Mystery of the teenager whose body was found “expertly chopped up” into eight pieces and left in two suitcases. Will 1967 “Tattingstone suitcase murder“ of 17-year-old Bernard Oliver ever be solved?
Fifty five years ago the dismembered body of a teenager was discovered in two suitcases next to a Suffolk field, in England.
Also known as the ‘Tattingstone Suitcase Murder’, this is one of UK’s grisliest killings, for which no one has ever been charged.
The spine-chilling discovery
It was 16 January 1967 when a farm worker discovered two suitcases dumped in a field in Tattingstone, near Ipswich.
Inside was a young body, neatly carved into eight pieces.
According to local media, it took the shocked land worker almost an hour to compose himself enough to make his way to a phone box to call the police.
The news soon spread around the small Suffolk town of Tattingstone — then comprising of a church, a couple of pubs and a population of just a few hundred of people — and it became the scene of one of the darkest murders in Britain’s history.
Dave Kindred, who was 71 years old in 2018, when he sat down for an interview with Sky News, was a young photographer on the local paper which reported the murder.
For more than 50 years former Dave Kindred has chronicled the major events in Suffolk during a lifetime looking through the lens and still lives in Ipswich.
Kindred recalled in the 2018 interview that he didn’t remember a feeling of fear settling on the locals when they found out about the grisly discovery. In his own words, the murder felt “so alien”, so “disconnected” from their lives and from the sleepy village that it was almost “as if the body fell from the sky”.
When Police first descended onto the field that cold winter morning they hit an immediate block — they could find no way to identify the “expertly chopped up” body. This is why the investigators took the bizarre and macabre step of instructing a funeral worker to “dress up” the decapitated head, propping open the eyes and cleaning him up to be photographed.
The picture of the teenager’s severed head was succesively circulated to the press, appearing in the pages of any newspaper whose editor was brave enough to run it. This picture is still being used by journalists to this day, but you shouldn’t want to google it — it’s not gory or something, it’s only shocking because the boy seems… pretty much… alive. It unsettled me to the core.
Surprisingly, the tactic worked — as the victim’s family came forward after seeing the images published.
The victim was named as 17-year-old Bernard Oliver, but despite a major investigation spanning decades, no-one was ever brought to justice. We’ll get to the list of the prime suspects, but first please bear a little with me.
The disappearance
Bernard Oliver, a warehouse worker from Muswell Hill in North London, was the fourth of six children to be born to his parents, George and Sheila. The eldest was Maureen, his only sister. Bernard also had four brothers — Andrew, Philip, Chris and the youngest Tony, who was only 13 when Bernard disappeared.
At the time of his disappearance the boy was living with his father and siblings (their parents had separated less than a year earlier).
Bernard was last seen on 6 January 1967 in Muswell Hill and was reported missing by his father the following morning.
On that Friday night, he had a night out with friends. After saying ‘goodnight’ to his friends and heading home, the next time he was seen (ten days later) he was divided between two suitcases, having been strangled and sexually assaulted.
The victim
According his younger brothers, Bernard took after their father; a sprinkle of moles on his face, thick lashes framing grey-blue eyes and shock of dark brown wavy hair gave him a distinctive look.
It’s important to mention that, at 5ft 3ins and of slim build, the teenager could have been easily mistaken by his killer(s) for a younger boy. Also, he had some learning difficulties/disabilities which made him came across as younger mentally — as well as physically.
Besides that, Bernard had a happy childhood. He enjoyed walking the family poodle, Pepe, and was described at the time by his family as very “gentle and friendly”. The brothers would often go scrumping for apples, riding bikes or exploring in the woods, and they would always keep an eye out one for another.
Bernard was known by everybody and had many friends, even if none of them was particularly close, according to his younger brothers. That’s because he usually preferred to keep to himself, but at the same time he was a very kind and humorous young man, so his peers loved his company whenever he would decide to come out of his shell.
The investigation
In a time before advanced forensics, CCTV, text message trails, and the rest of a modern investigator’s arsenal, detectives had little to go on.
Photos from the Suffolk crime scene show no cordon was initially set up to limit the damage from police and press trampling through the area — with the potential loss of vital evidence.
Police say there were sightings of Bernard after his disappearance in and around Muswell Hill by people who didn’t know he had been reported missing (we’ll get to that later).
Forensic reports suggested he had died in a 48-hour timeframe of when his body was found and post mortem tests showed Bernard had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The clues: two suitcases
Detectives had few clues.
The two suitcases which were hidden under a hedge were largely unremarkable — aside from the letters P.V.A which were painted on one between one of the briefcase-like clasps and the handle.
One suitcase was a grey-blue colour, while the other was a light cream shade.
The laundry mark “QL 42” was found on a small towel inside one of the cases. These marks were used to help return the item back to its owner after it had been cleaned.
Bernard was stripped and placed in the cases naked. A single item of clothing was in the case with him — a neatly folded jacket.
It was reported that the clothing was a sports jacket which belonged to Bernard.
A pocket of that jacket contained a matchbox, which was from a brand of matches marketed in Israel. No other information about the matches — or whether Bernard was a smoker — has been made public (although it’s assumed the boy didn’t smoke).
Also, Bernard’s stomach revealed he had recently eaten a meal.
Another weird fact: Bernard’s nails had been manicured and his hair freshly cut, according to local press.
Why did Bernard’s killer(s) cut his hair and paid for his nails to be manicured? I combed through a lot of evidence but unfortunately was unable to find an answer to this question.
The witnesses
Witness 1
There is one witness who told how she had seen a middle-aged man on the night the body was dumped, “wearing a dark trilby and a long trenchcoat, walking in the direction of Tattingstone on the Hawich road”.
The man, she told Police, had been carrying a suitcase.
Witness 2
According to an article published in The Mirror, there was another witness who reported he had seen two unattended suitcases, and a man wearing medical gloves, near to Ipswich docks days before Bernard’s body was found.
Strangely, concerning the witness who saw a man oddly wearing latex medical gloves by the docks, two of the main suspects in the case were actually doctors with a history of abuse. We’ll get to that soon.
Witness 3
Another witness was a private investigator.
In 1977, this private investigator claimed to recognise the suitcase embellished with initials as belonging to three men who used a laundrette in Muswell Hill.
The private investigator pointed to a particular doctor, who would have been 35 at the time of the murder, as one of them.
Because of this claim, the investigation was reopened in 1977 but little progress was made.
New witness
As for the location, well, the location of the teenager’s murder has remained uncertain until 2018 — when a local woman has come forward to tell the Police she saw the 17-year-old alive in the Suffolk village where his body was found dismembered days later.
Still living near Ipswich and in her mid 60s back in 2018, this new witness came forward on the suggestion of her daughter.
The woman, who asked the media to remain anonymous, said that she was 16 at the time and worked as a groom in Freston. One of her duties was to exercise the hunt horses and on a particular morning she was out with tho horses up the hill in Tattingstone.
“I saw a young man walking towards me — and he was carrying two suit cases. He was someone I had not seen before and his face was covered in freckles. In those days, you got to recognise all the locals and everyone would say ‘good morning’. A few days later, I saw his photograph in the paper and immediately thought ‘my god that’s the chap I saw’.”, she told a reporter from The Ipswich Star.
The suspects
Over the decades that have passed, a number of suspects have emerged in police enquiries.
Documents made public in 2004 revealed there were two prime suspects in the case, both doctors who had worked in London but then moved to Australia. However, it’s fair to mention that no hard evidence has ever emerged to link them to the scene or the case.
The doctors were two of more than 2,000 people interviewed about Bernard Oliver’s murder.
Both had a sexual interest in youngsters and are widely seen as the most likely suspects, but they are now long dead and took any secrets they might have had to the grave.
One doctor, who died in 1995, was a man previously linked to the suitcase (by the private investigator that I’ve mentioned before — Witness 3). This particular doctor had a surgery in Muswell Hill — and in 1965 had fled to South Africa while facing arrest on sex charges, evading police on his return.
The second suspect, who killed himself in Australia in 1975, had been acquitted of murdering a 16-year-old boy in his London flat. He left a suicide note that included an apology to police for past crimes, but made no mention of Bernard’s murder. We’ll get back to that suicide note because it wasn’t the only note that the he wrote.
Now let’s dive a little into the suspects’ backgrounds and potential motives.
Prime suspects
Dr. John Byles
(no photo available)
Dr. John Byles (a former ship’s surgeon) was found dead at the age of 38 in a bedroom of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Proserpine, Northern Queensland, on Sunday, January 19, 1975. The former ship’s surgeon had booked into the hotel under the name of John Matthews.
His body was found around the eighth anniversary of the discovery of Bernard’s body.
At the time of his death he was wanted for extradition to England as he was said to be part of the Holy Trinity paedophile ring.
Among allegations made against Dr. Byles was that he invited boys to his south London surgery, gave them alcohol and persuaded them to commit indecent acts. While they were doing so he took photographs which were then sold to pornography publishers in Denmark.
During the trial Dr. Byles is said to have been described as “evil”.
Following Dr. Byles’ death, Suffolk police were told he had once admitted murdering a cabin boy and cutting up his body.
Three notes were found beside Dr. Byles’ body in the Australian hotel room which were addressed to Scotland Yard (apologising but not saying what for), his family and to another doctor — believed to be Martin Reddington. There isn’t much public information on the other two notes, but the note to Scotland Yard threw no light on the Tattingstone murder.
Dr. Martin Reddington
(no photo available)
In February 1977 Colchester-born Dr. Martin Reddington was charged at the Central Court in Sydney, Australia, with committing an indecent assault on a male.
Reddington, who died aged 63 in Surrey in 1995, had previously had a surgery in Muswell Hill. The premises were in the direction of the street Bernard Oliver was last seen walking down.
Two years before the teenager’s murder an arrest warrant was issued for Dr. Reddington on charges of buggery and indecent assault on males in 1965.
Before he could be caught he fled to South Africa, but apparently made a number of return visits to the UK.
Despite several attempts, the warrant was never executed and his guilt neither proved nor disproved.
As I’ve already mentioned, in 1977 a private investigator claimed to recognise the suitcase with the initials P.V.A. on its side as belonging to three men who used a laundrette in Muswell Hill, one of whom was Dr. Reddington (whom she identified through a photograph).
However, it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to extradite him from Australia — where he was living at the time.
***
It’s important to mention that eighteen years ago original documents from the Tattingstone Suitcase murder probe revealed Drs. Byles and Reddington were jointly wanted for a string of crimes.
One involved the murder of a boy in London in 1973.
Other suspects
The Krays
According to Sky News, a former cellmate of gangster Reginald Kray, one half of the notorious Kray twins, claimed Reginald had confessed killing a “young gay boy” to him.
The notorious London gangsters had been sent to Suffolk as evacuees during World War II and bought a house at nearby Bildeston around the time of the murder. This connection to the area and Reggie’s twin brother Ronnie’s relationships with men is enough for some to accuse the Krays.
Although Police thought of the two doctors with a sexual interest in youngsters as the prime suspects, both Tony and Chris Oliver (Bernard’s brothers) believed that the Krays had something to do with their brother’s death.
According to the Olivers, the Krays used to go down to this particular house in Suffolk, with “rent boys” being brought in and with “all sorts of people going to that place”.
Record producer Joe Meek
The fourth name commonly mentioned in connection with the case is record producer Joe Meek.
Meek is known for pioneering experimental pop music in the 1960s. On 3 February 1967, two and a half weeks after Bernard’s body was discovered, Meek shot his landlady before turning the gun on himself. It was also thought that he was a previous employer of Brian Oliver, although I don’t think it’s been confirmed.
Apparently the date was significant because he was obsessed with Buddy Holly (who died on the 3rd of February in 1959).
Meek, who was reportedly raised as a girl for the first four years of his life by his mother, had a history of paranoia and other mental health issues. Among other things, he claimed there were hidden microphones in his wallpaper placed there to steal his ideas.
Reports of his final days suggest his fear of being interviewed by police over the Tattingstone suitcase murder saw his mental health plummet and his behaviour degrade, claiming he was possessed.
DJ Tony Windsor
An Australian DJ named Tony Windsor was spoken to by police about the case, as Sky News revealed in 2018.
Windsor, who was reported to be one of the highest paid DJs in Australia years before, worked on board MV Galaxy — a ship from which pirate station Radio London was broadcast.
The ship was harboured off the coast of Frinton-on-Sea, around 12 miles away from Tattingstone.
Multiple sources have confirmed that police boarded the ship in early February — just days after Meek killed himself and his landlady.
It is understood the DJ was dismissed from Radio London on 7 February 1967, with his alcohol problems being blamed for his departure (he was widely described as an alcoholic by those who knew him).
Mary Payne, the director of Radio London Ltd, told Sky News that it was mainly Tony Windsor who was of most interest.
Windsor, who died in June 1985, aged 64, was “gay, alcoholic and a close friend of Joe Meek”, according to Payne.
Payne was 17 in 1967, the same age as Bernard, and went on to say at some point that since then they have discovered many things about the station’s personnel and their associates, things that have “saddened” them deeply. “It’s all horribly sleazy stuff and very sad that someone has for so long got away with murdering this poor kid.”, she said.
The Dutch lead
One of the other lines of enquiry police were pursuing was to procure a list of Dutch crew members from the boat’s captain.
The Police’s mission was to find out which Dutch crew member come off the ship immediately before the murder took place; they apparently believed that the initials stencilled onto one of the suitcases could suggest a Dutch family name.
In this context, one theory was that Bernard had died following a meal with his killer.
However, it is not known how far the Police investigated a Dutch connection outside of asking for a list of the Dutch crew from the boat’s captain.
Aftermath
Buried in East Finchley, a stone’s throw from Muswell Hill, Bernard’s epitaph reads: “So sad was the day you were taken from us. You will always be in our hearts forever dearest brother. Always loved. Never Forgotten. R.I.P.”
Chris Oliver, one of Bernard’s younger brothers, believes the Police worked hard to find his brother’s killer, but wonders if things would have been different had DNA testing been more advanced in the 1960s.
He sat down with Sky News four years ago and at some point during the interview he said: “I wish it [the murder/case] had been solved before my father died, my mother died and Tony died. I don’t know if it ever will be. It’s been 51 years. It’s a long time.”
Talking about what it would it mean to the family if Bernard’s murderer(s) were caught now, Chris looked detached: “At the end of the day, look, it doesn’t bring my brother back. Even if I found out tomorrow who did it — he might be alive, he might be dead — but it doesn’t bring my brother back. People say you’ll get closure but I’m never going to get closure.”
***
55 years ago, some 80 miles away in London, Chris, 15 years old at the time, found out about his brother’s death from seeing his photograph in the paper.
He still remembers how he peered over to look at the front page of his friend’s newspaper as they waited for a bus back to Muswell Hill, where the Olivers lived with their father.
“My mate went ‘Chrissy that’s your brother, isn’t it?’. I looked at it and I just knew straight away. There was no mistaking it. I hadn’t read the story, I’d just seen the picture and … ‘SUITCASE MURDER’ and that’s all I could see because nothing else registered.”, Chris told Sky News in 2018.
“It was devastating. It was devastating to my whole family. I can’t turn around to you and say ‘it’s life!’ because it’s not. It’s not what you expect to happen. It’s absolutely devastating. Really none of us spoke to each other about it because we were so hurt. It was difficult to bring the subject up and to talk about it”, said Chris, recalling that his sister Maureen avoided it, as did his other brothers Andrew and Philip.
Chris mentioned that his brother Tony, then 13, took Bernard’s death hardest out of the whole family.
Tony has passed away somewhere between 2011 and 2022, but in an interview with BBC from 2011, he took some time to reflect on the senseless death of his brother Bernard.
Tony, who was 57 in 2011, and the youngest of six children raised in Muswell Hill, north London, said at the time: “There are times, even now, when I can’t believe what happened. I think we could have accepted it in a different way if Bernard had been shot or killed in a fight. But the way his body was dissected, in such a clinical way, was spine chilling. And then to see his head in a newspaper — it’s hard to come to terms with. I can’t bury it. I don’t think I ever go a week without thinking about Bernard. When his body was found I was just hollow. I just kept asking myself: ‘Why?’ What was the motive? Why Tattingstone? Suffolk felt a million miles away in those days.”
Just like Chris, Tony said at the time that his family had dealt with this tragedy in different ways.
“Some wouldn’t talk about it — they would walk out of the room if it was mentioned. I think it changed all of us in different ways”, he recalled.
In the same interview Tony mentioned that he used to share a bed with Bernard and that he idolized his older brother.
The boys’ parents, George and Sheila, both died aged in their late 70s.
According to the siblings, Bernard’s death took a toll on both of their parents, with their mother crying all through her life and feeling guilty even up until she died.
“It was terrible for my parents to go to their graves without knowing what happened to Bernard. I still believe somebody who knows what happened to Bernard is still alive. I’ve never given up hope.”, said Tony in 2011.
As I’ve already mentioned, unfortunately Tony has passed away somewhere between 2011 and 2022, without ever witnessing justice being served.
Police on the 55th anniversary: “It’s never too late for people to come forward”
Although almost all suspects have since died, Suffolk police continue to review lines of investigation. Recently, the constabulary said it was never too late for people to come forward with information.
The case was also reviewed by police in 2009 and looked at again in 2015. Moreover, the 50th anniversary of Bernard’s death saw a number of calls come into police, prompting an additional review and a new appeal. Unfortunately, the new appeals did not yield a breakthrough.
It’s important to mention that a review of the forensic evidence has been concluded and the findings have been analysed but not been made public.
A spokesperson for Suffolk police told the East Anglian Daily Times on the 55th aniversary of this case (in February, this year): “For each victim, there are family and friends who continue to grieve and who require closure. It is never too late for people to come forward with any information they think may help this inquiry, even though the crime occurred 55 years ago. The investigation into this death remains open and we will not stop looking for the person or persons responsible.”
That’s absolutely true. It’s never too late to help Chris get some peace and his 17-year-old brother find justice, so anyone with information is asked to contact the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Unsolved Case Team on 01953 423819, or by emailing unsolvedcasereviews@norfolk.pnn.police.uk.
Keep pushing victims’ names!
Naming the murderers (officially) is important. Sure, in this particular case it’s somewhat obvious who were the perpetrators, but it’s still very important for the Police to point its finger at them publicly. And to keep searching for clues that might tie the unofficial murderers to the case. Naming the murderers publicly is a form of justice. This can bring some peace to Chris. So it’s important.
Oh, and you might think you have no power to help, but you’re so, so, SO wrong. You have the power to say the victim’s name. Every text like this is pushing the victim’s name back into the spotlight. You never know who might read your texts. Sometimes it’s the media. Some other times it’s people who are doing podcasts/videos and who can spread the victim’s story even further. Keep dropping names. Keep pushing for justice. It’s important.
***
Thank you for sticking with me until this point, I really appreciate it a lot!
Also, if you’re interested in reading more about this case or in seeing pictures from the scene, here are some articles (but please be aware that most of the articles contain the picture of Bernard’s head — I chose not to include this particular picture in my text because I didn’t feel it was the right thing to do):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Bernard_Oliver
http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-tattingstone-suitcase-murder-body.html
https://www.suffolklive.com/news/unsolved-murders-suffolk-police-still-5921690
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-suffolk-38527821
https://news.sky.com/story/chopped-up-and-placed-in-suitcases-mystery-of-teens-1967-murder-11463539
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/crime/suffolk-suitcase-murder-bernard-oliver-55-years-on-8623946
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-16217716
https://www.reddit.com/r/ColdCaseUK/comments/c3vcc2/the_tattingstone_suitcase_murder_the_unsolved/
