Fifty-eight-year-old widow Minnie Lawson was a beloved figure in the small village of Ogle in Northumberland, England. Known by the locals as “Aunt Minnie,” she ran a candy shop out of her home and encouraged young people in the village to use the shop as a gathering place.
On August 12th, 1935, a sixteen-year-old neighbor named Betty Graham had stopped by to do just that, but was instead greeted with an absolute horror: Minnie Lawson was lying dead in a pool of blood alongside her bed. She had been beaten to death with a hammer, and the killer had then attempted to set her bed on fire, presumably to destroy evidence.
Authorities couldn’t imagine who could have wanted the well-liked woman dead, and although the cottage was in some disorder as though the assailant had been looking for something, it was unclear if anything of value had been stolen.
About a week after the crime, a local laborer was arrested and charged, but there was no solid evidence tying him to the murder, and he was subsequently released. No further arrests were ever made, and the slaying of Minnie Lawson remains unsolved nearly ninety years later.
Crime Immemorial 