Author reveals new theory in one of our greatest murder mysteries
IT’S a wartime murder mystery like no other – and one that has spawned a thousand theories. Just who did “put Bella in the wych elm”?
The truth, claims a new book, is a little more mundane than the ‘occult sacrifice’ or ‘Nazi spy ring’ theories that continue to swirl around the 76-year-old discovery of a woman’s skeleton wedged inside the trunk of a tree in Hagley Wood, Worcestershire.
A year later, graffiti appeared on local buildings asking, “Who put Bella in the wych elm?”... That message has been scrawled across the region in the seven decades since, adding to the intrigue of the unsolved case.
Press and public speculated that the way human bones were arranged at the foot of the tree pointed to the occult.
But now author Keith Swallow, following years of research, has attempted to untangle the facts from the fantasy, dismissing many of the more far-fetched notions in his book The Hagley Wood Tree Murder, which is due to be published soon.
The flames of that fantasy were fanned by former war hero turned local reporter Wilfred Byford-Jones, who wrote under the pen-name Quaestor.
He made the 1943 case his own, drip-feeding his readers the tales of espionage and devil worship they craved. The skeletal remains of so
called ‘Bella’ were discovered by local boys wedged inside a wych elm – a tree of Satanic significance – on April 18, 1943, and spawned speculation that the victim had been ritualistically maimed.
Police believe the body had been rotting in the bowels of the tree for at least 18 months.
A torn piece of tafetta hung from the gaping mouth of the skull.
The ‘severed’ hand, discovered at the base of the trunk, was linked to the macabre, ancient ‘hand of glory’ black magic ceremony, so the story claimed. The hand was cut from a criminal’s corpse, then baked, with the melted fat used to create a candle.
Such a barbaric practice seems a little medieval even in 1942 rural England.
One of Bella’s arms had been ‘left’ 13 paces from the skeletal remains – an ancient custom that followed a witch’s execution.
In 1968, the case took a more sinister turn, with claims that Bella was actually Clara Baurele, a German cabaret artist recruited by the Nazi regime as a spy. She was dropped into the Midlands to gather intelligence and was “rubbed out” by government assassins.
The raft of conspiracies still makes for gripping reading, but none has ever been backed by hard evidence, says Mr Swallow, a former auditor for Highways England.
After four years work on the case, the 59-year-old believes Bella’s death was domestic in its roots.
The truth, Mr Swallow believes, involves a not uncommon criminal scenario. The Hagley Wood victim was killed by her partner, who was probably a traveller.
“At the time, there were very violent people among the travelling community,” he explains. “And there were a number of camps in the area.”
Police reports of the time reveal the trouble they caused in local pubs.
The area was studded with gypsy camps and Bella was murdered during a violent dispute, says Mr Swallow.
That would explain the difficulty in putting a name to the body and the difficulty in finding the murderer.
Mr Swallow, who now lives in Hastings, says: “Having first come across the case when staying opposite Hagley Wood, I have been in the process of researching it for the past four years. I’ve been both surprised and disappointed at the number of contradictions and errors within published accounts.
“Much of what has been written is based on supposition or perceptions which are not backed by anything relating to fact. Inevitably, much of what has passed into the public domain is flawed. It is a case which has grabbed the attention of not only those within the local area, but others all over the world.
“However, some alarming inconsistencies exist in accounts which have been published in the intervening years, and there are some glaring errors within what has been presented as fact. My book debunks a number of the most popular theories.
“What it also does, for the first time, is draw on contemporary police files, newspaper accounts of the time and genealogical research to separate the facts from fiction.”
The 59-year-old said: “There is no evidence for witchcraft. As for the ‘hand of glory’, there is nothing in police files to suggest the hand was deliberately separated. It is classic conspiracy theory.”
Mr Swallow is equally dismissive of spy claims – and for good reason. He has discovered that Clara Baurele was still performing in Germany in 1942 and died in Berlin a year later.
“The M15 records have subsequently been made available, and there is no evidence Bella was a spy,” he says.
“If you were an assassin working for the government, would you really place your victim’s body inside a tree?
“I think it was quite simply a convenient hiding place, known to someone who used the tree regularly.”
The mysterious graffiti, which first emerged in 1944, may also be explained. The chalk used for those first slogans matched exactly the chalk used at a nearby pub. It was a local, poor taste prank that, many years before the computer age, went viral.
‘Bella’, the writer says, could be a generic name, possibly taken from a popular song of the time, Bella Bella Bambina.
Mr Swallow does concede, however, that the ‘Bella’ subject of that graffiti – rather than the body – may well have been a real woman, as a prostitute who frequented nearby Hagley Road did go missing at the time. She was known locally as Bella. However, she was later traced.
But Mr Swallow is quick to point out there is no definitive right or wrong in the case.
I think it’s like Jack the Ripper,” he adds. “If it had been solved at the time, it would’ve been a footnote in history.”