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The whole grim story concludes on Wednesday evening with the finale of a six-part ITV drama called simply White House Farm. Yet while police quickly declared it a case of murder-suicide committed by Caffell – a former model suffering schizophrenia – others soon started to have suspicions about her brother Jeremy. A famous piece of news footage showed the former public school boy struggling through his family’s funerals, his faced etched with apparent grief. But, says Colin Caffell, ex-husband of Sheila and father of the murdered twins, as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, Bamber’s whole demeanour changed. So certainly his little organization, his little lobby group and many of the people who support him clearly have watched it forensically and posted lots and lots of stuff on social media, picking holes in it. They got on all sorts of platforms where you can rate TV shows, screaming in capital letters, “1 out of 10.
What was the evidence against him?
Thirdly, you can say, “Oh, well, it’s important to hear every side of the story,” but I think once we were completely convinced that he was guilty, I certainly didn’t want to give him any kind of a platform. In October of the following year, her younger brother Jeremy was convicted of the murders and will remain in prison for the rest of his life. Then 24, it seems he killed everyone before placing the shotgun in his dead sister’s hands to look like a murder-suicide. Detectives initially missed that Sheila couldn’t have reached the trigger to shoot herself.
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And I think early on she participated in various petty crimes that Jeremy was committing, and quite enthusiastically. It must’ve been very exciting for someone who probably had lived a pretty staid and boring life. And he comes along and he’s drawing her into this almost Bonnie and Clyde exciting world.
Murder-suicide theory, crime scene
Bamber is now 59 and serving life in prison at HM Prison Wakefield in Yorkshire. He maintains his innocence and, according to the BBC, has an active group of supporters who believe that he didn't get a fair trial. In June 2020, the High Court refused to grant Bamber access to documents that he believed could clear his name. His lawyers claimed that the Crown Prosecution Service (an agency for conducting criminal prosecutions) did not disclose material about a second silencer found at the farm, which his legal team argues could overturn Bamber's conviction. Previously, Bamber also had an appeal dismissed in 2002. Some people will point to that stuff and say, “Oh, well that just suggests that he’s not really guilty,” but I don’t agree.
Repetitive and laboured White House Farm finale is too focused on the details - review - The Independent
Repetitive and laboured White House Farm finale is too focused on the details - review.
Posted: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]
And then all of a sudden, oh no, it’s gone way, way too far. But maybe she feels that she’s in too deep to get out now. I hope that the show does act as a critique of the institutional culture where dissenting voices or whistleblowers or the little person can so easily be crushed and not listened to, and sadly that’s still a problem in the world today. I think our show is as relevant in speaking to that as anything set now would be. Murder mystery drama based on true story is well-done. Hours later when armed officers broke into White House Farm they found 61-year-old Nevill shot eight times and beaten.
Jeremy Bamber at the Funeral of His Family Members
According to Bamber, his father phoned him, saying, "Your sister's gone crazy and she's got a gun." Bamber said that after the sound of a shot, the line went dead. Bamber was found guilty of murdering his adoptive parents, sister and her twin sons after all five were found with gunshot wounds at their Georgian farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, on 7 August 1985, when he was 24. It was Sheila's adopted brother, Jeremy Bamber (played by Freddie Fox), who first called the police to the farm.
Upstairs Nicholas and Daniel were found dead in their beds while June and Sheila's bodies were in the master bedroom. The scene had been made to look like a murder-suicide, with his sister Sheila Caffell, who had schizophrenia, initially thought to have carried out the killings before turning the gun on herself. In January 2020, ITV in Britain broadcast a television miniseries called White House Farm, which was based on the events on that fateful day in 1986 and starred the ex-girlfriend of Prince Harry. These links to the British monarchy marked just the beginning of the strange turns that this case would take. Photo by PA Images via Getty ImagesThe Essex farmhouse at Tolleshunt D’Arcy near Maldon where Jeremy Bamber shot his family. This is the tragic true story of the White House Farm murders.
The Murders at White House Farm Revisits an Infamously Brutal UK Case — Here's the Story
So, I guess that I agreed with the team on that score. I must admit, there’s part of me that would’ve been very curious to meet him. But whether that would’ve been a positive thing, I’m doubtful. For a start, Jeremy is now a much, much older man who has lived most of his life in maximum security prisons. In some ways, I don’t think we would’ve been meeting the same person that committed those crimes anyway. Secondly, my take on him is that he’s manipulative, and I think to that extent it would also have been potentially counterproductive.
Telephones in the farmhouse
I think what it shows is someone who’s impulsive in a way that’s not always cleverly thought out. He is prone to acts of, as I say, rather wanton cruelty. I think it also suggests a sort of a splintering, if you like, in the guy. I think there are inconsistent and very almost diametrically opposed impulses that he seems to me to be wrestling with at different times. And I think they often lead him to do things that seem either inconsistent or seem to undermine his own goal. We approached Colin in the hope that we could both option the book and ask him to be involved and be a consultant.
On August 7, 1985, Jeremy Bamber called the police to inform them that his entire family — his father, Nevill; his mother, June; his sister, Sheila; and Sheila’s six-year-old twin boys — were shot to death at the White House Farm. Having seen the crime scene photos, when I was looking at the rushes of the stuff shot in the house, there were moments when I had to keep reminding myself that’s not the real house. The most interesting thing about that was that unlike Mike, who’s quite just straight down-the-line adamant, “Jeremy did it.
It’s simple.” Ron is adamant that Jeremy did it, but even he admits there are some things about what happened in that farmhouse that night which even he can’t quite piece together. He still to this day can’t make all the pieces fit. That really intrigued me, that perhaps this show wouldn’t be like most dramatized crime shows, where at the end there’s a straightforward, simple answer. The series is based on true events from 6 August 1985. Five members of the Bamber-Caffell family are shot to death at White House Farm, Essex.
But, in the subsequent days, Bamber’s ex-girlfriend revealed to police that he’d been plotting their massacre. This, combined with the discovery of a silencer that contained Sheila’s blood, prompted the police to arrest Jeremy Bamber for the murder of his family so he could inherit their estate worth more than $500,000. When questioning the Bambers' son, Jeremy Bamber, he claims that his sister, Sheila, who was suffering from schizophrenia, went "berserk", got hold of a silenced rifle and killed their parents and Sheila's six-year old twin sons. As the murder case unravels, a devastating twist comes to light. Bamber was convicted and sentenced to life in prison more than 35 years ago for the White House Farm murders in Essex, in which he killed his entire family. Questions were also asked about Jeremy, then 24 years old, who acted strangely at the twin boys' funeral, his behaviour veering between hysterical to smiling and joking around.
