Joe Jenkins

Joe Jenkins was stabbed with a knife during a cider binge with three friends at a flat in Cromwell Street, Stoke Heath.

He had been stabbed in the heart with a kitchen knife.

One of the men was charged with his murder, but the charges were later dropped.

It was said that they had had a scuffle during which Joe Jenkins was stabbed.

At his inquest two of the friends were named as suspects, however, it was heard that the police could not prove who the murderer was because the fourth man, aged 37, at the party kept changing his story.

Joe Jenkins' brother, who was described as being angry over the matter, described the law as an ass, and said:

The man charged with Joe Jenkins's murder had been a 20-year-old. The files were sent by the police to the Director of Public Prosecutions, but on 18 October 1985, after months of studying them, the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge.

The charge was formerly dropped at Coventry Magistrates Court.

His murder was described in the press as a 'whodunnit' mystery in a classic Agatha Christie style, it being noted that following the eight hour inquest in which allegations of murder were levelled at two men, that the truth about who stabbed Joe Jenkins stayed hidden, even though the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing with the Coroner instructing them that they could not pin the blame on either of the two men.

The Coroner said:

The Coroner then noted that a simple verdict was as far as the inquest was permitted to go.

A Barrister representing Joe Jenkins's family said that the scene was like The Sealed Room thriller by Agatha Christie.

The court heard that there had been four men in the flat in Cromwell Street on a cider drinking and cannabis smoking binge, and that each of them probably knew the identity of the killer, it being added that Joe Jenkins certainly did.

The inquest heard that the 20-year-old man that was initially charged and Joe Jenkins had started drinking in the early afternoon, 11 hours before the killing. They were then joined by the other two men later the same evening. By the time they returned to the third man's flat with several litres of cider, they were all drunk.

Joe Jenkins's 19-year-old girlfriend, who shared his home in Smith Street, Stoke Heath said that she had been home earlier in the afternoon with Joe Jenkins, the 20-year-old man and a third man and that she had heard Joe Jenkins and the 20-year-old man arguing over a small piece of cannabis. however, she said that the dispute didn't seem to be serious. She noted that Joe Jenkins and the 20-year-old man had been very close friends and had spent most of their time together.

The 37-year-old man said that he initially believed that the 20-year-olf man had been the killer, stating that he thought that they had been arguing over who was to smoke a small quantity of cannabis they had left at the end of the evening but that three weeks later he visited the third man who he said confessed to the murder to him.

It was heard that after Joe Jenkins was stabbed that he lifted his bloodstained shirt to reveal a gaping wound and said:

However, he didn't mention a name.

At the inquest, the barrister representing Joe Jenkins's family noted that Joe Jenkins died in the arms of the 37-year-old man, addressed the man, saying:

The barrister then called the man a worthless liar.

The pathologist said that Joe Jenkins had been stabbed twice by a right handed man wielding a long kitchen knife, with the fatal wound penetrating his heart and the other his stomach.

The court heard that the 37-year-old man had first told the police that he had seen one man holding the knife before later changing his story and claiming that it had been the other man that he had seen brandishing the bloodstained weapon.

It was further heard that the men he named had blamed each other for the murder. However, at the inquest they declined to give evidence.

The police initially charged the 20-year-old man, but he was later freed on the instruction of the Director of Public Prosecutions before the case came to trial. The prosecution was dropped after the third man made his new statement blaming the other man. the person he blamed had been the occupant of the flat where the murder took place.

The knife was found in the sink at the flat, but forensic examination failed to throw up any clues as to who the killer was.

When the Coroner summed up, he said: