Dundee Murders
2 Roseangle

Episode Summary

A horrific crime that began in Dundee, didn’t end in Dundee, but was there justice?

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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The Law Killers: True Crime from Dundee

by Alexander McGregor

Synopsis

True crime from Dundee, covering the most fascinating and shocking cases from the last century. Having reported on many of them first-hand, journalist Alexander McGregor has unique insight into the cases and his stories are as chilling as they are compelling. In The Law Killers Alexander examines some of the country’s most fascinating and chilling cases and peels back the civilised layers of our society to reveal what lies beneath.

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Voice Talent by Eleanor Morton

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Introduction by Eleanor Morton:

Welcome Wee Ones to Scottish Murders. Dawn will shortly be taking you through a solved or unsolved murder involving people from or living in Scotland. So get ready to hear about the darker side of Bonnie Scotland.

Dawn:

It was Sunday the 18th of May 1980 and the residents of Dundee had been enjoying a beautiful hot weekend. Many relaxed in their gardens enjoying the sunshine with a cold drink, while others were enjoying spending time in the parks, including four medical students from the University of Dundee, who, about 6.30pm, were on their way to have a game of football at a nearby park. While on their way they were having a kick about with the ball when one of them accidentally kicked their ball over the railings into the garden of a house in Roseangle. One of the students, Thomas, while being jokingly berated by his friends, made his way over the railings and into the garden to retrieve the ball. Thomas was just about to return with the ball when he happened to notice that a basement window of the property was broken, so, being curious, he decided to take a closer look.

Roseangle is a street in the west end of Dundee, which is known for its cobblestone roads, leafy green areas, older properties and beautiful views of the River Tay. And where Roseangle meets Perth Road is number 2 Roseangle, a magnificent detached home, which is directly across the street from the Dundee West Church of Scotland. 2 Roseangle was a large, grand property, and its occupants were that of Dr Alexander Wood and his wife, Dorothy, both 78 years old. Dr Wood had been a very popular GP in Dundee since 1930, however, due to his ailing health he had retired in 1975 at the age of 73. By 1980 Dr Wood and his wife’s health had deteriorated significantly, with Dr Wood only being able to get around with the aid of two sticks, in part due to him having an artificial leg. On Saturday the 17th of May 1980, Dr Alexander Wood had only been out of hospital for a few days and so the couple’s son, Nicholas, who was a dentist in Banchory, which was about 56 miles or 90 kilometres north of his parents home in Roseangle, had visited his parents to check they were both okay. Nicholas left his parents home on Saturday late afternoon, with the couple waving him off, before going back inside to prepare their tea. About an hour or so later, Dorothy heard the sound of breaking glass coming from their basement kitchen. Despite her frailty she went to investigate. Upon opening the door to the basement kitchen she came face to face with an intruder. She immediately shouted for her husband to phone the police, before pointing at the intruder and shouting at them to get out, at which point the intruder grabbed Dorothy by the arm. Dr Alexander Wood, having heard his wife’s distress and shouting, had also managed to make his way to her side, just in time to see the intruder put his hands on his wife, at which point Alexander began hitting the intruder with his cane. The intruder, shocked by the couple, immediately looked around for a weapon, with his eyes falling on a slater’s hammer lying nearby. He picked this up and began to strike the elderly couple repeatedly, again and again, until they both lay motionless on the floor of the basement kitchen. After the attack, Henry dropped the slater’s hammer and looked towards the couple who were now lying on the floor covered in blood, with their eyes open staring at nothing. At this point Henry began to laugh and cry at the same time, before being physically sick. He then slowly sunk to the floor and sat there in a daze.

29 year old Henry John Gallagher was born in Dundee on the 3rd of April 1951 as Henry John Reid, but had at some point changed his name to Gallagher. He was brought up in Dundee by his mother, but never knew his father. According to an article in The Courier newspaper on the 18th of May 2020, Henry Gallagher had a long record of burglary and assault, mainly directed towards clergyman, having assaulted a minister in Dundee in 1972, as well as a year later attacking a priest, and in 1979 he broke into a property to rob it and when he found they had a pet dog he cut its throat. Henry Gallagher had been on leave from Maidstone prison in England, which is about 531 miles or 854 kilometres from Dundee, where he was serving a three-year prison sentence for burglary. For whatever reason, during his leave Henry Gallagher returned to his hometown of Dundee, whereupon he approached a local club and asked a woman there for directions to the home of the Roman Catholic Bishop and the woman directed him towards Roseangle, where the Bishop’s residence was located. When Henry Gallagher arrived at Roseangle, he saw the grand house directly opposite the church and assumed that this was the residence he was looking for, which he planned to break into and rob. He then proceeded to make his way to the basement window of the property, which he broke and climbed through, where within minutes he would be carrying out his atrocious act on the helpless and frail Dr Alexander Wood and his wife, Dorothy.

Coming out of his daze, which Henry felt had been a long time, following his frenzied attack on Dr Wood and his wife, he got up from the floor and decided to carry out the very robbery he had intended to do in the first place. Going from room to room Henry Gallagher packed a suitcase belonging to the couple full of jewellery and silverware worth about £2,000, which in today’s money would be about £6,900 or $8,600. He then put on Dr Wood’s long raincoat to cover the blood on his clothes, picked up the suitcase and left the property. However, due to the hot weather that evening, Henry’s odd appearance of wearing a raincoat had been noticed.

Thomas, with his football in hand, had made his way to the broken basement window and was now scrambling back up the steps towards his three friends, to inform them of the horrendous sight he had just seen, before then also alerting the police. By 7.30pm, an hour after Thomas had made the gruesome discovery, 2 Roseangle had been declared a crime scene, and Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Cameron had arrived at the property to lead the inquiry into the murder of the “well nigh defenceless” Dr Alexander Wood and his wife Dorothy, both 78 years old. However, despite the lead detective being an experienced old-school detective, he was shocked by the level of violence that had been displayed towards the elderly couple, saying in the Courier newspaper on the 24th of September 2013 that it was “not normal.”. As Detective Jim Cameron surveyed the devastation inside 2 Roseangle, the street outside of the property was a flurry of activity, with a mobile incident van setting up nearby, 40 police officers beginning to canvas the area for witnesses, and an appeal being made for information, and it wasn’t long before a picture began to emerge.

Students from the nearby University of Dundee, who had been sunbathing on the grassy area adjacent to Dr and Mrs Wood’s property on Saturday, had said that they had seen a man leaving the property on late Saturday afternoon, with the couple waving him off from the doorway. It was established quickly that this was the couple’s son, Nicholas, that had been seen, and it was determined, following the post-mortem, that the couple had likely been murdered within an hour of their son leaving. According to the Law Killers book, another witness came forward, who worked at a nearby club, who said that on late Saturday afternoon a man, she estimated to be about 30 years old, had come to the club and asked her to give him directions to the Roman Catholic Bishop’s home, which was located on Roseangle. She went on to say that he was odd looking as he wore a dated style of shirt which had large floral patterns on it. Upon the police speaking to the Roman Catholic Bishop who resided in Roseangle, it was quickly established that the same male had shown up in the garden of the Bishop’s home, but that he’d scarpered pretty quickly when he was confronted by the Bishop’s housekeeper. As news of the atrocious and vicious attack got out, locals were disgusted by what had happened to the elderly couple and made sure to contact the police with any scrap of information they thought might be helpful to catch the murderer. Such information included witnesses coming forward to say they had seen a male on Saturday evening wearing a raincoat and a stained hat carrying a suitcase and hurriedly making his way along Perth Road, which particularly stood out due to the weather being so hot. As more and more witnesses came forward with sightings of this out of place man on the Saturday, it led the police directly to the railway station, although this man had at least a day’s head start so finding out where he went next wasn’t going to be easy.

While detectives were working hard to establish who the murderer was and where he had gone, a phone call that was received from a local GP sounded very promising. The female GP had eventually called the police, having wrestled with her conscience, to give them the name of one of her patients she felt strongly could have committed these murders. This line of inquiry was immediately followed up, however, it shortly fell flat when the GP’s patient had a solid alibi for the time of the murders. With this line of inquiry proving fruitless, the detectives were even more determined to find out who this brutal murderer was, and, so, they appealed for information again, this time though they appealed to the Dundee underworld for information, hoping that they too would be disgusted at the level of violence shown to the elderly couple, and they would be right. However, while they did receive information from the underworld, it also led nowhere. And then a few days after the discovery of the murders, the latest edition of the police Gazette landed on the desk of a detective working on the murder inquiry. While having a quick perusal of it he just happened to notice a short listing about how 29 year old Henry John Gallagher or Reid had not returned to Maidstone prison following his home leave on the 12th of May, and it just so happened that the detective reading this listing knew all about Henry John Gallagher and alarm bells started ringing.

Following Henry Gallagher arriving at the train station in Dundee on Saturday evening still wearing the raincoat and stained hat, he boarded a train to London, about 482 miles or 775 kilometres from Dundee, before boarding another train to Ramsgate, about 80 miles or 128 kilometres east of London located on the coast. He spent a few days hiding out and slowly getting rid of the jewellery and silverware he had stolen from the Woods’ home, before he then met a couple who said they could provide him with new identification in order for him to be able to travel onwards to France. The couple then told him to meet them later that night and they would provide him with the identification he needed, and in return Henry would pay them in jewellery. Henry then strolled away from the couple, before stopping a passer-by in the street to ask for directions to the home of the nearest Roman Catholic Priest, who was frail 88 year old Father Paul Hull who lived with his 73 year old housekeeper Maud Lelean. Upon arriving at the priest’s home Henry knocked on the door, which was answered by the welcoming priest who invited Henry into his home. In return for the kind priest welcoming Henry into his home, he sadly was beaten repeatedly and savagely with his own walking stick by Henry, before Henry also turned the priest’s walking stick onto his housekeeper. With Father Hull and Maud Lelean lying severely beaten and close to death on the floor of Father Hull’s study having sustained severe head injuries, Henry ransacked the house looking for jewellery, money and silverware, before about an hour later being seen leaving the home and walking away wearing a raincoat he had not been wearing when he entered. About 30 minutes later, Father Whealan arrived at the home of Father Hull and went inside. Upon calling out to Father Hull and his housekeeper Maud and receiving no reply, he opened the door to Father Hull’s study, where he faced the devastation that Henry Gallagher had left in his wake. Father Whealan immediately called an ambulance and the police, but sadly 88 year old Father Paul Hull was declared dead at the scene. However, 73 year old Maud Lelean was still alive, albeit barely, and she was rushed to hospital, but sadly she died three days later never having regained consciousness.

With detectives now on the murder scene at Father Hull’s home, and having recovered from the bloodied brutality and violence that had met them, they began to call door-to-door to see if there were any witnesses to this horrific murder, which is when they discovered that a male had been seen arriving at the property and leaving about an hour later dressed in a raincoat, and about 30 minutes before Father Whealan arrived. Now detectives had a brief description of who they believed was their murderer, they just had to find out who and where he was.

Upon a detective working on the murder inquiry of Doctor and Mrs Wood in Dundee seeing a listing in the Police Gazette about Henry John Gallagher having not returned to prison following his leave, he immediately shared his belief with other detectives that Henry may have made his way back to his hometown of Dundee and had been involved in the horrific murder of Dr and Mrs Wood. If this were the case then more people, particularly clergyman, could be at risk of being attacked or worse by Henry too. And so the detectives sought a recent photo of Henry Gallagher from Maidstone prison, which they then showed along with nine other photos of similar looking men to the lady at the club near the Woods’ home who had given directions to the Roman Catholic Bishop’s home located on Roseangle to an odd looking man, as well as to the housekeeper of said home who had confronted a man who had appeared in the garden of the Bishop’s home on late Saturday afternoon. Both witnesses, having looked at all ten photos, picked out the man they had seen on Saturday afternoon, who was that of Henry John Gallagher. The detectives were pretty sure they had discovered the identity of the murderer of Dr and Mrs Wood, however, before any inquiry could be carried out to find Henry Gallagher, word reached the Dundee detectives that an attack and murder had taken place in Ramsgate in England of an elderly priest and his housekeeper. The police immediately contacted Ramsgate detectives and informed them that they believed they were now both looking for the same man, advising them who this man was and what his background was. The hunt was now on to find Henry John Gallagher, a man who had so savagely attacked and murdered four people in the space of seven days, before he was able to strike again.

Upon Henry Gallagher walking away from Father Hull’s home and carrying out the brutal murders, he returned to meet the couple who had promised him new identification and paid them with some of the jewellery he had not long ago stolen from Father Hull’s home after murdering him. Henry then spent the night at the couple’s home, who had no idea of the horrific murders their house guest had committed. But at first light Henry fled Ramsgate, knowing it wouldn’t be long before the news broke about the attack and murder of Father Hull and his housekeeper, Maud. With the Dundee detectives having alerted the Ramsgate detectives of the likely murderer being Henry John Gallagher, it was immediately arranged by the Ramsgate police for a photo of Henry to be distributed to every newspaper in the country, with headlines stating, according to the Law Killers book, ‘Catch this man’ and ‘Danger Man’. However, back in Scotland, according to the Law Killers book, the newspapers in Scotland were not allowed to publish Henry’s picture in their publications as his identification might infringe on him having a fair trial. Thankfully, Henry wasn’t making his way back to Dundee as had been thought, but instead decided to stay in England, and, due to newspapers there being allowed to publish his photograph at will, Henry would find it harder and harder to evade capture.

Henry made his way back to London again, before eventually ending up in Brighton, about 53 miles or 86 kilometres south of London on the south coast, and it just so happened that the particular weekend Henry found himself in Brighton was when the town was packed with visiting skinheads. Thinking that if he too shaved his head then he might not only blend in more but it also may aid him in remaining undetected by the ever-present police. However, he did such a bad job of shaving his head, which caused many sore, bloodied cuts to it, that it actually had the opposite effect to what he was looking for. Next he tried to pretend he was a tourist and donned a loud colourful shirt, sunglasses and a camera, but again he only seemed to draw more and more attention to himself. He eventually had to flee Brighton as he had overheard the landlady of the guest house he was spending a few days in telling a member of staff that she believed the man who was staying with them was the man the police were seeking. From here, Henry made his way from town to town, always trying to keep on the move, and in one town he broke into a Salvation Army hall and stole £400, which in today’s money is about £2,000 or about $2,500. On the 29th of May 1980, a few days after fleeing from Brighton, Henry eventually ended up in York in England, about 281 miles or 452 kilometres from Dundee and about 273 miles or 439 kilometres from Brighton, where he found himself at the home of local vicar, Derek Hall, and his wife Dorothy. Upon Dorothy answering the door to the knock, Henry, looking worse for wear, asked if he could wash their car. As Dorothy replied that her husband was away from their home with the car just now, she had a nagging feeling that she had seen this man somewhere before. Henry accepted Dorothy’s reply and turned to leave, before Dorothy closed the door and went to a window to watch the dishevelled man walk away. At that point she realised where she had seen the man before, in the morning newspaper, he was a wanted man for murder! Dorothy immediately called the police to advise them she had just had the country’s most wanted man at her door, before going on to ring round every minister or priest in the area to warn them of the dangerous man who may come calling. Upon having the door closed on him with no prospect of cleaning the family’s car, Henry walked slowly off down the street, where after walking for almost a mile or 1.6 kilometres he came upon the home of Father Curristan. He approached the front door and knocked on it, but he received no answer. Henry then sat down on the doorstep and lit up a cigarette. However, Father Curristan was inside the property and had seen from an upstairs window the dishevelled man approach his home and knock on the door. Father Curristan, not recognising this man, made the decision not to answer the door to him, and in essence likely saved his own life. As he continued to watch the man sitting on his doorstep, the phone beside him began to ring. Father Curristan answered the telephone and would have been pleased with his decision not to answer the door, as on the other end of the phone was Dorothy Hall, the wife of vicar, Derek Hall, who was phoning to let Father Curristan know that a murderer the police were seeking was in the area and had not long been at her door, and telling him to be careful about answering his door. As Father Curristan listened in disbelief and relief at what Dorothy was telling him, he noticed a police car passing his home and that the man on the doorstep had got up and was beginning to head in the opposite direction. From his position at the upstairs window, Father Curristan saw the police turn round, approach the dishevelled man and talk to him. However, without any warning the man took off at great speed, and the police officers gave chase. After leading the police on a chase over fences and through back gardens, Henry eventually stopped, turned round and declared “Okay, you’ve got me”, and he was promptly arrested, 12 days after he committed the brutal murder of Dr Alexander Wood and Dorothy Wood back in Dundee.

Both Ramsgate detectives and Detective Jim Cameron from Dundee travelled to York to question Henry Gallagher about the murders in their respective towns. When the Ramsgate detectives questioned him, Henry straight away told them, according to the Courier newspaper, that he was going to come clean and wanted to get it all off his chest, to which he proceeded to make a full confession regarding the murders of Father Hull and his housekeeper Maud Lelean in Ramsgate. Following Henry’s confession to the murders in Ramsgate, it was then Detective Jim Cameron’s turn to question him about the murders in Dundee and, as he had done with the previous detectives, Henry Gallagher made a full confession to the murders of Dr and Mrs Wood, stating that he had kept hitting them both like he had gone crazy. He went on to say that he didn’t think he was right in the head, that he had to be cured and that if he went to prison when he came out there would be more. He also apparently stated that he had told all of this to a psychiatrist ten years before, but they didn’t take any notice. Henry Gallagher was then charged with the four murders.

As Henry was arrested in England, had failed to return to Maidstone prison in England after his leave, as well as two of the murders he was charged with being committed in England, it was decided that he would appear in court for the murders he committed in Ramsgate first, before any further cases would be heard. And, so, in December 1980 Henry Gallagher appeared at Maidstone Crown Court in England where he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Father Hull and Maud LeLean in Ramsgate on the grounds of diminished responsibility. However, at this time, following assessments and reports being prepared and heard by the judge, the judge made the decision that Henry Gallagher be detained at Broadmoor Hospital with a restriction without limit on his discharge.

According to nhs.uk Broadmoor Hospital is one of three high security psychiatric hospitals that specialise in providing assessment, treatment and care for men from London and the south of England.

A few days after Henry Gallagher was detained in Broadmoor Hospital, the Lord Advocate in Scotland announced his decision that no further action would be taken against Henry Gallagher in Scotland regarding the murders of Dr Alexander Wood and Dorothy Wood.

It is believed that Henry Gallagher remains in Broadmoor Hospital to this day, and therefore has never been tried in Scotland for the murders he committed in Dundee, and this murder case still remains unsolved, despite the confession to the murders by Henry Gallagher.

In 1994 a 22-page book was published by Henry Gallagher while still in Broadmoor hospital, where he detailed his life and the crimes he committed, including the murders of Dr Alexander Wood and his wife Dorothy. When Detective Jim Cameron heard about the book he said in an article in The Courier newspaper that he was delighted to hear that Henry Gallagher had finally confessed to the Dundee murders publicly, going on to say it had finally closed the case for him, and in his eyes justice had been done as Henry Gallagher was placed where he should have been because he was beyond saving.

2 Roseangle, despite changing hands numerous times since the horrific murders that happened there, has stood empty ever since.  Once such a magnificent home is now unrecognisable; being overgrown, all windows boarded up and having been vandalised inside and out.

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

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn