In the early hours of 02 June 2010, taxi driver Derrick Bird, 52, left his home in the West Cumbria village of Rowrah armed with a licenced George Fisher 12 bore shotgun and a CZ 452 bolt-action .22 rifle and a supply of ammunition for both weapons. The rifle was fitted with a scope and a sound moderator. Derrick Bird was a troubled and frustrated man who embarked on a murderous slaughtering gun rampage killing innocent people face to face and tormenting an entire region for hours. The outcome of the official inquiry concluded that all the reasonable and workable gun control measures that apply to legal licence holders were in place and nothing could have anticipated this horror. His debacle wasn’t a moment of madness it was considered that Bird had planned the initial phases but the later stages had descended into a random slaughter.
How could this rampage in 2010 have anything in common with the Essex White House Farm Murders in 1985? The beginning and end of each horror are joined with similarities. Both perpetrators had used .22 rifles and they shared an ability to prepare and operate them.
Both Derrick Bird and Jeremy Bamber had legitimately used the weapons for what they were legally procured and licensed for, shooting small game and vermin. Jeremy Bamber however, despite serving 35 years in prison still insists that he is innocent of the crimes he was convicted for.
The sequence of events in White House Farm had seen the perpetrator murder 5 people but undoubtedly the most difficult and robust victim was 61 year old farmer, Nevill Bamber who was initially shot in his own bed but had managed to get out and put up a fight. He was found slumped in his downstairs kitchen with 8 bullet wounds in his head, face and torso, further blunt force injuries to his head and face, defence wounds on his arm and his pyjamas tangled around his lower body.
Derrick Bird’s first victim was his twin brother and farmer, David Bird. Derrick Bird had driven from his cottage in Rowrah to his brother’s property in Lamplugh, High Trees Farm, just 3 miles away. His brother lived alone. He had easily entered the property, local attitudes to security were apparently relaxed in these close communities. Regardless of this Derrick Bird knew the way into his brother’s house and knew where to find him. He shot his brother 11 times with the CZ .22 rifle. David Bird received wounds to his face, head and torso. When he was discovered there was signs of a struggle, David Bird was found semi dressed on the floor of his bedroom, his dog lying next to him. The fact that he had been shot 11 times would suggest that Derrick Bird had loaded the rifle with one round in the chamber as well as the 10 round capacity magazine.
Derrick Bird’s .22 rifle was a bolt-action CZ 452, it was fed by a 10-round detachable magazine. Being bolt-action it was single shot, the firer needing to lift the bolt to unlock it, move it rearwards to eject the spent cartridge and re-cock the hammer, then move it forwards to pick up another round from the magazine and fed it into the breech. Closing and locking the bolt would have the weapon ready to fire again. Practise and familiarity would enable the firer to perform this action quickly, but it was nevertheless slower than the .22 semi-auto 525 Anschutz used in White House Farm.
Derrick Bird had left the scope on his rifle which would have made it more awkward to use at close range in a confined space during his initial attack. The White House Farm weapon was found to have had the scope removed because it wasn’t going to be used outside and at longer ranges.
The Anschutz performed the recycle and reload process by the action of blowback. That is a portion of the recoil energy distributed by the explosive force of the cartridge propellent moving the bolt rearwards and automatically performing the physical actions required of the bolt action. The non-shooting fraternity sometimes interpret this as meaning it is so simple to use but fail to realise the firer must prepare the weapon to perform and deal with stoppages which can be more complex. Derrick Bird went on to kill another 11 victims and injure 11 with both the CZ rifle and the shotgun.
Finally, in the early afternoon in the wake of police pursuits and a diabolical real-life version of Grand Theft Auto Bird took his own life in Oak How Woods near the village of Boot. Witnesses had seen him abandon his Citroen Picasso and walk into the woods carrying the rifle. Bird had turned the weapon on himself and killed himself with a single shot to the forehead. The police found the weapon with 8 rounds still in the magazine.
Bird’s suicide, the straightforward manner in which he executed himself with a single shot, dismissively leaving ammunition in the rifle was in stark contrast to the scene in White House Farm. Sheila Caffell, Jeremy Bamber’s sister, who was initially considered to have perpetrated the murders and then her own suicide was found with two bullet wounds in her neck. A further round had not been cycled into the chamber because after the second shot there were no additional rounds in the magazine. This is very curious and immediately suggests that Sheila Caffel might have taken care to leave the weapon ‘safe’ after she took her own life. It is utterly ridiculous and even those who have concluded and remain convinced that this was a murder/suicide outcome have never commented on it.
Her killer failed with the first round and loaded another single bullet into the rifle to conclude it. He would have been better to have left the rifle with more rounds in the magazine and an automatic recycled round in the breech. Somewhat less safe for whoever was destined to find Sheila Caffel’s body with a loaded and made ready firearm lying across her but nevertheless far more realistic if the purpose was to convince investigators of a suicide.
CnP from above…Nevill Bamber who was initially shot in his own bed but had managed to get up and put up a fight. He was found slumped in his kitchen with 8 bullet wounds in his head, face and torso, further blunt force injuries to his head and face, defence wounds on his arm and his pyjamas tangled around his lower body.
Yet Jeremy Bamber didn’t have a mark on him?
Hi Eddie. You’re right but why would he. His sister didn’t either.
Have you viewed this?…..https://www.richplanet.net/richp_genre.php?ref=205&part=1&gen=1
Thanks for your comments Eddie. I’ve communicated with Richard Hall about the Cumbria shootings and sat in on two of his presentations. I make it my business to see it from all perspectives; whatever I think of them.
ive commented on this case once before. My belief being that J.B has been in some ways fitted up for a crime he is guilty of. This happened to me, i was guilty of 2 robberies i went to jail for. The evidence used to extract a confession from me was evidence that did not exist, it was fabricated. i was as i have said guilty, and in my case found doing my time, a case of dont do the crime if you cant do the time. So as i have said before, i have no beef with the constabulary that so craftily extracted a confession. It happens.
I am not a fool. We need a correct and decent legal system, with guilt proved beyond reproach. However….
The question of ‘silencer used or not’ has in this case become convoluted beyond words, have has most aspects of this case. Firstly, assuming a silencer was used, and then removed from the gun after the killings, ae you SERIOUSLY telling me Jeremy would have then placed it in a cupboard in the house? After such meticulous calculating he would have disposed of the silencer elsewhere. Secondly, 5 dead bodies and the police never found the silencer at the time? Seriously ? They found it 2 weeks later. I think the silencer was placed by the police as things became more apparent to them.
Not much is said about Julie Mugford. We have all been jilted in our lives. It hurts, sometimes we might even get vindictive or spiteful about it, but to concoct a story that has had a man incarcerated for his entire natural life, my god, they say ‘hell has no fury’, but this, this would make her evil beyond words. Its my understanding that she has gone on to lead a constructive family life, probably mortified at herself for the kid she was. It would take a cool calculating psycopath to give evidence sending a man to jail for life for 5 murders he did not commit. All worked out alone, in her own vindictive head, cool as a cucumber, because she was jilted? I simply cant see it. Jeremys defence would have torn her to pieces at the trial. The reason she was believed is because it was truth.
Another HUGE anomaly in peoples perception of this case is Nevilles supposed call saying that his daughter had gone beserk with a gun. This supposed call was made to jeremy, never to any police officer. If there is some ambiguity in what was written in a hurried fashion on police notebooks on a night in 85, then jeremy will of course exploit that to the full. The only person who is saying that neville said that sheila had gone beserk was Jeremy. No police officer spoke to Neville bamber that night.
Human error on hurried police notes is something for J.B to hang on to, and he is exploiting it to the max.
In any case, criminal or not, the balance of probabilities needs to be considered. Its why jury’s deliberate, its why mistakes are made, its also why in the vast quantity of cases are correct in verdict.
Sheila was a mentally ill, slightly built, slim young woman. The manner in which the killings were executed was not the behaviour of someone fitting her physical or mental profile at the time.
Jeremy on the other had was gun savvy, young, fit and capable.
Balance of probability.
No gun residue on Shelia’s hands ? How is that possible? She shot herself twice?
The expert knowledge from the host of this site on rifles and their uses and application i found to be both expert and understandable. A manic slightly built woman, off her head with mental illness, does not miss a shot, re-loads with ease, and whilst all this is going on her father finds the time not to phone the emergency services, but to phone his son??? He was making phone calls to jeremy while his daughter slaughtered her own kids and his wife?
Come on.
I find Jeremy Bamber to be arrogant beyond words . He tried to sell nude pictures of his dead sister to the press as dispite his windfall, cash flow meant he was prepared to cash in any way he could.
People who believe this guy is innocent should focus on what they are saying. Shelia could not have done this. Not physically or mentally. Colin Cafell made the point, had she done it, shes have died with the sons.
Is this a miscarriage of justice????
Yes. Insofar as, evidence is badly collated. Evidence is confused, convoluted, misinterpreted and exploited by J.B to show failings in the investigation.
No. Insofar as he clearly did it, the alternative is too incredible for belief.
Shelia was neither physically or mentally capable of such precise executions.
He was.
Well said. Excellent summary and agree with you completely apart from one point which is that it was relatives not the police that found the silencer.