Many people are aware of the "Wigglesworth murder", but few accurately recall the details from 1983. For example, at the time, it wasn't counted as being in Wigglesworth, but Long Preston, and it wasn't technically a murder. Fortunately the trial was comprehensively documented in the Yorkshire Evening Post, and the conclusion even made the Daily Mirror.
It's a tragic tale, involving mental health, rural isolation and media influence. I would urge readers to approach it with empathy and consideration, in case there are still family members in the area.
Estimated reading time 15 mins
Barry Traish
6th June 1983 Yorkshire
Evening Post p1
John Alan Jackson, 20, pleaded not guilty to the murder of
his father William Jackson, 68, at their home, Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston,
near Skipton, on August 26 last year. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the
ground of diminished responsibility but the Crown said this plea was not
acceptable.
Mr. Robin Stewart, Q.C., prosecuting, told the jury: “This
accused and his father were partners in a farm.
“There is some evidence to suggest that all was not always
well between father and son. The father was from time to time a bit critical of
his son.
“The accused's sister, Celia Jackson, will describe the
father as very domineering — he used to shout and tell her brother off for the
least thing,” he said.
“Be that as it may the Crown's case is that this young man
deliberately shot his father at home.”
Mr. Stewart said Jackson bought a double-barrelled shotgun
on Wednesday, August 25, the day before the killing. He had already bought a
shotgun certificate for it.
“The Crown's case is that he planned to kill his father at
least on the Thursday,” said Mr. Stewart.
Mr. Stewart said Jackson took the shotgun home on August 25
and put it in his bedroom.
On the following morning between 9 and 9.30 “he shot his
father as he was coming out of the upstairs bathroom,” he said.
Jackson allegedly admitted to the police later that he
intended to shoot his father and that he had planned this the evening before.
“He told police he intended to harm his father but not to
kill him,” said Mr. Stewart.
PROCEEDING
7th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p1
A 21-year-old man accused of murdering his father had fantasised that he was Clint Eastwood, when driving a tractor on the family farm, Leeds Crown Court heard this afternoon.
Dr. Charles Christopher Hunter, a consultant psychiatrist,
told the jury there was no evidence to suggest he was suffering from any mental
illness.
John Alan Jackson, 21, has pleaded not guilty to the murder
of his father, William, 68, by shooting him at their home, Sandholmes Farm,
Long Preston, near Skipton, on August last year. His plea of guilty to
manslaughter has not been accepted by the prosecution.
Dr. Hunter, a prosecution witness, said he had interviewed
Jackson at Leeds Prison on January 26 and February 24.
“He told me that for the first few years after leaving
school he had been quite happy working on the farm despite the long hours and
isolation, but I gained the impression that in the two years before I saw him
he had become disenchanted with his lot on the farm,” he said.
Dr. Hunter said Jackson complained that his father used to
insult him, calling him useless, and he went on to say he hated his father.
Dr. Hunter said: “Jackson told me that for one or two years
he had indulged quite voluntarily in fantasies or daydreams in which he would
imagine himself when riding a tractor on the farm or on his motorbike, to be
certain people he had admired on television — Clint Eastwood was one, and the
two actors portrayed in ‘The Professionals’. He enjoyed these fantasies and
more if he had drunk alcohol.”
Dr. Hunter said they were not the manifestation of any
mental illness.
He said Jackson told him the fantasies had become more
violent and “I wanted to get my own back on people who had insulted me and then
kill myself.
Jackson said that on August 25, his father had shouted at
him and struck him across the face for smoking. When he told his father he had
to have a cigarette for nerves his father had ridiculed him.
Anger
His reaction was not to retaliate but to leave the house in
anger and frustration and not to return for some time. Dr. Hunter told the
jury: “Jackson told me he firmly decided he was going to kill his father and he
told me the shooting of his father was a deliberate act.”
He said he told Jackson he could find no evidence to suggest
he was suffering from any mental illness and Jackson appeared to be rather
relieved.
Mr. Robin Stewart Q.C. prosecuting, said Jackson bought a
shotgun on August 25 and shot his father as he was leaving the bathroom next
morning.
Earlier, Jackson's sister told the jury today of friction
between the two men, as they shared a hard life on the bleak family farm.
But she said: “My father always had my brother’s best
interests at heart, although his criticism hurt my brother.” Miss Celia
Jackson, 23, of Sandholmes Farm, said her mother died in 1975 and her brother
started working for their father at 16.
“I found father always had my brother's best interest at
heart. Although he was worried about the future my father wanted to carry on
farming for my brother's sake.
“There was' a lack of communication and friction which was
caused sometimes because Alan wasn't very good at carrying out his work,” she
said.
“My father used to work very hard and he was disappointed
that Alan didn't share his responsibilities.”
Miss Jackson said her father worried about her brother. He
would grumble at him for not working very hard.
“My brother looked very hurt when criticised but he did not
retaliate although I knew the criticism used to upset him a lot. It hurt his
feelings to be brought down.
Miss Jackson said that when she visited the farm over the
previous two years she noticed her brother giggling or smiling for no reason
and he became more isolated. “My father used to eat his meals in the kitchen
and Alan would take his meals into the lounge. My father wanted him to eat with
him but Alan was withdrawing all the time.
“He wouldn't eat with us even when I was there. This struck
me as strange behaviour and very anti-social.”
Miss Jackson said her father objected to smoking and
drinking because he was a strong, old-fashioned type of churchman. She found
evidence that Alan was drinking secretly after his father had gone to bed.
She said she was in her London flat on August 26 when her
brother arrived unexpectedly.
“He had a very blank expression on his face.” She asked him
what he was doing in London, and he said: “‘I've had an accident with a
shotgun. It backfired and hit dad in the head'.”
Miss Jackson went on: “I jumped up and| shouted ‘Alan’ He
shouted back ‘It wasn't my fault. It was an accident.'
“I started crying and went over to Alan and put my arms
round him. I could feel him shaking against me and he was crying as well.”
She said her brother told her that he had not told anybody about the incident. “Alan said he wouldn't kill my father because he was his best friend and they talked a lot together. He said although father could be rotten to him sometimes it didn't mean that he didn't love him,” she said.
PROCEEDING
8th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p1
A man alleged to have shot his father dead at a bleak Yorkshire farm had identified himself with a character in the film “Taxi Driver,” Leeds Crown Court was told today.
John Alan Jackson, 21, has denied murdering his father,
William, 68, at their home, Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston, near Skipton, on
August 26 last year.
Dr. Hollingworth, a consultant psychiatrist at Airedale
Hospital, Keighley, said he concluded after many interviews that Jackson was
suffering from a psychotic paranoid illness at the time which would lead to
diminished responsibility.
Dr. Hollingworth said Jackson had fantasies which were often
associated with film characters, in particular “Taxi Driver.”
He said: “I have seen this film because I thought I ought to
after what he had told me. In the film Robert De Niro went on a killing spree
but Jackson's interpretation of the film was totally different to my
interpretation.
STATURE
“Jackson saw him as a lonely, isolated man who did it to
gain stature. If the court has seen the film this was certainly not the point
of it at all.”
Dr. Hollingworth said he thought the fantasies were greater
than the daydreams of a lonely boy.
Judge Beaumont said: “Two doctors have taken the view that
he was in control of his fantasies and indulged in them voluntarily.”
Dr. Hollingworth said: “He did this voluntarily but I feel
that gradually the fantasies became more and more real and ‘ he began to act
them out. The time would come when the fantasies would take over and intrude
into his mind.”
He said that shortly before August 26 Jackson had ordered a
new £7,500 car when the farm's turnover was only something like £20,000 for the
year, and he had spent £230 to £240 on a new shotgun.
DISTURBED
Dr. Hollingworth said: “I believe this is evidence of
disturbance. He had lost control. He was normally a very conforming boy on this
farm, but gradually over the previous six months there had been a change in his
behaviour.”
Judge Beaumont asked: “Does it indicate to you that he had
lost all touch with reality?”
Dr. Hollingworth said: “I know Dales farms and if I were to reach
a conclusion I would say he say he was losing touch with reality because spending
money like that would have created mayhem on this farm.”
He said that apart from a new shotgun, Jackson had borrowed
a .22mm. rifle with a silencer.
Jackson told him that his father was watching television in
the evening on the day before his death.
TRIGGER
“He said he had crept up behind him, put the .22 rifle at
the back of his father's neck and pulled the trigger but it did not fire.
“The father had no idea he had been in the room and Jackson
said he had crept out shaking like a leaf and saying to himself ‘what am |
doing?'.”
Dr. Hollingworth said Jackson told him he got up the next
day at 7.30 a.m. “He told me ‘'l knew I was going to kill my father. A black
mood was on me’.”
He said Jackson fed a cow and calf, had his breakfast, and
after his father had gone to the bathroom went upstairs, put two cartridges in
the shotgun, pulled the trigger and with one shot killed his father.
Dr. Hollingworth said: “His actions thereafter were equally
disordered.
Proceeding.
9th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p1
There was a dramatic outburst at Leeds Crown Court this afternoon in the Skipton farm murder trial just before the jury retired to consider its verdict.
Judge Beaumont has just completed his summing up when the accused
man, John Alan Jackson jumped up from his seat in the dock and shouted “guilty”.
His sister Celia, who has been a prosecution witness said:
'Sit down Alan” and prison officers persuaded him to resume his seat.
Judge Beaumont made no comment about the outburst and the
jury then left the No. 1 court for their retiring room.
Jackson, 21, a farm worker of Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston,
Skipton has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his father William, 68, at the
farm on August 26 last.
On the opening day of the trial he pleaded guilty to manslaughter
on the ground of diminished responsibility but the prosecution would not accept
his plea.
Court report — Page 7.
9th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p7
A man deliberately shot his father, firing a shotgun at the back of his head from a distance of three to five feet, a Leeds Crown Court jury heard today. John Alan Jackson, 21, farmworker, of Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston, near Skipton, pleads not guilty to the murder of his father William Jackson, 68, at the farm on August 26 last year.
Jackson did not give evidence. Two psychiatrists called by
the prosecution said Jackson was not suffering from diminished responsibility,
but two psychiatrists called on his behalf said he was suffering from an
abnormality of mind which substantially impaired his responsibility.
Mr. Robin Stewart, QC, making his final speech for the prosecution
told the jury: “None of you can have failed to have been aware during the last
few days of the human tragedy involved in this case.”
But he submitted the shooting was a deliberate act with the intention
of killing his father.
The real question for the jury was whether the verdict of
murder should be reduced to manslaughter by reason of diminished
responsibility.
Fact from fantasy
He submitted that Jackson was in complete control of
himself, knowing fact from fantasy and right from wrong and the correct verdict
was murder.
Mr. Arthur Hutchinson, QC. for Jackson, in his closing
speech, said: “It will have been brought home to you that homicide, killing in real
life isn't the way it is represented on television.
“In some cases, and this is manifestly one of them, it is
loaded with sadness and tragedy. This is one of those cases where the other,
real side, of homicide has been clearly demonstrated.”
Mr. Hutchinson said it was not a question of Jackson's
seeking to evade responsibility for the crime, but he submitted it was a case
of manslaughter because his responsibility for it was reduced.
“Normal though he was during his schooldays and his teens he
was nevertheless one of life's fragile plants.”
Earlier, Dr. James Valentine, a consultant psychiatrist, the
second of two defence witnesses, said he had seen Jackson on seven occasions
and interviewed him for between 10 to 14 hours.
Voices in kitchen
“I considered Jackson was suffering from a schizophrenic
illness, that is a psychotic illness,” he told the court.
Jackson had told him of hearing voices in the kitchen of the
farmhouse and Jackson said that the voices were real and not just a figment of
his imagination.
The voices would comment on the way he rode his motorcycle and he would go out into the yard to try to
perform better on it. They had told him to kick sheep and, although he would
not normally harm farm animals, he found himself kicking them.
Dr. Valentine said that Jackson had been a fairly normal boy
until he went to comprehensive school. “He then began to withdraw from the
world to become a different kind of person. His mother’s death was probably a
factor in this and in place of social activities of a normal boy, he developed
fantasies.
PROCEEDING
10th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p1
A man who shot his father at a bleak Yorkshire farm has been cleared of murder.
After a six-hour retirement on the fourth day of the trial,
at Leeds Crown Court, the jury found John Alan Jackson, 21, not guilty of the
murder of his father, William, 68, at Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston, Skipton,
on August 26, last year.
They found him guilty of manslaughter on the ground of
diminished responsibility. Jackson denied murder but pleaded guilty to
manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility on the opening day of
the trial but the prosecution said it was not an acceptable plea.
Judge Beaumont postponed sentence until next week, saying: “It
is not possible to sentence him now because I will have to have the doctors back.”
He said Jackson should remain in the hospital wing of Leeds
Prison where he had been on remand until he was sentenced.
The Crown alleged that Jackson bought a shotgun and
deliberately shot is father in the head.
Jackson did not give evidence, but two psychiatrists called
on his behalf, said at the time of the killing he was suffering from an
abnormality of the mind which substantially impaired his responsibility for the
killing.
Two other psychiatrists, called by the prosecution, said was
not suffering from an abnormality of mind.
The jury heard from doctors that Jackson had fantasies and thought
he was Clint Eastwood and he associated himself with a character in the film “The
Taxi Driver”.
17th June 1983 Yorkshire Evening Post p9
Farm killer for secure hospital
A man who shot his father to death at a bleak Yorkshire farm was today ordered to be detained in a secure hospital without limit of time.
John Alan Jackson, 21, of Sandholmes Farm, Long Preston,
Skipton, was sent to Park Lane Hospital, Liverpool, by a Leeds Crown Court
judge.
On June 9 a jury cleared Jackson of the murder of his
father, Mr. William Jackson, 68, but guilty of manslaughter on the ground of
diminished responsibility, and sentence was postponed for further medical
evidence.
During the trial it was said that Jackson had fantasies that
he was Clint Eastwood and had associated himself with a character in the film “Taxi
Driver.”
Mr. Arthur Hutchinson, QC, for Jackson told Judge Beaumont that
a bed was available at Park Lane, one of the most advanced and most secure
hospitals in the country.
Dr. George Hollingworth, a consultant psychiatrist, said
that Jackson was suffering from a paranoid psychotic illness, was a potential
danger and needed treatment.
18th June 1983 Daily Mirror p11
FARMER'S son John Jackson was convinced he was TV tough guy Bodie of The Professionals when he shot his father dead with a 12-bore shotgun.
Jackson, 21, lived in a fantasy world of film and television
heroes, a court was told yesterday. Psychiatrist Dr Charles Hunter told Leeds
Crown Court: “He would imagine himself to be people he had seen on TV whom he
admired, such as Clint Eastwood or actors in The Professionals.” Robin Stewart
Q.C., prosecuting, said Jackson killed his domineering father William, 68, at
the family farmhouse at Long Preston, near Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales.
Jackson, who was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter due to
diminished responsibility, was ordered to be detained indefinitely at a secure
mental hospital.
