24 - Bruce Lee: Murder by Arson

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

GoLoud

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2018

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In December 1989, the Hastie home on Selby Street in Hull caught fire in the early hours of the morning. Three of Hastie boys would die of their injuries. It was apparent from the beginning that the fire was arson: there were matches left and a trail of paraffin at the front door, and there was the smell of accelerant in the air. In an attempt to find out who would want to hurt the family, it became apparent that they were strongly disliked, but still there were no real leads. Until, that is, the police picked up 19 year old Bruce George Peter Lee.He admitted to setting the Hastie fire. And then shockingly admitted to another 10 arsons in the Hull area. No one had suspected these fires were malicious. But should the police believe this young man with a troubled background? Our podcast Promo this week is from Targeted Podcast: True Crime Domestic Violence, presented by Mo Blackwell. This is an unbelievably important subject, telling stories of domestic violence in a compelling and compassionate manner. Go subscribe today, if you aren't already! Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! If you would like to support the podcast, head on over to Patreon.com. Theme Music: Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Sources: Ron Sagar MBE, Hull Hell and Fire (London: Highgate of Beverly, 1999) Purchase here https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3672468/Serial-killer-arsonist-burned-15-people-death-including-six-month-old-baby-pictured-strolling-day-release-prison.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3672468/Serial-killer-arsonist-burned-15-people-death-including-six-month-old-baby-pictured-strolling-day-release-prison.html Paul Sutherland, "The Hull Arsonist Part 1 and 2" in The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast blog, March 2017. https://truecrimeenthusiast.wordpress.com/2017/03/24/the-hull-arsonist-part-1/

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of Bruce George Peter Lee The Oh, On the morning of Tuesday the 4th of December 1979 the emergency services were called to the scene of a fire at 12 Selby Street in Hull, Northern England.
0:52.0	The house was occupied by the Hastie family.
0:55.1	Edith and Tommy Hastie were the parents. Tommy Hastie was a petty criminal, but a pleasant one,
1:01.9	according to the police.
1:04.4	At the time of the fire, he was serving a 12-month sentence for robbing a local sports club,
1:10.0	not a hundred yards away from his home. They had seven kids, three girls and four boys.
1:17.5	The night before, the girls had all been staying with friends or relatives,
1:22.0	so in the morning of the fourth it was just the boys and Mrs. Hastie.
1:26.1	All the family present that night were upstairs in two of the house's bedrooms.
1:31.3	Edith, 34 at the time, was in the back bedroom with her son
1:35.6	Thomas, who was nine. He suffered from muscular dystrophy, and Edith cared for him
1:41.0	as he could barely walk.
1:43.0	Charlie, 15, was on the top bunk in the front bedroom, and Paul 12 and Peter 8 were sharing
1:50.4	the bottom bunk.
1:52.4	The boys were joined in the front room by their dog, a German
1:56.0	Shepherd crossbreed named Rinni. The house had been gutted by the time the police arrived. There was a smell of paraffin oil in the air, and it was pretty clear to everyone that someone had poured it through the letterbox in the front door before setting it a light. The fire itself would have taken care of any forensic evidence.
2:17.0	Just in front of the door was a little trail of the oil, ending in a puddle where the canister holding it had been sat at one point, but the can was nowhere to be found.
2:29.0	All five members of the hasty family who were present in the house were taken to hospital.
2:34.8	Three of the boys were rushed to a specialist burn unit given the severity of their injuries,
2:40.7	and they were not expected to survive.
2:43.0	A specialist forensic scientist was called to examine the scene.
2:48.0	The night before the fire, Edith and her four sons had sat in her bed together chatting before the three went off to their own room.
	...

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