turned out to have been in
Aberdeen.
Then came a confession.
In September 1957 the
hulking “Mad Axe-Man”
Frank Mitchell, who nine
years later escaped from
Dartmoor with the help
of the Kray twins and was
later murdered on their
behalf, wrote to the Police
Commissioner – something
regarded as being in breach
of Broadmoor regulations- saying he had killed
Daisy. At the time he had
a reputation for office
breaking. Until escaping
from Rampton on January
18th, 1957, Mitchell had
no convictions for violence.
Then on March 4th he
was convicted of a serious
attack with an iron bar on
a man and woman whose
house he burgled while on
the run and was sentenced
to nine years. Mitchell
had been transferred to
Broadmoor where the
doctors thought he was
merely seeking attention,
but it was agreed the police
should interview him over
Daisy’s murder.
The general impression they got
was that Mitchell knew little about the
murder and that he was fed up with life
and wanted to be hanged. What he did
know he could have read in the papers.
And of course the fair-headed giant did
not resemble the suspect in any way.
There was one further flurry of
interest. When the block was being
demolished for redevelopment on
May 16th, 1957, a rusting sword was
found on the second floor of 154 High
Holborn – but since Daisy’s office
was in 157 it would have been a very
difficult climb over roofs to dump it.
Because of its shape, there was only
the remotest possibility it could have
been the weapon. The final door open
to the case was now closed. A note
towards the end of the police file reads,
“It seems that all avenues have been
explored without success. Perhaps we
have been unfortunate.”
But were they? Or did they simply
place too much reliance on the dark
Italian-looking man seen running down
the alley? There is also a note in the file
that her killer could have been a woman,
but that is all. It was never seriously
considered. Daisy was certainly trying
to avoid one woman who was inviting
her out to the cinema and lunch. On the
day of her death she had said she could
not meet her that evening because she
had to work in the office until 8 p.m.
Should they perhaps have looked
more closely at some of Daisy’s
women friends? One reason why
there were no fingerprints could
have been that in those days women
almost always wore gloves...
at the time of Daisy’s murder, serving
with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light
Infantry.
Many letters are just written in
an effort to curry favour with the
authorities and get a reduction in
sentence, but in the Wallis case several
suggested Daisy had been involved
in the black market setting up jobsfor Polish criminals and then taking
a cut of the proceeds. If this was
not forthcoming then, so the writers
claimed, she grassed them to the police.
She certainly had Polish clients at
the agency but, given the state of her
finances, the scenario seems highly
unlikely. Both the men named were
easily eliminated. One of them had only
one arm and the other, who was picked
out from a photograph by the Littlers,Wallis typewriter was traced to a David
Hill, also known as Goldhill, a man
with a record dating back to 1934,
who had been sentenced to 12 months
for receiving stolen machines. When
questioned, Hill denied stealing Daisy’s
typewriter but instead confessed to
killing a girl, Margaret, in Southend.
It was a completely false story and,
after the police officers left, he set fire
to his cell and had to be placed in a
straitjacket.
If she had surprised a professional
burglar and was killed as a result she
was very unlucky. Anyone convicted of
an office burglary in those days could
expect a prison sentence but, with the
death penalty in operation, burglars did
not generally carry weapons, still less
use them.
On October 27th, the coroner Bentley
Purchase recorded a verdict of murder
by some person or persons unknown.
But that did not mean the case was
shelved.
In February 1954 the police thought
the Wallis murder had some similarities
with that of 44-year-old Beatrice James,
stabbed 60 times in
her Wembley home,
with a dagger-like
knife, for which
35-year-old Raymond
Harold Barker was on
trial. His description
more or less tallied.
He was interviewed
and put on an
identification parade
but Harold and Doris
Littler, the husband
and wife who had
seen the man running
away, said he was
not the man. In the
March, Barker, who
had been Beatrice
James’s lover and had
killed her when she
said she was leaving
him, was found guilty but insane and
sent to Broadmoor.
With any murder which goes
unsolved for any length of time it is not
uncommon for the police to receive
letters from prisoners informing on their
fellow-prisoners or their former partners
in crime. Some are downright malicious.
One man whose name came up in a
letter from a fellow-prisoner was found
to have been in Malaya (now Malaysia)
Above, tragic Daisy – she was the subject of
numerous scurrilous rumours during the
investigation. Below, Ronnie and Reggie Kray
who were suspected of Mitchell’s murderMitchell had been
transferred to
Broadmoor where the
doctors thought he
was merely seeking
attention, but it was
agreed the police
should interview him
over Daisy’s murder