The Tattingstone Suitcase Murder - Unsolved since 1967

 

Sexually Assaulted, Strangled and Chopped up into 8 pieces, This is the case of Suffolk Police's most gruesome & longest-running cold case which remains unsolved to this day

Bernard Oliver, born and raised in Muswell Hill London was 17 when he was sexually assaulted, strangled then clinically and very neatly cut up into eight pieces and put into two large suitcases, which were found in a field in the village of Tattingstone, Suffolk on 16th January 1967. The field in which the two suitcases were dumped was just one hundred yards from the main road between Manningtree and Ipswich.

Bernard had left home in Muswell Hill, London on January 6th 1967, was reported missing by his father the next day and had been missing for some 10 days before his remains were found. Of course, there were no clues to identify him at the time, so police took the unprecedented step of releasing a photograph of the head in hope that someone would recognise the young man. The family of Bernard Oliver contacted the police quite soon after the photograph appeared in the news and gave details as to his identity.

Bernard had been a bit of a loner and had some difficulty in learning, according to his younger brother, Chris who told the media; "He was a little bit backward, he found it difficult to pick up reading and writing". He did not do well at school or indeed afterwards. 

Chris found out about his brother's murder from a newspaper whilst getting on a bus in Muswell Hill. Now in his 60s and living in Whetstone, Chris said: "It's just tormenting, not knowing what happened to him. We were all just boys at the time, I was 15. Bernard was a very gentle, friendly person".

Speaking of the day he found out about his brother's murder Chris Oliver said: "I was waiting for a bus going up to Muswell Hill, there was a clipping of this boy, just the head was showing, a friend that was with me said 'he looks like your brother', I couldn't believe it".

Bernard was one of six children born to George and Sheila. Maureen was his only sister and he had four brothers Andrew, Philip, Chris and the youngest was Tony, who was just 13 at the time of the murder. 

Mum and dad, George and Sheila had separated just a year previous so things were extremely stressful for the Oliver family, 

Chris Oliver said: "It had a massive impact on us, you cannot describe it. Even today it really upsets me. To be honest I don't think any of us have ever really sat down and spoken and grieved about it" 

Of course, there would have been no counselling services back then, people just kind of carried on, it must have been really difficult for such a family. 

According to Chris Oliver; he and his brother Tony believe that the murder was somehow connected to the notorious London gangsters, The Kray Twins. Chris told the media "They all used to go down to this house in Suffolk, there were rent boys brought in and there were all sorts of people that went there".

Following the media stories being released, various leads were given to the police within the first month of the murder, including several reported sightings of Bernard in and around the Muswell Hill area between when his disappearance and the body being discovered in Suffolk. Police were always of the mind that the murder and dismembering had taken place in Suffolk.

The enquiry was initially kept very busy and was soon being investigated by local police but had attracted the interest of Scotland Yard so their detectives were brought in to investigate but despite such in-depth enquiries, the case remains unsolved.

Suspects

There have been suspects in the case, one being Doctor John Byles, a 38-year-old former ship's surgeon, he was found dead in a hotel room at The Prince of Wales Hotel, in Northern Queensland, Australia on 19th January 1975. The doctor had been one of 2,000 people interviewed as possible suspects in connection with Bernard Oliver's murder. He had booked the room in the name of John Mathews and is believed to have taken a fatal drug overdose. 

At the time of his suicide, Byles had been wanted for extradition back to England as he had been alleged to be part of a paedophile ring known as "Holy Trinity" ring which featured around a church in Huddersfield. Several members of the ring had already been arrested for child sex offences and convicted at Leeds Crown Court in 1975 

It was alleged that Doctor Byles had invited teenage boys to his surgery in South London, where he plied them with alcohol and bribes in order to get them to commit sexual acts, whilst they were doing so the doctor would take indecent photographs of them and then sell on as pornography in Denmark.

According to information given to Scotland Yard after Byles death, it was said that the doctor had once admitted killing a ship cabin boy and dismembering his body, but this story has never been confirmed. 

The other suspect was Doctor Martin Reddington who had previously owned a surgery in Muswell Hill in the 1960s. In 1977 he was charged with committing an indecent assault on a young man between December 1971 and July 1973, He was dealt with at the Central Court in Sydney Australia.

Two years prior to Bernard Oliver's murder an arrest warrant was issued for Martin Reddington in which he was wanted on suspicion of Buggery and sexual assault on two males in 1965. Unfortunately, before the arrest could be made Reddington managed to slip the net and flee to South Africa. He apparently owned a surgery practice in Muswell Hill which was situated on one of the last streets that Bernard was even seen walking down. The doctor allegedly managed to return to England several times after he had initially fled but the warrant was never executed and thus he could never be tried. 

In 1977 a female private investigator claimed to have recognised the suitcase with the initials P.V.A marked on its side, She said that she believed it belonged to one of three men that had regularly visited Muswell Hill Launderette, one of those men was Doctor Reddington, the investigator had recognised him from a photograph.

Police did not feel that there was sufficient evidence at the time to be able to extradite Reddington from Australia so he was never questioned about the murder. 

In 2004 original documents from the Tattingstone Murder revealed that both Herrington and Byles had been wanted for a string of serious offences, one of which was the murder of a boy in London in 1973 after a homosexual relationship had failed.

Doctor Herrington apparently died in Suffolk in 1995 aged 63, no one official knew that he had returned to England and thus he was never even formally interviewed about the 1967 murder.

New Theories

Until 2018 the location of the actual murder and dismemberment of Bernard Oliver had a always remained uncertain but following an article that looked back at the 1967 murder being published in The Ipswich Star newspaper on 6th January 2018, a female witness came forward with new information.

The woman insists that she recalled seeing Bernard Oliver Alive in Tattingstone, The lady is now in her 60s but was advised by her daughter to go to the police with the information after they chatted about the newspaper article.

The woman who asked to remain anonymous told the paper "I was 16 at the time and worked as a groom in Freston. One of my duties was to exercise the horses every day. On the morning in question, I was riding one horse and leading the other. As I came up the hill in Tattingstone near to The White Horse, I saw a young man carrying two suitcases. I knew he was not someone that I had seen before in the area, he had freckles all over his face".

Obviously in the 1960s in small villages, everybody knew one another so I can imagine the woman would have realised straight away that the boy she saw was not a local person. 

The witness goes on to say "A few days later I saw the photograph in the paper and thought 'oh my goodness that's the chap I saw. I still believe it was him. I think he must have been murdered close to the Tattingstone area and someone else must have seen him".

Another witness that came forward as a result of the 2018 appeal suggested that the suitcases were most likely linked to the military, The witness said: "The large lightly coloured suitcase resembles a military issue suitcase of the time. I was issued one on my enlistment in 1969". 

This is an old, interesting murder with a somewhat novel way to hide the body. I would love to see this case get the justice that it deserves but as both of the main police suspects and the Kray Twins are all dead it is highly unlikely we will ever see anyone convicted in the physical sense. It would certainly be good to see the case solved so that the family has some kind of closure after all these 53 years. 

If by chance you do have any information that you feel would help the Oliver family to get the closure that they deserve then get in touch with Crimestoppers 0800-555-111 or call 101 and ask for The Metropolitan Police. It's never too late to speak out and help solve a murder.

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