Henry Daniel Seymour

Henry Seymour murdered Alice Louisa Kempson 58 who he stabbed and battered at Boundary House, St Clements, Oxford on 1 August 1931.

Henry Seymour had called at a woman’s house that lived 10 minutes away from Alice Kempson. He sold the woman a new vacuum cleaner. After he asked to borrow some money from the woman saying that his money had been stolen when he had gone swimming. Later he returned when the woman and her husband were at home and said that he had missed the bus and they allowed him to stay for the night.

The next morning the woman looked in a brown paper parcel that Henry Seymour had left in the hall and found a new hammer and chisel. Henry Seymour left that day.

When the police carried out house to house inquiries they interviewed the woman who told them about the vacuum salesman. The police later identified an ironmonger nearby who recalled selling a hammer and chisel to a man that matched the description of Henry Seymour. They then later found out that Henry Seymour had previously sold a vacuum cleaner to Alice Kempson.

Later, the police in Aylesbury interviewed a hotelier who had had a suitcase left with him in lieu of payment. When the police opened the suitcase, they found a well-scrubbed hammer with the brand labels removed. the police identified Henry Seymour as the owner of the suitcase and traced him to Brighton where he was arrested on 15 August 1931.