Chilling ransom note left on daughter’s bed before grim find | UK | News

It was an ordinary evening at a family home in Shropshire when a mother’s worst nightmare unfolded.

When Dorothy Whittle went to her daughter Lesley’s bedroom, she discovered a disturbing ransom note left on her bed; This note triggered days of pain and distress.

In 1975, Staffordshire was gripped by the terror of a man called Donald Nielson, who would later become known as the Black Panther. Neilson was a builder originally from Bradford before he murdered four people.

Fifty years later, society continues to be affected by the horrific murders. The abduction of Lesley Whittle continues to resonate with residents of Highley, Shropshire to this day.

When Lesley’s mother went to wake her daughter on January 14, she found an empty bed. The report stated that three ransom notes were found on the bed, as well as a warning not to allow police to enter the living room. Mirror.

The Whittle family were well known in the area and Lesley was a member of the local community.

Horrifyingly, his body was found in a manhole before Neilson was sentenced to four life sentences for four murders.

Andy Wright, a Shropshire Star reporter at the time, said: “People were absolutely stunned. They couldn’t understand what was going on.”

Researcher Dave Waterhouse told the BBC it was important to remember the case. He said: “A lot of people actually said ‘get well soon, let’s move on’.”

“Anyone born before 1970 will have memories of what happened here in the old Kidsgrove. The memorials just keep coming every year… it is part of our local history and the impact it has had is undeniable.”

Waterhouse described Neilson as “a very lonely person”. His mother passed away when he was 10 years old.

He added: “He had very few friends. He went into the army, spent a few years there and loved it. He was never successful at anything he did except stealing; 400 thefts and was never caught.”

“But he would take every job, from taxi driving to carpentry to salesman, and he would fail at every one.”

He suggested that many people believed Lesley’s mother, rather than her daughter, was the intended target. He explained: “The Whittles had a bus company of 70 buses based in Highley in Shropshire and everyone in the area knew the family.

“When her father died, Lesley was recognized as the heiress and that’s how people recognized her.”

There were many mistakes before Nielson’s capture. Waterhouse said: “They had to cancel the first night – it was mistake after mistake.

“The BBC announced on the radio at 20:00 GMT that the plane would be dropped off at the Swan Center in Kidderminster and this never happened.

“They decided to go again the next night and were going to go to Dudley Zoo but the security guard caught Neilson on the premises and that security guard was shot.

“Then that evening the rules changed. The tapes were sent to the Whittle family by Neilson and said the delivery had to be at Kidsgrove tonight.”

Sylvia Dymond, a schoolgirl when Lesley was murdered, was horrified when police discovered the teenager’s body in Kidsgrove woodland.

“When we were kids we used to come here and play during the summer,” he told the BBC.

“We almost lived here. It’s so scary when you think about it, because he must have been so scared.”

The ransom drop did not happen as planned because Neilson spotted a romantic couple and panicked.

Waterhouse explained: “She thought she had been betrayed. The evidence shows that she came from where she expected and had an abortion.”

“But before he could perform the abortion, he went back to Lesley and threw her down the well.”

Neilson was eventually arrested after he was seen acting suspiciously outside a post office near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

He was jailed for the July 1976 murder of Lesley and the murder of three deputy postmasters during armed robberies in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Accrington, Lancashire and Langley in the West Midlands.

Throughout the police investigation and trial, Neilson maintained his innocence. He died in prison in 2011.