10 Most Shocking Unsolved British Crime Mysteries

6. The Pitchfork Murder

The next entry on our list is a vicious tale of murder seasoned with a hint of black magic. On Valentine's Day 1945, 74 year old Charles Walton left his home in the village of Lower Quinton to complete a hedge trimming job. His body was found several hours later laying under an oak tree on nearby Meon Hill by his concerned niece and neighbours.

Walton had been pinned to the ground by his own pitchfork before being stabbed multiple times and severely beaten. In the wake of Walton's brutal death, rumours circulated that the murder had been carried out by practitioners of witchcraft and black magic. Detective Chief Superintendent Alec Spooner gave these rumours credence and followed them up as a lead. Spooner discovered that the area of Meon Hill had links to stories of evil and witches dating back to the Stone and Iron ages.

Furthermore, the case also bore an uncanny resemblance to the murder of an accused witch who had been pinned to the ground and stabbed seventy years prior. The police investigation was hindered by the peculiar fact that the villagers of Lower Quinton would not speak about the events of the murder, probably due to superstition surrounding the nature of Walton's Death. The case's leads soon ran cold and any hard evidence for a less supernatural motive failed to materialise. A seance was even preformed on Meon Hill in 1952 in a failed attempt to shedding some light onto the mystery.