00:00:05
NARRATOR: In a quiet
English village a few hours' drive from
London, a threat was
00:00:11
delivered to a local farmer. Impaled on a fence post, a
severed lamb's head along
00:00:21
with the message, you next. The note said little about its
author, but between the lines
00:00:30
it said plenty. [theme music] Nestled among the lush rolling
hills of England's west country
00:01:00
is the tiny village of
Horton, a cluster of houses lining one main street. A farming community where life
is simple, quiet, and peaceful.
00:01:13
But in the spring of
1984, the peace and quiet was shattered following a
series of bizarre events
00:01:22
that took place here
at Widden Hill Farm. 44-year-old Graham Backhouse
and his wife Margaret
00:01:30
lived at the farm with
their two children. Backhouse had inherited
the farm from his father,
00:01:36
but by all accounts Backhouse,
a farmer hairdresser, was not having financial
success as a farmer.
00:01:43
He had to take
over the-- the farm. He had no option
in the business. And there was a--
00:01:48
pretty obvious
that he was a kind of reluctant, grudging farmer. But it was well-known that
the farm was not making money.
00:01:58
NARRATOR: On March
30, 1984, Backhouse reported a grisly and
terrifying discovery.
00:02:05
A severed lamb's head had been
impaled on his fence post. Placed next to it a note warning
in large handwritten letters,
00:02:15
you next. Backhouse told police that this
wasn't the first time threats had been made against him.
00:02:25
He told me that he
was receiving telephone calls of a threatening
nature, even threats to kill,
00:02:35
as I recall. NARRATOR: Backhouse
also told police about a threatening letter
he had received in the mail.
00:02:42
--which said words
to the effect, you have ruined my sister's life. I'm going to get
you, you bastard.
00:02:51
NARRATOR: Less than
two weeks later, the threats turned violent. Margaret Backhouse was heading
into town to do some shopping.
00:03:01
She decided to
take her husband's car because her car was having
some mechanical difficulties.
00:03:14
Graham was in the
barn and never heard the explosion or Margaret's
screams for help over the music
00:03:22
from his radio. The bomb was unsophisticated,
but extremely powerful. It had been planted directly
under the driver's seat.
00:03:37
Strictly speaking,
it wasn't a bomb. It was a shortened
version of a shotgun. It was constructed
from galvanized steel
00:03:45
pipe, two inch diameter--
quite a thick wall to the pipe. NARRATOR: Margaret Backhouse
survived the explosion
00:03:52
because the force of
the bomb was directed downwards by the high
quality construction
00:03:57
of the driver's seat. But doctors still
had to remove more than a pound of
pellets and shrapnel
00:04:03
from Margaret Backhouse's body. The bombing stunned
villagers who now had to accept the fact
that the threats against Graham
00:04:13
Backhouse were serious. When bombs go off, you've
got to take it seriously. And people were
thinking that there
00:04:19
must be something behind this. It was the only
possible conclusion that we all reached
that the bomb must
00:04:25
have been for Graham Backhouse. NARRATOR: But who wanted
Graham Backhouse dead, and why?
00:04:35
On the same day of the car
bomb explosion which seriously injured Margaret Backhouse,
a threatening letter
00:04:41
was delivered to
the Backhouse farm. And the message said
something to the effect,
00:04:45
came twice last week,
but the pigs were about. NARRATOR: The note ended
with the words, see you soon.
00:04:54
The words twice and were
had both been misspelled, and experts believed
that the spelling
00:05:02
errors were deliberate. Investigators also
examined the note found beside the
severed lamb's head,
00:05:09
the one which stated, you next. An analysis of
that note revealed a possible clue, an impression
from a circular doodle.
00:05:20
When a doodle is made
on a piece of paper, the pressure from the
writing instrument
00:05:25
leaves an impression
on the pages underneath the original doodle. Doodle impressions can be
found using a technique called
00:05:33
oblique lighting, which casts
shadows across the indentations of the paper. BERYL MORGAN: So
that you can see
00:05:41
the impression as
a row of shadows, and these can then
be photographed. NARRATOR: Police
asked Graham Backhouse
00:05:48
to identify all individuals who
may have wanted to harm him. He was interviewed at
some length about who
00:05:56
his enemies were, who
his ex girlfriends were, and things of that nature. NARRATOR: Backhouse
told police about one
00:06:05
possibility, a former quarry
worker named David Hodkinson. Backhouse said he once
had a sexual affair
00:06:13
with Hodkinson's wife. Hodkinson would have had
access to explosives, and was also an
electrician who specialized
00:06:22
in wiring automobiles. On the day the explosion took
place this person was, in fact,
00:06:29
out of the country
on holiday and had been out of the country for
three or four days beforehand.
00:06:36
NARRATOR: When Hodkinson's
alibi checked out, police turned their attention
to one of Graham Backhouse's
00:06:43
neighbors, Colin Bedale-Taylor. He was a retired engineer
seriously depressed over the death of his
19-year-old son Digby
00:06:53
who died in a car crash
two years earlier. Bedale-Taylor and
Backhouse were involved
00:06:59
in a bitter land dispute which
they couldn't seem to resolve. They lived 200 yards apart.
00:07:07
Colin Bedale-Taylor
was well-liked in the small farming community. He was a woodworker and
handyman who built this bench
00:07:16
for his friends in the
village with the words, bide a while inscribed
on the back rest.
00:07:22
Despite the differences between
Backhouse and Bedale-Taylor, police did not
seriously consider him
00:07:29
a suspect in the car bombing. There was no reason
to suspect that Mr. Bedale-Taylor was in
any way, shape, or form
00:07:37
involved in this incident. NARRATOR: With no other leads,
Backhouse and his family
00:07:42
were given 24 hour police
protection immediately following the bombing. After a week, Graham Backhouse
began to resent the police
00:07:51
intrusion and asked them
to end the around the clock protection. Before they left, police
installed an alarm button
00:07:59
connecting the Backhouse home
directly to the police station. Just two weeks later,
the alarm sounded.
00:08:07
DEREK ROBINSON: Police cars
began streaming up the hill. We knew that something
was seriously wrong.
00:08:12
NARRATOR: When the police
arrived at the farm, they saw a horrific
scene of blood and death.
00:08:18
Blood was found on
the kitchen floor, the chairs had been overturned,
and at the bottom of the stairs
00:08:26
at the end of a hallway laid
the body of Colin Bedale-Taylor, Backhouse's neighbor.
00:08:33
He had been shot
twice in the chest. In his right hand
firmly clutched was a Stanley knife inscribed
with his own initials, CBT.
00:08:45
Backhouse was bleeding
profusely with gaping slash wounds on his face and chest.
00:08:52
I've popped in to see
how your wife is faring. She's doing very
well, thank you.
00:08:57
NARRATOR: He told police
that Bedale-Taylor stopped by to ask how his wife was
doing in the hospital
00:09:02
following the car bombing. Justice? NARRATOR: Without warning,
Colin flew into a rage
00:09:08
and attacked Backhouse
with a Stanley knife. Me that set the
bomb in your car. You should have been
the victim, not her!
00:09:16
NARRATOR: He said he was doing
God's work, blaming Backhouse for the death of
his son and admitted
00:09:20
to planting the car bomb. Backhouse ran to the
hallway, grabbed his shotgun, and shot Bedale-Taylor
in self-defense.
00:09:35
Police roped off the farm and
called for forensic detectives to conduct an examination.
00:09:42
They were particularly
interested in the blood trails-- the one they could see and
the one they couldn't find.
00:09:52
Graham Backhouse told
police that he killed Collin Bedale-Taylor
in self-defense
00:09:57
after his neighbor went
berserk and attacked Backhouse with a Stanley knife. Backhouse said his neighbor
admitted planting the car bomb,
00:10:07
and that it was intended
for him, not his wife. When police searched
Bedale-Taylor's property,
00:10:14
they found evidence
linking him to the bombing. PETER BROCK: We found
a long section of pipe
00:10:20
on grounds quite close to
Colin Bedale-Taylor's home, and this matched the
remnants of the bomb
00:10:27
that were reconstructed. GEOFFREY ROBINSON: The
obvious implication was that the pipe bomb
had been made by him
00:10:32
and come from his land. NARRATOR: But
forensic detectives were confused by what they found
at the scene of the attack.
00:10:41
First, the blood spatter on
the kitchen floor told a story, but it was a story
inconsistent with Backhouse's
00:10:49
version of events. GEOFFREY ROBINSON:
The staining was predominantly in the form of
small circular drips of blood.
00:10:58
NARRATOR: The circular drops
of blood found on the kitchen floor were not consistent
with a struggle,
00:11:05
but indicated that
the blood dripped from an individual
standing still. GEOFFREY ROBINSON: Blood
dripping vertically
00:11:12
to a surface during a
passive act of bleeding will form circular
spots or stains.
00:11:18
But if we have a violent
movement of the body-- a flicking of the hand-- you see a different
shape a stain.
00:11:26
They're more elongated,
and some of the stains will show a tail
shape to them pointing
00:11:31
in the direction of travel that
the blood impacted the surface. NARRATOR: And there
was something missing.
00:11:37
Backhouse said he ran for
his life from the kitchen down the hall to get
his gun, but police
00:11:45
could find no trail of blood. We seem to have a man who
is dripping blood profusely
00:11:50
in the kitchen,
manages to move over 15 foot of carpeted
hallway without leaving
00:11:55
any drips of blood. NARRATOR: And police were
faced with another discrepancy. Backhouse said he shot
Bedale-Taylor after his face
00:12:04
and chest had been
slashed, but his blood was not found on the gun. Had he been attacked
before firing the gun,
00:12:12
blood from his face
wound or from his hands would have dripped onto the gun
as he fired in self-defense.
00:12:19
So both features
missing from the gun suggested that he
wasn't bleeding and hadn't blood staining
on him at the time
00:12:25
that he picked up that gun. NARRATOR: The victim was
found clutching the Stanley
00:12:29
knife firmly in his right hand. The forensic pathologist
found this highly unusual.
00:12:36
When somebody shot or when
somebody dies, they go limp. So then I would expect to see
the response, or the body's
00:12:46
response to being shot twice
in the chest and death taking place simply to relax and the
knife would fall from the hand.
00:12:53
Wouldn't be clutched
tightly in the hand. NARRATOR: And Bedale-Taylor's
right palm was bloody.
00:13:00
When an individual holds
a knife during an attack, the knife usually prevents blood
from staining the entire palm.
00:13:07
IAIN WEST: There's an
area of the palm which is either very lightly stained
with blood or not stained
00:13:12
with blood. The knife protects
that part of the palm. NARRATOR: Backhouse's
chest wound was also
00:13:21
inconsistent with a struggle. Because normally if
you're cut, you withdraw. Your body jerks away.
00:13:28
So how on earth are you going to
get a wound which then travels almost half the circumference
of the chest in a one
00:13:34
to one confrontation? I would never expect to
see that pattern of injury. NARRATOR: And Backhouse had
no defensive injuries commonly
00:13:43
found when a person
fends off a knife attack. They actually grab hold
of the weapon itself,
00:13:48
and they get cut across
the fingers, the palm. And sometimes you
find that they've
00:13:53
tried to block the
weapon, put their hand up, and they get cuts in
the back of the forearm,
00:13:57
or the side of the forearm,
or the back of the hand. None of these were present here.
00:14:03
NARRATOR: And there was
something else, something small but significant. When police searched Backhouse's
study, they found a notepad.
00:14:13
On one of the pages
was a circular doodle. The ink doodle found
on Backhouse's notepad
00:14:20
was identical to the impression
found on the you next note. It was a whole
series of circles--
00:14:27
quite a complicated thing. The impressions were
quite deep so that you had a good photograph,
and you were
00:14:33
able to get a good alignment,
and you could see clearly that it came from this doodle.
00:14:37
It was exactly the same. There was no doubt
whatsoever about it. This is the doodle that
we're talking about here.
00:14:45
You can see just
various scribble. When we turn the
page, I think you can still see the impression.
00:14:55
This note is now very old
and has been well handled, so it's not terribly clear now.
00:15:01
But it is still there,
just see it there. Still see the
impression just there. NARRATOR: Proof that you next
note was written on Graham
00:15:14
Backhouse's own notepad. PETER BROCK: We now had a
document in the form of the you
00:15:20
next note that we
could positively link with Widden Hill Farm. NARRATOR: Police believed
they could now piece together
00:15:27
the bizarre events which led
to the cold blooded murder of Colin Bedale-Taylor. After two straight
years of crop failures,
00:15:40
Graham Backhouse was 50,000
pounds in debt to a local bank and was in desperate
need of funds.
00:15:47
Backhouse devised an
elaborate scheme to get out of debt once and for all. His plan was to kill his
wife and collect on her life
00:15:58
insurance policies, which he
had recently doubled to 100,000 pounds, but he wanted
the murder to appear
00:16:06
as if Margaret had been killed
by someone out to kill him. So Backhouse
fabricated the story
00:16:13
about the threatening
phone calls and letters. Backhouse himself
wrote the you next note
00:16:21
and impaled the severed
lamb's head on his fence post, establishing the ruse that
someone was out to get him.
00:16:29
With the stage now set,
Backhouse turned his attention to the murder of his wife.
00:16:37
He planted a pipe bomb under the
driver's seat of his own car. He knew his wife would drive his
car into town the next morning
00:16:50
because her car was having
mechanical problems. But Backhouse never expected his
wife to survive the explosion.
00:17:09
Desperate and fearing the police
would consider him a suspect, Backhouse panicked and decided
to set up a scapegoat--
00:17:17
someone to divert the
police inquiry from himself. The logical choice was his
neighbor, Colin Bedale-Taylor.
00:17:29
Thanks for coming
about the furniture. NARRATOR: Villagers
knew that the two were
00:17:33
involved in a land dispute. When Bedale-Taylor accepted
Graham's invitation to discuss a piece
of furniture, he
00:17:41
had no way of knowing he had
walked into a death trap. GRAHAM BACKHOUSE: Colin,
come here a minute.
00:17:47
Coming. NARRATOR: Colin was shot twice
in the chest in cold blood. To make the shooting appear
to be in self-defense,
00:18:05
Backhouse slashed himself
in the face and chest with a knife yet inscribed
with his neighbor's initials.
00:18:12
Bleeding profusely from
the self-inflicted wounds, Backhouse overturned
kitchen chairs
00:18:18
to make it appear there
had been a struggle, never realizing the shape
of the blood spatter
00:18:23
would indicate no
struggle at all. Backhouse's his own blood was
found on the victim's shirt
00:18:30
because he stood
directly over the body when he placed the knife
in the dead man's hand.
00:18:37
With the crime
scene now complete, Graham Backhouse
called the police. Some time earlier, Backhouse
planted a piece of pipe
00:18:46
on Bedale-Taylor's property
identical to the type used in making the car bomb. When the forensic
evidence contradicted
00:18:54
Backhouse's version
of events, he was arrested for both the
attempted murder of his wife
00:19:01
and the murder of
Colin Bedale-Taylor. In addition to the
blood spatter evidence,
00:19:07
the doodle impression found
on Backhouse's notepad, and the medical examiner's
opinion that the cuts on Graham
00:19:14
Backhouse were self-inflicted,
another crucial piece of evidence helped seal the case.
00:19:22
It came from the letter
delivered to the Backhouse farm on the day of the bombing.
00:19:28
Forensic detectives wanted
to analyze the glued envelope for saliva, hoping to
determine the blood
00:19:34
type of the individual
who sent the letter, but they discovered much more. Under the microscope, the
fiber found in the envelope
00:19:45
matched fibers found in a
brown cardigan sweater owned by Graham Backhouse,
further proof
00:19:53
that Backhouse had mailed the
threatening letter to himself. Graham Backhouse's plotting
continued from his prison cell.
00:20:02
He conned a fellow prisoner
into smuggling out an unsigned letter to a local newspaper.
00:20:08
The letter implicated
Colin Bedale-Taylor in the car bombing. But the letter was confiscated,
and Backhouse's handwriting
00:20:16
matched the handwriting on the
letter delivered to the farm on the day of the bombing.
00:20:22
After a 16-day trial,
Graham Backhouse was convicted of all
charges against him and received two life sentences.
00:20:33
If somebody had
set out to write a novel along those
lines, it would never have been accepted by anybody.
00:20:39
I mean, this is absolutely truth
being stranger than fiction. PETER BROCK: This was
an outstanding case
00:20:43
in many respects principally
because without forensic evidence there was no case.
00:20:51
The worst aspect was,
of course, the fact that he picked on a totally
innocent man in the village
00:20:57
and killed him for
no other reason than to try to remove
blame from himself. And that's what made
it a diabolical murder.
00:21:06
[theme music]