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Veronica Elaine Stewart

Age: 25

Sex: female

Date: 27 Jul 1963

Place: 42 Brook Street, Luton, Bedfordshire

Veronica Elaine Stewart was stabbed in Luton on 27 July 1963.

She was found stabbed twice in her flat at 42 Brook Street.

A 40-year-old West Indian fitter that had lived in Victoria Street in Luton was tried for her murder but acquitted.

He claimed that he had taken the knife off of her and that she had been stabbed twice accidentally whilst they were rowing and pulling at the door and that after she collapsed he ran off.

He first denied having been involved with her death, but later admitted to having stabbed her during the row.

Veronica Stewart had been known as Black Terry because of her jet Black hair.

He made two statements. In his first statement he said:

I have known Elaine Stewart for some years and at one time she lived at 2 Victoria Street. I have been friendly with Elaine and at about 8.15pm, Friday, 26th July, 1963, I went to the Royal Hotel, Mill Street and she was in the bar with the landlord where she lives. I nodded to her and then later went and joined her company. She was talking to several people and at one time was playing billiards, which was after nine, getting on to ten o' clock. After she finished billiards she went and played dominoes with some other blokes. She did say to me once during the evening that she wanted to get away from some of the men and one of the men was a foreigner and I think like Hungarian. At closing time Elaine and myself left the Royal together. No one else was with us.

We then went to the Mandarin Restaurant in Mill Street for a meal. After we had our meal we had a little argument, on who should pay for the meal. I was going to pay and she wanted to pay for it, finally she paid the lot and said, 'I must go'. I came out the restaurant and she followed me out after a few minutes. As she came out the restaurant she went to cross the street towards the Majestic where I was at that time. As she crossed the road she was struck by a cyclist and was knocked down. I went and picked her up and then took her back to the restaurant side. She had had a few drinks and I propped her up beside a car and picked her shoe up. I wanted to get a taxi for her but she didn't want me to see her home and she said for me to go. She kept insisting that I go and I left her still standing by the car. It was after 11 o' clock when I left her. She was still leaning on the car and I did not look back to her and I walked off home to Victoria Street. I went to bed and I lay in bed and then decided to come down and see if she was alright. I went down to the El Torro and she wasn't there and then to Joes, The Vesuvio Cafe in Bury Park but she wasn't there and I walked all the way from Victoria Street, Dunstable Road and to the cafes. When she wasn't at these places I came up Waldeck Road along the Moor Path to the top of Brook Street. As I walked down Brook Street towards the home of Elaine I met the landlord, Arthur, outside in the street and he was talking to a man. I went straight up to him and asked him about Terry which is Elaine. He asked me to stay there with him until the Police came. I asked him what was wrong and he didn't say, just said, 'There's a lot of blood on the floor'. I said, 'Blood, whose, Terry's', and he said, 'Yes'. I told him I could not believe it and I stayed out there in the street with him until the Police came. He opened the door, looked in and closed the door again. When he told me there was a lot of blood I told him she had got hit with a bike but she couldn't have all that blood as he said there was a lot.

I waited until the Police all came and I then went in with them and saw Terry lying in the hall and that was the first time I knew she was lying in the hall.

However, he later made a second statement:

This started in Mill Street. I said that in my other statement. Terry has drinks sometimes and she always argument. When we left the pub, the Royal, we were going to get a feed. Well we did have a feed but before we had finished she started funny like, you know, she picked the sauce bottle off the table and was waving it to a couple who were sitting at the back of me. Then I told her to put the bottle down and finish her feed. She said, 'I'm not finishing any feed and I can pay for my own meal'. I said 'Why all of that?', and she said that those people at the back are getting on my nerves. I said, 'What have they done you, they haven't done you anything'. She said, 'I hate them, I hate them, and you and all'. When she said, 'and you and all', I said, 'We was quite nice together and why now all of this?'. Then she said, 'Out, out, get out', and then she called the waiter over and asked how much for her meal and I tried to stop her paying for it, but eventually she did pay. Then she said, 'Get out of my sight', and then I left. I went down the stairs. I was going to the toilet and I heard her shoe step coming down the stairs. Then I turn back. Then I went to the cash desk and then she came along. I took a pound out of my wallet for my meal and two coffees and she pulled the pound out of my hand and said, 'I'll pay for the lot if that's the way you want it'. She then paid and then she gave me the pound back and then repeated again, 'Out, out', and I said, 'OK, I'm going. No need to shout', and I came outside and stand on the path.

She came out after, I was going across the street. Then she got knocked down by a push bike. I went over. I held her up. I put her to lean upon the front part of a car, trying to find out if she got hurt. She keep on telling me to go, 'Out, out, I don't want to see you'. I said, 'Do you want a taxi?'. She said, 'No, all I want you to do is to go', and I left her, still leaning on the car because I didn't want an argument. Then I went home. I got undressed and I had a touch of gin. Then I got into bed. Then I lie there for a while. I keep on worrying about her, if she been hurt, and then I decide should come down to see her final and to see that she is alright.

I left the house, can'tly right check on the time but it was after 12 I think. On my way down I decided to pass in the cafes as I know she usually goes to, to see if I can see her, but I didn't. Then I decided to call in where she lives and so I did. When I got to the house I saw the lights on in her apartment room and before I could have got to the door the light went out and I tapped on her window. She draw the curtains, she looked through and saw me. She was waving her arms like along with saying something but I couldn't hear and then she draw the curtains back. I sat there for a while on the rail. She drew the curtains again and saw me sitting there. Then eventually she came and opened the door and she said to me 'to go away'. She said, 'You are not coming in'. I said to her, 'I did not come down here for that. I just come to see if you are alright'. Then she keep on saying, 'I don't want to see you, to go away, or if not I'll let ,you have this or I'll call the landlord'. (She had a knife in her hand, it was in a leather case.)

I said, 'Why all of' that?'. She said, 'I hate you, I don't want to see you'. I said, 'Look Terry, you don't need all of that, all I want to know if you are all right'. Then she said, 'Does it matter?'. I tried to pat her the shoulder to see I could quiet her down but she still keep on saying, 'Now go or i'll let you have this'. She then unclipped the strap on the case as if she want to take the knife out from the case and I grabbed the knife from her. After getting the knife away from her I then had the knife in my hand and then she tried to push me out and she held the door and then I said to her, 'If that's the way you want it i'll go', and then I went to pull the door and she came along with the door and she struck herself on the knife.

She was shouting for the landlord. She went backwards and I tried to pull her back again with the knife still in my hand. I think when I pulled her back again she get another stab. I see like she was going to fall and I let her go and then I ran away.

I went up Brook Street and along the Moor Path and when I was on the Moor Path I realise I might have hurt her and I thought I was to go back to see how she was. I threw the knife away and I then I sling the shield and then I went along Moor Path and I threw my mac away by the railway track. I went under the bridge to Crawley Road. I saw a Police car in Crawley Road. Then I decided I must go back to Brook Street. When I got back to the house I met the landlord outside and I said to him, 'How is Terry?'. He didn't give any reply, all he said, 'Could I stay there until the Police came'. Then I said to him 'What happened?', and he said, 'There is a pool of blood in front of the door'. Eventually the Police came. When I went to Brook Street that night I had no intention of killing her 'cause I think a lot of her and I’m very very sorry that it did happen.

The man at the Mandarin Cafe in Mill Street said that he remembered a coloured man and a European woman coming into his cafe on the night of 26 July 1963 between 10pm and 1pm, but said that he remembered no argument between them or heard any disturbance.

However, a welder that had lived in Runley Road, Luton said that he recalled seeing a woman involved in a collision with a cyclist near the Mandarin Restaurant in Mill Street at about 11pm on the Friday night, 26 July 1963. She said that after she was knocked down that a coloured man picked her up and laid her across the bonnet of a car. He added that when he saw her he recognised her as 'The Black Hawk' who he also knew as Terry, and said that she shouted to him, 'You fucking bastard'.

He added that she was also abusing the coloured man and swearing at him. He said that he later saw them both walking towards Waldeck Road.

The landlord at 42 Brook Street in Luton said that he had been a building worker with Messrs Pearce and Barker Limited and that on the night of Friday 26 July 1963 that he went out at about 8.15pm and spent the evening at the Royal Hotel in Mill Street. He said that whilst there he saw Veronica Stewart as well as the West Indian fitter, but said that they were not having very much to do with each other and had been sitting at opposite ends of the bar.

He said that Veronica Stewart, who he knew as Terry, had rented the front ground floor room from him on her own.

He said that later that night, after returning home and going to bed that he was disturbed  and that when he came downstairs to see what was happening that he found Veronica Stewart lying in the hall. He said that there was blood on the floor and that when he spoke to her she didn't respond.

He said that he then went out for the police and an ambulance and then returned to 42 Brook Street and that whilst waiting outside saw the fitter come along. He said that he came up to him from the direction of Moor Path and asked whether Veronica Stewart was alright as she had been knocked down by a bicycle outside the Royal.

He said that he then asked whether he minded waiting until the police arrived and that was all the conversation he remembered having with him.

The landlord's wife that had also lived at 42 Brook Street in Luton said that Veronica Stewart, who she knew as Terry, had occupied the front ground floor room and that she had seen the fitter occasionally.

She said that she went to bed on the night of Friday 26 July 1963, before Veronica Stewart returned home, but said that she heard her come in  about 12.05am alone.

She said that about a quarter of an hour later that she heard a disturbance at the front door and went down and heard Veronica Stewart shout for her husband. She said that when she then got halfway down the stairs that she saw Veronica Stewart lying on the floor and a man going over the step, the front door being open. She said that she went to look and saw the man take a right, walking hastily, and that she saw that he had a knife in his right hand with the blade pointing upwards.

She said that she then woke her husband up and that he went out to call for the police.

She said that when they were waiting for the police that the fitter came over to her and her husband and asked what the matter with Veronica Stewart was and that she replied, 'Nothing', and that he then said:

Is Terry alright as she got knocked down earlier with a bicycle.

When the police later searched the railway embankment adjoining the Moor Path that they found a sheath knife in the undergrowth, which was recorded as exhibit 7.

Later on 27 July 1963 they found a gent's blue grey raincoat about 15 yards away from where they found the sheath for the knife at the bottom of the embankment near the concrete base of a gun emplacement. The sleeves of the raincoat had been turned inside out when they found it.

When the fitter was interviewed he denied owning a knife, but said that he recalled that Veronica Stewart had owned one when they had lived together five weeks earlier and said that he thought that she had taken it with her. When he was shown the sheaf knife he said that it looked like the one that Veronica Stewart had owned, saying:

That looks very much like the one she had, it certainly isn't mine.

When he was asked whether there was anything more that he could tell that might help the police find out who killed Veronica Stewart, the fitter said:

It had to happen.

And when he was asked why he said that, he said:

She was always getting mixed up in trouble, she was a split personality.

When he was asked whether Veronica Stewart had been a prostitute, he said:

Well, yes, I knew she was.

Adding that he had had sex with her, usually two or three times a week, but said that he had not had sex with her at Brook Street as he was not allowed to go into her room.

When he was being questioned he asked why it had to happen then, and when asked why he asked such a thing, he explained that his wife was coming to England and had possibly already left.

However, he soon after admitted to having stabbed Veronica Stewart and demonstrated how he had held the knife, but claimed it was an accident.

The fitter was tried for murder at Bedford Assizes on Wednesday 15 October 1963 but acquitted.


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

see discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

see National Archives - DPP 2/3705, ASSI 13/587

see Belfast Telegraph - Wednesday 16 October 1963

see Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 07 August 1963

see Daily Herald - Wednesday 16 October 1963