The Disturbing & Sinister Case of Reginald Birchall

today we start our story in England and finish in Canada so sit back as we go to the late 19th century [Music] Reginald Burchell was born on the 25th of May 1866 in the northern English town of Accrington which is about 23 miles north for the city of Manchester he was a youngest son of the Reverend Joseph virtua who was a rector of a local church his father had been educated at Oxford University and was keen that all of his children should receive a good education Reginald spent the first twelve years of his life being educated at home before his father sent him to board at the very well-respected razzil school he proved to be a good scholar and enjoyed being with other pupils and prided himself on doing well in his classes his time at the school however was cut short as just over a year after he started at Rozzell his father died and Reginald was sent to study at a less expensive school 225 miles away in the southern town of reading he spent the next five years at the school but the educational standards were not as high as his father would have wanted or his previous school had strived to achieve and the young man started to neglect his studies he seemed to prefer to spend time in public houses rather than in the classroom Reginald hoped to follow in his father's footsteps and study at Oxford University in 1884 he failed the university entrance exam and had to wait until 1885 to retake it the second time he passed an entered Lincoln College Oxford when his father's estate was settled Reginald had inherited 4000 pounds which was to be held in trust until his 25th birthday this meant that while he was studying at Oxford he would not yet have come into the money nevertheless he was a resourceful young man and managed to live well beyond his means this meant that he fell heavily into debt and with pressure from his creditors to pay young Reginald decided to sell his inheritance and pay all the money he owed he managed to receive three thousand pounds for it and although he was able to pay off his debts he was left with very little money or collateral to borrow against and soon afterwards he left university without completing his studies after leaving Oxford he worked in a few places but nothing kept his interest for very long and in 1888 he secretly married Florence Stevenson who was the daughter of an elderly railway executive Florence had come from a very comfortable and stable background and Mary and Reginald meant that she was thrown into a world of debts and deceits he was living beyond his means and was starting to amass more creditors Reginald knew that he could not continue with his cycle of borrowing and spending so in the autumn of 1888 the couple decided to leave their creditors and their way of life behind and start a new life in Canada he invested five hundred pounds into what he thought was a small estates near Woodstock in southwestern Ontario but when he arrived in Canada he discovered that he had actually purchased a small farm a new life also meant a new name and he introduced him and his wife as Lord and Lady Somerset life in Canada however was difficult for Reginald the winter was extremely cold and it was very different to a city life he had been used to his wife would spend the days reading and it did not take long for the couple to decide that this way of life was not for them and in the spring of 1889 after six months in Canada and with many unpaid bills the couple returned to England and reverted back to the name mr. and mrs. Burchell they went to live with Florence's father and Reginald tried his best to hold down employment he managed to secure a position as an advertising executive for a photography company in London's new Bond streets as more companies were emerging and competing in the same markets his employer cut back on staff and Reginald was again out of work Reginald had always wanted to make easy money without really having to work for it and then he received a tip on a horse named Sam fine that was running in the famous race the Epsom Derby which would take place in June 1890 the tip had come from a very trusted incredible person who was associated with a horse racing world an original thought that this could be the answer to all of his problems all he would have to do was place a very large bets and if the horse won he would receive lots of money to pay off his creditors and start to enjoy a comfortable life of his wife there was only one issue with his plan and that was he didn't have any money with which to place a large bet on a horse and was unable to get any credit not being a person who was going to be denied by not having any money he devised a scheme to enable him to raise capital he placed an advertisement in a London newspaper proclaiming to be the owner of a farm in Canada who was looking for a partner to buy into the business for five hundred pounds he then planned to bet the money on the Epsom Derby take his partner to Canada wait until the race was run and then pay back the 500 pounds of interest out of his winnings the advert received a few interested parties but Reginald eventually reached agreements with young men the first was named Fred Benwell who was from Cheltenham and the son of Colonel been well the second was Douglas Pelle who is the son of Reverend Pelle from Safran Walden in Essex Douglas Pelle paid Reginald a hundred and seventy pounds as a first installment towards a 500 but Fred been well took a more cautious approach and said that he would not invest until he had seen the farm this was not the best outcome for Reginald he was not to be deterred and on February the 5th 1890 along with his wife and his two investors Fred been well and Douglas Pelle Reginald boarded a ship and set sail from Liverpool bound for New York the quartet arrived nine days later on February the 14th after resting in New York they all took the train to Buffalo arriving on February the 16th the two investors were very keen to see the farm which was about two hours by train once fed cross the border into Canada there was a complication as Florence announced but she would not go to the farm until improvements have been made to make it more comfortable for her so concerned about her being left alone it was decided but Reginald would go to the farm with Fred and Douglas would stay in Buffalo to accompany Florence early the next day On February 17th 1890 Reginald and Fred left to the hotel and boarded the great trunk train bound for Eastwood a station just east of Woodstock when the train arrived at Eastwood the two men got off and headed for the farm it is unclear if Reginald knew exactly where he was going but they eventually added up in a heavy wooded area called Blenheim swamp suddenly Reginald produced a revolver and a very close range fired two shots a young fred been well he then removed four labels from all the dead man's clothing and took his wallet convinced that he had removed all the evidence of identification from his victim Reginald left Freud's body in the swamp and made his way back to Buffalo that evening Reginald arrived back at the hotel whereas met by the other investor Douglas Pelle who was anxious to ask Fred about the farm but when he did not arrive he asked Reginald what had happened to the young man Reginald told him that Fred wants to stay on the farm the next day Reginald Florence and Douglas all left Buffalo and moved into a hotel in Canada they could not go far as they had to wait for their bags to clear customs Reginald then started to behave somewhat oddly he took Douglas to a few places first they went to Niagara Falls and he encouraged him to move very close to the side of the viewing area and looked down at the water Douglas thinking he was in danger of falling quickly retreated Reginald entered the young man to Niagara Falls suspension bridge he explained that this was the world's first working railway suspension bridge and was an amazing piece of engineering but again when the two gentlemen arrived Reginald was encouraging the young man to get very close to the edge as if he wanted harm to come to him later that day Reginald announced to Douglas and Florence that he had received a message from Fred saying that he was returning to London and requesting that his luggage be sent to the 5th Avenue Hotel in New York on the same day Thursday the 24 February 1890 he wrote to Fred's father Colonel Benwell informing him that his son was very happy with the farm and had signed a deed of partnership he requested that Colonel Benwell send me agreed five hundred pounds to conclude the deal the next day Friday the 21st of February Douglass Pelley was browsing a newspaper when he was startled to read that a body had been found by two local farmers in Glen and swamp the article was a company a picture of the unfortunate man and he immediately thought that it looked remarkably like Fred been well he ran to Reginald and showed in the article at first original deshou the young man that the picture was of someone else and that Fred was on his way to New York but they decided that in order to eliminate any doubts Douglass would travel to New York to see if fred was in the 5th Avenue Hotel and Reginald and Florence would go to Paris Ontario to see if the body was in fact Fred been well when the couple arrived at the Moore tree they were met by Detective John Wilson Murray who was heading up the investigation the detective had been unable to identify the victim despite a thorough examination of the body but he had noted that all the labels on the deceased clothing had been removed when searching the area however the police had found a cigar holder with the inscription FWB which they believed to belong to the deceased reginald confirmed that the body was indeed Fred been well but informed the detective they knew very little about him and that he only met him on the ship while travelling to New York detective Murray continued to question Reginald who confirmed that he had last seen frightened in Agra Falls and made the point of telling him that the young man had arrived with a fair amount of luggage some of which he had left at the hotel when detective Murray had finished speaking to Reginald he thought that his story was not completely true and considered him someone to be further investigated so he contacted the police in Niagara Falls and asked them to keep an eye on him the following day Douglas Paley returned from New York and that evening detective Murray arrived in Niagara Falls he interviewed Douglas and after the interview he arrested reginald Burchell detective Murray had arrested reginald as he did not want him to leave canada before he had had the opportunity to further investigate the case but he also knew but he needed to find more evidence for he had committed the crime police then search freedom original's luggage where they found evidence for concurred with Douglas police statements the two men have known each other long before they left England Douglas Pelle had also told the detective that Reginald and Fred had traveled together to the farm on the 17th of February on the Grand Trunk train the police then interviewed the conductor of the train who remember the two men they also managed to find passengers who traveled in the same carriage and he stated that both men had left the train at Eastwood station another witness stated that he had seen the two men near the swamp and a local farmer came forward and said that he heard two revolver shots at around one o'clock on February the 17th other witnesses told the police that they had seen Reginald at the station on his return journey and one man who saw him said he had previously known him as Lord Somerset it seemed that Reginald movements On February the 17th 1890 had been established and although the evidence may have been circumstantial the Canadian authorities thought it was compelling enough to charge Reginald Burchell with the murder of Fred Benwell [Music] the trial started on the 22nd of September 1890 and amassed press attention not only in Canada but across the United States and Europe the British press were especially fascinated with the case as the accused and the victim were both from prominent families but defense claimed that the evidence was all circumstantial and that the timeline was not correct as a defendant could not have left the train at Eastwood walked to the swamp committed the crime and walked back again in the timeframe suggested by the prosecution the prosecution however showed the court that the timeframe was correct and whoever defendant would have had more than enough time to have walked for four miles to the swamp commit the terrible crime and walk four miles back they also produced many witnesses who saw Reginald on the train the prosecution also produced a letter that have been sent by the accused to the victim's father Colonel Ben well the letter claimed that Fred had signed a deed of partnership and requested that the colonel send the agreed 500 pounds to conclude the deal the letter was not dated but the envelope had a postmark of the 20th of February which was three days after the young man had been murdered when the jury was sent out to consider the case they returned after only one and a half hours to find the defendant reginald Burchell guilty and the judge sentenced him to hang his loyal wife Florence proclaimed her husband's innocence but while in prison awaiting his fate Reginald was approached by a Canadian newspaper who wanted to print his story he knew that there was little chance of a reprieve so thinking that any money made by him writing his account of his life would help his wife in the future he wrote his story some important facts were undoubtedly left out but his writings were a fascinating tale of his life and it was apparent but he considered himself to be an English gentleman on November the 14th 1890 in the Woodstock prison yard Reginald Burchell was hanged between reginald arrest and the trial the horse race of the Epsom Derby took place on the 2nd of June 1890 it was won by the horse named Sam fine [Music] hello everyone and thank you so much for listening as per usual please leave any comments or feedback you may have and I will see you in the next brief case

Channel: Brief Case

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Keywords: Crime, Criminal, true crime, true crime stories, brief case, briefcase, horror stories, historical crime, historical crime stories, historical horror, unsolved crime, unsolved mysteries, british crime, european crime, latin crime, world crime, 19th Century Crime, Reginald Birchall, Canadian Crime, scary, creepy, horror, scary stories, creepy stories, true scary, true creepy, true horror, true crime scary, true crime creepy, true crime horror, reddit scary

Id: oYgseSbOF1c

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 25 2019