Murder Most Foul – July 2018

The police appealed unsuccessfully

for anyone who could give an account

of Flora’s movements in the 48 hours

before her death. It was known that she

had no male friends and that no men

ever called at the house. Although she

was 76, she could have been taken to be

20 years younger.

Flora’s obviously having retired for the

night, her clothes having been neatly

folded in her bedroom. Her front

door had been found unlocked and

unbolted, her nightdress was discovered

downstairs, and a small pile of charred

material was found on the living-room

floor.

found on a sheet in a basket on a chair

below the window through which entry

to the house was gained. A bottle in

the scullery sink displayed a distinct

fingerprint, and the bedroom door bore

the fingerprints of a left hand. Flora’s

heavily bloodstained nightdress had

been found on a settee in the kitchen.

Everything changed when the results

of the post-mortem were known.

Flora had dropped from the window,

rolling over as she struck the concrete.

But she had been beaten unconscious

before her fall, and she had been forced

to have sex. The Chief Constable of

York, Mr. H. H. Herman, called in

Scotland Yard.

Superintendent John Black and

Detective Sergeant Neil Sutherland were

soon at the scene.

The local police had followed up on

the footprints found by making inquiries

at the premises of shoe retailers and

repairers in the city. Black believed that

Flora had been preparing for bed when

she was disturbed by someone sneaking

into the house downstairs by means of

a back window. Going downstairs to

investigate, she had been raped, knocked

unconscious, carried upstairs and

thrown out of the bedroom window.

T

he murderer had then withdrawn

the bolts on the front door and let

himself out into the deserted street. Why

he had troubled to carry her upstairs

was a mystery, and so was the small fire

found on the living-room floor.

“It was not burned clothes,”

Superintendent Black announced, “and

we are trying to establish why such

a fire should have been lit, and the

significance of it.”

One theory was that the killer had

attempted to set fire to the house to

make it seem that Flora had fallen from

the window while trying to escape from

the blaze. A clear footprint had been

Above, Flora Jane Gilligan; left, her

body lies in the back yard

AS FLORA THROWN

FROM THE WINDOW

• OR DID SHE JUMP?

HORROR

IN YORK