Chilling double murder book set for release

11:47pm Thursday 29th November 2007

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A GWENT man's book on a chilling double murder is ready for publication.

MIKE BUCKINGHAM reports.

THE face of Harold Jones was that of an angel, even the eyes reflecting a youthful and seemingly innocent light.

Yet behind the mask lay a soul of the darkest evil, as black as pitch.

The 15-year-old 'mummy's boy' with the brillianteened hair and spotless collar was a pitiless killer who raped and murdered two young girls and who posed and preened in the dock even as the shocking details of his crime were revealed to the court.

Now, exactly 86 years after Jones was led away, still smiling, into detention as a madman the full story of the horror which settled upon the small towen of Abertillery in 1921 can now be told in full.

Neil Milkins, 55, of Abertillery has been fascinated by the Jones case ever since seeing a mention of it in the Argus 25 years ago.

His unrelenting search has taken him into the annals of both the Metropolitan and Gwent police forces, the prison service, through old family records - and to the graveside of the murderer himself.

The mass of documentary evidence which includes first-hand witnesses to the discovery of the bodies of Freda Burnell, 8 and Florence Little, 11 i s supplemented by over 150 photographs including those of the murder scene.

Their sombre black-and-white images captured on plate cameras are stark with the images of death, of locations literally steeped in the blood of the young victims.

"The murder of Freda Burnell who Jones had enticed into a shed and then bludgeoned, raped and bound and gagged her so that she asphyxiated took place on February 5, 1921.

Freda's pathetic body was found the next morning dumped in the lane which still runs at the back of Duke Street barely 100 yards from her home.

"In the night two men, one a policeman, had passed only inches fom the body but not seen it in the dark" Mr Milkins says.

"Partly because of the evidence of a handkerchief found at the scene Jones and much to everyone's amazement Jones was arrested, charged with the murder and tried at Monmouth Assizes on June 20 of the same year, a trial which was to take four days at the end of which he was acquitted.

"Quite simply Jones had the plausibility of a psychopath, a smiling and highly intelligent boy who was able to decieve the whole town.

"After the trial the bunting was put out and he came back to Abertillery in a charabanc like a conquering hero.

"He was carried on men's shoulders and even presenterd with a gold watch."

But Jones was vain as well as cunning and sadistic.

As the days and weeks went by the spotlight turned away from him and he began to fret. The lust for blood and for infamy rose hot and murderous within him again.

A few days after his acquittal as he was chatting with friends Florence Little, Freda's friend, spat out the accusation 'I know you killed Freda'.

Jones smiled, seemingly dismissing the charge, but the angry words were to seal Florence's fate.

A few day's later Florence's body as found in the loft of Jones' home in Darran Road, her throat having been cut and the corpse drained of blood. An inquest jury was to hear that 'not two tablespoonsful of blood remained in the body'.

This time the evidence against Jones was conclusive.

"From that point on Jones was completely open about what he had done" Mr Milkins says.

The young killer so confident in his deception that he actually commiserated with the parents of his victim and who calmly sat on a wall swinging his legs as Freda's funeral cortege went by now told all.

"After pleading guilty he said of the first murder "I went hoime satisfied that I was safe. I asked after Freda and did not feel a qualm at the asking."

In a written confession Jones said 'In the minds of the police I am a murderer but I only did what the voices told me.

"There was a blinding light and that dash of fire across my brain and once more I was commanded to kill."

But says the author, the story did not begin with Freda's killing nor did it end with Jones' imprisonment at His Majesty's pleasure.

"Only three months before Freda's murder a woman was stabbed in the back right behind Jones's house. This seems more than co-incidence.

"After sentence for the murders he was at first taken to Usk prison but presumably because he was a juvenile sent somewhere else until he was of age.

"I have established that he came out of Wandsworth prison in 1941 and was married seven years later having changed his name.

"Birth, death and marriage certificates that I have leave no doubt that I am on the right track."

Some evidence that Jones returrned to Monmouthshire and killed again in Blaenavon have been discounted by Mr Milkins after the lead was thoroughly investigated.

"He was undoubtedly what we would now call a paedophile and addicted to his behaviour.

"I have every reason to think that between his release in 1941 and his marriage he killed again."

Mr Milkin's book is now ready for publication. A number of local and national publishers are said to be interested.

"I know that Jones had a child who may or may not know about the father's crimes" he says.

"But for the families of the two little girls this has been a release.

"For years in Abertillery the murders have not been spoken of. Now there looks like being some sort of conclusion there is a sense of freedom.

"One lady in her 50s who is related to one of the girls came to my house and sobbed her relief.

"Family members from all over the worlds have written to me and given me photographs and co-operated in every way.

"Jones died in 1971 but there are people living in Gwent who have seen him in the flesh.

"To this very day the awfulness of his crimes make us stop and ponder the depths of human wickedness."