Essex Police are investigating what could be a cold case murder in Tollesbury, with possible East End gangland links.
The new Essex Police investigative review team is re-examining the case of Hertfordshire garage proprietor Maurice Sams, 36, who was gassed to death in a caravan on farmland off Church Road in 1951.
A week after his body was found by Tollesbury bobby PC Ted Duncan, a suicide verdict was returned and the case closed.
But the dead man's son, Nigel Sams, two at the time, is convinced he knows the identity of his father's killer and the motive.
An Essex Police spokesman said although Mr Sams' death was not technically a cold case, "we have received new information and Ray Newman, an investigative review officer, is trying to establish if there is something that hasn't been looked at".
When Nigel Sams, who now lives in Devon, first came forward with his story in 2002, Essex Police said it was unlikely the case would be reopened as there was no evidence of foul play.
His elderly mother, who refuses to discuss the subject, insisted his father had died in a coach crash until four years ago when she gave him paperwork compiled by a private detective she hired when she suspected her husband was having an affair.
Mr Sams now believes his father was killed at the second or third attempt by the husband of the "other woman" ? a Hertfordshire country club owner from the East End, who has since died.
Published Wednesday August 25, 2004
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