The White House Farm Murders : Jeremy Bamber

When police found five dead bodies in the Bamber's house in 1985, they initial thought it was murder/suicide carried out by Sheila Caffell. It turned out that the murders were carried out by the only member of the Bamber family who had survived.

Our Regular Merch Hosted by FourthWall! : https://thisismonsters.com/
GTFOH Doormats : https://this-is-monsters.printify.me/

Socials:
LinkTree : https://linktr.ee/thisismonsters
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thisis_monsters/
Threads : https://www.threads.net/@thisis_monsters

My other shows:
This is Monsters YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS
Vlog : https://www.youtube.com/@jileswithaj
Somewhere Sinister Podcast : 
Somewhere Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the early hours of the morning on August seventh,
nineteen eighty five, local police in Essex, England, were alerted
to an incident happening at White House Farm in the
small village of Tulsen Darcy. According to a man named
Jeremy Bamber, he'd received a phone call from his father
not long before to say that something terrible was happening

(00:20):
in the house. Obviously, when police finally showed up, they
were prepared for anything. What they found, though, would shock
even them, as inside they discovered a mass shooting that
would leave an entire family dead. Initially, the belief was
that the person responsible for the crime had been Sheila Kaffel,
the adopted sister of Jeremy. All evidence pointed toward her

(00:44):
shooting both her parents and her two children, all before
then taking her own life following a schizophrenic episode. As
time went on, however, people would begin to realize the
most likely culprit was actually the only person in the
household who was still alive. This is monsters. The Bamber

(01:29):
family was very highly regarded in Essex throughout the latter
half of the nineteen hundreds, given their social status as
local business owners and good Christian folks. That really shouldn't
come as much of a surprise. The patriarch of the
clan Neville Bamber had served his country in the Royal
Air Force for a good part of his life. After that,

(01:50):
prior to becoming a farmer who owned three separate properties,
he worked as a magistrate at the local court for
a while, so respect for him was ever as it
was for his wife, June, someone who'd grown up in
an upper middle class family and who, unbeknownst to many
until years later, had actually been a military woman herself.

(02:11):
She had worked as part of Winston Churchill's Secret Army
during World War Two, a clandestine branch of the government
which played a major role in helping the ally secure victory.
That's said, once that career was over, June would very
quickly leave that part of her life behind, because once
she met her future husband in the late nineteen forties,

(02:33):
she seemed happy to become a housewife, all while he
took up a new career as a farmer. Sure, farming
might have seemed like a dramatic career change for someone
who'd previously lived the high octane life of a fighter pilot,
but it makes a lot more sense when you consider
the fact that his new in laws were very much
in that business already. That's right, Robert and Pamela speakman.

(02:57):
The parents of June were at that point the owners
of war White House Farm, as well as other farms
in the area. So when Neville was looking for a
job post military career, it only made sense for him
to start working for the man who, by the time
nineteen fifty one came around, would officially become his father
in law. But while things like a secure and prosperous job,

(03:19):
combined with a loving extended family may have made it
seem like the newlyweds had a picture perfect life, things
were not always so rosy at home. Part of the
reason for that was because, throughout the early years of
their marriage, as a result of a procedure she underwent
in order to remove a cyst from her ovaries, June
had great difficulty conceiving a child. Of course, while that

(03:43):
would not be considered anything to be embarrassed about today,
back in the post war era of Great Britain, there
was a certain social stigma associated with being unable to
have a baby, and that led to June developing a
pretty serious case of depression to the point that in
nineteen fifty six she would have a full blown nervous breakdown.
But while that was a very difficult time for both

(04:05):
her and her husband to go through, especially as it
led to June briefly having been admitted into a psychiatric facility,
all would not be lost, as eventually the couple decided
they wanted to adopt. That led to baby Sheila becoming
part of the family in October of nineteen fifty seven.
Sheila had been the child of Phyllis Webb, the eighteen

(04:26):
year old daughter of Eric j Senior, chaplain to the
Archbishop of Canterbury. So in order to save the Jay
family and as a consequence, the church the embarrassment of
having a teenage pregnancy revealed to have happened in their
midst in nineteen fifties England, the baby was put up
for adoption as soon as she was born. Unfortunately, though

(04:48):
finally having the child she so craved after all of
those years would not be enough to cure June's mental
health issues. Things would only get worse in fact, and
the reason for that is because of a phenomen not
known to occur with adoptive parents. From time to time.
As it's been described by medical professionals, having a baby
that the parent knows is not their own can actually

(05:10):
increase feelings of inadequacy. On occasion that can even worsen if,
as happened here, that baby takes a while to form
an attachment to their new parents. So with that all
serving to send June back over the edge again. In
nineteen fifty eight, less than a year after Shela entered
their life, June returned to a psychiatric facility. That time,

(05:33):
while there, doctors would go as far as to administer
electra shock treatment, something that was still being used to
treat things like depression. Unsurprisingly, given what we know about
treatment of psychiatric conditions now, that would not do much
to cure her illness, and that meant when she was
released back out into the world again, her issues persisted.

(05:54):
Even hiring a nanny to help raise the family wasn't
enough to get June in a better headspace. What she
believed she really needed was another child to take care of.
After all, if she had two, then she would have
no choice but to put all of her focus on
them and take it off of her own worries. So
that's why in the summer of nineteen sixty one, they

(06:16):
adopted a second child, a boy named Jeremy. Jeremy had
been born in January of that year to Juliet Wheeler,
a vicar's daughter, and Leslie Marsham, a British Army sergeant major. Obviously,
because the child had been conceived during an affair which
had taken place outside of wedlock in post war Britain,

(06:37):
it wasn't a situation where the mother was allowed to
keep him, Especially for a vicar's daughter. Back then, such
a thing would have been considered an incredible scandal. That's why,
like is soon to be adopted sister Sheila, Jeremy was
put up for adoption immediately after he was born. Luckily
for Jeremy, though, he would also be adopted pretty quickly,

(07:00):
when just six months later, on July twenty seventh, Neville
and June gave him a new home, and so just
like that, the family unit was finally complete. It even
seemed like June was doing better for a while, though
that wouldn't last forever. While business remained good for Neville,
with him eventually taking over ownership of White House Farm

(07:20):
from his father in law, as well as a flat
in London, three hundred acres of land and a caravan
site near where they lived. June's mental health problems would
continually bubble up to the surface over the years that
caused her to periodically have to return to the hospital
where she would receive further electric shock treatment. As to

(07:41):
how that would affect the kids, well, it would set
them down very different paths as While Shiel was known
to be a very shy and awkward child, possibly because
she received the brunt of her mother's overbearing parenting style,
Jeremy was, by contrast, quite outgoing and popular, known for
being a very spontaneous, imaginative kid. He made a lot

(08:02):
of friends while studying at Gresham's, a boarding school in
nearby Norfolk. As he got older, that would extend to
him being engaged in a variety of romantic and sexual relationships,
allegedly with both men and women, a very libertine and
scandalous thing to do at the time. Of course, that
isn't to suggest Sheila didn't succeed in her own way

(08:24):
as a youth. No, while she never had the social
skills that her brother had, early on, she would come
out of her shell more and more as time went on,
and while she never had the same talent in math
and science as he did, she would excel in subjects
like art and creative writing. While studying at Moira House
alongside Faulty Towers actress Prunella Scales and Black narcissist writer

(08:46):
Rumor got in sure she would have behavioral issues which
saw her eventually get expelled from that school, but given
her parents' status within the local community, that didn't stop
her from finishing off her education elsewhere and eventually making
plans to move to London in order to enroll in
secretarial college. Given the fact Sheila's behavioral issues as a

(09:08):
teenager were largely attributed to the frosty relationship she had
with her mother, perhaps June thought making sure her daughter
didn't fall through the cracks was the least she could do.
After all, she was no doubt aware that her fragile
mental health often made life difficult for her little girl
whenever she was at home. For as much as both
of the children were often spoiled, there was no escaping

(09:31):
the fact that their parents were very much disciplinarians. In
the nineteen fifties description of the word with that largely
being a consequence of June's paranoia that the adoption agency
were going to check up on her at any moment
and decide that she wasn't doing a good enough job
as a parent. While the brunt of that was felt
by Sheila growing up, it wasn't like Jeremy didn't suffer

(09:53):
as a result of that parenting style. While he was
on the surface a lot better adjusted than his sister
growing up, he still wasn't without his own issues. Those
issues saw him act very cruel to those around him
at times. Some would even go as far as to
describe incidents where he'd hurt animals for fun, and others
would simply accuse him of being a spoiled brat, someone

(10:15):
who knew he could get away with pretty much anything
he wanted on account of his last name. So as
the years went on and Jeremy got older, he turned
into something of a troublemaker, one who could be very
vocal about how much he resented his parents for sending
him away to boarding school for months at a time.
But even then, none of that was even close to
the kind of trouble his sister was getting into as

(10:38):
she approached adulthood, come her lateeens, Sheila was very much
in full rebellion mode that eventually led to her making
the move to London she'd been wanting to make for
so long in nineteen seventy four, if for no other
reason than to put some distance between herself and her parents,
particularly her mother. Meanwhile, Jeremy was having a surprise shift

(11:00):
in character to those who knew him, because after years
of being resentful toward his parents, he was suddenly leaning
more into his family's business. He was at that point
that he started spending a lot more time with his
father as he began to learn how to manage the farm. Really,
given where he'd been with regard to his parents only
a few months prior, it seemed odd to say the least,

(11:23):
But then there may have been an ulterior motive behind
his actions that no one was aware of at the time.
You See, once Neville and June eventually passed away, ownership
of their assets were going to be split between Jeremy
and Sheila. So perhaps feeling like if he showed he
could look after the family business better than his sister,
than he would be the best one to take over

(11:45):
the majority of it, That's why Jeremy made a move
toward being a bigger part of the various land and
properties they owned. Not that that seemed to bother Sheila
much though. No she appeared to be very happy living
and studying in London, especially as it was not long
after moving there that she met a twenty one year
old art student named Colin Keffel. The two started dating,

(12:08):
and even after she dropped out of college, she continued
to live there and find work as a model, something
she was encouraged to do by her new boyfriend. Really,
he was the best influence she could have asked for
at that point, as she was someone still very much
lacking in confidence. That was part of the reason Sheila
fell so deeply in love with the man, with that

(12:29):
leading to her becoming pregnant in nineteen seventy five. Of course,
given her old school attitudes combined with her increasingly religious fervor,
the idea of her daughter having a child out of
wedlock was not something June was happy about once she
heard the news, so, feeling the need to make sure
Shila remained good in the eyes of God, she pushed

(12:50):
for her to get an abortion. You didn't think I
was gonna say that, did you. I was also surprised.
I expected her to pressure Sheila to get married, but
now abortion. Who would have thought. And while the young
model was hesitant to do that at first, she eventually
relented when her mother convinced her that having a baby

(13:11):
would harm her burgeoning modeling career. While June had been
successful in getting what she wanted, that didn't mean she
was going to go easy on Sheila after that. As
a result of her adopted daughter allowing herself to get pregnant,
she would become very upset and would start lambasting the
girl with insults, calling her things like the devil's child.

(13:33):
Even when Sheila married Colin a couple of years later,
the relationship between mother and daughter continued.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
To be frosty. That was still true.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
When the young woman became pregnant for a second time,
and that time suffered a miscarriage. It seemed that was
the point that the stress started causing Sheila to crack mentally.
A combination of losing her baby, combined with the emotional
abuse she was undergoing at the hands of her mother,
as well as the general insecurities she had on top

(14:02):
of that, all swirled together to trigger what would later
be diagnosed as a case of paranoid schizophrenia. Needless to say,
that soon became a major concern for everyone around her.
Not long after she realized she was pregnant with twins
in nineteen seventy nine, she discovered that Colin was having
an affair with another woman. Because of that, when the

(14:25):
children were born premature a few months later on June
twenty second, they would not be brought into a world
in which their mother and father were together. For Daniel
and Nicholas Kaffell, they were largely raised by a single mother.
Sure Colin would help out and would love his kids
very much, but as his ex wife's mental state continued
to worsen, it became increasingly difficult for him to be

(14:48):
around her. By that point, she was seeing vivid hallucinations
and even self harming on occasion. While Jeremy allegedly got
along well with his sister at the time, he also
didn't have a lot of involvement in her daily life,
as he was in Australia and New Zealand then primarily
so that he could learn had to scuba dive. As

(15:09):
the eighties rolled around, Jeremy had found another new passion
in life, but that wasn't the only thing he was
doing down Under. When he wasn't in the water, he
was also reportedly taking part in drug deals and armed robberies.
When that inevitably led to the authorities in New Zealand
starting to close in on him, Jeremy fled back to England,

(15:31):
taking up a job as a chef rather than going
back to work on his family's farm. While he still
very much wanted to take over the family business one day,
the young man was cautious about being around his parents
too much at that point, as he was trying to
hide the fact that he had started a relationship with
a married mother of three, and that would prove to
be a smart decision on his part, because when Nevill

(15:53):
and June eventually did find out about the relationship, their
immediate reaction was to threaten their adopted son with disinheritance. Yes,
it was quite a dramatic response, and that wasn't the
only thing causing headaches for the Bambers at the time.
Sheila was creating even more issues as her deteriorated mental
state was causing her to become negligent to her children.

(16:16):
She was spending all of her money on nights out
rather than ensuring bills were being paid and food was
being kept on the table. Even when she managed to
realize a longtime ambition of tracking down her birth parents,
it did little to improve her emotional state. Is what
she really needed above all else was a strong regiment
of medication and therapy. That was all happening before Sheila

(16:38):
was officially diagnosed with schizophrenia, So that medication and therapy
wouldn't be on the table. That meant that she be
left to deteriorate further as her life of hard partying
and heavy drug use only escalated. That deterioration was mirrored
in what was happening with her mother too, as whilst
she would not get involved in using any narcotic, the

(17:00):
stresses of family life would see June become even more
extreme in her religious beliefs. At one point, she went
so far as to ban raffles from taking place at
local church events on account of her belief that it
constituted gambling. Eventually, that would all lead to her suffering
yet another nervous breakdown that left her hospitalized at Saint

(17:22):
Andrew's Mental health facility in Northampton. As that was happening
back in London. Sheila was also on the brink of
a full blown emotional collapse, so it was clearsome dramatic
changes were going to have to be made for both
parties going forward, particularly as by that point social services
had gotten involved with respect to Daniel and Nicholas, making

(17:44):
the young mother temporarily lose custody of the twins. But
that wasn't Sheila's only worry. She also started growing concerned
that her brother, who had by then made amends with
his parents again and had returned to working at white
House Farm with his father, was trying to cut her
out of the family inheritance as much as possible so

(18:05):
that he could have it all for himself. Of Course,
as the later events would show, she likely had very
good reason to feel that way, and she wasn't alone
in having issues with Jeremy. Throughout the early eighties, no
plenty of people who knew him had taken note of
how much he'd changed in Australia and New Zealand, with
him becoming even more arrogant and cruel after returning to England. Still,

(18:30):
that didn't stop the Air to the Bamber Fortune from
finding new sexual partners. In nineteen eighty three, after breaking
up with the married woman he'd been seeing, Jeremy began
a relationship with a nineteen year old teaching student named
Julie Mugford.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
While he would.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Continue to see other women behind her back, the pair
seemed to be very much in love. Who wasn't long
before they moved in together at Poetry Cottage, a house
located only a short distance away from White House Farm. There,
Jeremy spent his free time growing cannabis, which he sold
on the side. Elsewhere As that was happening, Shila finally

(19:09):
got some positive news, as after yet another hospital stay,
she would officially be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. While that
wasn't exactly a good thing, it did at least mean
she was able to get the correct medication in order
to hopefully bring her symptoms under control. Though that seemed
to be a step in the right direction, things would

(19:30):
soon be set back to square one all over again, when,
after receiving a visit from her ex husband Colin during
the end of nineteen eighty four, any hopes she still
harbored that the two could ever reconcile were killed for good. Unsurprisingly, then,
that caused Sheila to spiral, with her drug use only
getting worse. She even agreed to do a nude photo

(19:52):
shoot in order to fund her habit, so when she
was hospitalized once more, Colin finally decided that enough was
enough and would take the kids from Sheila, keeping them
from their mother as much as possible for the sake
of their own well being. Of course, Sheila would still
see Daniel and Nicholas once she was released from Saint Andrew's,
the same hospital which had treated her mother, but she

(20:14):
would no longer be the primary caregiver for the twins
going forward. Even with the correct medication, she had fallen
to a point where she wasn't capable of being responsible
for two young children, which would be evident when she
started to believe she was a white witch, someone whose
duty to the world was to cleanse it of evil.

(20:35):
That was a delusion she continued to hold as she
moved back in with her parents at White House Farm
in early nineteen eighty five, so that they could keep
a close eye on her. One person who was not
so concerned with checking in on Sheila at that point, though,
was Jeremy No. By that point, he and his sister
were no longer close, as he seemed far more concerned

(20:55):
with ensuring he was never again at risk of being
cut out of the family estate. But it makes sense
he'd want to ensure that, as he stood to inherit
a lot of money, money which would be split between
him and his adopted sister. Of course, if she wasn't around, though,
then Jeremy would be able to lay claim to her
half too, making him all that much richer, and it

(21:17):
appears that was the impetus for Jeremy's plan. It had
all started nicely enough, with the plan for that weekend
being that there would be a family reunion of sorts
at White House Farm. With Sheila already living there with
Neville and June, Colin agreed to let the kids stay
there for a couple of days so that they could
spend time with their mother and grandparents. Jeremy was also

(21:40):
there working at the farm that weekend, so he no
doubt popped in here and there. For the most part,
though he probably kept mostly to himself as he continued
to spend his free time partying, something that was happening
much to the frustration of his girlfriend Julie. That makes
it more difficult to get a true picture of what
occurred at White House Farm that weekend, as by the

(22:02):
time it was over, Jeremy would be the only member
of the family who was still alive. What does seem clear, however,
is that there was a general consensus of unease permeating
throughout the year prior to the murders. In fact, not
long before his grandchildren arrived, Neville made a comment to
one of the staff he kept on the grounds that

(22:22):
suggested he was worried about dying soon, almost as if
he was having a premonition. Also, Daniel and Nicholas would
be strangely resistant to going and staying with their grandparents
that particular time. Of course, that was chalked up to
them not being fans of June's strictness, particularly when it
came to making sure the kids always said their prayers

(22:43):
before bed. But there was also a sense that something
else was worrying them about the visit. Maybe they could
feel it in the ether. The fact that when they
went to bed on the evening of August sixth, they
would not be waking up again the following morning. That
was because at some point over the course of the evening,
according to Jeremy, he was present for an argument that

(23:06):
took place between Sheila and their parents. The subject of
the argument was allegedly that Sheila wanted custody of her
kids back, but Neville and June didn't think their daughter
was fit enough to look after them alone. The way
he recalled it, they were concerned that if she was
able to regain access to Daniel and Nicholas full time,

(23:27):
she'd do such a bad job she'd end up losing
them again for good. They believed that that would in
turn stop them from being able to see their grandchildren.
They suggested that they work towards taking the two six
year olds in themselves at White House Farm along with
Sheila on a permanent basis. That would mean that she
could be supervised at all times while she raised her children. Evidently,

(23:52):
Sheila didn't take too kindly to having her parenting skills questioned,
especially by the people who she felt had done such
a poor job or raising her. As that was going on,
Jeremy claimed he decided to get away from the fight
by taking his father's rifle and going rabbit hunting, but
for one reason or another, he never actually ended up

(24:12):
shooting any of the rabbits during the short time he
was away, so when he returned to white House Farm
at around nine thirty pm, he was empty handed, all
except for the rifle, which he proceeded to set down
in the kitchen before saying good night and heading home.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
To Birchery Cottage.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Jeremy claimed that that was the last he saw of
his family while they were alive. The only contact he
had with any of them again was when at around
four am the following morning, he got a call from
his father telling him.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
There was trouble at the house.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
According to what Jeremy later told police, Neville had claimed
to him that Sheila had a gun and was going
berserk with it. At some point during that conversation, though,
the call got cut off, and when Jeremy tried to
call back, he couldn't get through, so instead he dialed
the number for the local Chilms Firm police station, and not,
as would have been the seemingly obvious thing to do,

(25:08):
nine nine nine, the emergency services number in the UK. Now,
why Jeremy did that has been a question many have
tried to answer in the year since, with no one
coming up with a truly suitable answer. Was it him
panicking in the moment and not thinking straight, or was
it him trying to delay the police showing up to
the scene by calling a local office instead of an

(25:30):
emergency line. As far as he's argued in the years since,
he just didn't think it would make a difference what
number he dialed. One thing that he did struggle to
explain after the fact, though, was why Phone records later
showed that before he called the police, he called his
girlfriend first. That would become a key part in the

(25:51):
case against him later on down the line, as investigators
felt there was more to the story at that moment, however,
it was not their major concern Initially. Upon arriving at
the scene, their first priority was to find out what
had happened inside White House Farm, But with their allegedly
being a crazy woman running around inside with a rifle,

(26:12):
it wasn't like they wanted to just burst in through
the front door, as that could make the situation a
whole lot more deadly. So instead, the officers tried calling
the house themselves. When that didn't work, they attempted to
use a bullhorn in order to speak to anyone inside,
much to their chagrin. When they did, no one responded

(26:33):
At that point it became clear something bad had likely
happened and that they were going to have to make
entry into the house. They finally broke into the house
at around seven thirty am and discovered the grim aftermath
of what had taken place the night before. They first
found Neville sitting in the kitchen, hunched over in a
freakish and almost impossible position. He was bleeding from the head,

(26:57):
with the blood having dripped down and smeared all over
the nearby cooktop. Clearly he was dead, and it looked
very much like he had died in some sort of
violent struggle. But that wasn't the only death that had
occurred at white House Farm, as upon further inspection of
the property, officers would find the body of June in
the upstairs hallway, laying against the door of the master

(27:18):
bedroom with a bullet hole.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
In her head.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
With gun crime in the UK being relatively low, it's
not something any of the officers on the scene would
have likely witnessed before. That meant that when they heard
a noise coming from the bedroom, they likely feared they
were about to get into a shootout themselves. Thankfully, the
noise they heard had come from June's dog, who had
hidden under the bed, presumably in fear. The dog was

(27:44):
unharmed physically. That said, it didn't mean the horrors of
the scene were over, because once the officers entered the
bedroom to see if the dog was okay, they found
Sheila lying there dead, with two bullet holes under her
jaw and her mother's bible next to her. Curiously, though,
while the ground around her was covered in blood, her

(28:05):
hands and the soles of her feet were completely clean.
After that, Daniel and Nicholas were also found dead in
their beds, likely having been murdered while they slept. Obviously,
a murder had taken place, and the way officers sow it, initially,
it had most likely been a murder suicide. The scenes
suggested Sheila had shot everyone in a state of insanity

(28:28):
all before then taking her own life, but that was
just a working theory and a full investigation was going
to have to be done in order to ascertain all
of the details. Before that could happen, though, Jeremy, who
was still waiting outside, had to be informed of the
fate of his family. He had seemed omly calm earlier,
but when he was told that his family were dead.

(28:50):
He finally showed some emotion as the reality of the
situation presumably started to sink in for him. He insisted
that he needed to see his father in order to
confess what the authorities were telling him was true. Once
he made confirmation of his father's identity, all he could
talk about was how his sisters should have never been
let out of the hospital and all of the deaths

(29:11):
could have been avoided. It seemed as though Jeremy was
also working under the theory that Sheila had been the killer,
and that was a theory he continued to push as
the authorities followed him back to his house for further questioning. Then,
when news began to get out to the press and
everyone in the local area became aware of the situation,

(29:31):
it was that story that spread around and quickly gained
the most traction. Sure, there were some problems pointed out
with that story even early on. The most substantial was
the fact that there were two bullet wounds under Sheila's jaw,
suggesting someone else caused at least one of them. Some
tried to suggest that the gun fired again as it

(29:52):
fell to the ground and it just so happened to
hit her in that spot. Not only was the chance
that the gun would just coinciden hit the same spot
as the fatal shot, it's very unlikely that a firearm
will go off on its own when it's dropped or bumped. Then,
as the extended family of the Bambers arrived to comfort Jeremy,

(30:12):
even more unlikelihoods and inconsistencies about the scene were discovered.
Neville had suffered a broken jaw during the struggle that
led to his death, and if his death happened at
the time investigators believed it had, it would mean that
by the time he allegedly called his son to tell
him something was happening, he shouldn't have been able to
talk on the phone. And then there was the fact

(30:35):
that there appeared to be bloody fingerprints belonging to Sheila
on her own clothes, suggesting that there had been blood
on her hands, but that it had been cleaned away
at some point. Would she have shot her parents and children,
washed her hands, and then killed herself. Things didn't add up.
After all, Would she have really been able to overpower

(30:57):
her much larger and stronger father in a struggle for
their lives? Those were questions extended family members had as
the days progressed, that caused them to eventually start wondering
if Jeremy hadn't been involved in some way. He just
seemed too calm about the murders. Sure, everyone grieves in
their own way, but there was something about the way

(31:19):
he was responding to the death of his parents, sister,
and nephews that didn't ring true to his cousins. As
time went on and the police started to question him more,
there was something about the way he was responding that
didn't ring true to them either. When days later he
still couldn't provide a suitable explanation for why he called

(31:39):
his girlfriend before calling the police, the investigators began to
have their suspicions about him too. After all, he did
stand to inherit his parents entire fortune, and he was
experienced with guns in a way that his sister wasn't. Still,
though for as much as some on the police force
might have had their doubts, in the end, the consent

(32:00):
with the investigation team appeared to be that it had
indeed been a murder suicide at the hands of Sheila.
Even though Jeremy's cousins continued to push for him to
be investigated further. Investigators didn't have enough to charge him,
even when another investigation of the farm, which happened in
secret by the family, unearthed a silencer covered in blood

(32:21):
that did nothing to change the course of the case.
Despite it seeming likely that the silencer had been on
the murder weapon when it was fired, and then mysteriously
removed and stored away after the fact, suggesting Sheila couldn't
have been the killer, the authorities stood there ground. Of course,
the belief by many at the time was that they

(32:42):
just wanted to close the case and put the whole
thing in the past, particularly as there were already questions
being asked about the sloppiness of their initial investigation, so
they didn't care to look any deeper. They just wanted
to pin it on a mentally ill woman, as that
was the easiest solution, and that's exactly where what happened,
as once the inquest was over, Sheila Caffell was found

(33:04):
to be guilty of the murders of Neville Bamber, June Bamber,
and Daniel and Nicholas Kaffell, but that simply wasn't good
enough for the family. They continued to investigate the situation themselves.
After losing his ex wife and both of his children
in the tragedy, Colin Caffell had become inconsolable, a broken man.

(33:26):
But while his grief was fully embraced by those around him,
Jeremy's was not. When he cried at the funeral of
his family, it seemed to many onlookers like there was
nothing genuine about it, and that ring true for the
way people felt about Julie as well, someone who was
allegedly joking with her boyfriend around that time about how
much money they stood to inherit so. Feeling the need

(33:49):
to broach the subject, Julie's friend Susan Battersby questioned her
about it not long after, wanting to know exactly what
she knew. It was during the course of that conversation that, presumably,
overwhelmed with guilt regarding her complicitness, Julie admitted that Jeremy
had in fact been the one responsible for the murders,

(34:10):
not that he'd done it himself though no, he'd hired
a hitman by the name of Matthew MacDonald to carry
out the job and make it look like it had
been the work of Sheila. The way she explained it.
The reason her boyfriend had gone out with the rifle
that evening was not to hunt any rabbits, but rather
to give himself a reason to return to the house

(34:31):
later and leave the gun in a spot where it
could later be found by Matthew once he'd broken in.
Of course, once she told all that to her friend,
Julie would swear at a secrecy, and despite finding out
that Jeremy was a murderer and was walking free, Susan
agreed to say nothing to the police. But Julie's guilt
obviously wasn't assuaged by that confession, as in the weeks

(34:54):
that followed, she continued to drop hints to her friends
that Jeremy had been the one responsible for the at
White House Farm, all without actually coming out and saying it.
Of course, that led to tension developing between the couple
as he grew more and more concerned about her ability
to keep quiet. That tension would only get worse once
she found evidence that he was having an affair with

(35:16):
a woman named Virginia. It's probably not a great idea
to be open with your girlfriend about murder and then
turn around and cheat on her, but what do I know?
I've never cheated on anyone. I mean, I haven't murdered
anyone either. At one point that had a full blown
physical fight, and that led to Julie finally leaving Jeremy,

(35:37):
though not before receiving a very healthy check that was
presumably in exchange for her silence. But if that was
indeed what the payoff was for, it didn't work because
soon after she went to the police and confessed everything
she knew about the killings. That included the fact that
Jeremy had first broached the idea of offing his parents

(35:57):
in order to get access to their money a full
aid eighteen months before he went ahead with his plan.
As Julie explained it, Jeremy had decided the risk of
him being cut out of his inheritance was too high
and that he needed to ensure that he had it
all in his possession as soon as possible. Of course,
that also meant killing his sister, as she would have

(36:17):
had an equal claim to it if she was alive,
so he waited for a time when he knew everyone
was going to be together. Sure, his nephews Daniel and
Nicholas would also have to be killed in the process,
but the way Jeremy justified it, that would relieve their
father of the burden of having to raise them as
a single father any longer. Wow, what a hero. The

(36:40):
only question was how exactly would he go about murdering them.
At one point, he considered shooting them himself and then
setting fire to the house in order to destroy evidence.
It seems he decided that would lead to many of
the valuables inside of the house being destroyed, something he
didn't want to happen. He decided that putting himself as

(37:02):
the killer was a risk that wasn't necessary, not when
he could hire someone else to do the job for him.
So that's when he came up with the plan to
employ a hit man to carry out the murders on
his behalf, or so he claimed. As time went on,
Jeremy had acted more and more strangely, making weird comments
here and there that didn't align with his original story.

(37:25):
That caused Julie to suspect that he had actually been
the man with his finger on the trigger. After all,
The first clue had been the call he'd made to
her on the night of the killings before he called
the police. During that call, he told Julie that it
was tonight or never, and that he was on the
scene where everything had gone well. She had brushed that

(37:46):
off at the time, but eventually she was forced to
reckon with what that implied about where Jeremy had been
at the time of the murders. She claimed that the
only reason she hadn't told all of that to the
police before was because her boyfriend had convince that she'd
be an accessory if she said anything. But even if
that was true, she couldn't remain quiet any longer. She

(38:07):
had to spill all of the beans, if for no
other reason than so she could sleep peacefully at night. Unsurprisingly, then,
investigators went straight to Jeremy's home at Bertrie Cottage, but
with him denying everything at that point, and with there
being no concrete evidence against him other than the word
of his ex girlfriend, authorities were unable to charge him

(38:28):
with murder. First, they had to build a more solid case,
and that began with them visiting Matthew MacDonald, who admitted
he had been approached by Jeremy one night at a
wine bar, but had no involvement in the murders at
white House Farm. He even had an airtight alibi for
the time of the murders. What it looked like may
have happened was that Jeremy had wanted a hitman to

(38:51):
do the job for him, but when he couldn't get one,
he decided to take matters into his own hands. Then,
additional forensic evidence suggested the trajectory of the bullet that
killed Sheila proved she could not have been the one
who fired the shot. On top of that, investigators finally
looked into the mysterious silencer, which gave them all they

(39:12):
needed to formally charge Jeremy with murder on September eighth,
nineteen eighty five. Despite being a necessory after the fact,
at the very least, Julie Mugford was not charged. It
was the opinion of the authorities that she'd been made
to keep her boyfriend secret under duress, and because of
that some leniency was afforded to her. That meant she

(39:33):
could watch from the sidelines. As for the next year,
Jeremy assembled his defense team in preparation for his upcoming trial.
The trial began in October of nineteen eighty six. Ultimately,
despite all his team's preparation, it would end up being
rather short After the prosecution was able to argue their
case that Sheila could not realistically have been the one

(39:56):
to commit the murders given the multiple shots to her
head and the fact that the oh so important silencer
had been stored away after her death. It left only
one suspect remaining, and with Julie's testimony, the jury easily
found him guilty on five counts of murder. Jeremy Bamber
was given five consecutive life sentences, with him being required

(40:18):
to serve a minimum of twenty five years before parole
was considered, but that, as it happens, would not be
the end of the story. While Jeremy remains behind bars
to this day, there has been something of a movement
pushing for his release, with a not insignificant number of
people in twenty twenty five believing he's innocent. That has

(40:40):
to do with the sloppiness of the initial investigation. After all,
when the authorities themselves admit that it was poorly done,
how can their findings be trusted. But just because an
investigation is sloppy doesn't mean they can't eventually convict the
right person.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
There are also.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
People who claim that there was an issue with the
silence or evidence which was crucial for the conviction. Sheila's
blood was found inside the silencer, but that only meant
that she had to shoot herself at least once with
it on. Could she have shot herself, removed the silencer,
put it downstairs, then gone back upstairs and shot herself

(41:18):
again with the silencer off. It's very unlikely. Then. Other
people claim that the silencer, which was found later by
family members, was planted because they wanted to get their
hands on the Bamber's money. The Bambers extended family members
were also wealthy, so they had no reason to set
their own cousin up as a murderer to get that money.

(41:41):
Some cite a later land dispute as evidence they lied
and that they really did want the money, but it
seems like a very desperate attempt to find any proof
Jeremy is innocent. This is not uncommon with people who
get convicted and gain a small following of loyal fans
who are convinced that some injustice was done. It turns

(42:01):
into a conspiracy theory where every little bit of information
becomes evidence of innocent despite the sheer amount of coincidences
that would have had to happen in order to make
that person not guilty, and where a bunch of people
had to have worked together to get the convicted locked away,
people who were unrelated and didn't benefit from the conspiracy.

(42:23):
Say Jeremy's cousins wanted his parents' money. What was in
it for Matthew McDonald, What was in it for Julie?
She ultimately made herself an accessory by telling the police
that Jeremy had done it and lost her access to
the money Jeremy would have inherited. It doesn't make sense.
The convicted uses all of those tiny details to try

(42:44):
and gain their freedom, but it almost never works. So far,
about a dozen people have told me that either they
or someone else who's been convicted is going to prove
their innocence and be released. To date, the amount of
people who have is zero.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Oh as far as.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
The courts have been concerned, none of that supposed evidence
of innocence has been enough to negate the guilty verdict
for Jeremy Bamber. The overwhelming evidence still suggests he was
the one who did it, and not his sister. That
means he'll likely sit in a cell for the rest
of his days, alienated from his remaining family and with
none of the money he so desperately wanted. All he

(43:25):
has now is the legacy of being one of the
UK's most notorious killers, someone who is so desperate to
have at all, so hungry for riches to fund his lifestyle,
that he was willing to become a monster. If you're
the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone
for help. Please talk to your local shelter, Call the

(43:45):
National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine
nine safe that's one eight hundred seven nine nine seven
two three three, or you can go to the hotline
dot org to chat with someone online. If you're having
feelings of harming yourself, for someone else, or even just
need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental
health facility call nine one one, or call the National

(44:07):
Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine to eight eight
in the United States. They're available twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about
any mental health issue you might be facing. If you're
a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
or are in need of any support, please contact the
lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four,

(44:31):
three four, five six four, or go to LGBT Hotline
dot org. Thanks so much for letting me tell you
this story. If you're a fan of true crime, you
can subscribe to this show so you don't miss an episode.
My other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true

(44:52):
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a J, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.

(45:12):
Thanks again, and be safe.