Dorset Murders (12 page)

When Frances herself became ill and was hospitalised for a lengthy period, Edward seemed lost without her. He began to show up for work at the club earlier and earlier, forcing his staff to do the same. Indeed, he was often observed sitting on the steps of the club in his pyjamas in the early hours of the morning. Despite his obvious problems, his employers were still more than happy with the way that he ran the club, but, once again, Simmons began to have delusions that they were deliberately interfering with his job because they didn't like him. His paranoia grew to the point where he felt obliged to hand in his notice. The club management turned down his first two letters of resignation, but finally accepted his third, leaving him not only jobless but homeless as well.

When Frances was finally discharged from hospital, the couple moved to Aldershot to stay with friends until, after five weeks, Simmons secured the post of steward/secretary for the Royal Dorset Yacht Club at Weymouth.

Simmons obviously still possessed his ‘gift for the gab', since he quickly made friends with several people in his new hometown, including the Graham family, partners in a large firm of wine merchants. The Yacht Club was close to Graham & Sons wine bar and Edward got into the habit of popping in regularly for a drink, usually a ginger ale, but occasionally he would take a glass of whisky. Soon he became completely enamoured by one of the barmaids who worked there, twenty-four-year-old Hettie Stephens from Truro, Cornwall.

A little flirting from customers is an occupational hazard for barmaids, particularly when they are as attractive as Hettie. However, Hettie was certainly not interested in any male attention, since she already had a steady boyfriend, who was currently working the Klondyke Gold Rush to make enough money for them to marry.

Eventually Simmons purchased a gold bracelet for Hettie, the latest in a series of small gifts, paying £2 7
s
6
d
for it from a local jeweller. He persuaded the jeweller to write him a receipt for £2 10
s
0
d
and, having given Hettie the bracelet in the bar one evening, then proceeded to make a big show about how much it had cost him.

Hettie had never shown any interest in Simmons beyond the obligatory politeness from a barmaid to a paying customer. Not wishing to offend him by refusing the bracelet, she accepted it and thanked him, but coolly continued to keep her distance.

His lack of success with Hettie was not all that was troubling Simmons at that time, as he had become convinced that mail was being stolen from the yacht club. Although the intended recipient of the letters had made no complaint, Simmons involved the police, who, after spending countless hours investigating the alleged theft, came to the conclusion that the crime existed only in the mind of Edward Simmons. Many of the friends he had initially made on his arrival in Weymouth were now beginning to draw away from Simmons, believing him to be opinionated, argumentative, a braggart and a habitual liar.

The slightest untoward incident threw Simmons into an emotional turmoil. He was driven almost to the point of a nervous breakdown when a man spoke to him at a concert without first being introduced and, on another occasion, the sight of a man wearing a woman's bracelet was enough to send him into near meltdown. Concerned for her husband's mental health, Frances took the unusual step of consulting Dr Wetherall alone, tearfully begging the doctor to do something. Wetherall calmed her, promising that he would sort something out.

Edward's next step was to call on Percy Graham and ask him for a private word on a rather delicate matter. He told Percy that he had watched Hettie Stephens pocketing money from the till in the wine bar and that he had also seen her drunk in charge of the bar several times. Graham realised that these allegations could not possibly be true and demanded that Simmons leave his office immediately, warning him not to repeat the preposterous allegations against Hettie to anyone else.

Simmons went straight from Graham's office to the local ironmongers, where he asked to see some really sharp knives, explaining that he needed one for sticking pigs. He eventually purchased one with a 5in blade, then, leaving the ironmongers, hailed a taxi and asked to be driven to the railway station. Arthur Collins drove him to the station, and then returned to the taxi rank on the Esplanade where, by chance, he immediately picked up another fare for the station. As he drove, he spotted Simmons walking back into town and wondered why he had asked for a cab, only to immediately turn round on reaching his destination and return. Later, Collins was to find the brand new knife that Simmons had just purchased under the seat cushions in his taxi.

Simmons went straight to the shops on his return to Weymouth town centre and purchased a revolver for ‘shooting rats'. Having rejected the first gun he was shown because it was too big, he bought a smaller gun, only to return it to the shop minutes later because it was too small, finally settling on the gun he had first turned down. He then asked for ammunition, but was told that he needed to go to Mr Hayman's shop, a little further along the street. At that, Simmon's walked out and went straight to Mr Lanning's shop, where he again demanded ammunition. Never having stocked ammunition, Lanning also directed him to Hayman's, but Simmons lingered in Lanning's shop and eventually purchased another knife almost identical to the one he had just left in the taxi. He never did manage to reach Hayman's.

Weymouth locals watched as Simmons's behaviour became ever more bizarre. On one occasion he was observed walking out of the yacht club and slamming the door behind him, only to do an immediate about turn and go back inside again. He repeated this sequence of actions over and over again, until the watchers tired of looking at him and went off to do something else, leaving him still going in and out, in and out, in and out . . .

Simmon's preoccupation with Hettie Stephens's alleged wrongdoings became an obsession, related in detail to anyone who was prepared to listen to him. Most people ignored him, including his wife, but others went to the Grahams with what they had been told, eventually forcing Percy Graham to approach Frances Simmons on the street and ask her to get her husband to stop blackening the girl's character.

Embarrassed, Frances agreed to have word with her husband, but she didn't get the chance. It came to the notice of Archie Graham that Simmons was spreading rumours about Hettie and he confronted Simmons in the wine bar and told him in no uncertain terms that it must stop. Simmons admitted that he had been wrong and promised that he wouldn't say another word against Hettie.

By now, in a very fragile mental state and almost totally unable to sleep, the slightest irritation was sufficient to send Simmons over the top. When a member brought a dog into the yacht club, against the rules, he screamed and ranted like a lunatic. He was more convinced than ever that the top of his head was coming off and poor Frances had to spend hours holding it in place for him.

Still unable to go to Hayman's shop to buy ammunition himself, he eventually sent the hall porter from the yacht club to buy some for him, then attempted to load the gun by pushing the bullets into the trigger aperture, throwing a tantrum when they wouldn't fit and sending the porter back to the shop to exchange the ‘wrongly sized' bullets. The porter wisely got some instructions on how to load the gun and passed them on to Simmons. Between them, they managed to load the weapon and Simmons fired a test shot in the table tennis room of the club.

On 27 March 1902, Simmons asked the night porter at the yacht club to deliver a note to Hettie Stephens for him, stressing that he should wait for a reply and not to return without one. The porter duly obliged. The note asked Hettie to meet Simmons so that they could discuss the things he had been saying about her and, presumably anxious to clear her name, Hettie sent back a note agreeing to meet him in the bar that evening.

She was due for a tea break at 6 p.m. but when that time came, her replacement had not yet arrived, so she continued to look after the bar. Simmons walked in and immediately began, what looked to other customers, an argument with Hettie. They could not discern exactly what was being said but, on one occasion, Hettie raised her voice in anger and the words ‘Not after what you said about me' were heard.

When her relief, Edith Hill, arrived at 6.15 p.m., the argument seemed to have run its course. Edith heard Hettie tell Simmons, ‘I don't want anything else to do with you, Mr Simmons', at which point Hettie went to the small cloakroom at the end of the bar, got her coat and put it on ready to leave.

As Hettie walked across the bar towards the door, three shots rang out. Edith screamed as Hettie fell instantly to the floor, having taken all three bullets in the face. Then, as Edith and the bar customers looked on in horror, Simmons put the barrel of the revolver into his mouth and pulled the trigger once more. The bullet came straight out through Simmons's cheek, before embedding itself in the ceiling of the bar.

The police and a doctor were sent for and the customers in the bar courageously tackled Simmons who meekly passed his gun to one of them, saying, ‘Don't fret. I've done what I intended to do and I'll wait quietly until the police arrive.'

Simmons was taken to Weymouth police station, where a doctor was called to attend to his injuries. It was Dr Wetherall and Simmons greeted him like an old friend. He was apparently unable to comprehend that he had done anything wrong, joking when the doctor was forced to shave off part of his moustache to stitch his wounds and asking if the doctor would mind going back to the wine bar for him, as he seemed to have left his false teeth there. (The teeth were later found scattered all around the bar, having been shattered by the bullet.)

Although Simmons stood trial for the murder of Hettie Stephens, it was obvious to all concerned that he was certifiably insane. The trial opened at Dorchester in June 1902 before Mr Justice Bucknill and lasted for three days. Having heard all the evidence put before them, the jury quickly returned a verdict of ‘Guilty', but with the rider that Simmons was not responsible for his actions at the time of the shooting by reason of insanity. He was ordered to be detained at an asylum during his Majesty's pleasure.