Criminal Files: Serial Killer - Archibald Hall (The Killer Butler)
- 7 years ago
Archibald Thomson Hall, also known as Roy Fontaine (17 June 1924 – 16 September 2002) was a Scottish serial killer and thief. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he became known as the Killer Butler or the Monster Butler after committing crimes while working in service to members of the British aristocracy. At the time of his death he was the oldest person serving a whole life tariff in prison. Hall's criminal career began as a thief at the age of 15. He soon progressed to house breaking. Capitalising on his bisexuality, he then infiltrated the gay scene in London, after moving there with profits of his criminal ventures. He served his first jail sentence for attempting to sell in London jewellery he had stolen in Scotland. During his sentence he studied antiques and learned the etiquette of the aristocracy, as well as taking elocution lessons to soften his Scottish accent.
Upon his release he began using the name Roy Fontaine – an homage to actress Joan Fontaine – and working as a butler, occasionally returning to prison for further jewel thefts. He married and divorced during this time. Hall and Kitto put Donald's body in the boot of a car and again drove to Scotland to carry out another burial. However, Hall had made Kitto replace the car's number plate which contained three 9s, because he believed it was unlucky: this meant the tax disc and the number plate did not match. The wintry weather made driving hazardous, and so on reaching North Berwick in East Lothian, they decided to check into the (now-closed and derelict as of late 2016) Blenheim House Hotel on the north side of the High Street overnight to lessen their chances of being in an accident.
However, the shifty movements of Hall and Kitto made the hotelier suspicious and, worried about whether he would be paid for their stay, he called the police as a precaution. When they arrived, they realised the tax disc and number plate did not match and took Kitto and Hall in for questioning. They then took the car to the police station (only 200 yards away, and on the same side of the High Street) where they made the discovery of Donald's body in the boot.
Kitto was arrested but Hall escaped through a lavatory window. He was captured at a police roadblock in nearby Haddington.
The police then made a connection between Hall's car and the registration number of a vehicle noted by a suspicious antiques dealer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, to whom two men had offered silver and china at a price well below its true value. The police traced the car to the Scott-Elliots' address in London and found the apartment robbed of many valuables and spattered with blood. This also linked with the murder of Coggle, whose body had already been found and who had been previously registered as a housekeeper for the Scott-Elliots. The police had evidence that three men (including a drugged Scott-Elliot) and a woman had stayed at a Scottish hotel for one night, but the following night only two men – Hall and Kitto – returned.
Hall tried and failed to commit suicide while in custody, before revealing the whereabouts of the three buried victims. In deep snow and bitterly cold weather, and with the media watching, police teams dug up the bodies of David Wright and Walter and Dorothy Scott-Elliot. They charged Hall and Kitto with five murders. Hall was convicted at courts in London and Edinburgh of four murders – the murder of Dorothy Scott-Elliot was ordered to lie on file – and sentenced to life imprisonment. In Scotland, it was recommended that he serve a minimum of 15 years and in England the judge handed down a recommendation that he never be released.
Kitto was given life imprisonment for three murders, with no recommended minimum in Scotland and a 15-year minimum in England. Police said in evidence that Kitto was, in a perverted way, fortunate to be able to go on trial, as Hall was planning to kill him too.
Successive home secretaries put Hall on the list of dangerous prisoners who should serve a whole life tariff, which unlike some criminals on the list did not alter Hall's prison status at all, as it reciprocated the tariff set by one of his judges. When politically set tariffs were declared illegal by the law lords and the European Court of Human Rights, Hall's status as a prisoner unlikely to be released never changed, despite being the oldest prisoner on the published list. In 1995, the Observer newspaper printed a letter from Hall in which he requested the right to die. He made numerous unsuccessful suicide attempts. Hall published his autobiography, A Perfect Gentleman, in 1999. He died of a stroke in Kingston Prison, Portsmouth, in 2002 at the age of 78. By this date, he was one of the oldest of more than 70,000 prisoners in British prisons, and the oldest to be serving a whole life tariff.
Upon his release he began using the name Roy Fontaine – an homage to actress Joan Fontaine – and working as a butler, occasionally returning to prison for further jewel thefts. He married and divorced during this time. Hall and Kitto put Donald's body in the boot of a car and again drove to Scotland to carry out another burial. However, Hall had made Kitto replace the car's number plate which contained three 9s, because he believed it was unlucky: this meant the tax disc and the number plate did not match. The wintry weather made driving hazardous, and so on reaching North Berwick in East Lothian, they decided to check into the (now-closed and derelict as of late 2016) Blenheim House Hotel on the north side of the High Street overnight to lessen their chances of being in an accident.
However, the shifty movements of Hall and Kitto made the hotelier suspicious and, worried about whether he would be paid for their stay, he called the police as a precaution. When they arrived, they realised the tax disc and number plate did not match and took Kitto and Hall in for questioning. They then took the car to the police station (only 200 yards away, and on the same side of the High Street) where they made the discovery of Donald's body in the boot.
Kitto was arrested but Hall escaped through a lavatory window. He was captured at a police roadblock in nearby Haddington.
The police then made a connection between Hall's car and the registration number of a vehicle noted by a suspicious antiques dealer in Newcastle-under-Lyme, to whom two men had offered silver and china at a price well below its true value. The police traced the car to the Scott-Elliots' address in London and found the apartment robbed of many valuables and spattered with blood. This also linked with the murder of Coggle, whose body had already been found and who had been previously registered as a housekeeper for the Scott-Elliots. The police had evidence that three men (including a drugged Scott-Elliot) and a woman had stayed at a Scottish hotel for one night, but the following night only two men – Hall and Kitto – returned.
Hall tried and failed to commit suicide while in custody, before revealing the whereabouts of the three buried victims. In deep snow and bitterly cold weather, and with the media watching, police teams dug up the bodies of David Wright and Walter and Dorothy Scott-Elliot. They charged Hall and Kitto with five murders. Hall was convicted at courts in London and Edinburgh of four murders – the murder of Dorothy Scott-Elliot was ordered to lie on file – and sentenced to life imprisonment. In Scotland, it was recommended that he serve a minimum of 15 years and in England the judge handed down a recommendation that he never be released.
Kitto was given life imprisonment for three murders, with no recommended minimum in Scotland and a 15-year minimum in England. Police said in evidence that Kitto was, in a perverted way, fortunate to be able to go on trial, as Hall was planning to kill him too.
Successive home secretaries put Hall on the list of dangerous prisoners who should serve a whole life tariff, which unlike some criminals on the list did not alter Hall's prison status at all, as it reciprocated the tariff set by one of his judges. When politically set tariffs were declared illegal by the law lords and the European Court of Human Rights, Hall's status as a prisoner unlikely to be released never changed, despite being the oldest prisoner on the published list. In 1995, the Observer newspaper printed a letter from Hall in which he requested the right to die. He made numerous unsuccessful suicide attempts. Hall published his autobiography, A Perfect Gentleman, in 1999. He died of a stroke in Kingston Prison, Portsmouth, in 2002 at the age of 78. By this date, he was one of the oldest of more than 70,000 prisoners in British prisons, and the oldest to be serving a whole life tariff.