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Olive Michele Nixon

Age: 57

Sex: female

Date: 6 Nov 1946

Place: Park Village East, Albany Street, Regents Park, London

Olive Nixon was robbed and killed in Park Village East, Regents Park, whilst on her way home from a church party between 9pm and midnight.

She had been beaten to death about the head.

She had just left a parish party in St Mark's Church in the Princess Road Schools, Regent's Park and was going back to her home in Park Village East where she lived with her niece, the wife of the reverend of a Congregational ministry.

It was said that she had almost reached home when she was killed by a violent blow on the head after which her body was dragged to the back of a garage by a bomb-damaged house.

The police said that they thought that her murderer had lay hiding in the bomb-damaged house an that as Olive Nixon passed that he had come out and struck her from behind with some very heavy instrument which was thought to probably have been a brick which had fractured her skull.

Her shoes and spectacles were found in the roadway.

It was thought that she had been murdered by a recently demobilised soldier who had been sleeping nearby in a bomb-damaged house or shelter.

Olive Nixon was an elderly widow. She was a slightly built woman with grey hair and a sweet face. The workmen who were engaged on repairs to the house behind which her body was found had carried out repairs at the house that Olive Nixon lived in in May 1946 an said that they had all regarded her with great admiration and respect and said that it was hardly credible that any harm should have come to her in that way. It was said that whilst they had been working at her house that she had often brought them cups of tea whilst they were working.

The reverend of St Mark's Church where she had attended the party said that she was a charming lady and that she had enjoyed herself very much at the party.

During the investigation it was noted that one of the workmen was taken away by the police in a car, but that he was seen to be later brought back and released.

Following her murder, the police said that they were looking for a white boiler suit that they thought might assist them in finding her killer. It was said that the suit and a carpenter's apron had been left by workmen in the bombed house, behind the garage where Olive Nixon's body was found, however, they were found to be missing on the day following her murderer and it was thought that the suit and apron might have been used to cover up or wipe off blood marks.

The police later said that they had determined that Olive Nixon rarely carried a handbag or a large amount of money and said that on the night that she was murdered she had only had a few shillings in her purse which she had carried in her pocket and that it was untouched. The police added that the broach that she used to fasten her scarf with was also untouched.

The police said that they were working on the theory that the murder was committed by a sneak-thief who never intended to kill her, and that robbery was the motive. They said that after he had struck her that upon seeing the terrible injury that he had inflicted that he had become panic stricken and had dragged her body to the rear of the garage and had then hurried away.

During their investigation, the police searched the sandy soil nearby which was being used for repairing the road that lay at the southern boundary of Regent's Park for clues.

Olive Nixon was the widow of a rubber planter who died in Malaya in 1935 and was of independent means.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Daily Herald - Monday 30 December 1946

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Lincolnshire Echo - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Hull Daily Mail - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Daily Herald - Tuesday 12 November 1946

see The Scotsman - Saturday 09 November 1946

see Hull Daily Mail - Friday 08 November 1946

see Gloucestershire Echo - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Manchester Evening News - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Nottingham Evening Post - Friday 08 November 1946

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Thursday 07 November 1946

see Belfast News-Letter - Friday 08 November 1946

see Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 07 November 1946