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The Buccleuch Street Murders

Episode Summary

TRIGGER WARNING – This episode contains references to sexual abuse and violence, which some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised.

The murders of Betty Alexander and Emily Mutch may have been separated by 44 years but they are still linked to this day as they both occurred on the same unassuming street in Glasgow, and leading to two firsts for Scotland.

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

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Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Dawn:

The murders of Betty Alexander and Emily Mutch may have been separated by 44 years, but they are still linked to this day, as they both occurred on the same unassuming street in Glasgow.

Dawn and Cole:

Hi Wee Ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.

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Dawn:

Garnethill is situated in the north west of Glasgow City Centre on a hilly area. It is just under a mile from Sauchihall Street, one of the three main shopping streets in Glasgow.  The other two being Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, all of which Cole and I have visited over the years. Back in 1952, Garnethill was known as the bed sit and theatre land district and so there was an ever-changing parade of seasonal workers, salesmen, actors and young families. Garnethill is made up of 12 streets, one of which is Buccleuch Street, and is where four and a half year old Betty Alexander lived with her parents, Jack and Barbara Alexander, and her grandmother Isobel Alexander. For all Betty was only four and a half years old she loved nothing more than helping people, and Tuesday 7th of October 1952 was just like any other day for her. Betty had first set about the task of helping her gran to make the household beds. She then had taken herself to the local grocers where she frequently spent her time helping him in the shop. Betty then was reported to have returned home and given her gran a bunch of flowers she’d gotten as payment for helping the greengrocer. October in the west of Scotland can be pretty wet and, as expected, the rain had fallen continuously for days, until early evening on the 7th of October when there was a slight reprieve. Due to the bad weather, Betty hadn’t been allowed out much to play with her friends, so when the rain stopped she begged her parents if she could go outside to play. It was about 5pm by this time and she wouldn’t normally be allowed out this late, but on this occasion her parents relented. Betty left the flat to play with her friends wearing a smart brown coat, a kilt, grey, red and green jumper, brown shoes and fawn socks. Isobel, Betty’s gran, was reported to have said that Betty had whistled and sang as she went out to play. An hour or so later Betty’s mum, Barbara, shouted for Betty to come in and get her tea, but there was no sign of Betty. Barbara became worried and started walking from street to street in search of her daughter. An hour later back at Buccleuch Street there had been no sightings of Betty with her distinctive black curly hair and Barbara was sufficiently concerned that she contacted the police to report her daughter missing. Being a close-knit community, upon hearing about Betty’s disappearance, friends and neighbours of the family formed and started a search party, alongside the police. The search party went from street to street, lane by lane, backyard to backyard, through the night searching by torchlight. Barbara Alexander later said that about 8pm on the night her daughter went missing she thought she had heard a shout from Betty saying “mummy mummy” coming from Buccleuch Lane, which runs along the backyards of Buccleuch Street and West Graham Street. She said that she had walked up and down Buccleuch Lane, which was lit by gas light, at this time shouting Betty’s name and looking into backyards where she could, but she never heard Betty’s voice again. By early Wednesday morning, the search party came together again in the hopes someone had news of Betty’s whereabouts, only to be told that there was still no sign of her. Due to the search having turned up nothing by Wednesday morning, CID detectives were then drafted into help. Firstly, as it was daylight now, a further search was set up taking in places that had already been checked the previous night as well as places that hadn’t, including outhouses, cellars and yards. Becky’s picture was also posted across the city on police boxes and at police stations. Newspaper reporters were also now aware of Betty Alexander’s disappearance and they were on hand to help get the word out to their readers, in the hope someone might have a clue to Betty’s whereabouts. They were given Betty’s description and of the clothing she wore, and this was circulated in the evening and daily newspapers. From this exposure many readers of the newspaper contacted the police to share possible sightings of Betty, all of which had to be checked. One such sighting was of Betty apparently seen crying in a large store in Sauchiehall Street just before the store closed on Wednesday night. The manager was asked to open the store to see if Betty had been trapped inside by mistake, however this proved not to be the case. This sighting along with all the other sightings reported of Betty, after being followed up, went nowhere. Another lead that was followed up was of a sighting of a dark saloon car in Buccleuch Street on the very night that Betty disappeared, however, this also turned out to be a red herring. The police were also keen to find a man who had supposedly been seen with Betty on Tuesday night. The description of the man and what he had been wearing was circulated, but nobody came forward to say they recognised this man, and he was never identified. While some police officers were given the task of following up all leads of possible sightings of Betty, others, along with friends and family of the Alexanders as well as complete strangers from the surrounding areas and beyond, carried on selflessly with a search for Betty, neglecting their own families in the process, and the search area gradually widened, eventually taking in the entire area covered by the Northern Police Division, which was at the time 16 square miles. Betty’s headmaster at her primary school also did his bit to help find any clues to Betty’s disappearance. He held an assembly with the children of the school and asked them to come forward if they had seen Betty around the area on Tuesday evening. Apparently a couple of the children were able to give some information, all of which helped police establish the movements of Betty until approximately 6pm, although they did admit that the children’s recollection could be unreliable. There had been no sightings of Betty after 6pm by any of the school children.  Despite the searches, the newspaper appeals and the sightings, there was still no trace of Betty, and by Thursday the 9th of October Detective Chief Inspector Neil Beaton admitted that he was beginning to fear for Betty’s safety. Unfortunately, only a day later his fear became a reality. It was 2pm on Friday the 10th of October, almost three days after wee Betty Alexander first went missing, when she was found in the backyard of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Dispensary in West Graham Street by Mrs Agnes Hunter, a 55 year old cleaner.

Cole:

As it was the 50s, I assume a dispensary has a different meaning than it does today.

Dawn:

Back then it was a place where poorer families could take their children for free medical treatment and medication.

Cole:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Dawn
Agnes had a routine when cleaning the dispensary, and on Fridays about 2pm she always went out to the backyard to beat the dispensary rugs. There was no reason for anyone else working at the dispensary to go out there, which is why it took until the Friday for anyone working there to find Betty.

Cole:

Didn’t you say that the search parties were looking in every backyard up and down Garnethill? Didn’t they see Betty in the dispensary backyard, or was she put there after people had searched it?

Dawn:

Well you’ll not believe it, but the dispensary backyard wasn’t actually checked.

Cole:

Why not?

Dawn:

Well, the site that the dispensary sat on was private property, along with the backyard. It was surrounded by a seven foot brick wall with iron railings and glass on the top of it, and the wooden gate from Buccleuch Lane into the dispensary yard was always kept locked. The backyard unfortunately was also not overlooked by anyone’s flat or house, except the caretaker’s house and him and his family had moved out six weeks prior. So, there was no one that was just going to look out and see Betty lying there. Apparently the backyard wasn’t searched as it was assumed that there was no way a small child could get into it, and it was apparently initially thought that Betty had just wandered off. Although what Betty’s grandmother said later to the papers contradicts this, something which I found a lot while researching this case actually. When doing an interview with a local newspaper, Betty’s gran said “She was a lovable, sweet wee girl who used to talk to anyone who spoke to her, but would not wander away of her own accord.” 

Cole:

Surely if she was missing for three days you would want to check the dispensary.

Dawn:

Yeah. I mean, even if you initially thought that she just wandered off, after three days I think you would be realising she hadn’t. So, yeah, you would have checked. Anyway, because of this misunderstanding, search parties would have passed by within a short distance from wee Betty’s body numerous times before she was found on the Friday afternoon.

Cole:

That’s crazy.

Dawn:

So when Agnes found Betty she was lying near the top of the few steps down into the backyard from the dispensary back door. Agnes quickly summoned the police, but later she said that it was “a terrible sight” that she wanted to forget. So, when the police arrived they firstly noted that Betty’s clothes appeared to be in disarray, and this is where the contradictions start again. Some reports say that Betty’s coat was folded and placed under her head. Others say that the coat had been placed under her body and she lay on it. Some reports say that her socks and shoes were wet. Others report that her clothes looked like they had been removed and ironed. Can’t imagine why anyone that killed her would then remove her clothes and iron them. Also the state Betty’s body was found in differs slightly too. One report says that Betty had been found badly beaten, had a scarf twisted around her neck and had been strangled. Other reports say that she had no physical marks on her neck, no scarf was found around her neck or otherwise, and that she hadn’t been strangled.  Another report says that she had suffered a serious assault and had died of shock. Another said she had been severely injured, strangled and outraged, which, according to Douglas Skelton’s book No Final Solution, means today that she was sexually assaulted. It’s not known which one of these accounts is accurate, however, all reports did agree that she’d been dead for some time, possibly since her disappearance on Tuesday night, and that she’d probably lain on the steps for the same amount of time. Word of Betty’s body being found had spread like wildfire, and within the hour of her body being found the many people who had spent the last three days away from their families looking for wee Betty, as well as reporters, began to congregate at either end of Buccleuch Lane. It was reported that the crowds grew to around about a 1,000 people over the afternoon. Betty’s dad, Jack, was seen arriving at the dispensary to carry out the horrendous task of identifying his daughter, before his daughter was removed for a post-mortem to be carried out.

Cole:

Oh, so he just identified her at the scene?

Dawn:

Yeah, from what’s been reported this is what happened. Maybe a procedure that’s just changed over time. As the day wore on, the mood of the crowds gathered changed from shock to anger that this had been done to one of their own, to a four and a half year old girl, and finally to fear that it could be one of their children next. They wanted answers. A feeling that was mirrored throughout Glasgow as the news broke of Betty’s body being found. Glasgow had not seen a murder of such a young child for over 30 years and the city as a whole was horrified. Forensic teams descended on the backyard of the dispensary to search every inch of it for clues to what had happened to Betty and who had done it.

Cole:

So, they were definitely treating it as suspicious? After all the different reports, it seems like it wasn’t an accident.

Dawn:

Yeah, straight away they’ve determined that it was a murder. I think partly because they were right, the wee girl herself couldn’t have got into the yard so she had to have been taken there. So, yeah, definitely murder straight away. So, the forensic team firstly came across a small bit of newspaper on Betty’s body, which, after an investigation, was found to have come from a Glasgow morning edition newspaper from the 2nd of October 1952, five days before she went missing. This was later examined for fingerprints but none were found and this lead went nowhere. However, a fingerprint was found on both a wrought iron gate leading from West Graham Street and a wooden door that led to Buccleuch Lane, as well as a fingerprint being found on one of the steps where Betty was found lying. The gate and door were removed from the hinges, as well as sections of the steps, and taken to the forensic lab to be fingerprinted and examined in greater detail.

Cole:

So, they removed part of the steps and took the gate and the door to fingerprint them? Why didn’t they do that at the scene?

Dawn:

Apparently back in the 1950s it was thought that by trying to secure a fingerprint at the crime scene it could result in this being destroyed, so to get the fingerprint they just took the actual source of where the fingerprint was back to the lab to be examined. Obviously things have changed now. Anyway from the items they removed and fingerprinted it would be the wooden gate that provided the only real clue, a partial fingerprint, which is pretty difficult to match, especially back then when there were no computers and everything had to be compared by eye. Betty’s clothes were also taken to the lab and examined for any traces of her killer, but what was actually found in her clothing was dog hairs. Thinking this was a vital clue the police secured hair samples from every dog in the Garnethill area. Through this process they identified the dog, and it belonged to a resident who lived close to Buccleuch Lane. However, the owner and the dog were quickly ruled out of the inquiry. It was assumed that Betty had either came into contact with the dog by patting it before she disappeared, or that the dog had somehow made its way into the backyard where Betty lay and had shed its hair on her. However the hairs got onto her body, it was a dead end. While the forensic teams worked tirelessly, the police began what would be one of the biggest murder investigations. Over the weekend, the 11th and 12th of October, the police undertook the mammoth task of interviewing everybody in the Garnethill area via door-to-door inquiries to try to find any sightings of Betty between Tuesday evening until she was found, and of any sightings of strangers in the area that could be linked to Betty’s disappearance and murder. This undertaking took 120 detectives and 2,000 uniformed policemen. They were said to have interviewed almost 4,000 people by Monday the 13th of October, this included a 69 year old man who happened to live in the closest residence to the murder scene. He said that he was aware who Betty was, but that he hadn’t heard anything on the night in question or the following two nights. He did say they had seen Betty on the Tuesday night about 5pm and that she was playing with his granddaughter. Once all of the information collected from the door-to-door inquiries was gone through and collated, the police were able to ascertain that Betty had been seen about 5.30pm on Tuesday the 7th of October in Buccleuch Street, and then again about 7pm in Rose Street, which is about a five minute walk away, still in the Garnethill area though. However, there was still the hour between 7 and 8pm that could not be accounted for. Do you remember that Betty’s mum said that she thought she had heard Betty shouting “mummy mummy” from Buccleuch Lane about 8pm?

Cole:

Yeah. And that’s where Betty was found so that would make sense. Did the police think that Betty was in the backyard being killed at that exact time?

Dawn:

Well, that could have been a possibility, but apparently the police believed that Betty had actually already been dead when she was carried into the yard, either via Buccleuch Lane over the seven foot high wall with glass on it or from West Graham Street via a short passage at the side of the dispensary and over a lower wooden gate. According to Donald M. Fraser’s book The Book of Glasgow Murders, it was actually proven that she was killed somewhere else before being placed in the yard.

Cole:

But if Betty’s mum said she heard who she thought was Betty saying “mummy mummy” from Buccleuch Lane but she was actually killed somewhere else, how would that be possible?

Dawn:

Well, I’ve actually got two thoughts about that. Either Betty was still alive and she did hear her, then Betty was killed shortly after 8pm and then placed in the yard, or she didn’t in fact hear Betty shouting “mummy mummy” at all. But we’ll come back to that later.

Cole:

Okay.

Dawn:

So, Betty’s post mortem was carried out over the weekend on Saturday the 11th of October. The cause of death was pronounced to have been shock which had been brought on by being a victim of an assault. However, again, this was contradicted later by the police who said that Betty had been suffocated and criminally assaulted. However Betty died, she was still murdered and her murderer was still out there. And while this is at the forefront of everybody’s mind and they wanted this person to be caught and brought to justice, Betty’s family had other things on their mind as Betty’s funeral was to take place on Monday the 13th of October 1952. Thanks to word of mouth, as well as the media, people, mostly women and children from Garnethill as well as across Glasgow, had come to pay their respects, regardless of the rain that poured down. The huge crowd, thought to be of around 5,000 people, lined Buccleuch Street to say goodbye to Betty, as her tiny white coffin went slowly by. It was a sad affair, with many of the women and children crying. The procession started at the Alexanders home in Buccleuch Street and came to an end at Cadder Cemetery, which was about a 20-minute drive north east of the city. Here family and a few close friends stood by the graveside and watched the tiny coffin be lowered into the ground. There was a mass of wreaths and brightly coloured flowers placed all around the grave, many from strangers from all across Glasgow. As well as a card from Betty’s parents which read “To Bunkum, our dear wee Betty, from daddy and mummy.” Now, as the funeral procession was making its way slowly along its route to the cemetery, a 15 month old boy, who was in his pram outside a shop while his mother was inside shopping, was taken by a passing woman.

Cole:

What?!

Dawn:

Thankfully the baby’s aunt saw what had happened and challenged the woman, taking the baby boy from her. However, as you can imagine, tensions were already running high and when the crowd that had gathered from the funeral got wind of this, things reached boiling point. Thankfully the police were on hand and got to the woman and arrested her before the crowds got to her first.

Cole:

So, she just tried to steal a baby off the street? She was very lucky that could have turned really nasty for her.

Dawn:

Yeah, I know, she was lucky. The woman was later charged with a child stealing, but thankfully the day didn’t turn nasty and overshadow Betty’s funeral.

Cole:

Good.

Dawn:

With Betty now laid to rest, on Tuesday the 14th of October the police announced that they had found a partial fingerprint close to where Betty had been found. Unfortunately, having gone through their records and compared the partial fingerprints with male criminals they had on file, they hadn’t been able to find a match. As this fingerprint was the only solid clue they needed to come up with a way to make it work for them. And, therefore, on the Tuesday an unprecedented request was made by Chief Constable Malcolm McCulloch. As detectives were convinced that Betty’s murderer was a local man and that Betty possibly had gone with this man willingly and she had known him, they were willing to carry out Scotland’s biggest ever fingerprinting exercise and requested that all adult males over the age of 17 in the Garnethill area be fingerprinted for comparison with the partial print that had been found at the murder scene. While it was made clear that people could refuse this request, it was strongly hoped that police would have the residence of Garnethill’s full cooperation. The police also gave assurances that the fingerprints taken would only be used for the purpose of comparison against the partial print taken from the crime scene, and would be destroyed once it had been eliminated in their inquiries. Amazingly, no one refused, and the police ended up collecting over 1,000 fingerprints, all of which were compared manually with the partial print, but again none of the prints matched. Police then decided to include in the fingerprint exercise men who worked in Garnethill but didn’t live there, including a church congregation who had been painting railings in West Graham Street. Nearly two weeks after Betty’s body had been found that exercise was complete, again with no matches been found, and so the investigation came to a standstill.

Cole:

Okay, so when the police had no luck fingerprinting the men over age 17 did they not start fingerprinting younger men or women?

Dawn:

No, they didn’t. And, yes, that would have been my thought too, that after not getting a fingerprint match with any of the males living or working in the area that they’d broaden that by fingerprinting younger men or women living and working in the area too, but they didn’t.

Cole:

Why not?

Dawn:

I wasn’t able to find a definitive reason why they didn’t do this during my research of the case. All I can think of is that the police maybe had some sort of evidence that ruled out a younger male or a woman being involved completely. Or maybe it was just due to lack of funding or resources. But, in my opinion, they missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to complete the task and know for sure. Due to the transient nature of the Garnethill area, there will never be another chance to have all the residents who worked and lived in the Garnethill area there again. I feel this was a missed opportunity.

Cole:

I agree. Also, the woman who tried to kidnap the baby during Betty’s funeral, I mean was she never fingerprinted.

Dawn:

I’m not sure. I would assume so if she was arrested and charged.

Cole:

I wonder if her fingerprints were ever compared to the partial print that they had. I mean it seems like a really big coincidence that a woman tried to steal a child at the funeral of another child. Maybe there would be two perpetrators not just one soul man.

Dawn:

That is a really good point actually. I’d like to think that somebody on the investigation thought about this too. But, then, they apparently weren’t interested in women only concentrating on the men in the area. So it’s anybody’s guess.

Cole:

I wonder if there was evidence to suggest that she was sexually assaulted by a man and that’s why they weren’t looking at women?

Dawn:

Yeah that could have been the case. But, again, with all the contradicting stories of what actually happened to her, it’s just not known. But, yeah, that could actually be one of the reasons. But even if it was, there still could have been two people. There could have been a man and a woman involved. So, I don’t really think they should have just ruled out all women for that reason. Just my opinion though. Now, while the fingerprinting exercise was taking place, at the same time other leads were also being investigated, and on the 16th of October a rumour started circulating around Garnethill that a husband, his wife and their son had been taken to the police station, where it later emerged that they had been questioned for 13 hours. This was the same man that had said that he had seen Betty at about 5pm playing with his granddaughter. While they were being questioned at the police station in Maitland Street, more and more people turned up there demanding to know what was going on, assuming that they were somehow involved in the murder of Betty. They began to get more and more rowdy until detectives finally made a statement saying that the family hadn’t been arrested and were just helping police with their inquiries, with a chief superintendent saying that “There is no particular man being sought, in fact we could not even be certain at the moment that it was a man. No possibility is being overlooked.” However, they did state that they believed the killer had to be local due to their knowledge about the dispensary yard being a secure place to take Betty and not being overlooked by any residence, but that nothing was being ruled out at this point. Reporters however were convinced it was a male perpetrator they were looking for due to the fact Betty’s body had been sexually assaulted. After 13 hours of being questioned the family were taken back to their home, having been cleared of any involvement in Betty’s murder. Anyway, as the police tried to find any clues to Betty’s murder, they carried out searches of properties in Garnethill, including the empty caretakers house and a number of other houses in the vicinity of Buccleuch Lane, as well as a cellar.  Some items from these properties were apparently packaged up and taken away for forensic examination, but again nothing came off this. However, as time went on and nobody had been caught for the murder of Betty, the Garnethill community became restless and I suppose needed to feel that they were doing something, even if not productive or evidence-based, and so they hounded and abused the caretaker and the elderly man who lived closest to the dispensary, who had been questioned with his family for 13 hours. The abuse apparently became so bad that when it was reported to the police a statement was immediately released reminding the locals that neither of the men being harassed were under suspicion of anything. 

Cole:

And I can’t imagine that would help anything either.

Dawn:

No, it didn’t. It just tied up the police even more and they had enough to be getting on with, especially when they had to follow up all the leads, including potential leads from cranks. One of which came on the morning of the 16th of October when a man had phoned from a phone box in the Glasgow area confessing to the murder. The police swooped on the phone box and the man was taken to the police station for questioning, but again this was found to be a dead end. Now another line of inquiry that had to be checked out at the same time as the police were undertaking the mammoth task of fingerprinting the Garnethill residents, was following up the lead from Barbara Alexander, Betty’s mum. She told the police that when she and her friend were looking for Betty she had spotted an ambulance outside the Sick Children’s Dispensary in West Graham Street. She said she saw a man standing beside the ambulance and he appeared to be holding a child in his arms, wrapped in a blanket. She remembered saying to her friend at the time “Look, there’s another wee kiddie, and us looking for Betty.” The police contacted the ambulance service for the area in an attempt to identify who this man could have been, only to be informed that no ambulance had been recorded as being in West Graham Street on the evening of the Tuesday the 7th of October. The police also put an appeal out for this man to come forward if he was the driver of the ambulance, however nobody ever came forward. It was assumed at the time that perhaps the driver had gone to the dispensary in error or that had been there unofficially and so didn’t come forward for fear of getting into trouble. However, Mrs Alexander then changed her story and said perhaps it could have been a brown van instead of an ambulance. Again, this lead had to be followed up and an appeal for a brown van being in the area on the evening of Tuesday the 7th of October was released, but again neither the van nor the driver were ever traced.

Cole:

How could you mix up an ambulance and a brown van? Was her friend ever interviewed for her point of view?

Dawn:

I thought exactly the same, and I wasn’t able to find anything to suggest her friend had corroborated Barbara’s story. I think her changing her story after having the already overworked detective searching for an ambulance may have led to some police officers becoming a bit suspicious of Barbara, especially as she also mentioned vital information in an interview  she gave to the press, that she didn’t deem important enough to provide to police officers at the time of the search for Betty. You remember how she said that she had thought she had heard Betty’s voice calling out “mummy mummy” near Buccleuch Lane about 8pm on the Tuesday the 7th of October?

Cole:

Yes.

Dawn:

Well, apparently she didn’t disclose this to the police officers until after Betty was found.

Cole:

That’s pretty important information.

Dawn:

It is. I know. And I think it would have probably annoyed the detectives that she didn’t advise any one of this at the time of the search for Betty, as they said later that if she had they would have definitely concentrated their search more in that area and probably would have found Betty sooner. Maybe another black mark against Barbara at this point.

Cole:

Yeah, I can see why the police would be suspicious of Barbara forgetting to tell them vital Information and then sending them on a wild ghost chase for an ambulance, which in fact might actually have been a brown van.

Dawn:

Yeah. And I have a feeling these two incidents with Betty’s mum made the police very suspicious of Barbara, and they maybe wondered if she possibly had something to do with Betty’s disappearance and murder, although I don’t believe this was ever a line of investigation, even though it was hinted at later by the police.

Cole:

I think in any murder investigation blame tends to fall around the people closest to the victim. But I also think that when you’re grieving and when you’ve had such a shock like that, you are likely to miss things or not say things straight away or not think that they meant anything when they might have. It’s a weird situation to be in, and I don’t think any of us can comment on how we’d behave in that situation.

Dawn:

I absolutely agree with you. I think she probably just was in shock. It was a horrible situation and she missed things, she forgot things. But, no, I personally don’t think that she was involved. Anyway, towards the end of October police advised that they were going back through the 3,000 or so statements they had taken from the door-to-door inquiries, and then on the 31st of October 1952, nearly four weeks after Betty first went missing, there was an appeal to try to identify a male that had been seen in Buccleuch Lane on the night of Betty’s disappearance with two other young girls, but no description of this man was given.

Cole:

So, someone said that they saw him but they weren’t able to give a description? That’s strange.

Dawn:

It is strange that they didn’t give a description. It’s possibly why this man was never identified. However, towards the end of November there was another sudden flurry of activity, when two detectives made their way to Inverness to interview a man who was in custody. Apparently on being questioned by officers in Inverness, he had begun to mention Betty Alexander’s murder, and had apparently been residing in Garnethill at the time of the murder, leaving suddenly on the 8th of October, the day after Betty went missing. The Inverness police officers informed Glasgow police officers and they immediately left for Inverness to interview this man themselves. However, when they got there they quickly realised this was another red herring. The man was drunk, and after checks being made it was determined that he was not involved in Betty’s murder. This was just another dead end. As Christmas approached the crowds that had once gathered daily outside the police station and Buccleuch Street started to disperse and become less and less until one day nobody turned up, and wee Betty Alexander gradually started to fade from people’s minds. The horror and shock of what had happened not forgotten, but everyday life began to take back over. The team investigating the case went from 120 detectives and 2,000 uniform policemen carrying out door-to-door inquiries to a team of only 40, and that eventually was whittled down to only a few. Every lead had been investigated and had led to dead end after dead end. With no new evidence being uncovered, there was nowhere else to go with the case, and so it was eventually filed away under unsolved. Until 1955, three years later, when Jack and Barbara Alexander, Betty’s parents, got back in touch with the police insisting they wanted the case to be reopened as they felt they had new evidence to provide. Do you remember that Barbara had said she had firstly seen an ambulance outside of the dispensary on the day Betty went missing and then changed her story and said it was a brown van?

Cole:

Yes.

Dawn:

Well, the new evidence was she believed she had seen the same brown van, or at least a similar one, in the Garnethill area. Betty’s dad, Jack, told the Evening Times newspaper “We won’t rest until whoever murdered our little girl is caught.”

Cole:

So did the police reopen the case?

Dawn:

Well I can’t find any information about the case being reopened at this time. I imagine the police gave this the cursory glance, maybe they even tracked down the brown van and its driver and interviewed him and again came to a dead end. Sadly, Betty Alexander’s murder slipped from the minds of the residents of Glasgow and Garnethill once again, as children who lived there grew up and moved away, families came and went from Garnethill, the Sick Children’s Dispensary was relocated from Garnethill to another part of Glasgow, and the Garnethill area gradually moved on, until Betty Alexander became a distant memory. That is until 1996, 44 years after Betty Alexander first went missing, when her murder was once again thrust into the limelight, but sadly not because new evidence had been found or a suspect had been identified, but for a very different and equally as horrifying reason.

Cole:

Emily Mutch was born in 1920 and brought up in Glasgow. She lived with her parents until she was about 16 years old when she ran away from home, but she still continued to live in the Glasgow area as this was her home and she knew it like the back of her hand. Upon running away from home she started working in a munitions factory, until she met and married her husband, Teddy, in 1949 when she was 29 years old. The couple continued to live and work in Glasgow and in 1952, after three years of marriage, the pair would have been shocked as everyone else in Glasgow about the murder of Betty Alexander. No doubt this would have crossed the couple’s minds again in 1983, 31 years after Betty Alexander’s murder, when they decided to move to a sheltered housing complex in the ever changing neighbourhood of Garnethill in Glasgow, specifically a small fourth floor flat in Buccleuch Street, not far from Betty Alexander’s old home.

Dawn:

Ooh small world.

Cole:

It really is. Where Garnethill had a different reputation back in 1952, in the 80s this sheltered housing complex was considered to be quite safe and secure, which was also felt by Emily and Teddy’s extended family who visited the couple frequently. In 1988 five years after moving into the complex after being married for 39 years, Teddy sadly died. At the time of Teddy’s death, Emily would have been nearly 69. She had been ill for some time with dementia, but Teddy had successfully been covering this up so well that it wasn’t until his death that their family members became aware of just how severe her dementia was. However, Emily had now been living in the complex for five years and she had made friends there and enjoyed living there as well, and so despite her severe dementia she continued to live in Buccleuch Street. Over the years Emily’s health continued to decline; she was profoundly deaf, had Parkinson’s disease and severe and painful arthritis in her hands.  While Emily’s health may have deteriorated and she had become more frail over time, she still enjoyed life. Over the years she made many friends in the complex, some of whom would check on her regularly to see if she was okay. She would usually leave the door to her flat unlocked and slightly open as she was unable to lock the door due to the severe arthritis in her hands. On Sunday the 30th of June 1996, 77 year old Emily returned home after being released from hospital, spending the next couple of days airing out her flat and settling back in. On the 4th of July 1996, she attended a regular day hospital that helped patients with dementia, before returning back to her home the same day. Emily probably would have then had some tea and maybe had an early night or went to bed to watch TV after an exhausting day, having no idea of what horror was about to show up in her bedroom. Trigger Warning. What happened to Emily is quite disturbing so some listeners may find the following upsetting. Sometime between Thursday the 4th of July 1996 at 7pm and Friday the 5th of July 1996 before 8.30am, an unknown person had made their way into Emily’s flat and headed to her bedroom, where they proceeded to brutally attack her. Emily was dragged to the floor from her bed and sexually assaulted, before being stamped and beaten to death. The killer then proceeded to rip through the flat destroying everything in their path. It was reported that the bed frame had been turned upside down and the mattress had been dragged to the other end of the bedroom.  The bath panel had been kicked repeatedly leaving it dented. A toy dog that Emily had kept was torn apart, with bits of it strewn throughout the flat.  Before leaving the flat the killer also roughly took Emily’s wedding ring from her arthritic finger, the same ring her husband, Teddy, had given to her 47 years prior, as well as a jewellery box and an ornamental fan.

Dawn:

Oh my God, it’s just awful to hear.

Cole:

Yeah, especially to such an old woman. It seems savage.

Dawn:

It is. It’s just disgusting.

Cole:

Especially since, according to Emily’s niece Elizabeth, Emily had lost a lot of weight and was very frail, that amount of violence would have not been necessary to kill her.

Dawn:

So sad.

Cole:

Emily was found on Friday the 5th of July just after 8.30am by one of her neighbours that had come to check on her. She was lying on her bedroom floor, her nightie pulled up and her face was covered in blood.

Dawn:

Oh I just can’t imagine what they must have felt finding Emily like that.

Cole:

It must have been so upsetting. So the police were called and it was reported that what they found when they got there had even the most hardened detectives traumatised. Before the forensic team could arrive to process the scene, Elizabeth, her husband William and their daughter Lauren, who was six at the time, arrived outside Emily’s flat, to be met by a large police presence.  They had come to visit Emily as they often did. They were heartbroken when they were told what had happened and what had been done to Emily. William revealed that had they visited Emily earlier in the morning his daughter Lauren would have been the one to discover her body and the horrific scene. For all the family were in shock and were profoundly affected by what had happened, they were extremely thankful that six-year-old Lauren was not the one to have found Emily battered to death. It is reported that the police straight away thought that the killer had been a local man, Emily may even have known the man and his agenda was more than likely robbery. Although there had been an appeal for anybody to come forward with information into the murder of Emily Mutch, there apparently had not been a great public response. And so on the 9th of July the lead detective in the murder inquiry, Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder, appealed yet again for anybody with any information surrounding Emily’s death to come forward. He urged anyone in the vicinity of the Buccleuch Street area, Rose Street or Cambridge Street between 7pm on Thursday the 4th and 8am on Friday the 5th of July to please come forward if they saw anything at all suspicious. Despite the many appeals that were made for information, nothing of any significance arose. However, following the forensic team combing the flat for evidence of Emily’s killer, they revealed that they had discovered a fingerprint and a palm print on various items throughout Emily’s flat, as well as obtaining DNA from the potential suspect, describing it as an “anonymous profile of the killer”. Basically they just had to find the right person to match the DNA profile that they had and they would have their killer. The police reported they would be undertaking the largest DNA profile exercise, to include swabs of every male over the age of 12 in the Garnethill area. This amounted to well over 2,500 swabs being taken, which were then compared to their anonymous profile. However, after seven months and every sample having been logged and checked against the DNA sample found at the scene, the exercise had failed and there were no matches. The case grounded to a halt. Emily’s niece, Elizabeth, was determined not to give up and she reported in The Herald newspaper on the 3rd of February 1997 that she felt positive that her aunt’s killer would be found. She hoped that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on her part as her and her family would not have any peace until they caught her aunt’s murderer. This sentiment was backed up in the same article in The Herald newspaper by Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder when he said “We are not going to give up and hopefully we’ll be able to produce enough evidence to identify that person and put him before the courts.” Despite the failed DNA exercise, it was confirmed that a team of 20 officers were still working hard on Emily Mutch’s murder, and that neither course nor time would affect the investigation.

Dawn:

That is really good that he said that actually, ’cause I feel in the Betty Alexander case that might have been the reasons that they didn’t fingerprint the younger men or the women of Garnethill when they had the chance.

Cole:

Yeah, lack of resources.

Dawn:

Yep.

Cole:

Despite the best efforts of the 20 strong team and the many appeals made by both the police and Emily’s niece Elizabeth, Emily’s murderer continued to elude the police. It wouldn’t be until a chance encountered 16 months after Emily’s murder that the police would catch their next break. In November 1997, Police Constable Kevin Pike, who was 34, and Police Constable Colin Montgomery, who was 28, were just working another ordinary night shift when they got a call to attend to disturbance at a petrol station located in the West End of Glasgow. When they arrived at the petrol station they found the man who had been causing the bother hiding in a bush. (laughs)They retrieved him from the bush and tried to ask him what he was doing at the petrol station, but he was just being evasive. Call it instinct or call it experience but the two police officers were just a bit suspicious of this man, so they decided to arrest him and take him to the local police station to question him further. Once at the police station the man started to calm down and become more cooperative. He told them his name was Thomas Galloway and that he lived in Murano Street in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, which is about a 13-minute drive north of Glasgow City Centre.  The police did a check on their database to find out more about Galloway, and it revealed that he had previous convictions for assault, robbery and carrying knives.

Dawn:

Ooh what a nice bloke. Good instincts by the two PCS though.

Cole:

Definitely. Due to these previous convictions and just not having a good feeling about Galloway, the two officers decided to take a DNA sample from Galloway, and they sent the sample off requesting a DNA profile. As Galloway had calmed down and had been cooperative, there was nothing to actually hold him on, he was released that night and the two PCS carried on with their night shift. It wouldn’t be until late February 1998 when PC Pike and PC Montgomery were called into Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder’s office that they even gave Galloway a second thought. Detective Superintendent Lauder, who was in charge of the murder inquiry, told the pair that the sample that they had taken from Galloway three months earlier and sent away for DNA profiling had come back and it matched the DNA profile of Emily Mutch’s killer.

Dawn:

Oh that must have been such a relief for them to finally have some answers.

Cole:

I bet.  So, on the 23rd of February 1998 Thomas Galloway, who was 41, was arrested at his home in Murano Street and charged with committing indecent sex acts on Emily, of robbery and of kicking and punching Emily to death.  He appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Office on the 24th of February for these charges. He made no plea and he was remanded in custody for further investigations to be carried out and to await further trial. Galloway’s home was searched and the jewellery box and the ornamental fan that had been stolen from Emily’s flat was found. Before Galloway’s trial, he not only tried to persuade doctors that he was insane to use as his defence, which failed.

Dawn:

Good.

Cole:

But he also sacked two separate legal teams before finally settling on defending himself.

Dawn:

And that’s always a good choice.

Cole:

Always. He clearly didn’t like what everyone was telling him. However, in late January 1999 Galloway’s trial began, where the jury were told about and shown photos of the horrendous attack carried out on Emily. They were told of Galloway’s DNA sample matching the DNA profile that had been compiled from samples taken from Emily’s flat. They were told there was a 500 million to one chance that this DNA profile belonged to anyone other than Galloway.

Dawn:

Yeah, he’s not getting out of this is he?

Cole:

I wouldn’t have thought so. They also heard that apparently Galloway had confessed while on remand to the killing of Emily. But even without the supposed confession it really was the slam dunk, and how he thought by defending himself he could possibly get any other outcome. Clearly the jury felt exactly the same, as after only one hour of deliberation they convicted Galloway. Before handing down his sentence, Lloyd McCluskey said to the now 42 year old Galloway that he had “carried out an appalling and outrageous murder”, stating that the act of attacking and murdering Emily had been “brutal, disgusting and horrifying.” He then sentenced Galloway to life in prison, to serve a minimum of 20 years.

Dawn:

A life sentence means different things in different countries, but in Scotland life sentences are always given for murders and the judge will hand down a minimum term sentence known as the punishment part of the sentence. This means that the person will have to spend the punishment term in prison before even being considered for release into the community. If the person is eligible for parole and released from prison, they continue to be on a lifetime license, and if the terms of this are breached in any way they can be recalled to prison.

Cole:

Galloway might have eluded the police for 19 months, but finally one of Scotland’s most wanted men was brought to justice. Emily’s niece, who was 42 at the time, while obviously still devastated, was happy to get a bit of peace saying that she hopes he “rots in jail”. Before going on to say that her auntie Emily was “a wonderful and loving person who would never harm a fly.”

Dawn:

I’m glad they finally got justice.

Cole:

I know. It’s a tough story.

Dawn:

So while I’m really pleased that Emily and her finally got justice for what happened to her, the same thing can’t be said for Betty Alexander and her family because her killer has never been found. However, in 2011 a Cold Case Unit was set up in Scotland and on the 16th of April 2012 it was announced that Betty Alexander’s case had been sent to the Cold Case Unit. They have advised that they will be focusing on five priority cases initially. It’s not known which five cases these are, but the fact that Betty’s case has been handed to them could hopefully mean a fresh pair of eyes will be looking at her case in the hope of finally solving it.

Cole:

It would be great if Betty’s murder was finally solved and whoever committed that crime was brought to justice.

Dawn:

Exactly, I agree. And of course we’ll keep you all updated if there are any new developments. So, while Garnethill has certainly had its fair share of heartache and back in 1952 was well known for its ever-changing population and some unsavoury characters and dealings, in recent years the area has had a new lease of life, according to an interview in The Herald Newspaper in 1997 by Betty Brown, who was not only a community activist but won the Evening Times Scots Women of the Year Award in 1995, where her huge efforts in turning the Garnethill area into multicultural, close-knit community where people felt safe and wanted to live. The National Trust for Scotland even acquired a flat at 145 Buccleuch Street to preserve it in its early 20th century condition, now called The Tenement House, which is open to the public and gives a glimpse into times gone by. Now, the activist, Betty Brown, that I mentioned above was from the Glasgow area and loving the city so much she never left, which was good news for the Garnethill residents, as she campaigned relentlessly to improve the area and its reputation. She was 22 at the time of Betty Alexander’s murder and she remembers the Garnethill residents being shattered at the time by the murder. She went on to say that because the murderer was never caught it had left the community suspicious of each other for a long time. Over time though the community did get its soul back and neighbours began to trust each other again, and the area began to prosper. Until that is Emily Mutch’s murder in 1996 which rocked the community once again. This time however while the community was shocked and scared that a murder had been carried out so close to their homes once again, it certainly helped that the evil man that carried out this horrific attack on Emily was found and put behind bars. Sadly, Betty Brown passed away in 2006 at the age of 76, but her hard work and dedication to the Garnethill area had not been forgotten. A mural to honour Betty Brown was completed in 2015 called “Betty Brown’s Eyes”, suggesting she will always be casting her eyes over the Garnethill area that she loved so dearly, an area that has suffered so much but still came out stronger than ever.

And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there. Bye.

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

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Scottish Murders is an award short listed, fortnightly true crime podcast that focuses entirely on murders carried out in Scotland or involving Scottish people, hosted by Dawn, and occasionally her sister Cole.

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