Walter Travers Scott-Elliot retired to a penthouse in Chelsea with his beautiful wife. Dorothy, who was twenty-two years his junior. She had been born in India.

Scott-Elliot had the ideal start in life; he qualified from Elton, went into the Coldstream Guards, where he became a Captain and saw action in the Great War.

The couple lived a quiet existence in their penthouse, with their collections of Indian antiques and jewellery. Then, in November 1977, they thought it was time to hire a new butler, hiring Mr Roy Fontaine.

Employment with the Scott-Elliots

Fontaine was everything the couple wanted from a butler. He had a smooth polished manner and worked extremely hard. So impressed were they with the younger man, Scott-Elliot, permitted him to sign cheques on his behalf.

The Scott-Elliots did not realise that Roy Fontaine was the alias for Scottish-born Archibald Thomas Hall, a convicted thief and con-man. Although, this was not as significant as his charge for murder.

Fontaine has shot his homosexual lover, David Wright, just three months before taking his position with the Scott-Elliots.

Archibald Thomas Hall

Hall was born in Glasgow in 1924. He started committing crimes at a very young age. It wasn't long before he found himself in prison. On release, he went to London.

Hall, at this point, changed his name to Roy Fontaine, after one of his favourite film actresses. He had a short marriage but was openly bisexual and embarked on many affairs with men.

He would claim that he had affairs with prominent men such as Lord Boothby and Terrence Rattigan. Whether this was true, his socialising with London's elite made it easier to rob and con them.

In 1964, his career as a jewel thief was stopped when he was arrested and sentenced to ten years. This later was changed to fifteen years, when he escaped custody.

Whilst in prison, he decided to teach himself some new skills. When he left prison, he could talk with a perfect English accent, ideal for his subsequent career as a confidence trickster.

Despite this, Hall had no charge of violence during these years.

Murder of a lover

In 1977, Hall murdered David Wright, who he had met in prison. Hall had found employment with Lady Hudson at Kirtleton House, where he started a relationship with a prostitute, Mary Coggle.

Wright then started working as an odd-job man at Kirtleton Hall. Wright was not satisfied, though and started asking Hall for money.

Wright threatened to tell Hall's employers that they met in prison. He also stole a ring from Lady Hudson. Hall told him to return the ring as he had changed his ways.

Wright was furious and got drunk, so he discharged a firearm at Hall while sleeping. The bullet narrowly missed Hall and ended up embedded in the headboard.

The next day the couple when shooting rabbits. Hall counted every shot Wright made. Finally, when he was out of ammunition, Hall shot him in the back of the head. Hall's capacity for murder did not end there, though.

Chelsea, London

After this murder, Hall moved to London, where Scott-Elliot employed him. On 8th December 1977, Hall and another man hatched a plan to defraud his new employers.

Hall took Michael Kitto, his accomplice, to the penthouse to view the antiques; he was convinced Scott-Elliot would be asleep.

When Hall entered the property, he was shocked when Mr and Mrs Scott-Elliot returned home. They naturally wanted to know what the two men were up to.

The pair knocked Mrs Scott Elliot to the floor, smothering her with a pillow. They stated they were trying to stop her screaming; whatever the truth, she died of suffocation.

Mr Scott-Elliot was drugged with whiskey and sleeping pills.

False identity

Hall met up with Mary Coggle. Together they came up with a plan to pass Coggle off as the dead Mrs Scott-Elliot. They reasoned that with some extra doses of medication, Scott-Elliot would not notice the imposter.

Coggle wearing a wig and dressed in a mink coat belonging to the victim, travelled in the back of the car with Scott-Elliot heavily sedated. His wife's body was placed in the boot.

The couple, plus both men and the dead body, travelled to Perthshire, Scotland, where they buried Mrs Scott Elliot in a shallow grave.

Eventually, after living the high life, they arrived at Glen Africa in the Highlands, where they murdered Mr Scott-Elliot. He, too, was buried in a shallow grave.

The three criminals then travelled around selling antiques and goods belonging to the murdered couple. This, however, was not the end of the killing spree.

Mary Coggle

Coggle was to be the next victim. She had taken to wearing the mink coat and jewellery. Hall was worried that she would draw attention to them wearing this around Kings Cross, especially as the Scott-Elliots had been reported missing.

When Hall asked Coggle to return the coat, she became angry. Kitto killed her. They left her body in a stream, where she was quickly discovered.

The Final Murder

The last murder the pair committed was on Hall's half-brother, a known paedophile, recently released from prison. The pair chloroformed him and drowned him in a bath.

It was time for another road trip to bury the body, leading to their capture.

The pair changed the license plate on a car and drove to Scotland to dispose of him. They stopped en route at a hotel and raised suspicion from the staff; the police were called as a matter of precaution.

When they arrived, they took them to the police station, where they uncovered the body in the boot.

The antique dealer

The police then started connecting the car's registration number to another crime.

An antique dealer became suspicious when two men tried to sell him China and silverware for much less than their value.

He took the car's number plate down and went to the police. They discovered that the car had been rented to a man called Scott-Elliot.

When the police went to the flat to question Scott-Elliot, they found over £3500 of valuables missing and splattered blood.

They also connected Coggle's body to the pair as she had been the housekeeper of the Scott-Elliots. The two men had also been identified as being in Scotland with Coggle.

Hall tried and failed to commit suicide before he admitted to the murders and told the police where the bodies could be found.

They were charged with five murders.

Conviction

Hall was charged with four counts of murder, the case of Dorothy Scott-Elliot's murder remained on file. Kitto was charged with three counts of murder.

Hall was later given a whole life order, meaning he would never be released. He made several suicide attempts. He died in 2002 at seventy-eight, one of the oldest prisoners serving a whole life order.

Sources: Crime and Investigation /Walford Observer / Daily Record