If inflicted by anyone else it must have been a right handed man. There was a second cut on, the inner side of the right forearm, two inches above the wrist. The cut was five inches long, and deeper on the inner side. The Tendons of the little ring finger had been cut, and in his opinion was, the girl must have put up her hand and tried to stop him curing her. In that way she received the cut on his wrist. Bleeding from the first described wound was the cause of death. Nothing could have been done to save her; the jugular vein had been severed”.
Summing up, the Coroner remarked that,
“There seemed no doubt at all that Horace Hyde killed the young woman by cutting her throat. Had Hyde been alive, it would have been a most serious thing for him whether it was wilful murder or if he had killed her while temporally insane, the jury had to decide. If he had not cut his own throat the jury would have been very much inclined to that he killed the girl while temporally insane”.
They had heard of people who had been disappointed in love going off their heads and killing objects of their affections as well as themselves. There was desperately strong feeling in this case, and no doubt. The brother was right when he said that he thought that the deceased had come to the conclusion, that if he could not have the girl, no one else should.
Had he got a sane mind at the time? Everything seemed to have been planned by a sane man. He had two razors on him. He came to the village to do it, and apparently he came prepared to do it The Coroner had two letters written by Hyde, which seemed to suggest that there was something coming. One stated that:
"I want to kiss you for the last time."
Everything pointed to a perfectly reasonable mind. The planning of the railway journey, the placing of the razors in his pockets, He was intending to do something. After about five minutes the jury returned a verdict to the effect that Hyde wilfully murdered Miss. Worsdell, and that there was no evidence to show that he was insane. They considered that he had done it while sane.
A Second Inquest was later held. At the inquest, the jury saw the body of Horace Hyde, which was lying in an outhouse (the body of Miss. Worsdell was in her home.)
Dr. Jones said
“After examining the young woman on Sunday afternoon, he saw this man’s body about 50 yards away from the Rose's house. He was lying on the left side of the road going to Shoddesden and opposite the track that goes up to New buildings. The wound in his throat was six inches long. It was on a level with the top of 'Adams apple.' and was deeper on the right side. All the Arteries on both sides of the neck as well as the veins had been cut through; in fact he had cut right through to the front of the spinal cord, which was showing. It was a very determined cut, and no doubt self inflicted. The man must have been in a terribly determined state to have cut him like that”.
Ernest Joseph Hyde proved his brother's identity and repeated most of the evidence that was tendered in the first case.
William George Lucas, a servant employed at Delhi Mass, Tidworth Barracks, said he lived at Snoddesden. On Sunday afternoon he walked across to Kimpton with his friend from Winchester. He was near Manor Farm House about 3.10 and he saw the couple walking. He had not seen them before.
The man was quite a yard away from the girl. They came straight up the road leading from Kimpton to Shoddesden. The witness had said good bye to his friend, then walked on behind the couple with view to seeing some friends at the school corner. He spoke to three fellows there; Sturgess, Goodall, and Rose. They were there about two -minutes.
All at once he heard a scream from the girl, and saw her run across to Mr. Rose's house. Witness ran towards the house but Mr. Rose shouted to him to go up the road, as the fellow was along there, he said. Witness rushed up them and found a man in a kneeling position. An open razor was laying about a foot away from his left hand.
The witness picked up the razor put it in the hedge until the policeman came up. Witness took his handkerchief out of his pocket and fed it round the deceased's neck. He could see it was no good, and as he turned the man over to lay him down, he died.
He saw some 'girl's stuff' lying on the grass. There was some jewellery there to, a ring and a gold bangle in a box. Supt. Cox said these were presents which Hyde had given the girl, but which when she, came home to Kimpton, she returned to him.
The coroner thought that the jury would have no hesitation in finding that Hyde cut his own throat, for a witness had proved it to them that he had saw them walking along only a couple of minutes before the tragedy.
A member of the jury wanted to know if there was anything that could throw some light on the breaking off of the engagement. The Coroner said he thought it would be advisable to read one letter which Hyde had wrote. It reads as follows:-
Dear Em,
A line to tell you dear, that I should like to see you and kiss you a last goodbye, as I can’t stand it any longer here. Every day you are in my thoughts, and I keep waking up at night since I saw you last………
The Coroner said he could not go on with the letter. Supt Cox said the letters were addressed to her home. She finished with him entirely. He made enquiries in the district on Sunday morning before he got to Kimpton, and he tried his best to find out where she was. He went to two wrong houses in his quest of finding her.
The Coroner said, in one letter, Miss Worsdell had said he had taken to drink, but the brother had told them that were not 'till after the engagement was broken off.
The jury returned a verdict of felode'se. And the foreman on their behalf expressed the sympathy of the court with both families in the great trial that had overtaken them. The Coroner agreed and said he would pass on their words.
Percy Topliss The monacled mutineer
His story has captured the public’s imagination for over 85 years, and the case was even turned into a BBC screenplay in 1985.
On the 24th of April 1920, a taxi driver named Sidney Spicer was murdered at Thruxton just outside of Andover. Topliss had deserted from Bulford, and became the prime suspect in the case. The inquest had found Topliss guilty in his absence. Now if he was caught, he now could be hanged.
Photographs and descriptions of Topliss, were posted in every police station across the country. He was apparently spotted in over a hundred different locations, while he was hiding out in the Highlands of Scotland.
Topliss had always been errant in his ways. At the age of 11 he was charged with theft, after he had convinced a tailor that he was to collect from him two suits of boys clothing, and then while wearing one, he successfully sold the other.
Topliss remained in and out of trouble until he joined the army and listed with the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1914 while serving as a stretcher bearer in Egypt and India, he deserted several times. He could have faced death by firing squad, instead he simply rejoined the army using his own name. He was even alleged to have been at the supposed six day mutiny at Etaples, although historians dismiss the fact that this mutiny ever happened.
Topliss had a unique gift for being able to impersonate the upper classes. He charmed his way through society often frequenting luxury establishments, and dating high class women. He even impersonated a captain, he then paid for clothes with stolen cheques, while all the time sporting his signature gold monocle.
After the murder of the taxi driver, Topliss went to ground. His condition at the time, was described as probably mentally unstable, and his only true companion was said to be his gun. Topliss was running for his life, and fled to Scotland. While police scoured the country, he calmly played piano in an Inverness hotel. He found refuge in an old shepherd’s cabin at the foot of the Lecht.
On the first of June a policeman, a gamekeeper and a farmer all approached the cabin, after seeing smoke rise from within. Topliss gave his name as that of an American soldier, George Williams, but then without warning he opened fire.
The shots seriously wounded the policeman and the farmer, and the gamekeeper fled to try and get help. Topliss calmly collected his belongings together and
then calmly fled the scene. He sang ‘good byeee, don’t cryeee’ as he cycled away. He was now wanted for another two attempted murders.
Topliss then headed south. He stopped at Edinburgh, so that he could pawn his watch, and he arrived at Carlisle castle, where despite him being the most wanted man in England, he still managed to receive lodgings for the night. The following day, he marched away towards Penrith.
Topliss was approached by a local policeman, but he managed to slip away in the woods. He changed into a civilian suit and shaved. Placing a Trilby hat in his head and carrying a brown paper parcel, he carried on his merry way. The policeman had been suspicious and returned with help.
Topliss was confronted near a church. The policeman, his son, and three other officers confronted Topliss. No words were exchanged they just commanded him to stop, and he was shot. He never got to face trial, and took all of the answers with him to an unmarked grave.
The murder of Claire Cordner
Stuart and Claire Cordner, had been married for less than four months. The newly-weds had set up home together in Borkum Close in Andover. In October 2006, the couple were allegedly drinking during the day, and at some point 33 year old Claire fell asleep on the family bed.
While she slept, 31 year old Stuart poured garden machinery fuel on to his wife. Stuart then produced a cigarette lighter and began to taunt his sleeping wife. He told her that if she did not wake up, then he would set her on fire. He then ignited the lighter, too close to the fumes, and his wife was engulfed in a ball of flames.
Instead of calling for any of the emergency services, or trying to save his wife, in act of total inhumanity, Stuart simply just left the house. Claire died in hospital a few days later.
At Stuart’s trial in Winchester Crown Court, he pleaded guilty and received a life sentence. Of which he was told that he would serve a minimum of 19 years. The murder of a much loved daughter caused total devastation to the victim’s family. Quite how anyone could be so inhuman is beyond explanation.
Murder at Wherwell Abbey
In the will of Kind Edred, the towns of Wherwell, Andover and Clere, were bequeathed to Hyde Abbey, Winchester. Wherwell Abbey was founded in the reign of King Ethelred. Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, Duke of Devonshire resided in Wherwell, and knowledge of her beauty had reached the ears of King Edgar.
Edgar despatched Aethelwold, who was one of his closest confidantes to visit Elfrida, and instructed him, that if Elfrida really was so beautiful that he was to offer her the Kings hand in marriage. On his arrival at the Abbey, he found her beauty was indeed astounding, and hid his mission from the girl’s parents. He decided that he should have the girl for himself.
Aethelwold returned to the King, and informed him that the girl was of a vulgar and common place appearance. As such she was not fit to be the wife of the King. The King soon lost interest in Elfrida, but soon he began to suspect that he had been duped by his friend, who had now married that same lady.
The King announced that he had set a date that he would visit the couple. Aethelwold was greatly alarmed at the thought of the Kings visit, and fearing what would happen, confessed what he had done to his wife. Aethelwold begged his wife to make herself look as undesirable as possible. Although Elfrida agreed to the plan, whatever she tried, she could not hide her true beauty.
The instant the King laid eyes upon Elfrida, he feel deeply in love with her. The King hatched a plan of his own, and sent the Earl into the woods at Wherwell. This was under the pretence that he was hunting. There, away from prying eyes, he ran him through with a javelin in an act of cold blooded murder.
Now in the depths of Harewood forest lies a plinth which bears this inscription
"About the year of our Lord DCCCCLXIII (AD 963) upon this spot beyond the time of memory called Deadman’s Plack, tradition reports that Edgar, surnamed the peaceable, King of England, in the ardour of youth love and indignation, slew with his own hand his treacherous and ungrateful favourite Earl Athelwold, owner of this forest of Harewood, in resentment of the Earl’s having basely betrayed and perfidiously married his intended bride and beauteous Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, Earl of Devonshire, afterwards wife of King Edgar, and by him mother of King Ethelred II, Queen Elfrida, after Edgar’s death, murdered his eldest son, King Edward the Martyr, and founded the Nunnery of Wor-well”
On the back of the plinth is another inscription saying
"This Monument was erected by Col William Iremonger AD MDCCCMV (1825)"
This act of murder was not the only instance to strike within the family. King Edward the Martyr, Queen Elfrida’s stepson, was later murdered at Corfe Castle. Edward went to visit his stepmother and half brother at Corfe Castle on 18th March 978, nearly three years after his father unexpected death in July 975.
That evening, after a day’s hunting, the young king was murdered at the gap of Corfe and his body was thrown into a bog where it remained for nearly one year. Whilst there has never been any evidence to establish the complicity of Queen Elfrida, the result was that her own son, Ethelred, became King.
Ethelred, who was only ten years old at the time of the murder, but was so upset at the death of his half brother that he wept. This infuriated his mother, who picked up some candles and beat her son with then, the beating was so ferocious, that he dreaded the sight of candles for the rest of his life.
Ethelred showed no gratitude towards his mother for his elevation to King. When he came of age, he forced his mother to retire from political life. Queen Elfrida left to make her way to London, on her travels, she came upon the gates of Salisbury, where history records that the people of Salisbury closed the gates, and threatened to stone her.
She made her way to Amesbury where she came upon a nunnery, it was here that she did penance for her part in the bloodshed and in AD986 she founded Wherwell Abbey, she was to become its first Abbess. At a later stage she also founded the parish church.
The Queen spent the rest of her days in quiet contemplation and penitence, until one day in AD 1002 while gazing into the river. She then fell in to the water and drowned.
The nunnery was destroyed by fire in AD 1141. During the civil war between King Stephen, and his cousin Empress Matilda.
The Empress had occupied Winchester, and was laying siege to The Bishop of Winchester in his castle. At this point Stephens’s troops began to approach. Matilda sent a garrison of troops to guard the crossing of the river test in Wherwell. The garrison were soon attacked by Stephen’s men.
The troops were led by William of Ypres, neither a man known for having no respect for neither God nor man. The guards fled into the Abbey and claimed sanctuary. William ordered the nuns to hand over the men. The nuns refused so William ordered his men to burn down the abbey, killing the men, and driving out the nuns in the process.
The death of Sally Sinclair
The Sinclair family would have looked to outsiders as a normal successful family. They lived in a £1million rented house in the village of Amport just outside of Andover. Sally (40), was a successful business woman at a giant mobile phone company. Her husband Alisdair (48), was understood to have stayed at home, and looked after the couples ten year old twins. For a living, he traded second hand cars from the couple’s house.
Alasdair’s behaviour was said to have put a massive strain on the couple’s relationship. Although Sally earned the families main wage, she was said to have had no control at all over the family finances. It was so extreme, that she did not even have her own bank account.
A few weeks earlier, Sally had told her husband that she wished to leave him. He then became jealous and suspicious. He simply could not bear to let her go. His resentment grew and his suspicions finally led him to breaking point.
On the afternoon of August 16th 2008, Alisdair challenged his wife, and asked her if she was seeing someone else. Sally finally admitted that she was having an affair. Alisdair then became violent, he used a variety of knives to stab and cut his wife, in total he stabbed her thi
rty times.
The attack was witnessed by the couple’s two children, one of the children saw both Mr and Mrs Sinclair with knives, but they only saw Mr Sinclair use his as a weapon. The other child heard his mother Mrs Sinclair screaming. The last words the child heard her say were:
“No Alisdair, please do not do this. I will stop all this happening. Please do not do it.”
He replied: “No, it’s too late for that now.”
Neighbours said there had been a flurry of activity that evening. The police found sally’s body at 10pm. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and her body was taken to Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester. A post-mortem examination showed that she died from injuries to her upper body. Later reports claimed that Alisdair had even tried to saw off his wife’s head.
Officers carried out forensic tests at the secluded property, where eight vehicles — including two high-powered rally cars, a Subaru Impreza and a Mitsubishi Evo, were parked in the property’s drive.
Neighbours said, that the family did not socialise with neighbours, and that there was rarely activity at the home. It was if the people who lived there were either very private, or they were always on holiday as the majority of the time, the curtains in the property were closed.
At the trial, Alisdair claimed self defence, and was found not guilty of murder, he was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and sentenced to nine years in prison. He may only have to serve three years for this gruesome act.
The Killers Trilogy Page 2