page_title: Crumbles murders
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: Crumbles murders / Murder of Irene Munro / Murder / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: English: One oof the perpetrators of the 1920s "Crumbles murders".
context_page_description: The Crumbles Murders are two separate and unrelated crimes which occurred on a shingle beach located between Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay—locally referred to as "the Crumbles"—in the 1920s. The first of these two murders is the 1920 bludgeoning murder of 17-year-old Irene Munro, committed by two men: Jack Field and William Gray. The second murder to occur upon the Crumbles is the 1924 murder of 38-year-old Emily Kaye, who was murdered by her lover, Patrick Mahon.
  The three perpetrators of the two "Crumbles Murders" were all tried at Lewes assizes before Mr Justice Avory. All three were executed by hanging at Wandsworth Prison. The executioner of all three men was Thomas Pierrepoint.
context_section_description: The area of the Crumbles where Munro's body was discovered was promptly cordoned off, and an experienced investigator from Scotland Yard named George Mercer was dispatched to Eastbourne to supervise the investigation on 21 August.
  An autopsy revealed Munro had been deceased for approximately twenty-four hours before her body was discovered. She had been attacked with such savagery that both her upper and lower jaw had been fractured, and several teeth had been dislodged or loosened. In addition, Munro had been extensively bludgeoned about the head, with a fracture wound to her left cheek extending to her left temple. The first severe blow to the left side of Munro's head had rendered her unconscious, with her death resulting from injury to the brain. Her right temple had also suffered a laceration wound. Initial suspicions the murder had been sexually motivated were disproven when the coroner discovered the girl had not been subjected to a sexual assault.
  Having discovered the decedent's identity and learned via Mrs Wynniatt of her intentions to visit Hampden Park, investigators visited numerous local cinemas, lodgings, and private hotels in their enquiries. Questioning the barmaids of the Albermarle Hotel revealed two local men named Billy and Jack had been regular patrons at the hotel's saloon bar in the weeks prior to the murder, and although neither seemed to spend much, on the evening of 19 August, both men had been "flush" with money. According to the barmaids, both men had been "broke" when they had visited the premises on the date of Munro's murder, although when they had returned to the bar that evening, both had been "fairly throwing [money] about". "Billy" had been wearing a herringbone suit; "Jack" had worn a dark suit and a cloth cap. Both men had stayed at the bar on the afternoon of 19 August until approximately 2:30 p.m., with Billy becoming flirtatious with one of the barmaids, a Miss Dorothy Ducker.
  Shortly before the two left the premises, Ducker had refused to serve the two men a free drink. In response, the two promised to return to the bar later that evening, with Billy stating to Ms Ducker: "Very well, if you wait until the evening, we shall have more money by then."
  Police enquiries soon established Munro had been seen by numerous individuals talking with two men in the early afternoon of 19 August. Five of these witnesses were labourers who had been working on the Crumbles on the afternoon of the murder and who had seen Munro walking along the light railway line in the direction from Eastbourne. According to these witnesses, the girl had glanced in their direction and smiled as she passed them before reaching to stroke a stray kitten before the trio continued walking in the direction of Pevensey. Each unhesitantly identified Munro as being the girl they had seen with the two men. One of these men had been notably older than the other, who had been closer to the girl's age. Although the clothing the younger of the men had worn could not be precisely described beyond the fact it was most likely a blue suit, the older man had worn a new suit with a distinctive herringbone pattern. The individual walking walking arm in arm with Munro had been carrying a stick with a metal ferrule shaped like a dog's head at one end.
  Another witness, Frederick Wells, informed Chief Inspector Mercer on 23 August he had also seen Munro walking in the direction of the Crumbles in the company of these men, the younger of whom he had often seen in Eastbourne in the fortnight prior to the murder, adding this individual often carried a yellow stick with a dog's head upon the handle. Wells added he had last seen the trio climb beneath a fence some fifty yards from the railway line crossing the shingle. On 24 August, Wells accompanied police around Eastbourne, where he soon observed the two men talking to three young women. Wells indicated to police these were the two men he had seen in Munro's company five days earlier.
caption: William Gray. Gray and Jack Field were executed by hanging at Wandsworth Prison for Munro's murder on 4 February 1921
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