Murders on Derbyshire Moors

[The Blonde]

Got this from another site

The bubble car murders, the killer was caught. His name is Michael Copeland and he lived in Chesterfield. He was a repressed homosexual who killed homosexuals. He met two of his victims in the Spread Eagle pub, went and killed them and then staged car crashes. He killed a man in Germany whilst on military service. He claimed to have killed the man because he saw him and the man's girlfriend having sex like he had seen his mother having sex many times before. He confessed to the crimes on numerous occasions but refused to make a formal confession. Eventually detectives determined they had enough evidence and charged him. He was sentenced to death but it was commuted to life imprisonment. I think he kileld ofur in total. Three in Chesterfield. It may have been three victims, i forget and don't have my notes at hand.

http://ccgi.neilsands.plus.com/cgi-bin/guestread.cgi?datafile=murder2004

[perthen]

Hi thanks for the info about Copeland, I`v lived in Chesterfield all my life and now in my 60`s I was a teenager at the time of the bubble car murders and frequented the pubs around here at that time including the spread eagle so may have talked to Copeland not knowing what he was capable of sends shudders down my spine

[victormh]

They were called the Carbon Copy Murders and it would be somewhere between 1960 and 1962

 

Hope this helps you - Grey Eminence - Malaysia

[john raine]

I remember these murders well. I was a newspaper reporter covering the stories and still have many of my old by-line cuttings from the Sheffield Telegraph and Sheffield Star. I was 19 years old at the time of the first murder in 1960 and covered this as a freelance agency reporter. It was known as the `Bubble Car` murder. The second murder was of a boy in a wood in Germany and the third murder back in Derbyshire in March 196l became known as the Carbon Copy murder because the circumstances were strikingly similar to the Bubble Car murder. At that stage I was working for the Sheffield Telegraph. The Derbyshire victims were gay men; their battered bodies were found in the same location over a dry stone wall at Clod Hall Lane Baslow and their cars, an Isetta bubble car and a pre-war Morris 10 were found crashed and abandoned against the same lamp post in Park Road, Chesterfield. The murderer was Michael Copeland, a young soldier, who lived near Park Road in the St. Augustines area of Chesterfield. He was a national service soldier and between the two Derbyshire murders knifed to death a young man in a wood in Germany. Michael was a tall, strapping man not much older than me. I interviewed him at his father`s house when he was under investigation and proclaiming his innocence and he came to my office on one occasion in Chesterfield. Despite intensive periods of questioning at Chesterfield police station he denied the offences and there was insufficient evidence to charge him. However, in 1965, he visited the home of Det Inspector Ernest Bradshaw, who had been in charge of the case and became something of an `uncle` figure to Michael, and there he confessed. I covered the committal proceedings at Chesterfield County Magistrates Court over a two to three week period and by then was working for the Sheffield Star. Witness came from Germany in connection with the second murder. Michael was committed to Birmingham Assizes and was one of the last prisoners to be sentenced to death in the UK. At that time legislation was going through Parliament to abolish capital punishment and Michael was spared this end. I don`t know whether he still lives; I did understand that he spent some of his sentence in Durham and possibly Broadmoor. I well remember visiting him at his home after he had returned from Germany and shortly after the second murder. He pulled down his trousers to reveal to me a long scar which he said had been the result of a knife wound. This he said was the result of defending himself against the attacker of the boy in the wood. Reflecting on events in later months and years I did wonder if I had had a lucky escape!

The murder stories had many associated newsworth events. Because the victims were gay (although that term was not used at that time) the police spent a lot of time `rounding up` known homosexuals many of whom frequented the Spread Eagle pub in town. One many brought in for interview was a mild and gentle man called Mart who had a hairdressing business in Chesterfield Market Hall. He later committed suicide. There were other associated incidents of violence at the time. Chesterfield of course became the focus of a lot of national publicity; many of the Fleet Street `big names`came to write stories about the murders. I seem to remember the News of the World story being headlined along the lines of "Chesterfield - where people are as bent/twisted as the spire on the parish church". Exciting times for the media; tragic for families. The third victim, George Stobbs, an industrial chemist, met his end after being picked up in a town centre pub. He was a married man in his forties and I can remember seeing his family members at the inquest. Very sad. As a young and gullible reporter then I remember being literally "taken for a ride" by a couple of local men who frequented the town centre benches and were rarely sober. They persuaded me they had vital information about the murders and would take me to meet with people who would give me a real scoop. Six hours later, having driven them in my VW Beetle, on a 50 mile wild goose chase involving much drinking, I returned to town with nothing! I have plenty of associated memories from what was for a journalist a very eventful time in the history of a great town.

John

[gym_rat]

I remember these murders well. I was a newspaper reporter

 

 

did someone else do your setting out for you? hard work to read that without paragraphs.

[Mandem]

I vaguely remember these murders, but I am remembering another CHesterfield murder, somewhere with Pottery in the name, am I imagining it, or does anyone know about this?

[gym_rat]

I vaguely remember these murders, but I am remembering another CHesterfield murder, somewhere with Pottery in the name, am I imagining it, or does anyone know about this?

 

 

is that the one on the road to Baslow where the family were held hostage and murdered - pottery cottage?

 

 

article about it in todays Derbyshire Times, I imagine thats what led the poster above to the forum

[Bypassblade]

is that the one on the road to Baslow where the family were held hostage and murdered - pottery cottage?

 

 

article about it in todays Derbyshire Times, I imagine thats what led the poster above to the forum

 

I would say the very same, I can remember the case, and him getting shot to death Billy Hughes I believe his name.

[nicyglaw]

did someone else do your setting out for you? hard work to read that without paragraphs.

 

I take it English wasn't your best subject at school then gym_rat ? Made perfect sense to me. The other murders referred to in this thread were the "Billy Hughes pottery cottage murders" circa 1977

[gym_rat]

I take it English wasn't your best subject at school then gym_rat ? Made perfect sense to me. The other murders referred to in this thread were the "Billy Hughes pottery cottage murders" circa 1977

 

I said it was hard to read, which it was, got a B when exams were exams - so what`s your point?