UK UK - Alistair Wilson, 30, murdered at home, Nairn, Scotland, 28 Nov 2004
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Yes they were bigger than they are today and more obvious to callers.
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It's certainly possible (or even likely) that the killer was an amateur paid a small amount by someone involved in the planning dispute to pay a visit and try to intimidate the victim, and that things unexpectedly escalated.
But people pushing the 'hitman' theory uniformly tie it to his banking career which is a hard nope and doesn't make sense in any way.
Veronica wasn't the only witness in the house that night. There was also her 2 boys and her dad. Maybe they wouldn't be aware of the detail of conversations between Veronica and Alastair but would be able to confirm the movements of everyone.
From what I've read the boys were in bed and her dad was in an upstairs room and didnsee or hear anything. How accurate that is I don’t know.
No. I do not believe it is related to his banking career but the scandal at the HBOS Reading branch in the noughties says it cannot be entirely discounted. In that case a local branch scammed many businesses and was only exposed after the Lloyds takeover, having been able to get away with it for years and with no knowledge beyond the branch.
Somewhat reminiscent of the murder of Joy Hewer in a tower block in London in 1995.
In this case, the killer seems to have left the block via the rear exit, where the CCTV wasn't working.
I think the Wilsons’ children were about 2 and 4 at the time, so almost zero chance they remember anything, imo. Veronica’s father was apparently in the flat, in what looks like a loft conversion, so it’s doubtful he’d have heard anything from up there and he’d only have seen something if he’d been at a window at the right time.
Maybe giving Alistair the envelope - or taking it back - was partly a way to get him to fully open the door and step close to the killer, so catch him offguard and easier to aim at vital organs.
Maybe the killer choked the first time, but waited for his second chance.
Maybe Alistair had a secret from his wife and just didn't connect it with the man at the door.
Maybe the killer(s) were practising on an 'unimportant' person...
JMO
DBM - going to check my comment with the mods
Last edited:
SteveH
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I believe the cops drew up e-fits but decided not to release them. In episode 6 of Fiona Walker's podcast The Doorstep Murder DS Gary Cunningham says that if they released one e-fit they would have to release them all, which would result in confusion.
www.radio-uk.co.uk
In my comment of 26 August this year I linked an article by the ever reliable David James Smith:
He says a couple of witnesses saw the killer:
"Two witnesses came forward to say they had seen two men talking on the doorstep of 10 Crescent Road around the time of the shooting. That must have been Alistair and his killer. They could not say much about the suspect, except he was 5ft 7in or 5ft 8in tall and possibly wearing dark clothing. But maybe the killer had also seen them, and that was why he had not shot Alistair straight away. Perhaps, also, it explained the use of the envelope as a decoy, an excuse if challenged — "I'm just delivering this" — and possibly a means of distracting Alistair before he was shot."
But in his book To Catch A Killer Peter Bleksley had written:
"It must have been hugely frustrating to the police that no living person apart from Veronica Wilson could testify to seeing the baseball-cap wearing gunman on Crescent Road."
David Wilson and his sidekick Nate believe the killing was something to do with Alistair's job at the bank but as Smith points out he had a fairly lowly position and was so frustrated with this that he decided to leave.
"Though he had been described in the press as a bank manager, Alistair's job as a new-business manager had not apparently given him much power. In reality, he was merely processing business-loan applications for others, higher up the chain, to decide. Feeling undervalued by the bank and thwarted in his ambitions, he had begun looking for work elsewhere and found a new job with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which he would have started a fortnight later, had he lived."
Wilson's ex-colleague at Brum City University Dr Mohammed Rahman agrees with Wilson that the purpose of the envelope was to "send a message". What this message might have been he doesn't say.
From my comment of 30 August, discussing the Walker podcast:
"Fiona Walker asked him why the hitman didn't kill him the minute he came to the door. He completely ducked the question.
Dr Rahman said he believes the envelope given to Mr Wilson was symbolic, and the name Paul was intended to be circulated in the media to send a message to others.
He said: “Whoever commissioned the hit would know that the envelope would be mentioned in the media and therefore it could have been used to send out a subliminal message to any wider connections to Alistair’s case.""
In other words he says ABSOLUTELY nothing.
Oh, and he also said: “From what we know, the hitman left no forensic evidence at the crime scene. The fact that he left no evidence in an open environment which he had limited control over demonstrates his advanced awareness levels of forensic science...For me it also demonstrates his competency."
He doesn't seem to realise that the paramedics and the milling crowd of onlookers completely compromised the crime scene (compare Jill Dando).
From what Fiona Walker says the police kept a very tight rein on what Veronica Wilson could say about the murder.
For the best intro to the case see Walker's twenty-odd minute 2022 BBC Scotland programme The Doorstep Murder:
I wonder if Bleksley will release any more info on "his" suspect CH during his speaking tour? I won't be shelling out good money to go into that man's pockets. The info I got from my "informant" was very consistent with what I have been able to find out about this suspect including the fact that his life spiralled downhill after his father died in 2010, resulting in alcoholism and later imprisonment on a drugs offence after he had moved from Nairn to Aberdeen. He is a free man now after receiving a thirteen month sentence in 2023.
The Doorstep Murder
Listen to The Doorstep Murder podcast by BBC Radio Scotland. The best podcasts in the UK.
www.radio-uk.co.uk
In my comment of 26 August this year I linked an article by the ever reliable David James Smith:
He says a couple of witnesses saw the killer:
"Two witnesses came forward to say they had seen two men talking on the doorstep of 10 Crescent Road around the time of the shooting. That must have been Alistair and his killer. They could not say much about the suspect, except he was 5ft 7in or 5ft 8in tall and possibly wearing dark clothing. But maybe the killer had also seen them, and that was why he had not shot Alistair straight away. Perhaps, also, it explained the use of the envelope as a decoy, an excuse if challenged — "I'm just delivering this" — and possibly a means of distracting Alistair before he was shot."
But in his book To Catch A Killer Peter Bleksley had written:
"It must have been hugely frustrating to the police that no living person apart from Veronica Wilson could testify to seeing the baseball-cap wearing gunman on Crescent Road."
David Wilson and his sidekick Nate believe the killing was something to do with Alistair's job at the bank but as Smith points out he had a fairly lowly position and was so frustrated with this that he decided to leave.
"Though he had been described in the press as a bank manager, Alistair's job as a new-business manager had not apparently given him much power. In reality, he was merely processing business-loan applications for others, higher up the chain, to decide. Feeling undervalued by the bank and thwarted in his ambitions, he had begun looking for work elsewhere and found a new job with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which he would have started a fortnight later, had he lived."
Wilson's ex-colleague at Brum City University Dr Mohammed Rahman agrees with Wilson that the purpose of the envelope was to "send a message". What this message might have been he doesn't say.
From my comment of 30 August, discussing the Walker podcast:
"Fiona Walker asked him why the hitman didn't kill him the minute he came to the door. He completely ducked the question.
Dr Rahman said he believes the envelope given to Mr Wilson was symbolic, and the name Paul was intended to be circulated in the media to send a message to others.
He said: “Whoever commissioned the hit would know that the envelope would be mentioned in the media and therefore it could have been used to send out a subliminal message to any wider connections to Alistair’s case.""
In other words he says ABSOLUTELY nothing.
Oh, and he also said: “From what we know, the hitman left no forensic evidence at the crime scene. The fact that he left no evidence in an open environment which he had limited control over demonstrates his advanced awareness levels of forensic science...For me it also demonstrates his competency."
He doesn't seem to realise that the paramedics and the milling crowd of onlookers completely compromised the crime scene (compare Jill Dando).
From what Fiona Walker says the police kept a very tight rein on what Veronica Wilson could say about the murder.
For the best intro to the case see Walker's twenty-odd minute 2022 BBC Scotland programme The Doorstep Murder:
I wonder if Bleksley will release any more info on "his" suspect CH during his speaking tour? I won't be shelling out good money to go into that man's pockets. The info I got from my "informant" was very consistent with what I have been able to find out about this suspect including the fact that his life spiralled downhill after his father died in 2010, resulting in alcoholism and later imprisonment on a drugs offence after he had moved from Nairn to Aberdeen. He is a free man now after receiving a thirteen month sentence in 2023.
It would be a more convincing theory if the envelope had been left behind.
IMO it's a possibility to be contemplated, since there are cases like that (eg messages carved into bullets), but I don't understand how anyone can express such certainty and conviction, when they don't have any evidence.
IMO the worst thing police can do when investigating, is to form a fixed opinion about the crime.. IMO they must keep a wide open mind to where-ever the evidence leads.
JMO
Professor Moriarty
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