UK UK - Alistair Wilson, 30, murdered at home, Nairn, Scotland, 28 Nov 2004

[kenmack87]

If that was the case then surely AW would have told VW that the man at the door was asking him to stuff cash inside the envelope as he owed debt to Paul? From what we know AW was bewildered by the whole encounter and didn't understand why he was given an empty envelope that wasn't addressed to him.

The police have thoroughly investigated the mistaken identity theory and are satisfied that it wasn't the case. The only other AW who was staying in Nairn looked nothing like the victim and was twice his age.

Doorstep assassinations in Scotland are pretty rare, so I don't get how one would randomly occur in Nairn along with the gunman also executing the wrong AW. An unbelievable set of circumstances would have had to came to fruition that night for it to be a case of mistaken identity.

That would necessitate the gunman having the envelope just in case he needed a distraction. Not plausible IMO. More likely, the envelope was intended to be filled with cash and returned to the gunman, who was collecting the debt for 'Paul' or from 'Paul'. An empty envelope led to retribution. Doorstep attacks linked to drug debts are very common in that world. AW was not of that world, and to me it is mistaken identity. If it wasn't, it would have been solved by now. Wrong man, wrong house.

 

[CSIAngus]

If that was the case then surely AW would have told VW that the man at the door was asking him to stuff cash inside the envelope as he owed debt to Paul? From what we know AW was bewildered by the whole encounter and didn't understand why he was given an empty envelope that wasn't addressed to him.

The police have thoroughly investigated the mistaken identity theory and are satisfied that it wasn't the case. The only other AW who was staying in Nairn looked nothing like the victim and was twice his age.

Doorstep assassinations in Scotland are pretty rare, so I don't get how one would randomly occur in Nairn along with the gunman also executing the wrong AW. An unbelievable set of circumstances would have had to came to fruition that night for it to be a case of mistaken identity.

That AW was 'bewildered' rather adds to my point. He would be if he didn't understand what was happening; if he was the wrong target. We don't know what was said between AW and VW. Police have not ruled out mistaken identity, it's just not a line of inquiry that they are currently following. Doorstep violence in the drugs world is not uncommon in all parts of the UK, though 'assassinations' are.

The problem with this case is there is insufficient evidence to lean convincingly towards any one theory. Mistaken identity is at least as plausible as any other, and if it were the case then at least it would explain why it has remained a mystery to this day.

 

[shadwell]

That AW was 'bewildered' rather adds to my point. He would be if he didn't understand what was happening; if he was the wrong target. We don't know what was said between AW and VW. Police have not ruled out mistaken identity, it's just not a line of inquiry that they are currently following. Doorstep violence in the drugs world is not uncommon in all parts of the UK, though 'assassinations' are.

The problem with this case is there is insufficient evidence to lean convincingly towards any one theory. Mistaken identity is at least as plausible as any other, and if it were the case then at least it would explain why it has remained a mystery to this day.

Criminals find it hard to recover money from a dead man.

 

[CSIAngus]

Criminals find it hard to recover money from a dead man.

Are you saying that people don't get killed when they can't or won't pay drug and other debts, because the criminals can't get any money from them if they're dead? Whilst that might superficially have logic, in the real world people do end up dead for exactly that reason. There was a guy in Rushden got killed in 2018 after only paying £20 towards a £30 drug debt. Lost his life for £10.

 

[Jubbababy]

Was just reading over superintendent Graeme Mackie's statement. This part of his statement really stood out for me:

Through significant enquiries being carried out we believe the answer to Alistair's murder lies within his personal life and not in his role with the bank.
Someone locally will have that piece of information that could be crucial to catching his killer and providing answers for his family."

So he's saying someone locally will have that piece of information. So in Police code, there basically telling us they have a reason to believe this was why he was killed, even stranger they believe someone from the hotel or who had a connection to the premises will know who was responsible. I find this statement in isolation absolutely astonishing.

I wonder if it was an affair you know. The police and VB probably are trying to protect the family’s reputation. JMO.

 

[kenmack87]

That AW was 'bewildered' rather adds to my point. He would be if he didn't understand what was happening; if he was the wrong target. We don't know what was said between AW and VW. Police have not ruled out mistaken identity, it's just not a line of inquiry that they are currently following. Doorstep violence in the drugs world is not uncommon in all parts of the UK, though 'assassinations' are.

The problem with this case is there is insufficient evidence to lean convincingly towards any one theory. Mistaken identity is at least as plausible as any other, and if it were the case then at least it would explain why it has remained a mystery to this day.

The chain of events still wouldn't make any sense if it was a case of mistaken identity. So an assassin turns upto AW door hands him an envelope and is expecting AW to return with the envelope full of cash, and when it's empty he is shot dead. He gives no explaination as to why he's there but expects AW to recognise the envelope and the name "Paul" and what it signified. So the tongue shy gunman gives no instructions at all whatsoever, and leaves AW bewildered, so much so he has to go back inside with the envelope and discuss it with his wife.

I'm sorry but there is no way this happened, psychologically and logistically it's all wrong. A hired assassin who has been instructed by criminal underworld figures to collect debt on there behalf wouldn't waste time with an envelope, they would make it very clear to there target as to why they were there. He would also warn there target that if they didn't comply that there would be consequences, ie "I'll blast you and your family".

My point being if this was a case of mistaken identity the gunman would have made it crystal clear to AW as to why he was there, and this information would have been passed onto his wife. AW was an intelligent guy who would have sensed a threat pretty quickly, and would have called the police, especially if there was a strange man on his doorstep accusing him of owing Paul money.

Your theory would make more sense if AW was directly involved in some shady buisiness deals related to his work, and knew what the visit was all about on the night he died, and was deceitful towards his wife.

Doorstep murders never happen in the north of Scotland, even more so in the Highlands. If you can give me an example of a similar murder taken place up this way where someone has been executed on there doorstep then please feel free to let me know.

 

[CSIAngus]

It doesn't lean to your point though. If an



The chain of events still wouldn't make any sense if it was a case of mistaken identity. So an assassin turns upto AW door hands him an envelope and is expecting AW to return with the envelope full of cash, and when it's empty he is shot dead. He gives no explaination as to why he's there but expects AW to recognise the envelope and the name "Paul" and what it signified. So the tongue shy gunman gives no instructions at all whatsoever, and leaves AW bewildered, so much so he has to go back inside with the envelope and discuss it with his wife.

I'm sorry but there is no way this happened, psychologically and logistically it's all wrong. A hired assassin who has been instructed by criminal underworld figures to collect debt on there behalf wouldn't waste time with an envelope, they would make it very clear to there target as to why they were there. He would also warn there target that if they didn't comply that there would be consequences, ie "I'll blast you and your family".

My point being if this was a case of mistaken identity the gunman would have made it crystal clear to AW as to why he was there, and this information would have been passed onto his wife. AW was an intelligent guy who would have sensed a threat pretty quickly, and would have called the police, especially if there was a strange man on his doorstep accusing him of owing Paul money.

Your theory would make more sense if AW was directly involved in some shady buisiness deals related to his work, and knew what the visit was all about on the night he died, and was deceitful towards his wife.

Doorstep murders never happen in the north of Scotland, even more so in the Highlands. If you can give me an example of a similar murder taken place up this way where someone has been executed on there doorstep then please feel free to let me know.

How do you know nothing was said on the doorstep, or what was or was not said between AW and VW? None of us know that.

I'm happy that you have an alternative theory to mine. I'm quite content with my theory based on what I know of the case, but I'm more than happy to be confounded by the truth when it is eventually known, if ever it is.

 

[Eastend Eagle]

A lot of detail in this 2005 piece - answers many of the questions posed on this thread, but raises others in turn:

https://archive.is/bJJo9

Is it correct that no-one at the Havelock that night saw the killer even though this article states that the killer was on the Wilson's doorstep that evening for 6 or 7 minutes?

 

[shadwell]

Is it correct that no-one at the Havelock that night saw the killer even though this article states that the killer was on the Wilson's doorstep that evening for 6 or 7 minutes?

Apparently not - though if you look at the 2008 streetview (earliest available), it’s perhaps not that surprising. Of the two front bay windows, the nearest has bathroom type pebble glass on the lower half, so unless someone stood up during the seven minutes their view would be obscured (assuming the curtains were open at the time).

The other front bay window has clear glass at the bottom, but the view of the front of Lothian House is obscured by bushes - also, at the time of the murder Lothian house had two trees in pots either side of the door (see Express photo below).

There’s also a question as to whether the killer was stood outside the main front door, or inside the porch waiting at the inner door (also visible in the Express photo) - if it was inside the porch, then a number of other questions/possibilities are raised.

Finally, the side bay window of the Havelock might give a clear view of the front door of Lothian House, but only to someone standing up inside the bay, due to the front wall of the Havelock.

Google Maps

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Photo source: Fresh bid to solve mystery of Nairn banker's murder

 

[shadwell]

To answer the obvious first question re the photo above - yes, the outer door was present at the time of the murder (see photo below) so it would have been technically possible for the killer to close the outer door and wait in the porch to shoot AW when he returned to the inner door. Anyone passing on the street outside would see nothing and the sound of the shots would be muffled by the solid outer door.

Photo source: https://www.scotsman.com/news/polit...-help-solve-nairn-bank-manager-murder-1437086

 

[dotr]

''Aug 14, 2020 rbbm
STV Editor of News and Aberdeen graduate Donald John MacDonald joined us for a presentation on some of Scotland’s most notorious unsolved murders. In a career spanning 35 years Donald has reported on dozens of cases. He also produced the highly acclaimed STV series 'Unsolved' which examined some of the country’s most baffling murders. He talked to us about the production process, including how to persuade family and friends to bare their emotions on camera about unsolved cases stretching back decades. He also talked in some depth about three cases in particular: the doorstep killing of banker Alistair Wilson in the sleepy, seaside resort of Nairn, the brutal murder of Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood, gunned down by a schoolboy assassin while serving customers in an Orkney restaurant, and finally the killing of taxi driver George Murdoch by an unknown passenger dubbed 'the Cheese Wire Killer'. The session was followed by a short Q&A.''

Not quite a doorstep murder in the north of Scotland, but close enough, imo, speculation, fwiw.

Scots murder could be turned into Netflix series - 25yrs after waiter shot by teen

A SCOTS murder could be set to be given the Netflix treatment – 25 years after a waiter was shot by a teenager. True crime author Wensley Clarkson has spent years researching convicted race-h…

www.thescottishsun.co.uk

2019
''Mr Mahmood, 26, was shot dead by a masked killer in front of a room full of diners at the Mumutaz Indian restaurant on Bridge Street, Kirkwall.''

For anyone interested in one of the discussed murders from the video, this is the Ws thread..

UK - UK- George Murdoch, 58, Taxi driver, Garroted w cheese wire, Aberdeen, 29/09/1983 *New Initiative*

March 14 2022 Hunt for Cheesewire Killer goes national in Crimewatch Live TV appeal (pressandjournal.co.uk) Detective Inspector James Callander with a reward poster for George Murdoch's murder. ''George, 58, was violently attacked with a cheese wire after picking up a fare on the city’s...

www.websleuths.com

 

[Eastend Eagle]

A lot of detail in this 2005 piece - answers many of the questions posed on this thread, but raises others in turn:

https://archive.is/bJJo9

It is stated that when Veronica Wilson went across to the Havelock Hotel after her husband was shot, she didn't see anyone she knew. Does anyone know what would be the likelihood of there being no-one there she knew on a Sunday evening outside of the tourist season?

 

[dotr]

<modsnip: quoted post was removed>

Banker hitman in boat escape mystery. - Free Online Library

Free Online Library: Banker hitman in boat escape mystery.(News) by "Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)"; News, opinion and commentary General interest

www.thefreelibrary.com

	Dec 4, 2004

''THE gunman who murdered a banker on his doorstep may have escaped by boat.

One craft was spotted in the harbour at Nairn last Sunday, the day 30-year-old dad-of-two Alistair Wilson was shot dead at his home in the town.

Detectives are also checking reports that a speedboat was found at the Black Isle, on the opposite side of the Moray Firth.

More than 40 officers are going through Alistair's affairs,looking for a possible motive for the murder.''

2022

Men seen on Nairn beach with gun before banker murder

Police want to trace the men seen on a Nairn beach a month before Alistair Wilson was shot in 2004.

www.bbc.com

''Two men were seen with a gun on a beach at Nairn a month before a father-of-two was shot on the doorstep of his home in the town, say police.
Bank manager Alistair Wilson was shot on the evening of 28 November 2004. He later died in hospital.
Police said a witness has described seeing two men - one aged in their 20s and the other between 40 and 60 years old - on Nairn's East Beach.
The younger of the men was said to have been in possession of a handgun.
The beach is only a short walk from the Wilson's family home.''

 

[Eastend Eagle]

Banker hitman in boat escape mystery. - Free Online Library

Free Online Library: Banker hitman in boat escape mystery.(News) by "Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)"; News, opinion and commentary General interest

www.thefreelibrary.com

	Dec 4, 2004

''THE gunman who murdered a banker on his doorstep may have escaped by boat.

One craft was spotted in the harbour at Nairn last Sunday, the day 30-year-old dad-of-two Alistair Wilson was shot dead at his home in the town.

Detectives are also checking reports that a speedboat was found at the Black Isle, on the opposite side of the Moray Firth.

More than 40 officers are going through Alistair's affairs,looking for a possible motive for the murder.''

2022

Men seen on Nairn beach with gun before banker murder

Police want to trace the men seen on a Nairn beach a month before Alistair Wilson was shot in 2004.

www.bbc.com

''Two men were seen with a gun on a beach at Nairn a month before a father-of-two was shot on the doorstep of his home in the town, say police.
Bank manager Alistair Wilson was shot on the evening of 28 November 2004. He later died in hospital.
Police said a witness has described seeing two men - one aged in their 20s and the other between 40 and 60 years old - on Nairn's East Beach.
The younger of the men was said to have been in possession of a handgun.
The beach is only a short walk from the Wilson's family home.''

Excellent work as always @dotr.
But I have to say the supposed sighting of the 2 men reported in 2022 seems very unlikely to me reported as it was more than 17 years after the shooting. Smacks of a red herring.

 

[shadwell]

<quoted post was removed>
Can anyone recall if cartridge cases were recovered from the scene? And if so, where?

I have a vague recollection of something being mentioned wrt this, but can’t now find any indication either way.

 

[touch]

<modsnip: quoted post was removed>
In my opinion, the gun was put in the drain to hide it with the expectation that it wouldn't ever be found or wouldn't be found for a long time.
It was pure luck that the routine drain cleaning was being done at that time (the gun wasn't found by a police search or anything related to this case). If they'd been to clean it a couple of weeks earlier, the gun wouldn't have been there and if they'd been a couple of weeks later the gun would have been covered by leaves and other rubbish. It wouldn't have been lying on the top and probably wouldn't have been seen.

 

[dotr]

New image of gun used to kill Nairn banker Alistair Wilson

Police release a new image of the gun used in the nine-year-old unsolved murder of Nairn banker Alistair Wilson.

www.bbc.com

"It is a Haenal Suhl Model 1 Schmeisser's patent handgun, manufactured between 1920 and 1945 at the Schmeisser factory in Germany.
"The ammunition was .25 calibre made by Sellier and Bellot in the Czech Republic between 1983 and 1993."


An image of the type of bullet used has also been released

2005

How can a bullet be traced to a particular gun?

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

www.scientificamerican.com

''Ann L. Davis of the Virginia Division of Forensic Science and the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, explains.''
''Most modern handguns and rifles are manufactured based on blueprints that specify their configurations. One of these specifications is a characteristic known as rifling, which refers to the spiral lands and grooves placed into the firearm's barrel to impart a spin on the bullet for accuracy. The number of lands and grooves and the direction in which they twist, either right or left, can be determined by observing the rifling engravings in the barrel. The image at right (top) shows the rifling in a barrel having eight lands and grooves inclined to the left, as seen from the muzzle-end of a firearm. The lands and grooves appear as raised and lowered areas, respectively, in the barrel. These rifling characteristics are then imparted onto a projectile as it spins down the barrel, leaving land and groove impressions on the fired bullet (bottom).

Manufacturers use various cutting, swaging and electrolytic processes to introduce rifling into a barrel, and these processes, as well as others used in the finishing of a firearm, make each barrel unique.''

 

[Eastend Eagle]

In my opinion, the gun was put in the drain to hide it with the expectation that it wouldn't ever be found or wouldn't be found for a long time.
It was pure luck that the routine drain cleaning was being done at that time (the gun wasn't found by a police search or anything related to this case). If they'd been to clean it a couple of weeks earlier, the gun wouldn't have been there and if they'd been a couple of weeks later the gun would have been covered by leaves and other rubbish. It wouldn't have been lying on the top and probably wouldn't have been seen.

Thanks @touch , I take your point.
I guess the only possibility other than what you say is that whoever placed it there did it in the knowledge that the drain cleaning was due and therefore it would be possible that the gun would be discovered.

 

[dotr]

Parking this handy link here, fwiw..

The Science Behind Firearm and Tool Mark Examination

So what is the current state of the science of firearm and tool mark examinations? Are these examinations accurate, reliable and valid?

www.crime-scene-investigator.net

 

[shadwell]

A couple of points (which may or may not be of note) from going back over the BBC’s “The Doorstep Murder” from last year. First, re cartridge cases - Lyndsey Gardner (one of the women who went over to help from the Havelock) notes (at 6:00):

I remember seeing the cartridge of a bullet lying on his sort of chest, stomach sort of area…

The model 1 pistol ejects cartridges pretty much straight out the top. As can be seen in the video below of a Haenel Suhl Model 1 being fired, ejection can be quite erratic in terms of direction and distance: usually to the right, but sometimes to the left or straight up; mostly (but not always) slightly forward of the weapon (see video below).

Based on this IMO, at least one shot was fired while AW was already on the ground by a shooter positioned close to his feet (supposing the AW fell backwards into the house). On that basis, also I would say there was a definite intention to kill - IMO this was not someone who panicked, loosed off some shots and then legged it.

FWIW it seems reminiscent of the way Sylvain Mollier was apparently shot in the chest and head after initially being shot in the back in the course of the Chevaline murders. My impression in this case is that AW was initially felled by a shot to the chest (or possibly pushed over) and then received further gunshot injuries while on the ground.

ETA: of course this can only be a supposition - only police know the paths of the bullets within AW’s body.