Suspects
The three suspects were John Edward 'Jack' Witney, John Duddy and Harry Maurice Roberts. Witney (born 1930) was a known petty criminal with ten convictions for theft. He lived with his wife in a basement flat in Fernhead Road, Paddington. John Duddy (born 1929), originally from Glasgow, was a long-distance lorry driver. He had been in trouble for theft several times when he was younger, but had been straight since 1948. Immediately prior to the offence he had started to drink heavily and had met Roberts and Witney in a club. Harry Maurice Roberts (born 1936) was a career criminal with convictions for attempted store-breaking, larceny and robbery with violence. He was a former soldier who had served in Malaya. He almost certainly opened fire because he thought that the officers were about to search the van and believed he could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment if he was caught with a firearm.
Read more about this topic: Shepherd's Bush Murders
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