When Lane and I first began researching this mystery, I wasn’t sure what role I wanted to play in the investigation. With it just being the two of us in our group, there were so many angles and roles to consider for solving the mystery. Lane decided to go with a journal entry from Charles Walton the day before he died. At first, I wanted to write an interrogation between Detective Robert Fabian of Scotland Yard and the person I would set up as the murderer, but when I began to write the blog post, it didn’t really seem like I was going anywhere. I decided to change my perspective up a little and instead write a letter from Robert Fabian to Richard Whittington-Egan, an author and criminal historian, explaining Fabian’s feelings towards the case years after it occurred.
I wanted to take this angle because I read a lot of different articles about how Fabian seemed disappointed by the unsolved mystery, like he had let himself and the small town of Lower Quinton down by not being able to close the case. As I was researching the case, I found there to be several possible suspects, but none that could be proven with evidence. This was the same problem Fabian ran across those many years ago.
I started to suspect that Walton’s niece might be responsible for the murder, but every account I read stated that she was at work until 6 pm. There was no way it could have been her. Then, there was the mysterious Italian POW who was found wandering the grounds where Walton was killed, but this also led to a dead end. Finally, I decided to place the blame on Alfred Potter, the owner of a farm where Walton was working the day he was killed. I came to this conclusion after reading an account where Fabian told someone about his suspicions of Potter, but since he could not produce evidence of Potter being the killer, he had no case against him. Fabian kept saying that he knew Potter was to blame.
After reading all about what Fabian said about Potter being the killer, I came to the same conclusion. I felt Fabian’s frustration with the case. It seemed like the town wanted the murder to be forgotten as soon as the next day. Walton was well-liked in the community, but many had suspicions that he was involved in some sort of witchcraft. The investigations dealt heavily with signs of Walton’s death being a witchcraft sacrifice that it seems they completely ruled out the possibility of an ordinary person being responsible.
It's A Magical Mystery 