Editing Alfred Rouse

{{Villain Infobox
|Image = Alfred Rouse.jpg
|fullname = Alfred Arthur Rouse
|alias = The Blazing Car Murderer
|origin = London, England, U.K.
|occupation = Commercial traveller
|hobby = Seducing women<br>Playing tennis
|goals = Fake his death (failed)
|crimes = [[Murder]]<br>Bigamy
|type of villain = Murderer}}
'''Alfred Arthur Rouse''' (6 April 1894 - 10 March 1931) was a British murderer responsible for the so-called "Blazing Car Murder" in 1970, in which he was convicted of murdering an unidentified man in an attempt to fake his death so that his wife could claim £1000 in life insurance. DNA analysis has so far failed to identify Rouse's victim.

==Biography==
Rouse was born in London in 1894. He and his two siblings were raised by an aunt, as his mother left in 1900 and his father had little time for his children. He served in the British Army during [[World War I]], but was only stationed for ten weeks in 1915 before being injured by a shell blast during the Battle of Festubert, leaving him with shrapnel in his head and leg. His injuries left him unable to bend his knee and suffering from oedema, necessitating that he be discharged and given a weekly pension of 25 shillings. His pension was ultimately terminated in 1920 after a medical examination found his head injury had healed.

Rouse began playing tennis in an attempt to regain his mobility. He took several jobs, eventually settling on a job as a commercial traveller for a Leicester-based sales firm in 1929. This allowed him to travel all over the country, which he used to conduct affairs with a number of women. This lead to several child support orders being served against him and Rouse bigamously marrying at least three women. With two other women pregnant and demanding marriage, Rouse began looking for a way out. After reading reports of the murder of a Scottish barmaid, Rouse decided to escape and ensure the financial safety of his lawful wife by faking his death so his wife could claim a £1000 life insurance policy.

===Blazing Car Murder===
On 2 or 3 November 1930, Rouse sought out a man of the same build as him who he had met at the Swan and Pyramid Pub the day before and who had informed him "I've got no-one in the world who cares as I live or die". He told him that on 5 November he was travelling to the Midlands and would be able to secure him a job. According to Rouse's later confession, he selected 5 November because it was [[Guy Fawkes]] Night and so a fire would not be noticed very much.

At approximately 1:50 am on 6 November, two men returning from a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire near the town of Northampton saw a fire in the distance. They came upon a man carrying an attaché case coming from the opposite direction, who remarked "It looks like someone is having a bonfire up there" before hurriedly departing up the main Northampton-London road. The two men approached the fire, only to find it was a burning Morris Minor Traveller. The village constable was summoned and helped to extinguish the fire, discovering a charred corpse in the front. An autopsy determined that the victim had been alive but unconscious when the fire started and had died of smoke inhalation. It was also discovered that the vehicle's carburettor had been loosened so that petrol flowed freely through the car, indicating that the fire was deliberate. The number plate of the car was intact, allowing the police to establish that it belonged to Alfred Rouse, whose wife had not seen him since he left to go to the Midlands on 5 November. A national appeal was released asking for the man the revellers had encountered to come forward.

However, unbeknownst to the police, the suspect was Alfred Rouse. Shortly after the encounter with the two men he had hitchhiked back to London to meet with one of his various mistresses, Phyllis Jenkins, who observed that he smelled of petrol and his eyebrows appeared slightly singed. He claimed that his car had been stolen, denying that the car found burned on 6 November was his when it was reported the following day. Suspicious, Jenkins informed police and Rouse was arrested. Upon being detained he gave a rambling statement claiming that the victim was a drunk hitchhiker who had accidentally dislodged the carburettor and set the car on fire with a cigar while Rouse was urinating in the bushes. Rouse was charged with "murder of an unknown man" at Northampton Assize Court.

Rouse continued to insist the fire was accidental, with his defence producing an engineer who testified that excessive heat in a burning car could have loosened the carburettor and so Rouse's story, while unlikely, was technically possible. However, Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Dr. Eric Shaw, who had performed the victim's autopsy, both testified that the victim had been clubbed over the head before the fire, likely with a mallet found near the scene, showing he was unconscious and could not have started the fire himself. Spilsbury also testified that the few fragments of the victim's clothes not destroyed in the fire were doused in petrol, which both the prosecution and the defence claimed supported their theory. Two other witnesses, a vehicular expert and a a government fire inspector, both testified that the carburettor had been deliberately loosened and could not have been detached accidentally. Rouse testified in his defence, but was not a convincing witness; he was forced to admit that details of his version of events, such as where the hitchhiker was picked up, varied from telling to telling, and was unable to explain why he had lied about his car being stolen, why Phyllis Jenkins had smelled petrol on him and noticed he had singed eyebrows shortly after the murder or how the carburettor could have been deliberately loosened. The jury deliberated for only 25 minutes before unanimously finding him guilty.

Rouse was hanged at Bedford Gaol on 10 March 1931. Shortly before his execution, he made a full confession in which he admitted that he had knocked the victim out, loosened the carburettor and burned the car with the victim still inside. He had intended to catch a train to London, but after the two young men saw him he realized they would be able to identify him and so returned to London with a hastily concocted story about his car being stolen. The victim has never been identified; nine potential victims have been ruled out via DNA testing.
[[Category:List]]
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[[Category:Modern Villains]]
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[[Category:Execution]]
[[Category:Liars]]
[[Category:United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Villains of World War 1]]
[[Category:Dimwits]]
[[Category:Arrogant]]