The Gussage Murder
| Published date | 01 October 1939 |
| Author | Frank Elmes |
| Date | 01 October 1939 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3901200418 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Gussage Murder
By
DETECTIVE-SERGEANT
FRANK
ELMES
Dorset
Constabulary
THAT
"murder
will
out"
is no doubt a fallacy perpetuated
in this country by the similar,
but
by no means identical,
fact that when murder does out it seldom escapes detection.
Perhaps the most amazing feature of the Gussage murder
case was
that
in a small village of some 160 souls an empty
grave in a plantation was discovered, a woman disappeared,
the grave found to have been filled in, and yet a month was
allowed to pass before anything was done to connect these
sinister events. Whispering there was in plenty, stealthy
hints passed from one villager to another,
but
not one word
was said to a person in authority. One wonders whether, in
view of the struggle
truth
had to reach the light in this case,
there are not many unrevealed cases especially in the towns,
where life is more complex and relations with one's neighbours
more impersonal.
Gussage St. Michael's is a
"truly
rural"
village in
North
East Dorset, and in
1913
it was almost completely isolated.
The
nearest railway station was seven miles away, and the
main link with the rest of the world was a motor-bus which
ran to Blandford
and
Dorchester twice a week.
This
remote village was squired by a family named
Good, of whom there were three sisters and two brothers.
These people employed anumber of the villagers on their
farm, Manor Farm, and among their employees was William
Walter Burton, age 29, whose job it was to trap rabbits
and
do odd jobs about the house and farm. Burton was married
to a highly respectable woman twelve years older than himself,
and there was one child, a boy aged five. Mrs. Burton was
post-mistress and school-teacher, so that the standard of living
of the Burtons was higher
than
that
of the ordinary farm-
labourer's family.
The
marriage was reasonably happy,
but
Burton had
a very bad reputation as a
"lady's
man."
Unconfirmed
5°7
To continue reading
Request your trial