JUST PUBLISHED: True crime book on mass murderer with Caithness connections

A mass killer with Caithness connections is the subject of a new book by retired detective Neil Berrett called Six Little Heads: The 1905 Amesbury Murders.

Neil spent over 30 years in the Wiltshire police, mainly as a detective, and his book concerns the horrific murders of six children by their father Peter Robert Head.

On a September day in 1905, Head, a beloved father and retired sergeant major in the Royal Artillery, committed what is believed to be the largest mass murder in the county of Wiltshire, “shattering his family, shocking the town of Amesbury, and appalling the country”.

Neil said: “Head murdered six of his children and then killed himself. It is a gruesome story but I have written more about the family before the murders and the surviving women navigating their lives after the murders.”

The author contacted the Caithness Courier and John O’Groat Journal due to the murderer’s connections with the county when he lived at Mey.

“Peter Robert Head had been in the army up to three years before the murders and he was a Sergeant Major in the Royal Artillery and ran the Caithness Volunteers for a few years across the turn of 19th/20th century.

“A couple of his children were born while he served there. He lived at the Mey Drill Hall and also ran the Mey Dramatic Society at the time.” It appears that one of his children was born at Helmsdale where he lived prior to moving to Caithness and then another at Mey.

Whilst most of the story in the book is not set in Caithness there are a few pages about Head’s time there. There are some references to other local characters, as well as a special service for the death of Queen Victoria. In September 1905, the John O’Groat Journal picked up on the Amesbury murders and described Head as “a likeable man” whilst in Mey.

Mey Village Hall first came into being in 1875 when it was built as a drill hall for the First Caithness Artillery Volunteer Corps.

As well as the drill hall the building housed an armoury and the attached house, where Head would have lived, provided accommodation for the drill sergeant and his family. By 1908 the Volunteer Corps had ceased to exist and there was no longer any need for the drill hall.

This true story delves into Peter Head’s life through his childhood, military career, and family life to the events of that calamitous day, and looks at the people of Amesbury who were caught up in its consequences.

Neil adds: “His traumatised daughter and devastated wife quietly left the town afterwards, trying to navigate their lives after the terrible event.

“Through the resilience of the surviving women and the ripple effects of their stoic grief, the narrative tells their previously unknown ordeal and reveals how generations of one family endured the impact of a single tragic day.”

He says that contemporary details from the John O’Groat Journal and similar local papers helped put “the meat on the bones” for building up a strong story.

The book is now available from YorkBookShop.com at this link: yorkbookshop.com/new-releases/538-six-little-heads-the-1905-amesbury-murders.html

It can also be bought directly from the author by emailing him at: sixlittleheads@timeunraveller.com

Six Little Heads: The 1905 Amesbury Murders is aimed at a general audience and is a 162-page paperback priced at £12.99.