Donald Neilson
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Donald Neilson (born Donald Nappey on 1 August 1936, nicknamed the Black Panther) was a jobbing builder who turned to crime when his business wasn't making money—and ended up as a cold-blooded killer, kidnapper and Britain's most wanted man.
By the time Neilson kidnapped a teenage heiress from her home in Shropshire in 1975, he was already a multiple murderer, having previously supplemented his meagre earnings as a builder by robbing Post Offices at gunpoint. A decade of robberies had led to three postmasters being fatally shot, others being wounded and amounts of money taken, but little of the publicity which Neilson craved was generated from them.
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A history of crime
Criminal Beginnings
He had married at the age of 19 and became a father to a daughter, Kathryn, in 1960—it was at this point he changed his surname from Nappey because he had been teased about it while at school and while doing national service, and did not want his daughter to suffer the same humiliation. Neilson had no criminal history in his youth, but in 1965 he had turned to burglary and then robbery when his carpentry and building business hit hard times. He developed a technique that was to become familiar to the Yorkshire Constabulary, using a brace and bit to drill a hole in the window frame and using a screwdriver or coat hanger to open the catch. Because of this, they called him the 'Brace and Bit Robber'. Although he became extremely skilled at getting in and out of houses, he never managed to hit the jackpot, and the proceeds from this activity remained small.
While combining dishonesty with running his business, Neilson became obsessed with the discipline and routine of army life—he'd relished his statutory national service when he was a teenager and, while persuaded by his wife not to join the services permanently, unhealthily continued his passion for the military by forcing his wife and daughter to take part in games of 'soldiers'.
So it was, in 1967, he branched out into robbing sub-Post Offices. The logic of this was that these smaller Post Offices were usually only lightly defended and therefore easier to rob, and with over 23,000 in the UK, there was almost an infinite choice of targets, but of course, by the same logic, they would not have as much cash on the premises as main Post Offices, either. He first raided a sub-Post Office in Nottingham and eventually 18 others in Lancashire and Yorkshire, between 1967 and 1974.
On 16th February 1972, Neilson broke into a sub-Post Office in Heywood, Lancashire. The owner, Leslie Richardson, had woken up and was wandering out of his bedroom when suddenly confronted by a hooded man. A struggle ensued, and the man spoke to him with a West Indian accent. During the struggle, the shotgun Neilson was carrying went off, making a hole in the ceiling. Mr. Richardson managed to remove the hood and get a good look at Neilson. Neilson managed to escape out of the back of the building. Mr. Richardson helped the Police put together a photofit picture of the intruder; the first one of six, none of which managed to resemble any of the others or Neilson.
1. MURDER OF DONALD SKEPPER: Two years later, Neilson targeted a sub-Post Office owned by Donald and Johanna Skepper, in Harrogate. Neilson entered using his usual method, and crept upstairs. He went into the Donalds' 18-year-old son's bedroom, and Richard Skepper was shaken awake to find a hooded man pointing a shotgun at him. Neilson demanded to know where the keys for the safe were and, after being told they were in the stair cupboard, bound the lad up with tape. Neilson returned after a few minutes, unable to find the keys. He then forced Richard into his parents' bedroom to look in there for the keys.
Instinctively, as the pair entered the bedroom, Donald and Johanna woke up and turned the light on to see who was there. Neilson shouted to Donald to turn the light off, but at that moment, Donald yelled 'Lets get him' and leapt out of bed and onto Neilson. Neilson shot Donald Skepper as he flew at him. Neilson fled. Richard managed to call Emergency Services at 5.25 A.M., but Donald died in his wife's arms. Police flooded the area, but Neilson was long gone and home, living only 30 minutes drive away.
By the following September, more than 30,000 people had been interviewed in the search for what the Media was calling 'The Black Panther'.
2. MURDER OF DEREK ASTIN: Neilson laid low, but eventually knew he was clear and restarted his raids on 6th September 1974, when he broke into the sub-Post Office at Higher Baxindale, Accrington, at 4 A.M. The owner, Derek Astin, woke to find an intruder in the bedroom and began a tussle with him, waking his wife. She tried to assist her husband as the fight spilled out onto the landing, and then there was a loud 'crack' as the shotgun went off, causing massive injuries to Derek. Neilson fell down the stairs, recovered and fled. Astin died in hospital shortly after. Neilson had cut the telephone lines, preventing the family from calling an ambulance in time.
Police quickly established that this was the same perpetrator as the Skepper killing. The same method of entry, the same clothes, and a bullet and cases matched the ones from the earlier murder.
3. MURDER OF SIDNEY GRAYLAND: The next attack was 11th November 1974. Sidney Grayland entered his storeroom at his sub-Post Office in Langley, West Midlands, when he heard a knock at the rear door. When he opened it, things again did not go as planned. Neilson had taped a bottle of ammonia to his torch, to squirt into the occupants eyes, but when Sidney saw the hooded man in front of him, he grabbed Neilson's torch, causing the bottle of ammonia to squirt into Neilson's eyes instead. Neilson's gun went off, hitting Sidney, and Neilson had to rip the ammonia soaked hood off. At that point Sidney's wife entered.
Guessing that Mrs. Grayland had seen his face, he attacked her, fracturing her skull and leaving her in a pool of blood. Then he removed £800 in Postal Orders from the safe. Police did not discover the Graylands for another 4 hours, by which time Sidney was dead and his wife barely alive. However, the Police recovered another bullet and some more cartridge cases, all of which were matched up to the previous two murders.
The kidnap and murder of Lesley Whittle
By 1972, Neilson had decided he needed to step up his criminal activity if he was to gain the big payout he wanted and receive the publicity he craved. He then read an article in the Daily Express about Lesley Whittle, a teenage schoolgirl who had been left a five-figure sum by her deceased father, George, in his will. Mr. Whittle had run a successful coach company.
Neilson plotted to kidnap Whittle and hold her to ransom, and put together a meticulous plan which he then carried out in January 1975. As she slept, Neilson silently broke into the 17-year-old's bedroom at the family home in Highley and abducted her. There was neither struggle nor noise, and he allowed Lesley to put on a dressing gown and slippers. On the lounge table, Neilson left a ransom demand which he'd punched out on roll of Dymo-tape.
The ransom demand read:
- NO POLICE £50000 RANSOM TO BE READY TO DELIVER WAIT FOR TELEPHONE CALL AT SWAN SHOPPING CENTRE TELEPHONE BOX 6 PM TO 1 PM IF NO CALL RETURN FOLLOWING EVENING WHEN YOU ANSWER GIVE NAME ONLY AND LISTEN YOU MUST FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS WITHOUT ARGUMENT FROM TIME YOU ANSWER YOU ARE ON A TIME LIMIT IF POLICE OR TRICKS DEATH
- SWAN SHOPPING CENTRE KIDDERMINSTER DELIVER £50000 IN A WHITE VAN
- £50000 IN ALL OLD NOTES £25000 IN £1 NOTES AND £25000 IN £5 THERE WILL BE NO EXCHANGE ONLY AFTER £50000 HAS BEEN CLEARED WILL VICTIM BE RELEASED
Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Booth of West Mercia CID rushed over to the Whittle home once they had raised the alarm. Ronald Whittle was in the process of raising the ransom, although at that point Booth wasn’t sure it was a genuine kidnap. However, Booth was a follower of FBI techniques and agreed that co-operation was the best strategy at this point. Booth immediately set up a tap on the Whittle phone and the phone box referred to in the ransom note. Booth also accepted the offer of 12 experts on kidnap from Scotland Yard to assist him, but the relationship between West Mercia CID and Scotland Yard quickly deteriorated. They all agreed that Whittle should take the ransom as directed.
Meanwhile, Neilson had taken Lesley to a disused drainage shaft in beauty spot [Bathpool Park (http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=383500&Y=353500&scale=10000&width=700&height=400&gride=383702&gridn=353335&lang=&db=pc)], in the town of Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.
However, somehow during the next few hours, a freelance reporter had gotten wind that a major ransom incident was happening and appeared at the scene in Kidderminster. As a result, the police withdrew Whittle just before 9:30 P.M. The phone in the phone box rang at just before midnight, but there was no one to answer it. The next night, a hoax call sent Ronald Whittle on a wild goose chase to a false rendezvous.
It was the same night that Nielson shot and killed the security guard Gerald Smith, attempting to raid a Security Depot. In the hurry to escape the scene, Neilson left his stolen green Morris 1300 just a few hundred yards from Smith’s body.
Astoundingly, the police failed to notice the car for eight days. Eventually a Policeman noticed that plates didn’t match the number on the tax disc and checked the car.
When the car was searched, it revealed some important clues. There was a tape recording of Leslie’s voice, obviously intended for the abortive ransom attempt the previous week. Also inside the car were tape recorders, torches, a gun and ammunition and a foam mattress.
Meanwhile, on the third night of the kidnap, Ronald Whittle waited at home, and when the phone rang, Leonard Rudd, the Transport Manager for Whittles Coaches answered, and a recording of Leslie’s voice told him to go and wait by a phone box in Kidsgrove. Whittle drove to Bridgenorth police station, where he was briefed by Detective Chief Superintendent Lovejoy of Scotland Yard. At this point police had not realised the connection between the Black Panther (who did the Post Office murders) and this kidnap, and so Scotland Yard were in charge of the Whittle kidnap investigation. They did not think to exchange information with each other.
Whittle then drove to Kidsgrove, followed by several unmarked police cars. Whittle twice got lost, and it was nearly 3 A.M. when he finally got to the location, and then another 30 minutes to locate the hidden message. The message instructed him to go to Bathpool Park and wait for a flashlight signal. He did so, and waited, but no signal came.
The problem was that Neilson had driven the route and worked out that Whittle should arrive at Bathpool Park at 2:30 A.M. A couple in a car had already arrived and was baffled by the flashing light they saw. The couple also says they saw a police car in the car park, a claim strenuously denied by local police.
Neilson had watched all the comings and goings and, convinced that Whittle was cooperating in a Police trap, fell into a rage and went to where Leslie Whittle was held and killed her.
The Grim Discoveries
Previously, senior crime officers from Scotland Yard had discounted a full search of the Bathpool Park, claiming there'd be nothing to find. However, on the discovery of the Morris 1300, and the fact that Leslie had been missing for more than 9 days and was probably dead, a search was immediately ordered.
The shaft was found and there Lesley's naked body was discovered hanging from a rope. It is believed that in his frustration at the lack of progress with the ransom money, Neilson pushed Lesley over the edge. Her feet were only a few inches from the ground. Almost two months had passed since the day she was abducted, though the post-mortem suggested she had been killed within 48 hours of her capture. The judgement of the previous decision not to conduct a search had been exposed as crucially foolhardy—had the police done so when Neilson issued his first demand, Lesley may well have been found alive.
As a result, there were recriminations within the two police forces investigating the kidnapping of Lesley—not least the demotion back to uniformed beat officer of the detective in charge of the case, who had failed to order a Press blackout (Neilson had warned the Whittle family that Lesley would be killed if he suspected police involvement). Certainly Ronald Whittle, in an interview he gave outside the police station after being informed that Lesley's body had been found, laid the blame for his sister's death squarely on the considerable publicity garnered by the kidnap.
Arrested by accident
Neilson remained at large for much of 1975 and returned to Post Office robberies. He was finally arrested at the end of the year—completely by accident.
On December 11, two uniformed police officers were patrolling the streets of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, when they spotted a man in black outside a post office, carrying a holdall and moving suspiciously.
They called him over to their car and asked him what he was doing. Keeping calm and friendly, Neilson said he was on his way home from work and gave a false name. One of the policemen asked Neilson to write his name down. At this point, Neilson produced a sawn off shotgun. Neilson forced one officer into the backseat and then got into the front passenger seat. He pointed the shotgun at the policeman driving and told him to drive to Blidworth, about six miles away.
At one point, the rear seated officer spotted that the gun was pointing away from the driver and lunged at the gun, pulling the muzzle up. At the same time, the driver slammed on the brakes, and the gun went off into the roof of the car. The car stopped outside a chip shop, and as the two policemen fought with Neilson, two customers in the shop joined in. The four men struggled with Neilson, who fought like a wild animal, but eventually was subdued and handcuffed to a handrail.
It was only when Neilson's home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was searched that police realised that the man who had violently struggled against them was the Black Panther, responsible for the murder of Lesley and three postmasters. All his Army accessories were discovered, along with a range of knives, guns and ammunition, some wire which matched that used to strangle Lesley, and even a model of a black panther. Britain's most wanted man had finally been caught.
Under questioning, Neilson admitted after 12 hours to kidnapping Lesley but said her death was an accident. He also claimed that he never intended to kill any of the postmasters.
There is no doubt that had Neilson called it a day and quit after the Whittle episode, he would never had been caught.
5. MURDER OF GERALD SMITH: Gerald Smith, whom Neilson shot during the hunt for Lesley, died as a result of his injuries and the after-effects of the incident. However, Neilson could not be charged with his murder under UK law at the time, which declared that a murder charge could not be brought in respect of a victim who dies more than a year and a day after the incident which brings about their death. The law has since been changed.
Trial of the Decade
Victims
- 1. Donald Skepper, husband and parent—shot—February 15, 1974
- 2. Derek Astin, husband and owner of a sub-Post Office—shot—September 6, 1974
- 3. Sidney Grayland, husband and owner of a sub-Post Office—shot—November 11, 1974
- 4. Lesley Whittle, teenage schoolgirl—strangled—January 17, 1975
- 5. Gerald Smith, security guard—shot—January 15, 1975 (died March 1976)
Conviction
Neilson's trial at Oxford Crown Court, which started on June 14, 1976, was a massive public event, with queues stretching out on to the street as people tried to catch a glimpse of him.
On July 1, Neilson was unanimously convicted. He was given a life sentence for each murder committed—four in total, plus another life term for causing grievous bodily harm to the wife of one of the postmasters he killed. He was also convicted of kidnapping, blackmail, making threats to kill, burglary and possessing firearms with intent to endanger life. The shooting of the security guard was ordered to lie on file. He was acquitted on two charges of attempted murder.
The trial judge told him that in his case, life must mean life; only great age or infirmity should be used as reasons to release him. The judge also sympathised with the jury over the amount of evidence they were forced to hear and sift through before reaching their verdict—he later recommended to the Home Office that each of the jurors should be declared exempt from further jury service for the next ten years.
Donald Neilson became one of Britain's most notorious and infamous criminals and remains incarcerated in a high-security prison to this day. Neilson has never appealed against any of his convictions and has never tried to gain his freedom. Neilson was above average intelligence and highly obsessional, and having been examined by several psychaiatrists and psychologists, all agree that he is probably paranoid, psychotic and psychopathic.
The Lord Chief Justice set a 30-year minimum term for Neilson soon after his conviction, but successive Home Secretaries imposed a whole life tariff. Neilson could be free in 2006 because the Home Secretary was stripped of his powers to set minimum terms in November 2002. As the 30th anniversary of Lesley's abduction approached in 2005, the decision on Neilson's future had still to be made. He is approaching 70 and, although details of his prison record, conduct and current location are firmly under wraps (unlike other notorious killers—Sutcliffe, Brady, Bamber—whose activities in jail and penal whereabouts have been frequently leaked and meticulously documented) it is understood that he is in good health as he nears the end of his recommended tariff.
Press Opinion
Retrospective documentaries on the capture of Neilson would later lay heavy blame on the police, who didn't take Neilson's initial demands and threats seriously enough to order a Press blackout, or thoroughly search Bathpool Park when Neilson first ordered a ransom drop-off there. There is a distinct irony that by the time Lesley's body was found and Neilson had vanished, the police still did not know who the Black Panther was and had to rely entirely on randomness and sheer luck when he was eventually arrested.
It is widely believed that had Neilson decided to end his criminal activity after Lesley's death, he would never have been caught.