'Big Talk' Murder at Birchen Coppice

When two like-minded lovers under the same roof combine their vivid imaginations to escape their dismal life on a not so salubrious former council estate, things may go wrong.

She was the only child, a daughter of Arthur John Davies, better known as ‘John’ or by his nick-name, ‘Dustbin Davies’ and his wife, Betty. He had a persona of being a wealthier than most, refuse collector, who made his money through the scrap metal business and property. He could always be relied upon to generously splash his cash about local pubs and carry plenty of money in his wallet. He had not long returned to work after being suspended for being drunk on his refuse collection round.

She was Caroline, always known as Carol. She had little experience of maturity in adult life when she fell in love with the stories told by twice married Doug’ Latham, a young 27-year-old ne’er-do-well with a Walter Mitty personality who, like Walter, tried to play the character, which he was not.

From a young boy in London, Doug was largely raised by his grandmother at her home in Stourport Upon Severn, Worcestershire where he was later to appear in Juvenile and Magistrates Courts as a petty thief.

His relationship with Carol was sparked when they were both employed at the West Midlands Safari Park. Both were soon to be unemployed and Latham moved in with her in Carol’s parents’ home on the Birchen Coppice estate, Kidderminster. She had fallen for his stories about being a mercenary in Angola and about serving in the Special Air Service (SAS) as a paratrooper. How could they afford the finances involved in their plans to escape to South Africa?

She was idolised by her father who loathed this ’Doug’ and his grandiose plans to ‘steal’ the only child they had by taking her to South Africa to live. Visas were applied for and routes by road calculated but before that, there was an armed robbery planned by her father. Doug and his mates were to be involved and guns were ordered to carry it out. But was this to be a master plan to take Doug out of John and his daughter’s lives? Was it coincidence that others had been drafted in to kill her dad, but was all this just ‘Big Talk’ or would Carol’s inheritance to become their escape route?

This is a true story with so many intriguing twists and turns told by the investigator who swore 41 years ago that it deserved the writing of a book.