John Douglas Albert Mart

John Douglas Albert Mart was found gassed.

It was heard that he had feared that something was going to happen to him. It was said that he had lived in fear because he bore a strong facial resemblance to two men that had been found battered to death in Clod Hall Lane in Baslow, Derbyshire.

He had run a barber shop in Chesterfield market place and was found gassed there after Chesterfield murder squad detectives quizzed him over the murders.

The murders were those of William Arthur Elliott and George Gerald Stobbs which had been carried out by Michael Copeland who was convicted for them in 1965. William Elliott, George Stobbs and Michael Copeland had all been homosexual.

It was heard that he had twice been attacked during the night at his shop and had feared that something was going to happen to him.

He had lived in Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield.

His neighbour, a married woman, said, 'He seemed suspicious of something and on Thursday morning, he was found dead at 11.20 that night, he did not wave to me and smile as he set off for his barber shop. He seemed depressed and looked worried'.

Other neighbours spoke of how he would stay up late at night. The married woman said that some time earlier someone had forced open the back door of his semi-detached house and left a cigarette packet on a mantelpiece in the house. She said, 'He seemed very worried about this'.

His sister and brother-in-law, who lived in Storrs Road, Chesterfield, said that John Mart had been attacked on two occasions.

His wife had died two years earlier and they had had no children.

It was noted that John Mart had been among the 100,000 people that the police had interviewed during their enquiries into the murder of William Elliott, who had been an estate clerk from Bakewell and who had been the victim of the 'Bubble Car murders'. It was said that John Mart was believed to have known acquaintances of William Elliott. However, the police said that John Mart had not been a suspect for either of the murders.

It was noted that the murder of George Stobbs was called the 'Carbon-copy' murder as he had been found in the same place as William Elliott.

It was noted that two other men were also found gassed shortly after being interrogated by the police regarding the murders, Arthur Jenkins and Albert Waddoups.