Scottish Serial Killer Archibald Hall aka The Killer Butler (Crime Documentary)
- 5 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 housebreaking. 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 jewelry 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.
In 1975, Hall was released from prison and went back to Scotland. He began working as a butler to Margaret ('Peggy') Hudson, a dowager (widow of Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet, a Conservative M.P.) who lived at Kirtleton House, Dumfriesshire. Hall had initially planned to steal her valuables but he never carried this out when he realized that he liked both his job and employer too much.
When David Wright, an acquaintance from his last prison term, was also given a job on the estate as a gamekeeper in 1977, the two had an altercation after Wright stole some of Lady Hudson's jewelry and threatened to tell her about Hall's own criminal past if Hall reported him.
Hall took Wright on a rabbit hunt in a trick attempt at coming to an amicable solution. Once out in the fields, he shot Wright dead and buried him next to the stream in the Kirtleton House grounds.
Hall quit his job immediately – much to Lady Hudson's apparent disappointment – and moved back to London where he combined more thieving and racketeering with working as a butler to the 82-year-old Walter Scott-Elliot and his 60-year-old wife Dorothy. Scott-Elliot, who had been the Labour MP for Accrington from 1945 to 1950, was rich and from an aristocratic Scottish background. Hall's plan was to rob the couple of their money and retire, but in the end, he killed them both after Mrs. Scott-Elliot walked in on Hall and an accomplice, Michael Kitto, as they were discussing their plans. Kitto immediately put a pillow over her mouth and suffocated her. They then drugged her husband and drove them both up to Scotland, helped by the Scott-Elliots' housekeeper Mary Coggle. Dorothy was buried in Braco, Perthshire, then they strangled and beat her sedated husband with a shovel and buried him in woods near Tomich, Invernesshire.
Hall's criminal career began as a thief at the age of 15. He soon progressed to housebreaking. 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 jewelry 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.
In 1975, Hall was released from prison and went back to Scotland. He began working as a butler to Margaret ('Peggy') Hudson, a dowager (widow of Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet, a Conservative M.P.) who lived at Kirtleton House, Dumfriesshire. Hall had initially planned to steal her valuables but he never carried this out when he realized that he liked both his job and employer too much.
When David Wright, an acquaintance from his last prison term, was also given a job on the estate as a gamekeeper in 1977, the two had an altercation after Wright stole some of Lady Hudson's jewelry and threatened to tell her about Hall's own criminal past if Hall reported him.
Hall took Wright on a rabbit hunt in a trick attempt at coming to an amicable solution. Once out in the fields, he shot Wright dead and buried him next to the stream in the Kirtleton House grounds.
Hall quit his job immediately – much to Lady Hudson's apparent disappointment – and moved back to London where he combined more thieving and racketeering with working as a butler to the 82-year-old Walter Scott-Elliot and his 60-year-old wife Dorothy. Scott-Elliot, who had been the Labour MP for Accrington from 1945 to 1950, was rich and from an aristocratic Scottish background. Hall's plan was to rob the couple of their money and retire, but in the end, he killed them both after Mrs. Scott-Elliot walked in on Hall and an accomplice, Michael Kitto, as they were discussing their plans. Kitto immediately put a pillow over her mouth and suffocated her. They then drugged her husband and drove them both up to Scotland, helped by the Scott-Elliots' housekeeper Mary Coggle. Dorothy was buried in Braco, Perthshire, then they strangled and beat her sedated husband with a shovel and buried him in woods near Tomich, Invernesshire.