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MURDER MOST FOUL
Although Eastern Essex is recorded as one of the safest areas in the Country for all crimes it has been the setting for two murders which caused a national sensation.
The Murder of Sergeant Eves
Sergeant Eves was on night patrol on Saturday 15 April 1893 after which he failed to return home.
During the afternoon of the following day his body was discovered in a ditch at nearby Hazeleigh Hall Farm. His body was badly mutilated and his throat had been slashed.
While Detectives investigated the murder of Sergeant Eves other Officers were investigating the theft of 13 bushels of corn from a nearby barn.
Enquiries took police to the home of a local petty criminals, Richard and John Davis. There they found a handcart which contained traces of blood and corn. Three further sacks of corn were found in their garden.
Charles Sales and John Batemen who were friends of the Davis brothers were also arrested. Clothes from Sales,Batemen and Richard Davis were all found to be stained with blood.
Further arrests of James Ramsey and his son John were made shortly afterwards.
John and Richard Davis, Charles Sales and James Ramsey stood trial at the Assize Court at Chelmsford on 3 August 1893. James Ramsey was acquitted but John and Richard Davis were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Judge.
The death sentence for Richard Davis was commuted to life imprisonment but his brother was hanged.
Before his death John Davis confessed to the murder saying that Richard Davis, James Ramsey and himself were stealing the corn when surprised by Sergeant Eves. Ramsey knocked Sergeant Eves to the ground and cut his throat with a knife.
Using this evidence Ramsey was arrested for theft of the corn and convicted. During the trial he implicated himself in the murder. The jury found him guilty without leaving the jury box and the Judge gave Ramsey 14 years penal servitude.
The widow of Sergeant Eves received £15 per year pension which was the highest pension possible.
Stanley Setty was a 44 year old used car dealer from the East End of London. Setty disappeared on 4 October 1949 with £1,000 in £5 notes which was a small fortune in 1949. His car was later found abandoned at St Pancras but no more was heard of Setty.
On 21 October 1949 Stanley Tiffen a local farm worker was paddling a punt through the marshes on the lookout for ducks to supplement his cooking pot. Tiffen saw a large parcel floating on the tide, thinking it may be of value Tiffen opened the package and found it to be the torso of a man minus the head and legs.
Am examination by the eminent Home Office pathologist Dr Camps revealed that the man had been killed by stab wounds to the chest. Police were able to identify the body as that of the missing Stanley Setty.
The gruesome crime attracted the attention of the press. As a result of the publicity the police were contacted by the United Services Flying Club at Elstree who said that a club member called Brian Douglas Hume had hired a plane on 5 October 1949 and had been seen to load a large parcel. On arrival at Southend there was no parcel in the plane although there was some damage to the window of the plane.
Further enquiries revealed that after the flight Hume had paid for a taxi from a roll of £5 notes.
Hume was arrested but told the Police that the parcels were being carried on behalf of a smuggler who had given him the parcels which they said contained forged petrol coupons and asked him to throw them out over the sea. The money was pay for doing the task.
Police searched the house and found that blood was present under the floorboards of the hall and living room. Hume said that he found the blood in his house and cleaned it up as he assumed that Setty had been murdered by the smugglers.
Hume was charged with the murder but the jury were unable to reach a verdict. The prosecution offered no evidence but preferred a charge of being an accessory to murder. Hume pleased guilty and was given a life sentence for which he served 12 years imprisonment.
The murder marked the first recorded murder using an airplane- If Hume had not mistaken the water covered marshes for open sea the body of Setty may never have been found.
Acting Sergeant 63 Adam Eves was posted to Purleigh in January 1891 where he lived in a cottage with his wife Elizabeth. He was popular with his residents although of course he made a number of enemies amongst the criminal classes and had been threatened with violence often in the course of his duties.
The gravestone of Sergeant Eves is still to be seen in Purleigh Churchyard.
The Murder of Stanley Setty
