The Chicken Run Murder

In December 1924 Crowborough hit the headlines in the national papers when a young lady called Elsie Cameron went missing. Elsie had been to visit her fiance Norman Thorne in Crowborough but she never returned to her home in London. The case became known as the chicken run murder.

Norman Thorne was a Sunday school teacher from Kemsal Green, London. In 1917 he had met up with Elsie Cameron, a typist. They became romantically involved.

Norman lost his job as an engineer and with Elsie unable to work due to her nerves money was tight. So in 1922, using money loaned to him by his father, he moved to Crowborough and set up a chicken farm at the junction of Luxford Lane with Luxford Road called Wesley Poultry Farm. He moved into the little hut 12 x 7, living in primitive conditions, trying in vain to build his business.

In the Christmas of that year Norman and Elsie became engaged. All seemed to be going well until the following year when Norman met Bessie (Elizabeth Ann Coldicott) at a dance. By this time Elsie was pressing for marriage, telling Norman that she was pregnant. Norman and Bessie became infatuated and Norman soon decided he wanted to break things off between him and Elsie.

He wrote to Elsie that November:

‘There are one or two things I haven’t told you for more reasons than one. It concerns someone else as well … I am between two fires.’

Elsie seemed to not understand and wrote back to Norman insisting they should marry as soon as possible. So Norman wrote back :

‘What I haven’t told you is that on certain occasions a girl has been here late at night. I am not going to mention her name. No one knows … I must have time to think, she thinks I am going to marry her, and I have a strong feeling for her.’

The reply from Elsie wasn’t quite what Norman had hoped for

‘You have absolutely broken my heart, I never thought you were capable of such deception… Your duty is to marry me. I have first claim on you. I expect you to marry me as soon as possible. My baby must have a name, and another thing, I love you in spite of all.

And so it was that on the 9th December 1924, Elsie set off for Crowborough. She bought her ticket and boarded the train in the third class carriage before putting her case in the luggage rack overhead. Then she settled down for what turned out to be her last journey.

Days passed and her family grew concerned. Her father wired Norman.

‘Elsie left Friday. Have heard no news. Reply’

.
Norman’s reply was

‘Not here. Open letters. Can’t understand.’

The letters in question had been written by Norman and sent to Elsie’s London home. The first read

‘Where did you get to yesterday. I went to Groombridge but you did not turn up.’

The second letter, written the next day said

‘I was expecting a letter today especially after not hearing from you.’

The police started investigating the case. Two nurserymen came forward and said they had been passing by Norman’s gate and had seen Elsie walking towards the farm on the evening of the 5th. The police searched tha huts but found no trace of Elsie. Norman insisted she had never been there.

Scotland yard were called in but still no trace of Elsie could be found. Then on the 1st January 1925, a woman called the police to say that she had been on her way home on the evening of December 9th when passing by the farm she had seen a young woman entering Thorne’s farm.

It wasn’t much to go on but the police now had three witnesses saying they had seen Elsie at the farm on the night in question. On the 14th, Chief Inspector Gillan of the yard arrived at Norman’s farm. Thorne was taken into custody.

Meanwhile, police started searching the place again. This time they bought spades. Just after 8am the next morning a policeman found Elsie’s case containing glasses, jumper and shoes. The mystery was starting to unravel.

Back at the station, Norman could see that his original story would not hold and so he gave another statement. Elsie Cameron had indeed called on him on the afternoon of December 5th. She told him that she intended to sleep in the hut and would stay until they were married. An argument ensued and went on for hours. Norman then told Elsie that he had an appointment at nine that evening and had to go. He didn’t tell her it was with Bessie.

Norman said of his return two hours later

‘When I opened the hut door I saw Miss Cameron hanging from a beam that supports the roof, by a piece of cord as used for the washing line. I cut the cord and laid her on the bed. She was dead. I then put out the lights. She had her frock off and her hair was down. I lay across the table for about an hour. I was about to go to Dr Turle and knock up someone to go for the police and I realised the position I was in, and decided not to do so. I then went down to the workshop… I got my hacksaw and some sacks and took them back to the hut. I took off Miss Cameron’s clothes and burned them in the fireplace in the hut. I then laid the sacks on the floor and sawed off her legs and the head by the glow of the fire. I put them in sacks, intending to carry them away, but my nerve failed me and I took them down to the workshop and I left them there. I went back to the hut and sat in the chair all night. Next morning, just as it got light, I buried the sacks and a tin containing the remains in a chicken run. It is the Leghorn chicken run, the first pen from the gate.’

The mystery of what had happened to Elsie Cameron had now been solved. But was it suicide followed by a bizarre attempt to hid the truth or was it murder ? Norman Thorne was charged with her murder.

Despite the nationwide interest – the Chicken Run Murder was all across the national papers - the trial took place at the Lewes Assize court. Mr Justice Finlay presided with Sir Henry Curtis Bennett as chief prosecuting counsel and J D Cassels defending Norman Thorne. Norman’s defence was that this was suicide not murder and that the concealment, the lies and even the dissection were all due to overwhelming fear. ‘I thought of the letters I had written’ said Norman ‘I remembered I had been telling people that I wanted to break off the engagement. I remembered that it was known that another girl had been walking out with her. In view of these things, I became afraid. ‘
The defence put forward a case for death by shock while trying to commit suicide.

That Elsie Cameron was neurotic was never in doubt.Cassels quickly painted a picture of a Elsie as someone who was often depressed, sometimes hysterical and always suffering from her nerves.Elsie Cameron was not an unlikely suicide case.

The second day of the case was spent with the crown trying to prove that murder had taken place. They pointed to the results of two experiments carried out previously with an 8 stone weight fastened to the beam from which Elsie was said to have been hung. In the first experiment the weight was slowly raised and swung. In the second experiment the weight was placed on a chair and the chair was kicked away. In both cases marks were left on the beams. No such marks were left from the alleged hanging. The Crown put it that there was no possible way that any weight had swung from the beam.

On the second afternoon, Sir Bernard Spilsbury took the stand for the Crown. Sir Spilsbury was a legend in his own lifetime. His word could not be doubted and his evidence was damning. He had examined the remains of Elsie Cameron and had observed 8 bruises on the head, face arms and legs. All of them had been inflicted shortly before death and one on the temple caused by a crushing blow. Sir Spilsbury also pointed out the absence of signs of asphyxiation and scars around the neck that would be expected in the case of a hanging.

On the third day Norman took the stand. If Sir Bernard was a legend as a medical expert, Curtis Bennett was a master of the art of cross examination. ‘On the morning of December 5th’ began Curtis Bennett ‘were you still in love with Elsie Cameron?’ ‘Yes’ answered Thorne. On the morning of December 5th were you still in love with this other woman?’. ‘Yes’ came the reply. ‘On that morning’ Sir Bernard continued ‘which of these two girls that you were in love with did you desire to marry?.’ ‘I do not know I was particularly desirous of marrying any at the time.’ ‘Which did you intend to marry in the future?’ ‘Well’ said Norman ‘of the two, I suppose I thought more of the other girl.’

The case for the prosecution continued. Each time Curtis Bennett probed he got a small confirmation of the truth as he saw it. Before dismissing Norman from the witness box, Judge Finlay questioned Norman about whether he had tried to resuscitate Elsie or fetch a doctor. ‘No’ Norman admitted.

There was an eloquent closing speech by Cassels, a massive reply by Curtis Bennett, a careful, thorough summing up by Finlay – perfectly fair but not disguising his own belief that the Crown case had been proved. At 5.12 on the fifth day of the case the jury retired. By 5.40 they returned to pronounce a verdict of guilty. Norman Thorne was sentenced to death and was hung at Wandsworth prison on April 22nd 1925.