Out of Time: how truth serum solved a theft case in Notts

On a January night in 1960, Edith Simpson went to speak with her old lodger, Howard Graham (61). Opening the door to his room, she found him dead on the floor. Graham hadn’t been a well man, but had lived with her for about two years. In shock, she ran across the road to their local pub, The Wheatsheaf on Ilkeston Road. The Wheatsheaf was a Shipstone pub that was later transformed into a chemist's. 

The pub was licensed by Ernest William Spencer (42) – Simpson’s neighbour – who was behind the bar that night. He, along with Eric Hobster (29), a regular, went across to the house to help her immediately. 

Simpson began collecting Graham’s things, putting bags on the couch, ready to give to his son. This included getting his money from the safe. Later, when counting the money, she realised that £420 was missing. 

Incredibly, the £420 was later found on the cellar floor of the Wheatsheaf pub in an envelope. Police arrested Hobster, who told them that Spencer had taken it and given him £100 as part of the larger amount. He showed them where the money could be found in the pub. Spencer admitted to taking the money but not to stealing it. He said he had been worried that Simpson had been about to take the money, and when he came to, he’d found £420 in his possession. As he panicked, he threw it down a 120-foot chute into the cellar.

Unsure what had happened and worried, Spencer suggested that the Superintendent of the Coppice Mental Hospital, Dr Gideon Woddis, interview him about his mental health, but he had a strange request – he wanted to take a truth injection first. 

A truth injection was described as a mix of Pentothal and Methedrine. The history of truth drugs or injections goes back to the 1930s, when they were first developed. The oldest of these is sodium thiopental, which was part of a group of drugs known as barbiturates. These were commonly used during this era to help people with sleeping, but were very addictive – later linked to the death of Marilyn Monroe.

It was thought that when patients were between consciousness and unconsciousness, they would speak more freely – hence the idea that it was a truth drug. It was also felt that it made lying more difficult. 

When the case went to court, Dr Woddis was called to give evidence about what Spencer told him while under the influence of the drug. Woddis testified that Spencer had reenacted the entire night and his own personal history, which explained perfectly what had happened…  

On seeing the body, Spencer had had a fright and gone into a state of deep dissociation. His own father, who was said to have resembled Graham very closely in mannerisms and physical features, had passed away a few years before. Spencer’s father had raised him on his own from the age of four after his mother left the family. As Spencer recounted this to Woddis, he recalled blacking out on seeing the body of Graham, which had brought him a considerable amount of distress. 

In a state of dissociation, he had taken the money, believing he was protecting his own father by putting it somewhere safe, as he believed Simpson might steal it. During the war, when Spencer left to fight, his father had been targeted by women who robbed him. Terrified, Spencer thought history was repeating itself and took the money to protect Graham. When he came round from the blackout, he panicked and didn’t know how to return it. So he hid it and pleaded not guilty.

The court heard how Spencer had a sterling war record and “first class character”, so this was exceptionally out of character for him. They were also told that he was in no financial difficulty either. Newspapers had a field day with the case – the Daily Herald ran the headline: “hypnotised by a dead man” on page three in January 1960. 

The jury took just under two hours to decide Spencer’s fate. 

Spencer was given an absolute discharge after the recorder said he had been “sufficiently punished” after losing the tenancy of the pub when he was convicted. It was likely, according to the recorder, that Spencer would be unable to obtain another license for another pub, too. 

An absolute discharge occurs when the court decides not to impose a punishment because sufficient punishment has already been imposed through the court, or due to various factors. Hobster was ordered to pay 50 guineas towards the court costs of 200 guineas.

The recorder stressed that the testimony of the psychiatrist must be taken fully into evidence by the jury. He added that the truth injection had been a ‘novelty’ but warned it should not be discredited. 

It was widely believed, due to the reporting, that this was the first time that truth injection evidence had been used in a court case in England. However, this was far from the truth. There are multiple cases across England where this is the case, including a case in 1945 where an American corporal was accused of murdering a girl in Buckinghamshire, He was also given the truth drug, pentothal. It was under this drug that he confessed to the killing. 

So, despite reports, Nottingham cannot lay claim to being the first city to use truth drugs in court, although the case was certainly unusual, even for its time.