Alfred Arthur Rouse - who attempted to fake his own death–world history and facts
Alfred Arthur Rouse - who attempted to fake his own death–world history and facts.
Alfred Arthur Rouse (6 April 1894 – 10 March 1931) was a British murderer, known as the Blazing Car Murderer, who was convicted and subsequently hanged at Bedford Gaol for the November 1930 murder of an unknown man in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire.
Rouse's crime became known as the "Blazing Car Murder" due to the fact Rouse, seeking to fabricate his own death, burned to death an unknown hitchhiker whom he had rendered unconscious inside his car.
36 year old Rouse made legal history by being convicted of murder even though no one knew who the victim was.
He had suffered a head and other injuries during the First World War, causing a personality disorder which left him with an enormous sexual appetite. He had girlfriends all over the country and had fathered several children with them.
It is thought that to avoid paying child support he intended to fake his own death. By 1930 he was working as a commercial traveller (salesman) for Martins & Co. who manufactured garters and braces.
The crime took place in the early hours of Thursday, November the 6th 1930 on Hardingstone Lane off London Road in Northampton. It is thought that the murder took place in Hardingstone village and then the car driven out of the village with the body in it.
Rouse had a Morris Minor car but told a subsequent witness that it had been stolen on the Great North Road that night. He doused the car with petrol and then set it on fire. As he left the scene Rouse met Alfred Brown and William Bailey who had noticed the blaze.
They asked Rouse what was on fire and he said he thought it was a bonfire. The police were called and were able to identify the car as Rouse’s from the registration plate (MU 1468 - see photo).
He initially travelled to South Wales to stay with one of his girlfriends, Phyllis Jenkins, but returned to London by motor coach where he was arrested at Victoria Coach Station by Detective Sergeant Robert Skelley.
He later told Skelley who interviewed him at Hammersmith police station “I am glad it is over. I was going to Scotland Yard. I am responsible. I have had no sleep.”
The unidentified victim was buried in Hardingstone churchyard with a simple oak cross marking the grave. A new wooden cross bearing the inscription “In memory of an unknown man. Died Nov 6th 1930” was placed in the churchyard in 2022.
Rouse was tried at Northampton on the 26th - the 31st of January 1931 before Mr. Justice Talbot. Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Home Office pathologist, testified in court that the victim had died from shock and smoke inhalation caused by the fire and had not been struck with a mallet which the police found at the scene.
However, Dr. Hardy Wyatt had found what he considered to be a human hair on the mallet, which was displayed in court with a magnifying glass showing the hair. Dr. Wyatt further testified that the body was in the car when the fire was started.
It took the jury just 75 minutes to reach their verdict. Rouse’s appeal was heard before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Avory and Humphreys and was dismissed on the 23rd of February 1931.
He was hanged at Bedford prison at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 10th of March 1931 by Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by Thomas Phillips, without identifying his victim. Pierrepoint gave Rouse a drop of 6’ 3” for his 180 lb. body weight.
Several hundred people, many females, waited outside the prison to see the notices of execution posted, which they were at 8.15 a.m.
The inquest was held before Mr. Gregory Whyley, the County Coroner and the prison doctor, Dr. G. M. Davis testified that the sentence had been carried out expeditiously and humanely (preferred Prison Commission phrases.) This case got huge attention from the press.
It was reported that Rouse had made a condemned cell confession in a letter that he wrote to the Daily Sketch newspaper, in which he stated that two women whom he had got pregnant were pursuing him for child support and that he wanted to “start over” with a now life.
The victim was “a down and out” that he had met at the Swan and Pyramid pub in Whetstone High Road in north London. He bought him some drinks and while he was dozing off in the car, strangled him.
He then doused the car in petrol and lit it. He admitted loosening the petrol pipe joint at the carburettor to make it look like an accident. There had been discussion of this at the trial as to whether this could have caused the blaze.
Modern research and DNA testing has not been able to reveal the victim’s true identity. The family of 23 year old William Briggs, who disappeared around the same time, gave samples for DNA testing but there was no match.
Another strange coincidence was the execution by guillotine on the 3rd of May 1931 in Bavaria Germany of Kurt Erich Tetzner, who was dubbed the “German Rouse”. Tetzner had committed a very similar murder and it is thought that the British Rouse may have read about his trial and got the idea from him.
Tetzner referred to Rouse as his “British pupil”.
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