Alfred Burns

Case summary

Beatrice Alice Rimmer was bludgeoned to death in her home in the Wavertree area. Robbery was the supposed motive.

Two Mancunian men, Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns, were hanged for the murder after investigations led by Bert Balmer. The evidence against the two accused was largely circumstantial, and it involved eye witness accounts by people of questionable character and the defendants’ failure to provide a suitable alibi. No murder weapon or fingerprints were ever found, and no one ever saw them go into the house.

Timeline

• 19 August 1951 (Sunday evening, time 9.45 p.m.) — Beatrice Alice Rimmer, a widow in her early fifties, left her son’s house in Madryn Street, Toxteth, accompanied by her son Thomas; she boarded a Number 27 bus, alighted at Lodge Lane outside the Pavilion Theatre, then walked down Smithdown Road to her home at Number 7 Cranborne Road, arriving around 10.10 p.m.
• around 10.10 p.m. (the following day attack time inferred) — Mrs Rimmer was attacked; she died from an extremely violent attack that left her with fifteen wounds.
• around 6 a.m. — A milk bottle was left on the front doorstep of 7 Cranborne Road.
• 20 August 1951 (Monday) — Jack Grossman alerted Thomas Rimmer after midday because Mrs Rimmer had not been seen all morning; Thomas hammered on the door, looked through the letterbox, climbed over the wall, entered through a broken kitchen window pane with shards on the yard floor, and found his mother’s body behind the front door in a large pool of clotted blood with an umbrella looped around her wrist and a bunch of flowers beside the corpse.
• April 1952 — Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns were hanged at Walton Prison.
• 25 April 1952 — Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns were executed by hanging at Walton Prison.

The offence

Beatrice Alice Rimmer was assaulted in her home at Number 7 Cranborne Road. She suffered fifteen wounds and died from an extremely violent attack. An umbrella was looped around her wrist and a bunch of flowers lay beside the corpse. The gas meter was untouched, and nothing was taken from the house, according to the description of the police reaction to the crime. The supposed motive was robbery.

Investigation

Liverpool Police launched an investigation after the murder and worked round the clock, but reached a dead end. Chief Superintendent Herbert Balmer later claimed that a man serving time for a burglary at Walton Prison had told him who had committed the Cranborne Road murder: George Alfred Burns (aged 21) and Edward Devlin (aged 22). The police alleged that Burns and Devlin had been half-way through a burglary in Manchester when they decided to travel to Liverpool to break into Mrs Rimmer’s home.

Old, minute bloodstains found on the coat belonging to one of the men were cited as evidence, but they were said not to be of the same blood-group as Mrs Rimmer; it was described as blood from a fight in a pub.

A thief jailed for that Manchester break-in confessed that the pair were with him, but Devlin and Burns were convicted.

Arrest

Two Mancunian men, George Alfred Burns and Edward Devlin, were arrested and tried for the murder of Mrs Rimmer after the claims made by Chief Superintendent Herbert Balmer.

Trial

The case was tried at Liverpool Assizes. Rose Heilbron defended the Manchester men, and she told the jury that the evidence against Burns and Devlin was circumstantial. It was stated that no one had seen them enter or leave the house. No one saw them leave or enter Cranborne Road, and the only forensic evidence described was a drop of blood on the coat belonging to one of them, which was not from the same blood group as Mrs Rimmer.

During the trial, Devlin and Burns denied having killed Mrs Beatrice Alice Rimmer and they had an alibi defence that they were in Manchester breaking into the factory of Sun Blinds Ltd, with goods to the value of £1,600 stolen during the weekend of the murder.

At sentencing, Edward Devlin addressed the judge.

“My Lord. I would like to stress that it means the police are not infallible to tell lies”.

Sentencing

Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns were sentenced to death by Mr Justice Finnemore.

Appeals

The appeals were described as coming to nothing, and defence solicitors Livermore and Norton urged the home secretary to grant a reprieve. The mothers of the condemned men begged the Queen to intervene, but received no reply.

Outcome

Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns were executed side by side by hanging at Walton Prison.

Aftermath

Huge crowds gathered outside Liverpool's Walton Prison as they were executed. Keith Andrews believed the real killer of Mrs Rimmer lived locally and knew the murder victim, and he said: “Fifty years ago, two young men were, in my opinion, framed for the murder of Mrs Rimmer. I believe that even at this late stage, the identity of the true killer can still be uncovered,” as he was researching the Cranborne Road murder.

The conviction and case were described as a controversial murder case, and it was also described as a miscarriages of justice example in discussion of the death penalty. The case was linked to the “Cranborne Road Murder” and included references to other miscarriages of justice such as Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Hussein Mattan, and also to examples including the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, Sheila Bowler and Stefan Kiszko.