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39 LYVEDON AVENUE, RICHMOND, SURREY
John Howlett, Esq.
White Cottage
Littlehampton
Nr Preston
Lancashire
March 23, 1983
Dear Mr. Howlett,
Thank you for your letter of March 7. I should tell you that I visited Annie in her house two months before she died and there was nothing then to indicate a deterioration in her circumstances. I am not a cat lover myself, so did not take particular notice of the ones I saw that day. However, had there been more than normal I'm sure I would have registered the fact. Certainly there was no question of the house smelling.
One of the reasons for my visit was to tell her that I was going away for twelve months. Annie became extremely agitated at the news, which I had been expecting. Sufferers from Tourette's syndrome dislike change, so I sat with her for an hour in her sitting room talking about the colleague who would be taking over in my absence. I had ample opportunity, therefore, to evaluate the room and what was in it. Before I left, she said she wanted to give me a going-away present and invited me to choose something. We spent a further fifteen minutes examining the many treasures she had-most of them quite small- and I can say with absolute certainty that, on that day- September 8-that room was full of ornaments.
Unfortunately I am having huge difficulty persuading the police that the most likely explanation for the house being 'empty' nine weeks later is that she was robbed. I have shown your letter to Sergeant James Drury-one of the officers who accompanied you that day-and he tells me that unless I can find someone who saw the interior during the week before her death, he must conclude, as you did, that she sold her possessions herself in order to buy drink. This was his most helpful contribution! Rather less helpful was his suggestion that my memory is at fault or, worse, that I am deliberately lying in order to gloss over my failure to safeguard the health of a patient. Neither is true. I cannot repeat often enough that the last time I saw Annie she was in good mental and physical health. There was no indication that she was drinking more than usual and certainly no evidence of incontinence.
At the time of her death, I assumed that the only privileged knowledge I had about her was her medical history. However, I now realize I also had privileged information about the inside of her house because I was among the handful of people who were allowed beyond the front door. Even the vicar was made to stand on the doorstep because she mistrusted his perceived friendship with her neighbors. I have located a social worker who was shown into the sitting room in '77 but her description of it, although it accords with mine, has been ruled too out of date to be of value. Sergeant Drury dismisses your recollection of 'vivid paintings,' 'peacock feathers' and 'silhouette pictures' for the same reason-i.e., your last visit was in August '78-on the basis that three months was quite long enough for her to have disposed of the items herself.
I won't bore you with my extreme irritation (and anger!) at having both my memory and my professional expertise questioned by a policeman who is clearly reluctant to reopen an old case, but I do wonder if you could try to picture to yourself what was on the right-hand side of the mantelpiece in the sitting room. The going-away present that Annie gave me came from there and, as I still have it, it would be very helpful indeed if I could demonstrate to Sergeant Drury that in this respect at least I am not 'imagining things.' A positive and unprompted memory from one of her few 'friends' would be invaluable.
It's only fair to tell you that I am extremely unimpressed by both Sergeant Drury and by the coroner, both of whom seem to have paid lip service to their responsibility for investigating Annie's death. While I wouldn't go so far as to say she was murdered-as I understand one of her neighbors did-I certainly believe she was reduced to a state of extreme anxiety by having her house invaded and her treasured possessions stolen. This, in turn, may have led to the deterioration in her circumstances and the overindulgence in alcohol, which was a contributory factor in her death.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Sheila Arnold
WHITE COTTAGE, LITTLEHAMPTON, NR
PRESTON, LANCASHIRE
Dr. Sheila Arnold
39 Lyvedon Avenue
Richmond
Surrey
March 24, 1983
Dear Dr. Arnold.
I regret I cannot remember the mantelpiece at all, nor what was on it, but my wife has reminded me that one of the pictures in the sitting room was a framed mosaic of an Aztec god-Quetzalcoatl-otherwise known as the plumed serpent or feathered snake. My wife is a lover of D. H. Lawrence's work and apparently I told her after one of my visits to Graham Road that Miss Butts owned an extraordinary mosaic of 'The Plumed Serpent.' Sadly, 1 can barely remember either the picture or the conversation, but my wife is adamant that it was 'the mad black woman with the cats' who had the Quetzalcoatl on her wall.
Trusting this will be of help,
Yours sincerely,
39 LYVEDON AVENUE, RICHMOND, SURREY
Sergeant J. Drury
Richmond Police Station
Richmond
Surrey
May 25, 1983
