Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice

Summary

History This Week: Episode Summary

Title: Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice
Host: Alana Casanova Burgess
Release Date: March 10, 2025
Production: Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice," History This Week delves into one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British history—the wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration of the Birmingham Six. Through the expertise of Ed Barlow, a BBC producer who created a podcast on the subject, and a wealth of historical context, the episode explores the events leading up to the bombings, the flawed judicial process, and the long-lasting impact on the lives of the wrongfully imprisoned men and their families.

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Background: The IRA and the Birmingham Context

The episode begins by setting the stage with the historical conflict between England and Ireland, tracing back to the Act of Union in 1801. This established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, leading to over a century marked by Irish nationalist resistance, intermittent violence, rebellion, and repression.

• Formation of the IRA: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was established in 1919 with the primary goal of reunifying Ireland and freeing it from British rule. By 1969, internal divisions led to the split of the IRA into the Officials, who pursued peaceful means, and the Provisionals, who endorsed violent tactics to achieve their aims.

• IRA's Campaigns: The Provisional IRA focused on disrupting British military and economic targets primarily through bombings, aiming to pressure the UK government into relinquishing control over Northern Ireland.

Ed Barlow: "They wanted to attract their attention. And so doing that on the streets of Britain was likely to get more of a response." [07:28]

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The Birmingham Pub Bombings

On March 8, 1974, the IRA escalated its campaign by targeting mainland Britain, specifically Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city with a significant Irish immigrant population.

• The Attacks: Two bombs exploded at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs, causing 21 fatalities and numerous injuries. The choice of civilian pubs marked a significant shift from the IRA's usual focus on military and economic targets.

Ed Barlow: "What a waste of life. What an awful thing to happen." [18:58]

• Immediate Aftermath: The explosions plunged Birmingham into chaos, with emergency services overwhelmed and civilians traumatized. Taxi drivers became impromptu ambulances, showcasing community resilience amidst tragedy.

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The Arrest and Consolidation of Charges

In the wake of the bombings, a ticket inspector at Birmingham railway station observed five Irish men boarding a train bound for northern England, en route to Belfast. Within hours, these men, along with a sixth who witnessed their departure, were detained.

• Forensic Evidence: A forensics expert conducted "grease tests" on the suspects' hands, claiming a 99% certainty that two had handled explosives. Additionally, possession of prayer cards for James McDade, an IRA operative who died in an accidental bombing, further implicated them.

• Police Coercion: The detained men endured severe physical abuse and torture to extract confessions, leading four of them to sign false statements under duress.

Ed Barlow: "They were beaten black and blue. They were tortured. They were terrified. They were sleep deprived." [23:20]

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The Trial of the Birmingham Six

Held in Lancaster Castle—a location chosen to ensure a controlled environment—the trial commenced in June 1975.

• Courtroom Dynamics: The gothic setting, complete with thick walls and high security, mirrored the tense national atmosphere. Judge Nigel Bridge presided over the proceedings, which were marked by overwhelming public hostility towards the defendants.

• Prosecution's Case: The prosecution relied heavily on the coerced confessions and the questionable forensic evidence. Despite numerous witnesses testifying about the men's IRA sympathies, there was a lack of direct evidence linking them to the bombings.

• Defense Challenges: Attempts by the defense to invalidate the confessions were unsuccessful, as the judge dismissed claims of police misconduct.

Judge Bridge: "You stand convicted on each of 21 counts on the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard of the crime of murder." [29:17]

• Verdict and Sentencing: After a 45-day trial, the jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict, sentencing each man to 21 life terms.

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Years of Injustice and the Path to Exoneration

For 16 years, the Birmingham Six remained incarcerated, maintaining their innocence and enduring ongoing abuse within the prison system. Their plight garnered limited attention until investigative journalist Chris Mullin took up their cause.

• Investigative Breakthrough: Mullin's work, including recreating the flawed forensic tests and producing the World In Action documentary, highlighted significant discrepancies in the prosecution’s case. He uncovered that the presence of nitrocellulose—a substance found not only in explosives but also in everyday items like playing cards—was insufficient to link the men to the bombings conclusively.

Ed Barlow: "Can the man have picked up nitrocellulose on the train? They were playing cards with an old pack." [30:58]

• Confession Discrepancies: The confessions presented in court were riddled with inconsistencies, such as alibis that placed suspects in multiple locations simultaneously.

• Public and Political Pressure: Mullin's efforts, along with growing public awareness, eventually led to renewed appeals, exposing the miscarriage of justice and the systemic failures that led to the wrongful convictions.

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Exoneration and Aftermath

On March 14, 1991, after their second appeal, the Birmingham Six were exonerated and released from prison. The event was met with jubilation by supporters but left lingering trauma for the men and the victims' families.

• Reintegration Challenges: Former inmates struggled to rebuild their lives after nearly two decades of wrongful imprisonment. Ed Barlow interviewed individuals like Paddy Hill and Billy Power, who shared their ongoing struggles with PTSD and the difficulty of adjusting to life outside prison.

Billy Power: "I know my grandchildren better than I know my own kids." [33:16]

• Unresolved Justice: Despite the exoneration of the Birmingham Six, the actual perpetrators of the Birmingham pub bombings remain unidentified, leaving the case as the deadliest unsolved mass murder in UK history. Families of the victims continue to seek resolution and accountability.

Ed Barlow: "Nobody knows, but they must have saved many lives that night [referring to taxi drivers]." [19:39]

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Conclusion

"Six Men, Two Bombs, One Grave Injustice" provides a comprehensive exploration of the Birmingham Six case, highlighting the deep-seated issues within the British judicial system during the Troubles. Through meticulous research and personal accounts, the episode underscores the profound human cost of wrongful convictions and the enduring quest for justice.

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Notable Quotes

• Ed Barlow on the Emotional Impact of the Trial:

  "Where do you even begin to pick up your life after that? Where do you even begin?" [33:04]

• Patty Hill on Injustice:

  "The police told us from the start that they knew we hadn't done it. They told us they didn't care who done it. They told us that we're going to frame us justice." [04:12]

• Judge Nigel Bridge on the Verdict:

  "You stand convicted on each of 21 counts on the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard of the crime of murder." [29:17]

• Ed Barlow Reflecting on the Aftermath:

  "I think the people who survived almost don't get talked about enough. Some of them had life changing injuries, lost limbs, lost their vision. But it's the PTSD, the post-traumatic stress that people have lived with." [20:22]

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Further Resources

• Podcast Mentioned: In Detail the Pub Bombings by Ed Barlow
• Investigative Series: World In Action featuring the Birmingham Six case
• Historical References: Act of Union 1801, IRA Formation and Split (1969), Birmingham Pub Bombings (1974), Trial and Exoneration (1991)

For more information and to listen to the episode, visit historythisweekpodcast.com or email [e-mail].

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This summary was produced based on the episode transcript provided and is intended to offer a comprehensive overview of the discussed content for those who have not listened to the podcast.

Transcript

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Channel original podcast History this Week, March 14, 1991. I'm Alana Casanova Burgess. The Old Bailey is very old. It's a courthouse in London that was first built in the 1500s and has seen some of the more famous criminal proceedings in British history. The gross indecency trial of Oscar Wilde. Treason charges against radio propagandist Lord Haw Haw. The trial of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, convicted of murdering 13 women. But today, out of the thousands of guilty verdicts handed down at the Old Bailey, one of them, or actually six of them, are being appealed. Lord Justice Anthony Lloyd asks the six defendants to stand. These men are better known as the Birmingham Six. They've been in prison for 16 years, since 1975. The men were convicted on 21 counts of murder held responsible for the bombings of two pubs in Birmingham, England's second largest city, on a busy Thursday night, the prosecution said they were acting on behalf of the ira, the Irish Republican army, carrying out this bombing as a terrorist act against the United Kingdom. The Birmingham Six have maintained their innocence since day one, even though newspapers referred to them as the bombers before they were even convicted. They've faced countless death threats and physical abuse across their 16 years in prison. Now, after their second appeal, they'll learn their fate. Lord Justice Lloyd peers down his bifocals. He reads, in the light of the fresh evidence which has been made available since the last hearing in this court, your appeals will be Allowed and you are free to go. Outside the Old Bailey, a big Crowd is celebrating. 11 year old Ed Barlow is watching on TV from his living room in Wales.

[Ed Barlow]

I must have been watching the news with my parents and I saw this thing about six men being released from prison and they were walking onto the streets for the first time in years and they were cheering and they were shouting and they were a mixture of anger and happiness and joy and all those emotions.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The six men take in the crowd pumping their fists in the air. They're hugging their families, hugging each other.

[Ed Barlow]

I do just remember looking at the TV screen and just seeing the intensity of emotion on their faces.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Patrick Hill, better known as Patty, who has just been freed, steps up to a microphone.

[Ed Barlow]

Paddy Hill, one of the men, speaks angrily into the microphone. In kind of an iconic moment really.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The police told us from the start that they knew we hadn't done it. They told us they didn't care who done it. They told us that we're going to frame us justice. I don't think the Birmingham Six line up in a row, grab each other's hands and raise them into the air.

[Ed Barlow]

And I didn't really know what was going on and my parents explained that they had been imprisoned for 16 years for something they didn't do.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Today, the Birmingham pub bombings. Why were these six men imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit? And why have the actual bombers never been brought to justice? There's a long backstory here of conflict and violence between English and Irish people that goes back centuries. In 1801 the act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and put Ireland firmly under British rule. Irish nationalists fought back and the next hundred plus years are marked by intermittent violence, rebellion and repression. In 1921, the two year long Irish War of Independence ends with a treaty that divides Ireland, establishing the 26 mostly Roman Catholic counties of Southern Ireland as the Irish Free State while making the six mostly Protestant counties of Northern Ireland a self governing part of the uk.

[Ed Barlow]

And so from that point on, Britain retained control of the north and the south of Ireland became independent.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Ed Barlow is now a producer who created a podcast all about this story for the BBC.

[Ed Barlow]

That was why the IRA started a campaign of violence, because they wanted a united and independent Ireland once again.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The IRA, or Irish Republican army is first formed in 1919 with the goal of reunifying Ireland and freeing it from British rule. In 1969 it splits into two the officials who seek independence through peace and the Provisionals who are willing to use violence The Provisional IRA attacks British military targets and infrastructure in Northern Ireland, mostly by planting bombs. They wanted to put pressure on the UK government to give up Northern Ireland.

[Ed Barlow]

Now, this wasn't killing people. It was all about disruption. So the IRA were tending to plant bombs or explosives in disused factories or empty buildings, often governmental buildings, you know, where the tax Office might have been.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

But in 1973, the IRA turns its campaign to mainland Britain. They start on March 8, exploding two bombs outside the Old Bailey, that courthouse in London. 180 people are injured.

[Ed Barlow]

They began to feel that one bomb in England was worth 20 or even 100 bombs in Ireland.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Within a year, there's an average of one attack in Britain every three days.

[Ed Barlow]

They wanted to attract their attention. And so doing that on the streets of Britain was likely to get more of a response. As they saw it, it was about creating disruption, getting headlines, but also, yes, that fear that they wanted people to feel, oh, gosh, there's a battle on our streets here.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Most of the Provisional IRA's targets are military and economic, and hundreds of British soldiers are killed and wounded. Civilians are also killed, but in much smaller numbers. To help avoid extensive civilian fatalities, IRA operatives would typically call local police or newspapers, notifying them where a bomb had been planted. Before it set off.

[Ed Barlow]

There were a load of hoax calls. Now, that may have just been kids messing around. It may have just been people just thinking they were being funny. The authorities knew this, that an IRA warning call was a genuine one. There was a code word developed, and that code word was double xx.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The Provisional IRA is trying to disrupt daily life, create chaos and fear.

[Ed Barlow]

The atmosphere on those streets of Britain was tense. People were genuinely scared.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

One of the focal points of this bombing campaign in Britain is Birmingham, in the heart of Central England. Between 1973 and 74, the IRA sets off more than 30 bombs in the city. Birmingham is then and now Britain's second largest city. But it doesn't have the long storied history of other British cities. It really only develops during the Industrial Revolution.

[Ed Barlow]

It used to be a village. Ham means small town Birmingham. But over the years, it got bigger and bigger and bigger. And throughout the 20th century, it had a lot of migration.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Immigrants come from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Ireland.

[Ed Barlow]

After the war in particular, there was a massive wave of Irish people coming to Britain for work. A lot of the buildings in Birmingham today were built by Irish laborers. So huge Irish community. So if you were part of the IRA council in the island of Ireland, planning on escalating the conflict in mainland Britain, Birmingham would have absolutely been one of the cities you'd have looked at to grow a cell.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Yes, IRA operatives live among Birmingham's Irish immigrant community, but that doesn't mean everyone who lives in that community agrees with their tactics.

[Ed Barlow]

You can be an Irish Republican that is wanting a united island without being a paramilitary member or without being violent or justifying bomb attacks. So a lot of people would have had sympathy, but not agreed with the methods.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

On July 14, 1974, in that single day, five bombs are detonated in the Birmingham area. The city is on edge.

[Ed Barlow]

If you went to the cinema, if you went to watch a movie, you'd check under the seats. If you went on the bus on the way home, you'd check under the seats. It was things like that. It became a way of life.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

As 1974 drags on, the bombings continue in Birmingham and throughout Britain. The IRA isn't gaining any momentum towards a reunified Ireland. And British forces aren't having much luck stemming this wave of violence.

[Ed Barlow]

It didn't really feel like either side was making much progress and it was probably only ever going to get worse before it got better.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

In October, the IRA does take things a step further. They set off bombs at two pubs in the town of Guildford, not far from London. This is an escalation. Pubs aren't government offices or empty storefronts.

[Ed Barlow]

Pubs are a very traditional part of life in Britain. They often go back hundreds of years. You know, some of the oldest pubs in Britain will have little plaques saying, there's been a pub on this site since 1500 and whatever it might be. So it's very much a tradition, really.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The pubs targeted in the Guildford bombings, the IRA says these aren't typical pubs, they're fair game.

[Ed Barlow]

Those pubs were well known drinking haunts of local soldiers. There was an army barracks there. So the IRA arguably felt justified in attacking them as if they were almost military targets rather than civilian pubs.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

But there aren't just soldiers drinking there that night. The IRA kills four soldiers and one civilian in the Guildford pub bombings. Just over a month after that attack, there's another death.

[Ed Barlow]

An IRA operative, an Irishman called James McDade, was planting a bomb in Coventry, which is a city near Birmingham. And as he was doing this, he made a mistake. Something happened and he blew himself up, died instantly. Now, although it was quite clearly his mistake, his fault, the IRA seized on this moment to almost make him a martyr.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The IRA plans a massive funeral for McDade. Back in Belfast, the capital of Northern.

[Ed Barlow]

Ireland, they publish all these articles, essentially blaming the British government for his death. They used it as propaganda.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

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Us the insight into exactly what is happening on the beach this season. We are joined by somebody I can't wait to hear from the winner of Survivor 47, Rachel Lamont. I'm so excited to join the On Fire squad to help break down Survivor 48. Join us every Wednesday immediately following the show. Listen to On Fire, the official Survivor podcast with me Jeff Probst every Wednesday after the show. Wherever you get your podcast, this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states. The night of Thursday, November 21, 1974 feels like most Thursday nights in Birmingham. Yes, the IRA's bombing campaign has left the city on edge, but people are trying to maintain their normal routines which include going to the pub, would have.

[Ed Barlow]

Been no different to any other nights really. People went out to meet a few friends, meet colleagues, whatever it might have been, having a pint of bitter, pint of lager, gin and tonic, who knows?

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Two of the most popular, popular pubs in Birmingham are the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town.

[Ed Barlow]

The Mulberry Bush was in the basement of a skyscraper called the Rotunda. It's a really sort of iconic building in Birmingham. Tavern in the town was sort of below ground level, but in the busy street where there were shops, there were buses, people walking left, right and center. It was five minutes around the corner from the main train station. So it was really in the heart of a city. We may never know exactly what happened on those nights, but we believe that two men went into the two pubs, ordered a drink, left their case under a table, walked out. And we also think that another member of their group who was a little, little outside the city, his job was to make the warning calls.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

There's some dispute about this, whether a third man was responsible for placing the phone call or whether it was one of the men who planted the bombs. But whoever it was, that person was delayed.

[Ed Barlow]

We now believe that the reason there wasn't much notice given was because the phone box where the man had planned to make the warning call from, it was out of order. So by the time he actually found another phone that he could use, 10, 11 minutes had passed. So frankly, the police, who may well have taken the warning call very seriously, just wouldn't have had time to do anything.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The man calls the Birmingham Post, gives the XX code word that proves his call was legitimate. He tells the operator at the paper that there are two bombs planted.

[Ed Barlow]

That warning call was a bit vague. It didn't actually mention the pubs by name. It just mentioned the complex, the buildings they were in.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Within minutes, police arrive at the Rotunda, the landmark building where the Mulberry Bush is located.

[Ed Barlow]

They just went and they tried to find a bomb, you know, in this building. And obviously with hindsight, you're like, why the hell didn't you just get everybody you could out? So that's been sort of one of the things that's been disputed or debated a bit over the years.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Seven minutes after the phone call was placed to the newspaper, the first bomb goes off at the Mulberry Bush.

[Ed Barlow]

I walk past the Rotunda where the Mulberry Bush was every week or two, and obviously I always have a think about what it must have been like.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Two minutes later, the second bomb detonates at Tavern in the Town.

[Ed Barlow]

I just think of all the people who were in there. The average age was really young. It was a Thursday night, it was payday in Birmingham. A lot of the victims were, you know, early 20s. They were just normal people. They went for a drink after work. It was in the lead up to Christmas. You just think, what, what a waste. I mean, what a waste of life. What an awful thing to happen. Obviously the city center kind of ground to a standstill. The police put up barricades. They were, you know, everyone was just in a sense of panic.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

There are so many casualties that there aren't enough ambulances to bring all of the victims to the hospital.

[Ed Barlow]

There were all these taxis waiting around the city as they would be on any other night. And they got on the taxi intercoms, the taxi radios, and they kind of rallied all the taxi drivers who basically became standing ambulances just transporting people to the hospitals around the city. And those taxi drivers deserve all the plaudits they get because nobody knows, but they must have saved many lives that night.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

These explosions would ultimately kill 21 people and would injure many, many more.

[Ed Barlow]

I think the people who survived almost don't get talked about enough. Some of them had life changing injuries, lost limbs, lost their vision. But it's the ptsd, the post traumatic stress that people have lived with. I was speaking to another guy a couple of weeks ago even who was in one of those pubs and he walked down uninjured physically. But it still haunts him to this day. You know, this is a man now in his 70s who broke down in tears talking to me on the phone, said it never leaves me. Every day, every day he thinks about it.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Birmingham has been attacked on a whole new scale. And people in the city start to ask themselves, did I see anything suspicious? Could I help identify those responsible?

[Ed Barlow]

There was a ticket inspector at the railway station in Birmingham and he remembered seeing five Irish men getting on a train going to the north of England where they would catch a ferry to Belfast. And this train was leaving, you know, a matter of minutes really before the bombs exploded. And so this ticket inspector thought, I'm going to let the police know.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Within three hours, the five Irishmen had been detained by police. They'll soon arrest a sixth who had seen the group off at the train station.

[Ed Barlow]

One of the first things they did was get a forensics expert to come in and swab their hands.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

A doctor performs what's called a grease test. G R I E S S. It's meant to test for chemicals that can indicate someone has recently handled explosives.

[Ed Barlow]

He did his tests, he swabbed the men's hands and he proclaimed that he was 99% certain that two of the men had recently handled explosives.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The interrogation ramps up. Police have the suspects change their clothes and discover something in one of the men's belongings. Prayer cards for the funeral of James McDade, that IRA operative who blew himself up a week earlier and whose death had been lionized by the ira. That's why the men were headed to Belfast.

[Ed Barlow]

His funeral was going to be in Belfast and these men were on the way back to Belfast to go to his funeral. So all of a sudden it's really not looking good for them. It's looking suspicious.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The police turn violent. The man who had the prayer card, John Walker, is taken into another room where they beat him, burn a cigarette against his toe and perform a mock execution, putting a blanket over his head and pulling the trigger of an empty gun against his temple.

[Ed Barlow]

They had basically been beaten into submission.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

All six suspects would be subject to physical abuse.

[Ed Barlow]

They were beaten black and blue. They were tortured. They were terrified. They were sleep deprived.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Within two days, four of the men had signed false confessions.

[Ed Barlow]

They probably barely knew what they were doing, but were told, just sign this, it'll all go away.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The fallout from these bombings obviously spreads well outside of Birmingham. This is the worst domestic attack in the United Kingdom since World War II.

[Ed Barlow]

As the pictures got out around the country, around the world, even the whole country went into a state of shock, a sense of mourning and anger because for the first time, really, this was a big attack on members of the public. There was nothing military about these targets. There was nothing to say that the IRA didn't mean to kill all these people. They knew where they were putting these bombs. People were, you know, incensed.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The IRA denies any involvement. And they add, if they found out their members had done this, they would be subject to the death penalty for putting civilians in harm's way.

[Ed Barlow]

Even people who might have previously supported them or believed in the cause were so appalled, and I think even many members of the IRA were so appalled that they wanted to distance themselves from it.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The six Irishmen are in custody. The grease test, the intention of going to James McDade's funeral, and the confessions they signed. This is the evidence against them and it's how they'll come to be known as the Birmingham Six.

[Ed Barlow]

It was such an awful attack on innocent people that it's entirely understandable that there was such national outrage. Somebody needed to pay for this.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

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[Ed Barlow]

It didn't take place in Birmingham because there was probably no way that the men would get a fair trial in the city. This had happened. It took place in another English city called Lancaster. And in fact, it took place inside the castle in Lancaster. The security was extraordinary. It was taking place in a castle with walls that were 10 foot thick. There were dogs all over the place. There were people, people with guns.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

The courtroom was described as a gothic chamber. Vaulting ceilings, baronial shields on the walls. Judge Nigel Bridge sits high above everyone else. It's a show of force and it reflects the national mood.

[Ed Barlow]

The whole country was watching this trial. These were the most hated men in Britain. Now, yeah, innocent until proven guilty and all that, but. But it was going to be hard for those men to overturn that degree of national hatred.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Now, there are numerous holes in the prosecution's case. They can't explain who made the bombs since they never found any bomb making materials. After searching the six men's homes, nobody could identify any of them at the pubs that night either. 100 witnesses testify. A neighbor who saw some suspicious behavior. Co workers who attested to the men's IRA sympathies. Those aren't direct observations of any crime. And those confessions that they signed, they're not exactly ironclad.

[Ed Barlow]

Now, the thing about these confessions, if you actually read them, they don't really make much sense. They contradict themselves. One of the men supposedly would have been in two places at the same time. They didn't really Add up.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

When the defense asks that the confessions be tossed out because they were basically beaten out of the defendants. The judge denies that motion. I would have to suppose that a team of 15 officers had conspired among themselves to use violence on the prisoners and to fabricate evidence that the judge says, seems to me a most extraordinary state of affairs. Motion denied. The trial lasts for 45 days, one of the longest in British criminal history. The jury deliberates for just six and a half hours and delivers a unanimous guilty verdict for all six defendants. Judge Bridge delivers the sentence.

[Ed Barlow]

He concluded and said, you stand convicted on each of 21 counts on the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard of the crime of murder.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Each of the men receives two 21 life sentences.

[Ed Barlow]

And that was it. The men went off and were due to spend the rest of their lives probably in prison.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

If the death penalty for murder had not been abolished in the UK just six years earlier, it's likely they would have been hanged.

[Ed Barlow]

So the men had been in prison for a number of years and they tried to get appeals. They'd been writing letters to politicians or newspapers, but nobody was really paying them much attention.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

But that changes when an investigative journalist named Chris Mullen takes up the case.

[Ed Barlow]

He and his team set about recreating the forensics test that had been done on the men at the time they were arrested.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Mullin helps produce a TV documentary on the case, part of a long running investigative series in the UK called World In Action. The first episode, focused on the Birmingham Six, airs in 1985 and recounts the beatings, the false confessions, the flimsy evidence connecting them to the bombings.

[Ed Barlow]

The most incriminating evidence was found, like a cotton wool swab drawn over a suspect's hands can reveal to a forensic scientist whether someone has handled explosives.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

That night at Morecambe, this is the moment that sticks. The grease test, the alleged residue. That was the only forensic proof in the entire case. Ed Barlow explains.

[Ed Barlow]

It proved that you'd been handling something called nitrocellulose, which, yes, that is found in explosives, but it's also found in a number of other things, including playing cards. And the men on that train journey the night of the pub bombings had been playing cards. But could the man have picked up nitrocellulose on the train? The five have always said they played cards with an old pack. On the journey to Hesham, the playing cards were taken and in the same.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Way, they were swabbed with ether on a cotton wool swab.

[Ed Barlow]

The ether was extracted in the usual way. And the spot test, the grease test, was performed in the way we performed in all tests. And a positive response was obtained. So in this TV program, they reproduced the test, they got the producer to shuffle some cards, and he returned the positive result.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

This is the first major break the Birmingham Six have gotten since their arrest 10 years earlier. Momentum slowly starts to build in their favor. Mullen writes a book on the case, error of Judgment, and helps produce subsequent episodes of World in Action. For one of them, he manages to track down someone who claimed to be one of the actual IRA operatives behind the Birmingham pub bombings.

[Ed Barlow]

Tonight, for the first time, a man admits that he bombed the poems. There never will be, there never can.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Be any justification for taking the lives of innocent people.

[Ed Barlow]

And it's something I will have to live with. One of the men admitted planting the bombs, saying, this is what we did. This is where we put them. These six people are innocent.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

I have never met these six guys.

[Ed Barlow]

Before in my life. And yet the men were still locked.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Up in prison until 1991. This was the Birmingham Sixes second appeal case. And on March 14, they learned they will be free. They celebrate outside of the Old Bailey, but they can never fully recover from 16 years of false imprisonment.

[Ed Barlow]

Where do you even begin to pick up your life after that? Where do you even begin?

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Ed Barlow spent time getting to know a couple of the Birmingham Six as part of his podcast for the BBC.

[Ed Barlow]

They've been out 33, 34 years now. It's a lot longer than they were in, but the effects are still there. The effects don't go away. And one of the men I spoke to and got to know a little bit, Paddy Hill, said something to me like, we were inside all that time dreaming of getting out. But there's an old saying, be careful what you wish for. So when they got out, life was not suddenly perfect. Billy Power, one of the other men I met, he joked that he's the only person who's been caught trying to climb back inside the prison he was in. I mean, I think he was joking, but that sort of sums up the institutionalized feeling you must have having spent all that time in there. He said he knows his grandchildren better than he knows his own kids. Now, at least he got to know his grandchildren. But isn't that in itself sad?

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

To this day, nobody has been correctly convicted for the Birmingham pub bombings. It's the deadliest unsolved mass murder in UK history. Families of the victims and survivors of the attacks are still pushing the British government to act, even 50 years later.

[Ed Barlow]

When the Birmingham Six were released that day, yes, that was good news for them and their families for the most part. But do think about the families of the victims for whom these wounds reopened.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Through Chris Mullin's work, we know four of the people who are likely responsible for the bombings.

[Ed Barlow]

Two of them died a number of years ago. Two of them are still alive. One of them I tracked down recently. I was standing in his house in Dublin. Standing in the house of somebody who may well have been involved in the pub bombings. Was. Was a strange experience. His house was like a shrine to the ira. I mean, it's the wrong word to use, but you'd almost say it was full of memorabilia. Posters, scarves, cushions, mugs, all sorts of press cuttings.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

We're not disclosing this man's identity since he's never been formally charged, but he says he does regret what happened that Thursday night in Birmingham.

[Ed Barlow]

He's always said it was not intended to go as it did that night, that people weren't intended to be killed. Now, I mean, that's. It's all still inexcusable. Of course. Justice is probably never really going to be done. It's too long ago.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

It doesn't seem like there's much momentum on the part of the British government to reopen this case. Irish independence is still a subject of debate throughout the uk, so politics may be a factor. There is no happy ending here, but at least six men were freed from imprisonment for a crime they didn't commit. Thanks for listening to History this Week, a Back Pocket Studios production in partnership with the History Channel. To stay updated on all things History this week, sign [e-mail] and if you have any thoughts or questions, send us an [e-mail] Special thanks to our guest, Ed Barlow, producer for the BBC and creator of the podcast In Detail the pub bombings. You can find a link to it in our episode Description this episode was produced and sound designed by Ben Dickstein and was hosted by me, Alana Casanova Burgess for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producers are Ben Dickstein and David Weisbord from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler. Don't forget to follow rate and review History this Week, wherever you get your podcasts and we'll see you next week.