The Walsall Tennis Club Murder

By David Eric Weaver

The book is very loosely based on the Dorothy Mills Case. She was savagely bludgeoned to death at a Tennis Club in West Bromwich in 1961.Our story starts with Barbara Raynor awakening on that fateful day; she was so full of life & soon started to plan out her day. She was due to meet the her lover during that evening time. Firstly she took her dog Sammy out for a walk. She told he parents that she was going to meet a girl from work later in the evening. & that they would probably go to the Cinema. She was hiding another secret from her parents; this was more serious because she was pregnant.Barbara left the house at 6pm to meet up with John Sidaway on the car park behind the hotel near home. He told her that he wanted Barbara to meet a woman. But would not elaborate on that & drove to Shellfield. They went into ah house in Barns Lane. Come in & sit down you can call me Miriam. Love backstreet abortion is still illegal here in England. I don't want you to waste lots of cash on a Harley Street Doctor, for him to say that you were mad & it had to be taken away for your own sanity. You must keep quiet about this I don't want to get 10 years penile servitude. How old are you miss? I am 32 years old. The procedure does carry some risk. It will cost ?250 in cash mind. I don't want to murder my baby; I am a good girl & believe in the bible. This is a different age that we live in now you are getting to old to have a baby & don't want a deformed child do you. Barbara was very upset & ran out of the house & away up the road. She was lost & decided to go back to the car. John drove them to his factory they went into his office to have a quiet talk. The time was seven fifteen. It got a bit heated with passages of the bible being bandied about. John had to remain at the factory to speak to two of his maintenance Engineers. Barbara left to take a bus home alone at seven forty five, promising to ring him later at eight thirty. She sat in the hotel bar drinking a vodka & lime, whilst chewing slowly on some complementary peanuts. Can I buy you a drink my love? No I am alright this one is enough for me. Well it is eight thirty now best get it over with. She rang but none answered her call. She was just about to put it down then someone picked it up. Oh yes I understand but I am sorry my love he has left, I saw him drive off myself. I am the security guard you see & I heard the phone as I was doing my rounds. She left by the back door in the hope that John would be waiting in the car park. Someone grabbed her from behind; she stumbled forwards & hit her head knocking her unconscious. Her attacker panicked & dragged her though some bushes, to some Tennis Courts. It was desolate & deadly quiet no one was around. He started to undress her, but she came round. It's you I will get the police. He dad to keep her quiet or someone will come and see him. He got her around the neck to make her quieter, but went too far she was dead, stone dead. In a mad rush he covered her body which lay near a small shed, with an old large timber gate that had been stacked nearby. He went to is room that in the hotel nearby. He washed & changed, thinking he would have to get rid of these soiled clothes somehow.Detective Chief Supt Peter Halsall Head of Staffordshire CID was alerted to this crime. He subsequently had a meeting with Colonel H.E. Gilliam the Chief Constable of Staffordshire. They duly agreed to seek the help of Scotland Yard in handling the investigation that was to follow.It was just after 6pm on Saturday 21st January 1961 on a cold dreary night looking like it could snow anytime, when 32-year-old Barbara left her home for what was to be the last time. Barbara had told her mother & father that she was going out to the cinema. It was less than 24 hours before the body of Miss Raynor was found. She had been battered & strangled to death then dumped & covered by a gate panel in the grounds of Walsall Tennis Club.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1091978050
• ISBN13: 9781091978058
• Release Date: March 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"