Strangled, tied and dumped in Mystery of unsolved murder 60 years on
THE many mysteries that surround the grisly murder of Olive May Bennett – one of the most baffling cases in British criminal history – remain unsolved more than 60 years after her death.
Aspects of the investigation defy logic and even belief.
The mode of death could have been conjured by Agatha Christie for one of her more macabre whodunnits.
Olive’s body was found near the bank of the River Avon in Stratford. She was tied to a heavy gravestone, wrenched from nearby Holy Trinity Church (Shakespeare’s burial place) where her bottom dentures, glasses and a single shoe were discovered.
Her hat was discovered in nearby Lover’s Lane.
Olive had, detectives concluded, been strangled by a scarf, then bound to the headstone and flung into the murky waters.
The killer believed the stone weight would sink her to the bottom of the river. But they were wrong. The killer would also have surely been helped because it would have taken considerable strength to lift the headstone out of the ground.
Despite Olive’s body emerging from the depths, someone got away with murder. Even Scotland Yard, called in to solve the mystery, admitted defeat.
That is not surprising. Olive’s tragic end sparked more questions than answers – and continues to do so.
For a start, there was the bizarre change in Olive’s personality in the months before her death.
The meek and mild Scottish midwife turned into something of a vamp. The reason for that dramatic turnaround in her life is not known.
But she turned from an intense- ly private person to a party animal. At the age of 46, Olive began drinking and smoking; she began drawing large amounts from her Post Office account, she splashed out on clothes and make-up.
What’s more, the woman looked on as something of a mouse began dating lots of men. Olive, in middle age, seems to have hit a mid-life crisis. She even openly boasted about the men in her life.
But the last moments of Olive’s life are sketchy.
On Saturday April 24, 1954, Stratford was busying itself in preparation for Shakespeare’s 390th birthday. Olive, however, was knocking them back at the Red Horse Hotel, in Bridge Street.
She slurred to one man: “I’ve had five schooners of sherry already. Aren’t I a naughty girl?”
She was last seen at 11.45pm outside the hotel by a night porter.
She was pacing nervously, possibly preparing for another romantic liaison.
Her body was discovered in the early hours of the following morning after a walker spotted the vandalised grave.
Slowly, the pieces of her secret, racy existence began to come together.
Her diary contained the names of several men, but all had castiron alibis for the night.
With the local force stumped, Scotland Yard’s top detective, Chief Superintendent John Capstick, was drafted in to the case. He too hit a brick wall.
The world’s press was soon gripped and realised the readership potential in the bizarre case.
Australian newspaper, The Townsville Daily Bulletin reported: “People queueing for the first night of Romeo and Juliet at Stratford-upon-Avon saw murderhunt detectives pull a 20lb, mosscovered gravestone from the Avon.
“The small tombstone became a vital clue as detectives probed the death of a woman, drowned