Some background
I couldn’t really spot where this might fit in. It’s officially a solved and closed case as two people were convicted for it but both have always strongly denied any involvement. Hence, it doesn’t really meet the criteria of a Cold Case as there is no current investigation relating to it.
After starting a thread asking where to post this it was suggested I put it here and let the mods move it as appropriate.
So, there was a very famous murder in my part of the world in the 1960's. Two men were convicted of it, given life and served twelve years for it. They always protested their innocence - and one who died recently had, I think, a £50K reward for anyone who could provide evidence to get his...
www.websleuths.com
One of the convicted men, Michael Luvaglio (I’ll link to his website in the post), strenuously denies any involvement and did so right up to his death in 2020. He had a reward fund of at least £30,000 for information being made available which would quash his conviction.
A good history of the case and his attempts to have his conviction overturned are here:
'One Armed Bandit' murderer who inspired Get Carter film dies aged 83
This is a very famous case around this part of the world, North East England as it was shocking at the time and stoked fears of the rise of organised crime and Mafia-like gangs setting up in the region due to the Italian names of some of those involved; the film Get Carter starring Michael Caine was based on a book called Jack’s Return Home set in Sheffield. The film adaptation was, allegedly, moved to Newcastle on the back of this case. The big house used in it was, apparently actually owned by the guy, Vince Landa, who was the director of the company at the heart of things.
The song “5:15am” by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits was inspired by the discovery of Mr Sibbet’s body in the back of his Jaguar MkX car by a miner walking home from work one morning.
It’s a case I’ve always been fascinated with as it’s local to me (although it happened before I was born). More than that, though, there is a personal connection for me as several of my family, specifically my father and grandfather, knew everyone involved, including Mr Sibbett. I’m a firearms dealer too so there’s professional curiosity here for me as well
The facts.
At 5:15am on 5th January 1967 a miner walking home from night shift came across a new Jaguar Mk-X car parked under Pesspool Bridge in the village of South Hetton in County Durham. One of the rear windows had been shot out and the body of Angus Sibbett, a cash collector for a local fruit machine company, Social Club Services, was lying across the rear seats shot to death.
Gambling had been liberalised a few years previously. Part of that was the legalising of ruit machines which became to be known as “One Armed Bandits”, resulting in this case being known as “The One Armed Bandit Murder”. These machines quickly became extremely popular all over the country but especially in the Social Clubs and Working Men’s clubs of the industrial north. Almost over night they started generating huge amounts of essentially untraceable cash and a lot of people got very rich very quickly. Social Club Services, based in Sunderland but essentially run via meetings in bars and night clubs in Newcastle, was essentially the only game in town and supplied the vast majority of the local clubs with machines. The company was run by a chap called Vince Landa – who was actually the brother of Michael Luvaglio (he Anglicised his name to Landa seemingly to distance himself from any suggestion that he was involved with organised crime, apparently.)
THE former boss of a North-East fruit machine empire has died.
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk
The police quickly homed in on two of Angus’ colleagues, Dennis Stafford and Michael Luvaglio. Both from London, Stafford was a well known criminal having escaped from prisons on a couple of occasions and was known to be criminally involved with firearms. Luvaglio had no criminal connections, other than being friends with Stafford, obviously.
The basis of the prosecution’s case was that they murdered Mr Sibbett by luring him into a late night meeting. The motive for the murder, allegedly, was that he was skimming money from the cash he collected – allegedly £1,000 a week – which in 1967 was a huge amount! The evidence for that was his new Jag which was a seriously expensive vehicle at the time.
Stafford and Luvaglio have consistently denied any involvement and maintain that they were all friends. The main evidence in their defence is that it would have been virtually impossible for them to have committed the murder in the very tight period of time they had available. I won’t go into great detail as all the evidence is here on Michael Luvaglio’s website:
villain-or-victim.com
In the very good book Mark-X by local author Steven Lytton (sorry I can’t link directly to any of this info but it’s in the book) the motive which the prosecution claimed for the murder is effectively destroyed by the real facts. The company Social Club Services, although run by Vince Landa was, in fact, jointly owned between him, Luvaglio, Stafford and Sibbett.
The four had advanced plans to float the company on the London Stock Exchange. This was, apparently, going to net them in excess of two million pounds – each! A million quid, let alone two, was a staggering amount in 1967! The MK-X which Angus was found dead in cost £2,082 on release in 1965 and that would have been an expensive car then.
The Victim | Villain Or Victim
At the time of his death Angus was a partner in SCS and the
company was about to be floated on the stock exchange.
Valued at £8million it would have made them all very wealthy men.
Risking the stock market flotation by getting involved with a horrendous murder would have been completely irrational. Also, why would you bother if he really was skimming the takings – whatever he was taking was insignificant in relation to the rewards of floating the company. Besides, he was a part owner so if he was stealing he was only stealing his own money!
The two allegedly chased his Jag with Vince Landa’s E-Type (he was in Spain at the time), ran him off the road and shot him. Two very expensive cars racing through working-class pit villages would definitely have aroused suspicion somewhere along the sixteen mile journey from Newcastle.
As a point of note, one of the cars, the E-Type still exists.
Lot 87 - 1966 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 Roadster
Anyway, I could go on and on as there is loads to discuss here – and I do know of a piece of evidence which I was told exists but I have never heard mentioned in any of the books or documentaries on the case – but given that I’m not sure if this is even appropriate here I’ll let the mods decide the thread’s fate before I go on.
The Villain or Victim website (Michael Luvaglio’s) is a huge store of information on the case.
villain-or-victim.com
