Eighty years ago this month, farm labourer Charles Walton was savagely murdered with his pitchfork in an intriguing and still unsolved crime that local villagers say was inspired by witchcraft and will remain a secret forever.
The grisly case – the last ritual killing in Britain – remains a much talked about subject behind closed doors in the close-knit Cotswolds community where he died.
But, today, in public it is taboo with one local insisting: ‘It is a very touchy subject and we can’t talk about it, we daren’t!
‘What happened all those years ago was very gruesome and rumour has it centred on the occult and witchcraft.
‘People known to the victim and his killer have been sworn to secrecy.
The resident, who was too fearful to give her name, said: ‘The reason behind the murder and the name of his killer are known locally but will never be divulged.
‘It is our village’s best kept secret.’
The body of Mr Walton, 74, a lifelong resident in picturesque Lower Quinton, Warwickshire – seven miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon – was found on the evening of Valentine’s Day, February 1945.
Charles Walton died while cutting a hedge on Valentine’s Day in 1945 but the village has always rumoured that it was a black magic ritual killing
The grave where Mr Walton had been is now unmarked after authorities, many years ago, removed the headstone, according to a local
The pretty white washed thatched cottage where Mr Walton lived still stands today – he occupied the one on the right
He had been cutting hedges in the fields near the bottom of Meon Hill at The Firs farm when his life brutally ended.
Mr Walton was found beaten over the head with his walking stick and his throat cut with a slash hook, a double-edged pruning implement, which was left embedded in his neck.
His body had been pinned to the ground with prongs of his own pitch fork in a ritual-style slaying.
A large cross was carved into his chest.
Describing the sickening moment he saw the scene of Mr Walton’s murder, former local police constable Michael Lomasney previously said: ‘By the time I had got to the field several people had already trampled over it. The body was a horrible sight.
‘One of the prongs of the pitchfork was stuck right down through his throat and into his chest. There was only an inch or so ion it still protruding.
‘It went deep down into his chest and must have penetrated his heat. The other prong was outside his body.
‘The cleaver hook used to kill him had also been stuck in the wound, his head was almost severed and was thrown right backwards.’
The church overlooks the field where Mr Walton was brutally murdered
Mr Walton had been beaten over the head with his walking stick and his throat cut with a slash hook, a double-edged pruning implement, which was left embedded in his neck
The ex cop added: ‘His mac was beside the body, neatly rolled up. I noticed that his pocket watch had gone, the broken chain was still in his waistcoat.
‘Nearby his walking stick was found, with a patch of his hair on it.’
Local myth suggests the widower, described as a ‘bit strange’ with a special understanding of birds and beasts, had weird encounters as a boy with a mysterious black dog and a headless woman, following the death of his sister.
His gruesome murder shocked the village, where prisoners of war had been kept before the ending of World War II seven months later, but details of his alleged killer and his motive have been kept a fiercely guarded secret.
One local, drinking at the village’s only pub, the College Arms, said: ‘You’ve got to keep your mouth shut around here!
‘Rumour goes it was a ritual killing and he had been practising witchcraft.’
The middle-aged man said: ‘It was certainly a very creepy murder and because the killer’s never been found and the crime remains unsolved, it stirs up all this intrigue and wild theories.’
Mr Walton shared a small cottage with his 33-year-old niece Edith Walton, who he had adopted 30 years previously following the death of her mother.
The mystery around Mr Walton’s death has puzzled true crime fans for decades with many believing it was a black magic ritual killing
The pretty white washed thatched cottage still stands today but has been converted from three homes – he had the one on the right side – to just a single.
It faces St Swithin’s Church and it is understood he was buried in the cemetery with overlooks the fields where his life was brutally ended.
As a new documentary about the ritual murder has been made and due to air soon, a team from MailOnline visited the village still shrouded in mystery.
Whilst some locals happily chatted, others simply refused to.
But we found out, exclusively, that the grave where Mr Walton had been is now unmarked after authorities, many years ago, removed the headstone, according to a local.
The prime suspect, farmer Alfred Potter who managed The Firs and whom the labourer had been working for in the day go the murder, was quizzed by police several times but there was insufficient evidence to ever changed him.
Upon his death, he was also buried in the same resting place, again in an unmarked grave.
A resident, who has lived in the village for 58 years and mows the grassed churchyard, said the ‘both the victim and his suspected killer’ are laid to rest in the same ground.
One local said the murder ‘is a subject we don’t talk about. People may still be living here who remember so we keep quiet’
‘But their headstones were taken away, police informed me.
‘They suspected there could be trouble with people gauping at them all the time, or even being vandalised so the graves are unmarked.’
The local, who declined to be named, said: ‘No one knows where they are buried.’
He added: ‘It is an intriguing case and I knew about it when I moved here. It is creepy but it didn’t put me off.
‘It’s a charming little village and I don’t believe in all the witchcraft mumbo jumbo.’
It is not known is Mr Walton has any surviving relatives.
The church worker said: ‘We don’t know that. There had been family members and that’s why folk don’t talk about. It always used to be a tight-knit neighbourhood.
‘All the older people are dying off now and I cant imagine there would be many, if anyone around from the days of that murder.’
Esmond (crct) Payne, who has lived in Little Quinton for 32 years, said ‘ the death of this farm worker is cloaked in secrecy’
George Mead said: ‘I love history and it’s a fascinating case but who knows what to really believe’
Our website’s team of sleuths spotted several possible places where the victim’s corpse now rests in peace.
Several unmarked graves are dotted between marked ones, many with imposing headstones and loving inscriptions, behind the church overlooking the spot where the murder happened.
Eerily, a funeral was being held on the day we visited following the death of popular elderly resident Robert Hannigan.
Mourners had also been holding a wake in the village pub – the same establishment 80 years ago that the suspected killer, when questioned by detectives, said he had been drinking at the time of the murder.
The landlady, declined to talk, saying: ‘It is a subject we don’t talk about. People may still be living here who remember so we keep quiet.’
Resident Esmond (crct) Payne, who has lived in Little Quinton for 32 years with wife Julie, said: ‘An unsolved murder always provokes debate and the death of this farm worker is cloaked in secrecy.’
The couple’s home overlook beautiful hills in the distance where the labourer had been working and killed.
Mr Payne, who helped run an engineering company and is now retired, said: ‘There is a lot of secrecy in the village, people seem to know how the killer is but won’t say.
But Helena said the only theories she believes about the murder are nothing to do with witchcraft
‘We’ve heard all sorts to things about witchcraft and rituals, and the detective from Scotland Yard who tried to solve the case visiting the scene every Valentine’s Day, looking for a new clue.’
Retired roofer George Mead, a villager of seven years, said: ‘When I first moved here I’d heard the stories about the unsolved murder and that the man was killed because he was a witch.
‘So I read up on it all. I love history and it’s a fascinating case but who knows what to really believe.
‘It was a pretty horrific murder but it was decades ago so doesn’t affect any of us now.’
Resident Helena, whose Polish parents moved to the village in 1956, eight years after the murder, said: ‘There’s lots of theories about why the murder happened but the only I strong believe has nothing to do with witchcraft.
‘Some people in the village suggest it was a dispute over money, a local issue over borrowing a loan and it not being paid back.
‘A lot of locals don’t want to speak about it because the killer and victim are someone’s relatives and no one will spill the beans.’
Helena, who didn’t want to be fully named, and lives between hones in the village and London, added: ‘Some talk about witchcraft, they love to spin that one, and they do it to mislead.
Rachael said that the murder was ‘baffling’ and ‘creepy’
‘But I think was a row of money that needed in murder. These things always boil down to money, or sex!
‘At the end if the day the poor chap went out for a day’s work and never came back.’
A woman, who has lived locally for 10 years, said: ‘Everyone speculates about the unsolved Meon Hill murder but I don’t think it’s very relevant to people living here today.
‘It was a long time ago, and these things happen in life and for future generations this is just a distant memory.
‘Life moves on.’
Actress Kim Hartman, best known for her role as private Helga Geerhart in BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo lives in a chocolate-box cottage in the heart of the village.
But when approached by MailOnline she didn’t want to be drawn into the notorious murder and tales of witchcraft.
She smiled: ‘I’ve lived here for a while now but I cannot add anything really, sorry.’
Whilst loner Mr Walton didn’t socialise with his neighbours he was not disliked in the village.
He carried on labouring as a pensioner, sometimes using a stick to help aid with some rheumatoid joints.
Visiting traveller Rachael, pitched up in her wagon with her menagerie of horses, dogs and hens, said: ‘Yes, I’ve heard all about the grisly murder from a couple of the locals but I didn’t know it happened right near my pitch!’
Pointing out to the spot in the distance, outlined by a row of tall trees, she exclaimed: ‘Oh really, up there. It’s baffling.’
Rachel, on the road with her 30-year-old daughter, said: ‘It’s our first time to this village, we’ve been here a few days but are heading off shortly.
‘We heard the story about the unsolved pitchfork murder when we first arrived.
‘People love to talk about it but they don’t give too much away. It sounds very creepy.’
Alec Spooner, a retired former Chief Superintendent of Warwickshire CID, who helped investigate the murder in sleepy Lower Quinton – once judged Warwickshire’ s best kept village – previously told how ‘any suggestion of witchcraft was extensively investigated.’
He added: ‘But is never provided us with a lead. We didn’t find a witches’ coven or anything like that in the area.
‘There was no evidence that Charles Walton dabbled in anything of that nature.’
Mr Lomasney – known as Jim -also said: ‘I don’t think he was involved in anything like that. And I don’t believe in witchcraft myself.
‘I daresay some of the villagers believed in it. But I don’t think this was a Black Magic murder.’
Documentary maker Rupert Russell has made a compelling drama about the unsolved murder, called The Last sacrifice, set to be screened at Glasgow Film Festival on Thursday March 7.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Russell said that the film ‘explores all of the different theories put forward for the murder and how ultimately it remains unsolved.’
He added: ‘The Walton murder is really where you get this idea of a pagan village conspiracy, an outsider policeman coming into a small village to uncover a strange secret.
‘The case shows that you really don’t know your neighbours, you never really know the secrets that they keep and everything in-between.
‘The murder took place in a small, idyllic and picturesque village in the Cotswolds. It is an incredibly niche case but within the wider context wasn’t entirely uncommon, there were pagan rituals taking place everywhere.
‘It almost sets the stage of the folk horror genre which remains so popular today.’
Publicity material for the film states that the film ‘uncovers the real-life witchcraft killing that inspired The Wicker Man and birthed the folk horror genre.’
It adds: ‘This unsettling true-crime interrogation unlocks the perverse cultural undercurrents that shaped the genre from its murderous beginnings to its modern-day resurrection.
‘This is a journey that gets under the skin of British polite society, that slays with pride, kills with prejudice.’
