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John Frederick Stockwell (31 March 1915 - 14 November 1934) was an English murderer. He was executed for murdering Dudley Henry Hoard with an axe in 1934.
Early life
Stockwell was born in Manchester. His father, also named John Stockwell, was killed in November 1915 during the Gallipoli Campaign while serving with the Manchester Regiment. His mother died soon after and he spend the rest of his childhood and youth in various Salvation Army orphanages.
Bow Cinema murder
On the morning of 7th August 1934, cleaners arrived at the Eastern Palace Cinema in Bow Road, London and found the partially clothed body of the manager, Dudley Henry Hoard, with multiple wounds and fractures to the skull. Mrs Maisie Hoard was found alive but unconscious with a wound to her head. After being taken to hospital, she described the attacker as a young man of about 19 years old. The following day police found a bloodied axe in a storage room behind the stage. A bloody thumbprint, identified as being made by somebody other than Hoard, was found on one of the walls.
On 10 August, police in Lowestoft received a letter confessing to killing Hoard at 7.40am on 7th August. It was signed J.F. Stockwell. John Stockwell, a 19-year-old employee at the Eastern Palace Cinema, had not been suspect as 7th August was his day off. Stockwell's clothes, wristwatch, Post Office savings book, and an apparent suicide note were found on a Lowestoft beach later that day. However, holidaymakers had spotted a young man placing the clothes on the beach and notified police when news of the confession letter was made public.
On 11th August, a young man fitting Stockwell's description checked into Metropolitan Hotel in Great Yarmouth under the name J.F. Smith. He aroused the suspicion of the hotel manager as "Smith" had given his address as Luton, Hertfordshire even though Luton is in Bedfordshire. Yarmouth police arrested the man who confessed to being Stockwell.
Stockwell was charged with murder and brought before the Thames Magistrates' Court on 13th August. He did not enter a plea and was remanded until 21st August.
At his next appearance he admitted to stealing £90 from the cinema takings and hiding it in a suitcase on the premises. On the morning of 7th August he arrived at the cinema claiming to have left some personal money there the night before, and asked Hoard if he could look for it. When Stockwell tried to retrieve the case, Hoard tried to stop him. Stockwell then hit Hoard several times with an axe he had concealed under his coat. Mrs Hoard came to investigate the noise. Stockwell hit her once before hiding the axe and fleeing with the money.
On 22 October 1934, Stockwell formally pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. He was sentenced to death by hanging and executed at HM Prison Pentonville on 14 November.
References
- Arthur B. Smith (1959). Lord Goddard: my years with the Lord Chief Justice. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 79.
- Steve Fielding (2013). Hanged at Pentonville. The History Press. p. 60. ISBN 075095339X.
- Metropolitan Police Office (1934), MEPO 3/896: Murder and robbery of Dudley Henry Hoard by John Frederick Stockwell at Eastern Palace Cinema, E.3, The National Archives