You are not logged in
An unusual bonfire
After an evening of Guy Fawkes night firework festivities, at 2am on 6 November 1930, cousins Bill Bailey and Alf Brown were making their way home. They were heading towards the village of Hardingstone, south of Northampton, when they noticed a blaze, and at the same time met a stranger on the road who said: “I suppose someone’s got a bonfire”.
Bailey and Brown ran to the fire, which was a small car completely ablaze, with what looked like a body inside it. They ran for help.
A mistaken identity
Although the fire had caused much damage, the number plate of the car had survived. This quickly identified the owner as Alfred Arthur Rouse, from north London, and assuming it was his body in the car, his wife was asked to accompany the police to Northampton to identify it. However the body was unrecognisable.
Two days later it was obvious it wasn’t Rouse, as he turned up in London, having come down by coach. Police arrested him, and he gave a statement saying the person in the car was a hitchhiker he had picked up, that he didn’t know his identity, and that the man had accidentally set the car on fire while Rouse was relieving himself further down the road.
A callous and selfish act
Colonel Cuthbert Buckle, a well-known fire loss assessor, was also called in to investigate, and found the clues at the site of the Morris Minor pointed to a deliberate act of arson. Signs included a piece of cloth found on the victim which was soaked in petrol.
It transpired that womaniser Rouse had married bigamously and had several children by several different women. In an attempt to cash in on his life and car insurance he had deliberately tried to fake his own death by plying an innocent man with whisky, then strangling him and setting the body alight inside his car.
The man was never identified, and Rouse was found guilty of murder and hanged on 10 March 1931.
Suicide or murder?
The next case explored took place in 1933. Just before 8pm on 3 January 1933, smoke was seen billowing from a shed in a builders’ yard in Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London. When firemen arrived to extinguish the blaze they found the body of a man, seated on a tall chair in front of a high table.
Outside they found a suicide note signed ‘Furnace’ which read “Dear all. No money, no work, goodbye.” The premises had indeed been rented to a Samuel James Furnace, a self employed builder and contractor. His lodger identified his remains, and the case was almost closed.
