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Lawrence Gribben

Age: 29

Sex: male

Date: 5 Sep 1958

Place: 395 Newport Road, Middlesbrough

Lawrence Gribben was found dead in his carpet shop on the night of Friday 5 September 1958.

He had been coshed and stabbed to death.

It was thought that Lawrence Gribben's murderer was seen by a woman that walked in to the shop almost immediately after the murder and had spoken to the murderer whilst Lawrence Gribben was lying on the floor, in sight of her, just behind the counter area.

He was discovered by his mother who went to the shop when Lawrence Gribben didn't come home for tea. She said that when she arrived that she found the door unlocked and Lawrence Gribben inside lying in a pool of blood amongst some carpets in the back room of his shop.

He had extensive facial injuries and had been stabbed in the back four times.

It was thought that he had been stabbed with a stiletto type knife. The police said that following an appeal that dozens of knives were handed in, but that none of them were of the sort thought to have been used to kill Lawrence Gribben.

The police said that they thought that he had put up some resistance and that her killer might have received some minor injuries.

They also said that they thought that he had been murdered during the evening rush hour. It was noted that his shop was only a few yards from the Newport bridge over the River tees where it was said thousands of cars would have been passing at that time.

It was noted that his shop till had been ransacked and that the amount of money missing was not known, but that it was thought to have been large. The drawer used as a till was found on a chair full of bloodstained papers but no money.

Two of Lawrence Gribben's pockets had also been turned out and the money that he had on him was also gone.

However, it was also thought that the murderer might have only got away with a small amount of money as it was said that the till only contained a few pounds as most of Lawrence Gribben's business was through club tickets and he was said not to have been in the habit of carrying large sums of money about.

The police later said that they thought that it was possible that Lawrence Gribben had been murdered by a customer who owed him money and it was reported that on Saturday 6 September 1958 that detectives were making door-to-door checks on the steel town's debtors.

It was also reported that the police had not overlooked the possibility that it had been a 'vengeance' killing.

It was later noted that Lawrence Gribben had acquaintances amongst show people and the police questioned all fairground workers in the north east. It was also noted that at the time of the murder there had been a fair in progress on Newport Common about half-a-mile away.

The police said that they were looking to interview a man with the following description:

  • Aged 30 to 35.
  • About 5ft 9ins tall.
  • Thin-build.
  • Dark, untidy hair.
  • Thought to be wearing a dark brown suit and open-neck shirt.

The man had been seen in the shop by a woman, a middle-aged factory worker, who went to the shop on the Friday evening. She said that when she went in the man told her that Lawrence Gribben was not well and asked her to call back. She said that the man had stepped out from behind the stacked rolls of rugs and carpets and said, 'Can you call back tomorrow? The boss is ill' and then pointed behind the counter where she could see the legs of a man lying on the floor.

The man was also reported as a consequence, as having had an iron nerve. In another account, the man was said to have said to the woman that saw him, whilst pointing to Lawrence Gribben as he lay on the floor behind the counter, 'Mr Gribben has had a fit. Please call back later'.

She said that after that that she left the shop and went into the shop next door to tell someone what she had seen but said that it was full of customers and so she took the bus home.

She said, 'When I got off I met my daughter and told her what had happened'. She later said, 'When she said it might have been a murder, I told her not to say things like that. But when I got home and thought about it I was worried. I never told my husband because I thought he would think I was silly. But at midnight Police came and told me Laurie had been stabbed to death and they had reached me through the ticket I had handed in'.

Lawrence Gribben's body was found two hours later after the woman saw him at about 8pm by his mother.

It was noted that whilst the woman was in the shop that she had handed in a ticket which the police later used to trace her.

The woman that had seen the man in the shop was described in the newspapers as 'Mrs X' and a 'young housewife', and it was reported that detectives had put a cloak of secrecy around her in order to protect her as she could identify the killer and it was reported that the police were refusing to say where she lived and that they had arranged for her to be guarded night and day.

The police were also said to have been trying to trace an elderly man that was thought to have been in the shop at 4.30pm on 5 September 1958. The police said that they thought that the man might be able to help them considerably and that they were anxious to trace him.

A time table of events relevant to the murder was published:

  • 2.40pm: Lawrence Gribben's brother leaves him in the shop.
  • 3.50pm: A bus conductress called at the shop and said that she saw a rough looking man aged about 40 talking to Lawrence Gribben just inside the vestibule. She said that she heard the man say, 'You can't', to Lawrence Gribben. She said that Lawrence Gribben had not wanted to talk to her and that the man shut the door in her face.
  • 4.30 - 4.45pm: Lawrence Gribben was seen talking to a man between these times. The man was described as an outdoor type, possibly a gypsy, a hawker or a fairground worker with a lined, rough face. The police said that they thought that the man might have been the same man seen by the bus conductress.
  • 4.45pm: A  woman called at the shop but found the sliding door between the vestibule and the shop blocked by carpets dislodged from a display.
  • 5pm: A person living in a nearby flat saw Lawrence Gribben standing on his shop doorstep.
  • 5.20pm: The middle-aged factory worker went to the shop to discuss a carpet purchase and was met by a youngish looking man with dishevelled hair and a bleeding ear who asked her to call back the following day and ushered her out. She additionally said that as she was being ushered out that she saw Lawrence Gribben's legs sticking out from some rolls of carpet in the backroom.
  • 8pm: Lawrence Gribben was found by his mother after she got worried and went to his shop after he failed to come home.

Lawrence Gribben was single and had lived with his brother and mother in a house in Cunningham Street, Middlesbrough, about a quarter of a mile from the shop.

He had started the carpet business, dealing in soft furnishings, about three years earlier under the name of 'Laurie's'. He was described as a quiet, church-going shop owner.

When the police made a statement on 10 September 1958 a detective said, 'I feel we have not had all the assistance that the local people can give. It is clear that there is somebody here who knows more about this than they have told us already'.

It was later reported on Monday 15 September 1958 that the police made another blistering attack on people that they claimed were holding back information, saying, 'It is so very plain to us that there are a lot of people who were in the vicinity of the shop where the murder took place between the times material in this case. It is rather disgusting that they should not have come forward'.

The police said that they were interested in interviewing anyone who had been near the shop between 4.30pm and 5.30pm.

The police said that they were carrying out house-to-house enquiries and would cover the whole of Middlesbrough and if necessary, would go farther afield.

It was reported that many landladies had come forward and made statements to the police following an appeal  for information about anyone that had left their home or lodgings hurriedly over the weekend.

The police questioned a 21-year-old man that they had brought to Middlesbrough in connection with the murder from Bingley in West Riding for several hours at their police HQ, but little more is known about that.

On 9 September 1958 the police said that they were inclined to the view that the murderer was probably a local man.

On Saturday 11 October 1958 it was reported that the police were trying to trace the owner of a pair of binoculars that Lawrence Gribben was said to have borrowed from someone. It was reported that a month before Lawrence Gribben was murdered that he had spent a week in Cornwall on holiday with his brother and that whilst they were there Lawrence Gribben had used a pair of German field-glasses. His brother said that Lawrence Gribben had told him at least three times that he had borrowed them from a friend in Middlesbrough.

The field-glasses were later found at Lawrence Gribben's home, however, the police said that the man that Lawrence Gribben had referred to had denied all knowledge of the binoculars and the police said that they thought that the glasses might have had some important connection with the murder and launched an all-out appeal for information about them.

The police said, 'Obviously Lawrence Gribben had something to hide over these glasses. It is strange that no one has claimed them if they had been genuinely loaned'.

The police later determined that a firm in Brixton and another in Glasgow had been selling field-glasses of a similar type with the firm in London selling them by mail-order and having a mail-order list of 80,000 customers across the country. The field-glasses had been released by the Ministry of Supply as captured material. It was said that the police wanted to find out why Lawrence Gribben had been so concerned to hide the truth about the binoculars and why someone was apparently not anxious to reclaim them.

The field-glasses were black and had been touched up with some kind of paint or laquer. There were white printed letters around the right eyepiece that read: Dienstglas 6 x 30 5851 H/6400, whilst around the left eyepiece the printed letters read: fzgo. The field glasses had been in a brown case of the cheap leatherette type with a red-lining. It had a strap-and-buckle fastening and was fitted with a detachable shoulder strap and was in a new condition.

Lawrence Gribben's funeral took place at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Middlesbrough on the evening of Thursday 11 September 1958 and he was buried at Blackhill Cemetery near Consett on Friday 12 September 1958 in a family plot close to the grave of his father. It was said that there was a crowd of several hundred people at the funeral, mostly women and children, and that detectives had mingled with sightseers outside the church in a hope of seeing the murderer. Additionally it was said that there had been a dozen uniformed policemen with three inspectors there to see that people did not block Cannon Street, but it was said that as the coffin was carried into the church that people could not be moved from the road where they had a better view.

It was noted in August 1959 that the Detective Superintendent that had been in charge of the inquiries into Lawrence Gribben's murder was later demoted to police constable after an investigation was made into his actions, mainly in the case of a bankrupt woman who had obtained credit whilst an undischarged bankrupt as well as having received pair of cufflinks. He was noted additionally to have also worked on the Ruth Ellis murder case.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

see National Archives - HO 332/16 - STA 502/3/33, MEPO 2/9834

see Manchester Evening News - Friday 03 October 1958

see Shields Daily News - Monday 22 September 1958

see Newcastle Journal - Monday 15 September 1958

see Newcastle Journal - Thursday 11 September 1958

see Newcastle Journal - Friday 12 September 1958

see Shields Daily News - Friday 03 October 1958

see Torbay Express and South Devon Echo - Saturday 06 September 1958

see Weekly Dispatch (London) - Sunday 07 September 1958

see Newcastle Journal - Saturday 13 September 1958

see Newcastle Evening Chronicle - Friday 12 September 1958

see Daily Mirror - Monday 08 September 1958

see Newcastle Journal - Saturday 11 October 1958

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Saturday 06 September 1958

see Shields Daily News - Wednesday 10 September 1958

see Belfast Telegraph - Wednesday 10 September 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 06 September 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 06 September 1958

see Shields Daily News - Saturday 06 September 1958

see Gazette Live

see Gazette Live