Patti and Griff Thomas (Mysterious Deaths)

Born in the first decade of the twentieth century, siblings Martha (known as Patti) and Griffith Thomas lived together their entire lives. By 1976 both Patti and Griff were retired and, although relatively wealthy, they led a simple and frugal life in their farmhouse near Llangolman, West Wales. In December that year the siblings were both found dead in their home in mysterious circumstances. An investigation was carried out but the answers it produced did not satisfy many local people. Over the last decade or so there have been several developments, including a connection to a Welsh serial killer and the surfacing of new, potentially vital information. This led Dyfed Powys police to announce in October 2022 that they were re-examining evidence in the case.

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https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/28/the-killer-could-still-be-among-us-two-elderly-siblings-and-a-brutal-that-mystifies-locals-nearly-50-years-BBChttps://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-...

BBChttps://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-...Griff and Martha Thomas: Forensic review into 46 year-old deaths

Daily Mailhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk › newsBullseye killer John Cooper linked to a historic double murder

greglewisinfo.comhttps://greglewisinfo.com › the-bull...The Bullseye Killer – and the Llangolman deaths - Greg Lewis

Tivyside Advertiserhttps://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk › ...Police reopen investigation into Ffynnon Samson deaths

North Wales Livehttps://www.dailypost.co.uk › newsTop expert suspects killer is linked to deaths at farmhouse

South Wales Guardianhttps://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk › ...Pembrokeshire murderer's name 'not ruled out' of Llangolman deaths

Western Telegraphhttps://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk › ...Ffynnon Samson deaths: Vigil held for Griff and Patti Thomas

Wales Onlinewww.walesonline.co.ukThe five other unexplained deaths linked to Pembrokeshire Murders killer ...

Daily Mailhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk › newsBullseye killer John Cooper link

Transcript

Patti and Griff Thomas

Llangolman is a small village tucked away in the southeastern part of the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Today it has a population of a little over 1000 and it is part of the wider community of Mynachlog-ddu which lies on the border of the neighbouring county of Carmarthenshire. The town of Narbeth is a 25 minutes drive south, with the major city in the region, Swansea, being an hour and 15 minutes away by car. The majestic but rugged Preseli Hills offer fantastic views stretching across the sea to Ireland and the area is steeped in history. Numerous stone circles and ancient burial sites are dotted across the undulating landscape. Some of the famous “Blue Stones" that form part of Stonehenge, 140 miles (225 km) away in the county of Wiltshire, come from quarries in the region. This fact lends an air of mysticism to the hills and surrounding countryside.

Martha Mary Thomas and her brother Griffith Morris Thomas grew up in the early part of the 20th century on an isolated farm called Ffynnon Samson, on the outskirts of Llangolman. Griffith, known as Griff, was born in 1904 and his younger sister who was known locally as “Patti" came along three years later. The farm consisted of around 65 acres of land and included an unrendered stone farmhouse along with several outbuildings centred around a hard based yard. The original single storey farm cottage with its small loft also remained on the site. 

Neither sibling ever married and both remained living and working at the family farm as adults. Their father passed away in 1967, leaving the farm to his children. By this time both Patti and Griff were in their 60’s and approaching retirement age. Eventually the siblings did retire, by which time they had built up considerable wealth through savings and investments. This was common knowledge within the local community. By 1976 the siblings' combined assets totaled £35000, the equivalent of over a quarter of a million pounds today. Despite their relative wealth, Patti and Griff lived a simple, frugal life eked out from their £30 a week pension.

Both siblings were keen gardeners, spending much time growing their own food on large vegetable plots on the property. Patti liked to cook, enjoyed needlework and was a collector of brooches and thimbles. Griff loved animals and was very fond of those he owned on the farm, treating them like pets. Patti and Griff were committed members of nearby Rhydwilym chapel and never missed a Sunday there. Patti was on the refreshment rota and would help out with making tea after the service. She would also do the washing up following communion. 

At age 73, Griff’s daily routine included making the short drive to pick up various sundries at nearby Charing Cross Stores. Driving was difficult for Griff due to extremely bad arthritis in his left hand, but he could just about manage a gear stick for little trips like this. On the afternoon of Tuesday December 7th 1976 he completed this ritual for the final time. Leaving the shop at around 4pm with a block of cheese for him and Patti to enjoy for their dinner, he travelled back home to the isolated farmhouse. The weather was cold, as it had been for weeks, and snow was forecast.

 Four days later on the morning of Saturday December 11th, 22 year old postal worker Gareth Rossiter (he is also referred to as Nigel and Neil in some reports) walked across the snow-covered yard to the back door of Fynnon Samson Farmhouse. He reached into his bag, pulled out the mail addressed to the siblings and was about to put it  through the letterbox, when he suddenly paused. He noticed that a pile of letters and parcels lay uncollected behind the door. Mail had been delivered on Thursday and Friday but neither Patti nor Griff had picked it up. This was very odd, and Gareth feared something may be wrong. He pushed the door and found it unlocked but it only opened a little as something was blocking the way. A chair had been placed directly behind the door. Gareth used a little more force and squeezed his way inside the farmhouse.

The downstairs curtains were drawn and the electric lights were on. Gareth called out for either sibling but did not receive a reply. There was no sign of the Thomas's Collie, which usually barked when visitors approached the house. He moved into the kitchen and there discovered Griff's body - though it was barely recognisable as it had been severely charred. Only the feet remained untouched by fire. Some reports say the body was lying on a wooden settle (a wooden bench with a high back) and others that it was underneath the settle. Griff had blood all over his face. He wore a brown scarf and blue donkey jacket (a workmans overcoat) though both had been badly damaged by fire. Again some reports differ, suggesting Griff was not wearing his outside coat. All reports agree that it was later discovered that the small block of cheese Griff had bought from Charing Cross Stores was still wrapped up in the pocket of his coat. Around the body lay a pile of cushions which also bore the marks of fire and smoke damage. 

Horrified, Gareth stood there frozen. He could hear the sound of the TV from the other room but according to a piece in the Daily Mirror in January 2021, Gareth did not go and investigate further. Panicked, he turned tail and set off for help. He went to the nearest house to raise the alarm and the police were contacted. 

I believe others in the extended Thomas family were informed that something awful had happened at Fynnon Samson farm and arrived on the scene before the police. According to the Western Mail May 27 2011 edition, The Thomas’s cousin, Emlyn Gibby, was there that morning and saw the bodies. The article actually states he found the bodies but every other report says it was the postman who first raised the alarm. It appears Emlyn Gibby may have been the first to find Patti’s body.

Patti’s body was discovered propped up in a chair in a corner of the living room sometimes referred to as the parlour. The body was slightly slumped forward over a table and magazine rack. A blanket covered the lower body. Patti’s head, face and clothes were covered in blood. At her feet lay an overturned television set, still droning on in the background. Nearby, on a chair by the fireplace, was a plate of bread and butter with a handful of crisps. On the mantelpiece were two nearly full cups of tea.

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A post-mortem was carried out by home office pathologist Owen Williams. His report on January 24th 1977 showed that Patti’s death had been caused by a head injury. She had a depressed fracture of the skull, sustained by numerous blows from a blunt object. Griff also had a head injury but it was not severe enough to have killed him. Griff died from burns. There was evidence of smoke damage to Patti's lung proving she was alive, though probably dying, when the fire was started. 

The time of death for both siblings was viewed as being early on the evening of Tuesday December 7th. This was worked out by various clues including the fact that Griff was last seen at 4pm that day in the local shop and did not make his usual trip the following morning to collect his daily newspaper. The plastic lens of the watch that Griff was found wearing had melted in the fire, stopping the hands at 8.20pm. 

The news of the events at Fynnon Samson farm travelled quickly and the community went into collective shock. The Vaughn family were neighbours of the Thomas’s and rented 18 acres from them to graze their cattle. They had seen them a lot over the very hot summer of 1976 due to the need to share water supplies but had not had as much contact recently. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at the Thomas farm. The Vaughns described the Thomas’s as good neighbours and they could not believe that something so awful could have happened to the siblings. 

Local and national media picked up on the story but reports indicate it was not immediately clear exactly what had happened. On December 13th, a couple of days after the bodies were found, the Daily Telegraph stated that local police believed the siblings may have been murdered. Indeed for the first few weeks this was the angle worked by police and the case was viewed as a double murder investigation. 

The theory was that the motive for the killings was financial and the farmhouse had been targeted in a robbery. It was a time when people of an older generation still kept large amounts of cash stored around their house. It was well known that the Thomas siblings did this. A bureau in the living room where Patti was found had been opened and a cash box which it contained was empty. A staggering £2637.90 was found across various locations dotted around the farm house. (£19,000 in today's money). Patti’s handbag which was found on the floor of her bedroom contained £543. If it was a robbery the person had left a small fortune behind at the scene. 

In charge of the investigation was Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Molloy, who was head of Dyfed/Powys CID. Molloy was born in Ireland but brought up in England. Molloy had developed a reputation as an excellent detective when he worked in the Midlands area of England during the 1960s. As a young detective he was influential in the hunt for the Cannock Chase killer. This name was given to the murderer of three girls, Margaret Reynolds, Diana Tift and Christine Darby between 1965 and 67 in Staffordshire, England. It remains one of the biggest child murder cases the country has ever seen.  

Molloy was the police officer who arrested suspect Raymond Morris in 1968 following the attempted abduction of a fourth girl. Although Morris was only convicted of one murder, Molloy and others believed he had killed all three girls. It was following Morris's trial that Molloy moved to Wales to lead Dyfed-Powys CID. 

Speaking in 2001 Molloy told the Western Mail that his method of policing was based around experience, skill, hard work and, importantly, luck. Luck is a word often associated with Molloy’s detective work. Things always seemed to work out for him and his hunches often proved correct. Such was the effect that it spawned the saying amongst fellow officers of “Molloy’s luck”. The term was used when investigations seemed to fall into place.

When Molloy took on the investigation into what had happened to the Thomas siblings he was hoping his track record for solving difficult cases would continue. After all he had no unsolved cases on his record since moving to Wales almost a decade ago.

Molloy and his team looked for any clues that might suggest the siblings were killed for an inheritance. They were able to speak to 62 members of the extended Thomas family. Every male aged 15-50 in the family was asked to provide details of his whereabouts on the evening of Tuesday 7th December. 

The net was widened to include a police visit to every home within a 6-8 km (4/5 mile) radius of Fynoon Samson farm. All males living in these households were spoken with.  According to police records 1260 people were spoken with and a total of 156 statements were taken. 572 men were able to be cleared through alibis. 

Within a few weeks, Molloy’s inquiries led him to believe that a double murder had not occurred. He began to form a quite different scenario of what happened on that cold winter’s evening at Ffynnon Samson farm.

Patti and Griff came across as getting along really well but in the 29 page report Molloy delivered to the county coroner in January 1977 he suggested this was a facade. Behind closed doors there was a degree of resentment and bitterness between the siblings. Though Molloy could not get anyone to put this in writing he said through conversations with locals it was evident that Patti and Griff argued over money. 

The report painted Patti as the dominant sibling and the one who held the purse strings in the small family. Griff had to ask his sister for money every week and was getting increasingly frustrated that she would not give him the amount he wanted. 

Molloy did not think there had been a robbery at the farmhouse due to the fact the house had not been ransacked and the phone line to the property had not been cut. Molloy’s theory was that after Griff returned from the shop the siblings started arguing and it soon turned violent. It was put forward that this conflict was centred around money. The proof for Molloy came in the form of a fresh blood stain  found on Patti’s purse,   which was kept on top of a dresser. The only fingerprint found on the purse belonged to Griff. In Molloy’s eyes this sealed the deal. In a moment of extreme violence Griff had snapped and killed his sister before succumbing to the fire he started. The head injury sustained by Griff was likely caused in the melee of the incident and may have been deliberately self inflicted or an accident.

I have read numerous newspaper reports saying that the weapon used to strike Patti was never found. An oak dining chair situated in the living room had Patti’s blood on the legs. It was speculated by Molloy that this had been picked up by Griff and used to strike his sister. A sewing machine with a wooden cover was found in the house. The cover showed no sign of blood but when it was removed blood was found on the metal sewing machine. The blood belonged to Griff, suggesting this may have been the instrument that caused Griff's head injury. A solitary fingerprint was discovered on the sewing machine. It was a left thumb print. I will go into more detail about this fingerprint shortly. For now it is sufficient to say Molloy deduced that it must belong to Griff.

Molloy concluded that it was unlikely that anyone else had been at the farm house that evening, thus a third party had not been involved in the deaths. One piece of evidence he used to back this assumption up was the wooden sewing machine cover being put back in its correct place. He did not think an intruder would take the time to do this.

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At the inquest the jury listened to the evidence presented and agreed with DCS Molloy’s opinion. On February 17th 1977, at Haverfordwest Court, Coroner John Johnson said Patti was unlawfully killed by Griff and that he was guilty of the manslaughter of his sister. For Griff's death he gave an open verdict. For all intents and purposes the case was wrapped up as a murder/suicide. Patti and Griff were buried in the same grave at Rhydwilym Cemetery. Griff was not permitted his own headstone as it was ruled he had died by suicide.

With the investigation neatly tied up the police incident room at the village memorial hall was closed and Molloy and his team moved on to their next case. For many people in the community it was more difficult to put what had happened behind them. Many family members and friends of the Thomas siblings just didn't believe the coroner's findings. In their opinion, the mild-mannered and kind Griff would not have been capable of such barbarity.

Over the ensuing decades the doubt felt by many over the findings of the inquest has led to speculation and rumour over what may have happened on the night Patti and Griff lost their lives. There are many unanswered questions that the inquest failed to address. Indeed, it is the information Molloy omitted that has caused the most debate. 

Fingers have been pointed at DCS Molloy. Let me be clear, there are no accusations of a cover-up. It is more a case of what the Herald Wales in June 2021 called “shoddy work”. The accusation by his detractors is that as an inverted commas “outsider'' Molloy came in with pre-existing ideas about the community. Molloy did not speak Welsh and the community of Mynachlog-ddu and the village of Llangolman overwhelmingly spoke Welsh as their first language. The picture Molloy’s report painted of the siblings and their relationship with one another and the wider community was not accurate. Far from being recluses, the Thomas siblings were well liked and sociable. 

Critics argue Molloy centred on evidence that backed up his hunches and assumptions and dismissed other information to the contrary. He aimed to establish a motive first rather than being evidence led. Once he rested on the idea of the Thomas siblings being odd loners with a strained relationship, the motive of anger and distrust over money followed. He then disregarded information that was contrary to this narrative.

Journalist Jenny Kleeman wrote an extended piece in the Guardian about the deaths of Patti and Griff Thomas in January 2023. In the article Kleeman points out that the way Molloy presents Patti as a miser who withheld money from her brother and ultimately provoked him to violence is sexist in its narrative. One of the Thomas's neighbours, Eilir, told the Guardian Patti could be bossy but said the siblings had a good relationship and got on well. The idea that Patti held the purse strings and gave her brother “pocket money” is disputed. After their deaths it was found that Griff had more money and assets than his sister. 

There are numerous questions that Molloy and the original investigation failed to address adequately. One point that was never satisfactorily answered was what happened to the Thomas’s dog. It was a distinctive Border Collie with different-coloured eyes. There is no mention of it in the police report. The aforementioned Guardian article describes local rumours which say the dog was found dead in the farmyard well, though no evidence has been produced to prove this.

Other local rumours mention that some of the first people at the scene noticed footprints in the snow leading away from the farmhouse. The postman Gareth Rossiter did not make mention of these but other people apparently did see these prints. By the time the police got a forensic team to inspect the prints they had all but melted.

There is also the matter that violence of any description was totally out of character for Griff. Friends and family could not imagine the Griff they knew carrying out the ferocious attack that killed his younger sister. Friends and acquaintances claimed it just wasn't in Griff's nature as he was mild mannered and had never displayed violence in the past. Emyr Phillips, who knew the siblings well, told the BBC in April 2022 Griff was a quiet man and he had never even seen him get angry. 

Perhaps more perplexing was the idea of Griff having the physical strength to inflict the injuries sustained by Patti. At the age of 73 he was not a strong and fit man. As I mentioned, Griff suffered from painful arthritis. He developed this debilitating condition in his back, arms and left hand, from years of hard physical labour around the farm. 

Griff’s grip weakness was such that he struggled to turn to the page of the Hymn book in the chapel. A man who worked on the farm with Griff as a teenager told the Guardian in 2023 that Griff could not lift a bale of hay. Yet Griff was supposed to have lifted up a heavy object (possibly the wooden chair) and struck his sister on the head. Police forensics asserted that Patti was likely attacked in the kitchen and her body was then taken to the living room and posed in the chair. Many doubted that Griff would have had the upper body strength to carry out either of these actions.

There is also no mention of Patti’s blood being found on Griff's clothing in Molloy’s report to the coroner. Surely there would be evidence of this if he was her killer? If blood was found, why wasn’t this fact included in the report? 

As I have alluded to, the matter of Griff’s head injury was a mystery and was never fully explained at the inquest. Was it self-inflicted? An accident? Or was there the possibility that Patti struck him? 

The Herald Wales details conflicting evidence regarding fingerprints found in the house. Altogether police discovered 400 fingerprints from inside the farm house. All bar two prints were accounted for as belonging to either Patti or Griff. The two that could not be identified both came from a left thumb print. One was on a picture in the living room and the other was on the sewing machine, which also had Griff’s blood on it. 

These prints could ot be compared to Griff’s hand as his left arm had been badly burned in the fire. Molloy assumed they must be his and left it at that. However, not only was Griff's left hand very weak but not one of the other 398 fingerprints found in the house belonged to Griff's left thumb. Forensics searched Griff's bedroom, car, his personal possessions, including items he used regularly but found none.with a left thumb print. This showed, firstly, that Griff did not use his left hand very often and secondly, statistically the chances were low that the two left thumb prints found belonged to Griff. 

An aspect of the crime scene that raises questions is the plate of bread and butter and two cups of tea found on the mantelpiece. It has led to speculation that Patti may have been entertaining a guest while Griff was at the shop. Patti’s fingerprints were found on the underneath of the plate but I have not discovered if any prints were found on the tea cups.  Of course the tea may have been made for Griff on his return. However, the cheese he bought at the shop was still in his pocket suggesting the violent incident occurred no long after he returned home. Evidently, he had not had time to put the cheese away or eat it for a meal.

Doubts and unease over the judgement of the inquest circulated amongst the local community for decades. Since 2011 the subject has become increasingly aired and debated in the mainstream media and on social media. The next part of the story actually starts five years before that, in 2006, when the Chief Superintendent of Dyfed Powys Police, Steve Wilkins, reopened two of Pembrokeshire's most infamous cold cases, under the name Operation Ottawa.

For an area that has one of the lowest crime rates in the UK the unsolved double murders of brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas (no relation to Patti and Griff Thomas) and husband and wife Peter and Gwenda Dixon were stark anomalies. 

The wealthy Thomas siblings were both in their 50’s when they were shot to death in their manor farmhouse in Scoveston park in  December 1985. The property was then set ablaze.

As in the case of Patti and Griff Thomas, police first suspected the siblings had argued and they were dealing with a murder/suicide. Pathology reports soon dismissed this idea as the gunshot wounds both siblings bore could not have been self-inflicted. Police believed this was a robbery gone wrong and that the killer had targeted the house believing Helen was home alone. Richard had come home and interrupted the robbery and the burglar had turned violent. 

Peter and Gwenda Dixon were a married couple in their 50’s from Oxfordshire. In June 1989 they travelled on holiday to West Wales to walk the Pembrokeshire coastal path. On June 29th, the final day of their trip they ventured out on one last walk around the picturesque village of Little Haven. They were never seen alive again. After the pair failed to return from their holiday the couple’s adult son raised the alarm. The bodies of Peter and Gwenda were found very quickly on a woodland path just 1km from the campsite where they had been staying. They had both been shot in the face at close range. 

Gwenda’s clothing had been partly removed and it was believed she had been  indecently assaulted. It was discovered that the killer had taken Peter’s wedding ring and some pieces of clothing. The couple's bank cards were also missing. It was evident the killer forced Peter to hand over the pin number as on the same day of the murders £300 was withdrawn from various ATMs in locations across the area. 

Several witnesses came forward to describe a man seen at the cash points and a sketch was put together. As an aside I went on holiday to Pembrokeshire as a child just a couple of weeks after this incident and I remember seeing the sketch on signs along the coastal footpath. The suspect was described as a “wild man” around 5 ft 8 to 6ft  (172-183cm) with long bushy hair and an unshaven face. He was sun tanned and depicted wearing shorts, a short sleeved shirt and carrying a knapsack. He was seen riding a bicycle with straight handle bars. For years there was speculation that the Dixons may have been killed by the IRA after stumbling upon a secret arms dump. 

Years passed and both double murders remained unsolved.

During the late 1990’s police began to hone in on a suspect after a spate of burglaries across Pembrokeshire between 1993 and 1996. Dyfed Powys police established Huntsman to investigate the burglaries, which eventually led them to John William Cooper. 

Cooper was born on September 3rd 1944 in Millford Haven, Pembrokeshire. He left school at fifteen and did apprenticeships in upholstery and carpentry with the idea of going into the building trade. This never really materialised and he most often worked as a casual labourer on farms throughout Pembrokeshire. He was a familiar face across the rural villages of the region.

In 1966 he married his childhood sweetheart, Pat, and the couple had two children. He then worked for a time as a welders mate at Pembroke oil refinery. The couple's life changed overnight when in 1978 Cooper won a “Spot the ball competition” in a national newspaper. (Spot the Ball consisted of black and white photograph from a football match with the ball missing. Based on where the players were and what they were doing you had to place an X where you thought the ball was.) Cooper won a total of £90,000 (the equivalent of around half a million pounds today) plus an Austin Princess car. Out of his prize money Cooper gave £1000 each to ten family members.

After the win Cooper left the oil refinery and returned to work as a farm labourer. With his winnings he bought a villa overlooking Hazel Beach in the town of Neyland and bought a smallholding where he grew crops such as barley. His wife Pat worked as a seamstress and bred horses.

In 1987 Cooper’s wife Pat was badly injured in an horse accident and the couple moved to St Marys Park in Jordanston in North Pembrokeshire. Three years later the family went through another crisis when Cooper's granddaughter contracted meningitis. Cooper and his wife spent the next few years taking the little girl back and forth to hospital appointments as she recovered from the illness. While all this was going on something much darker was taking place in secret.

On the face of it Cooper and his family were living a normal life, but the truth was far more sinister. Cooper had an addictive personality and during the 1980’s he squandered the “Spot the ball” prize money on gambling and alcohol. He then turned to burglarising houses to offset his losses. He was more than capable of extreme violence should the need arise. Cooper was talked to by police following the murders of Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985 and Peter and Gwenda Dixon in 1989 as he lived locally but never became a suspect. It would be almost another decade before police would begin to join the dots.

During the 1990’s Cooper’s health deteriorated and he suffered from arthritis and a frozen shoulder. This did not prevent him from committing over 30 burglaries between 1993 and 1996. Operation Huntsman was established to investigate the burglaries and find the culprit. Police arrested Cooper following an attempted armed robbery in 1996.

In November that year Cooper broke into the house of school teacher Sheila Clarke in Sardis, South Pembrokeshire. Cooper tied Sheila up and held her at gunpoint. Sheila managed to break free from her restraints and pressed a panic button on her burglar alarm, at which point Cooper fled the scene. As he made his escape he tossed a sawn-off shotgun into some bushes. 

Cooper was soon arrested and Investigators found 503 keys at his home that they believed were trophies from the burglaries. He was jailed in 1998 for 16 years for the offences. While behind bars investigators began to suspect Cooper of the murders of Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985 and that of Peter and Gwneda Dixon in 1989, commonly referred to as the Pembrokeshire murders. He was questioned several times but always denied any involvement and there was no hard evidence linking him to the crimes. He was released from prison in 2008 but Dyfed Powys police upped their efforts to obtain forensic evidence that would prove their theory. 

It paid off and DNA and fibre evidence was highly significant in securing Cooper's convictions for both double murders in 2011. The sawn-off shotgun that was discarded by Cooper shortly before his arrest was shown to be a weapon originally owned by Richard and Helen Thomas. It was also the same gun used to kill Peter and Gwenda Dixon. Microscopic particles of Peter Dixon’s blood were found on the barrel. Fibres found on the aforementioned shotgun were a match to gloves found in Cooper's kitchen. 

A pair of shorts found at Cooper's house were proven to have belonged to Peter Dixon. A drop of Peter Dixon’s blood was found on the left leg. Cooper had adjusted the hem of the shorts in order to be able to wear them as some kind of sick trophy. When it was unpicked, DNA from the Dixons’ daughter was found under the hem. Another pair of shorts found in Cooper's house contained blue fibres that matched the socks Richard Thomas was wearing when he was killed. 

In 1989 Cooper bore a striking resemblance to the suspect sketch of the “wild man” police were hunting in connection with the murders of the Dixons. Although Cooper had since cut short his long bushy hair, police were able to compare the suspect sketch against film images of Cooper. Just weeks before the murders of Peter and Gwenda Dixon in June 1989, Cooper appeared on the ITV dart-themed game show “Bullseye”. TV images were used to aid identification. For this reason Cooper is commonly referred to as “The Bullseye killer”.

Cooper was also sentenced for an additional crime. In 1996 while wearing a balaclava and brandishing a shotgun he approached five teenagers on the Mount estate in Milford Haven. He held the young people against their will and raped a 16 year old girl and sexually assaulted a 15 year old girl. 

After the guilty verdict the Judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Cooper would never be released and he was given a whole life order. DCS Steve Wilkins of Dyfed Powys police who had headed Operation Ottawa into the Pembrokeshire murders said Cooper was dangerous and evil. The day after his conviction Dyfed Powys police announced they would be looking again at the case of Patti and Griff Thomas in light of what they now knew about John Cooper. 

Consultant forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Professor Clive Sims, speaking to Welsh current affairs TV program Taro Naw, said there were striking similarities between the crimes Cooper had been convicted of and the deaths of Patti and Griff Thomas. At the time Cooper lived in Jordanston, about 18 miles (28 km) west of Llangolman. 

The Thomas’ case had all the hallmarks of a botched robbery. The fact that the bureau or welsh dresser had been opened and the cash box was empty was proof of that. A possibility was that, as in the case of Richard and Helen Thomas, Griff had returned to the farmhouse to find a robbery taking place. Violence had then followed. In both cases a fire had been started at the property . 

It was Clive Sims's opinion that the verdicts for Patti and Griff’s inquest were unsafe. Cooper now must be viewed as a suspect. Cooper killed Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985 when he was 41. Sims believes it is highly unlikely that this was Cooper's first violent offence. Records were found that showed that Cooper first got in trouble with police at age 17 when he was charged with brandishing an offensive weapon. Shortly after this he assaulted several police officers and a member of the public outside a nightclub. At age 20 he trampled on a man causing injury. Sims suggested there was a good chance more violence would have occurred between these incidents as a young man and the double murder of Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985.  The picture painted in court from testimony from one of Cooper's sons backed this theory up. Cooper was described as a violent and aggressive man. He was often cruel to animals, once shooting a brood of chicks in front of his children. 

In the twelve years since Cooper was sentenced for the murders there has been a lot of discussion over whether he was involved in the deaths of Patti and Griff Thomas. There have been rumours that John Cooper was working in the Llangolman area at the time putting up fences.

A Pembrokeshire Herald article in February 2021 says one of their journalists spoke with a Llangolman local who had knowledge of the fencing contractors in the area during the 1970’s. This person claimed that if Cooper had been working locally someone would have remembered him at the time and he would have come up in police inquiries. Although at the time he only lived 24 miles or 38 km away, Cooper would have been seen as an outsider within the community and his accent would have been markedly different. No one remembers working with him. This person also told the Pembrokeshire Herald that the weather was particularly bad during November and December 1976 and he doubts any fencing jobs would have been planned for that time of year. Any emergency jobs would have been completed by local labourers. 

Another local told the paper that the rumour of Cooper's involvement was bolstered by the fact a family within the same surname live close by. However, they are unrelated to John Cooper. This has caused confusion and unfounded speculation. Local people the paper spoke to did not believe Cooper was responsible for the deaths of Patti and Griff Thomas.

The Pembrokeshire Herald’s own investigation led them to suspect a third party was involved in the Thomas’ deaths. In 2021 they speculated that someone local, who knew Patti would be on her own, went to the farmhouse to commit a robbery. The paper said that following their own conversations within the community they had received enough information to narrow the list of suspects down to two individuals. (Its unclear if these two people worked together or are separate suspects). Both lived in the area at the time and had enough knowledge of the siblings to know about Griff's daily drive to the shop. The paper proposed that Griff returned in from  the shop to find his sister mortally wounded and was himself struck on the head. The killer then set a fire to cover their tracks and fled through the back door.

(Just to note. If you remember, the postman said there was a  chair behind the door when he went inside the house. I'm not sure how that was placed there if the killer left by this route. According to the Guardian article in 2023 the postman did use the back door to enter the property. Some of these small details are very difficult to fathom in this case as they slightly differ from report to report)

There are others who doubt Cooper's involvement. Aldwyn Jones, now retired, was the deputy head of Dyfed Powys CID in 1976. His boss was Detective Molloy who led the original investigation. In the Guardian in January 2023 he says there is no evidence Cooper was involved in the deaths of Patti and Griff and nothing links him to the area. 

Cooper has never offered any information about the crimes of which he has been convicted or suspected. As well as the deaths of patti and Griff Thomas he is also a suspect in the mysterious death of 74 year old farmer Florence Evans in Rosemarket, Pembrokeshire in February 1989. Florence was found drowned fully clothed in an upstairs bath. Her death was ruled an accident. However, her family says money was missing. Cooper lived in nearby Jordanston and had known Florence for years. He had worked for her as a gardener and carpenter. The Daily Mirror reported in January 2021 that DCS Steve Wilkins who led the investigation into the Pembrokeshire murders says he has evidence that Cooper was at Florence's house on the day she died. Cooper also mentioned Florence during his interviews with police, though police have never found enough evidence to charge him in this case. 

Cooper has also been connected to the infamous double murder of Harry and Megan Tooze. The married couple were shot at close range in their farmhouse at Llanharry near Bridgend in 1993. Cooper steadfastly maintains his innocence of all the crimes he has been convicted of and denies involvement in any others . He is currently behind bars in an undisclosed prison. In April 2023 Cooper launched an appeal against his convictions. We will have to wait and see what comes of this process.

Hefin Wyn is a retired journalist now in his 70’s. He volunteers as editor for the Welsh language newspaper Clebran Papur Bro (Clebran is Welsh for chatter). Since 2006 Hefin Wyn has been looking into the mysterious deaths of Patti and Griff Thomas. Over the last few years Clebran has raised many of the doubts and questions I have already shared over the original investigation. Through his investigative work Hefin Wyn  believes that the idea of a muder/sudcie narrative  was centred on too quickly and then leaked to the press by Molloy. Once the media had this story it was hard for the investigation to veer away from this conclusion. In his view the breadth of the investigation was exaggerated in Molooys report. In the aforementioned 2023 Guardian article a cousin of the Thomas’s, Denley Absalom, says that despite being family members both him and his uncle were not spoken to. For Hefin Wyn, third party involvement in what happened at Fynnon Samson was not given adequate consideration.

While he sees similarities with the crimes of John Cooper, Hefin Wyn also doubts his involvement. His theory is that someone from the local area went to Fynnon Samson farm to ask to borrow money from Patti. When she refused them, violence erupted.

Since 2021 Wyn and Clebran have spearheaded a campaign to clear Griff's name. That same year the movement was given a boost when the Police and Crime commissioner for the region Daffydd Llywelyn told Clebran that the siblings  case needed further examination.

Hefin Wyn organised a vigil for the siblings around Easter time 2022 at Rhydwilym Chapel. Fifty people attended to share stories about Patti and Griff and to keep the campaign in the spotlight. Momentum began growing, especially when that same month some new evidence was brought forward by members of Patti and Griff’s extended family. In truth this information had been circulating for at least a year but it was given more flesh in April 2022 by Clebran Papur Bro. Thye put forward information Patty had been involved in an argument with a woman in Haverfordwest just weeks before her death. 

In November 1976 Patti’s cousin Sarah May Luke arranged to meet Patti outside a travel agent in the town. When Sarah May arrived she found Patti troubled and upset. Patti relayed that she had just met a woman who wanted to buy the siblings’ farm: Fynnon Samson. She was very insistent that she wanted Patti and Griff out. At the time of Patti and Griff’s deaths this information was not passed on to police but Sarah May’s daughter Sandra had now made an official statement about the incident. This revelation prompted the Senedd member for Mid Wales, Cefin Campbell, to provide his backing of a reinvestigation into the deaths of the Thomas siblings. Another politician, Senedd member Paul Davies, also put his weight behind calls for a reinvestigation. 

Over the last several years Dyfed Powys police had been consistently stating that they would not re-investigate the deaths of Patti and Griff purely based on speculation. Nevertheless following this new evidence pressure was beginning to mount on the police to take another look at the case. In response, Dyfed Powys police said they would look to see what evidence still remained in the case

Six months later on October 18 2022, Detective Superintendent Paul Jones of the Dyfed Powys police announced that there would be a re-examining of evidence in the case in the light of developments in technology. This investigation would be called Operation Hallam. He made it clear that in his opinion the original investigation into the deaths of Patti and Griff was thorough but at that time the team lacked the forensic tools now available to investigators.

Exactly what Operation Hallam will be investigating has not been revealed and we can only speculate whether the blood-smeared sewing machine bearing a left thumb print is one of the items being tested. John Cooper’s presence remains in the background as police have never ruled out the possibility of his involvement. In terms of Operation Hallam, police say they do not know what the outcome will be and they are keeping an open mind. 

 Hefin Wyn and Clebran are pushing for a full reopening of the inques and investigation. It's a matter of justice as Griff never had the chance to defend himself in court and neither  Griff or Patti had legal representation at the inquest. Paralegal Hayley Wood who volunteers her time on the campaign has composed a 9000 word document on the case ready to send to the coroner.  Hefin Wyn and Hayley Wood are waiting to see what the police have to say when the review of the evidence is concluded before sending it. 

DCS Molloy retired in 1983 and passed away in 2003. From everything I have read it seems he was an honourable person and excellent detective. Could he have made an error of judgement on this occasion?

We will have to wait to see what Dyfed Powys police discover. Either Molloy hunches will be proved correct, which will lead to a degree of closure. Or a man will be exonerated and the hunt for a killer will begin.