Cranborne Road Murder

[SteH]

In 1951 Beatrice Rimmer was bludgeoned to death in her home, with robbery the supposed motive. Two Mancunians Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns were later hung for the murder after investigations led by Bert Balmer, who would appear to have 'fitted up' George Kelly and Charles Connolly over the Cameo murders.

The evidence against the two accused was largely circumstantial, involving eye witness accounts by people of questionable character and the defendants failure to provide a suitable alibi. No murder weapon or fingerprints were ever found, nor did anyone ever see the them go into the house.

I'm convinced that this is, like the Cameo case, a miscarriage of justice. Here's some links:-

http://www.geocities.com/stevenhorto...borneroad.html
http://detectiveandrews.tripod.com/cranborne.html

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Steve

Thanks for starting this thread. As you say, it appears to be another miscarriage of justice down to Bert Balmer fitting up a couple of petty criminals for the crime just as in the Cameo case.

Chris

[MissInformed]

what a sad case

[theninesisters]

My mate still lives opposite to the house in question!

[MissInformed]

My mate still lives opposite to the house in question!

get us a pic jona!

[theninesisters]

get us a pic jona!

Of me mates house?

[Ged]

No, of the sad case.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi AP and MissInformed

Thanks, AP, for sharing that newscutting with us. As you saw, it is New Brighton-based George Skelly, author of The Cameo Conspiracy, who is writing the book on the Cranborne Road murder. As George told me by email recently, and as related in the cutting, he sees a direct parallel between what happened with George Kelly and Charles Connolly, the two men convicted in the Cameo murders, and the convictions and execution of Burns and Devlin for the murder of Beatrice Rimmer in her Wavertree home. In both cases, the men who were tried and found guilty of the crimes appear to have been "fitted up" for the crimes by the chief Liverpool CID officer, Bert Balmer.

Chris

[steve miller]

Hi Chris do you know how the book by George is progressing?

all the best
Steve

[Ged]

I wonder if it was George Skelly or possibly MarkR from this forum, or even Tom Slemen who rang into Radio City this week when Pete Price had Bernard-Hogan-Howe on the programme. It was in protest at the Police commissionaire wanting to charge £450 for documents on an old murder case being made avaialble for public scrutiny under the freedom of information act.

[AntiPathos]

I wonder if it was George Skelly or possibly MarkR from this forum, or even Tom Slemen who rang into Radio City this week when Pete Price had Bernard-Hogan-Howe on the programme. It was in protest at the Police commissionaire wanting to charge £450 for documents on an old murder case being made avaialble for public scrutiny under the freedom of information act.

Did the caller actually mention this case ? If so, it will almost certainly have been Slem or his sidecar rider, Mr. Andrews (if it were me I wouldn't know which handlebars to grab). If it wasn't this case being talked about, how comes you posted that in this thread ?

[Ged]

Hi there. I bumped into Mr Andrews quite by accident when the Gardens of Stone screening was on at the Olive Mount Community Centre last wednesday. He has a 'Criminologist' sign on his bungalow gate, so I chatted to him for a while and he said they had some 'revelations' about this case and others, I suspect Wallace and the Ripper that he and Slemen were supposed to working on (Liverpool it seems may have run out of ghosts now)- I won't hold my breath.

Hogan-Howe was very suspicious of why someone would want an old case file, he said he had to wary of suspects in an old case delving into what the police actually had/or never had on them.

It transpired that it was someone writing a book about a famous old Liverpool case and this was only one of perhaps three I could think of that was in the news, what with Bert Balmer and his perhaps dodgy methods and the call for justice. This therefore might not be the correct thread in actual fact but if it is being revisited, then it's quite possible that this is the file the caller was on about.

[AntiPathos]

Hi there. I bumped into Mr Andrews quite by accident when the Gardens of Stone screening was on at the Olive Mount Community Centre last wednesday. He has a 'Criminologist' sign on his bungalow gate, so I chatted to him for a while and he said they had some 'revelations' about this case and others...

You chatted to him because he had a 'Criminologist' sign on his driveway ?

You know, he and Slem can hint all they like about their revelations regarding this case and others. That's one of their tricks. The fact is: they know nothing. I know people (yes, plural) who have seen the Merseyside Police case files on this murder so anything in them is not a revelation which Andrews or Slem have any power to exclusively hold back or reveal at a time of their choosing. There are people out there with far greater knowledge of Merseyside crimes than this pair claim to have and as have I asked before on here: what have either of them ever exclusively revealed about anything ? Can anyone answer me that ?

My opinion is that Slem is a truly awful writer with a niche market preaching the unbelievable to the unbelievably naive. And, as our own Mr. George on here is well aware, he's been shown to have pilfered his tales from elsewhere (he didn't even hide it very well).

Mr. Andrews, OTOH, is a self-styled criminologist who sees dead rock-stars on gateposts and who was, the last I heard, calling for a pedestrian tunnel to be built under the Mersey so people could pop over to the shops in Birkenhead. That's what we're dealing with here. The sooner this pair of jokers leave criminology to people qualified to write about such matters the better.

Oh, and did you know that every time someone buys a Tom Slemen book that somewhere on Earth a genuine historical researcher dies. It's true.

AP.

[Ged]

I very much agree with you. But in case you think i'm a sad case, I was a little lost at the time and had unknowingly driven past the community centre twice in my search for it, a sign on it would be good. That's when I spotted him and his sign. I asked him if he knew Vincent Burke, a real criminologist, he looked a bit blank and said after a while 'Oh Yes'

I know of course that Slemen's 'revelation' of John Johnstone (sp) being the wallace murderer has been looked at before, as I say, i'm not holding my breath of those two finding anything new.

[AntiPathos]

I very much agree with you. But in case you think i'm a sad case, I was a little lost at the time and had unknowingly driven past the community centre twice in my search for it, a sign on it would be good. That's when I spotted him and his sign. I asked him if he knew Vincent Burke, a real criminologist, he looked a bit blank and said after a while 'Oh Yes'

I know of course that Slemen's 'revelation' of John Johnstone (sp) being the wallace murderer has been looked at before, as I say, i'm not holding my breath of those two finding anything new.

Don't worry Ged mate. If it helps, I know you're not one of the soft ones Evidently, there's something of a feud 'twixt Slem/Andrews and Burke so Andrews' face must have been priceless when you asked him had he heard of Vincent Pity you (probably) didn't add the "real Criminologist" bit in real life, for extra effect. I would have done...

The Slem/Andrews theory of the Johnstones killing Julia Wallace is of course completely true because they are "credited with solving the case in Arabella McIntyre Brown's book, Liverpool: The First 1000 years." And this feat of enormous accreditation now ranks them above "other historians and crime fiction writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Raymond Chandler." (Link)

Also on that page you'll see this inconspicuous gabble (which I'm reminded that I've mentioned before on here):

"He is currently writing a feature on a crime historian's past, and an in-depth article on a failed one-book 'pulp crime writer' who writes nothing but anonymous emails to famous people. Keith is also working with a television screenwriter on a script about the Cameo Murders, based on the landmark book by Barry Shortall."

Which seems to be a dig at none other than Mr. Burke and then a double (or does it count triple ?) dig at Mr. George Skelly. Baffling...

...except of course they're in something of a minor panic knowing that he has a Rimmer Murder book in the works (back 'on thread' at last !) and they've hinted at one of their own in the pipe-line (or should that be -dream ?).

Be very assured that there is not the remotest chance that Slem and Andrews would (or even could) publish anything on the Cranborne Road murder first as they're palpably worried that George might know a lot more than they do and would rather have the opportunity to piggyback onto his research once his book is out anyway. And then accuse a dead neighbour...