Murdered Reading tobacconist's family welcome new play

Rabble Theatre are staging Who Killed Alfred Oliver? in the Reading Minster

It's a murder mystery that could have come straight from the pages of a best selling novel in the 1920s - a tobacconist bludgeoned to death in his shop, the prime suspect an American movie star who was touring England.

Ninety-two years later the crime remains unsolved and relatives of Alfred Oliver say "people walk past where he was murdered every single day and don't have a clue", but a new play is finally helping the family bring the story out into the open.

On 22 June 1929, Mr Oliver was found fatally wounded in his shop on Cross Street, in Reading. He died in hospital the next day and the investigation into his murder remains officially open.

Now Rabble Theatre is bringing this piece of history to life with its play Who Killed Alfred Oliver?.

Alfred Oliver was found by his wife Annie, fatally wounded in his shop (now part of Marks & Spencer) on Cross Street

When some of Mr Oliver's relatives heard about the play, which is being staged in Reading Minster, they contacted the theatre company to share their memories.

Philippa Horsell's great-great-aunt, Annie Elizabeth Crouch, was Mr Oliver's wife.

She told the BBC she only found out about his death when she was 16 and working on a history project for her A-levels.

"My mum sat me down and told me the story of Annie - or Auntie Nan as we called her - and Alfred. This story has very much been hanging over our family.

"Because it has never been solved, that pain has never been addressed in a way, but the story is woven through Reading's history.

"Lots of people have been told tales about this murder, and some have even claimed over the years to know who did it. The answer might have been found once but now, of course, it's lost in the mists of time.

"And other people have never heard about it. I hope now it becomes part of the conversation in Reading so that people know his name and what happened to him."

American actor Philip Yale Drew became the prime suspect in the case

In 1929, a play called The Monster was enjoying a run at the Royal County Theatre in the town and the show's lead, American movie star Philip Yale Drew, was identified as the main suspect.

His effective "trial by inquest" led to widespread criticism, and helped prompt a revision of the Coroners Act.

Dani Davies, Rabble's executive director, said: "At the time, it was a really quite revolutionary case within the British justice system.

"Although the actor Philip Yale Drew wasn't charged with anything, he was basically put on trial.

"His career was ruined, he never acted again - this big American movie star who had come to Reading to act in a play."

A newspaper headline at the time

Ms Horsell said she understood how the story took off in the press at the time.

"There were so many suspects," she said, adding: "But he's the one everyone remembers because he was a big US star."

But she said the event was "devastating" for her Auntie Nan.

"She wrote lots of letters to newspapers begging for information, saying: 'Someone knows something, please just tell me'.

"They [Annie and Alfred] didn't meet until late in life - she finally finds this man and falls in love with him, it was such a lovely sweet story.

"To have had that snatched away from her is just so sad."

Rabble's Toby Davies plays the show's narrator

While Who Killed Alfred Oliver? tells the story of the very real and brutal killing, Rabble has given the production some "murder-mystery style Agatha Christie moments", said Ms Davies.

"With everything that's happened over the last two years, we wanted to do something that could lighten people's hearts and take them into a world that is a little bit heightened, but also give them a sense of what Reading used to be like in the 1920s," she explained.

And Ms Horsell said she believed Mr Oliver's widow would have approved.

"Our family have always been very keen on the lighter side of life and having a joke and fun with each other," she said.

"That must come from previous generations and I can't think Annie wouldn't have approved of a bit of light-heartedness."

Ms Horsell's mother, who now has dementia, would also have been pleased that the story was coming to light in the new play, she added.

"My mum was very close to Annie and she would have been very pleased it's coming out into the open. It doesn't need to be hidden any more or brushed under the carpet within the family."

The play has some murder-mystery moments in the eerie setting of the minster

The case of Mr Oliver's murder remains officially open, Thames Valley Police said. Any unsolved murder investigation can remain open for up to 100 years.

However, the force added: "Given the timeframes involved and the likely status of any suspect, given that this has occurred in 1929, there is a balance to be met with public interest, and the likelihood of bringing any offender to justice. This remains on record, but there is no cold case investigation ongoing."

Following her husband's death, Mrs Oliver sold the shop and bought a house in the town where she invited her younger brother, his wife and their daughter to live with her.

Originally created last year as a co-production between Rabble and BBC Radio Berkshire, the stage version sees the cast return to indoor performing for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dani Davies said: "We've been doing lots of planning as to how we can socially distance and make the audience feel and be safe.

"The whole design of this show, from the very beginning, has had that in mind.

"And it has been fantastic to work with the [Oliver] family, it's their story after all."

:: Rabble Theatre's Who Killed Alfred Oliver? was on at Reading Minster from 4 November, but was cancelled nine days early when two key members of the theatre company tested positive for Covid-19.