HAPPY FAMILIES
Apart from Stan Jones, much of the initial suspicion against Jeremy came from the surviving relatives, and this is significant. The relatives gave the police the primary background information about the Bambers and did their best to stoke the flames of prejudice against the twenty-four year old heir. Serious money was on the table if Jeremy was sent down, so this must be kept in mind when evaluating everything the Boutflours, Eatons and Pargeters said and did. The jury also entertained such ignoble thoughts, at one point asking the trial judge to clarify exactly where the prime leader of the family assault against Jeremy, Robert Boutflour, stood in terms of the inheritance if Jeremy was found guilty. As with most things, the jury was given a misleading answer. They were told Robert would have no claims on the re-distributed money if Jeremy was found guilty. While this is technically true in a direct sense, the jury wasn’t told that Robert’s very own family, his wife and children, were the ones who would get the dosh instead. The prosecution also failed to disclose that Robert Boutflour was aware that if Jeremy received his rightful inheritance, he intended to sell significant portions of land, thereby disposing of what had been a part of Pamela Boutflour’s family’s estate for generations.
Jeremy’s 1986 conviction meant that he forfeited his rightful claim to the Bamber inheritance. The family members therefore inherited an estate which, on conservative 1985 estimates, included £436,000 pounds in cash, several hundred acres of prime land, and assets that produced significant funds per annum. Ann and Peter Eaton were given the tenancy of White House Farm. Years later, from prison, Jeremy lost a High court action to recover £1.27 million he claimed he should have received from his grandmother’s will. He also lost another High Court case to recover £326,000 from his loss of earnings as a shareholder of the family-owned Osea Road caravan site.
There’s no disguising that Jeremy and the extended family actively disliked one another. Perhaps the family genuinely did believe Jeremy pulled the trigger. But it’s not fair to discard the fact that the police claimed Jeremy committed the murders for the Bamber fortune, yet forget the fact that his main accusers were the ones who prospered most from his subsequent conviction. Nevill and June viewed their large acreage as a responsibility, rather than a gift, and to the extended family, the farm represented their birthright, their expectations, their future and their children's future. Jeremy remained an interloper in their eyes and didn’t have a place in their chosen scenario. Feudal relations and bad blood was nothing new to the folks of Tolleshunt D’Arcy.*
By their own admissions, the family had come to the conclusion that Jeremy was the killer within twenty-four hours of the investigation. Their first attack on the Essex police came at 8 a.m. the very morning after the murders took place. DCI Jones was approached and told that Sheila’s inability to use guns was suspicious. The Boutflour-Eaton clan had several willing scribes; David Boutflour, Ann Eaton, Robert Boutflour, and even friends of the family all took to writing their suspicions down."
http://youknowwhokilledyoudontyou.blogspot.com/2011/02/innocent-man-part-5.html
