Who was Jack Mossop? Did he and an accomplice murder a woman after a night of drinking at the Lyttleton Arms near Hagley? Did they stuff her still warm body into a wych elm in Hagley Wood? Did the memory of this traumatic event drive Jack mad? Did he die of an overdose in a […]
Bella in the Wych Elm – The Story of Jack Mossop Read More »
It would appear that Alex Merrill’s new book and the facial reconstruction he has commissioned has sparked some interest in the case. I was reading a Birmingham Live article (author Mike Lockley) that came out today. It is so full of errors, I can’t even begin to touch on all of them. They do, however,
Media Review – Birmingham Live article on Bella in the Wych Elm (2018) Read More »
The Book Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm – Volume 1 – The Crime Scene Revisited. Alex Merrill. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018. Summary Well, this was a surprise! A 16 year old from Halesown, Alex Merrill, has written a book on Bella in the Wych Elm. It came out on Friday, February 23,
It’s fair to say, I think, that Bella in the Wych Elm was definitely not the German cabaret singer Clara Bauerle. I’ve laid out the facts in other blogs and the evidence seems pretty overwhelming. But even though we can lay Clara Bauerle to rest, there is another Clara whose name has been circulated as
Debunked: Bella in the Wych Elm was the wife of spy Johannes Marinus Dronkers Read More »
Goodness, Bella now has her very own Wikipedia page! It’s actually been around for a couple of years but had a flurry of activity on it in the last few days. Given how popular the topic is… it remains to be seen how the page will maintain its accuracy. It quotes heavily from the Alison
Wikipedia Page – Bella in the Wych Elm Read More »
In March 2013, Alison Vale wrote an article for The Independent, which connected German cabaret singer Clara Bauerle with Bella in the Wych Elm. The article noted that Josef Jakobs was a “Czech-born Gestapo agent”. Since then, numerous web articles, blogs and news articles have propagated that information. Unfortunately, that statement is not accurate. Czech
Josef Jakobs – Agent of the Abwehr or the Gestapo? Read More »
Back in December 2017, I received a fascinating email from Tom Drayton, Director of Pregnant Fish Theatre and lecturer at the Universities of East London and Worcester. Tom teaches archival performance which sounds kind of strange until you learn that he basically “teaches students how to engage with archival material and research through performance experiments
An Intriguing Stage Production of Bella in the Wych Elm Read More »
What would Sherlock Holmes do with the Bella in the Wych Elm case? Had he handled the case in 1943 when the body was first discovered, I am confident he would have used his exquisite powers of deduction to eliminate the impossible and identify the solution, no matter how improbable it seemed. Alas… Sherlock Holmes
Bella in the Wych Elm – The Mysterious Anna from Claverley (a.k.a. Una Hainsworth) Read More »
It would seem that Clara Bauerle will forever be linked with the mysterious Bella in the Wych Elm story. There is a lot if interest in the Bella story, and Clara’s name always seems to swirl into the space as a viable identity for the woman found stuffed in a Wych Elm in Worcestershire in
German Cabaret Singer Clara Bauerle Declassified Read More »
Last month, I ordered the West Mercia Police files on the Bella in the Wych Elm case. The price was a bit steep but… the idea of actually being able to access historical documents on the case was too tempting. The archivist at the Worcestershire County Archives admitted that the files contained quite a bit
The Disappointing West Mercia Police Files on Bella in the Wych Elm Read More »