Second child murder that would lead to capture of sick killer

The Press and Journal reported in the summer of 1963 the bare details of how police were searching for a missing boy, George Forbes.

The seven-year-old said farewell in sign language to his deaf parents Mary and John on July 7, telling them he “wouldn’t be long” as he left their Aberdeen tenement home on the corner of Justice Street and Commerce Street. He never returned.

In the following days, the acting head of Aberdeen City Police, Hugh McQueen, launched the most intensive search since June Cruickshank’s murder.

But months passed before suddenly, on November 19 1963, The Press and Journal’s front page reported dramatic developments in the case.

It stated: “The agony of events that happened nearly three years ago returned to the Cruickshank family of Kincorth, Aberdeen yesterday with news that a man had been charged with the murder of their six-year-old daughter June.

“Thirty- nine- year- old labourer James John Oliphant, c/o McLeod, 48 Market Street, Aberdeen, was charged with the murder of June, then living at 7 Printfield Walk, on Sunday, January 8 1961 and of George Forbes, 46 Justice Street, on Sunday July 7 1963.”

George’s body was found buried in the earthen floor of a greenhouse.

The P&J added: “Oliphant, who made a brief appearance in private before Sheriff James Aikman Smith, was also charged with three indecency offences and one of assault. He was remanded for further inquiries.”

In fact, police were questioning Oliphant about an attack on another boy when he confessed to the double murder.

He was quoted as saying: “I’ll take you to where that loon Forbes is.

“He’s down at my greenhouse. He started screaming and I cut his throat with a knife.”

After that revelation, the police quizzed him about June, and he admitted: “Aye, it was me. I gave her a shilling.

“I took her round the back of the petrol place. Later she started screaming. I ken I’ll get hung for this. I’m finished.”

Then Oliphant began to cry in front of his interrogators.

The news of an arrest and a confession offered little comfort to the families of both victims. Both had already suffered unimaginable grief.

On an evening in 1964, soon after Oliphant’s conviction, June and George’s parents met for the first time at the Forbes’s home and they shared their mutual grief over a pot of tea.

Oliphant died in Carstairs early in 1988, having spent nearly a quarter of a century behind bars.

Six decades later, the senselessness of the two tragedies still resounds.

James Oliphant confessed to killing both youngsters.