CRIMES: The Murder of Charles Walton

Summary

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Conspiracy Theories, Cults & Crimes

Episode: CRIMES: The Murder of Charles Walton

Host: Vanessa Richardson
Date: November 12, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the mysterious and brutal unsolved murder of Charles Walton, a 74-year-old agricultural laborer found dead on a field in Lower Quinton, United Kingdom, on Valentine’s Day, 1945. Host Vanessa Richardson delves deep into the circumstances of Walton's death, the wartime atmosphere of the village, the ensuing investigation, and explores how folklore, rumors of witchcraft, and rumors of black magic complicated the search for answers. This is a tale where history, legend, and true crime intertwine in sometimes chilling and surreal ways.

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Key Topics and Insights

The Setting: Lower Quinton and its History

• Small Town Secrets:

  • Lower Quinton, set in Warwickshire, England, is painted as a time-locked rural community with deep historical roots dating back to the 11th century.
  • The presence of ancient local legends, combined with the upheavals of World War II, created a unique climate ripe for mystery.

  “Even the most ordinary places can have extraordinary origin stories. That’s especially true in the United Kingdom…” (Vanessa, 00:56)

• War Changes Everything:

  • By 1945, the rural calm was shattered with the arrival of foreign troops, POW camps, and the constant threat of German air raids.
  • The war’s impact meant an influx of outsiders and increased tensions in the village.

Charles Walton: Life and Persona

• Background:
  • Born in 1870, Walton was by all accounts a typical countryman: hardworking, reserved, a little rough around the edges in youth but increasingly withdrawn with age.
  • Lost his wife Alice in 1927, after which he became notably more isolated.
• Relationships:
  • Lived with and was supported by his adopted niece Edith, who cared for him in his old age.
  • Had few close relationships, mostly limited to Edith and one or two old friends.

The Murder on Meon Hill: February 14, 1945

• Routine Turned Tragedy:

  • Charles followed his typical day, leaving with tools and lunch, last seen by boss Alfred Potter around noon.
  • By evening, he failed to return home; a search party discovered his lifeless body in a hedge, in a scene both gruesome and bizarre.

• Crime Scene Details:

  • Walton’s own billhook was embedded in his neck; his pitchfork pinned him to the ground. Blood covered his face, and rumors spread that a cross had been carved into his body (a detail later debunked).

  “Charlie lay motionless on his left side. His billhook was embedded deep in his throat. His pitchfork pinned his head to the ground… Blood covered his face and head, pooling in the frozen earth around him.” (Vanessa, 15:55)

The Investigation: Locals, Outsiders, and Witchcraft

• Initial Response:

  • Local Constable Lomasney and Detective Superintendent Alex Spooner took charge but soon requested help from Scotland Yard’s famed Robert Fabian.
  • The town’s war-induced paranoia and superstitions hindered the investigation from the start.
  • Forensics failed to yield useful evidence; the crime scene was compromised by onlookers.

• Suspects and Motives:

  • Prisoners of War:
    • Large numbers of Italian and German POWs drew suspicion, but interviews and alibis eventually ruled them out.
  • Alfred Potter:
    • Walton’s boss, last to see him alive and finder of the body.
    • Gave inconsistent statements and seemed uncharacteristically anxious, but no hard evidence linked him to the crime.

    “Potter certainly looked suspicious, but he had an alibi, even if it wasn’t rock solid… there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, no witnesses placing him at the scene and no clear motive.” (Vanessa, 32:06)

Superstition, Witchcraft, and Folklore

• Rumors and Legends:

  • Local talk of black magic and witchcraft immediately followed the murder, fueled by the brutality and odd positioning of Walton’s body.
  • Detective Fabian’s own encounter with a spectral black dog—shrouded in regional legend as a harbinger of death or evil—deepened local resistance to the police.

  “He started hearing whispers that the devil was involved. Some people even mentioned witchcraft. At first, Fabian wrote off these concerns…” (Vanessa, 21:51)

• Academic and Media Influence:

  • In subsequent years, Margaret Murray, a folklorist, claimed Walton was killed in a ritualistic sacrifice echoing ancient pagan traditions (though later proven unfounded).
  • Sensational reporting suggested connections to ancient sites like the Rollright Stones and inspired links to horror movies such as The Wicker Man.

  “In November 1951, [Murray] told the Birmingham [Post] that Charlie had been killed as a human sacrifice. She based this on the ritualistic manner of his death…” (Vanessa, 35:53)

• Debunking the Ritual Murder:

  • Modern examination of the actual police files (by author M.J. Trow) debunked most of the alleged ritual aspects, showing how folklore overtook fact in public memory.

  “None of the contemporary police statements from 1945 mentioned witchcraft… Many of the supposedly ritualistic aspects of the murder were false.” (Vanessa, 38:35)

Enduring Theories and Unresolved Questions

• Other motives—such as revenge due to past wrongdoing or personal animosity (including rumors of Walton having enemies among delinquents or townsfolk)—have surfaced, but evidence remains elusive.
• The case remains officially unsolved, entangled in myth, rural fear, and all the messiness of human memory.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the setting and the monstrous in the mundane:

  “Some of those tales are fun and harmless, but others are much darker, tinged with violence and the blackest of magic, with secrets that find their way into the present and cast a chilling shadow on everyone they come across.” (Vanessa, 00:56)

• On Walton’s murder scene:

  “It started when the attacker grabbed Charlie’s walking stick and beat him on the head with it… grabbed the bill hook and slashed his neck multiple times. When Charlie was dead or almost, the killer stabbed the pitchfork under Charlie’s chin and jammed the handle into the hedge.” (Vanessa, 17:19)

• On local superstition:

  “As soon as Fabian mentioned the dog, the boy turned white as a sheet and ran away… According to local legend, it was a ghost that was said to curse whoever encountered it.” (Vanessa, 21:12)

• On why the legend endures:

  “Because he was so secretive. We don’t really know who Charles Walton was. That might be why his death continues to be shrouded in so much mystery… It ripped back the curtain of polite village life and revealed how fragile it all really is. Because if you can’t trust your neighbors, then who can you trust?” (Vanessa, 44:16)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• The Setting and Walton’s Background: 00:56 – 10:00
• Events of the Murder & Discovery: 10:00 – 17:10
• Initial Investigation & Arrival of Scotland Yard: 17:10 – 21:30
• Superstition, Witchcraft, and Fabians’s Encounter: 21:30 – 27:00
• Suspect Analysis (POWs & Potter): 28:32 – 33:00
• Folklore, Witchcraft Allegations, and Debunking: 35:15 – 42:45
• Speculation and Enduring Mystery: 42:45 – 44:16

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Tone & Style

Vanessa Richardson’s narration is evocative, immersive, and slightly conspiratorial—blending meticulous investigative research with a taste for folklore, rumor, and the uncanny. She parallels the ordinary and the extraordinary, inviting listeners to question both pragmatic and supernatural explanations, leaving the door open for speculation, wonder, and a lingering chill.

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Final Reflection

This episode stands as a haunting exploration of one of Britain’s most enigmatic crimes—an unsolved murder where fact and folklore are nearly impossible to untangle, and whose darkness continues to loom over the quiet fields of Lower Quinton.

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Transcript

[Vanessa Richardson]

Hi Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson and if you love digging into the most gripping true crime stories, then you need to listen to another Crime House original Crimes of with Sabrina Deanna Roga and Corinne Vien. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Sabrina and Corinne have been covering the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains and and this month they'll be diving into the paranormal. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

Even the most ordinary places can have extraordinary origin stories. That's especially true in the United Kingdom, where tiny towns and villages dot the countryside. Despite their small size, many of these places have a rich history with local legends dating back thousands of years. Some of those tales are fun and harmless, but others are much darker, tinged with violence and the blackest of magic, with secrets that find their way into the present and and cast a chilling shadow on everyone they come across. One sleepy British village experienced this horror firsthand on Valentine's Day in 1945. In the town of Lower Quinton, a 74 year old hedge trimmer met a fate so violent that people believed it must have been supernatural. Even on the heels of World War II, his murder remained one of the most shocking and and mysterious events of the decade. And to this day it remains unsolved. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations and murderous doctors, these aren't just theories, they they're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Wednesday I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild and I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Leave a comment wherever you listen, follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes and subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts for ad free early access. And if you can't get enough true crime, go search and follow Crime House daily. Our team's twice a day show bringing you breaking cases, updates and unbelievable stories from the world of crime that are happening right now. Today I'm talking about One of the UK's most baffling mysteries, the the murder of Charles Walton. In 1945, the 74 year old day laborer was found butchered in a field. His death brought the nation's top detectives from Scotland Yard to the small town of Lower Quinton. Along the way, they stumbled into a world of witchcraft, ancient rites and local legends going back thousands of years. And eventually, even they had to admit Charles may have been a victim of the black magic. All that and more coming up.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

Have you ever lived in a small town? If you have, you know it's almost impossible to keep a secret in a place where everyone knows everyone. So when something does slip through the cracks, it's that much more shocking. So I want to hear your juiciest stories from small town living. Were there any wild secrets that came out after the fact? And do you think it's easier or harder to solve a crime in a tight knit community? Tell me in the comments and buckle up. Because today's story is bizarre and it takes place in a small town, just like I mentioned, an area called Lower Quinton. It's in the United Kingdom, in the county of Warwickshire. There are actually two Quintons there, lower and upper, but they might as well just share a name. They're only half a mile apart and they have a lot of history between them. As far as we can tell, they're at least 1,000 years old. The earliest record of the quintons is from 1086 CE when they were already established Christian settlements. Since then, not much had changed. The City of Birmingham, about 45 miles north, had grown into a major industrial center. But the Quintons remained mostly rural, stuck in time. Most people lived in red brick, a frame cottage, homes with thatched roofs. The windows were small and plumbing was a luxury very few could afford. The biggest building in town was the church. And only a short walk from that church was where Charles Walton Jr. Or Charlie as most people called him, was born in 1870. His father, Charles Senior, was an agricultural laborer from a town called Offchurch, about 20 miles away. Charlie's mother, Emma came from a neighboring village. We think she lived the typical life of a rural housewife, keeping chickens, helping with harvests and managing the household. Charlie had two younger brothers and three older sisters, though one died as a child. Charlie himself left school at 10 years old, which was perfectly normal for working class children back then. Education didn't become mandatory for kids over 10 until 1893. By then he was already an adult. As a young man, Charlie earned quite the reputation around Warwickshire. He was known as a hard worker who could handle any physical labor. But he was also a heavy drinker and a bit of a womanizer, at least according to his best friend, George Higgins. But all that changed in 1897. That year the 27 year old married a 21 year old woman named Alice. Alice had been working as a domestic servant for a wealthy family at the time, but stopped when she and Charles tied the knot. Soon after, Charlie got a job in Lower Quinton doing agricultural work for a soap manufacturer and settled into domestic life. He gave up smoking and drinking for the most part and focused on providing for his family. We don't know if he and Alice tried to have children of their own, but it seemed like they were destined to become parents one way or another. In 1915, Alice and Charlie adopted his three year old niece, niece Edith. Edith's mother had died and Charlie's brother just couldn't handle being a single dad. Alice and Charlie spent the next 12 years raising Edith. Their family was complete and they seemed happier than ever. Sadly, that domestic bliss came to an abrupt end on December 9, 1927 when Alice died at 51 years old. After Alice passed, 57 year old Charlie became a very different man. He stopped socializing almost entirely. He started drinking again, mostly in secret. And as the years passed, he became quiet and secretive. By 1945, 74 year old Charlie only had one real friend, 72 year old George Higgins, who was a farmer and baker, well, maybe two. The only other person Charlie really interacted with was his niece Edith, who was 33 years old by then, she still lived with Charlie and had taken on Alice's role in many ways. She cleaned the house and made sure Charlie ate. As far as we know, she and one other niece were the only family members Charlie still kept in touch with. And Charlie liked it that way. He didn't need lots of friends. The fewer people he saw on any given day, the better. Although lately he'd been seeing a lot of new faces. When World War II began in late 1939, Lower Quinton seemed to transform overnight. The quiet farming community of just 493 people was now bustling with strangers. Military bases sprang up all over the county. There was a Royal Air Force base at Longmiston, only two miles away. Next to it was a prisoner of war camp called Camp 685. In 1945, it had over a thousand prisoners. Most of them were Italian, though there were some Germans and Ukrainians as well. There was also an American base near Stratford upon Avon, about six miles north of Quinton. On any given day, you might see British, American or Canadian troops wandering the streets of the village, buying cigarettes and visiting the local pub. Italians, too, were. The security at the POW camp was notoriously lax. Lower Quinton itself became useful to the war effort. Many troops were housed in local homes and soldiers used the fields around a place called Meon Hill for training exercises, setting up booby traps and conducting maneuvers. Meon Hill also happened to be where Charlie worked. On the night of February 13, 1945, the war must have felt closer than ever. If Charlie glanced northwards, he would have seen the sky glowing orange as the Germans bombed the city of Coventry, just 25 miles away. For a man who lived his entire life in the small village, this constant flow of foreigners and military activity must have been overwhelming. The quiet rhythms of rural life, marked by church bells and market days, were shattered by the urgent demands of the most horrible war the world had ever seen. But Charlie was too old to help. By then, he just wanted to live out his remaining years in peace. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. The next morning, February 14, 1945, was Valentine's Day. Charlie didn't have his Valentine anymore, so for him it was just another Wednesday. Charlie woke up with the sun and washed in the outhouse next door. He put on a short sleeved shirt, tweed trousers and blue overalls. Then he went into the living room and said hello to Edith, who had his tea and toast waiting. He might have told her he was going to miss her when she moved out. Soon Edith was engaged to be married, and once that happened, she would leave him all alone. But that was a problem for another time. With a sigh, Charlie pulled on his sweater and found his walking stick and tools by the door. He his main instruments were a pitchfork and a bill hook, a sharp curved blade that's kind of a cross between a knife and an axe. He used it to chop away branches. On his way out, Edith handed him his lunch, a bit of fruitcake in a blue cloth bag. He said goodbye and at 8:30am he stepped out into the cold morning air. From his house. At 15 Lower Quinton he walked the mile or so to Hill Ground Field on the slopes of M Hill. An elderly couple saw him crossing through a nearby churchyard that morning and someone else spotted him passing by a caravan. However, the exact times of both are a little unclear. The caravan witness said it was 8:15, which was before Charlie left. In any case, Charlie arrived at his work site within the hour. He planted and cut hedges for a local farm called the Firs. Although he had arthritis, he was still physically fit and knowing Charlie, he'd probably be bored to tears if he retired. Around 11am Charlie's boss, 40 year old Alfred Potter, saw Charlie taking his tea break about an hour later. Around 12.10pm, Potter glanced across the field and saw Charlie standing in the distance about 500 yards away from him. It looked like Charlie was just wearing a long sleeved shirt, which Potter thought was strange. It was really cold out, so why wasn't Charlie wearing a jacket? But he assumed Charlie was just hot from working so hard and went about his business. He didn't know it was the last time anyone would see Charlie alive.

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Taxes and fees extra. C mobile.com February 14, 1945 was an ordinary day for 74 year old Charlie Walton. Despite the chaos of World War II. He got up, had tea and went to work as usual, cutting hedges for his boss, Alfred Potter. But that Evening at around 6pm his 33 year old niece Edith came home to find their shared cottage empty. Edith worked as a printer's assembler at the Royal Society of the Arts. Before she left for the office that morning, she'd made Charlie his usual breakfast and boiled a pot of tea for him to reheat when he got home. But when she opened the door, the house was pitch black and the tea was untouched. Her stomach dropped. She knew that something was very wrong. Charlie was a creature of habit. He was always home by 4pm at the latest, especially in winter when it got dark early. If he wasn't there, it's because something must have happened to him. Edith's mind raced through the possibilities. He was old and had osteoarthritis. Maybe his knees had given out. Or maybe he'd had a heart attack. Even worse, what if he was still out in the fields, slowly freezing to death? Edith ran next door to her neighbor, Harry Beasley. She told him what happened, and Beasley suggested they go to Charlie's boss, Alfred Potter. He knew better than anyone where Charlie was that day. They found Potter at home, and he explained that the last time he'd seen Charlie was just after noon by Hill Ground Field. Or at least he'd seen a distant figure in long sleeves who he assumed was Charlie Potter, grabbed his flashlight and told Edith and Harry to follow him. On their way, the group ran into a local man named Harry Peachy, who offered to join the search. They walked through the darkened fields, shouting Charlie's name, the flashlight beams slicing through the freezing mist. They reached the hedgerows where Potter had last seen Charlie to the group spread out, walking along the bushes, frantically calling Charlie's name. And then they found him in an isolated corner of hill ground, just a quarter mile from the nearest road. Charlie lay motionless on his left side. His billhook was embedded deep in his throat. His pitchfork pinned his head to the ground, its long handle carefully wedged into the thick hedge beside him. Blood covered his face and head, pooling in the frozen earth around him. Not only that, but a cross had been allegedly carved into his chest. Edith screamed. The next few minutes were chaotic. Potter took charge and shouted at Peachy to get help. Then he told Beasley to take Edith home. She didn't need to see her adopted father like that. Peachey ran to the nearest house, banging on Allen Ray Valander's door. Around 6:45pm, he told Valander to call 999. That's the UK's version of 91 1. At 6:50pm, Ray called the police and reached Police Constable Michael James Lomasney. After a quick conversation, PC Lamasni grabbed a flashlight and was out the door. He arrived at the corner crime scene around 7:05pm like the others, he'd never seen violence like this. He checked Charlie's pockets to see if the old man had left a suicide note. There wasn't one, just a little blue bag with some cake crumbs from Charlie's last meal. He didn't find Charlie's wallet, but Charlie didn't like to carry one around. He also didn't find Charlie's pocket watch. That was unusual because, according to Edith, Charlie never left home without it. When PC Lomasney was done examining Charlie's body, he turned his attention to the rest of the scene. He touched the pitchfork handle without gloves and found it was pretty stuck. In the hedgerow, about 10ft from Charlie's body, Losni found Charlie's walking stick. One end was covered in blood and hair. He turned to Ray and told him to notify the police station in Stratford, about six miles away. He was just a local constable, not a homicide detective. He knew he couldn't handle a crime like this alone. While he waited for backup to arrive, Losni interviewed Alfred Potter. He'd found the body and was the last person to see Charlie alive. And Losni observed he was acting a little strange. Normally, Potter was pretty unshakable and definitely no stranger to blood. Potter ran a farm and had seen more than a few slaughtered animals. But now he seemed jittery. He wondered aloud what the public would think about a murder happening on his land. When he'd finished answering questions at around 7.45pm, Potter asked to go home. He made an excuse about being cold. It was cold out, but Lomasney thought this was a tad suspicious. But why was Potter in such a hurry to leave? But he didn't have much time to think about it because by then word had spread through the village and a crowd of people were trampling all over the crime scene. Within the next hour, various police, medical and forensic professionals trickled in. A CSI team came to take photographs and a police surgeon examined the body for a preliminary report. Meanwhile, Stratford PD assigned Detective Superintendent Alex Spooner as the primary homicide investigator. He was the most high profile detective on the force, but even he was taken aback by the ferocity of the crime. By 11:30pm, Spooner and the forensics team finished documenting the crime scene and handed it off to the pathologist, Dr. James Webster. Webster did his own inspection of Charlie's body, then carefully removed the gardening tools stuck in Charlie's flesh. He took his temperature and gave the go ahead for the body to be transferred to the ambulance. The next day, February 15, Webster began his official autopsy at around noon. What he found painted a very detailed picture of Charlie's last moments. It started when the attacker grabbed Charlie's walking stick and beat him on the head with it. Then, when Charlie was on the ground, his assailant beat him some more before grabbing the bill hook and slashing his neck multiple times. When Charlie was dead or almost, the killer stabbed the pitchfork under Charlie's chin and jammed the handle into the hedge. Based on Charlie's temperature last night, Webster determined the time of death was between 1 and 2pm on Feb. 14, roughly six hours before he was found. To kill someone like this required a lot of strength and even more rage. And to do it in the middle of the day in an open field, that would take a special kind of audacity most criminals don't have. Alex Spooner realized that catching such a madman would take a specialist, someone even more skilled than himself. So that same day, February 15, he cabled Scotland Yard, the UK's biggest metropolitan police force, and asked for help. The next evening, Scotland Yard's most famous detective, Robert Fabian, arrived in Lower Quinton. Fabian had been solving tough murder cases for for over two decades, since 1926. If anyone could crack this mystery, it was him. There were just over 500 residents of Upper and Lower Quinton and he wanted statements from every one of them. While he waited, Fabian examined Charlie's life and his bank account. After Years of hunting killers in London, Fabian had learned that money was always one of the biggest motives for murder. And Charlie's finances were strange. When his wife Alice died in 1927, Charlie had inherited 297 pounds from her, worth over $30,000 today. But 10 years later, it was all gone. No one knew what he spent it on, since he didn't seem to buy much of anything. There were rumors that Charlie had cashed big checks in town recently, but Fabian wasn't able to find any evidence of this. He suspected that Charlie's employer, Alfred Potter, was somehow involved. Maybe he'd been stealing Charlie's wages and Charlie confronted him. But Charlie was the type of person who always spoke his mind. According to Potter and other people who'd known Charlie, he'd never once complained about his salary. It was Fabian's first dead end, but it wouldn't be his last. Fabian's investigation was slow going. The residents of Lower Quinton were cagey and suspicious of strangers, especially city folk. Many refused to give statements about Charlie. Getting them to talk at all was like pulling teeth. Not only that, but Fabian found them to be a superstitious bunch. As rumors about Charlie's murder circulated in town, he started hearing whispers that the devil was involved. Some people even mentioned witchcraft. At first, Fabian wrote off these concerns. But before long, he had his own encounter with black magic. As February dragged on, Fabian was in the village when he saw a black dog trotting past him. A few moments later, after the dog had run off, a farm boy appeared. Fabian asked him who the animal belonged to. As soon as Fabian mentioned the dog, the boy turned white as a sheet and ran away. Initially, Fabian was confused by the boy's reaction. But later he learned that apparently the dog wasn't an animal at all. According to local legend, it was a ghost that was said to curse who was whoever encountered it. Word of Fabian's brush with the phantom creature spread through town. The locals were convinced that Fabian had been marked by the devil. After that, most residents refused to cooperate with his investigation. When he walked into a pub one night, everyone inside stood up and left. At the time, Fabian thought it was a silly local superstition. All this talk about ghost dogs and witchcraft was just a distraction from the real flesh and blood killer. It never occurred to him that maybe there was something to those beliefs, something that could help explain what really happened to Charles Walton.

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Foreign Charles Walton was found brutally murdered on February 14, 1945. The tiny British town of Lower Quinton descended into chaos. Scotland Yard was called in from London. Planes were sent to take aerial photos of the crime scene, and police officers scoured the fields looking for evidence the killer may have left behind. The most experienced Detective Chief Inspector Robert Fabian of Scotland Yard, focused his efforts on the villagers, trying to identify Charlie's friends and enemies. Meanwhile, his local counterpart, Alex Spooner, took a different approach. In February and March, Spooner focused his efforts on the people who weren't locals. Remember, the war had brought a lot of strangers to the county of Warwickshire, where Lower Quinton was located. Some villagers were convinced that Charlie was killed by one of the ,thousand or so POWs who were housed in Camp 685. They were foreign enemies of Great Britain, and they were all trained in combat. Spooner thought the locals might be onto something, especially when he learned that Camp 685 did a terrible job keeping track of their prisoners. The only records they kept were general schedules of war work days and free days. The prisoners mingled freely with the villagers and sometimes got into trouble for poaching rabbits. The day Charlie was found dead, February 14, a large number of Italian POWs had gone into Stratford to see a play, while others went to the movies. This put them only six miles from Lower Quinton. It was possible that one of them had slipped away and encountered Charlie during their travels. On March 16, Spooner had the whole contingent of prisoners lined up and interviewed. He talked to their supervisors and learned where they were the day Charlie was killed. Two Italians were seen wandering the fields around 3:30pm, but none were spotted in the vicinity when the gruesome murder took place. Next, Spooner looked into the Royal Air Force personnel at the base. Next to Camp 685. Meon Hill, where Charlie died, was a training ground of sorts. And on the morning of February 14, several officers were in the area. But Spooner was able to rule them out as suspects, too. They had all left Meon Hill before Charlie's murder. The army angle, which had seemed so promising given the chaos of wartime, led absolutely nowhere. Which left just one real suspect. Alfred Potter. He was Charlie's boss. He'd found the body, he was jumpy when Constable Lomasney interviewed him, and he'd even admitted to touching the handle of the pitchfork when he arrived at the scene. Not a good look. Even more damning, his story kept changing. In his first interview, on February 14, he claimed he'd last seen Charlie around noon, working in a long sleep sleeve shirt about 500 yards away. In his second interview, days later, he changed the time to 12:20pm this was right in the middle of the window when Charlie was supposedly killed. Now, Potter didn't have a watch, so maybe it was just an honest mistake, but he would have been able to hear the church bells ringing loud and clear at 12 noon on the dot. None of that meant Potter was guilty, but it did cast doubt on his reliability. And that wasn't Potter's only inconsistency. He'd claimed that he was working on removing a dead animal from a ditch around that time, but later said that didn't happen until around 3:30. Potter certainly looked suspicious, but he had an alibi, even if it wasn't rock solid. He was with a fellow farmer until noon and his wife saw him come home for lunch at 12:40. That meant there was still a half hour in which he could have killed Charlie. But it would have been tight. He would have had to quickly shower and change, then shake off the murder and convince his wife it was just a normal day. And there was one detail of his story that just didn't make sense. Charlie's shirt. Why would Potter tell the police that Charlie was working in long sleeves when Charlie was found wearing short sleeves, leaves under a sweater. It's a small clue with a very big implication. If Potter was telling the truth and he didn't kill Charlie, this means he might have seen the person who did. Unfortunately, Potter couldn't provide any details about who this person was because they were so far away. And that wasn't the only setback the investigation faced at this time, because soon Fabian and Spooner learned that forensics wasn't able to turn up anything useful. When the lab results came in towards the end of March, they showed the murder weapons. The pitchfork and bill hook had no fingerprints on them, which was bizarre because two people, Potter and the pathologist, Dr. James Webster, had both admitted to touching them. By the end of the month, Fabian and Spooner felt like they'd exhausted every lead. In the nearly two months since they'd started, Fabian claimed they'd collected over 4,000 statements from locals, prisoners and military personnel. Although that was probably an exaggeration, considering many villagers had refused to cooperate with the investigation. And in the end, only 58 of those statements made it into the police files. At that point, Fabian still believed Potter was guilty. But there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, no witnesses placing him at the scene and no clear motive. On April 5, Fabian caught a train back to London and wrote his final report. Britain's most famous detective had finally met his match. Five years later, in 1950, Fabian would reflect on what went wrong in Lower Quinton. He'd cracked countless cases, but this one had beaten him. And he'd come to believe it wasn't just because of Potter's lies or the villagers silence. It was because there was black magic involved. During his investigation, he'd heard villagers talk about the devil and the occult. He'd seen firsthand how scared they got when he saw that black dog on the street.

[Lester Holt]

And.

[Vanessa Richardson]

And eventually he learned why they reacted that way. There's a local legend about a young plow boy who lived in the village of Elveston, about 60 miles from Lower Quinton. In 1875 or 1885, he encountered a black dog on his way home from work eight days in a row. On the ninth day, he heard the rustling of a silk dress. A moment later, a headless woman brushed past him and in some versions of the story, the dog transformed into the woman. But on the 10th day, the boy's sister suddenly passed away. The boy's name? Charles Walton. Fabian thought the story was little more than a fairy tale. Even if it were true, his Charlie Walton wasn't even from Alveston. But some of the villagers seemed to believe it. And perhaps they knew something he didn't. On September 16, 1955 years after Charlie's death, a magazine called the News published an article linking his killing to witchcraft. The author claimed Charlie had been found under an oak tree with the bill hook piercing his heart, which were all apparently signs of sorcery. To be clear, these details contradicted the actual police report. But. But those files were still sealed at the time. The story struck a chord and by 1951 the case had attracted the attention of Margaret Murray, a prominent archaeologist and controversial folklorist. She believed that witchcraft was alive and well in Great Britain and was connected to ancient pagan rituals long thought forgotten. In November 1951, she told the Birmingham Him Post that Charlie had been killed as a human sacrifice. She based this on the ritualistic manner of his death. Throat cut, body pinned. In folklore, bloodletting or cutting the throat ensures that blood is spilled, which is a symbolic act of offering to the devil or pagan gods. And pinning his body to the ground was linked to the idea of nailing a witch to the earth to prevent their spirit from rising again. Murray also claimed that February was a traditional sacrificial month. She noted that on an older calendar called the Julian calendar, February 14th was actually February 2nd, which was the date of Imbol, a Celtic fire festival celebrating a horned God. The county of Warwickshire had deep Celtic roots, growing going back into prehistory. One of the most enduring signs of it was the so called Rollright stones, a collection of 72 boulders on a hill dating back more than 5,000 years. These were about 15 miles south of Lower Quinton, where Charlie died. Local legend claimed a provincial king had come across a witch. In his travels, the witch had challenged the would be conqueror. She said that if he could reach the top of the hill in seven strides and look down upon the village of Long Compton, he would become king of all England. Excited, he leapt forward, but as he took his seventh step, a mound of earth magically rose to block his view. The witch then cursed him and his army by turning them all into to rocks, which are the Rollright stones we see today. For local residents, the Rollright stones were a connection to their ancient pagan past. And some believed that pagans continued to visit the stones in secret. Newspapers occasionally reported about eyewitnesses who'd seen shadowy figures in robes dancing around the monoliths on a full moon. Years later, one villager would remark that quite quote, that's where the witches make their home. In 1952. A housewife named Una Mossop even claimed that she was one of them. She said that she and her coven had regularly met for secret rituals at the stones, and on one of them, they had killed Charles Walton. The stones and Charlie's murder then caught the attention of a journalist named Donald McCormick. Years earlier, he'd claimed to have identified Jack the Ripper. Now he was determined to solve Charlie's murder, too. In 1968, he published a book titled Murder by Witchcraft. With his own take on the case, McCormick described Charlie as an unusual figure who could talk to birds and sing like them. He wrote that Charlie had lived his entire life in isolation and that a cross had been carved into his throat. McCormick also alleged that police had received letters from fellow villagers identifying Charlie as a suspected witch, with birds serving as his familiars. In the end, McCormick believed Charlie was killed in a case of mistaken identity. He hypothesized that a local farmer had suffered a run of bad harvests and thought poor old Charlie had put a crack curse on him. The brutal style of the killing was an attempt to undo the evil act. It's a lot to process, and the black magic angle is certainly fascinating, but I'm sorry to say it isn't what killed Charlie. See, neither McCormick nor Murray actually had access to the original police files. But in the early 2000s, an author named M.J. trow got his hands on those documents. The many of them were missing or heavily redacted. Even so, he was able to thoroughly debunk the supernatural narrative. For starters, none of the contemporary police statements from 1945 mentioned witchcraft. And despite McCormick's claims, no one actually wrote a letter to the police accusing Charlie of being a witch. Plus, many of the supposedly ritualistic aspects of the murder were false. False. The medical records didn't mention anything about a cross being carved into Charlie's body. McCormick had made up the part about the Bill Hook piercing Charlie's heart. And as I mentioned, the Rollright stones were miles away from me on Hill. A vague connection at best. As for the stories about Charlie being able to talk to birds, no one who actually knew him ever saw Charlie doing anything like that. So if magic wasn't at play, what was? Based on how savage the killing was? M.J. trow, the author who reinvestigated Charlie's murder, believed the assailant must have really hated Charlie. And his best guess had to do with some rumors he'd heard around town, ones that painted Charlie in a very bad light. In 1998, a man in Lower Quinton, 64 year old Edwin. When Wilcox was murdered more than 20 years earlier, he'd sexually abused a child named Christopher Thomas at a boy's home. After leaving the home, Christopher struggled to move past the trauma he'd endured at Edwin's hands. So when he saw Edwin at a restaurant two decades later, he took his revenge. He kidnapped the man and brought him to the edge of a cliff. Edwin begged him to spare his life, but Christopher believed he didn't show any actual remorse. So he kicked him off the cliff and into the sea. MJ Trow wondered if something similar had happened to Charlie. An elderly woman in Lower Quinton recalled that the children in town were scared of Charlie. Donald McCormick had mentioned a teenager in his book known only as Smith. Smith had a violent temper and supposedly disappeared from Lower Quinton a few weeks after Charlie's death, only to die by suicide. Trow theorized that Charlie had abused Smith, who then murdered him in revenge. Unfortunately, there are a ton of people named Smith, and Trow was unable to locate any records of this particular person. And given McCormick's habit of making stuff up, we have to take this with a big grain of salt. The truth is, we'll probably never know who killed Charlie or why. Because he was so secretive. We don't really know who Charles Walton was. That might be why his death continues to be shrouded in so much mystery. The story of Charlie's murder keeps evolving, adding new details with each retelling. People claim he bred toads, that he could commune with animals. It's said that his death inspired the classic horror movie the Wicker man, which is about a murderous coven of pagan witches in a remote corner of Scotland. It also inspired dozens of British filmmakers who probed the dark secrets of idyllic small towns and villages. And that's really at the heart of why his death was so special. It ripped back the the curtain of polite village life and revealed how fragile it all really is. Because if you can't trust your neighbors, then who can you trust? Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next week. We'll decode this episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media. Media rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Wednesday. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Xander Bernstein, Spencer, Spencer Howard and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening. And Doug Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us? Cut the camera.

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