Who shot James Dawson - Unsolved Murder (1934)

It’s not often the victim of a murder can revisit the place of his (or her) death with the police and go through step-by-step what happened to them, but this next story is not a run of the mill murder case, as all we be revealed.

Today’s story takes us back to March 1934, Sunday the 18th of March to be precise, and to a small village hidden within the boundaries of the Ribble Valley, Lancashire – Bashall Eaves.

On a wet and windy evening, James Dawson, a local farmer to the area, visited his local pub The Edisford Inn (now known as The Edisford Bridge) at around 7.15pm and after spending sometime there, drinking and laughing with some of his friends, he left and made his way home at around 9.00pm.

With his head bowed down and facing into the blistering wind and rain, James made his way towards Back Lane, an unlit narrow road that is just under a mile away from the The Edisford Inn and it would take him around 15 to 20 minutes to get there.

Upon approaching the lane, the headlights of two cars came towards him, revealing the shadowy figure of a man standing close by to a gate on the left hand side of the road, opposite of the lane.

As the first car passed him, James noticed that four people were inside and one of the occupants was Tommy Kenyon, a farm hand that worked with James. He was sat in the backseat of the car but James couldn’t make out who the three other passengers where.

As the second car passed him, James noticed that the shadowy figure that was stood alongside the gate had now seemingly vanished.

Making his way into Back Lane, James began walking into the darkness but had barely walked thirty yards when suddenly, out of nowhere he heard what he described to be a ‘clicking’ sound and then he felt a sudden stinging pain towards the back of his left shoulder.

Whether or not it had been the alcohol that he had consumed during the evening that had taken the edge out of the inevitable stinging sensation is open to interpretation, but at the time James reportedly said to an investigating officer that he just thought someone was having a lark and he thought it was nothing more than a stone that was thrown at him.