Why do the White House Farm murders still grip people 40 years on?

The murders of five people at an Essex farmhouse was an unspeakable act of violence. Six-year-old twins, a model and her adoptive parents dead – it set the stage for the ultimate whodunnit. Forty years on from Jeremy Bamber's conviction, why do the White House Farm murders remain so compelling?

Bamber killed his adoptive parents, sister and her twin sons on a summer's night at their remote Georgian farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex.

A year later, after a trial that gripped the nation, he was convicted of their murders on 28 October 1986.

The scene had been staged to look like a murder-suicide by Bamber's schizophrenic sister, Sheila Caffell, who Bamber said then turned the gun on herself.

The murders have entered modern folklore, inspiring numerous TV shows, podcasts and books.

Caffell, 28, was the model who was glamorous but fragile; her six-year-old children the helpless lambs to the slaughter.

Nevill, a magistrate, and June Bamber, both 61, were the wealthy farming couple who were quintessentially English.

And Jeremy Bamber was the handsome, flamboyant 24-year-old who everyone felt sorry for – until he was unmasked as the killer.

It was a cast that demanded attention and promised a showpiece trial.

"The massacre of a family in 1985 was unheard of, particularly in sleepy Essex," says former police detective Mark Williams-Thomas.

Bamber, now 65, was taken in by his adoptive parents when he was six months old and, after being privately educated, went on to work at the family farm.

He has always denied committing the murders, blaming Caffell instead, and has been in prison for the 41 years since his arrest.

"He has always protested his innocence since day one," explains Williams-Thomas, now an investigative journalist.

Bamber has made several failed bids for freedom and has an active group of supporters who believe in his innocence and that his conviction is unsafe.

He is one of only a few prisoners serving a whole-life tariff, putting him in a league with the worst of the worst.

Such is the ongoing fascination with the case that Williams-Thomas is in the middle of exploring it in a year-long theatre tour across England.

He admits being surprised at the level of interest his show is attracting, some four decades on from the murders.

The horror unfolded in the early hours of 7 August 1985, when Bamber called Chelmsford police station to report a call from his father saying: "Your sister's gone crazy and she's got a gun."

Moments later, he said the line went dead.

When armed officers broke into White House Farm hours later, they found five bodies.

At first, sympathy flooded in for Bamber. With her history of mental illness, his sister was believed to be the killer.

But relatives began to suspect Bamber, and suspicion grew when his ex-girlfriend, Julie Mugford, told police he had confessed to carrying out the murders to secure a £436,000 inheritance.

He was arrested in September 1985 and went on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court a year later.

As well as the testimony of his scorned lover, a silencer for the murder weapon – found in a cupboard at the farm – was key to the prosecution's case.

It was argued that Caffell's arms were not long enough to reach the .22 calibre rifle's trigger to shoot herself with the silencer on it, nor could she have placed the moderator in the cupboard before her death.

Yet despite the evidence and Bamber being found guilty of the murders, the jury's majority verdict of 10 to two meant seeds of doubt remained.

"I haven't done a single show where the percentage hasn't switched from guilty to not guilty by the end," says Williams-Thomas, who asks his audiences to vote on Bamber's guilt throughout the show.

Bamber himself has never missed a beat in protesting his innocence, using the press to get attention.

Several appeals have raised the profile of the case and more evidence emerging over the years has kept momentum going.

It includes missing crime scene photographs and a suggestion the scene was restaged by police, as well as the lack of DNA linking Bamber to the house that night.

The notorious inmate also points to the fact Mugford sold her story to the News of the World for £25,000 before she gave evidence at the trial, and had allegedly been told she would be paid only if Bamber was convicted.

Bamber has now been banned from talking to the media and his campaign team, The Guardian reported.

"I used to speak to him every day," a spokesman for Bamber's campaign explains. "Dozens of items show he was not responsible for the murders."

The campaigner believes Bamber would not have been convicted today, in a world where people are more understanding about mental health.

"People understand that people with the issues Sheila had... do on occasion act in this way," he says, agreeing with the murder-suicide theory.

So, why does the case still captivate people? Bamber's supporter explains: "It has all the ingredients of an Agatha Christie novel – the big country house, the well-to-do family, the inter-family rivalries."

Fresh evidence in the case is being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

It has the power to refer Bamber to appeal judges if it concludes his conviction is unsafe, and a spokeswoman for the authority said the latest application remained "under review".

Bamber has already had two full appeals dismissed by the Court of Appeal, alongside multiple applications sent to the CCRC.

Asked if he thinks Bamber will ever be freed, the supporter, without hesitation, replies: "Yes, I do. In my lifetime I think he will be released."

Colin Caffell, who is Sheila's ex-husband and father of murdered Nicholas and Daniel, told the BBC in 2020 he had no doubt about Bamber's guilt and put support for the killer down to his "charisma".

"I am sure he is just as charming today as he was then," he said.

"Psychopaths – and, while I am not an expert, I think he is one – are naturally charismatic."

The sentencing judge described the killer as "warped and evil beyond belief".

Williams-Thomas says the lingering debate around Bamber is the perfect fuel for fans of true crime, a genre that has exploded in popularity.

He adds: "It is a crime that will continue to fascinate the public until such time as either he dies or he is successful in appeal."

In a statement, Essex Police points to Bamber's unsuccessful appeals.

"All of these processes have never found anything other than Bamber is the person responsible," a spokesman says.

He describes the lives of Nevill and June Bamber, Sheila Caffell and her sons as being "needlessly, tragically and callously cut short" by Bamber.

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