Barn Restaurant Murder (Braintree)

[handyman]

Here's another high profile case tried at Chelmsford Crown Court, where police charged the wrong man. Despite him being positively identified by 2 surviving victims.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1732317

[nugnug]

well he did have an albi but not one he cared to use i cant say i blame him.

[handyman]

I just find it amazing how Ince can be picked out in an ID parade, by both surviving victims yet still be innocent.
Just goes to show that eye witness statements can have very little meaning.

[nugnug]

yes amazing really.

but had those witness been couched were they proper witness.

[jafsie]

George Ince was fit up by the police no question about it.

http://www.ennever.com/histories/history7414.php

[Lugg]

George Ince was fit up by the police no question about it.

http://www.ennever.com/histories/history7414.php

And I know a copper who said quite clearluy, "That man is guilty". But he was innocent all the time. No doubt if they hadn't found the reall murderer he would he in gaol today. The police would have hunted him down and get him on the flimsiest of evident. I really am disgusted at the crooked ways of our so called upholders of the law these days. Some of them mix with criminals so much that there is nothing between them and the criminal. They turn native to put it another way and threy become just as crooked as the criminals they work with. In fact in some cases they know the crimes those crooks have committed and let them continue in their nevarious ways in trade of information from them. fact.

[Patti]

I think the alibi sounds a bit iffy.  Dolly Kray, the wife of Charlie Kray who is the brother of the famous Kray twins, who is not upset when he finds out that his wife was with Ince...

[OnceSaid]

I think the alibi sounds a bit iffy.  Dolly Kray, the wife of Charlie Kray who is the brother of the famous Kray twins, who is not upset when he finds out that his wife was with Ince...

Hi Patti, Iffy or not, the informant made no mention of Ince, and named two other men who were directly linked to the murder.  These 2 suspects also made no mention of Ince.  The victims also claimed there were only two men involved. I don't know why Charlie Kray would encourage his missus to be a defence witness for Ince, perhaps he knew Ince was innocent of the murder and attempted murders   I was suprised that Johnson only recieved 10 years for his part, it should have been more IMO. 

Taken from the link above
Shortly after the acquittal of Ince, the police in the Lake District arrested a petty crook by the name of Peter Hanson. No doubt anxious to earn the usual credit from the authorities for turning informant, Mr Hanson told police that a certain John Brook had boasted to him of his role in the Barn Restaurant Murder, named his accomplice as one Nicholas Richard James de Clare Johnson, and even knew of the whereabouts of the murder weapon. Peter Hanson was able to direct the Cumbria police to a local guesthouse where they were able to recover an Italian Baretta 38 automatic pistol which had been hidden in a mattress. Forensic tests later confirmed that it was the weapon used in the Braintree shootings.

When arrested on the 15th June Nicholas de Clare Johnson made a full and frank confession of his involvement and also named John Brook as the shooter. It emerged that the two men were convinced that there would be at least ten thousand pounds in the house safe and had both ingested large quantity of alcohol and narcotics in order to steel themselves for the job, a fact which goes a long way to explaining their callous treatment of the Patience family as well as their basic incompetence in executing their captives.

Brook and Johnson were both tried in January 1974. John Brook was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nicholas de Clare Johnson was convicted of manslaughter and got ten years.
 

[Patti]

Hi Patti, Iffy or not, the informant made no mention of Ince, and named two other men who were directly linked to the murder.  These 2 suspects also made no mention of Ince.  The victims also claimed there were only two men involved. I don't know why Charlie Kray would encourage his missus to be a defence witness for Ince, perhaps he knew Ince was innocent of the murder and attempted murders   I was suprised that Johnson only recieved 10 years for his part, it should have been more IMO. 

Taken from the link above
Shortly after the acquittal of Ince, the police in the Lake District arrested a petty crook by the name of Peter Hanson. No doubt anxious to earn the usual credit from the authorities for turning informant, Mr Hanson told police that a certain John Brook had boasted to him of his role in the Barn Restaurant Murder, named his accomplice as one Nicholas Richard James de Clare Johnson, and even knew of the whereabouts of the murder weapon. Peter Hanson was able to direct the Cumbria police to a local guesthouse where they were able to recover an Italian Baretta 38 automatic pistol which had been hidden in a mattress. Forensic tests later confirmed that it was the weapon used in the Braintree shootings.

When arrested on the 15th June Nicholas de Clare Johnson made a full and frank confession of his involvement and also named John Brook as the shooter. It emerged that the two men were convinced that there would be at least ten thousand pounds in the house safe and had both ingested large quantity of alcohol and narcotics in order to steel themselves for the job, a fact which goes a long way to explaining their callous treatment of the Patience family as well as their basic incompetence in executing their captives.

Brook and Johnson were both tried in January 1974. John Brook was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nicholas de Clare Johnson was convicted of manslaughter and got ten years.

I wonder who it was that engaged these two in the first place? Any ideas? 

[OnceSaid]

I wonder who it was that engaged these two in the first place? Any ideas? 

Do you mean who engaged Johnson and Brook? 

Hi Patti, I've not really put much thought into it to be honest, they could have grafted on their own, or they could have been given the job to do by their boss, if they had one.  I've not read enough about the case to see if they are linked to any of the bigger fish or whether they moved in different circles from the main players in their areas, however Brook was known to Hanson, could he have been the link to others, I don't know.

The police and the CPS seemed to be convinced that they had their guy in Ince, but yet there was no evidence against him, all information and evidence pointed to the other two, as well as Johnson's confession, naming only Brook.

They expected there to be a substantial amount of money at the home, and it makes me wonder why they would think that.

If what I emboldened is correct, then I don't think Ince was involved in this crime.

 

[Patti]

Hi OnceSaid

To be honest neither have I....Just haven't had the time this week at all...it's all go go go ....I will try to have a look at it, but tomorrow I will be working on a project, so it will have to be next weekend...

[handyman]

I always thought there was a bit more to the Patience family than what was actually reported.
Being the owner of a successfull entertainment venue, were they having to shell out some form of protection money. A well known activity of the Krays.

This quote from Robert Patience, a little unbelievable, the bullet bouncing back out off a bone in his head.

"My wife was bleeding on the carpet and in a terrible state. I told the first gunman to get out with the money. He gave instructions to the other man to tie up both my daughter and myself. Then he shot my daughter through the back while she lay on the floor. I knew it was my turn next. There was a hell of a bang and I thought that was my lot. I felt blood running down me and I was sure that I was dying. The fair-haired man who did all the talking and shooting just held his gun a foot or so from the side of my head and pulled the trigger. Later the surgeons told me that the bullet had entered my ear and by some miracle had hit a bone and bounced out again. The gunman had used two cushions, firing twice through one of them and once through the other, to deaden the sound of the shots

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1732317

[OnceSaid]

My understanding of the protection racket is once you are threatened and bullied into agreeing to pay up, a day and time is arranged for a weekly collection of monies at their place of work.


Where was the nights takings? The family home was 50 yards from the venue, why did they go to the house rather than rob the venue?.

Handyman, "the bullet bouncing back out", could be possible.  I found this link interesting http://forensicpathologyonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=88

[handyman]

My understanding of the protection racket is once you are threatened and bullied into agreeing to pay up, a day and time is arranged for a weekly collection of monies at their place of work

So it's possible the Patience family want out of paying protection.
Ince turns up things get a bit out of hand, from his prison cell Kray agrees to use his missus as an alibi for Ince, who's even identified by the surviving victims.
Wonder what the reaction of Robert Patience & his daughter was to the eventual convictions, (if they still said it was Ince, who may have already been known to them)

Some form of police corruption involved in the cover up, leading to a couple of arrests based on information from a police informer.

[OnceSaid]

So it's possible the Patience family want out of paying protection.
Ince turns up things get a bit out of hand, from his prison cell Kray agrees to use his missus as an alibi for Ince, who's even identified by the surviving victims.
Wonder what the reaction of Robert Patience & his daughter was to the eventual convictions, (if they still said it was Ince, who may have already been known to them)

Some form of police corruption involved in the cover up, leading to a couple of arrests based on information from a police informer.

The reason why I think Ince wasn't there was that Hanson who had loose lips made no mention of Ince to the police when giving information, Johnston when arrested implicated Brook as the man who had the gun and pulled the trigger, but he also made no mention of Ince, and neither did Brook. 

It's quite a strange case.  With so many criminals involved, I suppose anything is possible, but from the little I have read so far, there was no evidence against Ince, and as hard as the police tried to make a case against him, they couldnt make it stick.  Hanson and Johnstone readily gave up information and names, would it not have been in their best interest to name Ince if he had been involved, but none of them did.