Although he was actually born in Yorkshire, Donald Neilson is so synonymous with the local area that he's become a kind of honorary Stokie over the years, much like Peter Crouch is today!
Born Donald Nappey on 01 August 1936, the same day as Yves Saint Laurent and opening day of the Berlin Olympics, Donald Neilson would go on to become known as one of the most famous serial killers and criminals ever to have operated in the Stoke area!
After a relatively normal childhood, bar teasing for his surname, and some time in the Army, where he was also bullied because of his name (thanks to "our brave boys"), Neilson eventually changed his name from Nappey so his daughter wouldn’t have to go through the same experiences of bullying that he did!
Settling with his family in Bradford, Neilson had to go "on the rob" to make ends meet, and he became one of this Britain's most innovative and ground-breaking burglars, committing hundreds of break-ins without arrest! He even fooled police by changing the methods of his break-ins on a regular basis to fool the police into thinking they were after multiple robbers! Unfortunately, being a ground-breaker doesn’t always pay the rent, and Neilson (now living in Cheshire) moved on to armed robbery, targeting post offices.
It was now that he claimed his first kills, and his nickname "The Black Panther". He got this name after the wife of one of his victims described Neilson as "so quick, he was like a panther". This, added to his preference for wearing black clothing when he was on the rob, is what gave him his name!
The "Black Panther" now became Britain’s Most Wanted Man, and Neilson plotted his most audacious crime to date: the kidnapping of Lesley Whittle, heiress to a coach transport fortune! Taking Whittle from the family home in Shropshire, Neilson brought her to Kidsgrove, where she was kept at the bottom of a drainage shaft. Whittle was to die here, but it is still unclear to this day how this happened.
Nine months later, in December 1975, Neilson was eventually caught. After taking two police officers hostage at gunpoint (in their own car), two members of the public helped to overpower him, handcuffing him to some railings. The locals got a bit carried away and continued beating the crap out of Neilson when he was chained up, so much so the police officers had to intervene to protect him from the public!
Returned to Kidsgrove Police Station for questioning, Neilson confessed to Lesley Whittle’s kidnapping but said that Whittle had hung herself accidentally.
Shamefully, Neilson did not stand trial in Stoke, but instead in Oxford (damn southerners claiming all the glory, as usual). Worse still, he would serve his time at HMP Norwich, not HMP Werrington. Neilson was eventually convicted of 4 murders, kidnapping, blackmail, burglary, GBH, possession of a firearm and possessing a shotgun with the intent of endangering life. He was sentenced to five life sentences plus a further 61 years. He always claimed that he did not kill Lesley Whittle, but that she died by accident.
Neilson died in December 2011.
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