Donald Neilson: Difference between revisions

Line 9:

He was also bullied because of his short stature, five feet six inches.

According to David Bell and Harry Hawkes, Nappey bought a taxi business from a man named Neilson and decided to use that name instead of the former.~~~~ An alternative theory, proposed by a lodger, Miss Lena Fearnley, who stayed with the Neilson family in the early 1960s, is that Neilson took the name from an ice-cream van from which he and Irene often bought ice-cream for their daughter. Miss Fearnley told the BBC in an interview that he told her, "I like that name."~~~~

According to David Bell and Harry Hawkes, Nappey bought a taxi business from a man named Neilson and decided to use that name instead of the former. An alternative theory, proposed by a lodger, Miss Lena Fearnley, who stayed with the Neilson family in the early 1960s, is that Neilson took the name from an ice-cream van from which he and Irene often bought ice-cream for their daughter. Miss Fearnley told the BBC in an interview that he told her, "I like that name."

==Turn to crime==

A jobbing builder in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford Bradford], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Yorkshire West Yorkshire], Neilson turned to crime when his business failed. It is believed he committed over 400 house burglaries without detection during his early days of crime. Before he became notorious as The Black Panther he was sought under a variety of nicknames such as The Phantom and Handy Andy. To confuse the police, he adopted a different modus operandi every few weeks. For example he would steal a radio from each house and abandon it nearby then when that pattern of behaviour was established he would drop it and do something else. Proceeds from simple housebreaking were low however and after stealing guns and ammunition from a house in Cheshire he upped his criminal activity which resulted in him turning to robbing small post offices. Neilson committed eighteen such crimes between 1971 and 1974.~~~~ His phobia about dogs meant that he avoided post offices with guard dogs.

A jobbing builder in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford Bradford], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Yorkshire West Yorkshire], Neilson turned to crime when his business failed. It is believed he committed over 400 house burglaries without detection during his early days of crime. Before he became notorious as The Black Panther he was sought under a variety of nicknames such as The Phantom and Handy Andy. To confuse the police, he adopted a different modus operandi every few weeks. For example he would steal a radio from each house and abandon it nearby then when that pattern of behaviour was established he would drop it and do something else. Proceeds from simple housebreaking were low however and after stealing guns and ammunition from a house in Cheshire he upped his criminal activity which resulted in him turning to robbing small post offices. Neilson committed eighteen such crimes between 1971 and 1974. His phobia about dogs meant that he avoided post offices with guard dogs.

His crimes became progressively more violent as he sought to protect himself from occupants prepared to put up a resistance to defend their property. In February 1972 he gained entry to a sub-post office in Rochdale Road, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heywood,_Greater_Manchester Heywood], Lancashire during the night. Leslie Richardson, the postmaster, and his wife woke to find a hooded man in their bedroom. Richardson leapt out of bed to tackle the intruder while his wife phoned the police. During the struggle, Neilson showed Richardson his sawn off shotgun and snapped in a West Indian accent, "This is loaded." Mr Richardson saw that the gun was pointing up at the ceiling and there was no danger of anyone being shot. He snapped back, "We'll find out if it's loaded," and pulled the trigger himself blasting two holes in the ceiling. The fight continued and Richardson managed to pull Neilson's black hood off to reveal not the West Indian he had expected but a white man with dark staring eyes. Neilson then stamped mercilessly on Richardson's feet breaking several toes and kneed him in the groin. As Richardson collapsed on the floor, Neilson made his escape empty handed. Richardson gave police a description of his masked intruder which turned out to be inaccurate in many respects.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-Summers-5 ]Several other photofits of Neilson were similarly unhelpful to the police but one, made by sub postmistress Margaret Grayland, was extremely accurate.

His crimes became progressively more violent as he sought to protect himself from occupants prepared to put up a resistance to defend their property. In February 1972 he gained entry to a sub-post office in Rochdale Road, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heywood,_Greater_Manchester Heywood], Lancashire during the night. Leslie Richardson, the postmaster, and his wife woke to find a hooded man in their bedroom. Richardson leapt out of bed to tackle the intruder while his wife phoned the police. During the struggle, Neilson showed Richardson his sawn off shotgun and snapped in a West Indian accent, "This is loaded." Mr Richardson saw that the gun was pointing up at the ceiling and there was no danger of anyone being shot. He snapped back, "We'll find out if it's loaded," and pulled the trigger himself blasting two holes in the ceiling. The fight continued and Richardson managed to pull Neilson's black hood off to reveal not the West Indian he had expected but a white man with dark staring eyes. Neilson then stamped mercilessly on Richardson's feet breaking several toes and kneed him in the groin. As Richardson collapsed on the floor, Neilson made his escape empty handed. Richardson gave police a description of his masked intruder which turned out to be inaccurate in many respects.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-Summers-5]Several other photofits of Neilson were similarly unhelpful to the police but one, made by sub postmistress Margaret Grayland, was extremely accurate.

==Turn to murder==

Neilson's first three murders occurred in 1974. He shot dead two sub-postmasters and the husband of a sub-postmistress as well as brutally battering sub-postmistress Margaret 'Peggy' Grayland in post office robberies. He killed Donald Skepper in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrogate Harrogate] in February 1974,~~~~ Derek Astin of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxenden Baxenden] near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington Accrington] in September 1974, and Sidney Grayland in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Langley,_West_Midlands&action=edit&redlink=1 Langley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_%28county%29 West Midlands] during November 1974.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-BBCa-3 [3]] The Baxenden murder gained Neilson the nickname The Black Panther when, during an interview with a local television reporter, Astin's wife, Marion, described her husband's killer as "so quick, he was like a panther". Alluding to the killer's dark clothing, the enterprising reporter ended his piece by asking "Where is this Black Panther?" and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubriquet soubriquet] stuck. The Whittle case made him Britain's most wanted man in the mid-1970s and the kidnapper was irrefutably linked to the post office shootings when he shot security guard Gerald Smith six times while checking a ransom trail and forensics showed the bullets were fired from the same .22 pistol that was used to shoot Derek Astin and Sidney Grayland.

Neilson's first three murders occurred in 1974. He shot dead two sub-postmasters and the husband of a sub-postmistress as well as brutally battering sub-postmistress Margaret 'Peggy' Grayland in post office robberies. He killed Donald Skepper in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrogate Harrogate] in February 1974, Derek Astin of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxenden Baxenden] near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington Accrington] in September 1974, and Sidney Grayland in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Langley,_West_Midlands&action=edit&redlink=1 Langley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_%28county%29 West Midlands] during November 1974.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-BBCa-3 [3]] The Baxenden murder gained Neilson the nickname The Black Panther when, during an interview with a local television reporter, Astin's wife, Marion, described her husband's killer as "so quick, he was like a panther". Alluding to the killer's dark clothing, the enterprising reporter ended his piece by asking "Where is this Black Panther?" and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubriquet soubriquet] stuck. The Whittle case made him Britain's most wanted man in the mid-1970s and the kidnapper was irrefutably linked to the post office shootings when he shot security guard Gerald Smith six times while checking a ransom trail and forensics showed the bullets were fired from the same .22 pistol that was used to shoot Derek Astin and Sidney Grayland.

==Kidnap and murder of Lesley Whittle==

Lesley Whittle (1957–1975) was a 17-year-old girl and was Neilson's youngest victim. Whittle was the daughter of noted coach transport business owner George Whittle, who had left his entire fortune to his second wife and their children, Ronald and Lesley. After reading about a family dispute over George's will, and three years of planning, on 14 January 1975 Neilson entered the Whittle family home in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highley Highley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shropshire Shropshire], and kidnapped Lesley from her bedroom.

Line 31:

He ordered them to drive to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blidworth Blidworth], six miles away and told them not to look at him. This presented PC Mackenzie with a problem. Gently he explained to the gunman that they were going the wrong way and he would have to turn the car round. The gunman agreed but warned both officers if there were any tricks they would both be dead. As they were driving along Southwell Road the gunman asked if they had any rope. As White pretended to look, Mackenzie reached a junction in the road. Turning the steering wheel violently one way then the other, he asked,"which way, left or right"? causing the gunman to look toward the road ahead. White saw the gun drop a few inches and realised this was his chance; he pushed the gun forwards and Mackenzie stamped on the brake. They screeched to a halt outside The Junction Chip Shop in Rainworth. The gun went off, grazing White's hand. MacKenzie fell out of the driver's seat, banging his head on the road. He staggered to his feet and ran towards the fish and chip shop screaming for help. Two men, Roy Morris and Keith Wood, ran from the queue outside the chip shop and helped overpower Neilson. Wood subdued the gunman with a karate chop to the neck before Morris grabbed his wrists and held them for White to snap the handcuffs on. The locals attacked him so severely that in the end the police had to protect him.

They hauled Neilson to iron railings at the side of a bus stop and handcuffed him there before calling for back-up, and when they found two panther hoods on him, they realised that they had probably caught the most wanted man in the U.K. In the subsequent investigation, Neilson's fingerprints were found to match one of those in the drain shaft. In the interview at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidsgrove Kidsgrove] police station when he confessed to the kidnap of Whittle, Neilson gave an 18-page statement to DCS Harold Wright, head of Staffordshire CID, and Commander Morrison of Scotland Yard, with the statement handwritten by DCI Walter Boreham.~~~~

They hauled Neilson to iron railings at the side of a bus stop and handcuffed him there before calling for back-up, and when they found two panther hoods on him, they realised that they had probably caught the most wanted man in the U.K. In the subsequent investigation, Neilson's fingerprints were found to match one of those in the drain shaft. In the interview at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidsgrove Kidsgrove] police station when he confessed to the kidnap of Whittle, Neilson gave an 18-page statement to DCS Harold Wright, head of Staffordshire CID, and Commander Morrison of Scotland Yard, with the statement handwritten by DCI Walter Boreham.

==Trial and conviction==

During his trial at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford Oxford] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Court Crown Court], Neilson's defence lawyer Gilbert Gray QC contended that Lesley Whittle had accidentally fallen from the ledge and had hanged herself, and that Neilson had fed her chicken soup, spaghetti and meatballs, and bought her fish and chips and chicken legs. These claims were contested by the prosecution as lies. Neilson had provided his victim with a sleeping bag designed to prevent hypothermia, mattresses, survival blankets, survival bags, a bottle of brandy, six paperback books, a copy of the Times, the magazines Vogue and Home, a small puzzle and two brightly coloured napkins. These items were found in the shaft, and in the subterranean canal running below it, by the police. While on remand, Neilson was interviewed by a forensic psychiatrist, Dr Hugo Buist Milne. Dr Milne's examination found no evidence of insanity. The psychiatrist told the defence team, "I've examined him and he's the classic psychopath of all time." After the case Milne said he was convinced of Neilson's truthfulness when he said he had not murdered Lesley Whittle. However, his claims that the other four deaths were accidental were dismissed by the psychiatrist as excuses for aggressive behaviour. Neilson's defence team, solicitor, Barrington Black, junior counsel, Norman Jones and leading counsel Gilbert Gray all remained convinced of their client's innocence of murder in the Whittle case believing his conviction was simply a reflection of public opinion, a backlash of the publicity given to the hunt for the kidnapper and killer and that he should have been convicted only of the lesser charge of manslaughter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-8 [8]]

Line 51:

==Death==

In 2008, Neilson was diagnosed with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_neurone_disease motor neurone disease], a progressive and fatal condition.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-12 [12]] He was taken from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich_%28HM_Prison%29 Norwich Prison] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_and_Norwich_University_Hospital Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital] in the early hours of 17 December 2011 after developing breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead the following day

[[Category:List]]

[[Category:Murderer]]

~~[[Category:Deceased Villains]]~~

[[Category:Robbers]]

[[Category:Imprisoned Villains]]

[[Category:~~List~~]]

[[Category:Deceased Villains]]

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 He was also bullied because of his short stature, five feet six inches.
-According to David Bell and Harry Hawkes, Nappey bought a taxi business from a man named Neilson and decided to use that name instead of the former.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"></sup> An alternative theory, proposed by a lodger, Miss Lena Fearnley, who stayed with the Neilson family in the early 1960s, is that Neilson took the name from an ice-cream van from which he and Irene often bought ice-cream for their daughter. Miss Fearnley told the BBC in an interview that he told her, "I like that name."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BBCa_3-0"></sup>
+According to David Bell and Harry Hawkes, Nappey bought a taxi business from a man named Neilson and decided to use that name instead of the former. An alternative theory, proposed by a lodger, Miss Lena Fearnley, who stayed with the Neilson family in the early 1960s, is that Neilson took the name from an ice-cream van from which he and Irene often bought ice-cream for their daughter. Miss Fearnley told the BBC in an interview that he told her, "I like that name."
 ==Turn to crime==
-A jobbing builder in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford Bradford], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Yorkshire West Yorkshire], Neilson turned to crime when his business failed. It is believed he committed over 400 house burglaries without detection during his early days of crime. Before he became notorious as The Black Panther he was sought under a variety of nicknames such as The Phantom and Handy Andy. To confuse the police, he adopted a different modus operandi every few weeks. For example he would steal a radio from each house and abandon it nearby then when that pattern of behaviour was established he would drop it and do something else. Proceeds from simple housebreaking were low however and after stealing guns and ammunition from a house in Cheshire he upped his criminal activity which resulted in him turning to robbing small post offices. Neilson committed eighteen such crimes between 1971 and 1974.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"></sup> His phobia about dogs meant that he avoided post offices with guard dogs.
+A jobbing builder in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford Bradford], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Yorkshire West Yorkshire], Neilson turned to crime when his business failed. It is believed he committed over 400 house burglaries without detection during his early days of crime. Before he became notorious as The Black Panther he was sought under a variety of nicknames such as The Phantom and Handy Andy. To confuse the police, he adopted a different modus operandi every few weeks. For example he would steal a radio from each house and abandon it nearby then when that pattern of behaviour was established he would drop it and do something else. Proceeds from simple housebreaking were low however and after stealing guns and ammunition from a house in Cheshire he upped his criminal activity which resulted in him turning to robbing small post offices. Neilson committed eighteen such crimes between 1971 and 1974. His phobia about dogs meant that he avoided post offices with guard dogs.
-His crimes became progressively more violent as he sought to protect himself from occupants prepared to put up a resistance to defend their property. In February 1972 he gained entry to a sub-post office in Rochdale Road, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heywood,_Greater_Manchester Heywood], Lancashire during the night. Leslie Richardson, the postmaster, and his wife woke to find a hooded man in their bedroom. Richardson leapt out of bed to tackle the intruder while his wife phoned the police. During the struggle, Neilson showed Richardson his sawn off shotgun and snapped in a West Indian accent, "This is loaded." Mr Richardson saw that the gun was pointing up at the ceiling and there was no danger of anyone being shot. He snapped back, "We'll find out if it's loaded," and pulled the trigger himself blasting two holes in the ceiling. The fight continued and Richardson managed to pull Neilson's black hood off to reveal not the West Indian he had expected but a white man with dark staring eyes. Neilson then stamped mercilessly on Richardson's feet breaking several toes and kneed him in the groin. As Richardson collapsed on the floor, Neilson made his escape empty handed. Richardson gave police a description of his masked intruder which turned out to be inaccurate in many respects.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Summers_5-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-Summers-5  ]</sup>Several other photofits of Neilson were similarly unhelpful to the police but one, made by sub postmistress Margaret Grayland, was extremely accurate.
+His crimes became progressively more violent as he sought to protect himself from occupants prepared to put up a resistance to defend their property. In February 1972 he gained entry to a sub-post office in Rochdale Road, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heywood,_Greater_Manchester Heywood], Lancashire during the night. Leslie Richardson, the postmaster, and his wife woke to find a hooded man in their bedroom. Richardson leapt out of bed to tackle the intruder while his wife phoned the police. During the struggle, Neilson showed Richardson his sawn off shotgun and snapped in a West Indian accent, "This is loaded." Mr Richardson saw that the gun was pointing up at the ceiling and there was no danger of anyone being shot. He snapped back, "We'll find out if it's loaded," and pulled the trigger himself blasting two holes in the ceiling. The fight continued and Richardson managed to pull Neilson's black hood off to reveal not the West Indian he had expected but a white man with dark staring eyes. Neilson then stamped mercilessly on Richardson's feet breaking several toes and kneed him in the groin. As Richardson collapsed on the floor, Neilson made his escape empty handed. Richardson gave police a description of his masked intruder which turned out to be inaccurate in many respects.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Summers_5-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-Summers-5]</sup>Several other photofits of Neilson were similarly unhelpful to the police but one, made by sub postmistress Margaret Grayland, was extremely accurate.
 ==Turn to murder==
-Neilson's first three murders occurred in 1974. He shot dead two sub-postmasters and the husband of a sub-postmistress as well as brutally battering sub-postmistress Margaret 'Peggy' Grayland in post office robberies. He killed Donald Skepper in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrogate Harrogate] in February 1974<sup>,</sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYP_6-0"></sup> Derek Astin of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxenden Baxenden] near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington Accrington] in September 1974, and Sidney Grayland in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Langley,_West_Midlands&action=edit&redlink=1 Langley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_%28county%29 West Midlands] during November 1974.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BBCa_3-1">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-BBCa-3 [3]]</sup> The Baxenden murder gained Neilson the nickname The Black Panther when, during an interview with a local television reporter, Astin's wife, Marion, described her husband's killer as "so quick, he was like a panther". Alluding to the killer's dark clothing, the enterprising reporter ended his piece by asking "Where is this Black Panther?" and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubriquet soubriquet] stuck. The Whittle case made him Britain's most wanted man in the mid-1970s and the kidnapper was irrefutably linked to the post office shootings when he shot security guard Gerald Smith six times while checking a ransom trail and forensics showed the bullets were fired from the same .22 pistol that was used to shoot Derek Astin and Sidney Grayland.
+Neilson's first three murders occurred in 1974. He shot dead two sub-postmasters and the husband of a sub-postmistress as well as brutally battering sub-postmistress Margaret 'Peggy' Grayland in post office robberies. He killed Donald Skepper in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrogate Harrogate] in February 1974<sup>,</sup> Derek Astin of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxenden Baxenden] near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington Accrington] in September 1974, and Sidney Grayland in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Langley,_West_Midlands&action=edit&redlink=1 Langley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_%28county%29 West Midlands] during November 1974.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BBCa_3-1">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-BBCa-3 [3]]</sup> The Baxenden murder gained Neilson the nickname The Black Panther when, during an interview with a local television reporter, Astin's wife, Marion, described her husband's killer as "so quick, he was like a panther". Alluding to the killer's dark clothing, the enterprising reporter ended his piece by asking "Where is this Black Panther?" and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubriquet soubriquet] stuck. The Whittle case made him Britain's most wanted man in the mid-1970s and the kidnapper was irrefutably linked to the post office shootings when he shot security guard Gerald Smith six times while checking a ransom trail and forensics showed the bullets were fired from the same .22 pistol that was used to shoot Derek Astin and Sidney Grayland.
 ==Kidnap and murder of Lesley Whittle==
 Lesley Whittle (1957–1975) was a 17-year-old girl and was Neilson's youngest victim. Whittle was the daughter of noted coach transport business owner George Whittle, who had left his entire fortune to his second wife and their children, Ronald and Lesley. After reading about a family dispute over George's will, and three years of planning, on 14 January 1975 Neilson entered the Whittle family home in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highley Highley], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shropshire Shropshire], and kidnapped Lesley from her bedroom.
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 He ordered them to drive to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blidworth Blidworth], six miles away and told them not to look at him. This presented PC Mackenzie with a problem. Gently he explained to the gunman that they were going the wrong way and he would have to turn the car round. The gunman agreed but warned both officers if there were any tricks they would both be dead. As they were driving along Southwell Road the gunman asked if they had any rope. As White pretended to look, Mackenzie reached a junction in the road. Turning the steering wheel violently one way then the other, he asked,"which way, left or right"? causing the gunman to look toward the road ahead. White saw the gun drop a few inches and realised this was his chance; he pushed the gun forwards and Mackenzie stamped on the brake. They screeched to a halt outside The Junction Chip Shop in Rainworth. The gun went off, grazing White's hand. MacKenzie fell out of the driver's seat, banging his head on the road. He staggered to his feet and ran towards the fish and chip shop screaming for help. Two men, Roy Morris and Keith Wood, ran from the queue outside the chip shop and helped overpower Neilson. Wood subdued the gunman with a karate chop to the neck before Morris grabbed his wrists and held them for White to snap the handcuffs on. The locals attacked him so severely that in the end the police had to protect him.
-They hauled Neilson to iron railings at the side of a bus stop and handcuffed him there before calling for back-up, and when they found two panther hoods on him, they realised that they had probably caught the most wanted man in the U.K. In the subsequent investigation, Neilson's fingerprints were found to match one of those in the drain shaft. In the interview at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidsgrove Kidsgrove] police station when he confessed to the kidnap of Whittle, Neilson gave an 18-page statement to DCS Harold Wright, head of Staffordshire CID, and Commander Morrison of Scotland Yard, with the statement handwritten by DCI Walter Boreham.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Telg8060030_7-0"></sup>
+They hauled Neilson to iron railings at the side of a bus stop and handcuffed him there before calling for back-up, and when they found two panther hoods on him, they realised that they had probably caught the most wanted man in the U.K. In the subsequent investigation, Neilson's fingerprints were found to match one of those in the drain shaft. In the interview at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidsgrove Kidsgrove] police station when he confessed to the kidnap of Whittle, Neilson gave an 18-page statement to DCS Harold Wright, head of Staffordshire CID, and Commander Morrison of Scotland Yard, with the statement handwritten by DCI Walter Boreham.
 ==Trial and conviction==
 During his trial at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford Oxford] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Court Crown Court], Neilson's defence lawyer Gilbert Gray QC contended that Lesley Whittle had accidentally fallen from the ledge and had hanged herself, and that Neilson had fed her chicken soup, spaghetti and meatballs, and bought her fish and chips and chicken legs. These claims were contested by the prosecution as lies. Neilson had provided his victim with a sleeping bag designed to prevent hypothermia, mattresses, survival blankets, survival bags, a bottle of brandy, six paperback books, a copy of the Times, the magazines Vogue and Home, a small puzzle and two brightly coloured napkins. These items were found in the shaft, and in the subterranean canal running below it, by the police. While on remand, Neilson was interviewed by a forensic psychiatrist, Dr Hugo Buist Milne. Dr Milne's examination found no evidence of insanity. The psychiatrist told the defence team, "I've examined him and he's the classic psychopath of all time." After the case Milne said he was convinced of Neilson's truthfulness when he said he had not murdered Lesley Whittle. However, his claims that the other four deaths were accidental were dismissed by the psychiatrist as excuses for aggressive behaviour. Neilson's defence team, solicitor, Barrington Black, junior counsel, Norman Jones and leading counsel Gilbert Gray all remained convinced of their client's innocence of murder in the Whittle case believing his conviction was simply a reflection of public opinion, a backlash of the publicity given to the hunt for the kidnapper and killer and that he should have been convicted only of the lesser charge of manslaughter.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-8 [8]]</sup>
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 ==Death==
 In 2008, Neilson was diagnosed with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_neurone_disease motor neurone disease], a progressive and fatal condition.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson#cite_note-12 [12]]</sup> He was taken from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich_%28HM_Prison%29 Norwich Prison] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_and_Norwich_University_Hospital Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital] in the early hours of 17 December 2011 after developing breathing difficulties and was pronounced dead the following day
+[[Category:List]]
 [[Category:Murderer]]
-[[Category:Deceased Villains]]
 [[Category:Robbers]]
 [[Category:Imprisoned Villains]]
-[[Category:List]]
+[[Category:Deceased Villains]]