Debiarbi:
I've been given the following info from the police:
"On 22 November 1977 a male caller phoned the Henderson Police Station. He said at the time, "Listen, I am not going to give you my name or anything like that. I'll give you information about the PATIENT murder once and once only". He then described the ring being outside in the rubbish bin of the Urgent Dispensary wrapped in purple tissue paper. He further said, "Take this number down : 126040. I will ring back on the 30th""
It doesn't make sense that he would say he was giving the info once only and then that he would call back on 30th. I've emailed the police to ask if he did call back.
It is possible the number may have been given by the caller so the police could use it to confirm they were talking to the same person in any subsequent call.
The delivery of the ring indicates the caller wanted to start by establishing his credibility with the police.
This could mean several things:
- (a) The caller had inside information and wanted to protect their identity out of fear of being unjustly accused of being a party to the crime.
- (b) The caller was in fact a party or significantly lesser party to the crime and wished to establish credibility with a view to making a deal for immunity in return for putting away the perpetrator.
- (c) The caller was a minor criminal associate of the guilty party and wanted to see the guilty brought to justice without affecting the callers own status in the criminal community and without personal attention from the police.
- (d) The caller was unrelated to the crime but wanted to trade the information to the police in return for a reduction in sentence for an unrelated offence or in relation to something before the court.
- (e) The caller was simply using the situation for leverage on the guilty party in relation to something entirely unrelated.