In 1963 in Perth, Australia, a guy by the name of John Button had a fight with his fiancee (engaged to be married) Rosemary (They were playing strip poker and he wouldn’t take off his pants). Rosemary got so upset she walked home.
On her way home, a car came out of nowhere and ran her over. She died subsequently from the wounds. John had gone after her in his car to apologise, found her dying by the side of the road and took her to hospital.
The police charged John (who was early 20’s) with her murder. Before his case went to trial, a guy called Eric Cooke confessed to murdering Rosemary. He gave all kinds of details which only the murderer would know. Even though Eric had a string of crimes as long as both his arms (and was eventually hanged), the police had already decided John was the killer, so they ignored Eric.
John went to jail for 10 years. Thanks to the efforts of a journalist (Estelle Blackburn who wrote Broken Lives) and a lawyer, Tom Percy QC, in 2002, John Button was cleared of the Rosemary’s murder. But the stupid policeman wouldn’t apologise for his colossal mistake! He wrecked a life, when the evidence was pointing in a different direction… anyway.
Can you imagine how bad it would be to have your fiancee die in front of you, let alone to be convicted of killing her?
Thanks for that. I was wondering what happened to Button.