Monday 8th January 2024

South Lawn Hotel, Milford Road, Milford on Sea, SO41 0RF

Monthly Meeting

The Corner Shop Killings

Our speaker today is Paul Stickler. Former policeman Paul is an expert in murder investigation.  Now retired, he investigates historical murders and has published books detailing the killing of a Hitchin shopkeeper in 1919, and the A6 Murders in 1961.

Paul is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and a popular club and cruise ship speaker on historical murders.

On the morning of Monday 27 January 1919, neighbours of Elizabeth Ridgely were concerned for her welfare as she had failed to open her corner shop in Nightingale Road, Hitchin. She lived alone with her dog and despite repeated banging on her front door, the silence made one of the neighbours go to the police station to get help.  Police Constable Alf Kirby found the back door insecure, entered the property and found both Ridgely and her dog dead.

Paul presents a fascinating insight into how county and borough police forces coped with murder investigations in the inter-war period. It paved the way for a radical review of how provincial forces were expected to call upon the services of Scotland Yard sooner rather than later.