Forensic Files - Season 2, Episode 6 - The Blood Trail - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In a quiet English village a few hours' drive from London, a threat was
delivered to a local farmer. Impaled on a fence post, a severed lamb's head along
with the message, you next. The note said little about its author, but between the lines
it said plenty. [theme music] Nestled among the lush rolling hills of England's west country
is the tiny village of Horton, a cluster of houses lining one main street. A farming community where life is simple, quiet, and peaceful.
But in the spring of 1984, the peace and quiet was shattered following a series of bizarre events
that took place here at Widden Hill Farm. 44-year-old Graham Backhouse and his wife Margaret
lived at the farm with their two children. Backhouse had inherited the farm from his father,
but by all accounts Backhouse, a farmer hairdresser, was not having financial success as a farmer.
He had to take over the-- the farm. He had no option in the business. And there was a--
pretty obvious that he was a kind of reluctant, grudging farmer. But it was well-known that the farm was not making money.
NARRATOR: On March 30, 1984, Backhouse reported a grisly and terrifying discovery.
A severed lamb's head had been impaled on his fence post. Placed next to it a note warning in large handwritten letters,
you next. Backhouse told police that this wasn't the first time threats had been made against him.
He told me that he was receiving telephone calls of a threatening nature, even threats to kill,
as I recall. NARRATOR: Backhouse also told police about a threatening letter he had received in the mail.
--which said words to the effect, you have ruined my sister's life. I'm going to get you, you bastard.
NARRATOR: Less than two weeks later, the threats turned violent. Margaret Backhouse was heading into town to do some shopping.
She decided to take her husband's car because her car was having some mechanical difficulties.
Graham was in the barn and never heard the explosion or Margaret's screams for help over the music
from his radio. The bomb was unsophisticated, but extremely powerful. It had been planted directly under the driver's seat.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a bomb. It was a shortened version of a shotgun. It was constructed from galvanized steel
pipe, two inch diameter-- quite a thick wall to the pipe. NARRATOR: Margaret Backhouse survived the explosion
because the force of the bomb was directed downwards by the high quality construction
of the driver's seat. But doctors still had to remove more than a pound of pellets and shrapnel
from Margaret Backhouse's body. The bombing stunned villagers who now had to accept the fact that the threats against Graham
Backhouse were serious. When bombs go off, you've got to take it seriously. And people were thinking that there
must be something behind this. It was the only possible conclusion that we all reached that the bomb must
have been for Graham Backhouse. NARRATOR: But who wanted Graham Backhouse dead, and why?
On the same day of the car bomb explosion which seriously injured Margaret Backhouse, a threatening letter
was delivered to the Backhouse farm. And the message said something to the effect,
came twice last week, but the pigs were about. NARRATOR: The note ended with the words, see you soon.
The words twice and were had both been misspelled, and experts believed that the spelling
errors were deliberate. Investigators also examined the note found beside the severed lamb's head,
the one which stated, you next. An analysis of that note revealed a possible clue, an impression from a circular doodle.
When a doodle is made on a piece of paper, the pressure from the writing instrument
leaves an impression on the pages underneath the original doodle. Doodle impressions can be found using a technique called
oblique lighting, which casts shadows across the indentations of the paper. BERYL MORGAN: So that you can see
the impression as a row of shadows, and these can then be photographed. NARRATOR: Police asked Graham Backhouse
to identify all individuals who may have wanted to harm him. He was interviewed at some length about who
his enemies were, who his ex girlfriends were, and things of that nature. NARRATOR: Backhouse told police about one
possibility, a former quarry worker named David Hodkinson. Backhouse said he once had a sexual affair
with Hodkinson's wife. Hodkinson would have had access to explosives, and was also an electrician who specialized
in wiring automobiles. On the day the explosion took place this person was, in fact,
out of the country on holiday and had been out of the country for three or four days beforehand.
NARRATOR: When Hodkinson's alibi checked out, police turned their attention to one of Graham Backhouse's
neighbors, Colin Bedale-Taylor. He was a retired engineer seriously depressed over the death of his 19-year-old son Digby
who died in a car crash two years earlier. Bedale-Taylor and Backhouse were involved
in a bitter land dispute which they couldn't seem to resolve. They lived 200 yards apart.
Colin Bedale-Taylor was well-liked in the small farming community. He was a woodworker and handyman who built this bench
for his friends in the village with the words, bide a while inscribed on the back rest.
Despite the differences between Backhouse and Bedale-Taylor, police did not seriously consider him
a suspect in the car bombing. There was no reason to suspect that Mr. Bedale-Taylor was in any way, shape, or form
involved in this incident. NARRATOR: With no other leads, Backhouse and his family
were given 24 hour police protection immediately following the bombing. After a week, Graham Backhouse began to resent the police
intrusion and asked them to end the around the clock protection. Before they left, police installed an alarm button
connecting the Backhouse home directly to the police station. Just two weeks later, the alarm sounded.
DEREK ROBINSON: Police cars began streaming up the hill. We knew that something was seriously wrong.
NARRATOR: When the police arrived at the farm, they saw a horrific scene of blood and death.
Blood was found on the kitchen floor, the chairs had been overturned, and at the bottom of the stairs
at the end of a hallway laid the body of Colin Bedale-Taylor, Backhouse's neighbor.
He had been shot twice in the chest. In his right hand firmly clutched was a Stanley knife inscribed with his own initials, CBT.
Backhouse was bleeding profusely with gaping slash wounds on his face and chest.
I've popped in to see how your wife is faring. She's doing very well, thank you.
NARRATOR: He told police that Bedale-Taylor stopped by to ask how his wife was doing in the hospital
following the car bombing. Justice? NARRATOR: Without warning, Colin flew into a rage
and attacked Backhouse with a Stanley knife. Me that set the bomb in your car. You should have been the victim, not her!
NARRATOR: He said he was doing God's work, blaming Backhouse for the death of his son and admitted
to planting the car bomb. Backhouse ran to the hallway, grabbed his shotgun, and shot Bedale-Taylor in self-defense.
Police roped off the farm and called for forensic detectives to conduct an examination.
They were particularly interested in the blood trails-- the one they could see and the one they couldn't find.
Graham Backhouse told police that he killed Collin Bedale-Taylor in self-defense
after his neighbor went berserk and attacked Backhouse with a Stanley knife. Backhouse said his neighbor admitted planting the car bomb,
and that it was intended for him, not his wife. When police searched Bedale-Taylor's property,
they found evidence linking him to the bombing. PETER BROCK: We found a long section of pipe
on grounds quite close to Colin Bedale-Taylor's home, and this matched the remnants of the bomb
that were reconstructed. GEOFFREY ROBINSON: The obvious implication was that the pipe bomb had been made by him
and come from his land. NARRATOR: But forensic detectives were confused by what they found at the scene of the attack.
First, the blood spatter on the kitchen floor told a story, but it was a story inconsistent with Backhouse's
version of events. GEOFFREY ROBINSON: The staining was predominantly in the form of small circular drips of blood.
NARRATOR: The circular drops of blood found on the kitchen floor were not consistent with a struggle,
but indicated that the blood dripped from an individual standing still. GEOFFREY ROBINSON: Blood dripping vertically
to a surface during a passive act of bleeding will form circular spots or stains.
But if we have a violent movement of the body-- a flicking of the hand-- you see a different shape a stain.
They're more elongated, and some of the stains will show a tail shape to them pointing
in the direction of travel that the blood impacted the surface. NARRATOR: And there was something missing.
Backhouse said he ran for his life from the kitchen down the hall to get his gun, but police
could find no trail of blood. We seem to have a man who is dripping blood profusely
in the kitchen, manages to move over 15 foot of carpeted hallway without leaving
any drips of blood. NARRATOR: And police were faced with another discrepancy. Backhouse said he shot Bedale-Taylor after his face
and chest had been slashed, but his blood was not found on the gun. Had he been attacked before firing the gun,
blood from his face wound or from his hands would have dripped onto the gun as he fired in self-defense.
So both features missing from the gun suggested that he wasn't bleeding and hadn't blood staining on him at the time
that he picked up that gun. NARRATOR: The victim was found clutching the Stanley
knife firmly in his right hand. The forensic pathologist found this highly unusual.
When somebody shot or when somebody dies, they go limp. So then I would expect to see the response, or the body's
response to being shot twice in the chest and death taking place simply to relax and the knife would fall from the hand.
Wouldn't be clutched tightly in the hand. NARRATOR: And Bedale-Taylor's right palm was bloody.
When an individual holds a knife during an attack, the knife usually prevents blood from staining the entire palm.
IAIN WEST: There's an area of the palm which is either very lightly stained with blood or not stained
with blood. The knife protects that part of the palm. NARRATOR: Backhouse's chest wound was also
inconsistent with a struggle. Because normally if you're cut, you withdraw. Your body jerks away.
So how on earth are you going to get a wound which then travels almost half the circumference of the chest in a one
to one confrontation? I would never expect to see that pattern of injury. NARRATOR: And Backhouse had no defensive injuries commonly
found when a person fends off a knife attack. They actually grab hold of the weapon itself,
and they get cut across the fingers, the palm. And sometimes you find that they've
tried to block the weapon, put their hand up, and they get cuts in the back of the forearm,
or the side of the forearm, or the back of the hand. None of these were present here.
NARRATOR: And there was something else, something small but significant. When police searched Backhouse's study, they found a notepad.
On one of the pages was a circular doodle. The ink doodle found on Backhouse's notepad
was identical to the impression found on the you next note. It was a whole series of circles--
quite a complicated thing. The impressions were quite deep so that you had a good photograph, and you were
able to get a good alignment, and you could see clearly that it came from this doodle.
It was exactly the same. There was no doubt whatsoever about it. This is the doodle that we're talking about here.
You can see just various scribble. When we turn the page, I think you can still see the impression.
This note is now very old and has been well handled, so it's not terribly clear now.
But it is still there, just see it there. Still see the impression just there. NARRATOR: Proof that you next note was written on Graham
Backhouse's own notepad. PETER BROCK: We now had a document in the form of the you
next note that we could positively link with Widden Hill Farm. NARRATOR: Police believed they could now piece together
the bizarre events which led to the cold blooded murder of Colin Bedale-Taylor. After two straight years of crop failures,
Graham Backhouse was 50,000 pounds in debt to a local bank and was in desperate need of funds.
Backhouse devised an elaborate scheme to get out of debt once and for all. His plan was to kill his wife and collect on her life
insurance policies, which he had recently doubled to 100,000 pounds, but he wanted the murder to appear
as if Margaret had been killed by someone out to kill him. So Backhouse fabricated the story
about the threatening phone calls and letters. Backhouse himself wrote the you next note
and impaled the severed lamb's head on his fence post, establishing the ruse that someone was out to get him.
With the stage now set, Backhouse turned his attention to the murder of his wife.
He planted a pipe bomb under the driver's seat of his own car. He knew his wife would drive his car into town the next morning
because her car was having mechanical problems. But Backhouse never expected his wife to survive the explosion.
Desperate and fearing the police would consider him a suspect, Backhouse panicked and decided to set up a scapegoat--
someone to divert the police inquiry from himself. The logical choice was his neighbor, Colin Bedale-Taylor.
Thanks for coming about the furniture. NARRATOR: Villagers knew that the two were
involved in a land dispute. When Bedale-Taylor accepted Graham's invitation to discuss a piece of furniture, he
had no way of knowing he had walked into a death trap. GRAHAM BACKHOUSE: Colin, come here a minute.
Coming. NARRATOR: Colin was shot twice in the chest in cold blood. To make the shooting appear to be in self-defense,
Backhouse slashed himself in the face and chest with a knife yet inscribed with his neighbor's initials.
Bleeding profusely from the self-inflicted wounds, Backhouse overturned kitchen chairs
to make it appear there had been a struggle, never realizing the shape of the blood spatter
would indicate no struggle at all. Backhouse's his own blood was found on the victim's shirt
because he stood directly over the body when he placed the knife in the dead man's hand.
With the crime scene now complete, Graham Backhouse called the police. Some time earlier, Backhouse planted a piece of pipe
on Bedale-Taylor's property identical to the type used in making the car bomb. When the forensic evidence contradicted
Backhouse's version of events, he was arrested for both the attempted murder of his wife
and the murder of Colin Bedale-Taylor. In addition to the blood spatter evidence,
the doodle impression found on Backhouse's notepad, and the medical examiner's opinion that the cuts on Graham
Backhouse were self-inflicted, another crucial piece of evidence helped seal the case.
It came from the letter delivered to the Backhouse farm on the day of the bombing.
Forensic detectives wanted to analyze the glued envelope for saliva, hoping to determine the blood
type of the individual who sent the letter, but they discovered much more. Under the microscope, the fiber found in the envelope
matched fibers found in a brown cardigan sweater owned by Graham Backhouse, further proof
that Backhouse had mailed the threatening letter to himself. Graham Backhouse's plotting continued from his prison cell.
He conned a fellow prisoner into smuggling out an unsigned letter to a local newspaper.
The letter implicated Colin Bedale-Taylor in the car bombing. But the letter was confiscated, and Backhouse's handwriting
matched the handwriting on the letter delivered to the farm on the day of the bombing.
After a 16-day trial, Graham Backhouse was convicted of all charges against him and received two life sentences.
If somebody had set out to write a novel along those lines, it would never have been accepted by anybody.
I mean, this is absolutely truth being stranger than fiction. PETER BROCK: This was an outstanding case
in many respects principally because without forensic evidence there was no case.
The worst aspect was, of course, the fact that he picked on a totally innocent man in the village
and killed him for no other reason than to try to remove blame from himself. And that's what made it a diabolical murder.
[theme music]

In a quiet village in Great Britain, a farmer came upon a chilling sight. Impaled on his fence post was a severed lamb’s head along with a note which read, “You next.” The author of the note didn’t elaborate on why the farmer had been targeted, but between the lines, he’d said plenty.

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Brief Summary

Graham Backhouse orchestrated threats and a bombing to murder his wife and frame his neighbor, leading to his conviction for murder.

Key points

The Shocking Threat. A severed lamb's head is found with a chilling message: 'you next.'
The Bombing Incident. Margaret Backhouse survives a bomb explosion intended for her husband, Graham.
A Diabolical Murder. Graham Backhouse orchestrates a plot to kill his wife and frame his neighbor.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I'm going to get you, you bastard.

2:48WatchMay 27, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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