As many readers will know by now, I have always been a true crime buff, and recently I was re-reading a sensational "love triangle" murder case which took place in the 1960s but which is almost forgotten now.
Max and Sheila Garvie appeared to be a devoted couple. they lived with their three children at West Cairnbeg Farm in east Scotland. But after a while their marriage began to founder; Max developed a taste for nudism and pornography which Sheila found distasteful. In 1967 Sheila met the much younger Brian Tevendale and they were soon attracted to one another. On 14th May 1968 Max drove to Stonehaven to attend a meeting but was not seen alive again, and neighbours began to gossip about Sheila and Tevendale's being seen together more and more. On 16 August they were arrested and the next day Max's body was found in an underground tunnel at St. Cyrus; he had been bludgeoned and shot in the neck. Alan Peters, a friend of Tevendale, was also charged with Max's murder. The trial took place in Aberdeen November 1968; Max Garvie's perverted interests were revealed to the court, Sheila confessed her intimacy with Tevendale, and Peters said that he had witnessed Tevendale shooting Garvie in bed, after which he helped dispose of the body. Sheila denied complicity but she and Tevendale were sentenced to life imprisonment, although I believe both were released after ten years. The case against Peters was found Not Proven.
MAXWELL ROBERT GARVIE: 24th October 1932; Aberdeen (57N10 002W04); 03:40 am GMT
SHEILA GARVIE: 26th October 1934; Aberdeen; 01:45 am GMT
BRIAN TEVENDALE: 12th November 1945; Stonehaven (56N38 002W13); 08:30 pm (20:30) GMT
Caroline Gerard obtained the birth data from Register House, Edinburgh.
I have the full birth data for Donald James Kennedy, the baby of Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and his wife Sarah: 12th April 2005; St Thomas' Hospital, London (51N29 000W07); 00:14 am BST (23:14 GMT 11th April 2005)
Source: Ceefax on the day
Pat Taglilatelo of Massachusetts recently sent me a huge profile on Patricia Cornwell, author of those popular forensic crime thrillers (thirteen so far) featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta. The author was married to college professor Charles Cornwell 1980 - 90.
PATRICIA CORNWELL (nee Daniels): 9th June 1956; Miami Florida. Sadly the birth-time is not available, for, as Pat points out, certain states such as Florida, Texas and New York, to name but a few, are reluctant to release copies of birth records.
Most people know the story of Robert Browning's famous poem The Pied Piper of Hamlin. The townsfolk of Hamelin, Germany were desperate; their houses were overrun by rats. Then a stranger appeared and offered to get rid of the rats for a fee, and he did so by entrancing the rats with music from his pipe. But the mayor refused to come up with the payment, so the piper started playing again and this time lead the town's children away with him; they were never seen again.
Believe it or not, there is a date for this strange occurrence, and it is recorded on a stained-glass window in a Hamlin church: "In the year 1284, on the day of John and Paul, it was the 26th June, came a colourful Piper to Hamelin and led 130 children away." The whole affair appears to be a mixture of fact and legend; the rats did not appear in the story until three hundred years later. Some people believe the children were led out of the town for quarantine reasons, but no one has explained why they were lost. Maybe some terrible crime or accident occurred which was too painful to recall, so it was wrapped up in a fanciful tale.
"PIED PIPER" DAY: 26th June 1284 O.S. (3rd July 1284 N.S.); Hamelin, Germany (52N06 009E21)