Heather Hamilton - Sheffield UK circa 1945

[ceegee]

In the book "Unsolved Yorkshire Murders" by Stephen Wade the author makes a fleeting reference to the unsolved murder in Sheffield of a Heather Hamilton circa 1945. Has anyone got any information on the case.

[louisa]

I've Googled (as you will also have done) and found nothing about that murder on the web.

I'm waiting to receive a similar book from Amazon:

"Open Files: A Narrative Encyclopedia of the World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes"
Nash, Jay Robert;

....so maybe the Heather Hamilton murder will be listed in it. I'll let you know if it is.

[Steven Russell]

Ive just looked in "The Sheffield Murders 1865-1965" by David Bentley but no luck there I'm afraid.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Steven Russell]

Local papers are probably the way to go, ceegee, but could be rather laborious if all you have is "circa 1945". I know the Star was on the go back then - central library might have an archive?

Best wishes,
Steve.

[louisa]

Was it an interesting murder Ceegee?

[ceegee]

I honestly do not know. It's significance is that it remained unsolved. The next unsolved murder in Sheffield was thirty years later

June 5th 1975 John Wortley – Sheffield

National Car Parks offered a £1,000 reward for information about the killer of their attendant John Wortley, who was standing in for a sick workmate when he was battered to death near his kiosk at the Arundel Gate car park, Sheffield. It is still unclaimed.
Wortley, 66, lost his life on Thursday, June 5th, 1975, when his killer took the till contents of £59.

Given the 100% clear-up rate for murder since Heather's death in 1945, the police tried every possible avenue to find John's killer(s) but were ultimately unsuccessful. It rankled them to say the least

Yes a trawl through the local newspapers would be laborious as they are not indexed and so without a rough date it could take quite a while:-))

[Robert]

The only possible one coming up in the death registers is a 4-year-old girl in 1943. But that was Basford, Notts.

Perhaps 'Heather' was a middle name of the victim?

[ceegee]

Heather Hamilton Update

I have been able to narrow the date down to late 1944 and before 27th January 1945. The Guardian dated Monday 29th January 1945 reported the savage murder two days earlier of a 67 year old widowed shopkeeper in Bramley Leeds. Her name was Annie Nichols!!

The report concludes that Leeds CID were consulting with their couterparts in Sheffield over a "recent" unsolved murder in Sheffield where the victim was also a shopkeeper.

As far as I'm aware neither (or the same?) murderer was apprehended

[ceegee]

Eleanor C Hammerton

Never believe what you read in a book!

The victim was not a "Heather Hamilton" but an Eleanor C Hammerton who was viciously murdered in her drapers shop and home (72 Ecclesall Road) on Sat 13th January 1945

She was 80 years old at the time of the attack and led quite a solitary exsistence according to the newspaper reports. Robbery was thought to be the motive but despite extensive police investigations no-one was ever apprehended for this murder.

It does bare remarkable similarities to the murder of Annie Nichol's in Leeds. Again the murderer was never caught!

Eleanor is buried in the same churchyard as another far more notorious victim who met a savage death the following year !

[sdreid]

Thanks ceegee. I can't find either on "Gone but Not Forgotten" www.truecrimelibrary.com

Perhaps you could make the cases an entry there.

[ceegee]

Yes I will, but first I am going to write the whole case up for my site that has articles with a Sheffield connection. I will then post a link to the Gone but not Forgotten section

I forgot to add that the shop where the murder took place was demolished many years ago but I will try and get an archive photo if I can

As I said in the earlier post it was another 28 years before Sheffield had another unsolved murder