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At the centre of the story was one elderly woman – Kathleen Grundy. Mrs Grundy died at home on 24th June 1998 aged 81. She was a former mayoress of Hyde … Alarmed at what they’d discovered, Kathleen Grundy’s family took the suspect will to the police. The Shipman Files: A Very British Crime Stories I, BBC news, BBC 2020
Mistake #1: Shipman’s use of the drug morphine – morphine is one of the few poisons that can remain in the body tissue for centuries;
Mistake #2: the typewriter and the badly forged will. Born to Kill? Harold Shipman: Born to Kill? Channel 5 2012
Experts quickly established that Shipman’s typewriter had been used to forge the will. Harold Shipman: Dr Death, ITV 2002
Shipman had altered Kathleen Grundy’s will. Murders that Shocked Britain: Shipman
He [Dr Shipman] has callously murdered Kathleen [Grundy] and tried to forge her will to inherit nearly £400,000. Crimes that Shook Britain s1e1: Harold Shipman, CI 2008
For more than a century Eastbourne has been home to large numbers of wealthy retired people. Great Crimes & Trials s3e14: John Bodkin Adams, BBC 1996
Mrs Gertrude ‘Bobby’ Hullett had died apparently of a drugs overdose. ibid.
Three days before her death Mrs Hullett had remade her will leaving the Rolls Royce to Dr Adams. ibid.
Press speculation became intense when it was revealed that Scotland Yard was investigating the deaths of several wealthy and elderly people. ibid.
The search turned up 132 wills in which the doctor had been left some £45,000. ibid.
What was then the longest trial in British legal history the jury withdrew: they were back in only forty-four minutes to find Dr John Bodkin Adams not guilty. ibid.
An estimated one million dogs in the USA have been named primary beneficiary in their owners’ wills. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! 2006
Half a million pounds. Father Ted s1e6: Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest, Ted reads Jack’s will, Channel 4 1995
My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don’t need to fuss and moan –
’Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.’
My body? – Oh! – If I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will.
Good luck to all of you. Joe Hill
The last will and testament of Rab C Nesbitt: to my darling DSS. I leave my wife and two sons. To my son Bernie I leave my bad attitude. Rab C Nesbitt s8e4: Night, BBC 1999
All that I own goes to the Party. If this no longer exists, to the State. Should the State also have been destroyed, no further decision is necessary. As Executor of my will I appoint my most loyal Party comrade – Martin Bormann. Adolf Hitler, private will & testament
Item, I give unto my wife my second best bed, with the furniture. William Shakespeare
Of all the cases which come before the Court for its decision, none can be more embarrassing and more unsatisfactory than those which arise upon the construction of wills. The Court has no real guide to enable it to arrive at a conclusion. The only things which can be called guides are certain rules which the Court has laid down, and which may be extracted from the decisions. Beyond that, the decisions are not of the slightest use. Except by adherence to those rules, there is nothing but what may, not irreverently, be called guessing as to what the words of the document can be held to mean. James Bacon VC, re Ingle's Trusts 1871 LR 1 Eq Ca 586
I regret exceedingly that, not only ordinary laymen, but, as it seems to me, professional men, do not understand the great difficulty there is in drawing wills, and do not bestow a little more care and pains in endeavouring to draw them in such a way as that the numerous questions which often arise on them should be avoided. I regret to say that these questions often throw a great deal of expense on parties interested under the wills, and are the cause of great heartburnings and most bitter animosities. Pearson J, re Wait; Workman v Petgrave 1885 LR 30 C D 622
Courts of justice ought to carry into effect the intentions of testators as far as they can consistently with the rules of law. Lord Langdale MR, Biederman v Seymour 1841 3 Beav 371
Tonight: stealing from your own grandparents. The crooks ripping off vulnerable relatives. It’s a cruel crime that’s destroying families. And are current legal safeguards really good enough? Tonight: Elderly Theft: Robbing the Relatives, ITV 2017
The criminals are often much closer to home than we’d like to think. ibid.
‘This is the last will, the last personal will, of Adolf Hitler.’ Hunting Hitler s3e8: Hitler’s Last Will, interpreter of Chilean informant, History 2018
Getty had changed his will no fewer than twenty-one times toward the end of his life. The Gettys: A Tragedy of Riches, 1995
Some of those fortunes became forgotten after their owners died in obscurity, never leaving a will … One stands apart from the rest: in the San Francisco vaults of Wells Fargo bank lies what is purportedly the largest unclaimed stock certificate in the world: its worth is estimated at $3.2 million. Who stands to inherit this fortune? In Search of s4e15 … The Missing Heir, 1980
The certificate epitomises the twenty billion dollars unclaimed in the United States today. ibid.
Ben Field, Deputy Church Warden October 2017: ‘Thou shalt not kill: fantastic.’ Catching a Killer: A Diary from the Grave, sermon, Channel 4 2020
You’re concerned that whoever’s been in today to see her has possibly given her something? ibid. 999 switchboard to caller
Given the suspicion of Ann’s death, we’re looking again at his [Peter’s] death as well. The key connection between Ann and Peter is Ben Field and his associate Peter Smith. Peter Farquhar, shortly before his death, changed his will to benefit Ben Field, leaving his house and other possessions to Field rather than his extended family. Ann Moore-Martin also made Field the beneficiary of her will, leaving him her house. ibid.
The suspect has disappeared. He jumped out the bedroom window. ibid. rozzer in situ to chief rozzer at base
I think that he’s a psychopath … He was visiting these older people, looking after them … He was in the perfect position. ibid. investigating rozzer
Ben Field was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 36 years for the murder of Peter Farquhar. He was found not guilty of the attempted murder of Ann Moore-Martin. Martyn Smith was found not guilty on all charges. ibid. captions
It was in his will. Apparently, he wanted to be buried standing up, sticking out of the ground, so he could have a view of the house. The Gentlemen IV: An Unsympathetic Gentleman, mother to son, Netflix 2024