'The Murders at White House Farm': Who is Jeremy Bamber? Adopted son framed sister for slaughtering own family
The year was 1985. In a house near the village of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, Nevill and June Bamber, their adopted daughter, Sheila Caffell and Sheila's six-year-old twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas Caffell, were brutally shot and murdered. June and Nevill's adopted son, Jeremy Bamber, who lived a few miles away from where the shooting took place, was the one who had alerted the police after he got an alarming call from his father earlier that night.
Initially, it was assumed it was a murder-suicide by Sheila due to her history of mental illness. But later upon further investigation, Jeremy was proven guilty and convicted. The series ‘The Murders at White House Farm’ is based on the investigations of the infamous 1985 killings. This series is produced by New Pictures for ITV and distributed worldwide by All3Media and the digital rights were acquired by HBO Max. It stars Stephen Graham, Freddie Fox, Cressida Bonas, Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, Amanda Burton, Nicholas Farrell, among others. As the true-crime series airs on HBO Max, here's all you need to know about the criminal who inspired it
Who is Jeremy Bamber?
He was born in 1961 as Jeremy Marsham. Jeremy was adopted in June that same year by June and Nevill Bamber. His birth mother Juliet Dorothy Wheeler, the daughter of a vicar, had an affair with an army sergeant major who was also a controller at Buckingham Palace, as reported by Evening Standard. He grew up at his adopted parents’ Georgian farmhouse near Tolleshunt D'Arcy in Essex and went to a private prep school and then to a boarding school in Norfolk. The report states that his friend, Brett Collins said that Jeremy was sexually assaulted when he was 11. Even though Jeremy had left school without any qualifications, he managed to obtain his O-levels at sixth form in Colchester.
After his school was over, his father paid for his scuba diving course in Australia and New Zealand. Once Jeremy returned, he worked in various bars and restaurants, before returning to his father's home in Essex.
The unfortunate 1985 night and the events thereafter
According to the Evening Standard, on August 7, 1985, the police got a call from Jeremy at 3.30am. He informed them that his father had called to say that his sister had “gone crazy” and had their father’s rifle.
When the police went to the house, they found Sheila’s dead body on her parents' bedroom and the rifle was positioned against her throat, as per Evening Standard. Sheila’s six-year-old twin sons, Nicholas and Daniel, were found dead in their beds. The body of June was discovered with Sheila's and Nevill's body was found in the kitchen. Their father had been shot eight times and had also been beaten, reports Evening Standard.
The investigators were convinced that Sheila was the one who killed her family in a mass murder-suicide, as reported by Essex Live. Her mental health struggles also contributed to this assumption. But there were a few family members who did not believe that Sheila could have carried out such a horrific thing and grew suspicious of Jeremy. His relatives claimed, as per Essex Live, that even though he appeared to be devastated at his family’s funeral, he was joking and laughing at the wake.
The case took a turn when Jeremy’s girlfriend Julie Mugford changed her statement. Initially, she backed him and said that he had called her after he received the call from his father. But a month after the murders, she changed her stance and told police that Jeremy had allegedly said he wanted to “get rid of them all” and planned to blame Shelia for the deaths, according to Essex Live.
Jeremy alleged that she changed her statement because he wanted to end their relationship. But he was arrested a day after Mugford’s statement and later charged with the murders. She was one of the main witnesses for the prosecution during Jeremy’s trial.
Jeremy’s trial and verdict
The trial began at Chelmsford Crown Court on October 14, 1986. The prosecution alleged that Jeremy murdered his family in order to inherit his parents' money. They further alleged that he had shot and killed all five of the victims but realized that Sheila could not have killed herself with the silencer, so he removed it and put it away, as reported by Essex Live.
This silencer played a pivotal role in the prosecution's case because Sheila's blood was found on it. In their argument, they claimed that if she had shot with it, the silencer would have been next to her body. Family members and doctors who knew Sheila said that she did not project any suicidal thoughts and that she would not have hurt the children or her father.
They also provided physical evidence. One of them was that Sheila could not have been able to overpower her father and that her long fingernails were not damaged. However, Jeremy’s defense argued that Mugford changed testimony because the former wanted to end the relationship. They also argued the lack of physical evidence to prove Jeremy’s presence in the house during the murders. The defense also alleged Sheila’s serious mental illness and her strained relationship with their adoptive mother as her motivation to kill.
When Jeremy's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, he stated that he had used the gun earlier that day to shoot rabbits and had left in on the kitchen table.
On October 28, 1986, the jury found with a ten to two majority that Jeremy was guilty of the White House Farm murders, as per the report. He was sentenced to serve five lifetime prison sentences, with a recommendation that he served at least 25 years behind bars. Later, it was increased to whole life imprisonment by the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd.
He is currently held at HM Prison Wakefield, in Yorkshire and has maintained that he is innocent throughout. Jeremy had repeatedly appealed to overturn his conviction unsuccessfully. In prison, he has helped other prisoners learn to read and write and also won awards for transcribing books in one prison's Braille workshop, as reported by Essex Live. But there had been some untoward incidents as well. Reportedly, he was attacked by another prisoner with a knife but was able to defend himself with a broken bottle. Also, he had to get 28 stitches when his neck was attacked when he was on the phone.
He has a loyal group of supporters as well. The Jeremy Bamber Campaign, a non-profit organization fighting for his innocence, claimed on their website that they reached out to ITV and the production team to discuss the content and provide access “to brand new forensic reports, our team of scientists, the case material, fresh evidence, and Jeremy and his legal team”, but were ignored. “We believe therefore that the drama can only be based on factually incorrect and very out of date material,” they wrote on their website.
However, an ITV spokesperson told The Sun newspaper: “This drama series is based on extensive research by the producers, and draws on the memoir of Colin Caffell, the father of the victims Daniel and Nicholas Caffell, In Search of the Rainbow’s End, and The Murders at White House Farm by journalist Carol Ann Lee.”
‘The Murders at White House Farm’ can be streamed on HBO Max from September 24.