When we hear the term “cold case”, this usually applies to a case that has been cracked wide open by new advances in forensic technology. But every now and then, a cold case can be solved by complete accident. Especially when the forensic technology at hand is, well, entirely non-existent.
Around 5 o’clock, on a warm afternoon in June of 1806, reverend George Parker, Rector of Oddingley, in the county of Worcestershire, England, was taking a stroll through a field. He had every intention of fetching his herd of cattle, when he was suddenly stopped in the middle of the field.
An unknown figure, wearing a thick leather coat, then raised a gun, and shot reverend Parker, point-blank, in the stomach. The shot was heard throughout the entire town.
Two butchers happened to be passing by, and saw the leather-coated figure fleeing from the body. They also noticed that the reverend had been shot at such a close range, his clothes had nearly caught fire. They were still smoking when they approached his body.
The men quickly alerted the authorities. At the time, were was no police force in the area. The closest thing to law enforcement that Oddingley had were appointed justices of the peace, who investigated the murder as best they could.
The justices interviewed the butchers, and surmised that the reverend’s murderer had been Richard Heming. Heming had been a local man, known for doing odd jobs for low pay. He had no known connection to reverent Parker, making the murder all the more mysterious.
A search occurred in order to find Heming, but it was as though he vanished out of thin air. Rumours began to spread through the tight-knit community that he had fled to America to avoid prosecution.
With no sign of the alleged murderer, the official verdict in regards to the murder of reverend George Parker had to be ruled as a ‘murder by person unknown’.
That very well could have been the end of it. A fleeing murderer, and a dead vicar. Had it not been for an accidental discovery, 24 years later.
In 1830, Charles Burton had bought some farmland, which had been left decaying after the murder of reverend Parker in 1806.
On a cold winter’s day in January, Charles was digging up the foundations of a barn, indenting to rebuild it from the ground up. He expected to bring up dirt, mud, and some old debris. But that wasn’t all he found.
First, he came up with a shoe, which was soon followed by some bones, and then some fabric. Charles realized very quickly that he’d uncovered a human corpse, and ran to alert the authorities.
The following day, the justices of the peace began their official investigation. They laid out the objects which had been uncovered, as well as the bones.
The skull had been particularly messy. It had been beaten in many places, and they could tell that whomever this was, they had suffered an extremely brutal death.
It didn’t take long for the authorities to identify the body’s belongings. This body was undeniably that of presumed escaped murderer Richard Heming.
At the time of Heming’s disappearance, another farmer had held the lease of the farmland on which his body was found. Thomas Clewes was very quickly found, and arrested.
As he sat in prison, Clewes was very quick to confess. He told the authorities that he had, indeed, witnessed Heming’s murder. He even went so far as to name the killers – three other local farmers. These farmers had been in dispute with the reverend George Parker for some time. And as such, both murders were intricately connected.
As stated in medieval law, the income of the local parson, or vicar, was provided either in tithe, or in an annual payment.
A tithe was rendered when local farmers would provide the parson with a tenth of their produce. If an annual payment was rendered, the payment would be the sum of the worth of the aforementioned tenth of produce.
By 1806, the collection of tithes was greatly out of practice, with most parsons accepting monetary payment instead. However, the monetary payment in sum had been set for many decades in Oddingley, and was found to be well below the level of value of one tenth of the farmers’ crops. When George Parker arrived, a few years before the events of 1806, he sought to rectify this. Immediately.
Parker demanded that the payment amounts be increased. When the farmers refused, Parker invoked his right to collect the tithes instead.
Captain Evans, a retired army official, local magistrate, and owner of Church Farms, had been furious. He did not want to accept these tyrannical conditions. After years of Parker abusing his station, he gathered those who felt similarly – Thomas Clewes, John Barnett, and George Banks. Together, they paid Richard Heming £50 to murder the reverend George Parker.
Clewes told the authorities that the day following the murder, Evans had come to him, and told him that he needed to keep a man hidden in his barn. Clewes was wary, but ultimately sheltered Heming. Evans then informed Clewes to meet up with them at the barn that evening, at 11 o’clock.
When he arrived, Evans walked into the barn with another man, named James Taylor, who was carrying a ‘heavy club-like instrument’, known as a ‘blood stick’. This instrument’s usual use was to let blood from horses. It was not to be trifled with.
In the barn, Clewes watched in horror as Evans called out: “Get up, Heming. I have got something for thee”. As Heming rose from his hiding spot, Taylor swung the blood stick around, and smashed Heming in the head, killing him instantly.
They buried the body of Richard Heming hastily, assuming that it would never be found.
In 1830, Thomas Clewes, John Barnett, and George Banks (the surviving members of the conspiracy) were put on trial, and expected to hang.
However, a few legal technicalities threw those expectations right out the window.
As the law dictated in 1806, at the time of both murders, the three men could have been considered “accessories” to the murder of reverend George Parker, with Richard Heming being tried as the “principal”, as he was the shooter.
Clewes, Barnett, and Banks could only be charged if Heming, himself, was also charged for his participation in the crime. Heming, however, was dead.
When the trial was taking place between 1830 and 1831, this law had been changed. However, that change was not retroactive – meaning, the change did not apply to cases that had occurred prior to the date that the new law was put in place.
Further complicating matters was the fact that the man who had orchestrated the entire murderous affair, Captain Evans, was also dead.
As a result, the three men could not be charged, or tried, for the murder of reverend George Parker.
Clewes was then charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Richard Heming. This case persisted with the same issues: Taylor, the principal perpetrator, was dead.
The case was also paid no favours due to the amount of time that had passed between both murders, and the time of the trial. Memories were faulty, and many witnesses were confused over the intricacies of the laws, and how they’d changed.
Clewes’ defence argued vehemently that his confession should be inadmissible.He had been promised a royal pardon by an inexperienced magistrate, which had been done in error.
When this argument was rejected, it was then argued that if the confession was to be accepted, it had to be accepted in its entirety. To accept the confession in its entirety meant accepting that Clewes had no knowledge that Heming was to be murdered, and had not participated in the murder itself.
Therefore, the charges against Thomas Clewes wouldn’t hold up in a court of law.
The jury found the legal technicalities of the case confusing, and initially declared a verdict of “guilty as accessory after the fact”, which was not a what Clewes had been charged with.
The judge rebuked them, in which they reconsidered, and found Clewes not guilty of the charge of aiding and abetting in February of 1831.
While it was accepted that Thomas Clewes, John Barnett, and George Banks had conspired with Captain Evans to have reverend George Parker killed, they had no knowledge, and had not participated in the murder of Richard Heming at the hands of James Taylor.
The three men were released, and returned to their everyday lives.
The release of the three farmers was celebrated in Oddingley. They saw the murder of reverend George Parker as a solution to a problem that had plagued the community as a whole, and did not mourne his loss.
As for what happened to Richard Heming? It seemed that no one really had a care for the man who did their dirty work, and then paid for it with his life.
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Sources:
The Oddingley Murders – author unknown – Oddingley Church History
The Oddingley Church Murders – Hugh Williams – Mysteries of Merica
CRIME FILES: Worcestershire reverend and his murderer were killed – Mike Pryce – Worcester News
The Historical Crimes and Criminals Podcast – The Odd Oddingley Double Murders
The Oddingley Murders Wikipedia page