The Mysterious Case of Fred the Head

I travel to the Isle of Man in search of more information about John Gick and return to speak to someone connected with the case who has a very clear idea of what may have happened to Fred. Oh,.... and by the way, there's something quite important I've been meaning to tell you!   Links New Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/fredtheheadpodcast/ Website www.fredthehead.info Email fredtheh...

There's a number of interesting conversations that reveal some new ideas, an eagle eared listener spots a very strange coincidence and there's news of our new website. Show Notes for Episode 46 www.fredthehead.info contact@fredthehead.info fredtheheadpodcast@gmail.com   Steve the Transit Camper YouTube Episode  https://youtu.be/MsrB6gQ13Dk?si=yfM6l7grACDteUo1      

What would you do in John Gick's shoes? - Our investigation in to that thought yields an astonishing potential connection - One, absolutely nobody, saw coming! Want to contact us? - email us at: fredtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

Summer's over, so its back to work on the investigation. There's a few interesting developments to update you on on John Gick, on the Kun family emigration and the first Fred the Head meet up which was such a great success. 

John Gick disappears without trace on Saturday 1st February 1969, leaving the scout group he had brought with him from the Isle of Man without its leader. In this episode we track down the second in command on that trip and explore what he remembers about that fateful journey and what he remembers about John Gick and the clues that emerged from the investigation that followed his disappearance.

Episode 42 - Digging Deeper - We take our investigations into the missing scoutmaster to the next level, as we try to establish how the unsolved disappearance of a man in February 1969 could be related to our case.  

Our routine investigations pay dividends - When a man emerges from the archives who seems to match Fred - and the more we dig, the more and more intriguing it becomes.

In a long interview, we meet with the man who claims to have been an accessory to Fred's murder, who tells a remarkable tale in his own words.

There's one final question I need to ask Zoe, I spend far more time than I should digging through the archives with interesting results and we receive an offer of some very useful help

Jo has been busy uncovering more about Matthew James Jackson, I'm able to speak to someone who knew Frank Kun very well and there are some intriguing questions raised by listeners.

In our end of year review, we try and marshall all of the salient points we have discovered so far, map out the work ahead of us and, in the process, uncover some new and potential important information about Matthew James Jackson.

1969 - The Cold War is at its height. The clandestine battle of secrets, spies and espionage is raging on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It sounds glamorous, but in reality espionage was a dirty, sordid, small time business. Was Fred's death related to these activities. 

My request to the senior levels of the Police service about Isotopic Analysis yields results of an unexpected kind and I get to speak with someone who's been working on the Fred case for far longer than me.

We hear about something that may change everything. A possible link between the body and the killer. 

We've got work to do in our continuing investigation into whether there was any connection between Bible John and Fred. That starts with a deep dive into the dentistry and that process generates a new idea that I need to get to the bottom of.

We've been systematically combing through marriages in an ever-widening circle from Burton as part of an ongoing process to capture marriages in around 1969. Those few who we can't trace afterwards populate the worry list. In the meantime Iain has been on the trail of Anthony Hardy in a process that yields unexpected results, bring a completely fascinating new possibility into our thinking.

Welcome to Season 2 - Where we learn more about Fred's dentistry. plan our campaign for the new season and investigate two incidents from the time of the murder that might have a bearing on the case.

I need to understand more about how Czechoslovak refugees found their way to the UK in 1968 and fortunately I find someone who could help me with this, and I get to learn a great deal that could prove very useful in the fullness of time. In the second half of the podcast, I try to construct a hypothesis of what might have happened. By taking a step back and selecting the key findings over the last...

I receive an offer of help on analysing Fred’s dentistry, the results of which open up a new avenue of investigation. One that links our victim to the broader political upheavals that were happening around the world in in the late 1960s. And a conversation with Zoe Kun adds more intrigue to that possibility. There’s also some interesting news I wanted to share with you.

I’m following the trail to discover more about Mr A, the man at the centre of the story in Episode 23. I manage to find and speak with someone who knew him really, really well. So here was my chance to test the accuracy of the account.   That call proved very interesting, but not only in the way I had imagined. I also learned something else that cast a new light on the case. One that linked to ear...

Trying to trace George Robinson, who died in his shack in Stapenhill is proving difficult, very difficult, but we’ve simply got to find him. But in the process of trying to find him, I discover another witness. Someone who can tell me much, much more about one of the other main characters in the story. Mr A – the man at the centre of the murder.

I’m trying to find the identity of the man in the shack, to understand who he was and whether he was involved in the case in any way.  That investigation leads us down another fascinating avenue.

I needed to dig deeper and deeper into the story that we had been told, and that involved another conversation with the person who told me the story. That conversation revealed something I hadn’t quite understood…. Exactly when he was told about the murder, and if thats true, it could have major repercussions for the investigation.

We’d heard a compelling account of what had happened – but was it true? - I needed to take a deep dive to investigate the truthfulness of the account. However during that investigation I'd learn something new that cast a completely different light on the case.

When I receive a message from someone who claims to have told the police the real story of what had happened to Fred over 12 months ago, and now wants to tell me, I’m interested. This episode is his story, and it’s fascinating.