Scotland Then 1971: Dundee's Dark Days

This episode of Scotland Then explores historical events from 1971, focusing on crimes in Dundee and Glasgow. The episode covers unsolved murders, including James Keltie’s case, and violent incidents involving children. It highlights a series of deaths in Dundee, detailing specific cases and their outcomes. The podcast also touches on lighter topics, like the "Ice Cream Bandit" story. 

SOURCES:
Please see our website for all source material and photos at https://scottishmurders.com/episodes/dianegraham/

British Newspaper Archives Affiliate Link

SHOW:
Support Us: ko-fi.com/scottishmurders
Patreon - patreon.com/scottishmurders
Merch - teepublic.com/user/scottishmurders
Website - scottishmurders.com
Twitter - @scottishmurders
Instagram - @scottishmurderspodcast
Facebook - facebook.com/scottishmurdurs
YouTube - @ScottishMurders
Linktree - linktr.ee/scottishmurders

CREDITS:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn Young
Researched, Written and Edited by Dawn Young
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

MUSIC:
ES_Tudor - Bonnie Grace - epidemicsound

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Scotland. Then. Today's stories are
taken from the Sunday Post and The Scotsman on the
seventh and ninth of March, twenty third of April and
sixth of June nineteen seventy one, around about the time
sixteen year old Diane Graham was murdered, her murderer was
sentenced and her mother sadly passed away, and also from
the Courier and Advertiser on the twelfth of January nineteen

(00:23):
seventy one. There are a couple of stories that involve
violence and murder against children, so listener discretion is advised.
So let's get into this week's Scotland. Then, before we

(01:01):
go back to nineteen seventy one, I just wanted to
let you know that there won't be a new episode
released next week as we've been getting ready for not
only Crime Con in London on the seventh and eighth
of June, but also for the True Crime Awards taking
place on Thursday the fifth of June, also in London,
where Peter and I will actually be presenting the winner
of the Outstanding Indie Podcast category. And Peter and I

(01:23):
are so proud to be partnering with the True Crime
Awards with our podcast business Chlorinon, which means thistle wave
in Gaelic. We're really looking forward to both Crime Con
and the True Crime Awards. If any of you are
coming along to Crime Con, it would be great to
meet you and have a week chat. Okay, so let's
go back in time to nineteen seventy one. The first

(01:48):
article that caught my eye came from the Sunday Post
and was titled Diary of Death, which went on to
say yesterday people in Dundee were talking about the number
of violent deaths in recent months, before then going on
to list them, although it didn't just include violent deaths
in recent months, but also from as far back as
February nineteen sixty nine, almost two years before sixteen year

(02:11):
old Diane Graham had been murdered. Regardless, though there definitely
had been a significant number of murders in and around
Dundee during that time period, starting on the sixth of
February nineteen sixty nine, when thirty eight year old Margaret
Hepburn stabbed and killed her husband, placed Inspector Angus Hepburn,
at their multi story flat at Burnside Court in Lockey, Dundee.

(02:35):
Margaret was charged with culpable homicide and sentenced to eight years. Then,
just over a year later, on the fourteenth of February
nineteen seventy, taxi driver George Nixon Martin's body was found
in kirtin Wood's Lookers, having been shot in the back
and stabbed. Two teenagers, nineteen year old Frederick Edison from

(02:55):
Lynlathan and eighteen year old Robert Grunwell from Dundee, were
arrested and charged for the culpable homicide of George Martin
and were sentenced to twelve years in a young offenders institution. Then,
on the thirty first of October nineteen seventy, one year
old Elaine Helen Macgee died from head and body injuries
inflicted by thirty year old James Thomas. Elaine's murderer, however,

(03:19):
was deemed unfit to plead to a murder charge, and
he was committed to Carstairs State Mental Hospital. Then, on
the second of February, just less than a month before
Diane Graham would be murdered, sixty two year old Janet
Shaw was found dead in the Conservative and Unionist Association
offices in Dundee, with a youth being charged with her murder,

(03:40):
and less than three weeks later, thirty three year old
Elizabeth Jeannette MacLean or Findley was found unconscious in the
entrance way to the Kinloch Arms Hotel in Magel. Sadly,
Elizabeth died shortly afterwards, although her cause of death was
not disclosed. An unnamed man was arrested in charged with
her murder and who was due to a peer in court.

(04:03):
But it would be a murder that took place on
the eleventh of January nineteen seventy one that intrigued me
the most, and that's because it's still unsolved to this day.
And retired Dundee Police Sergeant William McFarlane said that this
is one of the area's biggest murder cases. So let
me tell you about it briefly see if what it
jugs your memory. As the same retired sergeant believes that

(04:26):
someone out there knows what happened, but that it might
be a deathbed confession that finally solves this murder. Fifty
two year old James Kelty, who was the proprietor of
the then Mureton House hotel, died in Dundee Royal Infirmary
after sustaining severe head and body injuries, with it later
being discovered that James had suffered a fractured skull which

(04:49):
had caused severe bleeding to his brain. James had been
found two hours prior, bound, gagged, beaten and unconscious on
the floor of the hotel's garage, wearing only a string
vessel and his underpants. It was believed that James, a
father of three, had been attacked in an upstairs bedroom
of the hotel and dragged outside to the garage. James

(05:09):
had last been seen by his wife, Agnes, a police
officer at the time about midnight, when the pair went
to their separate bedrooms. Following james Kelty dying, a murder
inquiry took place and it was found that phone lines
at the hotel had been cut and at a window
downstairs was unsecure, and so it was assumed that robbery
had been the motive, although William MacFarlane, the retired Dundee sergeant,

(05:34):
wasn't convinced as no money was taken and only a
few bottles of whiskey were missing. Two iron bars had
also been found nearby, and it was presumed that these
were the murder weapons, although this has never been conclusively proven.
This was a huge murder inquiry, being dubbed the largest
ever held in Perthshire, with every mail over the age

(05:55):
of sixteen in blair Gowy being fingerprinted, with this being
extended to others, amounting to two thousand sets of fingerprints
been taken, but to no avail. William MacFarlane did say
that he didn't think the murderer or murderers had been
anyone living in blair Gowry, that although there had been
a few rogues and rascals, he just didn't believe this

(06:17):
murder had been committed by anyone local, as he believes
that if James's murderer or murderers had been local, then
they would have been discovered. A description of a man
aged between twenty six and twenty eight wearing a khaki
jacket who had been seen near the hotel at four
forty a m On the morning of the attack was released,
along with a request for the driver of a cream

(06:38):
colored car who had been seen in the area also
to come forward. However, nobody ever did come forward with
any information and the murder inquiry slowly became a cold case.
James Kelty was said to have been a generous man
who gave to good causes, who was fond of a drink,
and had a reputation of being a big spender, often

(06:59):
buying cuss in his hotel drinks with large wards of notes.
James had three children, aged sixteen, nine and five, and
a wife who sadly died in the late nineteen seventies.
It's not known what became of James's three children, but
for them to have lost both of their parents relatively
quickly together must have been devastating. Do you remember this

(07:22):
case or no anything that might lead to fifty two
year old James Kelty's murderer or murderer's being brought to justice.
There sadly are more murders to tell you about that
took place in nineteen seventy one. But first a wee
detour from Dundee to Glasgow for an act of kindness

(07:42):
that resulted in a death. Forty six year old Robert
Mohommett was working in the grounds of the Belvedere Hospital
in Glasgow repairing a wall when he saw three year
old Stuart Niven floating past him downstream in the River Clyde.
Robert immediately jumped into the River Clyde and managed to
push Stuart onto the bank, where passersby pulled Stuart out. Robert, however,

(08:05):
then appeared to get out of his depth and he
went underwater and sadly, he didn't reappear. Despite a one
hundred yard stretch of the river being dragged with a
grappling iron, Robert's body was not found. Three year old
Stuart was taken to hospital and was said to be satisfactory.

(08:26):
So we're staying in Glasgow for this next case, which
does involve the murder of a child, three year old
Mark Beaton. Now there's not a lot of information about
this case, including who actually killed three year old Mark.
It only says that a twenty seven year old woman
appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court after being charged for assaulting
and murdering Mark after he had been found battered to

(08:48):
death in a Glasgow tenement. The article in The Scotsman
went on to say that police had been alerted when
neighbors in the tenement phoned them after they had seen
and heard Mark's older sister running in screening from the tenement.
When police had arrived, they had found Mark's body on
a bed in the tenement and the rest of his
family had been located in a neighbor's house. Okay, so

(09:12):
back to Dundee for this next story, which doesn't involve murder,
but it does involve an assault on a six month
old wee boy. Twenty four year old John Moran appeared
in the High Court in Edinburgh on the twenty second
of April, where he pleaded guilty to a most dastardly
assault and he was sentenced to four years. But just

(09:32):
what had taken place? Well. John Moran was married with
a child. However, since nineteen sixty seven he had been
cohabiting with Marie Hutcheson of Craigmore Street, Dundee, with whom
he had two children, one of which was six month
old Donald. John Moran was a former merchant seaman who
was apparently of a nervous and quick tempered disposition and

(09:54):
had received psychiatric treatment twice in the past. He was
said to at times a violent temper which he was
unable to control, and that his temper always seemed to
get him into trouble. In early April nineteen seventy one,
six month old baby Donald had been crying a lot
and Marie had been tending to him. However, on this
particular occasion, John had decided he would go and pick

(10:18):
Donald up to see if that would stop him crying.
It didn't. In fact, Donald's crying and distress became worse.
Within minutes. John's temper a rose at the incessant crying
of his son, and he became carried away and lashed out,
striking six month old Donald on the side of the
head and fracturing his skull. In court, before the judge

(10:40):
decided on a sentence, John's council appealed to the judge,
saying that the assault on Donald had not been premeditated.
It was simply a case of a man with a
violent temper which he was unable to control. The judge,
in turn said that while he had kept this in mind,
it was a fact that six year old Donald had
been in his father John's care and he should have

(11:02):
been able to rely upon his protection, and for that
reason the judge felt compelled to sentence John Moran to
four years. I couldn't find anywhere what happened to baby Donald,
although it did say that he had been assaulted to
his severe injury. I'm not sure what that means, but
I do hope he was able to recover from the
dastardly assault and live a full life. Okay, one last story,

(11:28):
a very different who done it? The final article that
caught my attention came from the Sunday Post on the
sixth of June and it was headed we bend it
gives it big licks. Did you live in the mid
Craggy area of Dundee back in nineteen seventy one and
enjoyed and frequented the ice cream van? Well? If so,
this could be you. Apparently a young boy or the

(11:50):
young ice cream bounded as he was being described, would
hang around the ice cream van ques looking all doleful,
thrusting his hands into the pockets of his shabby trousers
until someone would take pity on him and buy him
an ice cream cone. Grateful, the young bandit would happily
eat this ice cream before running to the next ice
cream vans stop and repeating this same performance. The ice

(12:13):
cream van driver thought that the young boy was managing
to get half a dozen free ice cream cones a day,
so come on, own up? Was that you? And that's
almost the end. You can find an affiliate link to
the British newspaper archive. If you want to dig a
bit deeper into any of this week's stories, don't forget.

(12:34):
There will be no new episode next week and the
following week I'll be releasing an episode from Crime Con London,
just many interviews with some fellow podcasters, content from some
of the sessions we attend, and also we chats with
guests at crime Con who drop by our table, So
don't forget to come and say hello if you're going
to be at crime Con, and maybe you'll get to
appear on the next episode. We look forward to seeing

(12:57):
you there. We hope you enjoyed hearing the stories from
back in nineteen seventy one. If you lived in these
areas at the time and remember the stories, or if
you were the ice Cream bandit, then get in touch.
I'd love to know. But that's it for now, so
until next time, I've been your host. Don Scottish murderche

(13:58):
is a production of Clue in Ton