Post-Mortem Examination Report

Deceased: Gerald Edward Hargreaves, aged 58 years Date of Examination: 14th November 1977 Place of Examination: Keighley Victoria Hospital, Mortuary Pathologist: Dr S. M. Chandra, MB BS, FRCPath

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External Appearance

The body is that of a well-nourished man of medium build, approximately five feet ten inches in height, weighing an estimated twelve stone four pounds. The hair is grey, cut short. A trimmed moustache. The hands are soft, consistent with office work rather than manual labour. He is dressed in the remains of a woollen suit, grey, with a white shirt and a dark blue tie. The clothing is extensively charred across the chest, the left arm, and both legs below the knee. A wristwatch on the left wrist has stopped at 10:27 p.m., the glass cracked and blackened.

Burns

Extensive full-thickness burns are present across the anterior chest wall, the left arm from shoulder to wrist, both lower legs, and the left side of the face. Partial-thickness burns are present across the abdomen and the right forearm. The total body surface area affected by burns is estimated at forty-five per cent.

The distribution of burns is notable. The posterior surfaces of the body, the back, the backs of the legs, and the right side of the face, show significantly less burn damage. This is consistent with the deceased lying face down at the time the most severe burning occurred, with the anterior surfaces exposed to radiant heat from above and in front.

Airways and Lungs

The upper airways show extensive soot deposits. The trachea and main bronchi contain thick black soot to the level of the secondary bronchi. The mucosa of the upper airway is reddened and oedematous. The lungs are congested and heavy, with soot visible in the smaller airways on sectioning.

Carbon monoxide saturation of the blood was measured at fifty-eight per cent. This is consistent with prolonged inhalation of combustion products in an enclosed space and is sufficient to cause death.

Bruising

A band of bruising is present across both palms and the fingers of both hands, consistent with the deceased having gripped or pushed against a hard flat surface. A bruise approximately three inches in diameter is present on the right shoulder, consistent with impact against a solid object such as a door or wall.

No defensive wounds. No injuries inconsistent with the fire.

Internal Examination

The organs are unremarkable for a man of the deceased's age. The heart shows mild left ventricular hypertrophy consistent with treated hypertension. The liver and kidneys are normal. The stomach contains a small quantity of partially digested food consistent with a meal taken approximately four to five hours before death, and tea.

Items Recovered from the Person

1. A leather wallet, partially burned, containing eleven pounds in notes (damaged) and a photograph
2. A ring of keys (six keys, identified as mill keys and house keys)
3. A wristwatch, Omega, stopped at 10:27 p.m.
4. Wedding ring, gold, left hand

Opinion

Death resulted from smoke inhalation, specifically carbon monoxide poisoning at a level of fifty-eight per cent saturation, sustained in a fire in an enclosed building. The extensive burns are consistent with the deceased being alive and breathing during the fire, as confirmed by the soot deposits deep in the airways.

The bruising to the palms and fingers of both hands is consistent with the deceased pushing against a closed door or barrier with considerable force. The bruise on the right shoulder is consistent with the deceased throwing his weight against a door or obstruction. These injuries suggest the deceased attempted to force open a door or exit and was unable to do so.

The watch stopped at 10:27 p.m., likely when the glass cracked due to heat. This provides an approximate time at which the fire was at its most intense in the immediate vicinity of the body.

I am asked whether the deceased could have started this fire himself. In my opinion, the position of the body near the rear door, the bruising to the hands and shoulder consistent with attempts to force that door open, and the pattern of burns on the anterior surfaces all indicate a man who was trapped and attempting to escape. These findings are inconsistent with a person who started a fire deliberately and then failed to leave.

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S. M. Chandra, MB BS, FRCPath 14th November 1977

Case Notes: Death of Gerald Hargreaves

Detective Inspector Margaret Poole, West Yorkshire CID, Keighley Notes compiled 13th-16th November 1977

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Called to Hargreaves & Son Textile Mill, Thornwick, at 08:00 on Sunday morning. I had planned to spend the day untangling my daughter's bicycle chain. The bicycle will have to wait.

The fire brigade had the blaze under control by midnight. What remains of the finishing shed is a stone shell with no roof and a smell of burnt wool that will be in my coat for a week. The body was recovered at 11:40 p.m. on Saturday night, near the rear door, face down, arms stretched towards it. A man trying to leave a room that would not let him.

On first impression, this could be an accident. Old mill, oily rags, paraffin heaters, decades of lanolin worked into the timbers. These buildings burn like kindling once they start. Half of West Yorkshire is one dropped match away from a claim form. But the fire investigator found the rear door of the finishing shed bolted from the outside. The victim was trying to get through that door when he died. You do not bolt a door from the outside and then set fire to yourself on the inside. Someone locked Gerald Hargreaves in and set the fire.

This is murder.

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Persons of Interest

Derek Lockwood, 43. Former mill foreman.

Sacked by Hargreaves on the 29th of October for leading an unofficial walkout over pay. Twelve workers downed tools for two days. Hargreaves called it insubordination and dismissed Lockwood on the spot. The rest went back to work. Solidarity has its limits when the mortgage is due.

Since then Lockwood has been telling half of Thornwick what he thinks of Gerald Hargreaves. Brian Sykes at the Woolpack says Lockwood has been in most evenings, four or five pints deep, saying he would burn the mill down before he let another man run it. The exact words, according to Sykes, were: "I'll burn that bloody place to the ground." More than once. In a pub. To anyone who would listen. If this were a confession, it would be the loudest in the history of West Yorkshire policing.

His wife Jean says he was home all Saturday evening watching television. But Mrs Edith Chadwick at number twelve Prospect Terrace saw Lockwood leaving the house on foot at half past nine and not returning until gone eleven. Jean Lockwood is either mistaken or lying. When I spoke to Mrs Chadwick, she gave me times, descriptions, and a thorough account of her curtain-watching methodology. She also told me about the state of the Lockwoods' front garden. I did not ask about the garden.

Lockwood has not explained where he was. He knows the mill inside out. Eighteen years there. He knows where the paraffin is kept, he knows the layout of the finishing shed, he knows which doors bolt and which ones do not. And he has been making public threats about fire.

I am having Lockwood brought in for a formal interview on Monday.

Sylvia Hargreaves, 54. Wife of the deceased.

She inherits everything. The mill, the house on Moorfield, and an eight-thousand-pound insurance policy on Gerald's life. The mill is losing money as a going concern, but the land is worth a good deal for redevelopment. She has been asking Gerald to sell for two years. He would not hear of it. Three generations of Hargreaves cloth, he said. He was not going to be the one to close the gates.

She says she was at home all evening. Took a sleeping tablet and went to bed at half nine. Heard the fire engine but did not investigate. She was alone. No witnesses, no telephone calls, nothing to confirm it either way.

The marriage was not good. Gerald lived at the mill, by all accounts. Sylvia was left to rattle around Moorfield House with a sleeping tablet and Radio Four for company. Several people in the town have said the Hargreaves marriage was a matter of habit rather than affection. Thirty-one years of it. That is a long habit.

I would like to see the insurance paperwork. Eight thousand pounds is a sum that concentrates the mind.

Neville Farrow, 52. Insurance broker.

Farrow handles the mill's insurance and has done for fifteen years. He came to the mill on Saturday afternoon for what he says was a routine annual review. He was there from three until half four. He walked home, had supper, and spent the evening at home reading. He went out briefly to the newsagent on Market Street at about half nine to buy a Sunday paper, and was home by ten.

He is a mild, well-spoken man. Cooperative. Offered his condolences and asked if there was anything he could do. He described Hargreaves as worried about the business but not in any distress. When I asked about the Saturday visit he gave times, details, the weather. The sort of man who notices things and tells you about them whether you want to hear or not.

Farrow is a family friend. He grew up with Gerald's brother Ronald. He arranged the insurance policy years ago. He is background to this case, not foreground.

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The Scene

The finishing shed is at the canal end of the mill complex, separated from the main mill building by a cobbled yard. It is a long, single-storey stone building with a timber and slate roof. Or it was. The office is at the eastern end. The front entrance is at the western end, opening onto the cobbled yard. The rear door opens onto a passage leading to the canal towpath gate.

The fire originated in the corridor between the office and the front entrance. Paraffin accelerant confirmed. The fire brigade says the shed was a textbook case of a building that should never have had a paraffin heater inside it. Several of the firemen said as much. One of them said it twice.

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Key Questions

1. Lockwood. Where was he between half nine and eleven on Saturday night? His wife lied for him. He made specific threats about fire. He has the knowledge and the motive. Everything about him says guilty except the part where I have to prove it.
2. Sylvia. Eight thousand pounds and a mill she can sell. Alone all evening. But does she have the knowledge to set a fire? This does not feel like her. Though I have been wrong about that sort of feeling before.
3. The rear door. Bolted from outside. This is the key fact. Whoever did this wanted Hargreaves trapped.
4. The paraffin can. Found in the canal. Someone walked the towpath.
5. Who knew Hargreaves would be in the finishing shed on Saturday night? Half of Thornwick, by the sound of it. The man had been doing the same thing every Saturday for thirty years.

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Next Steps

• Formal interview with Lockwood. Press him on the gap in his evening.
• Check Jean Lockwood's account against Mrs Chadwick's.
• Review the insurance policy. Beneficiary, amount, when it was taken out.
• Speak to the fire brigade about the origin and spread of the fire.
• Canvass Canal Street for anyone who saw movement on the towpath.

Lockwood is the strongest lead. Public threats, specific knowledge, false alibi. Everything points at him.

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M. Poole, DI West Yorkshire CID 16th November 1977

Fire Investigation and Scene of Crime Report

Case: Death of Gerald Edward Hargreaves, Hargreaves & Son Textile Mill, Thornwick Date of Examination: 13th-14th November 1977 Investigating Officer: Detective Inspector M. Poole, West Yorkshire CID Fire Investigation: Station Officer R. Hebden, West Yorkshire Fire Service Assisting: Police Constable T. Dyson, Thornwick

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The Finishing Shed

The finishing shed is a single-storey stone building, approximately sixty feet long by twenty feet wide, with a timber roof structure and Welsh slate covering. The building stands at the south-eastern end of the mill complex, separated from the main mill by a cobbled yard of approximately forty feet. The canal runs along the rear of the building, with a narrow passage and a gate providing access from the canal towpath.

The building has two exits. The front entrance opens westward onto the cobbled yard. The rear door opens eastward onto the passage leading to the canal towpath gate. The office is at the eastern end, nearest the rear door.

The roof has collapsed entirely. The internal timber structure, including the ceiling beams, partition walls, and shelving, is destroyed. The stone walls remain standing. The floor is a mix of flagstone and timber boarding. The timber boarding in the central corridor has burned through.

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Origin and Cause of Fire

Station Officer Hebden's examination identifies the point of origin as the corridor running between the office at the eastern end and the front entrance at the western end. The most severe damage is concentrated along this corridor. The burn pattern on the surviving flagstones shows a pour pattern consistent with a liquid accelerant laid along the floor of the corridor.

Samples taken from the corridor floor have been analysed by the West Yorkshire forensic laboratory. Paraffin (kerosene) was identified as the accelerant. The pour pattern extends approximately thirty-five feet along the corridor, from a point six feet inside the front entrance to a point approximately ten feet from the office door.

The fire spread from the corridor into the ceiling timbers and the stored materials along the walls. The finishing shed contained bolts of cloth, dye vats, pressing equipment, and quantities of oily waste rags. Once the ceiling timbers caught, the fire would have spread rapidly. Station Officer Hebden estimates the corridor would have been impassable within three to four minutes of ignition.

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The Rear Door

The rear door of the finishing shed is a heavy oak door set in the stone wall, opening outward into the passage. It is fitted with a sliding bolt on the exterior face, a heavy iron bolt of the kind used on stable doors and outbuildings.

The bolt was found in the locked position. The door was bolted from the outside.

The deceased was found face down on the floor approximately two feet from this door. The bruising on his palms and shoulder, noted in the pathologist's report, is consistent with repeated attempts to push or force the door open from inside.

There is no bolt or lock on the interior of this door. It can only be secured from the outside.

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The Canal Towpath

The passage behind the finishing shed leads through a wooden gate to the canal towpath. The gate was found closed but unlatched.

Paraffin traces were found on the flagstones of the passage between the rear door and the towpath gate. A spill or drip pattern consistent with paraffin being carried in a container.

An empty paraffin can was recovered from the canal approximately thirty yards downstream (south-west) of the mill gate. The can is a standard two-gallon green metal container of the type used in the mill's boiler room. The boiler room is located in the main mill building across the cobbled yard. The boiler room door was found unlocked. A rack inside the boiler room holds three paraffin cans. One position was empty.

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Boot Print

A partial boot print was found in dried mud on the towpath, approximately ten feet from the mill's rear gate. The print is from a right foot, size nine, with a smooth sole consistent with a leather-soled shoe or brogue. The tread pattern is indistinct but the sole appears to be leather rather than rubber.

For comparison: Derek Lockwood wears size eleven work boots with heavy rubber treads. The print on the towpath is not consistent with Lockwood's footwear.

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The Paraffin Heater

A paraffin heater was present in the finishing shed office. It is an Aladdin Blue Flame model, standard for draughty outbuildings. The heater's fuel tank was intact and approximately half full. The heater was not lit at the time of the fire. This is consistent with the fire originating in the corridor, not in the office.

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Summary

1. The fire was deliberately set using paraffin poured along the corridor of the finishing shed.
2. The accelerant was paraffin, likely taken from the mill's own boiler room.
3. The rear door was bolted from the outside, trapping the deceased.
4. The empty paraffin can was disposed of in the canal.
5. Paraffin traces on the towpath passage indicate the arsonist used the canal towpath to approach or leave.
6. A boot print on the towpath is consistent with a size nine leather-soled shoe. It is not consistent with Derek Lockwood's size eleven rubber-treaded boots.
7. The point of origin and the bolted door indicate premeditation: the fire was designed to trap the deceased in the office while cutting off escape to the front entrance.

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M. Poole, DI West Yorkshire CID 15th November 1977

Statement of Neville Farrow

Taken at Pennine Mutual Insurance, Market Street, Thornwick, on the 15th day of November 1977, by Detective Inspector M. Poole, West Yorkshire CID.

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I have known the Hargreaves family for most of my life. I grew up on the same street as Gerald's younger brother, Ronald. We were at school together, played cricket together in the summers, and stayed friends until Ronald died of a coronary in 1969. After that I suppose I kept up the connection through the insurance. Gerald was not the easiest man to be close to. He was decent, thorough, fair in his way, but he kept people at arm's length. The mill was his real companion. I used to tell him he'd outlast the building itself. I wish that had been true.

I have handled the Hargreaves & Son insurance since 1962. The mill, the contents, the public liability, and Gerald's personal life policy. I visit once a year, usually in November, to go through the cover and adjust for any changes. This year I went on Saturday afternoon, the twelfth of November.

I arrived at the finishing shed at three o'clock. Gerald was in his little office at the end of the shed, the one with the desk and the paraffin heater. We went through the figures. The mill has been losing money. Orders down by a third since 1975. The overheads rising. Gerald was worried, as he had been for two years, but he was not a man to show it. We discussed the cover, whether to reduce it. I advised him to keep the current level. Buildings do not lose value even when the business inside them does.

We finished about half four. Gerald walked me out through the yard. It was getting dark already. Cold. He shook my hand and said he would see me at the carol service at Christmas, which he always said. I walked home.

I live at 28 Kirkgate with my wife Dorothy. We had supper at six. Lamb chops, boiled potatoes, peas. Dorothy watches a good deal of television on a Saturday evening. I am not much of a television man myself. I prefer the paper or a book. I read most of the evening. Dorothy had the set on in the front room. I was in the back room with the Spectator.

At about half past nine I put on my coat and walked up to the newsagent on Market Street to buy a Sunday paper. Phillips stays open until ten on Saturdays for the evening trade. I bought the Observer and a packet of Polo mints. On my way back I walked along Market Street and passed the end of Bridge Street. From there you can see down towards the canal and the mill. Everything was dark and quiet. I remember thinking Gerald must have gone home early for once. I was back at Kirkgate by ten.

Dorothy and I had a cup of tea and I went to bed at half past ten. I was asleep before eleven. I heard nothing until Sunday morning when Dorothy told me there had been a fire at the mill. She had heard it from Mrs Ogden next door, who had heard it from the milkman. News travels faster than smoke in Thornwick.

I was very sorry. I am still very sorry. Gerald was a good man who worked too hard for a business that was slipping away from him. He deserved better than to die in his own mill on a Saturday night.

If there is anything I can do for Sylvia, I hope she will ask. I have already spoken to the claims department about the insurance. They will need the fire brigade report before they can process anything, but I have set the paperwork in motion. It is the least I can do for the family.

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Statement signed: N. Farrow 15th November 1977

Statement of Sylvia Hargreaves

Taken at Moorfield House, Thornwick, on the 14th day of November 1977, by Detective Inspector M. Poole, West Yorkshire CID.

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Gerald and I were married for thirty-one years. I was twenty-three when we married. He was twenty-seven and had just come back from national service. His father was still running the mill then. Gerald took over in 1958 when his father had the first stroke.

I used to help in the office. Invoices, wages, the accounts. I did it for fifteen years. Then Gerald hired a girl from the secretarial college and told me I was not needed any more. He did not say it like that. He said I should enjoy my time. Take up a hobby. Join things. He meant well. He always meant well. But the mill was his life and I was not part of it. I joined the WI. I learned to make chutney. You can only make so much chutney before you start to wonder what you are doing with your life.

Every Saturday evening, without fail, Gerald went back to the finishing shed after tea. He kept an office there, a little room at the end with a desk and a paraffin heater. He said he liked it. Quiet. No telephone. Just him and the production figures. He would go at seven and come home at eleven, sometimes later. Thirty years of Saturdays. I stopped asking him to stay home a long time ago.

On Saturday he came home for tea at about half five. He was quiet. Not his usual self. Normally on a Saturday he would tell me about the week, the orders, the problems with the looms. This time he sat at the table and ate his chop and said almost nothing. I asked him if something was wrong. He said it was a business matter and he would deal with it on Monday.

Neville Farrow had been at the mill that afternoon. Neville has handled our insurance for years. He was a friend of Gerald's brother Ronald, who died in 1969. A nice man. Always pleasant. He remembers my birthday, which is more than Gerald ever managed after the first ten years. Gerald said Neville's visit had not gone well but he would not tell me what it was about. He said he needed to make a telephone call on Monday morning. That was all.

Gerald left for the mill at seven. I washed up. I listened to the radio for a while. A play on Radio Four, something about a woman in a lighthouse. I took my sleeping tablet at nine, as I do every night. Dr Blackburn has had me on them since 1974. Mogadon. One tablet. I went to bed and I was asleep within twenty minutes.

I heard the fire engine. I know I did because I remember the siren in my sleep, the way you hear a sound and it becomes part of a dream before you wake up. But I did not get up. The tablet makes it very hard to wake. I turned over and went back to sleep.

PC Dyson came to the door at eight o'clock on Sunday morning. He told me Gerald had died in a fire at the mill. I asked him if it was the finishing shed and he said yes. I do not remember much after that. The Vicar's wife came. Someone made tea. People kept arriving with casseroles and I had not the faintest idea what to do with them all.

I know about the insurance policy. Gerald took it out years ago, through Neville Farrow. Eight thousand pounds. Gerald said it was prudent for a man who worked alone in old buildings. I did not ask him to take it out. I have never claimed on an insurance policy in my life.

People will say I wanted him to sell the mill. I did. Not for the money. Because it was killing him. His blood pressure. His back. Working six days a week in a building that should have been condemned. I wanted him to sell and we could move to Ilkley, or Skipton, somewhere with a garden that does not look out over a mill chimney. He would not hear of it.

I did not kill my husband, Inspector. I was asleep. I was always asleep. That was the trouble with our marriage. One of us was always somewhere else.

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Statement signed: S. Hargreaves 14th November 1977

Statement of Derek Lockwood

Taken at Keighley Police Station on the 14th day of November 1977, by Detective Inspector M. Poole, West Yorkshire CID.

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I worked at Hargreaves mill for eighteen years. Started as a piecer when I was twenty-five, worked my way up. Foreman for the last six years. I knew every machine in that place, every beam, every pipe. I could strip a loom blindfold and put it back together. Not that anybody's asking me to now.

Gerald Hargreaves sacked me on the twenty-ninth of October. Two weeks ago. Eighteen years and he put me out like I was nothing. Because I stood up for the lads. We asked for a rise. Two pounds a week. The cost of everything going up and the wages standing still. Gerald said no. I said the lads would walk. He said let them. So they did. Two days they were out. Then Gerald sacked me and told the rest they could come back or follow me. They went back. I do not blame them. They have families.

I was angry. I am still angry. I said things in the Woolpack. Things you say when you have been thrown on the scrap heap after eighteen years. I said I would burn the place down. Brian Sykes heard me. Half the pub heard me. But saying it and doing it are two different things. I have said worse about referees at Valley Parade and nobody arrested me for that.

On Saturday evening I was at home. Jean and I had our tea at half five. We watched television. Starsky and Hutch was on. Then the news. Jean went to make a cup of tea during the weather and I told her I was going out for a walk.

All right. I know what Mrs Chadwick told you. That woman could give a running commentary on the sparrows. Yes, I went out at about half nine. I walked up to the allotments behind Prospect Terrace. I have a shed up there. Number fourteen, third row from the top. I sat in my shed. I had a bottle of Bell's I kept in there. I had a few drinks. Quite a few. I was not in a good way. The job gone, the money stopped, Jean worrying. I sat in that shed and drank and felt sorry for myself.

I heard the fire engine at about eleven. The siren goes right past the bottom of the allotments on the Keighley road. I came out of the shed and I could see a glow over the rooftops, down towards the canal. I walked down to see what was happening. When I got to the mill the finishing shed was well alight. The roof was gone. Firemen everywhere. I stood on Bridge Street with a dozen other folk and watched it burn.

I asked Jean to say I was home because I did not want her knowing about the whisky. She worries enough already. She thinks I am coping. I am not coping, but that is my business, not hers. I should not have asked her to lie. I know how it looks. The man who said he would burn the mill down, sneaking out of his house on the night the mill burns.

But I did not do it. I was in my shed with a bottle. Nobody saw me there and I cannot prove it. But I am telling you the truth now.

The finishing shed was a death trap. Those timbers are soaked through with lanolin and dye. Sixty years of wool grease in the beams. Gerald knew it. I told him a dozen times we needed fire extinguishers in there, proper ones, not the two little red things from 1965. He said it was on the list. It was always on the list. Everything was on the list with Gerald. The extinguishers, the wiring, the gutter on the canal side that had been hanging off since 1972. The list was longer than the order book.

I would not have killed Gerald. I was angry with him, aye. But he was not a bad man. He was stubborn. He could not see past his grandfather's name on the gate. That is a different thing from being bad.

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Statement signed: D. Lockwood 14th November 1977