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The prosecution case was strong and Mahon's defence flimsy. Patrick Mahon was found guilty of murder and was hanged on Wednesday September 3, 1924.
Sir Bernard Spilsbury carried out the routine post-mortem on Mahon’s body, one of the twenty five thousand or so he was to perform in his long career. But the Mahon murder case held special significance for him.
He later described it as his most challenging case, and after the Mahon investigation, as a result of his influence, detectives were properly equipped to deal with whatever awaited them at the scene of a murder; the 'Murder Bag' was born.
A poison pen, a bomb and murder
The second crime explored this episode is a tale of poison pen letters, a bomb and murder, and is one of the most complex crimes of recent years.
On 30 April 1984 an alarm rang out at a police station near Horton, a village in the west of England. The alarm was connected to nearby Whidden Hill Farm, home of Graham Backhouse a local farmer who had been given police protection following a hate campaign against him.
Police rushed to the farm where they were confronted by a horrific scene. According to Backhouse it was a case of attempted murder by Bedale-Taylor, and Backhouse had acted in desperate self defence, resulting in him shooting Bedale-Taylor with his shotgun.
What transpired was a callous and cold-hearted crime.
Money at the root of evil
Backhouse's wife was horrifically injured in a car bomb incident in the weeks prior to the murder, and Backhouse blamed Beadle-Taylor for this. In his police testimony, Backhouse told how Bedale-Taylor had called round at 7.30pm on the night of the murder to repair a wooden chest, but then he had suddenly gone mad.
Admitting that he had planted the car bomb because Backhouse had caused the car crash that killed his son, he had then attacked Backhouse with a Stanley knife. Backhouse described how he had fought off Bedale-Taylor before running to his hall to fetch a gun. As Bedale-Taylor caught up with him still wielding the knife, he shot him.
At trial is became clear that Backhouse had weaved a web of lies, and had in fact attempted to kill his own wife and frame Bedale-Taylor in order to claim his wife’s life insurance payout, in order to cover his mounting business debts.
Only through astute forensic work could the police find the conviction they needed. And find it they did: Backhouse was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment and died in prison in 1994.
