Skull in Tree / Donald McCormick

[hkev]

Interesting article about the 1943 "Skull in the Tree" mystery that Donald McCormick wrote about in 1968:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/is-this-the-bella-in-the-wych-elm-unravelling-the-mystery-of-the-skull-found-in-a-tree-trunk-8546497.html

[Chris]

Interesting article about the 1943 "Skull in the Tree" mystery that Donald McCormick wrote about in 1968:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...k-8546497.html

Thanks for this. It would certainly be remarkable if McCormick had got hold of some reliable secret information about this case somehow.

[sdreid]

It's very interesting but I don't get the motive for the murder. I also was unable to find this woman on IMBb.

[Mayerling]

Just read the article. Quite interesting. Perhaps McCormick actually found out somethng correct for a change.

[Graham]

Until quite recently, every so often a chalked message "Who Put Bella In The Wych-Elm?" appeared on walls around the West Midlands area. The name in the graffiti was originally 'Luebella'. The graffiti was last seen chalked on the walls of a monument on the Hagley Estate in 1999. It was, and to some people still is, a celebrated tale of mystery....

....the theory that the remains were that of a Nazi spy predates McCormick, but I can't remember reading anything about how it originated, apart from it being wartime and people were generally hyped-up about spies. There have been any number of booklets and pamphlets published about this, but none as far as I'm aware have solved the mystery. If indeed there actually is a mystery, because one theory was that the remains were those of an itinerant female who got well-drunk one evening and climbed into the hollow tree to sleep it off. No, I don't believe it either. The original forensic examination of the remains did establish, though, that the body must have been put into the hollow tree shortly after death, as it would have been impossible to fit in after rigor-mortis.

Of course stories of witchcraft surround this mystery, doubtless amplified by the fact that the tree was (and, I believe, still is) a wych-elm. There may be some similarities between this case and the Meon Hill murder of Charles Walton in 1945, also never solved.

Trust old McCormick to get hold of it, though!

Graham

[RavenDarkendale]

One note: A Hand of Glory is an occult talisman usually made from the mummified left hand of a hanged murderer, so I doubt that this would account for the scattered finger bones around the tree... Anyone who actually had such a charm would guard it carefully, since hanging is out of fashion, and replacing it would be tough.

[Bridewell]

I wonder if she was really born in Stuttgart. There was a Clara Matilda Bauerle born in Fulham in 1908. That would explain the fluent English.

[Graham]

The spy-theory was amplified by someone writing a letter to a local newspaper in 1953 claiming that Bella was actually a Dutchwoman called Clarabella caught up in a spy-ring that was feeding information to the Luftwaffe regarding local munitions works. For whatever reason Clarabella seriously annoyed the other members of the ring, and so was bumped off (by knocking her down by a car) and 'buried' in the wych-elm. It all sounds highly unlikely to me.

There are also old rumours that she was a barmaid working in a local pub, and was done in by her boy-friend when out in the woods under the moonlight. More plausiable than the spies, I'd suggest.

The graffiti, and the regularity with which it appeared (and probably still does appear) would suggest that someone local knew or knows something about Bella and the circumstances leading to her demise.

Graham

PS: I once stayed at a B&B in East Anglia, in an ancient thatched cottage in which was kept a Hand Of Glory, in a wall-recess covered with glass and a curtain. The lady who owned the cottage said it was the hand of an executed murderer, and she wouldn't part with it for anything.

[Bridewell]

Why would there be a need to conceal the body of a spy in the trunk of a tree? The powers that be could just have imprisoned her or put her on trial - as the circumstances required. Concealment in a hollow tree is more indicative of a domestic murder to my mind.

[RivkahChaya]

Really interesting. I know about the "wych elm" mystery just from reading a Cracked article on unsolved mysteries, but it's quite an interesting one.

If people have been writing graffiti up through the 1990s, I doubt it's the same person all along. I'm sure a lot of people have done it for fun. I remember thinking when I first read it, that it probably was the equivalent of a hoax letter, but now, if she turns out really to have been called "Bella," or even just some variation of it, that's really interesting.

I wouldn't guess the writer had any information about the actual murder, though, but he probably was someone who knew the identity of the victim, and wanted the case solved, and the graffiti was a way of keeping the investigation alive. Why he (or she) wouldn't come forward and identify the body, I don't know, except that the additional mystery of the graffiti is more likely to spur the police on, or at least, a lay person would probably think that.

It's very interesting but I don't get the motive for the murder. I also was unable to find this woman on IMBb.

If she never played a lead, and didn't appear in a film after about 1950, then I wouldn't expect to find her, and that goes double if she never appeared in an English language film.

It's only been in the last 20 years that just about everyone who appears in a film gets a credit, and only since the breakdown of the studio system that minor players got credited. Now, major US pictures from the 30s and 40s have extensive cast listings on IMDb, but those weren't taken just from the end credits on the movie; they're taken from studio notes, memories of people involved who were still living (IMDb has been around a while), and posters, who identify people just by noticing that someone who later became famous has a bit part in some early film. Or, in a lot of cases, that information has been known for a long time. Gary Cooper doesn't receive a screen credit for his brief appearance in Wings, but people have known for a long time that one of Cooper's early roles was a bit part in Wings. Wings is a silent film, but it was the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar, and is hardly obscure.

It used to be a lot of work to get title card with names made and filmed, and the scrolling ones that were used later were even more difficult, so they were kept as short as possible, but actors want to be credited, and so does anyone, because it's advertising, so as soon as making credits got easy, putting someone in the credits became part of the compensation. Placement, size of type, white space before and after, all were part of someone's contract, whether you were a bit player, or the caterer.

Anyway, every film ever made isn't on IMDb. There are US films that aren't on it, so I'm pretty sure there are German films, particularly pre-WWII films not on it.

Then, there's the fact that not every link is perfect. I can think several actors whose TV appearances aren't credited on their pages. Someone just missed one when putting in the links, because it was probably long enough ago that they were still being done by hand. So, if you know a title of one of her films, it may be there, but the link to her name may not be working.

Also, maybe she used another name when she made films.

[RivkahChaya]

Why would there be a need to conceal the body of a spy in the trunk of a tree? The powers that be could just have imprisoned her or put her on trial - as the circumstances required. Concealment in a hollow tree is more indicative of a domestic murder to my mind.

She died accidentally, and someone wanted to conceal the body, in order not to reveal the presence of spies in the area, I'd guess. Of course, that seems to contradict the idea that someone out there really wanted the case solved because of a personal interest, so the graffiti artist was probably just a prankster. In that case, though, "Bella" is an eerily lucky guess. I mean, since it means, more or less, "pretty woman," I can see how someone would choose it as a generic name for the victim in writing prank graffiti. It's still eerie.

[HollyDolly]

Skull in the Tree

Bella can also be short for Isabella,or even a name unto itself.
If a local or locals came across a woman with a parachute laying on the ground,or even some strange woman just lying there hurt or dying,you would think whoever found her would contact the authorities.Be quite a feather in a local's cap if it turned out this unknown woman was a spy.I didn't see any mention of papers found with this woman.I assume if a spy,she would be carrying some maybe.

I think this was some sort of domestic murder as was mentioned.
The way to tell if "Bella" and the phot posted on the link are the same woman is through DNA and facial reconstrution.
Hope they do both on this case.