Latest / Crime and Horror / Mysterious notes led to a horror show - MrBallen

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Mysterious notes led to a horror show - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's story is about a family in England who were
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Speaker 1: living these totally ordinary lives. They were farmers, they were
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Speaker 1: just simple people, when in 1984, something really strange began
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Speaker 1: happening to them that basically turned their lives upside down,
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Speaker 1: like it was a complete nightmare. In fact, in many ways,
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Speaker 1: it was almost like they were living the plot of
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Speaker 1: a crazy detective novel, except it was real. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into today's story, if you're a fan of
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Speaker 1: today's story. On the morning of March 30th, 1984, a
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Speaker 1: 43-year-old dairy farmer named Graham Backhouse walked slowly across this
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Speaker 1: huge fenced-in field on his farm in Horton, England, carrying
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Speaker 1: along a bucket of cow feed. And Graham, like usual,
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Speaker 1: was exhausted from all the endless daily chores on this
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Speaker 1: farm that he was in charge of. Five years ago,
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Speaker 1: his father had died and he had inherited this farm.
1:36
Speaker 1: And so now he was, you know, taking over this
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Speaker 1: massive property with all these these animals and all these
1:42
Speaker 1: just daily chores. It was backbreaking work. And so it
1:45
Speaker 1: was like every day was a slog, just like today.
1:49
Speaker 1: But Graham was actually a terrible farmer. He did the chores.
1:54
Speaker 1: He did the things he was supposed to do every day,
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Speaker 1: but he did not know how to run this farm.
1:58
Speaker 1: And so over the last five years that he'd inherited
2:01
Speaker 1: the big family farm, he had basically run it into
2:04
Speaker 1: the ground because he just didn't know what he was doing.
2:07
Speaker 1: but he was sort of stuck because there was no
2:09
Speaker 1: one else to take over the farm. And so it's
2:10
Speaker 1: like every day he's doing all this backbreaking work and
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Speaker 1: the profit for the farm is dwindling lower and lower
2:17
Speaker 1: and lower. It's like he was just trapped in this
2:19
Speaker 1: vicious cycle that he didn't know how to get out of.
2:22
Speaker 1: But in some ways, what was even worse than that
2:24
Speaker 1: is that Graham never even wanted to be a farmer.
2:27
Speaker 1: I mean, as a kid, he grew up here on
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Speaker 1: this property and he watched his dad every day do
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Speaker 1: this labor and you know, work until the wee hours
2:35
Speaker 1: of the morning nearly every day. And he was an
2:37
Speaker 1: amazing farmer. He was amazing at taking care of this property,
2:41
Speaker 1: but Graham didn't want to do that. Like he knew
2:43
Speaker 1: he didn't. What he really wanted to do was be
2:46
Speaker 1: a writer. That's what his passion was. And so any
2:49
Speaker 1: chance he got as a kid, he was like, you know,
2:50
Speaker 1: writing things down, poetry, you know, journaling, whatever it was.
2:55
Speaker 1: But then his dad sort of suddenly died and he's
2:57
Speaker 1: handed the farm and it's the family legacy. And so
3:00
Speaker 1: here he was just sort of saddled with in a way,
3:02
Speaker 1: golden handcuffs, except he was destroying those handcuffs. There was
3:06
Speaker 1: no gold in them. It was about to be like
3:08
Speaker 1: an insolvent farm and it was all his fault. And
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Speaker 1: then on top of all the guilt and the shame
3:13
Speaker 1: and the embarrassment of how badly this was going, he
3:17
Speaker 1: also recently had begun getting into these heated disputes with
3:20
Speaker 1: his neighbors over the property lines. And so it's like
3:23
Speaker 1: all around him is just constant problems. And so now,
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Speaker 1: as Graham dutifully trudged through the field with his bucket
3:31
Speaker 1: of feed. His mind is swimming with all the other
3:33
Speaker 1: things he has to do that day. And as he's
3:36
Speaker 1: walking along, he sees something odd on one of the
3:39
Speaker 1: fence posts up ahead. And as he got closer to it,
3:42
Speaker 1: he began to hear this really loud buzzing of lots
3:44
Speaker 1: of flies in the area. And then finally, when he
3:47
Speaker 1: got up to the fence post, he saw why the
3:50
Speaker 1: flies were here. Because on the fence post, the thing
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Speaker 1: he saw was a severed lamb's head and the flies
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Speaker 1: were swarming all around it. And then before Graham could
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Speaker 1: process like why this lamb's head was here, which immediately
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Speaker 1: appeared to be intentional, it didn't seem like a lamb
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Speaker 1: had somehow gotten trapped here or something. Like somebody took
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Speaker 1: this head and put it here. He's sort of looking
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Speaker 1: around and he sees taped to the fence right nearby
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Speaker 1: is this piece of paper with a message on it.
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Speaker 1: And it was basically in all capital letters. And even
4:21
Speaker 1: from a distance, he could have been able to read it.
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Speaker 1: And it just said, you next. Now, of course, this
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Speaker 1: is like collectively a shocking scene. This is a very
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Speaker 1: obvious threat to Graham. Someone has placed these things here
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Speaker 1: to threaten Graham. But believe it or not, when Graham
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Speaker 1: saw the letter, not so much the lamb head, but
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Speaker 1: the letter, he sort of didn't breathe a sigh of relief.
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Speaker 1: Not at all. But he had actually gotten, over the
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Speaker 1: past couple of weeks, several other letters like this. So
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Speaker 1: this is just a continuation of something that's been going
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Speaker 1: on here. The animal head? That was new. That was
4:58
Speaker 1: a clear escalation here. But the letters, that had been happening.
5:01
Speaker 1: The notes had started around the end of the previous
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Speaker 1: month when one had arrived at his house by mail,
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Speaker 1: which had just directly threatened Graham. And then he and
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Speaker 1: his wife had gotten even more messages after that, and
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Speaker 1: all of them were threatening to hurt Graham and also
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Speaker 1: his family. Now, Graham had gone to the police and
5:19
Speaker 1: told them, and they had said, you know, do you
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Speaker 1: know anyone that Might want to hurt you guys. Do
5:23
Speaker 1: you have any enemies or anything? And Graham, like he
5:25
Speaker 1: wanted to say, oh, no, definitely not. But realistically, he
5:29
Speaker 1: knew probably over the course of his life in this
5:32
Speaker 1: small town. I mean, Horton is like this really small village.
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Speaker 1: There was a good chance that he might have made
5:37
Speaker 1: some people mad somewhere along the lines. You know, he
5:39
Speaker 1: wasn't perfect. But in his mind, he basically got along
5:42
Speaker 1: with everyone. And so he said, no, I don't think so.
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Speaker 1: But the police, after getting Graham's statement... They didn't really
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Speaker 1: do any investigating. From what Graham knew, they basically had
5:53
Speaker 1: just filed a report and called it a day. But now,
5:56
Speaker 1: as Graham is standing here by his fence and there's
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Speaker 1: this animal head here, again, this is like a clear escalation.
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Speaker 1: It's no longer just notes. We now have a dead
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Speaker 1: animal involved. This is like a real threat. So Graham,
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Speaker 1: at this point, is mad, feeling like the police really
6:12
Speaker 1: let him down. And he ripped the note off the
6:14
Speaker 1: fence and he headed back to his house to call
6:16
Speaker 1: the police again. Ten days later, on the morning of
6:19
Speaker 1: April 9th, 1984, Graham was inside one of his barns
6:23
Speaker 1: and he was milking a cow. And he had the
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Speaker 1: radio on and the music turned all the way up
6:27
Speaker 1: as he worked. Graham, ten days before, had called the
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Speaker 1: police and told them about the severed lamb head and
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Speaker 1: the note. And at this point, they said that they
6:35
Speaker 1: would actually start an investigation. But Graham had not heard
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Speaker 1: anything from them since they said that. But at the
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Speaker 1: same time, he also hadn't gotten any other threatening notes since.
6:45
Speaker 1: So even though Graham didn't feel like whatever was going
6:48
Speaker 1: on was over, he still felt like, you know, he
6:50
Speaker 1: and his family did need to find a way to just,
6:53
Speaker 1: you know, try to live their lives like normal because
6:55
Speaker 1: what else could they really do? And so today was
6:57
Speaker 1: just going to be a day where he and his
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Speaker 1: family just tried to go about their business as they
7:02
Speaker 1: normally would. The kids were at school and Margaret, his wife,
7:06
Speaker 1: had some errands to do in town and Graham was
7:08
Speaker 1: on milking duty. And today the cows were really lively
7:12
Speaker 1: and so they're mooing constantly in the music that Graham's
7:15
Speaker 1: playing is really loud. The barn is like just full
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Speaker 1: of noise. In fact, it was so noisy that Graham
7:22
Speaker 1: didn't hear the barn doors open up behind him. However,
7:25
Speaker 1: he did hear voices suddenly begin shouting inside the barn.
7:29
Speaker 1: And he turned around just as two locals that he
7:32
Speaker 1: recognized from his village charged into the barn, waving their
7:36
Speaker 1: arms frantically at him, telling him something. And so Graham,
7:38
Speaker 1: he lunges and turns off his radio and he turns
7:41
Speaker 1: to these locals and he said like, what, what's going on?
7:44
Speaker 1: And they told him like, your wife, she's been in
7:46
Speaker 1: this terrible accident. You need to come outside right now.
7:50
Speaker 1: And so Graham, he's shocked by what they're saying, but
7:52
Speaker 1: he's thinking like, I thought my wife was in town
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Speaker 1: running errands. Like, what do you mean come outside? And
7:58
Speaker 1: so he jumps up and he runs with the locals
8:00
Speaker 1: outside and he looks towards his house, the farmhouse, and
8:03
Speaker 1: he sees there's all this gray smoke curling up into
8:06
Speaker 1: the air. And so Graham sprints to his house. He
8:09
Speaker 1: runs around to the backside where the driveway is, where
8:12
Speaker 1: the smoke appears to be coming from. And as he
8:15
Speaker 1: turns the corner, he sees his car, and it's like
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Speaker 1: damaged in some way, and the smoke is definitely coming
8:20
Speaker 1: off the car. And he turns the corner fully, and
8:23
Speaker 1: he looks onto his front yard, and there, laying there
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Speaker 1: in a bloody heap, is his wife. And so Graham,
8:29
Speaker 1: he's just so shocked for a second, he's paralyzed. And
8:32
Speaker 1: then he turns, and he screams at the other two,
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Speaker 1: the locals, who had just told him about the accident.
8:37
Speaker 1: He yells for them to call the police, and then
8:40
Speaker 1: he runs for his wife. About 20 minutes later, Graham
8:54
Speaker 1: stood by his front steps with a police officer while
8:56
Speaker 1: a team of paramedics loaded his wife into an ambulance. Amazingly,
9:00
Speaker 1: despite her horrible injuries, especially to her legs, she was
9:04
Speaker 1: still alive. But Graham couldn't actually go with her to
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Speaker 1: the hospital right now because he had to give a
9:10
Speaker 1: statement to the officer. Because, it would turn out, there
9:14
Speaker 1: had been a bomb underneath one of the car seats
9:17
Speaker 1: in the car Graham's wife was driving... that had detonated
9:20
Speaker 1: and it nearly killed his wife. And so now they
9:23
Speaker 1: needed to figure out how the heck this happened. And
9:26
Speaker 1: so Graham needed to give a statement while the bomb squad,
9:30
Speaker 1: which was swarming his property, looked everywhere to make sure
9:33
Speaker 1: there weren't more bombs here. And so, of course, like
9:36
Speaker 1: Graham at this point is shocked. He's so worried about
9:39
Speaker 1: his wife. He doesn't really know the state of her injuries.
9:42
Speaker 1: You know, she was just kind of whisked away and
9:43
Speaker 1: he wasn't allowed to go with her. And so his
9:46
Speaker 1: mind is very occupied with his wife, but then also
9:50
Speaker 1: there was a part of him that was just furious.
9:52
Speaker 1: Like he had told the police about these threats to
9:55
Speaker 1: him and his family that had only really been escalating
9:58
Speaker 1: over the past several weeks. I mean, 10 days ago,
10:01
Speaker 1: there's that severed lamb head on his post with the words,
10:04
Speaker 1: you next. Like clearly this was getting worse and the
10:08
Speaker 1: police seem to have done nothing. And now here they
10:11
Speaker 1: are demanding he explained what happened. And so he's furious.
10:14
Speaker 1: And so Graham again reiterates to this officer that, that
10:18
Speaker 1: there had been all these threats to he and his
10:20
Speaker 1: family over the past several weeks. And really, it seemed
10:23
Speaker 1: like the threats had been directed at him. And he
10:25
Speaker 1: actually pointed out to the officer that the car that
10:28
Speaker 1: had the bomb in it that nearly killed his wife,
10:31
Speaker 1: that was actually his car. It was his Volvo. And
10:34
Speaker 1: his wife never drove that car. The only reason she
10:36
Speaker 1: was driving it today is because her car had an
10:39
Speaker 1: ignition issue. So this was like anomalous. that she was
10:42
Speaker 1: in the car. And so obviously the bomb was intended
10:46
Speaker 1: for him. And so as Graham is relaying all these
10:48
Speaker 1: details to this officer, they both start hearing all the
10:51
Speaker 1: shouting coming from sort of far away in the front
10:54
Speaker 1: of the property, like towards the front of the driveway.
10:57
Speaker 1: And they turn and they see a mailman has driven
11:00
Speaker 1: his van onto the driveway and is driving right up
11:03
Speaker 1: towards the house. And remember, this is now a crime
11:06
Speaker 1: scene and it's sort of a new crime scene. And
11:08
Speaker 1: there's all these officers everywhere and they haven't fully roped
11:11
Speaker 1: everything off yet. And this van is basically just driving
11:15
Speaker 1: up into the crime scene. And so all the officers
11:17
Speaker 1: down in front are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop.
11:20
Speaker 1: And they stopped the mailman who's like, what is going
11:23
Speaker 1: on here? And he's like, Hey, I just, I just
11:25
Speaker 1: have the mail for them. And he hands a stack
11:27
Speaker 1: of letters to one of the police officers who then
11:30
Speaker 1: tells the mailman to turn around and get out of here.
11:32
Speaker 1: And so he drives out of there. And then the
11:34
Speaker 1: officer with the mail comes up the driveway and And
11:37
Speaker 1: he hands it over to Graham. And so Graham has
11:40
Speaker 1: just told the officer, the guy he gave a statement to,
11:43
Speaker 1: about all these threats he's been getting and how he
11:45
Speaker 1: thinks it's all tied to this bomb. And wouldn't you
11:47
Speaker 1: know it, the letter sitting at the top of this
11:50
Speaker 1: stack of mail that he was just handed had very
11:52
Speaker 1: familiar handwriting on it. It looked just like all the
11:56
Speaker 1: other threatening letters that he and his family had gotten
11:59
Speaker 1: over the previous few weeks. And so Graham, he turns
12:03
Speaker 1: to the officer and he's like, I know. This is
12:06
Speaker 1: another threat. This envelope, it contains another threat for sure.
12:10
Speaker 1: And the officer, he's like, do not open it. We're
12:12
Speaker 1: going to take that. It's now evidence. 15 days later,
12:16
Speaker 1: on April 24th, Graham left his house and began walking
12:20
Speaker 1: down the road. And the fresh air was really helpful
12:23
Speaker 1: to Graham because right now he was feeling very anxious.
12:26
Speaker 1: Margaret miraculously had survived, but she was still in the hospital.
12:31
Speaker 1: She was still getting surgeries because, you know, the bomb
12:33
Speaker 1: had done quite a bit of damage to particularly her
12:36
Speaker 1: lower half. There was all this shrapnel that had been
12:38
Speaker 1: embedded in her legs and her hips. And so she'd
12:41
Speaker 1: be there for quite some time. As for the children,
12:44
Speaker 1: I mean, they were not affected directly by the bomb.
12:47
Speaker 1: But of course, they were, you know, so upset because
12:49
Speaker 1: their mom's been hurt and they're scared because of all
12:52
Speaker 1: these threats. Like, is there going to be another attack? Like,
12:55
Speaker 1: it was awful for them. And so Graham, you know,
12:57
Speaker 1: did his best to be strong for them, but it
12:59
Speaker 1: just didn't make sense to have them at the home
13:01
Speaker 1: with him. I mean, it was dangerous. They were scared
13:04
Speaker 1: all the time. So he had sent them to stay
13:06
Speaker 1: with his mother basically to keep them safe and keep
13:09
Speaker 1: them calm and sort of away from him until this
13:12
Speaker 1: whole thing sort of blew over or whatever this was
13:14
Speaker 1: until it ended. And so Graham is just stuck at
13:17
Speaker 1: this farm by himself, you know, basically spiraling 24-7 like
13:21
Speaker 1: he hates being here. He's always hated this farm. He
13:25
Speaker 1: resented the fact that he had to look after it
13:26
Speaker 1: and it was just going so badly. And now it's
13:28
Speaker 1: like he has an actual like active threat against him
13:32
Speaker 1: and his family. And his wife's almost been killed. Like
13:35
Speaker 1: life is just, it couldn't be worse right now. And
13:37
Speaker 1: then on top of that, you know, the police were
13:39
Speaker 1: clearly investigating what happened here and investigating these threats. But
13:44
Speaker 1: so far, Graham had not gotten any answers. Now, immediately
13:47
Speaker 1: following the bombing for like the few days that followed,
13:50
Speaker 1: The police gave Graham and his family around the clock
13:53
Speaker 1: physical protection because, again, there's like this active threat out there.
13:57
Speaker 1: But after a few days when nothing else happened and,
14:00
Speaker 1: you know, it was really, you know, taxing the police
14:02
Speaker 1: to be constantly monitoring this family, they throttled that back
14:06
Speaker 1: and instead just gave Graham a panic button that he
14:09
Speaker 1: could press in case he or his family had some
14:11
Speaker 1: emergency at the property. And so the police are gone
14:14
Speaker 1: and Graham just has this panic button. His wife's at
14:17
Speaker 1: the hospital. His kids are away. And he's just, again,
14:19
Speaker 1: stuck at this farm. And he's just so upset. He's
14:22
Speaker 1: so stressed out. And in this place, this mental place
14:26
Speaker 1: he's in where he's just wondering what's going to happen
14:28
Speaker 1: in the future, he began to think about who really
14:31
Speaker 1: would want to do this to him. Who could he
14:33
Speaker 1: really fixate on that would want to cause he and
14:35
Speaker 1: his family harm? And he actually came up with one
14:38
Speaker 1: suspect that began to make more and more sense the
14:41
Speaker 1: more he thought about them. His neighbor. Graham's neighbor was
14:45
Speaker 1: a guy named Colin. And in town, it was no
14:47
Speaker 1: secret that Graham and Colin didn't get along. primarily because
14:51
Speaker 1: they bickered over property lines. Now, Graham and Colin's arguments
14:56
Speaker 1: never actually escalated into violence, but Graham knew that sometimes
15:00
Speaker 1: their fights got really heated, and it seemed entirely plausible
15:04
Speaker 1: that Colin might want to exact some physical violence on Graham.
15:09
Speaker 1: And so now, Graham was actually walking over to Colin's house...
15:13
Speaker 1: And he was just going to talk to him because
15:15
Speaker 1: even though these two really didn't get along, like they
15:18
Speaker 1: were capable of speaking to each other. This was not
15:20
Speaker 1: totally unusual. And so his plan was he was just
15:23
Speaker 1: going to go over there and intentionally not bring up
15:27
Speaker 1: sort of like the elephant in the room here, which is,
15:29
Speaker 1: you know, the bombing and the threats and the ongoing
15:32
Speaker 1: criminal investigation. Graham was just going to go over there
15:36
Speaker 1: and basically just make his presence known and just sort
15:38
Speaker 1: of see how Colin reacted to him, see if he
15:41
Speaker 1: acted strange, see if he could pick up on any
15:44
Speaker 1: suspicious behavior by Colin. And so he turned the corner
15:47
Speaker 1: and he walks up Colin's driveway and Colin was actually
15:50
Speaker 1: out in front and Colin sort of turned and saw
15:52
Speaker 1: Graham and did not look pleased to see him. And
15:55
Speaker 1: he didn't walk up to greet him or anything. He
15:57
Speaker 1: just stood there staring at him. But Graham confidently strode
16:00
Speaker 1: up the driveway and he just started talking to Colin.
16:03
Speaker 1: And they had this sort of weird stilted conversation where
16:07
Speaker 1: neither man really wanted to see the other, but They
16:10
Speaker 1: really didn't talk about anything of substance. You know, Graham
16:13
Speaker 1: didn't really explain why he was there. They just had
16:15
Speaker 1: this weird small talk. And then they said their goodbyes
16:19
Speaker 1: and Graham turned and he walked away. And as Graham
16:22
Speaker 1: walked back to his property, it started to become more
16:25
Speaker 1: and more clear in his mind like how bizarre it
16:28
Speaker 1: was that in this conversation, which, you know, of course
16:31
Speaker 1: it was awkward. These guys don't get along. But how
16:33
Speaker 1: weird it was that Colin didn't ask why Graham had
16:37
Speaker 1: come over. He didn't bring up the bombing. He didn't
16:41
Speaker 1: ask about, you know, Graham's wife. He didn't ask about anything.
16:44
Speaker 1: It was like this weird, super neutral conversation. And for Graham,
16:49
Speaker 1: it just made Colin feel that much more suspicious. A
16:53
Speaker 1: few days later, on the night of April 30th, Graham
16:56
Speaker 1: was in his office inside of his farmhouse staring down
16:59
Speaker 1: at a blank notepad. Graham was trying to write because
17:02
Speaker 1: that used to be something he loved doing. But, you know,
17:06
Speaker 1: tonight he just couldn't be creative. I mean, no arrests
17:09
Speaker 1: had been made in this case. His wife was still
17:11
Speaker 1: at the hospital. His kids are still out with his mom.
17:14
Speaker 1: You know, no progress has been made on this case. Like,
17:16
Speaker 1: he still feels like there's this imminent threat out there.
17:20
Speaker 1: And also, the police had very recently interviewed Colin and
17:23
Speaker 1: nothing came of it. So it just sort of seemed
17:25
Speaker 1: like nothing was going on. But all the problems he
17:29
Speaker 1: had were still very much there. And so as Graham
17:32
Speaker 1: is sitting there feeling terrible... he hears this loud, sudden
17:35
Speaker 1: knocking on his front door. And immediately, you know, Graham's
17:39
Speaker 1: on edge. One, he wasn't expecting visitors. And two, really, generally,
17:44
Speaker 1: he didn't get guests, especially this late at night. And
17:47
Speaker 1: considering everything going on right now and the fact that
17:50
Speaker 1: no arrests have been made, I mean, he's fearful. He's paranoid. But,
17:55
Speaker 1: you know, he's here all alone. He can't just ignore
17:57
Speaker 1: the fact that somebody's here. And so very apprehensively, he
18:01
Speaker 1: gets up and he begins making his way out to
18:03
Speaker 1: the front door. When Graham was about to open the door,
18:06
Speaker 1: there was another pounding on the door, like whoever was
18:09
Speaker 1: out there was really eager to talk to him. And
18:11
Speaker 1: so Graham, like his pulse is racing, and he grabs
18:14
Speaker 1: the doorknob, he turns it, and he opens it. And
18:18
Speaker 1: the instant he saw who was standing out there, Graham
18:21
Speaker 1: knew he had to turn and run and press that
18:24
Speaker 1: panic button. Just a few minutes later, Detective Superintendent Tom
18:29
Speaker 1: Evans with the local police charged up the walkway of
18:32
Speaker 1: Graham's farmhouse with a team of officers right behind him.
18:35
Speaker 1: Evans was the lead investigator on Graham's case, like the
18:38
Speaker 1: entire ongoing threat and bomb case. And he'd been notified
18:42
Speaker 1: that the panic button that they had installed in the
18:44
Speaker 1: farmhouse had just gone off. So his team was responding
18:48
Speaker 1: to see if, you know, maybe the person or people
18:51
Speaker 1: who were targeting Graham and his family had struck again.
18:54
Speaker 1: When Evans got up to the front door, he tried
18:56
Speaker 1: the handle and found that it was open. So he
18:58
Speaker 1: opened the door and he announced that police were here
19:01
Speaker 1: and they were coming inside, but there was no answer.
19:04
Speaker 1: And so Evans and his team went inside. And pretty
19:07
Speaker 1: much immediately when he stepped inside, he saw a dead body.
19:11
Speaker 1: There was a man laying on his back in the
19:14
Speaker 1: hallway and his chest was covered in blood. However, when
19:18
Speaker 1: Evans approached him, he realized that this was not Graham.
19:22
Speaker 1: This was someone else. This man was much older than Graham.
19:25
Speaker 1: He was in his 60s, and at first he just
19:27
Speaker 1: had no idea who it was. But then after a second,
19:30
Speaker 1: Evans actually recognized him. It was Colin, Graham's neighbor, who
19:34
Speaker 1: they'd actually interviewed fairly recently during their investigation. Colin, in
19:39
Speaker 1: addition to having what appeared to be, you know, one
19:41
Speaker 1: or several gunshot wounds to the chest, was holding a
19:44
Speaker 1: knife in his right fist. Before Evans and his team
19:47
Speaker 1: could take note of anything else here, they began to
19:50
Speaker 1: hear moaning coming from the kitchen. So Evans told a
19:53
Speaker 1: few of his officers to stay with the body. And
19:55
Speaker 1: then Evans and another officer slowly made their way, you know,
19:59
Speaker 1: guns drawn into the kitchen to see what was going on.
20:02
Speaker 1: And when they turned the corner and looked into the kitchen,
20:04
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a bloody mess. There was blood
20:07
Speaker 1: really on everything, chairs, tables overturned. And then lying on
20:12
Speaker 1: the ground in the center of all the chaos, cradling
20:14
Speaker 1: a shotgun, was Graham Backhouse. And Graham was a mess.
20:18
Speaker 1: He was the one who was moaning. He had this
20:20
Speaker 1: just horrible knife wound on his face and he was
20:23
Speaker 1: bleeding profusely. And he also appeared to have a gash
20:26
Speaker 1: across his chest and also across his stomach. Evans and
20:29
Speaker 1: his partner, they run over to Graham and... And they
20:32
Speaker 1: kneel down next to him. And, you know, Graham, he's
20:34
Speaker 1: in rough shape. But he's clearly, you know, stable. He
20:36
Speaker 1: can talk. He's in a lot of pain. And Evans
20:39
Speaker 1: asks him, like, hey, what happened? And Graham, who, again, like,
20:43
Speaker 1: he's in quite a bit of physical pain here. So
20:45
Speaker 1: every time he speaks, he's sort of, like, gritting his teeth.
20:48
Speaker 1: But he was able to explain to Evans that he
20:51
Speaker 1: heard a knock on his door. He opened it up.
20:53
Speaker 1: And there's Colin, his neighbor. And it was unclear what
20:56
Speaker 1: he was doing here. And before long, the two men
20:59
Speaker 1: are getting in this argument. And then Graham said that
21:02
Speaker 1: Colin sort of inexplicably admitted that he was the one
21:06
Speaker 1: who planted the bomb. He was the one who was
21:08
Speaker 1: leaving all these threats. And then Graham, who was about
21:11
Speaker 1: to run and press the panic button, right before he did,
21:14
Speaker 1: he said Colin pulled out a knife and then started
21:17
Speaker 1: chasing after him. And at that point, Graham said he bolted,
21:20
Speaker 1: he grabbed his shotgun, he was able to get a
21:22
Speaker 1: shot off in self-defense, and then he did press the
21:25
Speaker 1: panic button. And he had no idea what happened to Colin,
21:27
Speaker 1: but he figured he was dead. The paramedics eventually arrived
21:39
Speaker 1: and it was determined that, you know, Graham's injuries were serious,
21:42
Speaker 1: but he would survive. However, he was still ushered out
21:45
Speaker 1: into an ambulance and brought to the hospital. And then
21:47
Speaker 1: after Graham was gone, the police once again roped off
21:51
Speaker 1: the farmhouse and began processing the scene, taking pictures of
21:54
Speaker 1: everything and collecting evidence. And then after they were done
21:57
Speaker 1: doing that, the police also went next door to Collins'
22:01
Speaker 1: property and roped that off and searched that as well
22:04
Speaker 1: to look for evidence. and they discovered under some leaves
22:08
Speaker 1: on his property was actually a piece of pipe that
22:11
Speaker 1: exactly matched the bomb that was used to blow up
22:14
Speaker 1: the car that nearly killed Margaret. So at this point,
22:17
Speaker 1: it seemed extremely likely that Colin really was the bomber.
22:22
Speaker 1: But over the next few days, as Evans and his
22:24
Speaker 1: team analyzed all the other forensics and items and photographs
22:28
Speaker 1: that they'd collected, they noticed something strange. And then they
22:32
Speaker 1: found another new piece of evidence that actually was even
22:36
Speaker 1: more damning and far more significant than that pipe that
22:40
Speaker 1: was found on Collins' property. This new evidence was just
22:43
Speaker 1: a very mundane, everyday object. However, this object told Evans
22:49
Speaker 1: that he and his team had gotten this entire case
22:52
Speaker 1: completely wrong. What was really going on here was like
22:57
Speaker 1: nothing Evans had ever experienced in his entire nearly 30-year
23:01
Speaker 1: law enforcement career. In fact, what was happening here was
23:05
Speaker 1: closer to something out of a detective novel. So Graham
23:09
Speaker 1: Backhouse really did love to write, and he had dreamed
23:12
Speaker 1: of being a writer. Specifically, he actually had wanted to
23:15
Speaker 1: write detective stories. And in some ways, over the last
23:19
Speaker 1: few weeks, during all this madness, he'd sort of done
23:23
Speaker 1: exactly that. Using his spiral notepad, he'd concocted a very over-the-top,
23:29
Speaker 1: exciting narrative full of twists and turns... and intrigue, and murder.
23:34
Speaker 1: Except the thriller that Graham was putting together, this detective story,
23:39
Speaker 1: was not all fiction. In fact, most of it was very,
23:42
Speaker 1: very real. It would turn out the threatening notes, the
23:47
Speaker 1: severed lamb's head, the bomb that nearly killed his wife,
23:51
Speaker 1: all of those were Graham's ideas. The farm, because of Graham,
23:56
Speaker 1: was in a lot of debt. So Graham took out
23:59
Speaker 1: a series of life insurance policies on his wife, and
24:02
Speaker 1: then planned to murder her with a bomb that he made.
24:06
Speaker 1: But before he did that, he wrote and planted a
24:09
Speaker 1: whole bunch of threatening notes around the property, and he
24:12
Speaker 1: mailed to himself. That way, police would think there was
24:15
Speaker 1: like this maniac on the loose that was after his family,
24:19
Speaker 1: and that Graham was nothing more than a victim. However,
24:22
Speaker 1: Margaret didn't die from the bomb, and Graham panicked. He
24:26
Speaker 1: worried that police would eventually realize it was him who
24:29
Speaker 1: planted the bomb, and so he decided he would frame
24:33
Speaker 1: his neighbor Colin as the fall guy, since it was
24:36
Speaker 1: widely known in the village that they didn't get along. Except,
24:39
Speaker 1: while Graham had managed to create a new twist, an
24:43
Speaker 1: outrageous turn in the storyline, unfortunately he was just as
24:47
Speaker 1: terrible at covering up his crime as he was at farming.
24:50
Speaker 1: Colin's murder scene had a whole bunch of evidence that
24:53
Speaker 1: clearly proved Graham had set the whole thing up. The
24:57
Speaker 1: blood spatter was completely off, And Graham had no defensive wounds.
25:01
Speaker 1: But the big clue that led the police to actually
25:04
Speaker 1: arresting Graham was his own spiral notepad. They'd found the
25:08
Speaker 1: notepad in Graham's office. And on one of the sheets
25:12
Speaker 1: was a very unique looking circular doodle that clearly Graham
25:15
Speaker 1: had drawn on it. And when he drew this doodle,
25:18
Speaker 1: the pen had made an impression on the sheets underneath it.
25:21
Speaker 1: And Graham had used some of those sheets underneath the
25:25
Speaker 1: doodle after he had done the doodle to to write
25:27
Speaker 1: those threatening notes. And so the police, they had those
25:31
Speaker 1: notes because, you know, Graham had been turning them over
25:34
Speaker 1: as evidence of this maniac. And they had previously noticed
25:37
Speaker 1: that on these notes, in addition to the letters, there
25:41
Speaker 1: appeared to be like an imprint on the piece of
25:43
Speaker 1: paper that was like a very unique doodle. And now
25:46
Speaker 1: they were staring at the original doodle on his notepad.
25:49
Speaker 1: And so that allowed them to directly link the threatening
25:52
Speaker 1: notes right back to Graham. Graham Backhouse was found guilty
25:55
Speaker 1: of murder and attempted murder and given two life sentences.
26:00
Speaker 1: He would die in prison of a heart attack in 1994.
26:08
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
26:11
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below.
26:13
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of Places You
26:16
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26:23
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, See ya.