Frederick Guy Browne (1883–1928) and William Henry Kennedy (1891–1928) were two career criminals who were executed in Britain in 1928 for the murder of George Gutteridge (1891–1927), an unarmed policeman in the course of his duties, whom they shot in both eyes.
[3] He lived in the village at 2 Towneley Cottages with his wife, Rose Annette Emmerline, and their two young children, who were 12 and 4 at the time of the event.
In 1909 he was living with his mother in Eynsham in Oxfordshire and ran a bicycle repair shop called Brown Brothers.
In 1916 he joined the Royal Engineers as a sapper but saw no active service and spent the entire period at Longmoor Camp.
He had moved there in September having lived at 2 Huguenot Place to the west for a week and prior to that 45 Colvin Road East Ham with his sister-in-law since his release from prison.
However, he rejoined under a false name, Patrick Mane Fitzpatrick, in Dublin a week later, into the King's Liverpool Regiment.
However he was unable to restrain his criminal activities and he was imprisoned in May 1917 being found of guilty of theft in Oswestry and served 4 months and soon after release back to his regiment he deserted a second time.
He met his colleague PC Sydney James Taylor, who was based at Lambourne End, at Howe Green on the B175 at 3am.
[11] Around 3.30am (600 metres (2,000 ft) from his rendezvous point) Gutteridge flagged down a suspicious blue Morris Cowley (TW6120) car driving towards him.
Forensic evidence indicated he was facing in the same direction as the car and stooped over to bring his head down to the driver's level when shot.
He recognised the body as George Gutteridge and went for help at the nearest house: Rose Cottage, the home of Alfred Perrit.
[16] The police suspected the crime linked to a Morris Cowley TW6120 stolen from Dr Edward R. Lovell of London Road in Billericay the night before.
A cartridge case in the car was marked RLIV, indicating it was a left over from the First World War made at the Royal Laboratory in Woolwich Arsenal.
[4] Only when the stolen car was examined at Brixton police station was the cartridge marked RLIV found under a front seat and only there did a sergeant think he saw spots of blood on the running board.
[18] In his 1955 memoirs, the chief constable of Sheffield City Police 1926-1931, Percy Sillitoe, credited his force with identifying Browne through a lucky break.
Sillitoe wrote, 'I need hardly say that as soon as my office door had closed behind Currie, I sprang into action more quickly than ever I had in my life before.
Kennedy and Staunton went to a local pub, the Ye Cracke on Rice Street, where he knew the landlord Joseph Thomas.
[22] Assistant Commissioner Wyndham Childs saw the peculiar bullet cartridge left in the abandoned car as the most critical piece of evidence.
He appeared to be in the habit of loading it with a random mixture, including flat nosed bullets, which maximise damage at close range.
[24] Examination of Browne's car at the time of his arrest initially only found a loaded Webley in the glove compartment.
[26] (note-the entire transcript of the trial is available free online through multiple sources) The pretrial at the Police court was led by Travers Humphreys.
Judge Horace Avory presided over the joint trial at the Old Bailey which was guaranteed to receive much press attention.
[4] The press (and defence counsel) had implied a meeting with a Mr Fairchild of Brentford recently released from a lunatic asylum, with PC Gutteridge on the evening before.
[29][30] Although twice instructed by Justice Avory not to discuss the "attempted murder" of Sgt Mattinson at the point of Kennedy's arrest this was endured at length.
Browne excused the loaded Webley pistol found on his person as a defence as he had once been robbed when delivering a car.
[4] Kennedy's statement to the police (taken in January) was read out and admitted going to Billericay with Browne to steal a car: originally a specific Raleigh but being disturbed took the Morris Cowley instead.
They drove at speed to London crashing en route due to fog and abandoned the car in a cul-de-sac in Brixton rather than risk taking it to the garage.
[20] Kennedy (in his statement) admitted to being very nervous and started drinking more when he read about the crime in the newspapers and on 17 December he had gone back to Liverpool.
[4] Both George Henry Ibbitson of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and London gunsmith Robert Churchill gave evidence linking the gun cartridge found to Browne's Webley revolver.
A memorial plaque also marks the murder site and the section of road involved has been renamed Gutteridge Lane.