Black Panther: Looking back at 50 years since Donald Neilson kidnapped Bridgnorth teenager Lesley Whittle

Things started to go wrong from the very beginning.

With kidnap virtually unheard of in Britain 50 years ago, police initially thought the disappearance of teenager Lesley Whittle might be a student prank.

And instead of a media blackout which has since become standard procedure - one of the biggest lessons learned from those tragic events of January 1975 - the story was quickly all over the airwaves.

It is 50 years today (January 14) since career criminal Donald Neilsen - or Donald Nappey, to give him the name he was born with - snatched Lesley from her home in Highley, near Bridgnorth in the hope of making a quick £50,000 from her wealthy family.

Lesley, a petite 17-year-old who was barely 5ft tall, was an heiress to the well-known Whittle's coach operator.  She was taken from her bedroom during the night of January 14, 1975, and a ransom note, printed on Dymo tape, was left in her room. Far from being a prank, it was a carefully-planned operation by a ruthless stop-at-nothing crook and serial killer, who became dubbed the Black Panther by the media. 

Neilson had tethered Lesley by a noose in a drainage shaft beneath a Staffordshire park, and it was there where her body would be found following a botched attempt by police to trap him during a ransom drop.

Neilson, from Bradford, had killed three times before Lesley's murder, and once more afterwards. His victims included a postmistress's husband from Langley in the Black Country, and a security guard at the Dudley Freightliner rail terminal. But it was the death of 17-year-old Lesley, who was doing her A-levels at Wolverhampton's Wulfrun College, which really shook the nation.

"There was an awful lot of apprehension once it became clear he was also responsible for the murder in the Black Country, and the shooting in Dudley," said this newspaper's Andy Wright, who covered Lesley's abduction from start to finish.

"People were pretty unsettled that he was around."

Mr Wright, at the time living in Bridgnorth, was working out of a newspaper hut which had been permanently stationed on a car park in the village.

"I ended up doing nothing else for about two years. I was pretty well on it full time until the conclusion of the court case at Oxford Crown Court," he said.

Donald Nappey was born in 1936, and was said to have suffered many taunts about his unfortunate surname while growing up in his home town of Bradford.

He had served as a lance-corporal in the Army, but had struggled to settle into civilian life after giving up his military career to spend more time with his wife Irene and daughter Kathryn.

The Nappeys changed their name to Neilsen in 1964, as Kathryn was about to start school, and Donald wanted to prevent his daughter from suffering the bullying he had experienced.

Described as 'having a chip on his shoulder' with little respect for authority, Neilson struggled with the idea of working for somebody else. Instead, he embarked on a series of unsuccessful business ventures before turning to crime.

He began as a prolific burglar, committing more than 400 break-ins. His offending stepped up a gear following a burglary at a house in Cheshire where, having discovered guns and ammunition, he decided that armed robbery would be a more lucrative career option.

Between 1971 and 1974, Neilson robbed 14 post offices, becoming increasingly more violent as time went on. He nearly came unstuck in January 1972, when he was disturbed during a break-in at a post office in Heywood, Lancashire. Postmaster Leslie Richardson and his wife woke to find Neilson in their bedroom. A struggle ensued in which Mr Richardson fired the gun twice, and Neilson fled empty-handed.

He killed for the first time when he shot postmaster Donald Skepper during a robbery at Harrogate in February 1974. He murdered another postmaster, Derek Astin of Baxenden, Lancashire, in September 1974. It was here that he picked up his nickname after Mr Astin's wife Marion told reporters he was "so quick, he was like a panther".

It was just two months before he struck again, this time in the Black Country. He brutally battered sub-postmistress Margaret Grayland, who kept a post office in Langley, near Oldbury, and shot her husband Sidney dead.

However, when Neilson kidnapped Lesley the following January, police were slow to link the crime with the Panther murders. Neilson's carefully laid plans began to unravel during a botched ransom drop at Bathpool Park, Kidsgrove, yards from where Lesley was being held in a deep drainage shaft. Lesley's brother Ronald was supposed to go to the park and wait for Neilson to signal to him by flashing a torch. But, by coincidence, another couple turned up at the park, resulting in confusion.

Neilson drove to Dudley where he attempted to rob the Freightliner rail depot. He shot security guard Gerald Smith six times, causing him injuries which would result in his death the following year. Neilson left his getaway car behind, but it took police eight days to find the stolen green Morris 1300. When they did, they discovered recordings of Lesley's voice and shotgun cartridges matching those used in the murders.

Lesley's body was not found until the following month, and despite the discovery, Neilson would evade capture until November that year.

It was not until March 1975 that police began a thorough search of Bathpool Park, Kidsgrove, the scene of a failed ransom drop. Lesley was found dead, with a noose around her neck, in a deep drainage shaft.

Mr Wright recalled the police being ill prepared for a crime they had no experience of dealing with.

""Kidnapping was almost unknown in England," he said. " I think at first the police thought it was some kind of prank being played by Lesley or her college friends, but they pretty soon did realise it was serious and turned all kinds of resources onto it."

In Highley, the reaction was one of shock

"It had been until quite recently a mining community and was quite tight-knit," said Wright. "There was a deal of suspicion surrounding everyone really."

The investigation was led by Chief Superintendent Bob Booth, who hitherto had an excellent record in solving murders, but whose career was to be broken by the failures of the Lesley Whittle case.

"I think you have to feel fairly sorry for Mr Booth," Mr Wright said. "He and his colleagues had never handled anything like that before. The major error that they made was that they didn't take the Press into their confidence.

"On more than one occasion there were a number of Press vehicles chasing people in the hope that they would get a lucky break about the story."

After the discovery of Lesley's body, her killer was to remain at large for many months. It was not until December 11, 1975, that Neilson was caught - essentially by chance - by two police constables near Mansfield.

They saw him acting suspiciously near a sub post office. Neilson pulled a gun and forced the pair to drive with him. However, after a considerable struggle, they managed to overpower him, with the help of people from a fish and chip shop queue who rushed to help.

Mr Wright recalled: "I got a phone call from our news editor, Warren Wilson, saying we had had a tip-off that somebody who was linked with the Lesley Whittle kidnap and the post office murders had been apprehended at a place called, I think, Mansfield Woodhouse, and he asked us to go there.

"I remember saying to him: 'Have you any idea how far that is and what the conditions are like?' - it was snowing heavily.

"Me and photographer Dave Bagnall drove through the snow and eventually got to Mansfield where some comedian had turned all the direction signs round so we couldn't find our way. We were driving the wrong way down a one-way street when a police car came behind us with its blue light flashing. It turned out that these were the two coppers who earlier that evening had apprehended Donald Neilson. Purely by chance we got an exclusive interview with them. They also very kindly found us accommodation for the night.

"They were Tony White and Stuart Mackenzie and they were really nice blokes.

"Although it was not confirmed, they were pretty sure they had just caught the Black Panther. One was driving, and the other had grappled with the Black Panther in the car. The gun went off and blew a hole in the roof. They bailed out into the road and some guys in a queue outside a fish and chip shop ran to their assistance including, I seem to recall, a bloke who was a karate expert.

"If you remember seeing the pictures of Neilson after his capture, he was battered.

"I filed my story first thing in the morning when the copytakers came in and Dave got pictures of the two coppers. We had got ourselves an exclusive."

Mr Wright covered the trial at Oxford Crown Court.

"There was a scary moment which is still imprinted on my mind.

"The first two rows were full of evidence bags. At one point, I think it was his defence who handed him the sawn off shotgun and asked him to show how he stood with this gun during the post office raids. He went all the way round the court in an arc with the gun levelled. He trained it round to everybody in court. As one, they went to the floor. Almost as a reflex action, you went down as it came towards you. The ammunition was in a bag not far away.

"He was quite a menacing man. He was not big, but had a menacing stare."

Neilson received five life sentences

In 2008 a judge ruled that he should never be released. Neilson developed motor neurone disease and died as a prisoner in 2011, aged 75.

Covering the trial alongside Mr Wright was Tony Bishop, the district chief reporter for the Express & Star in Stourbridge.

"I had a call out of the blue summoning me to a press conference at Kidderminster police station at 10 o'clock at night, which was a bit strange. I beetled over there and there was a whole crowd of pressmen there already," he recalled.

"News of the kidnap had been put out on local radio in Birmingham. The information had been filed by a Kidderminster freelance journalist, Bill Williams. His office in Kidderminster was next to the Whittle company offices and obviously he had got some good contacts there. He disclosed the news of the kidnap before anything had been put out by the police.

"Bill, being a good journalist, asked the police for confirmation but all he got was the usual reply: "No  comment". Bill decided to market the story, and did it to local radio, which rather thwarted any plans the police might have had for a complete news blackout."

As the investigation continued, police inexperience in dealing with the media in such situations continued to have unfortunate consequences.

"A press conference was called in which Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Booth said he was still hoping that the kidnapper might get in touch. There was a 1am deadline at a rendezvous which he was not going to reveal. Unfortunately Bill Williams got the location of the rendezvous which was a telephone kiosk at the Swan Centre in Kidderminster and pushed out the location to the evening press, which was used, much to the annoyance of Bob Booth."

He said Mr Williams remained troubled by the whole affair right up to his death.

"But if the police had been a bit more co-operative and said, 'Look Bill, hold on for 24 hours', he would have complied, but instead they said "No comment", he said.

Mr Bishop said three police forces were involved in the investigation and did not seem to be co-operating particularly well, and a commander from Scotland Yard was brought in to co-ordinate the inquiry.

For Booth, it was a sad end to an illustrious career.

"I felt a bit sorry for Bob Booth," said Mr Bishop. "He had solved 70 murders and was a very accomplished detective. At the end of the day he was relegated to being a uniformed Chief Superintendent at Malvern."

Much of the material relating to Neilson's crimes was destroyed on the orders of West Mercia Chief Constable Alex Rennie to ensure guarantees of confidentiality were kept.

Writing in his autobiography Farmhand to Chief Constable, the late Mr Rennie explained: "The usual practice in murder cases is to retain the papers and exhibits for unlimited periods of time.

"In this instance case papers and other materials were spread about in other forces. In West Mercia we had a cell half full, kept doubly locked, containing thousands of statements and other documents gathered in the course of inquiries.

"Over the years I had been pressed by journalists, authors and others, including police officers, to give them access to the material, no doubt to write and, hopefully, make money.

"Some of the information was of a sensitive and highly-confidential nature which was given by people on the promise that it would remain so. I was concerned that on my retirement the information might in course of time reach the public domain."

He added: "I had been responsible for the assurance of secrecy given so I decided the honourable course was to destroy the material."

Stuart Mackenzie, on of the officers who finally brought Neilson's reign of terror to an end, did not mourn Neilsen's passing.

"Prison was too good for him," he said.

"Neilson has had a life of luxury in jail while the families of his victims have had to work for a living. It really grieves me that their lives have been ruined while he was being looked after, fed and clothed.

"He never showed any remorse. I just hope his death has brought some closure for the families of the people he killed."

Mr Mackenzie, who was given a bravery award by the Queen Mother for bringing Neilson to justice, said: "If we hadn't got him he would have killed again because he had no qualms about taking lives."