Who put Bella in the Witch Elm?

[Joshua Rogan]

Was a cause of death ever determined?

[DJA]

Guess I proved my point. If there's a cold case Herlock doesn't know about, it's not worth knowing about.

Don't fancy shelling out ã100 on a witchcraft themed McCormick book. Good find on the pamphlets though. There's so little available for this case. Who knows what might be turned up yet?

Like the Jack the Ripper case,there is much evidence staring us in the face.

Similar downgrading of the victim ..... mousey hair,clothing not up to scratch ..... apparently she did not shop at Harrods.

Then the evidence disappears !

Next she will have been born in Ireland and spent her teens in Wales.Then one of the wales will cough up her tattooed arm.Then someone will suggest her name was Jubela. AARGH!

[DJA]

Could she have been born elsewhere but married a Midlands man?

A woman of 5ft or under, 25-40, mousy hair called Lubella (or variant spelling)

Would explain why her clothing labels were missing.
How many Poms wore blue crepe soled shoes at that point in time!

Lulu Belle. Sounds American. Her husband may have been involved in the War Effort and placed her in the "country" which was a bit safer from the bombing.

Wonder why a squadron leader initially baby sat the tree, on one of the best connected men in the land's field, during the Birmingham Blitz!

[Herlock Sholmes]

I was just reading about the graffiti. The Forensic Science Lab (South Wales and Monmouthshire) felt that the first three were by the same hand and the chalk was more or less similar. The first three were:

HAGLEY WOOD BELLA (photo included)

WHO PUT BELLA DOWN THE WYCH ELM - HAGLEY WOOD

WHO PUT LUEBELLER IN THE WYCH ELM

Then theres the possibility of copycats of course. The next one in the book even mentions Jack The Ripper.

Then theres another photo of one:

HAGLEY WOOD LUBELLA ADDRESS OPPOSITE THE ROSE AND CROWN HASBURY

Then on a fence (with photo)

ADDRESS WAS OPPOSITE ROSE AND CROWN HASBURY HAGLEY WOOD LUBELLA

Then on a railway arch (photo)

HAGLEY WOOD LUBELLA WAS NO PROSS

On a wall

HAGLEY WOOD LUBELLA ADDRESS 404 LOWER HASBURY HALESOWEN

a family called Allsop had lived there for the last 56 years and no link could be found.

....

Ill be interested to see in volume 2 about the search for Lubella as opposed to just Bella. I’ve never heard the name before. Researchers on your marks. Could she have been born elsewhere but married a Midlands man?

A woman of 5ft or under, 25-40, mousy hair called Lubella (or variant spelling)

[Observer]

Guess I proved my point. If there's a cold case Herlock doesn't know about, it's not worth knowing about.

Don't fancy shelling out ã100 on a witchcraft themed McCormick book. Good find on the pamphlets though. There's so little available for this case. Who knows what might be turned up yet?

I have the McCormick book, if anyone wants to stump up 100 quid it's gone!

However, the body in the wych elm is only briefly referred to in McCormick's book. The book is devoted to the murder of Charles Walton who was murdered on St Valentines day 1945. I'm surprised it has not been mentioned in this forum. The murder is in my top five of unsolved murder mystery's in the UK. I have visited the area on a number of occasions, the first time many years ago, when some of those who were in the village of Lower Quinton on the day of the murder were still alive. I went into the Collage Arms, the Inn where Walton, and the probable murderer Farmer Potter drank, believe me they are very wary of strangers, none wanted to talk of the murder. I have many photos of the area, scene of the crime, Walton's cottage etc. Fabian of the Yard took control of the investigation.

Seeing as the Forum seems to be drifting towards non Ripper related content, two unsolved murders, and a murder in which a culprit was convicted and hung are worthy of mention.

The first a very famous murder, the Luard case, the second the little known murder of Herman Cohen, and the third the murder of John Nisbet. I believe John Dickman, was responsible for all three, he was hung for Nisbet's murder.

If Dickman murdered all three then by definition he was a serial murderer. Profit being the motive. There are books devoted to the Luard, and Nisbet murders, nothing on the Cohen murder. I know the local Jewish community of the time believed Dickman to be the murderer of Cohen. Dickman was convicted on quite flimsy circumstantial evidence for Nisbet's murder, I wonder if the authorities realised the extant of this cold blooded killers activities, and decided he had to be put out of action. Fascinating cases, well worth checking out.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Guess I proved my point. If there's a cold case Herlock doesn't know about, it's not worth knowing about.

Don't fancy shelling out £100 on a witchcraft themed McCormick book. Good find on the pamphlets though. There's so little available for this case. Who knows what might be turned up yet?

[DJA]

Crikey, everyone has died from CoVid and the Triffids have taken over!

[DJA]

Woe betide anyone trying to cut off a lady's arm on his property.

[DJA]

John Lyttelton, 9th Viscount Cobham - Wikipedia

Owner of the property.

Son,Governor General of New Zealand.

One daughter married 5th Duke of Westminster,the richest person in the world during 1970s.

[DJA]

Haven't turned up much on Squadron Leader William Douglas Osborn who guarded the murder scene on April 18,1943,apart from his son ..... yet!

[DJA]

Long shot ..... however ......

Suspect her husband was an American pilot involved with Spitfire production,testing and defense during the Birmingham Blitz.
He has moved her out of the main danger zone.
Her ring was originally described as gold.

Fun fact ..... Carl Perkin's song,Blue Suede Shoes was originally based on military regulation airman's shoes.

Crepe rubber soled suede boots were popular with soldiers in North Africa at the start of the War.
Even then latex rubber was in short supply.
When Japan entered the War,supply dried up and the race for synthetics escalated.
That was pretty much the end of crepe soled shoes for several years.

Similar story with hemp and nylon.
Ironically the use of colchicine in the hope of producing stronger rope resulted in the polygenetic strains we encounter today.

[DJA]

The big clue might be the blue crepe soled shoes.
Screams America early World War 2.
Wonder if her name was Lulu Belle.

[DJA]

Police handout. Should read upper jaw.

I doubt she was a local.

Had borne a child.

Fake wedding ring does remind me of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" plot.

[Herlock Sholmes]

yeah whata bizzarro case. i mean who would think of hiding a body in a tree? someone must have known about that tree beforehand, which is why i said i would be looking at people on or near tje estate.

There’s one theory that a woman got a bit drunk and rowdy and was dumped unconscious in the tree. There’s a theory involving spying and also the black magic angle. Add to the mix that there were some gypsies camped locally (shades of The Speckled Band)

Professor Webster’s descriptor of Bella was - age 25-40 probably nearer 35. Around 5 feet tall. Irregular lower teeth. Her clothes appear to have been not very high quality. Mousy hair ( though on a tv programme years later he said ‘ginger’ which no one seems able to explain except in that apparently hair can go that colour after death.)

He felt that she was placed there before rigor set in or after it had gone due to the tight space in the tree. Although if it was after rigor putrefaction would have begun. She also had a tooth missing which had come out post mortem. It wasn’t found in or around the tree so she could have been killed elsewhere.

It seems that the witchcraft theory at least partially came from the belief that one of her hands was found a certain exact distance away (something connected to witchcraft) This doesn’t appear to have been the case as there’s no mention of this in any records so it sounds like a legend. Plus Donald McCormick wrote a book on the witchcraft angle so the hugest pinch of salt might be required

Ive just noticed something that must be an error. Webster mentions an irregularity in her teeth on the lower jaw but when you see the skull photos (confirmed by the facial reconstruction) the irregularities were in the teeth of the upper jaw? Don’t understand how he could have gotten that wrong and no one picked up on it. I think I’ll give the book a re-read tomorrow.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Where's Wycherman when we need him?