The Entwistle Murders: The Massachusetts Man Who Shot His Wife And Baby Daughter
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Description
Visit our website https://psycho-killer.co for exclusive videos, photos, and articles. Mild-mannered, handsome and geeky were all terms used to describe Neil Entwistle. Yet this British computer engineer was convicted of...
show moreMild-mannered, handsome and geeky were all terms used to describe Neil Entwistle. Yet this British computer engineer was convicted of shooting dead his wife and baby daughter at their home near Boston, Massachusetts. Entwistle fled the scene, jumped on a plane and ran home to mum and dad. The American authorities caught up with him in London and put him on trial in the United States, where he was found guilty. Despite the weight of evidence stacked against him, Neil Entwistle continues to protest his innocence, denying any part in the fatal shootings of 27-year-old Rachel and 9-month-old Lillian in January 2006.
The Six O’clock Knock is a Psycho Killer production.
Transcript
[Music] This podcast contains descriptions of death and violence that some listeners may find upsetting. Hello and welcome to the Six O’clock Knock, the true crime podcast presented by me Simon Ford and major crime detective Jacques Morrell hi Jacques how you been hi Simon I’m much better thank you uh better for getting out and about again uh just like in the green bicycle case from the other week yeah I think we set a new standard for socially distanced investigations with that one didn't we yeah so today we are in the heart of Sherwood forest the legendary home of robin hood on the trail of an equally enigmatic outlaw yes and thanks to the notorious British summer weather we've taken shelter not in a hollow tree but in the historic forest lodge hotel at Edwinstowe across the road from the 9th century church where tradition has it Robin Hood married Maid Marian anyway apart from a drop of locally brewed ale what else brings us to royal Sherwood Simon oh well I was coming to that today's case is a modern one from right here in old Sherwood in fact I covered this story as a journalist and a news presenter with the BBC in Nottingham and it stuck with me ever since because you know I’ve been around a bit but this is my old stamping ground it's where I grew up and it involves an i.t expert Neil Entwistle from the nearby town of workshop he was found guilty in 2008 of shooting to death his wife Rachel and baby daughter Lilian rose at their home in the united states to be precise Hopkinton Massachusetts a small town in the Boston commuter belt Neil Entwistle was 28 and Rachel was 27. little Lilian was just nine months old the killings in January 2006 were the subject of a transatlantic media frenzy and we'll get into why shortly but first it's important to note that throughout the trial and his subsequent incarceration Neil Entwistle and his family have protested his innocence in fact a couple of years ago Neil Entwistle's father Clifford published a book called Neil's story trial by media that's right Simon and I do recall the case although it's not one I had any involvement in so coming at it fresh for me really and it's one of three books you asked me to read before this meeting today there was heartless the true story of Neil Entwistle and the brutal murder of his wife and child and that was by a woman called Michelle R. McPhee and there was a further book Neil Entwistle’s Day In Court by Michael Wells Gleuck now I want to point out that the McPhee book was published right at the start of the trial in 2008 and Cliff Entwistle cites this as an example of what he calls trial by media he alleges that coverage like this made a guilty verdict to foregone conclusion and in the face of this media bombardment he claims his son didn't stand a chance and here is Cliff Entwistle as he speaks to reporters outside the court in 2008 we will continue to fight for our innocent son with the hope that one day justice will prevail and our little granddaughter lily may rest in peace okay then those are our sources along with contemporary records and transcripts let's get into it and ask the difficult questions was Neil Entwistle a victim of trial by media was he the victim of a miscarriage of justice if so who killed his wife and daughter [Music] okay first some background Neil met Rachel Souza as she was then at the university of York in 1999 he was studying electronic engineering and business management she was an American studying English on her year abroad and they were in the university rowing club in 2001 after a stint back in the U.S. Rachel returned to the UK and worked for three years as a teacher at Redditch in Worcestershire the couple married in 2003 by which time Neil had started work at the Malvern office of the defence and security firm kinetic Lilian rose was born in April 2005. in july of that year Neil left his job at kinetic for domestic reasons six weeks or so later the family had relocated to Massachusetts where they moved into the home of Rachel's mother and stepfather Priscilla and joe Matarazzo okay just take you back slightly there Simon what do you mean there by domestic reasons well that was the phrase used by a kinetic spokesman who was contacted by the Worcester news in the aftermath of the murders and that I’m afraid is all the information I have okay anything else around this time well yeah it emerged later that between 2003 and 2004 Neil Entwistle registered a number of websites and start-up businesses including million maker dot co dot UK which promised customers six thousand dollars in monthly earnings and SR Publications .co.uk which listed as its flagship product the big penis manual I see well that's interesting um I wonder if his wife knew um now that certainly shows there's another side to the and whistle it must be his secret life yeah I think that's what you call it isn't it um Neil spent four months living with his in-laws at their home in Carver Massachusetts there were arguments perhaps because he didn't have a job lined up and was having trouble finding work Cliff Entwistle says in his book Rachel shared with us that she was not settling in that Lilian had stopped sleeping through the night and that there were constant arguments between herself Priscilla and joseph for the sake of keeping the peace Neil and Rachel decided to move out and so it was after Christmas and Lilian's christening the couple leased a house in Hopkinton a little town about 50 miles from carver and near the highway into Boston they moved in around the 10th of January 2006 into what sort of house well six cubs path is a spacious four bed detached house with three bathrooms at the end of a cul-de-sac in a secluded wooded area in fact I got that from the realtor's website and I’ve got to say it's a gorgeous looking property yeah I’m just looking now the rent twenty seven hundred dollars a month that's two and a half thousand pounds it will take a steak dinner I suppose so how would the admissions afford this kind of house with neither of them working yeah I don't know uh maybe they borrowed money from the Matarazzos maybe they had savings maybe they'd sold somewhere in this country before they moved to the united states Michelle r McPhee says in heartless that Neil claimed to be waiting for payments from the British government to clear well if that's true it would set the alarm bells ringing wouldn't it what we got here and it specialist who resigned from his job sets up a dubious get rich quick scheme on some website moves to the us without a job then claims he's due a lot of money I would be buying a second hand the car off this guy well talking of cars the couple also leased a car a BMW x3 in Rachel's name and that was a further dollars a month so that's monthly outgoings by my ropey mathematics of almost 3 200 with no visible income that's before you add the bills and the credit card purchases of furniture etc McPhee says the couple owed nearly nine thousand dollars on credit cards with Rachel's student loan repayments on top of that and that is a lot of debt so unless there really was a wad of cash coming Neil's way from Whitehall Michelle McFee says money never seemed to be an issue Neil had given his in-laws the impression that he was earning ten thousand dollars a month from the English military to advise them on secretive computer programs let's take that with a pinch of salt Neil's dad Cliff was unaware of any money troubles and he wants to think that his son would have come to him first if he needed money okay maybe so Cliff and his wife also owned their house in workshop in Nottinghamshire so they had the resources to bail him out but Neil never asked and another thing as Cliff Entwistle tells us Neil was not going to gain through insurance policies so that was out [Music] so turning to the crime itself now this was a particularly horrible double murder which is in a large part what galvanized the media around it remember the us is different with these kind of media stories so let's look at the circumstances well this is Neil's story as told to the Massachusetts state police in a phone interview he made from his parents’ home in the UK on Monday the 23rd of January 2006. in this call he claims that at 9 00 am on Friday the 20th he went out to run errands he was supposed to be going to a job interview but that had been cancelled he hadn't told his wife this as far as Rachel was concerned Neil would be out for all or most of the day he says that he went to staples to buy a wireless router for his computer they had one but he wanted to see if Walmart had it cheaper he says he got lost on the way to Walmart and stopped at
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