BRITPOD CRIME: The Bow Cinema Murder – ein Teenager wird zum Mörder

00:00:07: Great Pot Crime, England's mystery crime

00:00:10: stories.

00:00:11: When Maisie walked into the living room, she saw a man standing over her husband, wielding a hatchet.

00:00:25: A scream ripped through the building.

00:00:27: Nelly Eery, one of the other cleaners and sister to one of the cinema's projectionists, had found a heavily injured Dudley Hoard on the staircase, leading to the auditorium balcony.

00:00:38: He was covered in blood, as were the walls and the staircase he was on.

00:00:41: There are murders, Alex, that shock us here at this point, which have destroyed several people's lives or have unusual brutality.

00:00:51: Well, we already

00:00:52: had some of them in the Britport crime.

00:00:55: Which category did you bring us today, dear Klaus?

00:01:00: Last category.

00:01:01: To the murders, which leave a particularly unfathomable mark.

00:01:13: We're talking about a crime from the year nineteen

00:01:17: hundred and

00:01:20: thirty-four.

00:01:24: It is the fall of the Great Britain press, under the name of the Boz Cinema Kinomörder, sad news.

00:01:34: Oh, where

00:01:35: and when did the crime take place?

00:01:37: On August the seventh, nineteen hundred and forty-three in the morning at seven o'clock forty-five.

00:01:48: We go back to London, to the Boz Road.

00:01:53: There, the Eastern Palace Cinema, a chic cinema, was popular in the big cities at that time.

00:01:57: Of course, in the thirties, the movie was booming.

00:02:09: By the nineteen thirties, cinemas had become enormously popular in Britain, and the industry had professionalized significantly since Hoard's last foray into cinema management in nineteen eleven.

00:02:20: In the nineteen hundred thirties, cinema became very popular.

00:02:23: Mostly there were twelve and more people.

00:02:26: Everything had to go smoothly.

00:02:28: You wanted a lot of viewers.

00:02:30: Marketing was important.

00:02:31: It was propagated by bookstores like Cinematographer Wigley.

00:02:35: Dudley became a director in March of nineteen hundred thirty-four.

00:02:39: Soon he and Maisie entered the cinema building.

00:02:42: Her first apartment, since she got married in nineteen thirty-three, was used by Dudley's parents.

00:02:48: To draw in audiences.

00:02:51: Dudley got the cinema manager job in March, and he and Maisie moved in a few weeks later.

00:02:58: It was the first time since their wedding in spring, that they had their flat.

00:03:03: They had previously been staying with Dudley's parents in Croydon.

00:03:08: After managing a cinema in Nottingham, they moved to London to run the Eastern Palace Cinema on Ball Road in the East End.

00:03:15: After a movie in Nottingham, Dudley managed the movie in the Boat Road in the East End, where they lived the highest.

00:03:21: The Eastern Palace Cinema belonged to two Jewish businessmen.

00:03:25: It was at the Boat Road between a café and a coffee house.

00:03:29: The movie, in the oriental style, had almost a thousand visitors.

00:03:34: It could

00:03:34: enjoy the ornate, if somewhat shabby, oriental decorations on the walls.

00:03:40: On the morning of seventh August, Dudley and Maisie were sleeping in after a busy bank holiday weekend.

00:03:46: Ordinarily, one of Dudley's first tasks every day was to deposit the cinema's previous days' takings at the Midland Bank on Mile End Road.

00:03:55: At the same time, he earned five

00:04:17: pounds a week for the best paid man.

00:04:29: Around a quarter to eight.

00:04:32: And

00:04:57: was trying to fend off the other man.

00:05:00: Maisie shouted out to the attacker, a young man.

00:05:03: He then turned to her and hit her over the head with the hatchet.

00:05:07: She blacked out immediately.

00:05:11: Then their colleagues

00:05:16: discovered something terrible on the stairs.

00:05:20: Dudley Hort is lying on a huge bloodstain on the floor, beating with fourteen lice, as you will later understand.

00:05:32: The women open the door of the apartment panically and find Macy there, heavily injured, but still alive.

00:05:48: Dudley Hort also still breathes weak.

00:05:53: But his blood loss is huge.

00:05:56: The cleaning women are shocked on the street and all the men pass by Bobby, who calls the police again.

00:06:03: And Dudley Hort is dead, right?

00:06:05: Fourteen victims, you can't survive

00:06:08: that.

00:06:08: That's how it is.

00:06:08: His injuries are too serious.

00:06:11: Maisie, on the other hand, has more luck and can even make a first statement in the hospital.

00:06:16: She describes the attack as a very young, aggressive man.

00:06:20: Scotland Yard takes over the meds and immediately begins to take everyone in the building, especially the staff.

00:06:26: On the wall of the apartment you can find a bloody fingerprint, which does not belong to Dudley Hort or his wife.

00:06:32: Also a strange human hair and some more can be safely displayed.

00:06:38: For the former state of the Forensic, that is, without DNA analysis, that was really something.

00:06:44: But was the safe also taught with the overall name of the cinema?

00:06:49: Yes, an important point.

00:06:50: Scotland Yard quickly recognizes that it has to deal with a raupan.

00:06:54: The murderer had taken the key to Dudley Horde and stole almost ninety pounds of very much money from the safe in the office.

00:07:03: And what was the actual weapon?

00:07:04: First of all, you

00:07:05: can't find it.

00:07:06: Only the next day you discover the blood clot in a hidden space.

00:07:12: Wait a minute, that means the perpetrator must have recognized himself well in the building, right?

00:07:17: Wait a minute.

00:07:18: First of all, the police firmly convinced that the fact that so often in these years one of the many London gangs had to be involved, but then the first doubt appeared.

00:07:30: In fact, an insider could have been the perpetrator.

00:07:32: Who knew of the particularly high sum of interest this time?

00:07:39: You leave Dr.

00:07:40: Francis Temple Gray, the psychologist and doctor, the staff to take at least under the magnifying glass,

00:08:07: John Frederick Stockwell.

00:08:10: John had only worked at the cinema for a few months after being hired by Dudley.

00:08:15: As an attendant, it was his duty to check tickets and show patrons to their seats.

00:08:21: Like many neighbourhood cinemas at the time, the Eastern Palace operated on a continuous performance basis.

00:08:27: Meaning that once the first screening of the day... John

00:08:29: worked only a few months in the cinema.

00:08:31: He was a card controller.

00:08:33: The films were played in a loop.

00:08:35: Visitors came and went when they wanted.

00:08:38: The controllers had to work constantly.

00:08:41: The police did not surprise that John did not come on this day.

00:08:45: Instead John hid the stolen money, made a trip to the sea with his friend Violet.

00:09:02: He took his

00:09:03: girlfriend Violet to a West End cinema.

00:09:06: On Wednesday morning, John was still behaving like everything was normal.

00:09:11: He knew, however, that the police were still investigating the crime scene, and he was not keen to return to the cinema.

00:09:18: So on the morning of the eighth of August, he pretended to leave for work as usual, but instead took a train from Liverpool Street.

00:09:25: But the brave murder has disappeared.

00:09:26: On the train to Liverpool Street, his tracks are lost.

00:09:29: But maybe he works together with a

00:09:32: gang.

00:09:32: Did you also check that out?

00:09:35: Of course, without success.

00:09:41: But as if you don't break the lawfully enough, there is, on

00:09:48: the tenth of August,

00:09:53: three days after the crime, an incredible turn, a dramatic turn.

00:10:03: At the small police station of the town of Lowstoft, there is a letter.

00:10:09: Do you know where Lohsdorf is, Alex?

00:10:10: Yes, in the Grafschaftszafork on the sea.

00:10:14: That is certainly two and a half or three hours away from London.

00:10:16: The letter

00:10:17: that the policemen open in Lohsdorf comes from John Frederick Stockwell.

00:10:23: It is a doubtful letter.

00:10:26: Stockwell always wants his deed and bribes everything.

00:10:28: He explains that his future is ruined and that he will take his life in Lohsdorf.

00:10:33: How terrible!

00:10:35: That means you also found Stockwell dead?

00:10:37: No, but of course the

00:10:40: police are looking for him immediately.

00:10:43: Soon there will be a first trace.

00:10:44: In a corner of the beach you will find his clothes, a postcard book on his name, his wristband and his shoes.

00:10:52: With that the case seems to have

00:10:55: ended.

00:10:56: Apparently you say, what does that

00:10:57: mean now?

00:10:58: Well, as you can imagine, the murder case of Dudley Hort in Great Britain has caused a lot of damage.

00:11:03: Scotland Yard was the press, but first of all nothing from the likely self-murdered Stockwells.

00:11:09: That's what you only want to do when you've fished your corpse out of the sea.

00:11:13: A citizen from Lourstoft reports.

00:11:17: Yes, he saw how the search for

00:11:24: his stuff has been placed

00:11:25: on the beach, but then he didn't go into the water, but back to the village.

00:11:29: That's

00:11:29: awesome!

00:11:29: He had taken a room in Lowestoft with a Mrs.

00:11:32: Alice Alberta trip, a short-sighted housewife.

00:11:36: He gave his name as Jack.

00:11:37: In Lowstoft

00:11:38: he had a room at Mrs.

00:11:39: Tripp, a housewife.

00:11:41: He called himself Jack Barnett and gave up to have a holiday for a month.

00:11:45: For the first week he paid no more than thirty-five shillings.

00:11:49: On the tenth of August, Scotland shared photos of Stockwell on all major newspapers.

00:11:54: There was also a search in the BBC.

00:11:56: He was described in all modern media, because the murder of Dudley Hort was particularly brutal.

00:12:04: They were using all modern media and technology at their disposal to circulate John's description.

00:12:10: It was unusual for the police to coordinate such an intense campaign, but the murder of Dudley Hoard was considered especially violent and heinous.

00:12:18: So he

00:12:20: dominated the search for the Bosnian murder in the second week of all the first days.

00:12:31: After John

00:12:32: Stockwell read the newspaper during breakfast, he explained to Mrs.

00:12:36: Tripp that he had to go to Yarmouth today.

00:12:40: After he'd left, Mrs.

00:12:41: Tripp went to see her daughter, who ran

00:12:49: after Mrs.

00:12:51: Tripp's daughter.

00:13:04: To ring the police for her.

00:13:06: When they arrived, they were able to confiscate the clothes that John had left behind, but the wanted man himself had eluded

00:13:13: them.

00:13:30: Later that day, John Stockwell walked into the Metropolitan Hotel in Yarmouth and asked for a room.

00:13:37: When he signed the hotel register, he wrote that his name was J.F.

00:13:41: Smith and that he was from Luton, Hartfordshire.

00:13:43: At the same day, John Stockwell, the Metropolitan Hotel in Yarmus, asked for a room.

00:13:48: At the report, he found J.F.

00:13:51: Smith from Luton in Hartfordshire.

00:13:53: The receptionist named Dortmund recognized him from the newspaper and Luton was in Bedfordshire, not in Hartfordshire, which everyone from Luton knew.

00:14:02: Dortmund took Smith to a room, then the police called.

00:14:18: The nation was finally over.

00:14:20: At Great Yarmouth police station, Mr.

00:14:23: Smith admitted that he was John Stockwell, and also that he had murdered Dudley Hoard.

00:14:28: The local police chief put a call through to Scotland Yard and Chief Inspector Fred Sharp drove up to Yarmouth that very evening to collect his suspect.

00:14:38: On the way back to London on the eleventh of August, Stockwell told Sharp how he'd committed the

00:14:43: crime.

00:14:43: However, the police had their men.

00:14:51: When Sharps was on his way to Bowe Road, at around nine o'clock, a large number of people had gathered to see the murder that had lived

00:15:23: in the middle of the city.

00:15:27: keen to catch a glimpse of the beau cinema murderer, who until so recently had been living in their midst.

00:15:53: Like many people in the East End, John Stockwell came from an impoverished background, but he was not brought up locally.

00:16:00: He was born on the second of March,

00:16:05: nineteen fifteen, near Kings Cross.

00:16:27: Because John's father had died in the war, Elizabeth received a financial contribution from the state for John's upkeep.

00:16:34: Elizabeth decided around nineteen thirty to move away from central London and out to Bromley in Kent.

00:16:41: For the teenage John, who was no longer required to attend school, the change from King's Cross...

00:16:58: Elizabeth

00:16:59: decided she could no longer support John living with her.

00:17:02: And he moved to a Salvation Army boy's home in Boe Road sometime in nineteen thirty.

00:17:08: These homes were designed exactly for people like John, young men who lacked family or community support.

00:17:15: They intended to give these men the skills to get employment and become independent.

00:17:33: John was sentenced to two years probation, meaning he had to meet up with a probation officer regularly.

00:17:40: The Salvation Army had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to criminal activity, so John lost his lodgings.

00:17:47: After a short period working for a pastry chef, John was unemployed until he found the job.

00:17:52: On

00:17:52: his posh bar book there were thirty shillings, one of thirty.

00:18:06: He was always poor.

00:18:07: The almost ninety pounds he had from the safe were more than he would ever

00:18:18: see in his life.

00:18:24: John had always lived in poverty.

00:18:27: The nearly ninety pounds that he stole from the cinema safe after attacking Dudley and Maisie

00:18:33: was

00:18:33: probably more money than he had ever seen together in his life.

00:18:37: He also had virtually no contact with his

00:18:48: family.

00:18:50: His colleagues

00:18:59: reported that they had found John odd.

00:19:01: and his previous conviction for theft was known and made people suspicious of him.

00:19:06: Do you remember, Alex?

00:19:08: The ex-inspector had no

00:19:10: written protocol at the court and Stockwell didn't want to complain about his rights.

00:19:26: This was heavily burdened by the members of the process.

00:19:33: In addition, Maisie Hort, the seriously injured wife of the defendant, was still not well and Stockwell could not identify exactly.

00:19:45: The lawyers also suspected that he was actually not the murderer, but that he would only cover.

00:20:00: When did the process go on?

00:20:02: That

00:20:05: certainly doesn't save him from

00:20:09: the punishment of death, does it?

00:20:11: No,

00:20:12: the Henker Justice Goddard led Stockwell on November the fourteenth to guide him in the prison of the Pendleton world.

00:20:21: And do you know, Alex, what I find most terrible is that there was no one around this... for some nineteen-year-old from London's Lambsweint, no family, no neighbors, no colleagues, only his friends, himself poor, who later lived together with John Frederick Stockwell as a sad love story for the London newspapers and thus earned a bit

00:20:49: of

00:20:50: money.