Man battered with hammer and stabbed stunned gay and church communities
Battered with a hammer and stabbed in the back, who killed Keith Burgess remains a mystery nearly 30 years on
''A savage attack on a railway steward left both the gay and church communities stunned and shocked.
Keith Burgess had been battered with a ball-headed hammer and stabbed in the back while at his Cllifton home.''
''But what baffled friends of the 38-year-old, who they described as quiet and likeable, was why a killer would pick him.
It was Sunday, December 17, 1989 when neighbour Betty Taylor went to feed Keith’s cat, believing he was at work.
What she discovered at his basement flat in Duchess Road was him lying in a pool of blood after he had been the victim of a truly savage attack.
Detectives quickly got to work and very soon had a picture of a possible suspect.''
''Keith, originally from Norfolk, but who had lived in Bristol for 12 years, left church at around 12.30pm and walked to the nearby Alma Tavern pub for a drink before getting home at 1pm.
Exactly what happened next was unclear, but hours later he was discovered murdered with the weapons used to kill him never found despite police scouring the neighbourhood.''''Neighbours were quick to talk to police and three people reported seeing a scruffy looking man in a bobble hat hanging around his flat between 12.30pm and 12.40pm.
Just days after the murder a sketch drawing of the white man, described as between 5ft 10in and 6ft, aged in his early 20s and of slender bill, was put out by police.
They said he had “dark hair, sunken cheeks and a pointed jaw with a beard or stubble” and was wearing “dark rimmed glasses, a knitted bobble hat of two colours, a dark anorak and off-white training shoes”.
