27 - Archibald Hall: Thief & Serial Killer (Part 2)

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2018

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

In the final episode on the life and crimes of Archibald (Roy) Hall, we chart his activities over the final months of 1977 and into 1978. He had gone from butler and thief to murderer, when he turned against his lover and ex con David Wright. But that was far from his last murder, and the next couple of months he would kill employers, associates and family members, and drive thousands of miles across the UK, criss-crossing England and Scotland. But eventually his crimes caught up with him, and Roy found himself before a court again - not once, but twice. Our podcast Promo this week is from Barry over at Extraordinary Stories Podcast. If you're looking for weird, crazy stories that you just can't stop listening to - this is the podcast for you. Subscribe today! 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: Roy Archibald Hall, The Wicked Mr Hall: The memoirs of the butler who loved to kill (London: John Blake Press, 2011) Purchase Here James Copeland, The Butler (London: Granada Publishing, 1981) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 “New Rules on Reporting Restrictions” from Scottish Civil Justice Council http://www.scottishciviljusticecouncil.gov.uk/new-rules/2015/03/17/new-rules-on-reporting-restrictions (17 March 2015) “Contempt and reporting restrictions” from BBC Academy https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20130702112133630 (19 September 2017) PA Media Lawyer, “Scottish Daily Record fined £80,000 for contempt over two stories including one showing 'dramatic' arrest pic with 'GOT HIM' caption” in Press Gazette https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/scottish-daily-record-fined-for-contempt-over-two-stories-including-one-showing-dramatic-arrest-pic-with-got-him-caption/ (6 June 2018) Stirling v Associated Newspapers 1990 JC 5 HM Advocate v Caledonian Newspapers Ltd ([1995] SLT 926) Douglass Waddell, “Hold the presses: contempt of court” from brodies.com https://brodies.com/blog/public-law/hold-the-presses-contempt-of-court/ (18 June 2018) “Archibald Hall & Michael Kitto” from murderuk.com http://www.murderuk.com/serial_archibald_hall.html (undated) “The Murderous Butler” in The Watford Observer https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/nostalgia/crimelibrary/archibaldthomsonhall/themurderousbutler/ (undated)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the mens rea podcast and this is part two of the story of Archibald Thompson Hall, The Butler. The The Last time on the podcast we heard all about Archibald Thompson Hall and his
0:46.0	transformation from the son of a postal worker into Roy Hall, the thief and Roy
0:51.5	Fontaine, the suave Butler. He lost it after a life filled with the finer things,
0:58.0	one in which he would be in the company of high society and have the benefit of every luxury. That was not something that Roy Hall
1:06.3	could achieve, or at least achieve and enjoy for any great period of time, and so he
1:12.2	became a butler, a person who at the very least had access to the sort of people he wanted to be his peers, and if he couldn't join them, he would rob them.
1:24.0	By 1977, Roy had spent much of his life in prison
1:28.0	and had been on the run from police more than months.
1:31.0	He was a known con man and an escapee from prisons and by that stage was trying
1:36.2	to re-establish some sort of front for himself as a loyal servant. He took a job in his native
1:42.0	Scotland for a Lady Hudson.
1:45.0	But while he was sizing up the estate and laying his plans to rob the place,
1:49.0	his former prison mate and lover David Wright entered the picture and this was to prove to be his eventual downfall.
1:56.0	Wright wanted to get what he could in the moment and after stealing one of the mistress's rings, a fight ensued between the two. Wright shot at Roy with a rifle, and it was then
2:06.7	that Roy decided that Wright had to go. That's how David Wright ended up in a shallow grave next to a stream in the curtleton estate and how Roy Hall, the monster Butler, became a murderer.
2:20.0	Surprisingly, all went relatively smoothly for Roy after that until 1977 that is when his
2:27.5	ditching of Hazel Peterson came back to haunt him. One evening Margaret Hudson
2:32.1	received a phone call from a man purporting to be a police officer who was calling to inform her that her butler had a long criminal past.
2:40.0	She immediately rang the local police who were able to confirm this to her
2:45.0	and accompanied her to Roy's room to inform him that he was to leave immediately.
2:50.0	She paid him three months wages in lieu of notice and the police took him to a hotel in Gretna Green,
2:56.0	after ensuring that nothing from the house was missing.
	...

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