Murder Before Breakfast

Sometimes it takes me a while to process a snippet of information or comment - I am not sure why but I think my brain subconsciously prioritizes based on what's going on around me. Two days ago I recollected Andy telling me about an old school friend of his (who I also knew) and the fact he 'may' have been involved in a murder.He actually told me this over a year ago but the subconsious kicked in and I began processing the information. I cannot stand MAYs in any shape or form so bright an early yesterday morning Andy and I sat in bed with the laptop and began our criminal investigation.

Roy Heath, nicknamed Skippy, moved to Braintree from Australia when he was about 15 years old. He was nice looking, charismatic boy but a ticking time bomb with a relatively short fuse. Apparently he was a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker, all by the age of sixteen!! He was an only child and came from what Andy described had relatively normal parents and so everyone was shocked when the Mum and Dad were charged with embezzlement and they disappeared from Braintree overnight. Skippy also disapeared and moved to London. Several years later, Andy heard he was involved in an armed robbery at a service station, someone was killed and he was imprisoned for manslaughter - and that was the last anyone heard until last March.

Forward 25 years to 2010 and headline news!!!!! Police had received a tip off that a body was cemented under a patio at a Fulham home and began digging - literally. Sure enough, they discovered a corpse that was reportedly over 15 years old. The home was owned by Roy Heath, aged 52 and on his death bed from throat cancer. It had to be Skippy- it all added up!

Apparenly, Skippy had met up with the Kray twins during his first prison sentence. The Kray twins were notorious crime lords from ther 1960s and were responsible for murder, prostitution, drug rings etc. Although they were incarcerated from late sixties they managed to manipulate a lot of crime from within and it looks like Skippy became one of their pawns. The extent of Skippy's crimes appear to be unknown but in addition to a murder victim under the patio, there was a murder of a business rival 15 years before that  police couldn't make stick. He died shortly after the body was discovered but in the years prior to his death was reported to be drinking up to 18 lagers a day!!!!!!!

In retrospect, Skippy was a clearly a sociopath but it's incredible what you can dig up when you start doing  a post mortem of your past....