Hat tip to John of Gwent for this one...
The man known for his books about Newport and his stream of stage productions has turned his hand to chronicling the city's notorious murders.
Murder stories are lent credibility when the writer knows the victim.
When you find out that he has known two victims the interest is doubled and at three there is a distinct frisson.
When he tells you that he knew four people who have subsequently been done to death the impulse is to start backing towards the door.
In fact Terry Underwood, author of Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Newport, is one of the gentlest men you could meet.
"And yet death and violence have a riveting appeal," he says.
Terry Underwood was born in Clytha Square, Newport, in 1928 to Victor Underwood who was gassed, bayonetted and shot at while serving with the 3rd Monmouthshires at Ypres, and his wife Katie who was in service.
It was when the family moved to Caerleon Road that young Terry had his first brush with murder.
One day the butcher asked his mother where she lived. "When she told him he replied `Did you know there was a murder there? A son poisoned his seriously ill mother as an act of mercy'.
"The name of the family was Morgan and they had a business in the Market.
"We left soon after that. That particular story doesn't appear in my book but I'm sure that's what sparked off my fascination with murder."
The first meeting with a murder victim was in 1946 when the young Terry was a member of the Odeon cinema's Mickey Mouse Club and used to see the cinema manager, resplendent in tails and a white tie, welcoming patrons to Saturday matinees.
"Mr Robert Parrington-Jackson was a tall, handsome man who, it was said, had taken a part in Errol Flynn's Robin Hood film.
"He was also a ladies' man who entertained women in his office, which probably had something to do with his being transferred to the Bristol Odeon.
"One day in 1946 he was found dead in his office. He'd been shot during a James Cagney movie so that the sound track would obscure the gunfire." His killers were never found.
Thirteen years after that Terry was working as a delivery boy and shop assistant and regularly dropping in at the Dock Street shop of `Uncle' Gussie Roberts who was a bachelor, reputed to be very rich and who on February 19, 1959 was found dead.
Two men were later arrested and escaped the gallows only because of the outcry that had followed the notorious Craig/Bentley case.
His third encounter with violent death was in the case of Carol Brand, who lived in Caerleon Road, Newport, who as a little girl he had smiled and waved at. It was not until July, 1965 he read of her tragic story.
"She had gone into a local timber yard with a boy called Colin Murdoch who beat her to death with a length of wood before giving himself up at Maindee police station.
"He was jailed for life and astonishingly, given another life sentence after being released, marrying, and killing his wife by stabbing her 10 times. I believe he is still in jail somewhere."
Many living in Newport remember Danny Denbury, a courteous and gregarious man battered to death by drifter Paul McGovern in Malpas, Newport in January 1988.
For many years Terry Underwood worked for Standard Telephones where Danny also worked.
On January 18, 1988 Danny and another man were seen drinking together. McGovern, having initially inventing a story about a third man being at Danny's home, admitted attacking him and leaving him to die.
The publisher of several local history books, Terry Underwood, who lives in Christchurch, has directed 74 shows, most of them put on by the New Venture Players of which he is president.
He is already working on another local history book and an autobiography.
* Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Newport is published by Wharncliffe Books at £9.99.
Murder stories are lent credibility when the writer knows the victim.
When you find out that he has known two victims the interest is doubled and at three there is a distinct frisson.
When he tells you that he knew four people who have subsequently been done to death the impulse is to start backing towards the door.
In fact Terry Underwood, author of Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Newport, is one of the gentlest men you could meet.
"And yet death and violence have a riveting appeal," he says.
Terry Underwood was born in Clytha Square, Newport, in 1928 to Victor Underwood who was gassed, bayonetted and shot at while serving with the 3rd Monmouthshires at Ypres, and his wife Katie who was in service.
It was when the family moved to Caerleon Road that young Terry had his first brush with murder.
One day the butcher asked his mother where she lived. "When she told him he replied `Did you know there was a murder there? A son poisoned his seriously ill mother as an act of mercy'.
"The name of the family was Morgan and they had a business in the Market.
"We left soon after that. That particular story doesn't appear in my book but I'm sure that's what sparked off my fascination with murder."
The first meeting with a murder victim was in 1946 when the young Terry was a member of the Odeon cinema's Mickey Mouse Club and used to see the cinema manager, resplendent in tails and a white tie, welcoming patrons to Saturday matinees.
"Mr Robert Parrington-Jackson was a tall, handsome man who, it was said, had taken a part in Errol Flynn's Robin Hood film.
"He was also a ladies' man who entertained women in his office, which probably had something to do with his being transferred to the Bristol Odeon.
"One day in 1946 he was found dead in his office. He'd been shot during a James Cagney movie so that the sound track would obscure the gunfire." His killers were never found.
Thirteen years after that Terry was working as a delivery boy and shop assistant and regularly dropping in at the Dock Street shop of `Uncle' Gussie Roberts who was a bachelor, reputed to be very rich and who on February 19, 1959 was found dead.
Two men were later arrested and escaped the gallows only because of the outcry that had followed the notorious Craig/Bentley case.
His third encounter with violent death was in the case of Carol Brand, who lived in Caerleon Road, Newport, who as a little girl he had smiled and waved at. It was not until July, 1965 he read of her tragic story.
"She had gone into a local timber yard with a boy called Colin Murdoch who beat her to death with a length of wood before giving himself up at Maindee police station.
"He was jailed for life and astonishingly, given another life sentence after being released, marrying, and killing his wife by stabbing her 10 times. I believe he is still in jail somewhere."
Many living in Newport remember Danny Denbury, a courteous and gregarious man battered to death by drifter Paul McGovern in Malpas, Newport in January 1988.
For many years Terry Underwood worked for Standard Telephones where Danny also worked.
On January 18, 1988 Danny and another man were seen drinking together. McGovern, having initially inventing a story about a third man being at Danny's home, admitted attacking him and leaving him to die.
The publisher of several local history books, Terry Underwood, who lives in Christchurch, has directed 74 shows, most of them put on by the New Venture Players of which he is president.
He is already working on another local history book and an autobiography.
* Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Newport is published by Wharncliffe Books at £9.99.
**Well there you go a book on local murders, missed this one but thanks to John of Gwent I have decided to cover it. One that is not mentioned in the article was that of Lemy Bullock, a well known local "character" who's past has been re-written as well as that of any dead Soviet leader. I hate to speak ill of the dead but in St Lemys case I shall make an exception.
He was filleted with a samurai sword outside a rather dubious drinking establishment called Harveys, now sadly demolished thus depriving the tourist board of a blue plaque on the wall. The killers a bunch well known to the fine boys & girls in the police, had the clever idea of tossing the weapon into the river, a river with large mud banks and I am sure that it stood up like the fabled sword Excalibur.
Although the site of his martyrdom has been knocked down & knowing the way he has been eulogized by the local papers and media I am sure it just a matter of time until a statue is raised to his memory.
The memorial when he was buried was quite memorable for several reasons, the first was the large number of mourners who started fighting in the Tom Toya Lewis pub and had to escorted out and the way that our local shop was told - not asked but told - to close as a matter of respect. A comment about windows being put through being put into the conversation. And who said that the gangland attitude was just kept to the Krays?
Tags: Newport, Gwent,
Tags: Newport, Gwent,
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1 people have spoken:
And when this author is writing about these murders...does he not think about the fact that in the case of a man killing his wife that that man might just have children, and that his wife may have had children, and does he not think that both of the victims of those that somebodies dad murdered have to live with this knowledge every day and that the murderers children have to live with the loss of their mother and the fact their dad did these crimes but try to move on? does he not consider that for the sake of him trying to make a few bucks that he might be publicising something that upsets and causes offence to others? or more to the point - does he actually care???I find his claim quite pathetic that he 'knows' all these people just because he waved at them once....and so implies therefore he has a right to publish a story about someone and not let them rest in peace..AND bring up hurtful memories for the families concerned when they walk into their local bookshop.....Yes well im sure he wont care about all that when the money is rolling in...cant wait for the stage production....
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