02x06 - The Blood Trail

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NARRATOR: In a quiet English village

a few hours' drive from London, a threat was

delivered to a local farmer.

Impaled on a fence post, a severed lamb's head along

with the message, you next.

The note said little about its author, but between the lines

it said plenty.

[theme music]

Nestled among the lush rolling hills of England's west country

is the tiny village of Horton, a cluster of houses

lining one main street.

A farming community where life is simple, quiet, and peaceful.

But in the spring of , the peace and quiet

was shattered following a series of bizarre events

that took place here at Widden Hill Farm.

-year-old Graham Backhouse and his wife Margaret

lived at the farm with their two children.

Backhouse had inherited the farm from his father,

but by all accounts Backhouse, a farmer hairdresser,

was not having financial success as a farmer.

He had to take over the-- the farm.

He had no option in the business.

And there was a--

pretty obvious that he was a kind

of reluctant, grudging farmer.

But it was well-known that the farm was not making money.

NARRATOR: On March , , Backhouse

reported a grisly and terrifying discovery.

A severed lamb's head had been impaled on his fence post.

Placed next to it a note warning in large handwritten letters,

you next.

Backhouse told police that this wasn't the first time threats

had been made against him.

He told me that he was receiving telephone

calls of a threatening nature, even threats to k*ll,

as I recall.

NARRATOR: Backhouse also told police

about a threatening letter he had received in the mail.

--which said words to the effect, you

have ruined my sister's life.

I'm going to get you, you bastard.

NARRATOR: Less than two weeks later,

the threats turned violent.

Margaret Backhouse was heading into town to do some shopping.

She decided to take her husband's

car because her car was having some mechanical difficulties.

Graham was in the barn and never heard

the expl*si*n or Margaret's screams for help over the music

from his radio.

The b*mb was unsophisticated, but extremely powerful.

It had been planted directly under the driver's seat.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a b*mb.

It was a shortened version of a shotgun.

It was constructed from galvanized steel

pipe, two inch diameter-- quite a thick wall to the pipe.

NARRATOR: Margaret Backhouse survived the expl*si*n

because the force of the b*mb was directed

downwards by the high quality construction

of the driver's seat.

But doctors still had to remove more

than a pound of pellets and shrapnel

from Margaret Backhouse's body.

The bombing stunned villagers who

now had to accept the fact that the threats against Graham

Backhouse were serious.

When bombs go off, you've got to take it seriously.

And people were thinking that there

must be something behind this.

It was the only possible conclusion

that we all reached that the b*mb must

have been for Graham Backhouse.

NARRATOR: But who wanted Graham Backhouse dead, and why?

On the same day of the car b*mb expl*si*n which seriously

injured Margaret Backhouse, a threatening letter

was delivered to the Backhouse farm.

And the message said something to the effect,

came twice last week, but the pigs were about.

NARRATOR: The note ended with the words, see you soon.

The words twice and were had both been misspelled,

and experts believed that the spelling

errors were deliberate.

Investigators also examined the note

found beside the severed lamb's head,

the one which stated, you next.

An analysis of that note revealed

a possible clue, an impression from a circular doodle.

When a doodle is made on a piece of paper,

the pressure from the writing instrument

leaves an impression on the pages

underneath the original doodle.

Doodle impressions can be found using a technique called

oblique lighting, which casts shadows across the indentations

of the paper.

BERYL MORGAN: So that you can see

the impression as a row of shadows,

and these can then be photographed.

NARRATOR: Police asked Graham Backhouse

to identify all individuals who may have wanted to harm him.

He was interviewed at some length about who

his enemies were, who his ex girlfriends were,

and things of that nature.

NARRATOR: Backhouse told police about one

possibility, a former quarry worker named David Hodkinson.

Backhouse said he once had a sexual affair

with Hodkinson's wife.

Hodkinson would have had access to expl*sives,

and was also an electrician who specialized

in wiring automobiles.

On the day the expl*si*n took place this person was, in fact,

out of the country on holiday and had

been out of the country for three or four days beforehand.

NARRATOR: When Hodkinson's alibi checked out,

police turned their attention to one of Graham Backhouse's

neighbors, Colin Bedale-Taylor.

He was a retired engineer seriously depressed

over the death of his -year-old son Digby

who died in a car crash two years earlier.

Bedale-Taylor and Backhouse were involved

in a bitter land dispute which they couldn't seem to resolve.

They lived yards apart.

Colin Bedale-Taylor was well-liked

in the small farming community.

He was a woodworker and handyman who built this bench

for his friends in the village with the words,

bide a while inscribed on the back rest.

Despite the differences between Backhouse and Bedale-Taylor,

police did not seriously consider him

a suspect in the car bombing.

There was no reason to suspect that Mr.

Bedale-Taylor was in any way, shape, or form

involved in this incident.

NARRATOR: With no other leads, Backhouse and his family

were given hour police protection immediately

following the bombing.

After a week, Graham Backhouse began to resent the police

intrusion and asked them to end the around the clock

protection.

Before they left, police installed an alarm button

connecting the Backhouse home directly to the police station.

Just two weeks later, the alarm sounded.

DEREK ROBINSON: Police cars began streaming up the hill.

We knew that something was seriously wrong.

NARRATOR: When the police arrived at the farm,

they saw a horrific scene of blood and death.

Blood was found on the kitchen floor,

the chairs had been overturned, and at the bottom of the stairs

at the end of a hallway laid the body of Colin Bedale-Taylor,

Backhouse's neighbor.

He had been shot twice in the chest.

In his right hand firmly clutched

was a Stanley knife inscribed with his own initials, CBT.

Backhouse was bleeding profusely with gaping slash

wounds on his face and chest.

I've popped in to see how your wife is faring.

She's doing very well, thank you.

NARRATOR: He told police that Bedale-Taylor stopped by

to ask how his wife was doing in the hospital

following the car bombing.

Justice?

NARRATOR: Without warning, Colin flew into a rage

and att*cked Backhouse with a Stanley knife.

Me that set the b*mb in your car.

You should have been the victim, not her!

NARRATOR: He said he was doing God's work, blaming Backhouse

for the death of his son and admitted

to planting the car b*mb.

Backhouse ran to the hallway, grabbed his shotgun,

and shot Bedale-Taylor in self-defense.

Police roped off the farm and called for forensic detectives

to conduct an examination.

They were particularly interested

in the blood trails--

the one they could see and the one they couldn't find.

Graham Backhouse told police that he k*lled

Collin Bedale-Taylor in self-defense

after his neighbor went berserk and att*cked

Backhouse with a Stanley knife.

Backhouse said his neighbor admitted planting the car b*mb,

and that it was intended for him, not his wife.

When police searched Bedale-Taylor's property,

they found evidence linking him to the bombing.

PETER BROCK: We found a long section of pipe

on grounds quite close to Colin Bedale-Taylor's home,

and this matched the remnants of the b*mb

that were reconstructed.

GEOFFREY ROBINSON: The obvious implication

was that the pipe b*mb had been made by him

and come from his land.

NARRATOR: But forensic detectives

were confused by what they found at the scene of the attack.

First, the blood spatter on the kitchen floor told a story,

but it was a story inconsistent with Backhouse's

version of events.

GEOFFREY ROBINSON: The staining was

predominantly in the form of small circular drips of blood.

NARRATOR: The circular drops of blood found on the kitchen

floor were not consistent with a struggle,

but indicated that the blood dripped

from an individual standing still.

GEOFFREY ROBINSON: Blood dripping vertically

to a surface during a passive act of bleeding

will form circular spots or stains.

But if we have a violent movement of the body--

a flicking of the hand--

you see a different shape a stain.

They're more elongated, and some of the stains

will show a tail shape to them pointing

in the direction of travel that the blood impacted the surface.

NARRATOR: And there was something missing.

Backhouse said he ran for his life from the kitchen

down the hall to get his g*n, but police

could find no trail of blood.

We seem to have a man who is dripping blood profusely

in the kitchen, manages to move over

foot of carpeted hallway without leaving

any drips of blood.

NARRATOR: And police were faced with another discrepancy.

Backhouse said he shot Bedale-Taylor after his face

and chest had been slashed, but his blood

was not found on the g*n.

Had he been att*cked before firing the g*n,

blood from his face wound or from his hands

would have dripped onto the g*n as he fired in self-defense.

So both features missing from the g*n

suggested that he wasn't bleeding

and hadn't blood staining on him at the time

that he picked up that g*n.

NARRATOR: The victim was found clutching the Stanley

knife firmly in his right hand.

The forensic pathologist found this highly unusual.

When somebody shot or when somebody dies, they go limp.

So then I would expect to see the response, or the body's

response to being shot twice in the chest and death taking

place simply to relax and the knife would fall from the hand.

Wouldn't be clutched tightly in the hand.

NARRATOR: And Bedale-Taylor's right palm was bloody.

When an individual holds a knife during an attack,

the knife usually prevents blood from staining the entire palm.

IAIN WEST: There's an area of the palm which

is either very lightly stained with blood or not stained

with blood.

The knife protects that part of the palm.

NARRATOR: Backhouse's chest wound was also

inconsistent with a struggle.

Because normally if you're cut, you withdraw.

Your body jerks away.

So how on earth are you going to get a wound which then travels

almost half the circumference of the chest in a one

to one confrontation?

I would never expect to see that pattern of injury.

NARRATOR: And Backhouse had no defensive injuries commonly

found when a person fends off a knife attack.

They actually grab hold of the w*apon itself,

and they get cut across the fingers, the palm.

And sometimes you find that they've

tried to block the w*apon, put their hand up,

and they get cuts in the back of the forearm,

or the side of the forearm, or the back of the hand.

None of these were present here.

NARRATOR: And there was something else, something

small but significant.

When police searched Backhouse's study, they found a notepad.

On one of the pages was a circular doodle.

The ink doodle found on Backhouse's notepad

was identical to the impression found on the you next note.

It was a whole series of circles--

quite a complicated thing.

The impressions were quite deep so that you

had a good photograph, and you were

able to get a good alignment, and you could see clearly

that it came from this doodle.

It was exactly the same.

There was no doubt whatsoever about it.

This is the doodle that we're talking about here.

You can see just various scribble.

When we turn the page, I think you

can still see the impression.

This note is now very old and has been well handled,

so it's not terribly clear now.

But it is still there, just see it there.

Still see the impression just there.

NARRATOR: Proof that you next note was written on Graham

Backhouse's own notepad.

PETER BROCK: We now had a document in the form of the you

next note that we could positively

link with Widden Hill Farm.

NARRATOR: Police believed they could now piece together

the bizarre events which led to the cold blooded m*rder

of Colin Bedale-Taylor.

After two straight years of crop failures,

Graham Backhouse was , pounds in debt to a local bank

and was in desperate need of funds.

Backhouse devised an elaborate scheme to get

out of debt once and for all.

His plan was to k*ll his wife and collect on her life

insurance policies, which he had recently doubled to ,

pounds, but he wanted the m*rder to appear

as if Margaret had been k*lled by someone out to k*ll him.

So Backhouse fabricated the story

about the threatening phone calls and letters.

Backhouse himself wrote the you next note

and impaled the severed lamb's head on his fence post,

establishing the ruse that someone was out to get him.

With the stage now set, Backhouse turned his attention

to the m*rder of his wife.

He planted a pipe b*mb under the driver's seat of his own car.

He knew his wife would drive his car into town the next morning

because her car was having mechanical problems.

But Backhouse never expected his wife to survive the expl*si*n.

Desperate and fearing the police would consider him a suspect,

Backhouse panicked and decided to set up a scapegoat--

someone to divert the police inquiry from himself.

The logical choice was his neighbor, Colin Bedale-Taylor.

Thanks for coming about the furniture.

NARRATOR: Villagers knew that the two were

involved in a land dispute.

When Bedale-Taylor accepted Graham's invitation

to discuss a piece of furniture, he

had no way of knowing he had walked into a death trap.

GRAHAM BACKHOUSE: Colin, come here a minute.

Coming.

NARRATOR: Colin was shot twice in the chest in cold blood.

To make the sh**ting appear to be in self-defense,

Backhouse slashed himself in the face and chest

with a knife yet inscribed with his neighbor's initials.

Bleeding profusely from the self-inflicted wounds,

Backhouse overturned kitchen chairs

to make it appear there had been a struggle,

never realizing the shape of the blood spatter

would indicate no struggle at all.

Backhouse's his own blood was found on the victim's shirt

because he stood directly over the body

when he placed the knife in the dead man's hand.

With the crime scene now complete,

Graham Backhouse called the police.

Some time earlier, Backhouse planted a piece of pipe

on Bedale-Taylor's property identical to the type

used in making the car b*mb.

When the forensic evidence contradicted

Backhouse's version of events, he

was arrested for both the attempted m*rder of his wife

and the m*rder of Colin Bedale-Taylor.

In addition to the blood spatter evidence,

the doodle impression found on Backhouse's notepad,

and the medical examiner's opinion that the cuts on Graham

Backhouse were self-inflicted, another crucial piece of

evidence helped seal the case.

It came from the letter delivered to the Backhouse farm

on the day of the bombing.

Forensic detectives wanted to analyze the glued envelope

for saliva, hoping to determine the blood

type of the individual who sent the letter,

but they discovered much more.

Under the microscope, the fiber found in the envelope

matched fibers found in a brown cardigan sweater owned

by Graham Backhouse, further proof

that Backhouse had mailed the threatening letter to himself.

Graham Backhouse's plotting continued from his prison cell.

He conned a fellow prisoner into smuggling out an unsigned

letter to a local newspaper.

The letter implicated Colin Bedale-Taylor

in the car bombing.

But the letter was confiscated, and Backhouse's handwriting

matched the handwriting on the letter delivered to the farm

on the day of the bombing.

After a -day trial, Graham Backhouse

was convicted of all charges against him

and received two life sentences.

If somebody had set out to write

a novel along those lines, it would never

have been accepted by anybody.

I mean, this is absolutely truth being stranger than fiction.

PETER BROCK: This was an outstanding case

in many respects principally because without forensic

evidence there was no case.

The worst aspect was, of course, the fact

that he picked on a totally innocent man in the village

and k*lled him for no other reason

than to try to remove blame from himself.

And that's what made it a diabolical m*rder.

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