Murder Most Foul – July 2018

buttons of his trousers and the bottom

buttons on his waistcoat were undone.

His shirt had been carefully lifted up, and

only then had the killer plunged a sharp,

pointed weapon into the soft tissue of his

stomach, almost as if he was relishing the

act.

Dr. Jones confirmed that Thomas had

been beaten about the head with a broom

• found near the body covered in blood


• and stabbed in the throat with the same
  one-inch-by-one-inch weapon the killer
  had used on his stomach. Death, he said,
  would have taken only a few seconds,
  and must have happened between 10
  o’clock and midnight.
  Although it looked as if robbery was
  the motive – about £130 had been stolen


• police believed that the level of violence
  involved in the crime suggested a more
  sinister bloodlust.
  It was also strange that there was no
  sign of a struggle, despite the smallness
  of the shop. Apart from the strewn
  papers, nothing was out of place and
  there had been no attempt to steal
  anything but the cash takings. Thomas
  must either have known his assailant or
  been taken completely by surprise.
  It was perhaps significant that he was
  not a healthy man. He suffered from
  arthritic legs, and had just returned home
  from an operation in Swansea to treat the
  deafness in his right ear.
  His frailness made the murder seem
  even more callous, and local people were
  revolted by it. The deputy chief constable
  of the county, John Evans, took charge
  of the inquiry, and began by retracing
  events on the night of the killing.
  Millie Richards, who was not only
  a shop assistant at Star’s, but also the
  daughter of a local policeman, confirmed
  that she had bolted the basement door at
  9 o’clock on the night of the murder by
  putting a bar across it. She said she left

there were no corresponding cuts on

Thomas’s clothing or underwear. The top

inflicted on the body buckled in front of

her. Thomas’s head had been bludgeoned

so hard that the

skull had caved

in like a broken

vase. His throat

had been cut, and

puddles of blood

pooled around

him. She noticed

he had also been

stabbed in the

stomach. The body

was cold, which

meant he must

have died some hours earlier.

W

hen Dr. Evan Jones examined

the body later, he was extremely

puzzled by the stomach wounds because

Thomas’s head had

been bludgeoned so

hard that the skull

had caved in. His

throat had been cut,

and puddles of blood

pooled around him

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