Michael Eddowes

Michael H. B. Eddowes (1903—1992) was a British lawyer, author and investigator.

Eddowes came from a family of barristers and built a large law practice specializing in divorce.

Notable cases

Eddowes' first famous case involved Timothy Evans, who was hanged in 1950 for the murder of his daughter. Eddowes wrote a book on this case called The Man On Your Conscience in which he argued that the real culprit was serial killer John Christie. It was because of Eddowes' efforts and those of other such as Ludovic Kennedy and Sydney Silverman that the case was reinvestigated and Evans was issued a posthumous pardon. The outcry over this case helped to lead to the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom. Curiously, many years later his son John published a book which argued against his father's claims that Evans had been innocent.[1] "A disreputable crank," Eddowes also involved himself in the Jack Profumo scandal of 1963.[2]

Eddowes also wrote a book called The Oswald File in which he argued that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the real killer of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He argued that the real assassin was a Soviet impostor whose first name was Alec. Eddowes asserted there were differences between Oswald and the autopsy of the assassin per formed by Earl Rose.[3] He pointed out that Oswald was 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) in height according to his U.S. Marine Corps records, and that the Dallas pathologists said the assassin they autopsied was 5 ft 9 in (175 cm). In his book Eddowes cites several times after Oswald's return from the Soviet Union when he gave his height as 5 ft 11 in if asked but when he was actually measured he was inches shorter. The corpse also had a large scar on the wrist; Eddowes claimed that Oswald had no such scar. Eddowes pointed out that, as a child, Oswald had a mastoid operation that left him with a depression in the flesh behind one of his ears as well as a dime sized hole in his skull; he claimed that the corpse of the man Jack Ruby killed had no such depression or hole in the skull. Eddowes sought action in Texas courts and the body was exhumed in 1981. The body, in an advanced state of decomposition, proved to be Oswald.[4]

Eddowes died of a burst aneurysm in 1992.

References

  1. ↑ Eddowes, John (1995). The Two Killers of Rillington Place. London: Warner Books. ISBN 0-7515-1285-0.
  2. ↑ Richard Davenport-Hines, An English Affair: sex, class and power in the Age of Profumo,HarperPress, 2013, p. 276
  3. ↑ "Body Was Oswald's, Medical Man Says". Observer–Reporter (Washington, Pennsylvania). AP. November 12, 1979. p. C-8. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ W. Tracy Parnell, "The Exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald and the Norton Report", 2003

External links