with the response about him doing the burglaries for thrills. I just couldn’t imagine Terry Braithwaite going into a panic. Now if he’d have said, when she woke up I simply turned and left I would have believed him. It would have been something I would have expected him to do.’
Hunter nodded. ‘So you think he did sexually assault her?’
‘Again, he never confessed, but that type of behaviour is what I would expect from a sexual predator, which is ultimately what he became when he went on to rape. As you’re aware, sex offenders all start off committing minor offences – stalking, minor sexual offences, things of that nature. This incident could well have been his trigger. And, as you know from your case files, each of the rapes he carried out, progressively worsened with regards the violence towards his victims, finally ending with the rape and murder of a seventeen-year-old girl.’
‘You said earlier that Terry never confessed to the rapes or the murder he was convicted of; did he ever say anything about them?’
‘I did say he never confessed, but I recall on one occasion he made the comment “The police got lucky. They’d have never have caught me if it hadn’t been for that fisherman.” Every time I went back to this comment he said he didn’t want to talk about it.’
‘So he never went into detail about those attacks?’
Tight-lipped Kevin shook his head.
‘I know you also said earlier that Terry had been interviewed in prison about other offences he might have committed, and that he refused to talk to detectives.’
Kevin nodded, ‘I sat in on those interviews. Detectives interviewed him three times but he didn’t say a word, just smiled at every question. They were very unnerving interviews. Your colleagues were very frustrated to say the least.’
‘I can imagine it. Especially in the seventies. They would never have expected any villain not to say anything.’ With a smile he added, ‘I think you know what I mean?’ Hunter chose not to respond. He knew only too well what Kevin was alluding to. Barry Newstead had told him numerous stories of detectives resorting to strong-arm tactics to gain confessions. Pausing he said, ‘Did he ever say anything to you, or hint, that he had carried out other attacks on women.’
‘I can see that question is very relevant to your current investigation, but my answer is never. We had many sessions talking about this, especially after his escape and capture. I asked him many times about where he’d been – where he’d hidden? Who had he seen? Every time he’d just say he didn’t want to talk about it. Terry was probably my most difficult patient.’
Disappointed, Hunter stored the counsellor’s response. He had hoped that during his incarceration at Rampton, Terrence Braithwaite would have disclosed something which would link him to their enquiry. Preparing to finish the interview he said, ‘Just one more question Kevin. Throughout any of your sessions with him did you ever get the impression that he wasn’t working alone when he carried out his attacks?’
‘Alone?’
‘That he maybe had an accomplice?’
The counsellor cocked his head. ‘Do you know it’s funny you should say that. My immediate answer is no. He never said anything directly about either working with anyone or anyone being present during his attacks on those women, although there was one session early on in my time with him where I asked him how he felt after he had killed Glynis Young. I was trying to get him talk about his emotion, especially given that he’d already told me that he got a rush from the thrill of committing his crimes, and he said something, which again, took me completely by surprise.’
Hunter straightened, ‘Oh yes.’
‘He said “Death is a beautiful thing.”’ He bounced his gaze between Hunter and Grace. Seeing them returning nonplussed looks he said. ‘It’s a quote attributed to serial killer Charles Manson. And, he also quoted me something else which came from the Manson trial. It was attributed to one of his followers. When I asked him about the attacks – the rapes, and especially the significance as to their seasonal timing – you know Halloween, his reply was “Every day was Halloween.”’ He watched their reaction change. ‘I asked him why he’d said that – wondering if it was something he’d just heard and was quoting it, but he knew exactly who’d said both quotes and he also said he was a great admirer of Manson.’
‘Did you push him on that?’
‘Of course. Charles Manson was one of my case studies at university. I was interested to know why he was drawn to such a famous, charismatic, evil character. I wanted to know just how much he knew about the man and his deeds and particularly why he was an admirer of him. In a nutshell, the response he gave me was that he wanted to be revered like Manson; for people to sit up and take notice and be afraid of him. Most of all he wanted to pit his wits against the police. Remember, he had already been caught and served time for burglary. It was his way of getting them back. The thing about Terry was that he believed he was better – intellectually brighter. He displayed many of the personality behaviours of someone with a psychopathic disorder. Remember what he said about getting caught for the murder of Glynis Young – the police got lucky. The fact that he associated himself with such a person as Charles Manson was, while disturbing, also fascinating.’ Kevin paused, studying their faces. ‘Now, it might also be very relevant to your investigation. Do you know about Charles Manson?’
Hunter hadn’t expected for the interview to run out in this way. The drug counsellor had him hooked. He answered, ‘To be honest, not a lot, other than snippets I’ve seen on TV, historical crime cases, and also stuff I’ve picked up from time to time in books or magazines about him. I know that he and his hippy cronies murdered a load of people back in the late 60s. A famous actress was among his victims if I recall.’
Kevin nodded, ‘Sharon Tate. She was Roman Polanski’s girlfriend – the film director. She was carrying his baby. Six of her friends were murdered as well in the same house. And, the so-called cult also killed two elderly people the night after. It was one of those shocking cases that made everyone sit up. But the thing people always get wrong about that case is that they cast Charles Manson as the psychotic killer. He wasn’t. Manson never killed anyone. He got his followers to carry out the killings. He was actually convicted of murder under California’s conspiracy laws.’
‘I never knew that.’
Kevin nodded again. ‘That’s why I find your question very relevant now. You see Charles Manson was a very enigmatic man who manipulated and influenced a group of young people into believing he was a Christ-like figure who could give them a better life. He introduced them to LSD and established his own religion. Some of their practices were based on those immortalised by an early twentieth century ceremonial magician called Aleister Crowley who was an occultist.’
Shadow of the Beast: A DS Hunter Kerr Novel Page 12