Graham Young the Neasden Poisoner

Graham Young was born on 7 September 1947 in Neasden Hospital. Sadly his mother died from tuberculosis when he was about three months old and his father Fred was unable to cope with Graham and his eight-year-old sister. For now, Graham went to live with his aunt and uncle, and Winifred was sent to her grandparents. All the extended family lived near each other in Links Road, Dawpool Road and the North Circular Road. 

Fred Young worked as a machine setter at Smiths Industries in Cricklewood, and he met his second wife there. In 1950 Fred married Gwendolyn (Molly) Petley and the family was reunited at 768 North Circular Road, opposite the Welsh Harp. Although things seemed alright on the surface, Graham hated his stepmother Molly, who often left him alone outside while she played the accordion in pubs.

Google Map showing 768 North Circular Road

768 North Circular Road

 

Graham as a young boy

Graham was a plump young boy and his family called him ‘Pudding’ much to his dislike. He was a solitary child who rarely talked to people, spending his time reading and playing alone. Winifred took him to the local library which overlooked the Welsh Harp, on the corner of Aboyne Road. The books he brought home were about crime, medical science, Black Magic, and the Nazis - subjects which fascinated him all his life and became an obsession. A prevailing interest was chemistry and when Graham passed his 11+ Fred bought him a Lotts chemistry set and he played with it for hours.  Graham went to the local John Kelly Boys Technology College in Nuffield Road, Dollis Hill (today’s Crest Academy in Crest Road). 

 

 John Kelly Technology College

In May 1961, Graham bought antimony tartrate from a local chemist in Neasden High Street. He lied about his age and signed the poisons books using a false name and address. He had few friends at school, and with his knowledge of chemistry pupils called him ‘The Mad Professsor’. Graham tried out the poison on his school friend Christopher Williams by putting it in his lunch sandwiches. He gave him several doses and Chris was off school and sick over a long period but recovered. 

Graham experimented at home by putting a few grains of the poison in the food and drinks of his family and kept a detailed record of the effects. On 21 April 1962 his step-mother Molly Young died, but poison was not suspected as she had suffered a road accident the previous year. Later Graham told the police that he had poisoned her food for almost a year. He persuaded his grieving father to have Molly cremated at Golders Green, which got rid of the body and any chance of testing it. Graham then targeted his father, who became violently ill from the antimony, and had to be hospitalised at Willesden General. Doctors suspected he had been poisoned, and when Graham lectured them about the differences between arsenic and antimony, Fred shouted, ‘Get that boy away from me!’ Fortunately, he survived.

The science teacher at John Kelly became worried when Graham brought samples of poison to analyse at school. He looked in Graham’s desk and found his exercise books were full of drawings of famous poisoners. The school contacted the family doctor who realised that Graham’s father and sister had both suffered bouts of sickness. The GP also spoke to the Council, and they sent a psychiatrist, pretending to be a careers adviser, to speak with Graham, who was keen to show off his knowledge of poisons. His replies so alarmed the psychiatrist that he immediately informed the police. They arrested Graham on 21 May 1962. 

 

Graham at the time of his arrest

In his shirt the police found what he called his ‘little friend’ or ‘the exit dose’, a phial he said he always carried. Graham told the police he had been interested in poisons since he was 11. When they took his phial away, he said he felt powerless without it. Graham was 14 years and 10 months old when he stood trial at the Old Bailey in July 1962 and pleaded guilty to poisoning his family and a school friend. A psychiatrist said Graham was suffering from a psychopathic disorder and required treatment at a maximum-security hospital. Judge Stevenson committed him under the Mental Health Act and ruled that Graham should not be released from Broadmoor Hospital for 15 years, without permission from the Home Office. 

Graham realised he had to become a model prisoner if he was going to get out. In February 1971 after nine years in Broadmoor, psychiatrist Dr Edgar Udwin decided Graham was rehabilitated and fit for release. This contradicted the judge’s ruling and the need for Home Office approval. Graham now aged 23, attended a government re-training centre and was recommended for a job at the John Hadlands photographic laboratory in Bovingdon Hertfordshire. No one was told about Graham’s conviction and time in Broadmoor and he was given the job of assistant store man in May 1971. 
Hadlands Lab

Graham was now free to resume his obsession with poisons and their effects. He bought thallium from the well-known chemists John Bell & Croyden in Wigmore Street, using a letter written on Bedford College London University note paper. He put antimony and thallium in his workmates’ tea and poisoned at least eight people who became very sick and needed hospital treatment. Their illnesses were seen as a virus and given the name of the ‘Bovingdon Bug’. Tragically, two men died. 

The medical adviser to Hadlands held a meeting to try to reassure the 80 staff. During the meeting he became concerned when Graham Young challenged him about the virus and instead suggested heavy metal poisoning. When the Medical Office for Hertfordshire and Detective Chief Superintendent Ron Harvey got involved, they discovered Young’s past and he was arrested. 

In June 1972 Graham Young appeared at St Albans Crown court charged with the murders of Bob Egle, aged 60, the head store man at Hadlands and colleague Fred Biggs (56). There were other charges of attempted murder. He pleaded not guilty, and when long passages from his notebook were read out by the prosecuting counsel, Graham said it was just his notes for a novel. He enjoyed showing off his superior knowledge of poisons and he asked complex questions of the prosecuting QC. The jury took less than an hour to find him guilty and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight. 

 

Fred Young reading paper

This image was Graham Young’s favourite picture which he gave to the press at the time of his trial in St Albans. It was taken in a photo booth in Victoria Station. In fact, the fearsome stare was an accident, caused by his anger when the machine did not fire. He bent over and banged it with his fist and then the flash went off. 

In Parkhurst Graham befriended the Moors murderer Ian Brady, through their common fascination with the Nazis, and they played chess together. Other prisoners were frightened of Young, and the guards would say, ‘if you don’t behave, I will get Graham to make you a nice cup of tea’. Graham was delighted when Madame Tussauds made a wax model of him for their Chamber of Horrors, and he appeared with his idols such as Dr Crippen.

Madame Tussauds wax model

Although thallium was little known, two crime writers used it as a poison in their books. The first was ‘Final Curtain’ written in 1947 by New Zealander Ngaio Marsh. The other writer was Agatha Christie, who had worked in a laboratory, and considered thallium the perfect poison as it was so difficult to detect. She wrote ‘The Pale Horse’ in 1961: the title comes from the Book of Revelations where Death rides on a pale horse. Graham Young with his interest in both the occult and poison, almost certainly read the book, although he denied it.

 

Final Curtain (1947)

 

The Pale Horse (1961)

After 18 years, on 1 August 1990 Graham was found dead in his cell in Parkhurst and the cause of death was recorded as a heart attack. But was it suicide, had he managed to find a ‘little friend’? 

In 1995 the director Benjamin Ross who grown up in Neasden, made a film called ‘The Young Poisoners Handbook’, which was a dramatised account of the Graham Young case. 

It is not clear why Graham Young only poisoned his family and people close to him. A later diagnosis suggested that he was probably autistic. He was deeply affected by the death of his mother and the separation from Aunt Winnie and Uncle Jack whom he never poisoned. He constantly needed to be important and show off his detailed chemical knowledge, even when it led to his capture. The use of poison gave him the means of life or death over others and made him feel immensely powerful.