Murder in Edinburgh — The Mysterious Death of Bertha Merrett

Buckingham Terrace curved through Edinburgh's genteel New Town in the spring of 1926, a crescent of tall sandstone houses let floor by floor to advocates, doctors and widows of private means. At number 31, a 54-year-old widow named Bertha Merrett wrote her letters each morning at a bureau in the first-floor sitting room. On the 17th of March a single report rang out in that quiet room, and the only other person present was her 17-year-old son. Who fired it, and from how far, was the question that would run the whole length of the city. A new forgotten British case every few days. Subscribe so the next one finds you. From the dance-hall evenings at the Dunedin Palais de Danse and the forged cheques, to the fortnight Bertha survived in the Royal Infirmary, to the famous forensic duel at the High Court of Justiciary, this is the full story. Professors Harvey Littlejohn and John Glaister for the Crown, Sir Bernard Spilsbury and the gunsmith Robert Churchill for the defence, a maid whose account shifted, and a verdict Scotland argued over for a century. It follows the boy who walked free, became Ronald Chesney, and met his own fate in a wood near Cologne in 1954. Sources: Notable British Trials, the Merrett volume Proceedings at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, 1927 Sir Sydney Smith, Mostly Murder, 1959 John Glaister, Final Diagnosis, 1964 Tom Tullett, Portrait of a Bad Man, 1956 Coroner's inquest into the Ealing deaths, 1954 Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act, 2025 #TrueCrime #BritishTrueCrime #HistoricalCrime #Documentary