Description:A policeman stands on guard outside Thomas Bates' newsagents. Bates was murdered on June 2nd 1962 in the course of a robbery. The robber/ murderer escaped on a number 8 bus across the road - hence the reason for the bus being shown in the photograph. Oswald Grey was convicted of the crime and hanged at Winson Green Prison on November 20th 1962.
Chris Butler was a paperboy at the shop at the time and remembers the murder as a terrible shock to local people. The shop was closed for a while as the police conducted examinations of the interior. Papers were delivered to the shopfront and despatched from there instead.