Archibald Hall

Identification

Archibald Hall was born as Archibald Thompson Hall in Glasgow on 17 June 1924. He was also known as Roy Fontaine.

Timeline

• 17 June 1924 — Archibald Thompson Hall was born in Glasgow.
• 1941 — He received his first prison sentence for theft.
• 1964 — He received ten years’ imprisonment for jewel theft activities.
• After 1964 incarceration — He escaped from Blundeston Prison in Suffolk.
• 1966 — He was recaptured and received another five years’ on top of the ten years he was already supposed to be serving.
• 1972 — He was paroled and met Mary Coggle in Preston; she became his mistress.
• By the end of 1973 — He was back in prison and stayed there until 1977.
• November 1977 — He moved to London and took a butler position with Walter Travers Scott-Elliott and his wife Dorothy.
• 8 December — He took the opportunity to show Michael Kitto around the Scott-Elliott’s house; Mrs Scott-Elliott returned earlier and confronted them.
• 14 December — Near Glen Affric, Hall and Kitto attempted to strangle Walter Scott-Elliott; they beat him to death with a spade and buried his body.
• Christmas Day 1977 — Mary Coggle’s body was discovered by a shepherd.
• 15 January 1978 — After disposing of Donald Hall’s body, Hall and Kitto went to the Blenheim House Hotel in North Berwick.
• 18 January 1978 — A failed suicide attempt occurred while Fontaine was in custody.
• November 1978 — Hall and Kitto were tried in Edinburgh; Kitto received fifteen years and Hall received life imprisonment without parole.
• 16 September 2002 — He died in Kingston Prison in Portsmouth aged 78.
• 1999 — He published his autobiography A Perfect Gentlemen.
• 1995 — The Observer newspaper published a letter from Hall requesting the right to die.
• 2005 — British actor Malcolm McDowell and Hollywood screenwriter Peter Bellwood announced that they were seeking a director and funding for a film based on Hall’s life.
• 31 October 2002 — A notice described the death of a former butler who was at the centre of a notorious killing spree.

Background

Archibald Hall began a career of petty crime scam involving two Red Cross collection tins, with one tin containing small change for the Red Cross and the other for paper money. He graduated to confidence tricks and often posed as a member of the aristocracy or a wealthy American. He worked as a butler to the rich and famous between prison spells.

He served multiple prison sentences for theft and later for jewel theft activities. He escaped from Blundeston Prison in Suffolk shortly after incarceration and was recaptured in 1966, receiving additional imprisonment.

During his parole period in 1972, he met Mary Coggle, an Irishwoman who became his mistress. He had an on-off relationship with Mary Coggle.

He had a short-lived marriage and was openly bisexual, embarking on a string of affairs with men. He had a taste for Hollywood and its stars and changed his name to Roy Fontaine, inspired by Joan Fontaine in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rebecca. He also studied social etiquette and became a self-taught authority on antiques, including lessons in elocution that eradicated his Glasgow accent.

The offence

Murder of David Wright

Hall had an altercation with David Wright after Wright stole some of Lady Hudson’s silver and threatened to tell her about Hall’s criminal past. Hall took Wright on a rabbit hunting trip in which Wright’s gun was emptied before Hall shot Wright in the head, killing him instantly. Hall buried Wright’s body in a rough grave in the bed of a stream.

Theft and disappearance involving Walter Travers Scott-Elliott and Dorothy Scott-Elliott

Hall moved from Scotland to London and took employment as a butler to 82-year-old Walter Travers Scott-Elliott and his wife Dorothy. He noticed priceless antiques and planned to steal valuables in order to retire. Mrs Scott-Elliott went into a nursing home for a few days and later returned unexpectedly earlier than expected.

Hall, Michael Kitto, and Mary Coggle planned to burgle the Scott-Elliot home. On the evening of 8 December, Hall took the opportunity to show Kitto around the Scott-Elliott’s house. When Hall entered the Scott-Elliott’s bedroom, he was confronted by Mrs Scott-Elliott, who wanted to know what he was doing there with a stranger. Both grabbed her, and using a pillow they suffocated her.

They tried to make it look like an accident. The next day, Mr Scott-Elliott went to his club for lunch while Hall, Kitto, and Coggle tried to decide what to do next. They intended to keep Mr Scott-Elliott sedated with pills so that Mary could impersonate his wife, at least for a while.

They drugged Mr Scott-Elliott with whisky and sleeping pills. Mary Coggle put on a wig and wore Mrs Scott-Elliott’s clothes and fur coat. They placed Mrs Scott-Elliott’s body in the boot of the car and drove to a cottage in Cumberland rented by Hall. They then travelled north. They buried Mrs Scott-Elliott’s body by a lonely roadside near Loch Earn.

After disposing of Mrs Scott-Elliott’s body, they left Mr Scott-Elliott at the cottage while returning to London and ransacking the house. They later picked up Mr Scott-Elliott and drove north again. On the afternoon of 14 December near Glen Affric, Hall and Kitto decided to get rid of the old man. They attempted to strangle him; after he fought back, they used a spade to beat him to death and buried his body in a shallow grave.

Murder of Mary Coggle

An argument broke out between Hall and Mary Coggle over evidence. She wanted to keep Dorothy’s mink coat, while Hall wanted to get rid of the evidence. When they returned to the cottage the row erupted into violence: Hall struck Mary, knocked her to the ground with a poker, and put a plastic bag over her head, suffocating her. Later that night Archie and Kitto drove the Carlisle to Glasgow road and dumped her body in a stream under a bridge. Mary Coggle’s body was later found by a shepherd on Christmas Day 1977.

Murder of Donald Hall

After the end of the festive season, Hall and Kitto returned to their Cumberland hide-out with Hall’s brother, Donald. Donald started asking too many questions about their newly found wealth. Hall decided he would have to go, and Donald was rendered unconscious with chloroform and drowned in the bath. The next day, 15 January 1978, Hall and Kitto drove north again looking for somewhere suitable to dispose of the body.

Confessions and number of murders

Hall made a full confession during questioning, including mentioning the earlier murder of David Wright. He confessed to five murders. Courts charged Hall and Kitto with five murders.

Investigation and arrest

An antiques dealer in Newcastle became suspicious after two men offered china and silverware well below its worth. The dealer noted the car’s number plate and alerted the police. The police found the car had been rented out to a Scott-Elliot, and when they visited the Chelsea flat they found walls spattered with blood and over £3,500 worth of valuables missing.

Detectives connected the murders by reference to Mary Coggle’s body being found a month earlier on Christmas Day 1977 and by noting that she had previously worked for Dorothy Scott-Elliott as a housekeeper and cook.

Police also considered evidence involving other stays at a Scottish hotel, including that three men and a woman had stayed one night but only two men returned the following night, and that the men were Hall and Kitto.

In January 1978, Hall and Kitto stopped at a hotel in North Berwick. The hotel owner, Norman Wight, became suspicious and called the police. During routine checks the police found Donald Hall’s body. Hall escaped out of a toilet window.

Hall was later stopped at a police roadblock in Haddington. Police said they found Donald’s body in the boot of the car and that Mary Coggle’s body had also been found. The disapearance of Mr and Mrs Scott-Elliott was also being investigated.

A connection was made between Hall’s car and the registration number of a vehicle noted by the suspicious antiques dealer in Newcastle upon Tyne, leading police to trace the car to the Scott-Elliots’ address in London, where detectives found the apartment robbed of many valuables and spattered with blood.

Hall attempted suicide while in custody. He later helped police search for Mr Scott-Elliott’s body on the Highlands after a failed suicide attempt on 18 January 1978, and police teams dug up David Wright and Walter and Dorothy Scott-Elliott. They also found Mrs Scott-Elliott face down in a roadside ditch 100 miles from where her husband’s corpse had been uncovered.

The police found Mr Scott-Elliott’s body by reference to evidence that it had been found chewed by foxes amongst a rhododendron bush.

Trial

Hall and Kitto were tried in Edinburgh in November 1978.

During the trial in Edinburgh in May 1978, Hall was described as a psychopath. Hall made a full confession to the five murders, and British and Scottish courts sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The material described sentencing with multiple life sentences:

• Hall was charged with four life sentences for four murders, while the fifth case remains open in the relevant trial description.
• Another account recorded that Hall was convicted of four murders, with the murder of Mrs Scott-Elliott ordered to lie on file.
• In Scotland it was recommended that he served a minimum of 15 years, and in England the judge recommended he never be released.
• Kitto was given life imprisonment for three murders, with no recommended minimum in Scotland and a 15-year minimum in England.
• A separate account recorded that Kitto received fifteen years and Hall received life imprisonment without parole in November 1978.

The court proceedings included that the killings resulted in charges of five murders, and that Hall and Kitto were charged accordingly.

“There is a side of me, when aroused, that is cold and completely heartless”.

This quotation was attributed to Hall and appeared in connection with his 1999 autobiography A Perfect Gentlemen.

Sentencing and imprisonment

Hall was sentenced to life imprisonment. Another account stated that he received life imprisonment without parole. The material also stated that successive Home Secretaries put Hall on the list of dangerous prisoners who should serve a whole life tariff, and that politically-set tariffs were declared illegal by the law lords and the European Court of Human Rights, but Hall’s status as a prisoner unlikely to be released did not change.

Hall served prison time including custody in Kingston Prison in Portsmouth and died there in 2002 aged 78.

Appeals

No appeal outcomes were stated in the material.

Outcome

Hall died in Kingston Prison in Portsmouth aged 78 on 16 September 2002.

Aftermath

Hall attempted suicide several times while in custody. In 1995, a letter from Hall was published by the Observer newspaper in which he requested the right to die. He published his autobiography A Perfect Gentlemen in 1999. In 2005, Malcolm McDowell and Peter Bellwood announced they were seeking a director and funding for a film based on Hall’s life.

Other details

Hall was associated with the nickname “The Killer Butler” and “The Monster Butler,” and was also described as “The Mad Butler” by the press. He was described as the oldest person serving a whole life tariff in prison. He was described as having been the oldest person on a publicised list at the time the status was discussed. He was described as bisexual and had affairs with men. The people mentioned in connection with his crimes included Mary Coggle, David Wright, Michael Kitto, Dorothy Scott-Elliott, Walter Travers Scott-Elliott, Lady Margaret Hudson, Lady Butler, Roy Fontaine (as his alternate name), Donald Hall, Norman Wight, and the antiques dealer in Newcastle.

He used false plates on a Granada. The police discovered the licence number should belong to a Ford Escort. Hall escaped from a toilet window at a hotel in North Berwick and was captured at a police roadblock in nearby Haddington.

The material also included a claim that Mrs Scott-Elliott’s murder was ordered to lie on file, and that Hall denied murdering Mrs Scott-Elliott at one point in the narrative that discussed additional life sentences.