Deaths Thomas Arthur Bates Charges Murder Name Murder Thomas | Suspect(s) Oswald Augustus Grey Verdict Guilty | |
Date 18:30, 3 June 1962 (+01:00) (1962-06-03T18:30+01:00) | ||
The murder of Thomas Bates occurred during an armed robbery in Birmingham, England, on 3 June 1962. Oswald Grey was convicted of the crime, and became the last person hanged at the city's Winson Green Prison.
Contents
The crime
Thomas Arthur Bates, aged 46, ran a newsagents shop in Lee Bank Road Birmingham's Edgbaston district. At 6:30 pm on Sunday, 3 June 1962, a 20-year-old Jamaican baker called Oswald Augustus Grey, of Canon Hill Road in that city, carried out a robbery at the shop, during which event he shot Bates in the upper chest. Grey then made his escape by a number 8 (Inner Circle) bus.
Bates' mother, who had been in the living area at the back of the shop, heard the shot and found him collapsed on the floor. He was reportedly dead before he reached the city's General Hospital, but it was not until he reached there that it was realised that he had been shot. The bullet had passed through his heart, lungs and liver.
Conviction
The police investigation was led by Detective Chief Superintendent Gerald Baumber. Grey was questioned within four days, and was brought before magistrates on 7 June, charged with stealing a pistol and ammunition from a 60-year-old Handsworth man, Hamilton Bacchus.
The next day, he was charged with murder, following an identification parade at which he was positively identified by a woman, Cecilia Gibbs, who said that, once the men in the parade tilted their hats as had the suspect, "He was standing in front of me again as on that Saturday."
At his trial at Birmingham Assizes, Grey maintained his innocence, claiming to have sold the gun at a party, for £16. Four women testified that he was not the person they had seen at the murder scene. It was also claimed that the police had coerced him into making a confession by force; a claim they denied.
Grey was convicted on 13 October 1962, after the jury deliberated for just 50 minutes, and was immediately sentenced to death.
He was executed by hanging on the gallows at Winson Green Prison on Tuesday, 20 November 1962 by Harry Allen and his assistant. He was the last person executed there, and in the city. In attendance were prison governor John Richards and prison doctor Dr. P.M. Costa, plus eight uniformed officers and plain-clothed detectives.