Edward Devlin & Alfred Burns - a miscarriage of justice?

Beatrice Alice Rimmer was 54 year old widow who lived alone at 7 Cranborne Road opposite Sefton General Hospital, on Smithdown Road in Liverpool and who was reputed to keep money in her house.

Beatrice had visited her son on the Sunday afternoon and was seen returning to her home that evening. On Monday, August the 20th, 1951, her next door neighbour, Jack Grossman, alerted Alice’s son, Thomas, to the suspicious scene outside his mothers front door. There was a bottle of milk on the doorstep, delivered around 6 a.m., but it was now long after midday. Alice, as she was known, had not been seen all morning and Mr. Grossman had become concerned about her welfare. Thomas couldn’t get any reply but looking through the letterbox could see his mother lying in a pool of blood. At the back of the house a window had been broken. Alice had been attacked with a cosh and had 15 separate wounds which indicated that she might have been tortured to reveal the whereabouts of her money.

The police initially suspected Thomas of being involved until George McLaughlin, a man serving time for burglary in Liverpool’s Walton prison, gave them a tip off. He told police two Mancunians, 22 year old Edward Devlin and 21 year old Alfred Burns, had admitted the murder to him. The only forensic evidence was a drop of blood on the coat belonging to one of them, which was not even from the same blood group as Mrs. Rimmer. Devlin and Burns strenuously denied the murder and had an alibi for the night of Sunday the 19th of August - they were breaking into the Sun Blinds Ltd factory in Manchester at the time!

They came to trial at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool before Mr. Justice Finnemore on 12th of February 1952 and were convicted on the 27th of that month. In court neither behaved well and were critical of the judge and jury. Rose Heilbron defended the pair and told the jury that the evidence against Burns and Devlin was entirely circumstantial - no one had seen them enter or leave the house. It took the jury just 75 minutes to reach their verdict. Asked if they had anything to say before they were sentenced Devlin told the judge. “My Lord. I would like to stress that it means the police are not infallible and tell lies.”

Their appeal before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Ormerod and Parker was dismissed on the 31st of March but the Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fife, took the unusual step of appointing Albert Gerrard QC to examine the case and he reported that they were guilty. So, at 9.00 a.m. on Friday the 25th of April the pair were hanged side by side in Walton prison, by Albert Pierrepoint assisted by Syd Dernley, Robert Leslie Stewart and Harry Smith. Burns weighed 165 lbs. and was given a drop of 6’ 10”, Devlin weighed 158 lbs. and his drop was 7’ 1”. On Sunday the 27th it was reported in the press that both men had confessed to killing Alice. According to Syd Dernley’s memoirs, neither man spoke during the execution.

Recent developments.

In 2018 new evidence has come to light regarding these two men that raises serious doubts about the safety of their conviction which has led to it being referred to the court of appeal.
It appears that Alice Rimmer complained about her son, Thomas, in a letter she wrote to her deceased husband's pension provider. It said: "I am sorry to add that I cannot look for any help or sympathy from my son. I have not dared to tell him about this extra allowance. I have given and given but now firmly resolve not another penny. Money slips like water through his hands and now he is realising what he's done. I do know that if I pass away, he would have a royal time of it for a few months."
This letter provides Thomas Rimmer with a clear motive to kill his mother. Additionally, the broken window he said that he used to gain entry into the property where he found his mother's body, did not leave any fibers of his chunky jacket nor could he replicate gaining entry without leaving any finger marks or fibres in the three attempts he tried to demonstrate why the window was simply broken but untouched.

As of October 2018, the case has not been referred to the Court of Appeal.

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