Solicitor's wife Adrienne Hill was bludgeoned to death by someone she thought was a potential buyer for the family home, Adrienne Hill - a well- respected member of Cliftonwood community - made an appointment with death when she agreed to show a prospective , purchaser around her home on Bristol's steep Constitution Hill. For, having reached the attic, he turned on the solicitor's wife, 49, horrifically battering her to death with 15 blows from a nine-inch long rusty iron bar which he had found in the property. It was later recovered by police from under a bush on nearby Brandon Hill.
Her body was discovered by her 51-year-old husband Ron, who worked for the Bristol law firm Sansbury Hill, when he returned from work at 6.45pm, only 24 hours after 53-year-old Betty Woodland had been found murdered in her home in Montreal Avenue, Horfield. Police investigating both killings, however, said that they were not connecting the two.
Police advised all firms to check that names left by those persons wishing to view houses were bone fide before giving them the addresses of properties to see.
Gordon Bennett, senior partner with C.J. Hole, the firm of estate agents which was handling the sale of the Hill's home said, in a statement: 'We always accompany potential buyers when the clients are elderly, when the property is furnished or when we are specially asked to do so by the client. In general we try to accompany as many people as we can. 'But with our firm dealing with between 7,000 and 8,000 people looking for properties and with 6,000 to 7,000 homes on our books through our computer links - we cannot accompany every visit.
There has not been another incident in the area in living memory A tragedy such as this makes us all the more aware of our responsibilities.' A spokesman for agents Lalonde Bros and Parham said: 'We are now much more cautious than we ever were. If we have the least suspicion about someone, or we do not know them, we take them for an accompanied viewing. We are much more alert than we used to be.' Murders of women walking alone through lonely streets at night and where personal relationships go wrong are frightening enough, but at least most people can afford to feel that they are not at risk.
But the murder of a women doing what hundreds others must have done that day - showing a buyer around your home - made people feel extremely vulnerable. Mr and Mrs Hill, who had lived in their home for seven years, were hardworking members of the Bellevue Crescent Community Association, set up in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee. A neighbour told a Bristol Post reporter that Mr Hill had had heart trouble and the couple had planned to retire to a smaller house. They had been looking at properties in Devon and their home - on one of the steepest hills in Bristol - had been on the market for about three months. Mrs Hill, described by friends as having 'a heart of gold', had helped to organise events for local elderly people and youngsters. The chairman of the Community Association, Frank Blackmore, said that everyone had been deeply shocked by her death. 'Both she and Ron would work around the clock to help organise events and never complained,' he said, adding, 'Mrs Hill was a wonderful, caring person for whom nothing was too much trouble.' And her local milkman Albert Matthews echoed those sentiments. 'She was a smashing woman,' he said, 'and all the old folk around here who she helped so much will miss her terribly '
At first the 85 murder squad detectives, led by Avon and Somerset's DS Alan Elliott, were at a loss to find the killer, who had given agents C.J. Hole on College Green a false name, PR Shenley, and false Surrey address and telephone number. It was through the agents that he had made an appointment to visit the Hill's house at noon. DS Elliott said that the victim must have struggled with her attacker - although no sounds of fighting or screaming had been heard - and that he was probably injured and blood stained. 'It was a brutal attack,' he added. But just 12 days later a 31-year-old Plymouth man, William Wood, was arrested at London's Victoria station, after allegedly telephoning the police in the West saying that he wanted to give himself up.
He told police that he was innocent of the killing. He was not a violent man, he told them, just a con man - it was his partner in crime, 33-year-old Easton man, Michael Williams, who had done it. When the case came to Crown Court in December 1984 both men were accused of murder, but blaming each other, although it could not be proved that Williams was in the house at the time. At the end of a retrial, and after seven hours deliberation by the jury Wood, described in court as 'ruthless and violent', was jailed for life with the recommendation that he serve at least 30 years. Williams, who denied entering the Hills' house, was sentenced to 30 months after admitting conspiracy to steal and assisting Wood after the murder. It came to light that he had had 17 convictions since 1965 and had served three prison terms.
After the verdict was announced Wood glared at the jury, shook his head and then lunged at Williams. 'You bastard,' Wood shouted,-'tell them you murdered her.' ' No, I didn't,' Williams replied. Heavily- built Wood then had to be restrained by three prison officers whilst Williams, who always claimed that he was watching squirrels on Brandon Hill while his partner murdered Mrs Hill, was taken to the public benches, where he broke down, sobbing.
Please feel free to add your own comments to the Guestbook or Forum
Memories of Bristol over the past 100 years including 3000 photographs on-line
This non commercial 'hobby' site, has been evolving and expanding on line since 2001 and is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only.
