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James Patrick Lavelle

Age: 53

Sex: male

Date: 10 Mar 1956

Place: Caledonia Road, Gorbals, Glasgow

James Patrick Lavelle was found dead in the kitchen of his home behind his newsagents and tobacconist's shop in Crown Street, 71 Caledonia Road, Gorbals on the morning of Sunday 11 March 1956 and about 10am. He had run  the shop with his father.

His body was found by his 82-year-old father who was almost blind who it was said had been in another room asleep at the time of the murder and had slept through it undisturbed. James Lavelle's father said that he knew nothing of the matter until a neighbour knocked at his door and he got up to answer it.

When James Lavelle was found his hands were tied tightly behind his back with strips torn from a sheet and his feet similarly tied together. The police said that when he was found it was thought that he had been tied up for about twelve hours.

The police were called to the shop after they received a 999 call made by a 49-year-old man that ran a general store a few doors away from James Lavelle's shop. The man said, 'Jimmy usually collected my Sunday papers with his own. This morning, as usual, I went along to his house at 10 o'clock to collect my papers. The papers were still lying on the doorstep and I knew something was wrong. I knocked on the house door in the close. Jimmy's father came to the door. He looked terribly ill. He said 'James has been murdered. He has been murdered'. I went in. James was lying on his back on the kitchen floor. His ankles were bound together, and his arms tied behind him with white cloth. He was obviously dead. There was no sign of blood. His face appeared to be bruised. I ran back to my own shop and dialled 999. The old man told me that on Saturday night there was a knock at the door. When James opened it, three or four men forced their way in and started to wrestle with him. He said that he heard one of the men say, 'Did you get anything' and another voice replying '£3 10s' and he told me that a 58-year-old fitter had also been attacked'.

James Lavelle's dog Rover was found sitting nearby.

Following the discovery of James Lavelle's body the police were called out and it was noted that they had borrowed a brush from a nearby shopkeeper and had carefully swept the floor of the house, gathering up dust for examination, and it was also said that they had taken away a sheet that was believed to have been similar to the one believed to have been used to tie up James Lavelle.

James Lavelle was from Donegal in Ireland and had lived in a three-roomed house behind his newsagents.

The police said that they were treating his death as murder even though there were no signs of injury about James Lavelle and shortly after arrested five men and charged them, but the charges were later dropped on 31 May 1956.

It was said that a gang of men had forced their way into his home on the night of Saturday 10 March 1956 after it was rumoured that he had inherited some gold or money and that they had broken in and tied him up looking for the hidden cache of money but were believed to have been disappointed as it had not existed.

Three men had been seen in the vicinity of his house at about 9.30pm on the Saturday he was murdered and it was thought that they had entered his home shortly after and murdered him.

The men were described as being tall, with one of them being about 30-years-old and that one of them had a small pencil-like moustache.

It was also thought that James Lavelle had been shadowed by two men for several days before his murder and the police said that following door-to-door investigations in the area they had received reports of 'two men hanging about in the vicinity of the shop'.

It was also reported that the two men, along with two other men thought to have been involved in the murder and robbery had been seen in a public-house in Caledonia Road on the Saturday night and it was said that the men could have easily kept a watch-out for James Lavelle's return from his nightly walk around the block with his mongrel dog and it was suggested that they had waited for him to return, hiding in the close behind his house and had then attacked him and bundled him into his home.

The police said, 'So far we have had a report from one man who saw him. We believe he went out about 9pm and returned about 9.30pm. We do not yet know how he returned to his home'.

During their house-to-house enquiries, the police said that they were searching for a small group of men who had 'gone to earth'.

When the police later spoke to the 58-year-old fitter he said that he had known James Lavelle and his father and said that he had called at James Lavelle's house on the Saturday night to inquire about James Lavelle's father who he said had been ill for the previous three weeks and who said that when the door was answered a man threw a raincoat over his head and then knocked him to the floor and kicked him about his head and body after which his pockets were rifled. However, the fitter said that after being attacked he had gone home, undressed and had gone to bed without informing the police.

The fitter said, 'I called at the shop on Saturday night, and I was attacked by strangers who opened the door. I was attacked as soon as I put my foot over the door'.  When he explained why he had just gone home without telling the police, he said, 'I got dazed. I still don't know for certain what happened. I don't remember anything after the door opened. And I didn't see any body'.

In another account, the 58-year-old fitter said, 'I get my papers there and became friendly with them. The old man was not keeping too well, and I went round on Saturday night to see how he was. I usually knock three times with a coin on the door, but I had only knocked once when the door was opened, and I was pulled in by a man. A waterproof coat was thrown over me, and two or three men jumped on me. I was asked if I had any money. Someone went into my back pocket and took out two or three shillings. I was dazed, and they left me lying in a coma. When I came round I was still dizzy and I staggered to the door for some fresh air. I didn't see Jimmy lying on the floor. I went home, and asked my sister to tell the police, but she didn't realise how serious it was'.

It was reported that a rumour had been spreading through Gorbals that James Lavelle's mother, who had died five weeks earlier at the age of 93, had left him a fortune that she was said to have always carried about with her in a worn black handbag.

The police said that they had even had word from Ireland, County Monagham, to the effect that James Lavelle's mother had left a fair estate.

However, at a police press conference on 14 March 1956 they denied that they had found a cache of £50 hidden under his floorboards. They also refused to confirm reports that a bank account in James Lavelle's name had been discovered at a Crown Street bank branch.

It was further noted that James Lavelle's home had been ransacked and that the drawers and cupboards there had been turned out by his assailants in a search for something, most probably the recent inheritance he was said to have received. However, James Lavelle's father said that there had been no hidden fortune and that only a few pounds had been stolen.

It was noted on 15 March 1956 that the police had received an anonymous letter which was said to have detailed a list of the names of the men who were responsible for James Lavelle's murder, which they said they were investigating.

In the early hours of Sunday 13 March 1956, at about 3am, the police arrested five men at various locations not far from where James Lavelle had lived. They were said to have got the men out of their beds and to have taken them away in patrol cars to police stations after which they were charged with James Lavelle's murder as well as other charges including housebreaking, assault and robbery.

The five men were:

  • 46-year-old man.
  • 46-year-old man.
  • 38-year-old man.
  • 29-year-old man.
  • 30-year-old man.

It was noted that whilst the police were charging the five men that they were still looking for two other men that they wanted to question in regard to James Lavelle's murder.

When the men were charged, they were charged with three charges:

  1. That on March 10, in a house at 71 Caledonia Road, Glasgow, they assaulted James Patrick Lavelle and knocked him to the floor and bound his arms and legs with pieces of sheeting and a leather strap. The charge continued that they had left him lying on the floor bound and unable to free himself, as a result of which he died on March 10 or the following day and they 'did murder him and robbed him of £3 10/-'.
  2. That in the same house they robbed James Lavelle of articles of jewellery.
  3. That in the same house they assaulted the fitter, of 399 Crown Street Glasgow, and robbed him of 2/-.

Following the arrests the police returned to the district and invited people to the police station to attend a series of identity parades.

However, the charges against the men, seven in total by May 1956, were all later dropped.

Crown Street was described as being one of the toughest parts of the Gorbals and it was said that James Lavelle had lived in fear there. However, it was said that his business prospered and that money was often kept on the premises and that James Lavelle was never away from the shop and never took a holiday. It was reported that he and his father had a system of secret knocks and that the door was never opened after hours unless the right knock was given.

It was further reported that James Lavelle's wife, who had died five weeks earlier, had always slept with a police whistle tied round her neck.

Following James Lavelle's murder his father, who was described as having been badly shocked by the event, was taken away to an 'old folks home'.

It was reported on Thursday 15 March 1956 that following James Lavelle's murder that the people of Gorbals launched a vast 'retain hanging' petition to give to the government in which they planned to knock on every door in the tenement warren seeking the signatures of all of its 60,000 inhabitants, noting that the hoped to give a lead to the whole city.

It was said that canvassers were to follow closely behind the footsteps of the detectives investigating James Lavelle's murder. The person that organised the petition said, 'In the Gorbals we know that many criminals can do even a long prison term 'standing on their heads' and the rope is a major deterrent'. He said that he was forming a petition committee from amongst the twenty five shopkeepers who earlier signed a protest telegraphed to Parliament on the Monday evening, 12 March 1956, as the Commons were debating the hanging question.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Belfast Telegraph - Monday 12 March 1956

see Daily Mirror - Tuesday 20 March 1956

see Northern Whig - Monday 12 March 1956

see Belfast Telegraph - Monday 19 March 1956

see Aberdeen Evening Express - Saturday 31 March 1956

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Monday 19 March 1956

see Bradford Observer - Monday 19 March 1956

see Leicester Evening Mail - Monday 12 March 1956

see Bradford Observer - Tuesday 20 March 1956

see Birmingham Daily Gazette - Monday 12 March 1956

see Daily Herald - Monday 12 March 1956

see Daily Herald - Monday 19 March 1956

see Aberdeen Evening Express - Monday 12 March 1956

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Monday 12 March 1956

see Aberdeen Evening Express - Tuesday 13 March 1956

see Aberdeen Evening Express - Thursday 15 March 1956

see Daily Mirror - Friday 01 June 1956