Kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle

His will left nothing to his estranged wife, Selina Whittle (69), to whom he had been married since 1926 but whom he had never divorced following their separation in the 1940s.

George Whittle was a self-made businessman who had begun his career as a bus driver, but had established a haulage company in the 1930s, which he evolved into a coach firm and which gradually became one of the most successful coach business in the Midlands, with a fleet of 70 vehicles by the 1960s.

As such, the Whittle family were wealthy, and lived in the largest house in the mining village of Highley, Shropshire.

This property was a six-bedroom, detached house named Beechcroft.

Although from a wealthy family, Lesley did not live an affluent lifestyle, with her inheritance held in trust and Dorothy giving her £20 a week in spending money (the equivalent of approximately £165 ).

She has been described as a studious, intelligent and compassionate individual who enjoyed tap dancing as a child.

At the time of her kidnapping, Lesley was in her second year at Wulfrun College, Wolverhampton, studying for her A-levels in pure and applied mathematics.

She did not own a car, and commuted to her studies via public transport on a daily basis.

Lesley's boyfriend, Richard Forder (19), studied at Sheffield University, and she held aspirations to transfer to this university upon completion of her studies at Wulfrun in order that she could be closer to him.

To avoid estate taxes, George Whittle gave three houses plus £70,000 in cash to Dorothy, £107,000 to his son Ronald, and £82,500 to Lesley during his life.

Lesley Ann Whittle was born on 3 May 1957.

She was the younger of two children and only daughter born to George Whittle, a co-owner of Whittle Coaches, and his common-law wife, Dorothy.

He died of natural causes in September 1970, aged 65, bequeathing the coach firm to his son.

Two years after George's death, in 1972, Selina began legal proceedings to obtain money from her husband's estate; she would later be awarded £1,500, plus weekly payments of £30.

The story was reported extensively in the Daily Express on 17 May 1972 and included details the family assets totalled over £250,000 (equal to £2.1 million in 2024).

Police subsequently discovered that Whittle's kidnapper had devoted almost three years of planning, researching and rehearsing the commission of the crime after reading the 1972 Express news article regarding the financial dispute between Dorothy and Selina Whittle and the sums bequeathed to his children.

Neilson had estimated that the Whittles could easily afford a sum of £50,000, and his rehearsing of the abduction had included discreetly entering the Whittles' home at night on more than one occasion without awakening Lesley or her mother to familiarise himself with the layout of the home and select the most secure route to take his hostage from the home and to his or her place of captivity.

Neilson had originally decided to kidnap either Ronald or Dorothy Whittle and hold them until his demanded ransom had been paid.

He had originally planned the kidnap to occur in January 1974, but delayed his plans by twelve months in 1973 as due to the nationwide petrol shortages of the three-day week, he feared potentially drawing attention to himself on crucial dates by driving the considerable distances necessary from his home in West Yorkshire to Shropshire and, ultimately, Staffordshire, without a plausible explanation.

The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle occurred on 14 January 1975.

Whittle, a teenage heiress, was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in Highley, Shropshire, by Donald Neilson; a notorious burglar and murderer known as the Black Panther.

Whittle was driven 65 miles from her home to an underground drainage shaft of a reservoir at Bathpool Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, where she was tethered, naked, upon a narrow platform 54 ft below ground by a wire noose affixed around her neck and with a hood placed over her head as Neilson made several unsuccessful attempts to collect a £50,000 ransom from her family over the following days.

She is believed to have either fallen to her death from this shaft, or been pushed to her death by Neilson, on or about 17 January, causing her to die of vagal inhibition.

Her emaciated body was discovered hanging from this shaft on 7 March 1975.

The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle dominated national headlines for eleven months; the investigation into her kidnapping and—ultimately—murder, involved over 400 officers from three separate police forces in addition to the Metropolitan Police.

Donald Neilson was arrested in Mansfield in December 1975 on unrelated charges; he was convicted of Whittle's kidnapping and murder in July 1976 at Oxford Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He was later convicted of the shooting murders of three post office workers and given three further life sentences.

As such, Neilson postponed his plot until January 1975.

In the early hours of 14 January 1975, Dorothy Whittle returned from an evening social visit to her home in Highley, Shropshire.

At approximately 1:45 a.m. she checked on her daughter, only to find Lesley asleep in her first-floor bedroom.

Dorothy then took two sleeping tablets and went to bed herself.

Shortly after Dorothy retired to her bed, Neilson cut the telephone line to the house (suspecting a burglar alarm), then discreetly entered the Whittles' home through the garage; he placed a box of Turkish delight atop a large flower vase upon a hearth rug in the lounge, then placed three coiled Dymotape messages upon this confectionery box.

Neilson then ascended the stairs to Lesley's bedroom.

Encountering Lesley asleep in her bed, Neilson shook the teenager's shoulder until she began to awake before placing his hand over her mouth as she opened her eyes to see him pointing a gun at her face.

Gagging the teenager, who was allowed to dress only in her dressing gown and slippers, he ordered her at gunpoint out of the house and into his green Morris 1300 car, where he bound her wrists and ankles before blindfolding her and ordering her to lie on the back seat beneath a foam mattress.

Neilson then briefly retrieved approximately £200 in cash from the home before driving Lesley sixty-five miles to Bathpool Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.

At this location, he removed the blindfold from her eyes and the bindings from her ankles before forcing her down an iron ladder into the narrow drainage shaft of a nearby reservoir.

The two navigated several obstacles, including an underground waterfall, until they reached a narrow ledge 54 ft beneath ground.

This ledge was just sixty centimeters in width.

At this location, Neilson removed Lesley's gag after informing her to remain quiet and telling her nobody could hear her scream; he then cut the bindings on her wrists, then told her to remove her dressing gown to dry herself.