Actually my mind flew to the Jeremy incident as well-Jeremy Cartland whom younger readers will have forgotten. There is very little information on the internet about it and what little I have gleaned I have read from the French.
The bare facts are these:John Cartland,60,owner of a language school in Brighton and his son Jeremy,29, a teacher,take a caravan to Spain,and on return pull into a lay-by near Salon-de-Provence France,as it's getting dark and they are both tired.
In the early hours of Sunday 18 March 1973 Jeremy is awoken by "strange savage sounds" emanating from outside the caravan. Jeremy steps out of the caravan,rubbing his eyes and immediately spies a man trying to open the door of their Hillman car. Jeremy at this point is struck on the head from behind and offers no further information. A few minutes later a passing motorist, commercial traveller Frederick Delaune notices the caravan ablaze,Jeremy slumped near this conflagration bleeding from stab wounds,with his father some distance further away with head wounds inflicted with an axe,and stab wounds inflicted on the dead corpse.
Jeremy's subsequent co-operation with the French authorities as he is allowed to travel back and forth to assist them cost him £20,000 in total. However they believe they have enough evidence to charge Jeremy with his father's death,and on 19 May issue an international warrant for his arrest. On 21 December Jeremy is questioned for 7 and a half hours by Scotland Yard; on 4 January 1974 the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that due to insufficient evidence he would not proceed with the case against him.
There appears to be no motive to the crime;father John has left his £30,000 estate to his housekeeper,57 year old Janet Gibson. Against this the forensic examiners say the stab wounds to both Jeremy and his father were inflicted by a steel knife made in Thiers,France,but only available for purchase in Britain. On 21 May two new witnesses come forward,Raymond Blasco and his wife who state that they were at the scene of the murder and saw two men,one blond the other dark near the caravan,but by this stage the local magistrate has identified Jeremy as the killer and dismisses that evidence. New witnesses in August say they were driving behind a black Citroen which would not let them overtake,and when the Hillman towing the caravan stopped for the night the Citroen pulled up too.
Other theories say the killing was in retaliation for John informing on Maquis members during his work for the Special Operations Executive during the war. We will probably never know the truth of this case,whether Jeremy had a row with his father that night as tempers flared whilst both tired,and in a crime passionel whacked a father past his prime,who like Nevill Bamber had put up a fierce resistance to his attacker,or whether events did unfold as Jeremy related them:one man hit him over the head whilst the other checked the car for valuables or money,where none was to be found in either car or caravan.
As Jeremy Cartland crosses the road from Regency Square and makes his way down to the beach,crunching pebbles underfoot and looking up at the murmation of starlings,evening joggers and children's chatter,one wonders what secrets lay beneath that calm,distinguished exterior as he takes care not to soil his blue pinstripe suit and black brogues,maybe a little worse for wear but a staple of his wardrobe,as he gains inspiration for his latest poetry anthology.
