George Harding

George Harding was found dead at his home in Lily Road, Yardley on 27 January 1983.

George Harding had been a gambler and it was thought that he had been killed by thugs that had thought he had scooped the win of a lifetime.

They had broken into his home as he slept, beaten him with his own walking stick and trussed him up on his bed like a chicken. THey had then gagged him with his own long johns and then turned him face down on the pillows. 

The police said that they thought that his killers had been two teenagers and that whilst they searched his home for his hideden nest egg George Harding had slowly suffocated to death. 

It was noted that George Harding had served in several army campaigns with the tank regiment in the Second World War.

In 1985, the police said:

George Harding had lived alone in Lily Road and had been a regular punter at a local betting shop and also played bingo every week. 

The polcie said:

George Harding's body was found the following day by his home help.

A detective said:

When the police examined his house they found one of George Harding's suitcases stuffed full of valuables and another case lying open. 

The detective said:

It was noted that in their rush to escape they had overlooked £40 that George Harding had taken out of the Post Office the day before his murder.

It was however thougt that they had taken his gold signet ring from his hand and also stolen his black fold-over wallet that had contained his bingo card with his name on it and personal; documents. 

THe police determined that on the day before his body was found that they had determined that George Harding had visited his local, the New Inns on Coventry Road and then gone to his bookmaker's before returning home around 3.30pm. 

The police said that the forensice evidence pointed to a pair of killers, both with the skills of agile cat burglars. THey said that the killers scaled an outhouse in the garden, ran up the edge of the roof and then broke in through a bedroom window. They added:

A detective added:

The police added that they found two different sets of tell-tale footprints left behind, noting that they indicated that the killers had both had on fairly worn training shoes. However, they said that although extensive inquiries were made, that they had failed to identify the type of make of the trainers. 

The police added:

They said that the pair then crept downstiars where they found George Harding in bed in his pyjamas who they then overpowered, and bound hand and foot with plastic type twine and two of his own neck ties. 

However, George Harding died soon after. 

The police said that despite a lack of tangible evidence, that they beleived that his killers were local. 

They said:

They said that the intensive murder inquiry however ran into a virtual wall of silence. 

It was noted that George Harding, who had had arthritis and walked with a limp, had lived in a street with several other pensioners, but that no one seemed to have heard or seen a thing on the night in question, although noted that as the residents were generally elderley like George Harding that that was maybe not too surprising. 

The police said that although a confidential telephone hotline was set up and an reward of £700 offered by two companies in the area, that the responce they got was negligable and that the voluntary calls recieved could be counted on one hand. 

They said that more than 1,000 people were questioned and a total of 772 statements taken with at least 50 suspectes questioned at length, but that all inquiries proved fruitless.