Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook - Season 1, Episode 4 - The Black Panther | Forensic Files

don't Nelson was a ruthless killer he would stop at nothing to succeed in his enterprise you're dealing with a killer
at Catlett's vicious but I put my knee across Nielsen's throat the wound to his head said I'll kill you you bastard
in the 1970s I was a young television reporter working a lot in the north of England and I vividly recalled the name
of Donald Nielsen also known as the Black Panther and his reign of terror for ten years he was hunted by the
police for robbery kidnap and murder communities in central England were petrified of the deadly man in the black
balaclava but how did Nielson get away with his crime spree and couldn't he have been
brought to justice a lot sooner [Music] I'm Fred Dynegy and as the official biographer to the Kray twins I quickly
learn that the myth of crime can often overtake the facts of what actually happened that's why I'm reinvestigating
some of Britain's most evil murderers in the 1970s the killer donald nielsen terrified central England not only did
he kill three postal workers but he kidnapped a 17 year old girl from her bedroom she too would end up dead
donald nielsen was born on the 1st of august 1936 just a few miles outside of bradford growing up in wartime Britain
meant that family life was tough for the young boy especially as his father was a
strict disciplinarian something that would rub off on Nielson in later life I'm always fascinated by the early lives
of murderers and the way their childhood might have had an impact on the crimes they would later commit it's a
fascination that's shared by one of Britain's leading criminologists David Wilson when he was growing up he was
called Donald nappy and therefore he was bullied at school people would taunt him
by using his surname dirty nappy nipper nappy and so forth so he didn't progress
as he might have progressed at school and also because he was so small he never grew to being taller than 5 foot 6
there's a sense in which he didn't quite fit in he's incredibly close to his mother but when he's 10 his mother dies
and that leads to the first time he gets into trouble he breaks into the local co-op and therefore the first brush with
the law it wasn't until Nielsen turned 18 that he found some direction in his life up
until 1963 national service was mandatory Nielsen was one of two million men conscripted to serve two years in
the British Army one man who in the 1970s reported on the Panthers case and trial is
drue right he met some of the key characters involved and he's agreed to share with me what he knows
he loved the army absolutely loved he was called up for National Service and he did his normal training surprisingly
he failed his Bren gun training so he had to go and do its 10-week training course all over again he later said that
he'd done that on purpose and it will surprise me actually because he so loved the army
I just wanted to carry on it was the happiest part of his life so far Nielson served in Kenya Cyprus and Aden during
his two years in the Army such was his devotion that he only asked for one break that was to marry his
childhood sweetheart Irene it was a secret affair and neither Donald nor Irene's family who were told
off the ceremony by 1960 they had a daughter Katherine so Donald left the Army in search of a new career to
support his family so he's come out of the army he's a married man he's going to try and find a job he's going to try
and find someplace to live but he's a drifter he's Restless he's never been much of an apprentice
he's developed carpentry skills plumbing skills but nothing that he does he's really able to stick at I think he's
probably his most successful Enterprise was in fact doing building for various people but it didn't make him a lot of
money and he yearned to do better so he's rootless and listless and crucially he needs to
find a way of explaining that not just to those people around him like his wife but he needs to find a way of explaining
not getting on to himself I think he was fairly cheesed off because he was working as well sits off
and around him he saw various people particularly immigrants I think who he felt were getting money off the state
and he didn't see why they should get more money than he was actually earning so in the winter months he turned to
crime by 1965 age 29 Nielson began breaking into houses and targeted the middle classes he believed
they were the only people to keep their money at home now he's incredibly successful as a house burglar indeed
there are some 400 burglaries which he is believed to have committed and he was never caught by the police he would keep
the newspaper cuttings of the burglaries when they were reported as a psychologist like criminologist I know
that often offenders will take cuttings of their crimes often in a voyeuristic way but in relation to Nielson
the indication is that he kept those cuttings as a way of informing himself and it was almost so if it was a manual
that he was training himself up so that he could become a better burglar and Nielsen wanted a better life for his
family he changed their surname from nappy to Nielson to avoid his daughter Katherine suffering the same bullying
he'd experienced they had no idea about his secret life and also played an unwitting role in helping him prepare
for his robberies unlike a family that goes out into the park to go for a picnic or whatever and he also would
take them on maneuvers he would go and hide in the woods and have them find him so these were like trial runs if you
like and the family were intimately bound up with these trial runs although there's absolutely
no evidence to indicate that they were aware of what Nielsen was doing behind our backs the house robberies gave
Nielson enough cash to get through the winter but he wanted to make more he was after more money for the risks he was
taking Nielson decided to move to the next level back in the 1970s many villages in the Midlands had small
community post offices where people used to keep their money Nielson decided to adapt the techniques he'd used for
breaking into people's houses to entering small post offices in the middle of the night Nielson was
meticulous in his preparation he would spend weeks studying the layout of his intended target he made every attempt to
ensure he'd never be caught he's usually masked he's dressed and black he's clearly wearing gloves he's
carrying a gun the gun was loaded this wasn't just for show he was intending to use these weapons to get some insight
into the mind of an armed robber I've arranged a meeting with Tom Kerrigan in the 80s and 90s he committed a series of
armed robberies on post offices and banks he was released having served a nine year sentence how did your own life of
crime begin that was about 15 6 to 15 when I rubbed my first shot and we got in with people who who were a bit older
than us and who were a bit more ruthless than us as well and so going along on on
robberies with those kind of people you know give us a sense of ruthlessness as well to carry out you know serious
Roberts with loaded weapons they never occur to you you could kill somebody yeah yeah but it didn't worry you didn't
worry us no my consciousness about who might be a victim to me was secondary to what I wanted you know so if I'm gonna
rob something I want to go in there fully and just take what I need to take what I want
no one's gonna stand in my way this was a motto that Donald Nielsen also stood by as he began breaking into post
offices throughout central and northern England the first nine he attempted including this one were successful the
10th though was to change his life and the lives of the family he encountered forever
Donald Nielsen was 37 when he targeted a small sub post-office in Harrogate 20 miles north of his home as thus kept our
family slept inside Nielsen turned off the power to the alarm and entered the premises but things didn't go to plan I
think in the past he'd relied on creeping into somebody's bedroom and finding the keys either on a bedside
table or concealed in some of these trousers or something this time he couldn't find any and he therefore had
to go and wake somebody up Nielsen forced the postmasters 18 year-old son at gunpoint to search for the keys
unable to find them the black panther marched the son into his father's bedroom Donald skipper woke immediately he was
faced with a man dressed in black pointing a shotgun at him realizing the intruder was alone the postmaster left
out of bed to attack him Nielson didn't hesitate in pulling the trigger killing Donald skipper dead in front of his
family he escaped without stealing any money leaving a scene of devastation behind if you're constantly getting your
money getting access to your money by committing robbery and never being caught then it's like going to the
office has he had a good day at the office he gets lots of money a bad day at the office somebody tries to stop him
he has to shoot them but he sees it as simply an occupation this gives him the stature
that's denied to him by only being five foot six this gives him the confidence that's knocked out of him at school
because his surname was nappy these things are really central in trying to explain the story of the black panther
Nielsen had no remorse for the man he'd murdered it was a warning to other postal workers not to get in his way the
black panther wouldn't be afraid to kill again to get what he wanted I'm Fred Dinah and
I'm investigating the crimes of the Black Panther donald nielsen how did he manage to murder four people commit over
400 robberies and evade the police for so long in 1974 Nielsen was being hunted by the
police for the murder of postmaster Donald skipper the thief was now a killer but it didn't deter him from
continuing with his spate of robberies in once very successful robbery after the first shooting he escapes with
something like four and a half thousand pounds and he goes and cashes the postal
orders that he got from that robbery in the Midlands where whereas in fact he'd robbed in the north and in signing for
the postal order he'll often use pseudonyms which are deliberately chosen to taunt the police so for example he'll
sign a name saying be ware or C trail because the postal order can be traced back to the particular post office that
were robbed and he's taunting the police he's letting the police know I've got one over on you he had rules and those
rules were things like he would always take money cash and orders thinks it couldn't be traced he'd never have a
third party involved so he didn't have to fence stuff and he always had an escape route completely planned down
unlike Nielsen tom kerrigan never pulled the trigger when he was an armed robber
but he does know the mentality needed to commit such frightening crimes when when
you had hurt people did you feel badly about it no I'm robbing the shop and robbing a
post off and robbing the bank in my head there wasn't any victims so I was doing
because this was an Institute I was robbing or something that had loads of money everybody knows or should know
in order to stay out the way if you get in the way it's your choice you know so if you want to come against
you know something with a mask and a loaded shotgun you know with with a clear intent to not get caught then then
you have to live with that consequence away from crime Nielsen continued to try and live a normal family life he spent
his time renovating his house into flats which he rented out to make extra money
his home life was becoming fractious with his daughter he was a strict disciplinarian he punished any of her
misdemeanors with lengthy periods of what he would call hard labor forcing her to move piles of bricks across the
yard for no reason she had no idea her father was living a murderous double life from his time in the army Nielsen
had developed a fascination with guns his attic was like an armory full of deadly weapons an arsenal with which to
plan his next post office raid in September 1974 8 months after his first killing another post office raid went
terribly wrong Nielsen had targeted a small post office in Accrington an hour west of his home he'd made his usual
preparations but failed to discover that the owner Derrick Aston was an ex Royal
Marine a man who was willing to fight to protect his premises and family he was again woken from his bed don't know what
woke him but got out of bed and I seem to recall that his wife pushed the only thing that was
available beside them bizarrely a vacuum cleaner and said attacking with this he
managed to get him out of the bedroom and onto the landing where he was shot almost point-blank range in the shoulder
the wounded postmaster bravely fought with the masked intruder and summoning all his strength he threw him down the
stairs Nielson then pulled a second weapon from his jacket he was shot through his troubles with a - - the gun
was fired up the stairs and it unfortunately entered his body you know that was straight trajectory which went
through stomach and the poor guy died very soon afterwards Nielson was now a double murderer it didn't seem to affect
him though as far as he was concerned he was just one of the jobs he needed to do
to avoid capture the two murders of postal workers in the space of eight months had not only grabbed the police's
attention but also that of the press the headlines described the robberies however nobody had witnessed the Black
Panthers face descriptions were vague photo fits differed he was about five foot six pretty stocky very dark hair
slightly swarthy I mean when he went out he must have presented quite a menacing
figure because he would have been dressed in black with a black hoodie he had a number of hoods with him always in
fact there was a characteristic he always had spares of everything Neilson see himself
I think Nielsen did not see himself as an offender he used so many techniques of neutralization to justify his
behavior he was just an honest bloke being prevented from making his way in the world because there are too many
rich people too many people on benefits that our working class fellow can't get a start in life must turn to crime if
he's going to provide for his fine Emily and I think crucially a lot of the dressing up that wearing the camouflage
gear wearing the mask all of this gives us a clue a window into thinking about his psychology it's almost like a roller
coaster you know your mask is on your head and you read you've got everything you've got your weapons in place
everything's in place now the fantasies now just about to become real and so when you're at the height of one of the
I guess one of the best feelings that I've ever had you know and the last thing you want to do is make that not
happen you know and so as soon as you pull that mask then you become somebody else you you used psychologically cut
yourself off from being a caring human being Nielsen had established a routine in the summer he would carry out workers
of joyner and take his family on inexpensive holidays as the winter months approached and the work dried up
he begin planning his next set of robberies Nelson was probably unaware that his next victim had also spent time
in the forces he'd also suffered for years as a prisoner of war Sidney Grayland and his wife Peggy were
in their mid-50s and ran the local post office in Langley he always claimed to have thoroughly researched each of his
targets I don't think he can have done in the gralen case because the Grayling's had a very specific routine
Sidney Grayland always after he'd received the mail and and seen the last mail out of the place he would then go
and do a locking out procedure and go and fetch the car ready to take his wife home and he stuck to that routine
everybody said that but this night when he went out his wife heard a bump and lo and behold he'd
encountered the black Bell sir Peggy Grayland went into their garage and discovered her husband Sidney
slumped on the floor he tried to warn her he'd been shot before she could react an unmasked Donald Nielsen
attacked her I think he pistol whipped her and it was she was really just a very lucky to live to be honest it was
only because two policemen on their rounds realized something was wrong they saw the lights burning when they
shouldn't have been burning and went and investigated and found a scene of carnage
Donald Nielsen had committed his third murder thankfully Peggy Grayland survived
she gave police the first description of the unmasked Black Panther Nielsen knew
the police now had a clearer picture of what he looked like he was also concerned that post office security had
become too tight to continue his robberies but crime was his main source of income and he wasn't willing to stop
he would soon be wreaking more havoc through Central England this time as a kidnapper I'm Fred Danish and I'm
investigating the murders committed by Donald Nielsen otherwise known as the black panther back in 1975 Nilson was
being hunted by the police for killing three postal workers despite taking almost 30,000 witness statements they
were no closer to uncovering the identity of the brutal murderer the cries that he is committing are
becoming far more serious and they're becoming far more serious because of course he's not caught he begins to
incorporate the identity of being a super offender something who can evade capture somebody who's got one over on
the police there were police forces from four different counties hunting the criminal responsible for the spate of
post office murders for my investigation I've gone to meet a man who was involved
in the case Detective Inspector Harold Wright would eventually come face to face with Donald
Nelson people had seen and heard him speaking and by now we knew that we're dealing with a killer about five feet
five well-built very fit you see we knew so much about him but when got his name
and address he hadn't been fingerprinted that was the thing if he'd had a bit of form
he'd have been arrested before without any doubt by 1975 Nielson had made over 40,000 pounds from robbing houses and
post offices however the career criminal believed the risk he was taking deserved to bring him
more reward he believed kidnap would be a more lucrative venture and he already had the perfect victim in mind while
flicking through his local paper Nielson stumbled across what to most may appear
to be an innocuous article it highlighted how a local businessman who ran his family coach company had left
82,000 pounds to his daughter Leslie Whittle and a hundred and seven thousand pounds to his son Ronald the company was
doing well and became a prime target for Nielson Nielson spent three years devising a plan to kidnap one of the
whittles and hold them for ransom he would later tell police that he'd targeted Ronald but it was 17 year old
Leslie who would suffer at his hands this is the first time he's going to literally
take another person and have that person with them through the commission of a crime
but remember by the time he's kidnapped Leslie Whittle he has murdered three people she was just a very ordinary
teenage girl with a boyfriend and went to college in Wolverhampton and nobody had a bad word to say about her on the
evening of January the 14th 1975 Donald Nielsen traveled 140 miles south to the Whittle family home in hi Lee it
was a stormy evening and Leslie wouldn't have heard anyone enter her room during that night she
came face-to-face with the black panther her kidnapper I can't imagine what her whole ordeal
would have been like it must have been horrendous for from the moment when she was taken kept in the back of her car
underneath a piece of foam mattress if the Panthers to be believed transported all that way I mean it must have taken I
would have think at least an hour and a half maybe two hours to get to Kitts Grove and then taken down through the
series of tunnels come I can't really imagine it into a place that was dark and dank and horrible absolutely
horrible for I've traveled to kids Grove in Staffordshire to visit the park where
Leslie was held I want to learn why this location became so instrumental in the Black Panther case
bath pool park these days is a pleasant enough spot the center of the local community but no one knew back in 1975
that seventeen-year-old Leslie was being held hostage in a drainage ditch like that
with a wire noose around her neck it was pitch-black down there she'd no idea where she was or if anyone was gonna
come and save her all that she would have heard during that time is the vermin down in the shaft moving about
down there she wondered voices or anything of that nature from ground level she might've heard the trains
going by there's a railway line of course some 50 yards away from the top of the shaft she possibly averred trains
moving and that's all that you would have heard vermin and trains when Nielson kidnapped Leslie he left a
ransom note on her bed he'd told the wittle family if they wanted to see her alive they had to act quickly her
brother Ronald was instructed to take fifty thousand pounds to a phonebox near Birmingham the kidnapper believed
getting the money would be easy but he'd underestimated just what was involved and so had the police kidnapping was a
very isolated type of crime in those days this was one of the first major kidnappings in the country everything
about this kidnapping goes wrong and the Olson had left a ransom note which is discovered and it says don't call the
police the ransom was going to be fifty thousand pounds no the first thing the family did the right thing the family
did was to obviously telephone the police West Mercia police wanted to keep Leslie's kidnapped secret they feared if
the Black Panther knew they were involved he would kill Leslie and disappear their secrecy didn't last long
within hours her kidnap had been leaked to the media and was being reported live
on the local news it was soon hitting the headlines all over the UK and you know Fred it is
a very very key case in this respect the handling by the police of the media in the Lesley Whittle case was an utter
complete disaster the police feared that media coverage had scared the black panther away
they told Leslie's brother not to make the ransom drop it was a mistake Donald Nielsen had been waiting for the
money the police have had to learn how to engage the media appropriately so that the media don't conduct their own
inquiries so that the media will stay on site but nonetheless staying on site giving them something so that they can
put out on the six o'clock news remarkably Donald Nilsson was undeterred by the press coverage
he contacted Raoul Whittle again and told him to follow a series of clues he'd written they would eventually tell
him where to leave the fifty thousand pound ransom but Nielsen's instructions weren't clear professor David Wilson is
going to show me why Ron whittles attempt to give the black panther his ransom was doomed from the start so why
have you brought me here so I've written a series of puzzles which I've placed around about the park very much in the
way that Donald Nielsen had left clues for the police for the family of Leslie Whittle to follow and this Dymo tape is
the kind of thing that Nielson wrote his clues upon so can you follow the clues walk on path round corner to second
right goal post stop for instructions second right goal post so is it isn't the one I thought it was do you think
it's gonna be this one than him this is it this it's confusing but there's something in the back of the net here so
this could be another clue I can tell you no it isn't another clue you've come quite rightly because you saw a bag
there so actually it was this goalpost you should have gone to so already I would have
stood up over the next five days Ron Whittle failed several times to deliver the
ransom the clues he was given had no punctuation were ambiguous and only made sense to Nielson himself so this one
says follow tree line to 5th pre from left of end of path to get instruction but which end of the path does it mean
that and all that you see that's is part of the problem we've got to interpret how he thinks and then communicates to
you well I would guess I would guess it's that way but not saying or is it is it this path here morning does that
count as one or is that number one Ronald was sent another demand it told him to drive through the night to a park
in kids Grove little did he know it was the same place where his sister was being held
went wrong with leg ups the phone box had been directed to he couldn't find the Dymo tape it had in fact been pushed
down the back of the board of the payphone nevertheless wrong couldn't find it he did eventually find it but he
spent some 20 minutes literally searching the phone box and he must have been in a right old state anyway another
problem Ronald faced was that the Black Panther had left all the clues in public
places so this was saying his three number five where's the clue well that's a very good question because I know
where I placed it and it's not there and therefore it's fallen down or it's been
moved so it may have dropped around here somewhere everywhere that's the clues the first thing I've
got right so far say it says put bag with money into ditch by next three but there's another problem which way which
way which way did he mean by the next tree is at that tree or is it that tree there what a nightmare it's clear to see
that with time against him and in a distressed state Ronald Whittle would have had no chance following the Black
Panthers demands the last clue took him to bath pool park where he waited for a torch light to flash at him but again
he'd misread Nielsen's instructions and was in the wrong place Nielsen was obviously watching from the
vantage point Ron Whittle had been directed to look for Nielson flashing a light a torch Nielson saw in fact a
police car early on and he said he saw a helicopter something denied by the police and he started to believe that a
police operation had been put together so he was spooked Donald Nielsen made several attempts to
collect the ransom but each time he failed a week after Leslie's kidnap communications stopped
the wittle family had no idea if Leslie was dead or alive and worse was yet to come
I'm Fred Dodge and I'm investigating the crimes Donald Nielsen committed in the 1970s he killed anybody who would get in
his way and now he was responsible for the kidnapping of a 17 year old girl called
Leslie wittle Donald Nielsen disappeared when he didn't receive the ransom he demanded for Leslie wittle safe return
the search was now on not only to catch the man known in the media as the black panther but also to find Leslie Whittle
seven weeks had passed after the failed ransom drop at bath pool park now Harold
Wright and his team carried out a proper search of the area they discovered a tunnel running 60 feet
under the park inside they found Leslie whittles dead body she'd been hacked it was a shocking
sight when it was a 17 year old girl wired a noose around her neck hanging down there in pitch darkness that poor
girl had been hanging there possibly for several days before she died even if he'd meant the girl to remain alive he'd
left a 60 feet underground with a wire noose around the neck so that if she slipped you'd of hung herself so she
couldn't move about off the landing or anything she was fastened there like a dog the search for the black panther
went cold there'd be no new post office raids or kidnaps but the police weren't giving up
every day we briefed a hundred of fifty offices or thereabout as to what had gone on during the previous 24 hours
while he'd been on duty you know and this was every day for now in policies not thing that died away and then come
back again it was by pure chance that Stuart Mackenzie became involved in the case he was a Bobby on the beat at the
time now I'm going to find out how he and his colleague Tony White became instrumental in the capture of the Black
Panther we were sat down a side road catching up on the previous night's paperwork and whilst we sat there Tony
looked up through the front windscreen of the car and said see that chap there I don't like the way he's walking
something wrong with him come on let's go and check him out so I drove the car and we pulled up at the
side of him Tony then wound the window down of the car and said good evening sir would you mind telling us your
details and the next thing I hear is don't move any tricks in your dead to which I sort
of looked to me left and saw that I was looking down the business end of a sawn-off shotgun to which my words were
poor canal Donald Neilson force Tony white into the back and climbed into the passenger seat and then he put the gun
in my armpit and he said drive any tricks are you dead of course I said well where to he says
just drive any tricks and you're dead the black panther demanded they drive him to bleed worth that town six miles
away at no point were they to look at him or each other slowly Stuart's colleague managed to change his position
on the back seat at that point we've got eye contact and my main concern was you
know sort of kept doing that always get this gun from outta my armpit and he kept going
that's all shaking sensei now and I'm going down towards this children show and I said that's it I'm lost I
said I don't were there though right here and I physically swung the car over to the right wrong side of the road or
whether we go left and I swung it back again and at that point Nielson looked out the window I hit the brakes that God
the gun goes off at the same time I hit the door and have rolled out the police car as I'm doing that Tony shouts he's
shot me thinking that his partner was dead Stuart force Nielsen out of the car in
doing so he grabbed hold of the shotgun that had nearly killed him I put my knee
across Nielsen's chest and throat put the gun to his head and said I'll kill you you bastard and I'm not ashamed to
say that because it was our lives that were at risk and I'm sort of stood like this with an armlock and don't be
knowing to me his ferreting under his jacket and as we found out later it got knives under his coat that's what he was
going for miraculously Tony White wasn't dead and came to Stuart's aid their car
had come to a standstill outside a fish and chip shop the customers came out to help subdue the man who'd attacked the
police in the end Stuart and Tony had to prevent members of the public killing the man they'd captured it had taken 10
years but through a stroke of pure luck the Black Panthers reign of terror was finally at an end next morning I was on
duty at kids Grove when an assistant chief constable from Nottingham phoned up and spoke to me he said I think we've
got your man simple as that I said we'll come over so we brought him back and we got the kids
Grove about our past 1:00 in the morning but we didn't go to bed we had a couple
of hours talk with Nielson by what did he say to you well not admitting anything but the least he gives us a
name and address the police searched Nielsen's house and quickly discovered the Attic there they
found his cache of weapons we recovered so many exhibits at the house we didn't need him to confess to the crime so we
got enough evidence to put him before the court and say to the jury well you decide on June the 14th 1976
Donald Nielsen pleaded not guilty to the nine charges against him including the murder of four people the trial at
Oxford Crown Court meant the public were finally going to hear from the man who'd
evaded capture for ten years you know it's very very unusual in my experience and I've been to many court cases about
serial offenders they rarely take the stand Nielson wanted to go and put his side of the story because he believed he
had a site to describe it's an incredibly arrogant attitude and you said very close in court on a number of
occasions - to Nielson what were your impressions of him he really did look a little bit evil menacing the one time
that really stands out for me was when he was handed a weapon one of the sawn-off shotguns they he'd used in his
raids and just in front of him were all the exhibits there were two rows of exhibits and there were shells
from those guns and he was handed the gun and he literally turned it round like that and everybody in the press box
and in the galleries and so on all instinctively ducked he almost was trying to present himself
as some kind of antihero for example in terms of robbing the sub post offices he
said well it's government money nobody's been harmed ignoring of course the fact that he had murdered three sub
post masters in the commission of those robberies so he's using a variety of techniques of neutralization to say
don't think of me is this really bad offender and you know I'm just a regular guy is the kind of attitude that he's
trying to put over the crucial part of Nielsen's testimony came when he described the death of Leslie Whittle he
admitted that he ran back down the complex to hide and he claimed that it was at this point that Leslie went over
the edge as she tries to make room for him on what was a fairly narrow ledge I think it was one of the times he gave
himself away because he said she saw my face she saw the panic in my face and said well he'd always told us that you
were wearing a mask and he said no no it was spite kind of demeanor and he tried
to backtrack but he had said that I think we can dismiss his argument quite simply he has by the stage that he
kidnapped Leslie already killed three people I've got no doubt that when he didn't get that ransom he killed Leslie
Whittle this was a belief that was also held by the jury and after just five hours deliberation they returned to give
their verdict Donald Nielsen was found guilty he was given five life sentences for the murder
of Leslie Whittle and the three postmasters the judge recommended that Nielson receive a whole life tariff
he's now spending the rest of his life in prison the impact of his crimes is still felt amongst the victims and their
families today Stuart Mackenzie and Toni white both received a Queen's gallantry
medal for capturing Donald Wilson it wasn't it wasn't so much for us but we'd done something that every policeman in
the country had been trying to do and when we'd arrested him we thought yes we've got him and this medal really
is for Hogg please for to say that we got one of the most evilest dangerous men that ever walked this earth at that
time the list of donald Nielsen's crimes makes shocking reading he committed over
400 robberies two attempted murders and carried out four brutal killings the facts of this case are extraordinary the
police took 30,000 witness statements and still it took a simple coincidence to catch this lone man it shows that
sometimes no matter how hard the police work it is a random piece of luck that's
the important factor in bringing a criminal to justice without that luck Donald Nielsen may never have been
caught thankfully he is behind bars and will remain there for the rest of his life
[Music] [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Donald Nielsen, the Black Panther, committed multiple murders and kidnappings, evading police for years before his eventual capture.

Key points

The Ruthless Killer. Donald Nielsen, known as the Black Panther, was a ruthless criminal who terrorized England.
The First Murder. Nielsen's first murder was of postmaster Donald Skipper, changing his life forever.
A Life of Crime. Nielsen's descent into crime began with burglary and escalated to murder.
The Kidnapping of Leslie Whittle. Leslie Whittle, a 17-year-old girl, was kidnapped by Donald Nielsen, who had already committed multiple murders. This case marked one of the first major kidnappings in the UK.
The Discovery of Leslie's Body. After weeks of searching, Leslie Whittle's body was found in a tunnel, shocking the community and highlighting the brutality of her kidnapping.
The Capture of the Black Panther. Police officers Stuart Mackenzie and Tony White captured Donald Nielsen after a chance encounter, ending his reign of terror.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was a strict disciplinarian.

Discussing Nielsen's father's influence on him.

1:59WatchOct 4, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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