Fred the Head

Fred the Head is the popular name of an unidentified young white adult male found – deceased, naked, and bound – on the site of an abandoned flint mill in Burton upon Trent, England, in 1971.

[3][2] The site lay on an island on the River Trent accessible only by a footbridge off Newton Road, barred by a locked gate, or via a long, narrow and unpaved track from Burton Bridge.

[4][3] Nathan had accessed the site through the locked gate which was considered secure enough for the police to rule it out as a potential route used by any suspect.

[4][2] Nathan discovered a fragment of a human skull after he tripped over what he assumed was a bag of cement but was a mound of earth covering a grave.

[7][8] Despite a three-year investigation Staffordshire Police were unable to identify the man who became known as "Fred the Head" as the skull was the first part of the body to be unearthed.

[4] Following another Crimewatch feature on 27 June 2017 that included a facial reconstruction of "Fred", the family of John Henry Jones raised his case as a potential candidate.

[3] In 2021, police investigated whether the body might be a victim of the serial killer Anthony Hardy who was born in nearby Winshill and would have been 20 at the time of its discovery.

The body was discovered at the site of the former flint mill at the west end of the footbridge. Shown here on a 1944-1973 Ordnance Survey map.