Who put Bella in the Wych-Elm (redux)
October 23, 2016 10:55 AM Subscribe
June 2016; a small cardboard sign appears by the A456 Hagley Road, near Birmingham UK. It reads 'who put Bella in the wych elm'. A few new twists have recently been added to a 73 year old murder mystery, including a connection to the last man executed in the tower of London.
Who was 'Bella', who murdered her, and who put her body into the hollow of a tree in the Hagley wood sometimes before October 1941? It's a series of questions that repeatedly get asked: most recently on the blue back in 2008.
The basics of the story haven't changed since then: four boys discover the body in April 1943, while poaching; cause of death is determined as likely asphyxiation (possibly with an item of her own clothing); no positive identification can be made.
In 1944 the first graffito appeared on Upper Dean Street, in the city centre, asking 'who put Bella down the wych-elm', and from the 1970s onwards (most recently in 1999), similar phrases have been written on the Wychbury Obelisk, a folly built by the family that owned the Hagley Estate.
The identity of Bella has been in flux: possibly a sex worker who had a territory on Hagley road; possibly an unknown woman murdered by a man who was institutionalised because he 'saw women staring from trees'; possibly, according to an anonymous letter written in 1953, the centre of a spy ring; or even, because her hand had been detached from her body, the victim of a Satanic ritual murder.
What is new since 2008 is a name: Clara Bauerle. Declassified MI5 files make reference to a known Gestpo agent, Joseph Jakobs, discovered with a photo of Bauerle, an actress, in his pocket, and who apparently alleged that she was his girlfriend, and was scheduled to parachute into Britain in 1941. Jacobs was the last man to be executed in the Tower of London. Except, of course, nothing could be that straightforward. For one thing, further digging shows that Ms Bauerle was alive and well after 1941, and actually died in a Berlin hospital in December 1942.
But although this name may have been a dead end, the revived interest in Bella has led to another twist: she's missing, and so is her autopsy report.
In a half hour long programme for the BBC, first broadcast in 2013 (so before some of the checks to the Bauerle theory) comic Steve Punt managed to interview the 101-year old forensic biologist involved in the original investigation; while he retained his memories, the laboratory records have disappeared, and Bella's skeleton was apparently passed to the University of Birmingham, who have no record of her fate.
A new book, written by a local councillor, is on the way, and may be coming to a movie theatre near you. But 75 years after a young woman died and was placed in a wych elm, we're no closer to knowing who she was; we know so little, we still call her by a name that first appeared sprayed, anonymously, on a wall.
Who was 'Bella', who murdered her, and who put her body into the hollow of a tree in the Hagley wood sometimes before October 1941? It's a series of questions that repeatedly get asked: most recently on the blue back in 2008.
The basics of the story haven't changed since then: four boys discover the body in April 1943, while poaching; cause of death is determined as likely asphyxiation (possibly with an item of her own clothing); no positive identification can be made.
In 1944 the first graffito appeared on Upper Dean Street, in the city centre, asking 'who put Bella down the wych-elm', and from the 1970s onwards (most recently in 1999), similar phrases have been written on the Wychbury Obelisk, a folly built by the family that owned the Hagley Estate.
The identity of Bella has been in flux: possibly a sex worker who had a territory on Hagley road; possibly an unknown woman murdered by a man who was institutionalised because he 'saw women staring from trees'; possibly, according to an anonymous letter written in 1953, the centre of a spy ring; or even, because her hand had been detached from her body, the victim of a Satanic ritual murder.
What is new since 2008 is a name: Clara Bauerle. Declassified MI5 files make reference to a known Gestpo agent, Joseph Jakobs, discovered with a photo of Bauerle, an actress, in his pocket, and who apparently alleged that she was his girlfriend, and was scheduled to parachute into Britain in 1941. Jacobs was the last man to be executed in the Tower of London. Except, of course, nothing could be that straightforward. For one thing, further digging shows that Ms Bauerle was alive and well after 1941, and actually died in a Berlin hospital in December 1942.
But although this name may have been a dead end, the revived interest in Bella has led to another twist: she's missing, and so is her autopsy report.
In a half hour long programme for the BBC, first broadcast in 2013 (so before some of the checks to the Bauerle theory) comic Steve Punt managed to interview the 101-year old forensic biologist involved in the original investigation; while he retained his memories, the laboratory records have disappeared, and Bella's skeleton was apparently passed to the University of Birmingham, who have no record of her fate.
A new book, written by a local councillor, is on the way, and may be coming to a movie theatre near you. But 75 years after a young woman died and was placed in a wych elm, we're no closer to knowing who she was; we know so little, we still call her by a name that first appeared sprayed, anonymously, on a wall.
First I've heard of this; I do find it a tad odd that the 'most plausible explanation' involves a German actress-turned-spy parachuting into the country, and not the scenario with the local prostitute and the guy in the insane asylum who has visions of a dead woman staring at him from a tree.
posted by mannequito at 4:19 PM on October 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by mannequito at 4:19 PM on October 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
Druids. Clearly.
posted by fshgrl at 5:27 PM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 5:27 PM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
re. the local sex worker - that was dismissed because her clothes and her (fake?) wedding ring didn't seem like the sort of outfit local street workers went for; the guy who was institutionalised died before Bella's body was found, and his apparent confession was revealed so long after the event that it all seemed a bit... coincidental. But there's more in the Punt PI podcast on that).
posted by AFII at 11:24 PM on October 23, 2016
posted by AFII at 11:24 PM on October 23, 2016
Also, the tree is no more...
They say "it succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease", but I have my doubts.
Thanks for the post.
posted by Mister Bijou at 11:24 PM on October 23, 2016
They say "it succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease", but I have my doubts.
Thanks for the post.
posted by Mister Bijou at 11:24 PM on October 23, 2016
The tree was hacked to pieces to get the body out so it likely didn't survive beyond 1943.
posted by AFII at 4:22 AM on October 24, 2016
posted by AFII at 4:22 AM on October 24, 2016
The Podcast "Casefile True Crime" did an episode on this case in January... Not sure if it covers any different ground than this post, though.
posted by Jacob G at 6:19 AM on October 24, 2016
posted by Jacob G at 6:19 AM on October 24, 2016
I heard about this in this podcast from Casefiles. Stay around for the other podcasts on the site, they're quite good.
edit: oh sorry I didn't notice that was already mentioned. But there's the link to it.
posted by adept256 at 6:07 PM on October 24, 2016
edit: oh sorry I didn't notice that was already mentioned. But there's the link to it.
posted by adept256 at 6:07 PM on October 24, 2016
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(And, this being Worcestershire, I was sure that this was a Wordshore post until I got to the bottom. Nice one matching Wordshore's quality, AFII.)
posted by ambrosen at 12:24 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]