Pathologists Statements, dated, 30th September 1985, and 26th November 1985:-

[mike tesko]

Pathologists Statements, dated, 30th September 1985, and 26th November 1985:-

[smiffy]

Interesting to note that the pathologist makes no mention of Hammersley being at any of the autopsies.
he mentions other officers by name and actually describes personally handing samples taken to Cook and Davidson.

Though in the first report he names several officers including Cook and Davidson..he also mentions other officers being present..but does not name them.

[smiffy]

While the pathologist mentions Sheila's rings , wristwatch and earrings he completely fails to mention the necklace.
Why...a genuine mistake...or was it to take focus off the necklace as the blood on it showed that her body must have been moved after both wounds had been inflicted...or was it because it appeared on the x ray along with the fragmented bullet....the one he went on to claim was a whole bullet.

[smiffy]

hmm in this version ..the pathologist states basically that he thinks blood transferred from Sheila's right wrist onto her nighdress and later goes on to make a point about her fingers and palms being free of blood.
However in another report he has the same bloodstain on her nightdress as being produced by Sheila's right palm!

[smiffy]

in a report by the pathologist dated 12th november 1986 things have changed as to who was being named as being at the post mortems.

Hammerley is now mentioned as being at all of them....but surprisingly another name is not named as being present   ----Davidson....in both reports...Cook Miller and Bird are all named.

whats going on here?

oh in that report...near the start ..so its felt important...much mention is made of x rays being taken of the victims prior to the pathologist being present...
this may be significant in creating a hole in the evidence of allowing a whole bullet to be claimed to be taken from Sheila rather than a fragmented bullet as seen in the X rays...ie having not seem them prior to pm he would not be looking for fragments can be claimed!!

[smiffy]

Hammersley's notebook entries from the 7th august have him at whf and assisting in bagging.
at the PM he claims to only assist DS219 (Davidson) in taking samples.

also noted is in the notebook entries he seems to also have the autopsy order as Ralph first and then Sheila.

[smiffy]

8 bullets or fragment of bullet are reported in the PV exhibits as coming from Ralph.
However for BULLET WOUND  8 he claims there were fragments in the chest...but they were not recovered.
This bullet 8 went through his left arm leaving a neat exit wound  and a large grazed entry wound.
Why did this bullet not break up and give multi exit wounds or leave bits in his arm it it was a hollow point bullet? Nothing of the bullet is claimed to be recovered from his chest..? What is going on?

This does not sound right at all...It makes more sense that this was not a hollow point bullet at all and could well be a solid bullet like the winchester .22 super x bullets of Pargetters. That would not break up as it passed through Ralphs arm and into his chest.
If the deception is to make out only one rifle and ammunition type was used then its explains why so called fragments were claimed not to be recovered...hide the true evidence it seems.

Also of note ...the angle of this shot is odd  ....from the back and above it seems...similar to the shoulder shot 7 .
8 passed through Ralphs arm into his chest so that seems to rule out Ralph having his arm in a particularly  raised position.

Unless we are thinking of virtually all the shots at Ralph occurring when he was in a low down crawling type position or seated low when all were inflicted then we may consider bullets 7 and 8 as possibly being fired when Ralph was descending the stairs and being shot by someone further up the stairs..hence the entry angles.
If this is correct then no shots were fired at Ralph in the bedroom...no blood trail supports this.
The bloody wallpaper was only at the bottom of the stairs...conversant with Ralph being shot as he neared the bottom of the stairs.

[smiffy]

It becomes very cagey when Bullet 8 is concerned ..the missing bullet!
The pathologist in later statements goes into wobbly mode...with why no alleged bullet fragments were not found.. he squirms and suggests the bullet fragments may have been caught up in Ralphs pyjama top.
Examination of the pyjama top should clear this matter up.
We should see damage where the bullet or bullet fragments have passed through or partly passed through.. a bullet hole from an intact bullet maybe.
So lets see the evidence...or is it not disclosed as it may reveal a truth that exposes the cover up?

[smiffy]

Nicholas   the bullet wounds.

3 bullet entry wounds and one bullet exit wound.

Bullets found 2.
Explanation offered for a missing bullet...could not find it ...it probably fragmented.

why should he assume it may have fragmented?...why not let us know what the x rays showed?..or is this not disclosed as it would undermine the fragmented bullet claims.

common sense means  the missing third bullet made the exit wound so there should be no need to look for a third bullet or give a lame misleading explanation of not finding a fragmented bullet. A bullet being found near the exit wound seems to be mentioned to distract and allow for a view to be wrongly formed that the bullet making the exit wound was somehow retained.

So what we really have is 2 bullets found in the victims head and one that is not found as it passed right through the victims head.  This suggests the bullet may be of a different type and may have been fired from a different weapon. If so it is more likely to be a solid bullet that a hollow point bullet. Pargetter's bullets included solid round nosed winchester Super X bullets.

A number of the wounds over the several victims seem more likely to have been caused by  solid bullets than  hollow point bullets.

[smiffy]

Why does the pathologist only refer to 7 bullet wounds and 3 exit wounds when the diagram showing Junes bullet wounds and trajectories shows 8 entry wounds and 4 exit wounds with one bullet entry wound and exit wound left un-numbered?

This appears to be another bit of deception.
Early on when claiming only 24 bullets were involved when trying to pass off the suicide cover up with only one bullet wound to Sheila we can see why the count up is wrong.
Later on it becomes 25 bullet wounds inflicted in the claimed total to account for the 2 shots to Sheila.

Why not just admit 26 bullet wounds in total....what is wrong with that...why lie?

In one item (on this forum) it describes the number of bullets left in the box/or by it and they were counted by the police. (in questioning JB this seems to have been mentioned) as it was a box of 50 and no other boxes seemed to have been disturbed and JB claims not to have shot any rabbits the night before then that leaves 25 bullets to go into victims and none left in the rifle. The maths all adds up and points to 25 bullets used.

However this whole story falls apart when 26 bullets were actually used so rather than explain for this extra bullet it is missed out in the pathologists report.
Now that bullet cannot have been from the box of 50 ..so was it another type of bullet ? and also the whole police theory being promoted is shot down. As soon as we start looking at other bullets we have to think of what type and whether the same rifle was used in all the killings etc...and whether Pargetter's rifle and ammunition played a role in the killings.


checking up on the story more...
Hammersley was collecting bullets and reports 29 bullets in one spot in the kitchen (not fired) and another bullet in a tray in the kitchen (does not say if fired or not?)...reported in one of his statements.

when collecting used bullets in the bedroom Hammersley records just 2 bullets from the main bedroom and one from the boys bedroom.
If the other SOC officers collected bullets at the scence we should expect to see them listed but I cant find any in ND or RC or RWC or DB (DAVID BIRDS) lists.

[smiffy]

Hammersleys plan of the bedroom shows 4 bullets that were collected  and all were attributed to having passed through June.
2 recovered bullets share the same number DRH 35 as they were recovered from the pillow that they became entrapped within.
the other 2 bullets were DRH 5 and DRH 9.
The description for the location of those 2 recovered bullets is contrary to where they appear on the plan drawn up.

What is also to be noted is the number used for the pillow DRH 35 seems to get dragged in the handswab controversy and some other messing about with crossings out and other alterations going on.

It does make sense that as Hammersley can show 4 bullets on his plan and attibute them to June this fits with the diagram of June's bullet wounds and trajectories .
So that leaves the pathologist in a mess as to why he only reported on 7 bullet wounds to June.

[smiffy]

Ralphs right arm in which a bullet entered and exited his arm ends up basically described as a a "graze" by the pathologist...
how odd is that.

The pathologist also describes a graze on June on her left breast....so can we also take that as being a bullet wound with an exit and entry hole.
Hammersley's plan of the bedroom and the diagram showing bullet wounds help on this matter.
It appears that an entry wound was found in the upper cleavage area of June's body with trajectory going more or less to her left coming out  on her left front area.  This seems to indicate a shot being fired through her left breast (upper part if correct). So if there was a graze to this wound..it may well be from when rifle was pressed into her cleavage area and then fired.. The graze being V shaped according to the pathologist.  This sort of contact being likely to introduce June's dna into the end of the weapon (most likely barrel of rifle or maybe a silencer if used). I would imagine the end of the rifle as being more likely to cause a graze.

According to Hammersleys plan we have 3 bullets ending up on the upper half of the bed on June's side. 2 in the pillow it seems and one not too far from the pillow.
With 4 exit wounds on June we need to consider which 4 exit wounds account for these 3 bullets at that location.
These all seem to occur early on when June was lying on the bed.  Bullet 3 makes sense as being one of them and if June was lying on her left side then a shot through her left breast also ends up in the correct location to be found in that part of the bed.  The last of the 3 exit wounds responsible for the bullets found on the bed can only sensibly be the right arm shot that broke a bone in her arm. If her arm was raised by her head or shoulder or similar then this accounts well for the third buller found in this area.

The shot to June's right knee would be too far down the bed to account for being one of the 3 bullets found. This means it had to have been fired later on.

The right sleeve cuff area of June's nightdress is heavily bloodstained so is conversant with her being shot and upright. We know she walked around the bedroom a bit after the first episode of shooting which makes the right knee shot again appear to be a later event.

The shot at the right knee made an entry and exit hole so there would be 2 sources for blood to escape and run down her leg markedly if she was still on her feet having suffered that injury. The right leg does not show a copious flow of blood down her leg. The bottom right of her nightdress does not show a pattern of blood transfer from the right knee wounds running vertically from June being upright after the wound was inflicted. However the nightdress does show a pair of blood runs on her nightdress that tie up with the entry and exit wounds once June became horizontal. This strongly suggests that almost certainly the right knee bullet wound was inflicted when June was horizontal on her back....ie after she had walked around a bit.
The other issue with the right knee wound is that it had an upward element which is conversant with a shot delivered when June was lying down (collapsed from shock/blood loss etc).

So we have June lying down and a shot fired at her right knee area. This shot passes through her leg so what did that bullet do and where did it go. If this is correct , and there is no reason to think otherwise, then the bullet would have struck the carpet making a quite definite mark where the bullet impacted and maybe bounced along a little as it lost momentum. The flooring underneath the carpet most likely slowing the bullet significantly.
So we should have  a bit of carpet in the bedroom giving a very good indication of where June was when she was shot in her right knee. This is information EP do not want us to know....something that has been covered up and may be a reason or one of many reasons for the carpet disposal being so rapid.
Just a minute,,,where is the 4th bullet found on Hammersleys plan and in his descriptions.(it seems he gets DRH 5 and 9 mixed up) however they tally if this mistake is taken into account.
Looking at Hammersleys plan for where June was on the floor (as per the photographs of June) and the right knee shot with June lying on her back ...the bullet concerned is not in the right part of the room for where it would end up if June was shot in the right knee. It is totally wrong.

What would be correct for the bullet position is if June was in a different position . An about turn as such with her head where here feet appear in the picture and vice versa... A shot fired at June's knee area when in this postion would suit the location of where the bullet was found...the trajectory being correct.

There is another issue in how June was pictured and that gives rise for concern that her body was moved/staged.  With her head nearer the doorway the angle of the 2 shots to the head becomes an issue (at least one if not both were highly likely to have been inflicted when she was lying down). The issue here is how the door , doorway area,walls and furniture may get in the way of delivering the shots that were inflicted on June's head. This issue would be even greater if a silencer was fitted. The key element being the shot angles and the length of the weapon used.
With June's body in the sort of  position conversant with the bullet found on the floor then the head shots would not pose a problem for the attacker of doors, walls etc impeding the use of the rifle.

Mike has already mentioned in another thread that one of the police  officers had June's body orientated differently to how she was shown in the photographs.  From my analysis I am in agreement with that officers report of June's body being the correct one.

[smiffy]

In his statements Woodcock mentions twice the distorted bullet found on the main bedroom floor.
This has to be the one that is DRH 5 or DRH 9 depending on the plan location or written description provided by Hammersley.
The one on the floor near the dresser that is near the window. The one that only fits with being the bullet the inflicted the right knee wound on June when she was laying down on the floor.
The bullet is described as distorted. It did not strike a bone it seems as it only went through the outer flesh of her right knee area. It makes sense the main distortion on it occurred when it struck the carpet/floor.

The bullets location fits with Junes body being moved and staged as previously stated and it also gives a reason to dispose of the carpet which would have given a good indicator of June's true position when shot.

Makes one wonder why June's body was staged?  A partly blocked doorway would give the impression that Sheila's death was all carried out in the bedroom.
For a suicide a person could easily step over June's body...though this must be done when the blood on the floor was dry if barefoot.
For a murder...the victim has to be compliant and step over June's body, when blood was dry if barefoot, and lie down nicely to be shot.

Junes body would be a bigger problem if Sheila had to be carried over it or dragged over it if shot elsewhere...so suggests either someone moved June's body and moved it back in the wrong position or something like that if Sheila had already been shot elsewhere.

[smiffy]

What is worrying about the shot to the left breast of June being whitewashed from the investigation is to why this was done.
It must have been thought relevant to try covering it up.
For the bullet to take the trajectory it did suggests it was a deliberate shot and was not as the result of a misdirected shot by the victim being able to deflect it by grabbing the rifle barrel.
(the victim lying on her left side would render her left arm useless to deflect in this case  and the right arm (if not already shot) would push direct the rifle to an angle in which firing the rifle would be difficult).

So taking the left breast shot on June as being a deliberate act then it may tell as a little about the perpetrator. There seems to be no reason for JB to inflict such a deliberate shot. For Sheila the shot to the left breast makes more sense. June's highly critical attitude to sex in regards to Sheila seemed to be a particular issue between them. Sheila saw her own breasts as being important enough to have breast enhancement implants. The resentment Sheila seemed to have of her mother would have built up over time leading to thoughts as to how she could best extract revenge and displease her mother and make her suffer. Acts or elements that offended June's beliefs would likely be included and a shot to the breast would fit that category and probably be something she would want June to suffer before finally killing her.
It is also possible that at the time of killing June Sheila would be naked, or dressed just in knickers,to cause maximum offense to her mother with the extreme views June held.

As its more credible that Sheila would shoot her mothers left breast then while it may have fitted a murder and suicide theory it went against a JB killing the others theory so have to be removed from the investigation.

[smiffy]

There is yet another reason why the left breast shot to June was covered up. There was a bullet count problem.
4 bullets found in the bedroom and though in truth all these are accounted for  if the pathologist did not lie on the matter. By lying and denying the 8th entry  wound and 4 th exit wound from June then only 3 bullets found in the room are accounted for.
But there were 4 bullets found so that allows one bullet to be accounted for and the false story is that this must have been a bullet that had passed through Ralph.
This allows the story to be constructed that Ralph was shot in the bedroom when in fact he was not. The 4 added bullet cases to the bedroom tally is also part of this cover story as if accepted it makes a nonsense of JB being phoned by Ralph as he claims.

In truth though...if Ralph had been shot 4 times in the bedroom then a blood trail from in the bedroom and down the stairs would be very evident yet it is absent.