78 | The Murdered Watchmaker of Norfolk: The 1853 Case of Lorenz Beha

In 2025, two pocket watches were sold at an auction, prompting renewed interest in a 170 year old East Anglia murder case. They were made by skilled German craftsman Lorenz Beha, who came to England to set up his watchmaking business in Norfolk. On a cold November day in 1853, Beha was found murdered on a quiet country road by a local labourer who happened to be one of his customers. The timepieces are not the only reminders of this forgotten piece of history, as the killer’s death mask survives as a gruesome relic of this tragic case.

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Music:
"Long Note Two" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License "Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - ending Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
"Long Note Three" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License


Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gmr362p53o
A Brief History of Tittleshall People Compiled by Robert Box
Morning Advertiser - Friday 25 November 1853
Norfolk News - Saturday 26 November 1853
Norfolk Chronicle - Saturday 26 November 1853
Worcester Journal - Saturday 26 November 1853
Norwich Mercury - Saturday 25 March 1854
Evening Mail - Monday 27 March 1854
London Evening Standard - Monday 10 April 1854
Lynn Museum, https://www.lynnmuseum.norfolk.gov.uk
Norwich Castle Museum, https://www.norwichcastle.norfolk.gov.uk

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When artisan watch and clockmaker Lorenz Bahar left his birthplace
of Baden, in the region which would later become unified Germany,
he was full of hope for the opportunities that awaited
him in England. Around eighteen forty he went into business
at seventy seven Norfolk Street, kings Lynn, in the County

(00:20):
of Norfolk in the east of England, with a fellow
German named Sebastian Hermann, but they went their separate ways
in eighteen forty six. The following year, when Lorenz Bajar
was thirty six, he arrived in the bustling market city
of Norwich, among its narrow cobble streets and evocative medieval buildings,

(00:42):
some of which still survived today. The Spy of Norwich
Cathedral towered above the city, and the River Wensom wound
through it, supporting trade and transport. Norwich was beginning to industrialize,
yet it still retained the old world charm of the
England he had been told about as a young man

(01:03):
in Germany. Lorenz would spend the next six years building
his life in business before meeting a brutal and untimely death.

(01:31):
Born in eighteen eleven, little was recorded about Lorenz Bejar's
early life, but it's likely to learn the watch and
clockmaking trade from his father or as an apprentice to
a local master tradesman. He was almost certainly related to
Johann Behar, a respected Black Forest clockmaker. His decision to

(01:54):
travel to England may have been driven by economic hardship.
In his homeland didn't exist yet and was a patchwork
of states with different currencies, taxes and regulations. Regions like
Barden struggled with rural over population and limited job opportunities,
while watchmaking in England was a rapidly advancing craft and

(02:17):
the country was at the heart of an industrial revolution
which attracted many skilled foreign tradesmen in search of a
better life. Soon after moving to Norwich, Beaha established a
shop at Saint Stephen's Plane in Norwich, assisted by his nephew,
Matthias Behar and Matthias's cousin Dominic Leckhardt, who had emigrated

(02:42):
with him and lodged at the shop. Unmarried, Lorenz devoted
most of his time and energy to his business. He
was described as a quiet, honest and hard working man,
and each time piece he created was proudly engraved with
the name Baihar in Lorenz. Bahar regularly traveled on foot

(03:05):
to neighboring towns and villages across Norfolk to sell watches
and jewelry, as well as collecting and delivering items for repair,
leaving the shop in the care of Matthias and Dominic.
Much of the surrounding area was agricultural, characterized by the
region's wide open skies, uninterrupted horizons, and flat fertile land

(03:29):
ideal for farming. He would walk as far as thirty
miles west to picturesque rural villages like Beatley in Castle Acre,
or to the small market town of Swaffham, and sometimes
east towards the Broads. Some customers paid in installments, so
Beahar made monthly rounds to collect payments while seeking new clients,

(03:52):
displaying a selection of watches, which he carried in a
jewelry box wrapped inside a carpet bag slung from a
steel across his shoulder, reminiscent of nineteenth century wanderers like
the legendary Dick Whittington. Occasionally passing tradespeople in horses and
carts offered him a welcome lift to break up his

(04:13):
journey as a lone man on the highways and byways.
Behar was vulnerable to thieves, but he refused to carry
a gun and insisted that he would rely on providence
for protection. On Monday fourteenth November eighteen fifty three, Lorenz

(04:35):
Baha now forty two, set out northwest towards Fakenam, carrying
an umbrella in his carpet bag slung over his shoulder
on a stick, as was his habit. Four days later,
on Friday eighteenth November, still on his rounds, he passed
between the villages of Wellingham and Tittershaw, about two miles apart.

(05:00):
At some point during his visit he received two five
pound notes in change, one of which was distinctive, having
previously been torn and joined back together with a piece
of paper. And Around twelve thirty pm, Beha was seen
walking along the country road opposite Titishaw Common and was
greeted by local butcher William Webster, who passed him on

(05:23):
the road. The butcher also noticed the labourer named William
Thompson nearby. About an hour later, a traveler on the
country road noticed a large quantity of blood near the
edge of the common, but thought little of it. At
three pm, another passer by, John Robertson also spotted the

(05:48):
blood and stopped to look. It appeared that someone had
tried to cover it with dirt. On closer inspection, he
saw a trail of blood leading to a gap in
the hedge, along with marks suggesting that something had been
dragged in that direction. Robertson entered the woodland to investigate.

(06:10):
Around the same time a carriage approach carrying two sons
of the Reverend Digby of Tittershaw, the reverend's wife, and
a miss shepherd. They too noticed the blood, stopped and
hurried back to the village to inform the police. Meanwhile,
Robertson discovered the source of the blood. In a ditch

(06:34):
in the woodland, laid the body of a man with
multiple deep wounds to his head and face. Next to
the body was a carpet bag in a jewelry box,
now separated from the stick that had carried them, as
well as an umbrella. The man's trouser pockets had been
turned inside out, suggesting robbery. A bloodstained axe was found nearby.

(07:01):
The bag was empty and there was no money on
the victim's body. Police constables arrived shortly afterwards, though the
Metropolitan Police in London had been founded eighteen years before,
in eighteen twenty nine by Sir Robert Peel. Other boroughs
were only encouraged to establish police forces from eighteen thirty

(07:24):
five onward. In rural areas like Norfolk, police forces remained
optional until eighteen fifty six, so law enforcement was often
managed by parish constables, usually part time in formal officers
with limited training. When they arrived on the scene at

(07:45):
Titishaw Common, the constables were able to quickly identify the
victim as watchmaker Lorenz Bahar. He was well known locally
and Friday was his usual day to visit the area
once a month. Bayhar's body was transported to the nearby
Griffin Inn in a handcart, where the local surgeon arrived

(08:08):
soon afterwards to conduct the post mortemn. The details were grizzly.
Bahar's head had been nearly severed by a powerful blow
to the back of the neck with an axe. There
were several deep cuts across his face, and his right
eye having driven into its socket to a depth of

(08:29):
nearly an inch. News of the murder quickly spread through
the village, and a woman entered the butcher's shop and
loudly announced that mister Bahar had been found murdered. One
of the customers, a well dressed young man wearing a
new suit, was reaching into a canvas person taking out

(08:50):
some money to pay for his pork chops. When he
heard the news, he began to visibly tremble. The butcher,
William Webster recognized a man as twenty one year old
laborer William Thompson, the same man he passed on the
street a couple of hours earlier, around the same time

(09:11):
he had greeted the traveling watchmaker. After Thompson left with
his pork chops, Webster closed the shop and ran to
the local constable's home to report the strange behavior. The
police spoke to William Thompson's employer, who revealed that the

(09:31):
night before the murder, Thompson had told him he felt
unwell and wouldn't be able to work in the woods
the following day. The woods where Thompson worked as a
laborer and ditchdigger, bordered the area where Beahar's body was found.
The employer also confirmed that the bloody acts found at
the scene closely resembled the one Thompson used in his work.

(09:57):
Another witness came forward, stating that around soon on the
day of the murder, he saw Thompson walking towards the
spot where the body was later discovered, carrying an axe.
At one thirty pm, Thompson was seen again by another man,
James Roper, this time walking hastily and without an axe.

(10:18):
James Roper knew William Thompson and stopped to ask him
the time, recalling that Thompson had pulled out a handsome
pocket watch from his waistcoat to answer him. That evening,
local constables visited William Thompson's home at one hundred and
eleven High Street, Tittershall, where he lived with his sixty

(10:40):
three year old father, David, a retired woodsman, and fifty
three year old mother Clarissa. On a shelf in William's
room had a silver watch, while hidden under the roof
of an outhouse in the garden was a canvas purse
containing two more silver watchers, engraved with the initials El Bahar,

(11:01):
two sovereigns, four half sovereigns, twenty shillings and two five
pound notes. One of the notes had been mended with
a piece of paper and was identified by one of
Baha's customers as money given to the watchmaker earlier that day.
A bloodstained shirt and trousers belonging to William were also

(11:24):
found in the house. The acts he used for his
work in the woods was missing, and he was unable
to tell police where it was. He was arrested on
suspicion of murder, and it was reported that as he
was handcuffed he said, I must own I am guilty,
but it is hard to die so young as twenty one,

(11:47):
though I know I must die some time or other.
Thompson later denied making the statement and insisted he would
plead innocent. His story was that he passed a stranger
on the road between Tittershaw and Wellingham and saw the
deceased walking a few yards behind. Thompson claimed he lost

(12:09):
sight of the watchmaker, but soon came upon blood on
the road and followed it to the gap in the hedge.
There he saw the victim lying in a ditch, with
the strange man standing over the body with an axe,
his clothes covered in blood. The mysterious assailant warned Thompson
in a strong Norfolk dialect, doesn't you tell anyone's what

(12:33):
you see. Thompson tried to run, but The attacker chased
him and a struggle ensued, transferring blood onto Thompson's clothes
in the process. The stranger threatened to kill the young
laborer if he told anyone, then forced him to take
the person watchers. When asked to describe the man, Thompson

(12:56):
said he had one eye, no front teeth, and a
notable scar on his face shaped like a pair. Police
were skeptical, especially after discovering a sales ledger proving that
Thompson had bought a watch from Behar on his last
round for six pounds five shillings in installments worth around

(13:17):
one thousand pounds today. Had he been unable to afford
this luxury and killed the watchmaker to avoid paying his debt.
Matthias Behar received a letter the next day informing him
of his uncle's violent death. He traveled to Tittershall and
identified the recovered watches at Lorenza's. The inquest was held

(13:42):
at the Griffin Inn, where the coroner's jury returned a
verdict of wilful murder against William Thompson, who was committed
to stand trial. The trial took place at Norwidge Assizes
in March eighteen fifty four. The evidence was clear, and
the jury delivered a guilty verdict within minutes. Thompson showed

(14:05):
little emotion as he heard the evidence and the sentence
of death that was passed upon him. Afterwards, he made
a full confession, omitting that he didn't have the funds
to pay the next installment. He owed the watchmaker he
knew Beahar's routine, so he told his employer he was unwell,
took the day off and waited. When Behar arrived, Thompson

(14:30):
struck him multiple times with the acts, then robbed him.
On Saturday eighth of April eighteen fifty four, William Thompson
was executed at Norwich Castle before an audience of over
one thousand. A plaster death mass was taken of his
face prior to burial in the castle grounds, a rare

(14:53):
and dubious honor typically reserved for the most notorious criminals
or for medical study at a time when phrenologists believe
the shape of a person's skull could predict criminal tendencies.
Thompson's death mass survives today and is held by the
Norwich Castle Museum, though it is no longer on public display.

(15:18):
Lorenz Bejar was buried at Our Lady of the Anunciation
Roman Catholic Church in King's Lynn. His nephew Matthias, alongside
Dominic Lickart, continued the watchmaking business, engraving every piece with
the name Behar, Lickart and Co. A long case clock

(15:38):
made by Lorenz in his early years in England when
he worked with Sebastian Hermann in kings Lynn was acquired
by the Lynn Museum, where it remains on display. The
Griffin Inn at Tittershall, where the post mortem and inquest
were held, was sold the year after the murder and
renamed the Ostrogen Horseshoe in Earl early nineteen eighties, became

(16:01):
a sports and social club, closed in nineteen ninety five
and was converted into a private home. In March twenty
twenty five, the BBC reported that two pocket watchers, one
made by Lorenz Bahar and the other by Matthias Behaan
Dominic Lickhart, after his death, was sold at auction for

(16:21):
one hundred and ninety pounds. Auction director Elizabeth Talbot highlighted
Behar's mastery of his craft and remarked, it's not about
the money, it's about the light it sheds on East
Anglian history. It's worth noting that the BBC article and
other modern sources such as Wikipedia state Lorenz Behar's age

(16:44):
as twenty eight at the time of his death. However,
my research, confirmed by census records and newspapers from the time,
revealed he was actually forty two. The BBC report also
claimed there was nothing in the records that suggests the
two men knew each other, implying the murder was opportunistic.

(17:08):
This contradicts the historical evidence I uncovered, which clearly shows
Behar was well known locally and Thompson had purchased a
watch from him and owed a significant sum. Though the
details have mostly been forgotten with inaccuracies creeping in over
the years, it's a small consolation that some of Lorenz

(17:30):
Behar's craftsmanship still exists today, so his skill at least
can be remembered. You've been listening to Prasha's Murder Map.
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