Bio

Reginald Ivor Hinks was born around 1900 or 1901. By 1933, contemporary trial reporting describes him as an electrical engineer living on Englishcombe Lane in Bath, Somerset. That year, he married Constance Anne Pullen, a divorcee with a child, who lived with her elderly father, James Pullen, in the family home known as "Wallasey" on Englishcombe Lane. Pullen, reported in various sources as either 81 or 85 years old, was described as frail and had a nurse caring for him.

According to the commonly published account of this case, after Hinks moved into the household, the nurse who had been caring for Pullen was no longer retained, and Pullen was reportedly placed on a restrictive diet and taken on long walks that at times left him alone in busy streets. This office was unable to independently verify these specific details against a trial transcript or period newspaper account, though they form part of the standard published history of the case.

Murder Story

On December 1, 1933, James Pullen died at the Bath home he shared with his daughter and son-in-law. Hinks summoned the fire brigade and told them he had discovered his father-in-law dead with his head inside the gas oven, apparently the victim of suicide. He also told the attending firemen that any bruising found on Pullen's head would have resulted from Hinks pulling him out of the oven — an unprompted explanation that struck those present as unusual, and which was formally noted at the time.

As was standard procedure in a suspected suicide, a post-mortem examination was carried out. It established that the bruising on Pullen's head had in fact been inflicted before his death, rather than during any attempt to remove him from the oven. Hinks was arrested the following day, December 2, 1933.

Hinks was tried at the Old Bailey (the Central Criminal Court in London), where he pleaded not guilty to the murder of his father-in-law. The trial drew public attention in part because of the presence of women on the jury, and press reports noted that some of the female jurors were seen in tears during the proceedings. On or about March 10, 1934, the jury found Hinks guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to death.

Reginald Ivor Hinks was executed by hanging at Bristol Prison on May 3, 1934. The execution was carried out by Thomas Pierrepoint, one of the principal executioners active in England during this period.