Prologue

An introduction to the relaunch of the White House Farm Murders and what can be expected moving forward.

In today’s episode, I am chatting to you about:

• How events at White House Farm unfolded
• The key events in the case of White House Farm and Jeremy Bamber
• How the murders of White House Farm were discovered

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The website is currently under construction, but for now, information about the podcast can be viewed on my website.

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Transcript

 Since the initial launch of Making a Murderer, it would be fair to say that there has been a marked increase in interest in the cases that fall within the grey area of the law. Those that have unusual circumstances where mysteries abound and where questions remain. Whatever the case's current situation.

Most notably, it's the questionable convictions that have dominated the true crime world. Cases tend to be defined by a common set of principles. That someone has been convicted of a crime, but where there tends to be mystery over the drawn conclusion. In these cases, speculation often remains. And it's that which tends to draw the interest.

With everyone and their dog hoping that they can be the one to finally correct the injustice, or to finally solve the case. Very often, these cases make the headlines, garnering mass media attention that galvanizes public emotion. In America, it's Michael Peterson. In Canada, it's Burns and Ruffet. And in the United Kingdom, it's often the source of this podcast.

The case of Jeremy Bamber and the murders at Whitehouse Farm.

True crime is a varied and huge field of interest, with those interested coming in various ages and forms. And while there tends to be a general interest in the entire field, most people have those cases that just stick with them. The kind of cases that wake you up in the middle of the night, tiptoeing across your conscious mind as you attempt to solve the case.

They're the cases that tend to capture our attention, drawing as many questions as the answers we hope we can find. For me, it's always been the strange disappearance of Mara Murray. The eerie images in the Amy Bradley case, or the tragic vanishing of Jennifer Kiersey. It's the missing victims of Israel Keyes, and the debate over the Menendez brothers.

But chief among them has always been this one case, that of Whitehouse Farm. Born in 1990 and living in South Wales, I am as far removed from the murders at Whitehouse Farm as I could possibly be. And yet, for unknown reasons, I've always been interested in this story. As a child, I was always the curious sort, and I've always been fascinated by history and the many mysteries that the past holds.

Over the years, I've delved into numerable cases, but there's always been a handful that have stuck around. And yet, while other notorious cases have held my attention for fleeting moments of time, it was always this one that I came back to. In many ways, this case feels like one of the original in the true crime genre.

As it happened during the expansion of mass media consumption and was followed as intensely as perhaps few others before it. The murders of Whitehouse Farm had all the components that sold tabloids and so it's little surprise that the entire case played out in the media. With tabloids tripping over themselves to sensationalize this already awful case.

With even the funerals being captured in a way that is increasingly difficult to imagine. Perhaps the Times summed it up best when outlining that this case had, quote, all the ingredients of a classic whodunit. A massacre in the English countryside, overbearing parents, an unstable daughter, scheming son, jilted girlfriend, and bungling police, end quote.

Even now, in 2023, a new story is published about this case on a regular basis. A new angle, an alleged new piece of evidence, or a new discussion on the case that has long fascinated Britain. Because much like the aforementioned Burns Ruffet, Dassey, Avery, there is a convicted killer in this case. And much like the aforementioned, Jeremy Bamber continues to insist on his innocence, despite the fact he was found guilty of five counts of murder.

As in those previous cases, media sensationalization has played a huge role in this case, with the constant repetitive news articles often serving to cloud an otherwise straightforward case. Of course, given his position and what he is trying to achieve, media retention is Bamba's lifeblood. It helps fuel his campaign and is a powerful communication method for him.

And yet, Bamba has never once veered from where he stands. He has never admitted his crimes. In research for his book, Inside Time, Ken Smith had discussions with Jeremy Bamber during the earlier years of his imprisonment, and summed up one of the biggest sources of intrigue in this case, quote, scenarios.

This conversation is about scenarios, stories fashioned out of rival interpretations of reality, some more fictional than others. And for Jeremy, All there is to set against the official version of him is his own denial, his tale of himself, which he must constantly support in word and deed and gesture.

False or true, it's a difficult posture to maintain, especially here. At the time of writing this podcast, it's 2023, a full 36 years after Jeremy's conviction, and so far, Jeremy Bamber has never fallen short of that posture. Maintaining that he is innocent to this day, often to the detriment of his own situation.

When I started my podcast, The White House Farm Murders, in the January of 2020, the world was a vastly different place, and so too were my feelings towards this case. Having followed Jeremy Bamber's innocence campaign for several years, the release of the 2020 drama starring Freddie Fox and Alfie Allen, amongst others, Felt like a step too far, and motivated by a sense of injustice, I decided to do what I could.

My initial goal was clear. I wanted to tell the real story. The version of the Bamba murders that I believed to have been the truth. Namely, the version in which Jeremy Bamba was entirely innocent. At the time, there was no serialised podcast about this case, and I thought that a podcast might help further Jeremy's campaign.

After all, in my mind, he was 100% innocent and was likely the victim of an awful miscarriage of justice. In truth, it was a position that I had held for several years beforehand. Ask anyone who knew me, and they'd tell you. I believed that Jeremy Bamber was innocent, 100%, beyond any form of doubt. As a podcast listener myself, and someone who listens to true crime podcasts on an almost daily basis, I was shocked.

that there hadn't yet been one on this case. And so, mine was to be the first. The only serialized and complete investigation into the Whitehouse Farm murders. Considering the kind of controversy, debate and coverage that this case causes, I was surprised that it hadn't been done before. But when that first episode was published in February 2020, that's exactly what it was.

Again, the aim of that podcast was simple. I wanted to tell Jeremy's story, what I believed to be the truth, and to help raise awareness of his case to the podcast masses. A few episodes in, and I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be as clear cut as I had first thought. Every corner took me to a new piece of conflicting information.

Every thread slowly began to unravel. And before long, I was forced to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. And so, much in the same way that the world feels irreversibly changed by 2020, I no longer view this case as I once did. For that reason, my priorities, intentions, and interest in this case have shifted dramatically.

I quickly became cynical, losing interest when things failed to pan out as I'd expected, and for a long time, I didn't want to continue this project. I'm entirely unsure when my interest in this case first began, but I do know, without any shadow of a doubt, That it started from one angle. I can't remember a point in time when I didn't think Jeremy Bamber was innocent.

And my interest in this case was formed on that presumption. Thinking about it, I'm not sure I ever knew anything about the case before I believed that Jeremy Bamber was innocent. And so, in a way, confirmation bias had set in from the very beginning. Leaving me with an emotional attachment to the case without ever having really stood back and reconsidered.

There was a pivotal moment in this podcast research when all of that started to change, something I'll no doubt mention in that relevant episode. But having further researched one of the pieces of evidence that I had long believed was evidence of innocence, I quickly realised that my understanding of events was about to unravel.

Having recorded those very first two episodes in the February of 2020, I was forced to take my first of several pauses. And for a long time, I struggled to see where this podcast would go. After all, things had changed for me, and in the end, that changed my entire mission. I was also anxious about having changed my perception.

I'd already spoken to numerous of Jeremy Bamber's supporters by this point in time. Some of them had become online friends of sort, and the idea of upsetting the applecart as it was, was something that really did faze me. And yet, deep down, I knew that I had to. After all, I had spent hours upon hours, weeks and weeks, months and months researching this case.

And having changed my opinion, I knew that I needed to share all that I had learned. When discussing this case with a close friend who had shared this journey with me, she urged me that this was podcast.

After all, I had initially been deceived, and perhaps others had been too. And so, contrary to my initial goal of furthering Jeremy's innocence campaign, my new one is entirely different. I'm now using my podcast and book To challenge both sides of the case, and to offer my thoughts and assessment, as an amateur, about the case that I have now spent so long researching.

Over the past two years, I have immersed myself in this case, reading every book possible, contacting witnesses, and delving into the archives in a bid to find the truth. This case is one that continues to divide opinion. It's a constant and continuous source of debate. And I wanted to ensure that I did it justice.

I didn't want to just create a podcast that did much of the same. I wanted to offer something that forced everyone on all sides to reconsider where they stood. And so, therein lies my new mission. Before we get into it, it's worth pointing out here that this podcast is probably not going to be revolutionary.

Likely, you're going to hear much of what you've heard before. And there's a core, simple, and overlooked reason for this. And that's because this case is now over 36 years old. And despite what continuous and endless news articles would have you believe, Very little is new. What tends to happen is that new interpretations are offered on old evidence, or new versions of events are posed.

New evidence suggests the discovery of something that has never been seen before. And from what I can tell, that's never actually happened. The truth is that very little about this case has changed in the 36 years since the murders took place. And in the same vein, little of material value changed over the course of my research.

The only thing that did change was my feelings, my understandings, and the opinions that I held. In the two years since I started this podcast, a lot has changed, and there are now two other podcasts on this case. The first being a podcast correlating to the TV drama, the second a podcast from the campaign team themselves.

Each with two conflicting and contradictory viewpoints. As to what I hope you do get from the podcast, it's a change in perspective. A methodical consideration of the evidence, a presentation of both sides, well thought through and well discussed. By the time you finish this podcast, you should be well versed in both sides of the case.

Able to offer your opinion, whichever that might be, but an informed one regardless. One that looks behind the face value that we often tend to skim over. This podcast has been years in the making, but having followed this case for as long as I can remember, I knew that it needed to be reconsidered. I am not a journalist.

I have no law enforcement background. But what I did have was a series of questions, as well as a series of beliefs that I wanted to interrogate, and eventually several answers and observations that I now want to contribute. The end result is this podcast, and the book that goes along with it, which you'll learn more about soon, and an investigation that I believe is as thorough and detailed as I can hope it to be.

This is the White House Bar Murders, and over the next few months, we'll be seeking to answer the one core question in this case. Is Jeremy Bamber guilty of the five murders for which he has been convicted? While this case is old, as I've said repeatedly, it is still active, at least on the part of the convicted killer, who recently submitted a further CCRC submission, the outcome of which he is still awaiting.

However, at the time the submission was made, Jeremy Bamber was said to have been filled with hope, and that he believes he now has evidence that contests every aspect of the case against him. At the time of the submission, Jeremy Bamber commented that it was comprehensive, containing the evidence to prove that the jury at his trial were not provided with the full fact, and that they were misled repeatedly.

The submission is said to be based on eight grounds, all of which Bamba believes proves his innocence. According to sources, those grounds involve some documentation that is not in the public domain, but that it also includes some of the commonly raised issues in the case. For example, the suggestion that Neville Bamba made a call to the police before Jeremy did, and other documentation that is said to suggest the existence of a second sound moderator.

Jeremy's current solicitor, Mark Newby, who has also worked on a number of other high profile miscarriage of justice cases, has also praised the strength of the renewed appeal efforts. The latest submission comes in the wake of Bamba's attempts to have his prisoner category lowered, something which was denied.

It's worth pointing out here that Jeremy Bamba is serving a whole life tariff. And his continued protestations certainly make him unique. Of all the British killers with life sentences, Bamba is the only one who protests his innocence to this very day. For international listeners, it's worth briefly pointing out that there are very few prisoners serving whole life tariffs in the UK.

And it's a sentence that isn't given out all that often. Usually, it's a sentence that is reserved for the most extreme cases. At the time of recording this podcast, there are 76 living prisoners who are serving whole life tariffs. One of the most recent being Wayne Cousins, who was recently added to that number for having been convicted of killing Sarah Everard.

Of the 76, many others have weaved false and provably inaccurate tales over how things unfolded. Ian Huntley, just one example. But Jeremy Bamber is the only one who continues to outright protest his innocence. At the time of recording this episode, I have now been in this case for three years and I am ready to conclude the podcast.

What follows over the next few months is my reinvestigation into the case of Whitehouse Farm and the conviction of Jeremy Bamber. It's an amateur's consideration of the evidence and an attempt to make sense of what now feels like a clumsy and murky case. In our conspiracy driven world, it also raises questions regarding the police, institutions, and the power of social media.

A few final notes before I conclude this episode. At the outset of this podcast, it's important for me to point out that most of my research is based on secondary sources. Because, again, this case is 36 years old. And so my access was relatively limited, with some of the big players in this case having long since passed away, and others simply being exhausted from the case's infamy, choosing to remove themselves from the spotlight.

And who can blame them? To that end, however, I am grateful for those who were able to take the time to talk to me. And I'm forever grateful for the role that they have played in this podcast. The new website for this podcast is currently under construction, but there will eventually be a link in the show notes, and on that website you will find all the resources and sources I've used.

It's those people, their words, their testimony, their opinions, and their research that really has added colour to this podcast. Over the course of the last few years, I've spent hours researching. I've read books, academic articles, news stories, watched documentaries, listened to podcasts. I've gone round and round in circles trying to understand some of the more complex aspects.

And I've crawled into so many rabbit holes, it's often felt impossible to ever get out. But none of this research would have been possible without the sources that I have had to utilise. Every time a documentary snippet is used or a direct quote from a written source is quoted, you'll find that place of origin clearly referenced in the episode, on the website, and in the show notes.

I've now read so many conflicting articles and books and listened to so many conflicting podcast episodes that I believe the White House farm murders should be added to the list of things that you should not talk about at a dinner party. And so, to conclude, what is it you can expect from this podcast?

Alongside my interest in true crime, I'm also passionate about politics, and there's a common misconception about door knocking that feels comparable to this situation. When political parties door knock during elections, it's never in a bid to persuade the public. On the contrary, It's often more of an information gathering and information sharing project.

The goal of this session is to identify where the key voters are and to share some information with them for those who might be on the fence. In many ways, that is the goal of this podcast, because I am not trying to necessarily change your opinion. Instead, I am sharing the journey that I went on, what I discovered along the way, and how I ultimately reached the conclusion that I now have.

And so, the goal of this podcast is essentially twofold. The first being that we reconsider all the publicly available information, whether it be from the defence or the prosecution. The second goal, which follows on directly from the first, is that you question everything, and ultimately that you reach your own informed conclusion.

This case oftenly seems overly complicated, and judging by the intended number of episodes that I have planned, it is not. It certainly looks and feels that way, but at its heart, this case is relatively simple, and there are only two versions of events that make sense. I want to borrow a quote from the 2002 Court of Appeal document, because it perfectly summarises, quote, There was no dispute at the trial that four of the five had been murdered.

In response to the fifth, Sheila Cofell, there was an issue, which lays at the very heart of the case, as to whether she had been murdered, as the prosecution alleged. Or whether she had taken her own life as the defense conceded. If Jeremy Bamber is guilty, how his case has been handled should be some cause for concern.

And if he's innocent... It's an unbelievable miscarriage of justice. This entire project started with Jeremy Bamber, with anger and outrage at what I believe to have been a tragedy beyond compare. But it ends with a new understanding of the real tragedy, and the real victims in this story. This podcast is therefore dedicated to the victims in this case and to the wider family who must live with the long term impact that these murders have had and continue to have on subsequent generations.

This podcast is therefore dedicated to Neville Bamber, June Bamber, Sheila Caffell, Nicholas Caffell, and Daniel Caffell.