Murder on the Board

Murder on the Board

Here at the Criminal Investigations News Network we are, as always, committed to bringing you gripping true stories of horrendous crimes and the quest for justice relating to them. This episode is no different: we shall be exploring the most heinous act of regicide as we ask in our programme Murder On The Board: Who killed the king?

One evening, from a leafy suburb of Strathclyde in Scotland, local emergency services received a panicked call from a young person who had just witnessed a brutal slaying. It went as follows:

Caller: Dear God, come quick, it's horrible...

Operator: Calm down and tell me in your own words. Take a deep breath.

Caller: They killed him. They killed him. They surrounded him and taunted him, each one threatening him in turn, then one of them butchered him. Just butchered him like a pig...

Operator: Who? Who killed whom? Are you safe to talk? Are you in danger yourself?

Caller: No, I'm fine; it was just him they were after. We called him The King...I don't honestly know his real name. They are an evil gang, the killers.

Operator: Mobile units are on the way. Stay calm and keep talking to me.

Caller: Okay...wait, I think one of them was called The Black Knight or something...

Operator: That's good. Now close your eyes and breathe. Let the memory come back; I know it's painful but it's best to hear it while it's still fresh in your mind.

Caller: [Breaks down crying] I can't....it's too mu....the blood, the blood...

As our regular viewers will no doubt be aware, immediate response by the police in this kind of crime is critical. An instant presence ensures that the crime scene is assessed properly; witnesses or suspects can be identified early and questioned before they begin to share their evidence with each other and stories get tangled. In this instance, two police cars pulled up just as the ambulance crew were attempting vainly to revive the fallen victim. Two rival gangs were still at the scene and the definite atmosphere there was that, had the police not arrived when they did, more violence would have been imminent. The gang in white hoodies were remonstrating with the ones in black clothing over the death of their leader. A host of minor injuries indicated that a fair number of those present had been involved in the fighting. Sergeant Thomas Carter was amongst the first officers there and he gave this report:

The deceased, who we came to understand was called the White King, was just being pronounced dead when we arrived at the chequered paving stones of the plaza. A few of the black-clad gang-members stood nearby, looking very pleased with themselves. We proceeded to take witness statements. Opinions from the Blacks' gang were “The Whites started it”, a fact we got the latter to reluctantly admit to and that “He got what he deserved” which the other side disputed. The Whites' gang was quick to point out three of the other gang responsible for the murder (Knight, Rook and Bishop) but events had been so confused towards the end that no-one could be sure who had delivered the lethal blows. We took the three indicated into custody for further questioning and invited most of the Whites' gang back to the station for further enquiries, persuading them that this was the only way we could make their enemies pay.

Back at the police station, the three Blacks' gang-members were interrogated individually in an attempt to break them. All of them admitted with some pride to being involved in the kill but none would say who did what. Further witness statements were taken from the White King's allies and these all seemed to confirm that their enemies had attacked directly at the King with single-minded premeditated intent. Police were astonished, frankly, as the accused youths took the attitude that it was all just a game to them.

The preliminary forensic reports confirmed that the White King had died of multiple stab wounds, but they were unable to say conclusively which gang-member had wielded which knife for each blow as there were no fingerprints on the weapons, the gang all having worn matching black gloves. Officers were left with the less reliable evidence of witness testimony and set to questioning all concerned again. One slight break, albeit mystifying, was that under pressure Bishop made a veiled reference to the murder being an order from above. The police seized on this and harried both sides – small details let slip under heavy questioning revealed that both gangs had some shadowy masterminds of the fight that were not present. No amount of pressure could reveal any more about this, though, so police were forced to refer the case on for prosecution with all three suspects charged jointly with the murder.

Rook, Knight and Bishop were remanded into custody until the trial date came up, given the brutal nature of the slaying and their combined history of gang-related activities. The police, meanwhile, tried to reconstruct the crime from blood spatters on the squares of the plaza. The White King had met his end backed into a corner, it seemed, at a location on the courtyard's grid which police designated as h1. Shoe-prints in the dirt indicated only that Rook, Knight and Bishop had all been standing near him. The Procurator Fiscal's office tried to tempt each of the three with deals to turn on each other and say who had actually killed the White King, or who gave the order, but to no avail. They maintained this show of solidarity, a pride in their “combination” kill as they put it, all through the trial. Each pleaded innocence of murder on the grounds of self-defence, but all admitted they were involved. In the end, the jury had little hesitation in returning guilty verdicts for each of them and they were all given life sentences.

We end this episode with a hope that this tale has jogged some vital memory in a viewer and that someone remembers something of that fateful night; maybe someone even knows who the hidden puppet-masters were who sent one King and his gang out to kill another's leader. Any information given will be treated in complete confidence and passed on to the police anonymously if desired. Thank you for viewing, and goodnight.

A tight mating net entwined onto the king on h1. Painful, brutal and (to use a piece of chess terminology) forcing.

 But! and this would be the point....which one of the evil three pieces checkmated him?

OK, first of all Merry xmas.  Second, thats what happened...  Third, read the story!

It could be ...Rg1 mate, ...Bg2 mate or ...Ng3 mate. Insufficient evidence, I say.

Not a retrograde chess problem, IMO. From whence would the white king come from? g1 is attacked thrice, so not from g1. g2 is attacked twice, and the h3 bishop could not have moved. You sure you have the diagram correct?

The diagram is to reflect the story, it says they surrounded and taunted him.  White could have played Nh2, King having come from there.  The diagram, however, like the story is intended to be imagination...