Cambridgeshire Murders (22 page)

Back at the house he found the children dressed, but Williams not yet ready to leave. He told the maids to wait in the car, which was still in the garage about 100 yards from the house. As Southgate left she remembered that the daughter, Betty, was upstairs and the two babies were in their prams in the kitchen while Williams was busy putting a telephone call through to the general post office.

She sat with Henderson for several minutes, and then they heard three shots, followed by a scream and more shots. At first they thought the shots came from the orchard but realising that the sound was too close Southgate said: ‘It's coming from the kitchen. Surely he hasn't shot the children.'

The distraught maid ran into the house via the back door and was faced with a scene worse than anything she could have imagined. Dick was in his pram; his legs were moving but blood was pouring from his face. Betty lay on the floor.

She ran back out and told her companion, ‘They have been shot. They are on the floor.' Both girls re-entered the house and Henderson saw that ‘Betty was lying on the floor, her head in a pool of blood. Dick was in a perambulator. Michael was in another perambulator, their heads down. They were bleeding from the nose and mouth.'

As they did not know where the Tebbutts were and whether there was an ongoing danger they ran back from the house to summon help. They returned with a neighbour and the milkman, Joseph Allington from Stetchworth Dairies. Several neighbours had heard shots but had ignored them as Tebbutt often fired at birds in the garden.

They found Tebbutt and Williams in the hall. Both were dead with bullet wounds to the head. The telephone receiver was hanging from its cable as if the shootings had occurred while the phone was in use. In fact the switchboard operator who had been connecting Williams' call had heard the shots but had been unable to do anything to help.

Although the telephone was damaged Allington used it to call the police and, on seeing that the two younger children were alive, he rang a local doctor, Albert McMasters from Hills Road. At the inquest the Chief Constable, R.J. Pearson, publicly thanked him for his actions.

McMasters arrived shortly after 1.00 p.m. and found both boys still breathing. Sadly though he was unable to help them. One died five minutes later and the other survived for only another forty.

The story made the afternoon edition of the
Cambridge Daily News
under the headline ‘Five Dead in Cambridge Tragedy' and also made the national papers with
The Times
carrying a small piece headed ‘Five Persons Found Shot'.

The inquest was held on Monday 30 May at the old Police Court in Cambridge's Guild Hall and opened by the borough coroner, G.A. Wootten. W.B. Frampton, from Squires and Co. solicitors, represented the executors and relatives and Grafton Pryor represented Alice Tebbutt, Herbert Tebbutt's first wife (he was the solicitor who had unsuccessfully defended Frederick Seekings at his 1913 murder trial).

The first witness called was James Scott who had taken photos in the hallway and kitchen of Meads End. Inspector Sharman also described the scene. Shortly before 1.00 p.m. on Saturday the police station had received an urgent call from Allington and Sharman had taken four officers to Meads End. He said in his statement that ‘they found a man lying face downwards, with his head in a pool of blood. The man had a bullet wound in the right temple and his face was bluish black. Quite close to the man lay the body of Mrs Williams, who had a wound on her left cheek, and her face was covered with blood.'

In the kitchen he had found the three children:

The girl was lying on her back, five feet from the door with a wound in one eye. Two feet from her head was a pushchair, and in that chair was the elder of the two babies who had serious wounds to the side of the head. Quite close to the pushchair was a pram containing a child of about eighteen months. That child had serious wounds to the left side of the head.

Williams' brother, George Albert Jenks, identified his sister's body. He worked as a grocer's assistant at the Army and Navy Stores in Victoria Street, London and confirmed that his sister had still been married at the time of her death. Her husband was a Walter Williams, but the witness confirmed that Helen had already separated from him by the time he had last seen his sister. Jenks had last seen Betty when she was about 5 years old, but was able to identify her body positively.

Some of the most distressing testimony came from the two maids. Henderson was the first of the two to take the stand and, after confirming her personal and employment details, she identified the bodies of the two youngest children as Michael Charles Hazeldene Tebbutt Williams, aged 2 years and 10 months and Anthony Richard Hazeldene Tebbutt aged 1½. He was known by the family as Dickie and they were, as far as she was aware, both sons of Williams.

Terrible shooting tragedy in a Cambridge villa
. (Police Illustrated News)

She testified that on Saturday 28 May she had risen at her usual time of 7.30 a.m. and had breakfasted with the three children and the other maid. Mrs Tebbutt (as she knew her) came down at 9 a.m. Just prior to that she had seen Mr Tebbutt, who was still in his pyjamas, come down to pick up his post before returning upstairs.

Henderson explained that the family were preparing to go on holiday and that she was expecting to be replaced. The coroner asked why she was leaving them to which she informed him that she was going into hospital.

‘You were not at all unhappy?'

‘Oh no.'

‘As far as you know, who was to take your place?'

‘Miss Olga Dudley.'

‘Should she have arrived earlier than this?'

‘Yes. She was to have come on the previous Wednesday, but she did not do so.'

‘Do you know if Mr Tebbutt sent a telegram to her?'

‘He said he had.'

‘He received a reply stating that she was ill and would come the following day?'

‘Yes.'

Henderson confirmed that she thought there had been a misunderstanding over the engagement of Dudley. She added that Williams had been annoyed about it, ‘but nothing more than usual. Between 9.30 and 9.45 Olga's mother rang up and Mr Tebbutt answered her. Later, at about 10.30 a.m. Mrs Dudley rang up and Mrs Williams answered that call. Mrs Williams asked if Olga was better. She had to ask the question several times because Mrs Dudley did not seem to understand. She seemed surprised.'

The coroner asked: ‘Did Mrs Williams tell you that Mrs Dudley said she had received a telegram telling Olga not to come?'

Phyllis replied: ‘Yes' and also explained that Williams had told Mrs Dudley that she still expected her daughter to start work but would not accept her unless she brought proof of the telegram.

It seems that Williams was not content to leave the matter there and was suspicious. She decided to ring the general post office for confirmation of the telegram's existence and origin. It was no secret that she was placing a call to the G.P.O. and was on the hall telephone as Tebbutt instructed the maids to wait in the car.

Henderson had not been in Tebbutt's employ for long and could not give the inquest much of an insight into the relationship between him and his lover. She had overheard one argument but thought that there was nothing about their relationship that pointed to anything but normal married life.

Southgate, however, had been at Meads End for four years and knew more about the family's daily habits than her colleague. She explained that it would be typical of Tebbutt to stay up until 2 a.m. and often the couple would not take breakfast until between ten and ten-thirty each morning. Tebbutt would spend time in the garden in the mornings, or often go out, but arrive back in time for lunch at 1.30 p.m. After lunch he would often have a sleep before going out again. He would arrive home ‘at all hours', but Southgate was sure that this caused no trouble and he would have another nap downstairs before retiring to bed at his usual time.

As far as she knew, Tebbutt's activities outside the house consisted solely of shooting, golf and occasional visits to his club. She thought she had never seen him drunk but admitted that the week's empty bottles would include two or three of his whisky bottles. She said that Tebbutt and Williams had quarrelled occasionally, most often at night-time. She described Tebbutt's temper as ‘hasty', but said their arguments were mostly little tiffs.

According to the coroner's opening statement the inquest was going to hear ‘that the deceased man and woman frequently quarrelled' but this was not borne out in the witness statements and there was no evidence to suggest that the couple were unhappy with the relationship.

There was nothing to indicate that anything in Southgate's statement was played down through loyalty. She was clearly very fond of the family with whom she had lived at Little St Bernards before moving to Meads End. She said: ‘I used to love being there.'

On the subject of Dudley, her statement confirmed Henderson's. She seemed sure that Williams felt that it was Dudley that might be the one being deceptive and not Tebbutt. She knew that her employer had asked the new recruit to prove that she had received the telegrams. Southgate had also overheard her employers discussing the matter and there was no sign of any annoyance.

She broke down when she described hearing the shots and the scream then finding the children in the kitchen. She was crying too much to answer questions for a short time.

The coroner asked her why she had said to her colleague: ‘Surely he hasn't shot the children' and she explained that it was only her response to the scream and the fact that the shots came from inside the house. There was no other reason. In fact in her entire statement there were only two incidents that pointed to possible undercurrents in the Tebbutt household.

Southgate knew little of Tebbutt's divorce from his wife but was present one day when Williams came out of the kitchen. She and Tebbutt had been arguing and she said that it was over nothing, but he was worried about the money he had to pay his ex-wife. According to Southgate, Williams then said that he ‘would rather shoot himself than she should have the money'.

The coroner raised the second point when he asked her what she knew of Tebbutt's revolver. She stated that two or three times when she had made the bed she had found it under his pillow, and one night, when he was looking at it, Williams had said: ‘Don't mess about with that'.

Inspector Sharman was called. After describing the state of the victims and their locations, which he and his officers had found on their arrival at Meads End, he explained how they had gone on to search the house. In the hall the telephone was on its hook, but the mouthpiece and the aluminium disc were missing. It was logical that the handset had been replaced in its cradle as it had been used by Allington to call for help. There was a bullet mark on the mouthpiece and the paper disc where the telephone number was written was also torn.

Inspector Sharman told the inquest, ‘I searched the body of the man and noticed a whisky flask full in the right hip pocket of his trousers. In the right trouser pocket I found a seven-chambered revolver of .22 calibre, fully loaded.'

‘On searching the body you had to be particularly careful in getting the revolver out?' asked the coroner.

‘Yes', Sharman replied. ‘It was necessary to cut the trousers before we could take the revolver out. Further examination of the body made it necessary to be very careful. The right arm was doubled up and the hand was not visible. From the position we suspected there was a weapon in the hand, and when the body was moved a German automatic pistol was found clasped in the right hand. The fingers were round the butt, and the thumb was on the trigger.'

According to Sharman seven cartridges were found.
The Times
reported on the following day: ‘On the ground floor were found 50 bullet cases', which was simply not the case.

Most of the bodies had entry and exit wounds although Tebbutt himself only had the entry wound. The aluminium disc missing from the telephone's receiver was found under Tebbutt's body and under Williams was a broken hair slide and the missing mouthpiece from the telephone.

Before the inquest Sharman had made searches of both the firearms and trophy registers of the borough and county and could find no record that Tebbutt's firearms were licensed. A box of .22 cartridges was found in Tebbutt's pocket and further ammunition was discovered upstairs. The only other item of note found on Tebbutt's body was a cheque for £10, drawn to the bearer on Lloyds Bank.

In Sharman's opinion Williams had been shot first, and although it would have been possible for Betty to have been shot from the hallway, Tebbutt would have entered the kitchen to kill the boys. He found an empty bullet case in the pushchair and confirmed that it had come from Tebbutt's revolver, which had been fired at close range. Apart from a bullet hole in the hood of the perambulator and the damaged telephone, which accounted for two cases, the other five bullets had all been fired into the victim's heads. The final bullet had been fired into his right temple.