The Cop, The Kidnap and The Killer: 1. The Perfect Detective

Summary

Crime Next Door – Series 12: The Cop, The Kidnap and The Killer
Episode 1: The Perfect Detective
Date: December 2, 2025
Host: Susan Hanks (BBC Sounds)
Summary by: [Your Name]

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Episode Overview

This riveting true crime episode launches Series 12: The Beast of Birkenhead by revisiting one of Britain’s most notorious kidnappings: the 1975 abduction of 17-year-old Leslie Whittle from Highley, Shropshire. The episode focuses on the rapid, fraught investigation led by Bob Booth, a legendary detective with a near-perfect case record — and explores how both police missteps and media interference threatened not only Leslie’s life but also Booth’s storied reputation. The show combines narration, interviews, and archival news audio to re-create the tension and chaos of the Midlands’ largest-ever search – pulling listeners into the heart of a desperate race against time.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Crime: Kidnapping With Chilling Precision (00:30 – 03:48)

• Opening Scene: Susan Hanks describes the terrifying intrusion into the Whittle home, comparing the safety of “your home” to the shocking violation that Leslie experienced.
• Details: Leslie is awoken by a hooded, armed intruder, forced from her bedroom, and led through the night to a cold, underground drainage shaft where she’s tethered “by a wire noose like an animal” — a gruesome image that haunts the episode (02:28).
• Media Alert: As news of the abduction breaks, radio reports emphasize the fear and urgency gripping the community.

The Lead Detective: Bob Booth’s Reputation (06:03 – 08:09)

• DCS Bob Booth is introduced as “the perfect detective” with a record of solving every murder he’s led in nearly 30 years, recently honored with an MBE (06:50–09:09).
• Peer Testimonies: Journalists and fellow officers commend Booth’s rigorous methodology and people skills:
  • “He got the personal skills of making everybody feel at home when he was talking to them. I liked him.” – Phil Maskerey (08:00)
  • “Very successful. I think he’d solved something like 70 murders. Quietly spoken. Well, most of the time…” – Andy Wright (07:16)

The Whittle Family: Local Standing & Internal Tensions (10:13 – 12:43)

• Background: The Whittles are a prominent local family, known for their coach company; the house is “impossible to drive through Highly without seeing” (10:49).
• Family Disputes: After the patriarch’s death, legal battles over the will amplify their public profile, perhaps contributing to resentment and visibility in the small community.

The First Ransom Attempt: Meticulous Planning Undone by Media (13:27 – 18:33)

• Booth’s Plan: Ron Whittle, Leslie’s brother, follows the kidnapper’s complex instructions for a ransom drop at the Swan Shopping Centre, Kidderminster (13:58).
• Critical Mistake: The press quickly learns of the case. Roy Caswell, a journalist, argues that police should have called for a news blackout, as “any publicity could spook the kidnapper” (16:20).
• Outcome: The police recall Ron from the drop, fearing the kidnapper’s awareness. As Andy Wright reflects:
  • “They bottled the operation too early…the phones kept ringing. Who knows what would have happened if somebody had been there to answer?” (19:24)
• Emotional Impact: Bob Booth’s empathy for the family is palpable:
  • “Can you imagine your daughter under these circumstances? It’d break me if I were in their place.” (19:46)

Media and Police Relations: Friction and Fallout (20:53 – 24:23)

• Press Invasion: As journalists descend on Highly, the tension escalates, with makeshift camps outside the Whittle home.
• Debate around journalistic responsibility and media blackouts:
  • “We’d never experienced a media blackout as such. Nobody had ever come to us and said, please, can you keep this out?” – Andy Wright (23:55)
  • “A local district reporter…was accused by some critics of selling his soul to the devil.” – Roy Caswell (23:13)

Second and Third Ransom Drops: Escalating Chaos (24:51 – 32:39)

• Second Attempt: Press leaks again foil the drop, as locations/instructions are published. Ron, closely watched by journalists and gawkers, receives no call:
  • “For all I knew, I could have been under observation by the kidnapper. And yet I have these fools coming up to me…” – Phil Maskerey (25:38)
• Despair: No progress; the emotional and psychological toll mounts.
• Third Attempt: A late-night pre-recorded message from Leslie gives new hope (27:49):
  • “Mom, you get to go to Kids Grove post office telephone box. It’s Leslie’s voice.” – Susan Hanks (27:49)
• Final Effort Fails: Delays, confusing instructions, and unfamiliar locations lead to more blunders:
  • “From then on, just about anything that could go wrong went well and truly wrong.” – Roy Caswell (29:41)
  • A torch signal is missed; Ron, lost and anxious, never makes contact with the kidnapper (31:20–32:00).

The Aftermath: Growing Desperation (32:39 – end)

• Cases Growing Cold: Booth admits hope is slipping:
  • “Of course, they’re getting graver every day. I’m the first to admit that every 24 hours, it’s that much graver.” – Bob Booth (32:41)
• Haunting Uncertainty: The episode closes with the realization that the family — and police — were closer to finding Leslie than they knew.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “A scream could be fatal…with careful consideration, he pauses to leave ransom instructions printed on Dymo tape and placed meticulously with on top of a chocolate box.” – Susan Hanks describing the chilling kidnapping (00:52)
• “The system will catch him. I’ll prove you wrong.” – Bob Booth, exuding confidence (04:49)
• “There’s no crash, bang, wallop on these sorts of things. Documentation, paperwork, re-reading, re-checking. That’s what catches people today — cold clinical analyses.” – Bob Booth, on investigative method (07:25)
• “It was beyond comprehension that an incident of this magnitude could be kept quiet—especially from keen newsmen.” – Roy Caswell, regarding the media (17:46)
• “For all I knew, I could have been under observation by the kidnapper. And yet I have these fools coming up to me… I got damn annoyed about it.” – Phil Maskerey, expressing rising frustration (25:38)
• “I was hopeful that…within 48 hours we would have had Leslie back home. We might have lost the money, we’d have had Leslie back home. Of that I’m sure.” – Bob Booth, reflecting on missed chances (26:37)
• “A call containing the most eagerly awaited voice. Mom, you get to go to Kids Grove post office telephone box. It’s Leslie’s voice.” – Susan Hanks, as hope briefly returns (27:49)
• “Of course, the signs are getting graver every day. I’m the first to admit that every 24 hours, it’s that much graver.” – Bob Booth, as the search darkens (32:41)

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Important Segments (Timestamps)

• 00:30 – 03:48: The dramatic kidnapping described.
• 06:10 – 09:09: Introduction and legacy of Bob Booth.
• 10:49 – 13:16: The Whittle family’s position in Highly.
• 13:27 – 18:33: The first ransom attempt and the media leak.
• 20:53 – 23:41: Media and police tensions; impact of press involvement.
• 24:51 – 26:53: The second failed ransom drop.
• 27:49 – 31:20: The third drop, Leslie’s recorded message, and failed rendezvous in Bathpool Park.
• 32:39 – End: Dwindling hope, emotional closing remarks.

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Tone & Style

The episode unfolds with a blend of chilling detail, anxious suspense, and heartfelt empathy—from Susan Hanks’s determined, immersive narration to the raw, candid fragments of interviews with police, journalists, and family friends. Archival audio and field recordings intensify the emotion and authenticity, setting listeners directly into the bleak Midlands winter of 1975.

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For listeners: This episode vividly recounts not only the facts of the case but also the emotional and professional toll exacted by a single, relentless crime. It sets the stakes for the rest of the series, foreshadowing the far-reaching impact on policing and community trauma – and leaving the central, heartbreaking question unresolved: what happened to Leslie Whittle?

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For the full, meticulously told story, follow the rest of Series 12 on BBC Sounds.

Transcript

[Susan Hanks]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. What do Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney,

[Podcast Narrator]

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[Susan Hanks]

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[Susan Hanks]

That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service.

[Podcast Narrator]

Listen now. Search for Good Bad Billionaire wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

[Susan Hanks]

Episodes of Crime Next Door are released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. But if you're in the uk, you can listen to the full series right now first on BBC Sounds. The following episode includes upsetting scenes from the start. Your home is meant to be your haven. Once we lock our doors, we're supposed to be safe from the events of the big bad world outside. But in the early hours of Tuesday 14th January 1975, with military precision, a total stranger enters a house in the village of Highley in Shropshire and climbs the stairs. Which door does he open? Behind one is a mother in her late 50s, sleeping peacefully. Behind the other, her 17 year old daughter. The girl is woken to the sights of a hooded figure and a loaded shotgun. A scream could be fatal. Obediently, she puts on her slippers and gathers her dressing gown. With careful consideration, he pauses to leave ransom instructions printed on Dymo tape and placed meticulously with on top of a chocolate box. Downstairs and out they go into the freezing nights and his waiting car. She follows her fates and starts her journey to who knows where. Nearly 70 miles north awaits the most horrific of prisons. She's forced to climb into a pitch black hole, descending into sheer darkness below ground, treading carefully on the wet rungs of the metal ladder, disappearing deeper into the icy drainage shaft some 60ft below. She's placed on a small ledge the size of a stretcher, with only a sleeping bag to save her from the sub zero temperatures. And in a final act of horror, she's tethered by a wire noose like an animal and left there by her captor, away from the eyes and ears of the world. Above ground,

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

It's understood. A young girl has been abducted and police have found a ransom demand.

[Nick Owen]

It sends a chill through me just hearing it now.

[Susan Hanks]

What came next was a desperate race across the Midlands to follow a trail and save the girl. And walking through the park, the trail

[Narrator/Reporter]

was to lead to these two kiosks.

[Susan Hanks]

I can feel my own heart pounding.

[Phil Maskerey]

For all I knew, I could have been under observation by the kidnapper.

[Andy Wright]

Kidnapping wasn't something that happened every day.

[Dave Bagnell]

Certainly not interrupt you.

[Susan Hanks]

It's the story of a career criminal with a master plan to make a fortune. The hunt is on for the most

[Narrator/Reporter]

wanted criminal in Britain.

[Bob Booth]

One man. One ruthless, wicked man.

[Susan Hanks]

A family targeted completely by chance.

[Ron Whittle]

If we could just know something, somebody just contact us anyhow.

[Susan Hanks]

A police force with little help. In the limited world of 1970s Britain, we didn't have computers, we didn't have DNA, we didn't have anything like that. And all led by the officer who always got his man.

[Bob Booth]

The system will catch him. I'll prove you wrong.

[Susan Hanks]

But will time run out to save his reputation and her life?

[Bob Booth]

I've turned off in every inquiry I've been involved. I can't turn off on this one.

[Susan Hanks]

I'm Susan Hanks. I grew up in the Midlands and lived in many of the main locations. In this case, retracing his footsteps, steps. It's eerie. I've always been fascinated by the incredible twists and turns of this story and its powerful impact on modern day police investigations.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Haunting. Very haunting.

[Susan Hanks]

From Crime Next Door. This is the Cop, the Kidnap and the Killer, Episode one, the Perfect Detective. A body's been found. It's in a market town near Telford, just over 20 miles from the kidnap scene at Highley. But this is nothing to do with that crime and everything to do with the man in charge.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The entire operation is commanded by Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Booth, head of West Mercier cid.

[Bob Booth]

All right, what's going on here? Anything?

[Susan Hanks]

Commanding a crime scene, finding clues, making arrests. This is Booth's bread and butter in Shropshire. He's the one they turn to in all the biggest cases. DPS Booth. DPS Booth.

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

Coming.

[Susan Hanks]

Yes, but this case isn't the biggest presence required at Bridgnorth Road, Highley. Incident at Beechcroft House. Unprecedented events in Highley demand the attention of the perfect detective.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Booth is 49 and because he solved every one of the 70 murder cases he's led, after nearly 30 years in the CID, he has a well earned reputation as a shrewd and hard nosed detective.

[Andy Wright]

I knew Bob Booth by reputation. I knew him as a murder solver, if you like.

[Susan Hanks]

Andy Wright and Dave Bagnell were local journalists who were well aware of Bob Booth's record.

[Dave Bagnell]

Successful as well.

[Andy Wright]

Very successful. I think he'd solved something like 70 murders. Quietly spoken. Well, most of the time he was, yeah, he was supposed to be very, very good.

[Bob Booth]

There's no crash, bang, wallop on these sorts of things. Documentation, paperwork, re reading, rechecking. That's what catches People today cold clinic analyses.

[Phil Maskerey]

Well, when I worked out of the laboratory in Birmingham, there were only two police officers. The rest were scientists.

[Susan Hanks]

Phil Maskerey was a young detective constable in forensics.

[Phil Maskerey]

The other police officer was a friend of Bob Booth. So ultimately I became friendly with Bob Booth and I found him a very committed man, a very professional detective.

[Andy Wright]

He was good at his job.

[Phil Maskerey]

He got the personal skills of making everybody feel at home when he was talking to them and I liked him.

[Susan Hanks]

His police record has just earned him an MBE in the New Year's Honors list.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now, just months away from retirement, he's faced with the biggest challenge of his career.

[Susan Hanks]

But as details emerge back in highly it becomes clear that this challenge is one he's never faced before.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Seventeen year old Leslie Whittle missing from

[Susan Hanks]

her home in Shropshire.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Leslie left Wolfram College in Wolverhampton. She took a bus home, arriving about tea time.

[Andy Wright]

They just couldn't comprehend what had gone on.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Whittle, was away at a meeting. Her brother Ronald, whose home is also in the village, phoned her that evening.

[Andy Wright]

Kidnapping wasn't something that happened every day.

[Dave Bagnell]

Certainly not interrupt you.

[Phil Maskerey]

Well, I rang Leslie I suppose about 10:15 and we, we chatted for a few minutes.

[Andy Wright]

I don't think any of us had really had much experience of abduction if you like.

[Narrator/Reporter]

No police rule book to guide you there, is that?

[Bob Booth]

No, just being human, that's all.

[Narrator/Reporter]

At 1:15, her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Whittle returned from a meeting. Leslie was indeed asleep in her bed facing the door. She has not been seen since.

[Ron Whittle]

Take Leslie's breakfast up at 10 to 7. No Leslie there. Try to ring Ronald. The phone was dead. I didn't realize the wires were cut. Well, there was a big vase stood on the hearth there, box of Turkish Delight on the top and a tape on the top. And Ronald's wife picked it up, she rolled it out and she just said something like oh my God or something like that and ran out and down the garage to Ronald.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The kidnapper's ransom note demanded £50,000 for the safe return of his sister Leslie. The note included the injunction that if the police were called in, Leslie would be killed.

[Susan Hanks]

But the police are called and the perfect detective must tread new ground if he's going to live up to his reputation. But if anyone can, Bob Booth can. On arrival he finds a home that's far from ordinary, because in Highley the Whittles are a high profile family.

[Andy Wright]

It was a big house on the corner of a junk, a road junction.

[Dave Bagnell]

Very much a distinctive Property, I would say, you know, I mean, it's impossible to drive through highly without seeing that house.

[Bob Booth]

Yeah.

[Dave Bagnell]

And thinking of, you know, Leslie, she

[Viv Moore]

was a very pretty girl, a very vivacious girl and she was easy to talk to and talk to everybody. She had no airs and graces, just a lovely girl.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Her father George, was to make his name through a coach transport firm which made sound profits.

[Andy Wright]

We all knew Whittle's coaches. They took every school kid to school. Buses were on every local route, really, in south Shropshire.

[Viv Moore]

I was living in Highley. I always commuted to work, either to Bridge north or to Kidderminster, and generally on Whittle's coaches.

[Susan Hanks]

Viv Moore was a teacher at Bridgnorth Grammar School and knew the family well.

[Viv Moore]

I knew Mrs. Whittle because I taught her to swim and I knew Ron slightly. Most people liked them because they knew that he worked hard and he gave a great. Because out in Highley we would have been so cut off without the coaches.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When George Whittle died in 1972, there was a noisy family dispute about the will, which got into the local and national papers at the time. But the fuss soon died down.

[Andy Wright]

I don't think too many people knew about the background, really, of he and his wife and living with Dorothy.

[Susan Hanks]

George had left his first wife, Selena, for Dorothy years earlier before starting the family. But having never divorced, it created a messy court battle which further raised the Whittle profile. But it resulted in Leslie and mum Dorothy keeping the house while the running of the company passed down to their son Ron.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Do you think that there's any jealousy at all about the family from the big white house on the hill?

[Phil Maskerey]

There's a certain amount of jealousy. Sort of the type of jealousy where people say, God, I had the same opportunity, why didn't I take it?

[Viv Moore]

He worked so hard and he took so much on his shoulders about the business. He was always thinking, maybe worrying about the business. But when I got to know him a little bit afterwards, he was a very nice man as well.

[Susan Hanks]

Now at the house. All right, it's time for Bob Booth to devise his master plan.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Hundreds of officers will spend the next few days checking every single house,

[Nick Owen]

shop,

[Narrator/Reporter]

business premises, cars and derelict buildings in an attempt to find the missing girl.

[Susan Hanks]

The ransom instructions tell a courier to be at the Swan Shopping center in Kidderminster by 6 o' clock that evening and waits until 1am for a call at a certain telephone kiosk.

[Bob Booth]

£50,000. No police, no tricks. Otherwise, death.

[Susan Hanks]

The police need to keep a low profile. So Ron Whittle, Leslie's own brother, will become the integral parts in Bob Booth's plan. He will be the courier in a 50,000 pound ransom drop.

[Phil Maskerey]

I've got to get Leslie back and that is the only consideration as far as I'm concerned at the moment.

[Susan Hanks]

It's a plan that could cost Bob Booth his reputation, but may cost Leslie her life. It's cold, it's dark, it's eerie. Wearing a wire, Ron heads to Kidderminster. It's six o' clock, Tuesday 14th January 1975, and I'm retracing his footsteps to the Swan Shopping Centre in Kidderminster. What's he going to find in that phone booth? Will the kidnapper be waiting there for him? He doesn't know what to expect as he reaches the point where the phone booth was. This is the site. The phone kiosk is tapped so the police can hear the incoming instructions. Whatever these may be, Ron will carry them out, discreetly monitored by Bob Booth's team. The Whittle family woke up first thing and realized that Leslie was missing. That's a long time to wait, all day with that knowledge. But you've got to arrive with hope and you've got to be prepared to stand waiting, longing to hear that phone ringing. Follow Ron to the drop off, arrest the kidnapper when he collects the money. What could possibly go wrong? Every base covered except one. As Roy Caswell, a journalist with the Kidderminster Times, recalled back in 2008, the

[Roy Caswell]

real problem was that the police should have taken the press into their confidence much earlier on that fateful day and asked for a temporary news blackout.

[Susan Hanks]

A blackout where the authorities stopped the press from publishing a story. Any publicity could spook the kidnapper. The ransom note said no police. If the world knew about it, surely the police would too. Leslie's life could be in jeopardy. A small oversight from a police force with little or no experience of a crime like this, but one that was about to blow Bob Booth's entire plan to pieces.

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

We interrupt this program to bring you a Radio Birmingham news flash. News is coming in of a kidnapping in the Shropshire village of Highley. It's understood a young girl has been abducted and police have found a ransom demand. It's believed £50,000 is being asked for the safe return of Leslie Whittle, the daughter of a wealthy coach firm proprietor. We'll bring you more details as we get them.

[Roy Caswell]

Mr. Booth was furious with the reporter who'd fed the story to the BBC.

[Bob Booth]

How on earth can I be Held responsible for a thing like that. I never had a chance. It was a fait accompli to me. It was presented the media had blown it.

[Roy Caswell]

But it was beyond comprehension that an incident of this magnitude could be kept quiet, especially from keen newsmen.

[Andy Wright]

It was actually the night of the Shropshire editorial dinner and I didn't go.

[Susan Hanks]

Andy Wright, the local journalist.

[Andy Wright]

The telephone rang and it was the assistant news editor who said, have you seen the news? I need you to go to Highley. You're the only one available and I need you down there fast. Leslie Whittle had been kidnapped.

[Susan Hanks]

Bob Booth's whole plan has been scuppered. And with the press and media now aware that a major incident is underway, he calls a late night press conference to bring them up to speed.

[Dave Bagnell]

I was working in Shoesbury as a district photographer.

[Susan Hanks]

Dave Bagnell and his colleague at the Shropshire Star.

[Dave Bagnell]

I had to go into head office for something and I got there, said, oh, glad you've come in, we need you to go to Highley. I was sent there at a minute's notice.

[Susan Hanks]

A small oversight compounded by what Bob Booth does next.

[Phil Maskerey]

Come in, Ron.

[Susan Hanks]

He assumes the kidnapper has also heard the news. Return to Highley, Ron.

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

Return to Highley.

[Susan Hanks]

As a result, he recalls Ron Whittle from his late night ransom drop at the Kidderminster telephone kiosk. And so come midnight, with no one there to hear or answer it,

[Andy Wright]

They bought the operation too early. The phones kept ringing. Who knows what would have happened if somebody had been there to answer? I don't know.

[Susan Hanks]

No drop, no Leslie and no daughter for Dorothy to tuck in at the end of what must have been the worst day of her life.

[Bob Booth]

I feel particularly sorry for Mrs. Whittle. Can you imagine it? Can you imagine your daughter under these circumstances? It'd break me if I were in their place.

[Susan Hanks]

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[Susan Hanks]

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[Susan Hanks]

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[Susan Hanks]

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[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

We interrupt this program to bring you a Radio Birmingham news flash.

[Susan Hanks]

Nick Owen was a young BBC Radio Birmingham reporter at the time of the kidnapping.

[Nick Owen]

Very early days in my broadcasting career.

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

£50,000 is being asked for the safe return of Leslie Whittle, the daughter of a wealthy coach firm proprietor.

[Nick Owen]

It sends a chill through me, just hearing it now and remembering how all of us in the newsroom were pretty stunned by this story.

[Radio Birmingham News Announcer]

We'll bring you more details as we get.

[Nick Owen]

They sent me out to Highley, to the village where Leslie Whittle and the Whittle family live. And once I'd identified the house, I went and knocked on the door and it was answered by Ronald Whittle. And he was very polite. He looked stunned by the turn of events. I have to say. Understandably, they were coping with the trauma, the shock of the whole thing.

[Dave Bagnell]

Probably not many journalists there to start with.

[Andy Wright]

No, no.

[Susan Hanks]

Dave Bagnell, Andy Wright at the Shropshire Star.

[Dave Bagnell]

But over the next few days, it built up. There were people that had small motorhomes on the car park opposite the House of Nails. We had one, I said ourselves as well.

[Andy Wright]

Yeah. We had the Old Bridge North Journal marketing trailer.

[Dave Bagnell]

That's right, yeah.

[Andy Wright]

It used to be an X double glazing window.

[Dave Bagnell]

Yeah.

[Andy Wright]

Thing. And we. We all sat in that. The Express and Star and Shropshire Star shared it. And somebody had to be in it every night.

[Dave Bagnell]

Yeah.

[Andy Wright]

And it was bloody freezing.

[Dave Bagnell]

We did. We shared shifts with the Shropshire express and Star 24 hours a day.

[Roy Caswell]

Yeah.

[Andy Wright]

There was a photographer and a reporter on duty always.

[Dave Bagnell]

Yeah.

[Susan Hanks]

But in the fallout of the previous night's aborted ransom drop, who's to blame?

[Andy Wright]

I have a theory.

[Bob Booth]

I wonder whether perhaps several releases that were made that were not at my best might have caused us problems.

[Susan Hanks]

Frightened above.

[Bob Booth]

You said it.

[Susan Hanks]

Someone, a journalist, has sold a story of Leslie's kidnapping to the local press and the BBC.

[Roy Caswell]

The identity of this mystery journalist was well known to me.

[Susan Hanks]

Roy Caswell from the Kidderminster times, speaking in 2008.

[Roy Caswell]

A local district reporter for a Midlands daily newspaper, he was accused by some critics of selling his soul to the devil.

[Bob Booth]

I hope and sincerely pray that when we get Leslie back, it hasn't proved to be as damaging as it might have been.

[Roy Caswell]

But he was only doing his job.

[Andy Wright]

We'd never experienced a media black act as such. Nobody had ever come to us and said, please, can you keep this out?

[Nick Owen]

A very different time from now, when the police are so open and they have public relations officers, press officers, freedom information requests and so on, and it had to be very transparent. In those days, it was a bit ad hoc.

[Andy Wright]

No, I'd never experienced a media blackout. I'm not even sure that my news editor would have done.

[Roy Caswell]

This sort of arrangement had worked well with the police and me locally in the past on a number of occasions. And the local reporter who first tipped off the BBC would have cooperated. Indeed, I'm sure the entire news industry in the country would have held the story back.

[Susan Hanks]

In response to the media blackout allegations, West Mercia police said they've never received a formal complaint in relation to their handling of this case. Wednesday 15 January 1975. The second day of the kidnap and a second chance for Ron Whittle to save his sister.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Are you going to attempt to make another contact?

[Phil Maskerey]

Yes.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When is this to be?

[Phil Maskerey]

Tonight.

[Susan Hanks]

Ron's original instructions had stated that if the first drop was unsuccessful, he should return to the same phone box the following night.

[Andy Wright]

I went more than once to try and follow Ron's car. The police weren't going to make it easy for you, really. They clamped down, to be honest.

[Susan Hanks]

But again, the clampdown is too little, too late.

[Narrator/Reporter]

By lunchtime, two of the local papers carried details of the kidnappers instructions to Ronnie Whittle, including the location of two telephone boxes in Kidderminster, where Whittle was to wait for the second time for instructions. So when he went, he was never alone.

[Phil Maskerey]

For all I knew, I could have been under observation by the kidnapper. And yet I have these fools coming up to me, you know, walking past me at regular intervals and looking at me and coming up and talking to me, and I got damn annoyed about it. I got to the stage eventually where I politely told them, or rather not so politely told them, to sud off.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The attempt to make contact ended disastrously. There was no call.

[Susan Hanks]

But why wasn't there a call? Press or no press, Ron Whittle had done everything he was asked. So why didn't the phone ring this time? The stress that Ron Whittle must have been experiencing, not only to go through this whole process again, but with the added pressure of the world watching reporters, photographers, my first spectators, must have been unbearable.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Booth.

[Bob Booth]

I was hopeful that if things had gone as I hoped they would, as I wanted them to go, that within 48 hours we would have had Leslie back home. We might have lost the money, we'd have had Leslie back home. Of that I'm sure.

[Susan Hanks]

If I was Ron Whittle on that night, driving back to my home in Highley, to the rest of my family and friends who were longing for me to return with news, I would have a lot to think about, including, is there any hope left of getting Leslie back?

[Phil Maskerey]

I Am on the phone at home. I'm there day and night. I'm just hoping that they will get

[Narrator/Reporter]

in touch with me, her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Whittle.

[Ron Whittle]

If we could just know something. If somebody would just contact us anyhow, we don't care how.

[Susan Hanks]

You're about to hear the actual recording of a late night call received at the Whittle house. A call containing the most eagerly awaited voice. Mom, you get to go to Kids Grove post office telephone box. It's Leslie's voice. The instructions are inside behind the backboard. I'm okay. But there will be no police and no tricks. Okay? But she doesn't respond to their questions. The family realize it's a pre recorded message. But Leslie is alive. There could be another chance to bring her home. It's just before Midnight on Thursday 16th January 1975, day three of the kidnap. This time it's a ransom drop that the press and media are not aware of. And Bob Booth is keen to keep it that way.

[Roy Caswell]

It gave instructions to take the 50, 000 pounds to Kids Grove post office.

[Susan Hanks]

Roy Caswell, the Kidderminster times journalist, about

[Roy Caswell]

70 miles away in Staffordshire, which is

[Susan Hanks]

a long way from the familiar surroundings of Shropshire or even nearby Kidderminster. With the clock ticking and so much to take in, Bob Booth once again plans to follow the courier's footsteps. And once again, Ron Whittle is the man who's got to get it right.

[Roy Caswell]

From then on, just about anything that could go wrong went well and truly wrong. Ron Whittle was more than an hour late getting to Kitts Grove after the police had insisted on wiring him up with a microphone and transmitter.

[Susan Hanks]

It's not somewhere I'm familiar with the same. As Ron would have not known at all where he's going.

[Roy Caswell]

It took him another half an hour to find further directions which had been hidden in the telephone kiosk.

[Phil Maskerey]

Well, there was some instructions behind the board, but I had difficulty in finding these. In fact, they've been pushed rather far back in and I couldn't find them straight away.

[Susan Hanks]

I just can't begin to imagine how stressful this would have felt.

[Phil Maskerey]

And you know, that was on a Dymo tape again.

[Susan Hanks]

So here are the instructions. Continue along the avenue for 0.4 miles. Turn left onto Boathorse Road.

[Phil Maskerey]

Ask to go up the road and turn left and turn right into a car park and follow the road through.

[Susan Hanks]

Follow Boat horse Road for 0.5 miles, turn right into Bathpool Park.

[Phil Maskerey]

Look out for a flashing torch and then run to the torch And I'd find further instructions on the torch. It was a very desolate area. I reached what I thought was the point, so I stopped there and flashed my lights, as I've been instructed to do, and looked for the torch. But I couldn't see any torch.

[Susan Hanks]

And walking through the park, everything just becomes a bit more scary.

[Phil Maskerey]

So I then drove on farther along the road and flashed my lights again and looked around and still no sign of a flashing torch.

[Susan Hanks]

Your senses are so much more heightened when you're in the dark. I can feel my own heart pounding.

[Phil Maskerey]

I drove right the way up and down the road for two or three times, flashing the light, but, you know, there was no sign of this torch at all.

[Susan Hanks]

But why not? What is going on? Is the kidnapper playing games, deliberately prolonging the torture of the Whittle family? Ron was at Bathpool park with the 50,000. And yet no contact from the kidnapper and still no Leslie, leaving Ron to return home once again a desperate and defeated man. Bob Booth's plans haven't gone to plan.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Aren't the signs a little bleak now?

[Bob Booth]

Of course, they're getting graver every day. I'm the first to admit that every 24 hours, it's that much graver.

[Susan Hanks]

72 hours on three failed ransom drops, and his reputation is now in jeopardy.

[Bob Booth]

The family, what a terrible situation they must be in.

[Susan Hanks]

But more importantly, so is Leslie. I'm okay. We're going to be. No police and no tricks. And yet, little did they know how close they'd been to finding her. And little did they know that the kidnapper was far more dangerous than anyone could possibly imagine. Listen to the whole series right now, first on BBC Sounds. What do Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney,

[Podcast Narrator]

YouTube megastar MrBeast, and former Facebook executive

[Susan Hanks]

Sheryl Sandberg all have in common.

[Podcast Narrator]

They're all being discussed in the new season of Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast which explores the lives and fortunes of the world's super rich.

[Susan Hanks]

That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service.

[Podcast Narrator]

Listen now. Search for Good Bad Billionaire wherever you get your BBC podcasts.