I originally started researching Harry Roberts as several sources gave Kennington as his birthplace. I have since discovered that Harry was not born here but instead Wanstead Essex, remarkably however there are still connections to our area as you will discover.
Who was Harry Roberts
Harry Roberts was responsible for one of the most notorious crimes in Britain. It shook the nation and lead him to become one of the longest-serving prisoners in Britain. Even his parole in 2014 after serving 48 years in prison was a cause of great outrage. The reason for this was that Harry Roberts had gunned down and killed 3 Police officers in front of playing school children before fleeing the scene and evading capture in a nationwide manhunt for more than 3 months.
Shepherd’s Bush Massacre
Approx. 3:15 pm on Friday 12th August 1966 at Braybrook Street, Shepherd’s Bush, three policemen are gunned down. It was just two weeks after England won the World Cup, and four miles from Wembley Stadium and insight of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Harry Roberts and his two associates had gunned down three unarmed police detectives in front of playing primary school children.
The Police officers were driving an unmarked Triumph 2000 saloon car when they stopped to speak to the driver and its two occupants.
Local residents reported seeing the Triumph come up behind a Standard Vanguard estate car parked at the side of Braybrook Street. Detective Sargent Christoper Tippett Head (30) and Temporary Detective Constable David Bertram Wombwell (25) got out and walked over to the Standard Vanguard to speak to the driver through his car window.
Suddenly, and without warning, the front seat passenger, Harry Roberts bent forward, reached down into a holdall and pulled out a pistol and shot David Wombwell through his left eye, killing him instantly. Det. Chris Head began to run back towards the Triumph, but Harry Roberts gave chase and aimed two shots at his back. The first shot missed, but the second hit him in the head, fatally wounding him.
PC Roger Fox (41) who remained in the Police car then attempted to drive away. Seeing this, fellow gang member John Duddy got out of the back of the estate car and ran towards the Triumph as PC Fox Struggled to turn the Triumph around. John Duddy then shot 3 times into the windscreen. As PC Fox died, his foot slipped on the accelerator and he drove over the dying body of his colleague Chris Head as he lay in the road.
Roberts and Duddy raced back to the Standard Vanguard and the driver John Whitney unable to deal with seeing the carnage in front of him, reversed off at speed, but not before the car’s registration was noted down by an onlooker.
‘With half a smile, Jack said quietly, “Let the slag have it, Harry.”
‘Instantly, I raised my arm and, with the Luger Jack had just handed me, I shot Wombwell point-blank. The bullet whizzed past Jack’s nose and hit Wombwell just below the eye. He slumped to the ground. I could hear my heart thumping. The air was electric. I turned towards Sergeant Head. My elbow caught the door knob and the door flew open while he was still pulling on it.
‘I could see the shock and disbelief in his eyes. I jumped out of the car, still holding the gun. Sergeant Head turned and started running back towards the police car.’
‘I aimed my gun and fired. I got him right in the middle of his back. He went down like a sack of shit. I ran up to him. He was lashing out with his legs.
‘I held them, aimed my gun at his head and pulled the trigger. Click. It was a dud. I took a step back and ejected the blank from the chamber. Then I tried to grab his legs again but he kicked me in the face, making my nose bleed and splitting my lip.
‘Again, I aimed the gun at his head but, to my horror, it was another dud. I couldn’t fucking believe it. He was struggling like fuck and managed to get to his feet and he started to run again. But he only made it to the front of the police car and fell in front of it. At that moment there seemed to be a slight lull. I heard Jack shout, “Get the driver!” I looked towards the van and saw John Duddy standing in the road like some kind of cowboy. He was holding his gun out in front of him and “fanning” the trigger. I hadn’t noticed the police car starting up.
PC Fox, the third man in the car, had been sitting there, watching. Now he crunched the car into reverse gear.
Suddenly Duddy shot all the windows out and there was glass flying everywhere. PC Fox was in total panic and rammed the gear lever into first in a vain attempt to get away.
But as the car shot forward, he ran over Sergeant Head who was lying in front of the police car, wedging him under the back wheels.
‘At that moment I turned to face the driver, only to see him take a bullet in the head from Duddy. I saw him slump down over the steering wheel.
‘It was as if he just went to sleep. In less than 30 seconds, all three policemen were dead.’
KATE KRAY’s Interview with Harry Roberts for her book Natural Born Killers published 1999
The Manhunt Begins
Following the Shepherd’s Bush Massacre, Harry Roberts’ accomplices, John Witney and John Duddy, were quickly arrested, but Roberts went to ground using the survival and camouflage skills that he had learned in the British Army.
This sparked Scotland Yard’s biggest ever manhunt. A £1,000 reward was offered by police for any information which could lead to his arrest.
The former soldier used his military training from his time-fighting in Malaysia to evade the police for three months by living rough in Epping Forest, Essex. He knew the area well having camped in Epping Forest as a child.
He was finally captured on November 15 while sleeping in a barn at Blount’s Farm near Bishop’s Stortford.
Arrest & Conviction
If the triple murder had taken place the previous year, Roberts may well have been hanged after being convicted – but the death penalty was abolished in 1965. Instead, he was given a minimum 30-year tariff, the Old Bailey judge describing it as “the most heinous crime for a generation or more”.
Mr Justice Glyn-Jones told Roberts: “I think it likely that no home secretary regarding the enormity of your crime will ever think fit to show mercy by releasing you on licence.
“This is one of those cases in which the sentence of imprisonment for life may well be treated as meaning exactly what it says.”
Roberts has never expressed any remorse for the murders
Funeral
Just 20 days after the shooting on Thursday 1st Sept 1966 the three officers were laid to rest.
More than 600 officers from the Metropolitan Police lined the route of the victims’ funeral procession in Shepherd’s Bush.
The shot policemen (left to right): PC Geoffrey Fox, 41; Det Con David Wombwell, 25; and Sgt Christopher Head, 30
See the National Police Memorial on the Mall and the Police Roll of Honour
There was a memorial service at Westminster Abbey attended by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The Shepherd’s Bush Murders led to the establishment of the Police Firearms Wing (now known as CO19.) and the Police Dependants’ Trust (now known as Police Care UK)
It is only in 1988 that a memorial was installed on Braybrook Street itself.
The Kennington Connection ~#1
Following the shooting, the gang sped to Vauxhall where the vehicle was quickly stashed in a garage located in Tinworth Street arches, at Arch 103.
So panicked and desperate to conceal the car John Whitney scraped the wall as the estate car lurched into the lock-up. The noise attracted the attention of a witness, who was able to alert police to the vehicle’s location. Police were further aided by Mr William Keeley and his wife Rebecca who walked into Kennington Police Station shortly after 10 pm who later confirmed that he had rented the lock-up to Jack Whitney.
Within minutes the police visited the scene, and sometime after midnight, they discovered that the lockup was rented by Witney. Three .38 cartridges were found in the car from the .38 Colt that Duddy had fired.
The Kennington Connection #2
There have been many artistic representations of Harry Roberts. Most notably the character of Billy Porter in the 2001 novel He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott, and the subsequent 2008 TV adaptation, is based on Harry Roberts.
Jake Arnott is the brother-in-law of Lambeth Councillor Jon Davies who represents Prince’s ward where Tinworth Street is located. You can follow Cllr Davies at his local blog here https://se11view.wordpress.com/
In another one of Jake’s Books, Johnny Come Home the novel is set in 1972 with the backdrop of the start of the Angry Brigade trial which as we know is also connected to Kennington.
Look Back in Anger(Opens in a new browser tab)
You can watch all 3 episodes the ITV production of the ‘He Kills Coppers’ on STV Player – Amazon Prime – Britbox or on Dailymotion
Roberts’ name has been used for many years to antagonise the police, with chants like “Harry Roberts is our friend, is our friend, is our friend. Harry Roberts is our friend, he kills coppers. Let him out to kill some more, kill some more, kill some more, let him out to kill some more, Harry Roberts” as well as “He shot three down in Shepherd’s Bush, Shepherd’s Bush, Shepherd’s Bush. He shot three down in Shepherd’s Bush, our mate Harry” (to the tune of “London Bridge Is Falling Down”).
Harry Roberts also features in in the song “Happiness Is Just A Chant Away” by Chumbawamba on their 1992 album Shhh, to the tune of the chant “Hari Krishna”,the words “Hari Krishna” are replaced with “Harry Roberts”
Great Crimes And Trials Documentary
You can also find view a documentary on UKTV Player Murder Maps – The Shepherd’s Bush Murders (Go to 24:45 to see film of the police recovering the Car in Vauxhall)
Further reading
The Shepherd’s Bush Murders by Nick Russell-Pavier. Amazon
Harry Roberts and Foxtrot One-One: The Shepherd’s Bush Massacre by Geoffrey Barton. Amazon
Timeline
21st July 1936: Born at Wanstead, Essex, where his parents ran The George Public House.
12th August 1966: Fearing capture, Harry Roberts and two other men go on a shooting spree in Shepherd’s Bush, killing three plain clothes officers. The men had been planning an armed robbery when police swooped.
13 August 1966: A post-mortem finds two of the officers had been shot in the head, the other in the back.
14 August 1966: The gang’s getaway car is found in Lambeth.
15 August 1966: One of the suspects, John Edward Witney, from London, is captured and charged.
17 August 1966: Police raid a Glasgow tenement block and arrest John Duddy, another suspect. The final, and most dangerous of the trio, Harry Maurice Roberts, remains at large. In the meantime, the three police officers are buried in Shepherd’s Bush.
25 August 1966: Despite police raids, a reward for information, and even a TV appeal by his mother, Roberts, an ex-military man, remains on the run.
14 November 1966: The Old Bailey trial of Roberts’ alleged accomplices starts. The court hears evidence from several children who witnessed the killings, but the trial is adjourned as news breaks of Harry Roberts’ capture.
6 December 1966: All thee men stand trial together at the Old Bailey. Roberts is quick to admit his guilt, but the other two men protest their innocence. The defence for Duddy claims that Roberts was the ringleader, Whitney the brains and their man the ‘tool’.
12 December 1966: All of this was dismissed by the jury, who took half an hour to deliver a guilty verdict on all three men. Roberts was found to have shot and killed two of the officers. John Duddy shot the third. The gang received life imprisonment for murder. They were also found guilty of possession of firearms with intent to resist arrest or commit an offence.
11th November 2014: Aged 78 Harry Roberts is released on parole after 48 years in prison See Channel 4News Report here
Harry Roberts Aged 78 in 2014
Gangland Assassination of Little legs Clifford(Opens in a new browser tab)
