Murder Most Foul – July 2018

T

HE PECULIAR death of

punctilious shopkeeper Thomas

Thomas on February 13th, 1921,

remains one of the strangest murders

ever to shock South Wales.

It happened in the small town of

Garnant in the Amman Valley in

Carmarthenshire, an area famous for its

anthracite and tin factories.

Thomas, a 44-year-old bachelor,

moved there in 1919 from the nearby

town of Pontamman to run the Star

Supply Stores. He took digs in town, and

became well respected in the community.

Balancing his books was almost an

obsession with Thomas, and he would

often work till late at night checking till

rolls and takings, receipts and stock.

Saturdays were always busy, and it

was 9.45 p.m. on that February evening

when his assistant Phoebe Jones left him

frowning over his ledger.

Her usual routine before leaving was to

check that the basement door was shut

and locked. But on this particular night

another assistant, Millie Richards, had

already done this by the time she went

home at around 9.15 p.m.

The shop itself fronted onto the high

street, while the basement door backed

onto Coronation Arcade, part of the

town’s shopping area.

“Goodnight, then, Mr. Thomas. I’ll be

away now. Don’t work too late. It’s bad

for your eyes poring over those books at

this time of night.”

Phoebe, who had lodgings next door,

bustled out of the shop. After changing

into a new lilac dress and powdering her

nose, she went out to a concert with a

friend.

She returned home at 11.25 p.m. and

Was Money The Motive For Shopkeeper’s Brutal Murder? Or Was it Personal? Murder Most Foul 45

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was surprised to see the lights still on in

the shop. Peering through the window,

she saw Thomas’s white coat and apron

hanging on a banister rail, and everything

else more or less as she had left it two

hours earlier.

“That man must be shop mad,” she

commented to her landlady. “He’s still

there working, or he’s forgotten to switch

off the lights. Strange, though, because

he’s usually so precise about the lights.”

Two local bobbies had also passed

the shop, and thought it was odd that

Thomas had left his lights on. To make

sure nothing was amiss, they kept an

eye on the premises from time to time

as they patrolled the town the rest of the

night.

At 9 o’clock next morning, Phoebe was

awakened from her Sunday lie-in by a

loud hammering on her bedroom door.

Case recalled by

Matthew Spicer

“I think you’d better come and check

the shop,” said her landlord Morgan

Jefferys, who also owned the Star Supply

Stores.

His son, Morgan Jefferys junior, had

noticed the basement door open while he

was out on his milk round. He called out

to Thomas, but there was no reply.

Phoebe pulled on her workaday skirt

and blouse, and ran down into the

basement and then up the stairs into the

shop, calling out as she went. The silence,

she thought, was eerie.

Once inside the shop, she realised

immediately that the safe had been

broken into and documents strewn

about. The disorder was not dramatic,

but enough to be untidy.

She moved towards the counter and

stopped in horror, gagging at the sight

of the terrible wounds that had been

Above, the body of victim Thomas Thomas, following the post-mortem.

Top, parade in Garnant where Star Supply Stores was located

Was Money The Motive

For Shopkeeper’s

Brutal Murder?

Or Was It Personal?

Was Money The Motive

For Shopkeeper’s

Brutal Murder?

Or Was It Personal?