James Keltie

contains descriptions that some listeners may find distressing. Sole listener discretion is advised. When he arrived, however, he couldn't find the children anywhere and they weren't ready to leave the house as he would have expected. The place was a little quiet, and so he decided to have a wander

around the property to try and find someone. After getting no luck on his search of the perimeter of the hotel, he decided to have a look inside the garage, which was located around eighty yards away from the main building. It was in here that he discovered something horrific. Inside the garage, James Kelty lay on the floor, bound and gagged and only wearing a string vest and his underwear.

He was covered in blood and was severely injured. It became apparent that James was still alive, but that he was barely clinging on to life. He had some serious injuries to his head and he needed medical assistance as soon as possible. David Urpey raised the alarm and managed to get emergency services out to the area, where they

then transported James to Dundee Royal Infirmary. Despite receiving this assistance and being taken to the hospital for further treatment, James Celtis succumbed to his injuries and passed away upon arrival. James was only fifty two years old and left behind three children and his wife, Agnes. This was a tragedy on many levels, but moreover, this was now both a

murder investigation and a mystery to be solved. It was evident from the injuries that James had sustained and the manner in which he had been found that he had been murdered, and that police now had to launch a murder inquiry to find out who could have committed this. The investigation began by speaking to those closest to James and finding out about his movements and the evening before he had been killed, as well as searching the crime scene.

James's wife, Agnes, explained that the evening before they had hosted a supper dance at the hotel in the Silver Butterfly Function Room, which was located at the rear. Around fifty to sixty people attended the supper dance, however, no one chose to stay over that night. At the conclusion of the evening, James and Agnes said good night to one another, and both them and the children retired to bed, James and Agnes sleeping in separate bedrooms. This is the

last time that Agnes said she saw her husband. At this point, everything seemed to be as normal. Analyzing the scene, police were able to establish that James had been woken up and dragged from his bed in the middle of the night, and had been bound, gagged and beaten before being hit around the head with something heavy. James had a fractured skull and had been bleeding profusely from the head wound. It was clear that he had been in

bed at the time given how he was dressed. The question was what was the motive for this brutal murder. Police on the investigation quickly began to speculate that robbery was probably the motive given what they discovered at the scene. The killer or killers appeared to have got into the hotel through an unsecured window on the ground floor and

then made their way up to James's bedroom. One of the more troubling pieces of evidence that they recovered was that the phone lines to the hotel had been cut, suggesting that this could have been a pre planned attack and not simply an opportunist. There were more concerning things found. Despite the police's initial theory that the murder had been motivated by a robbery, nothing of value seemed to have been taken. The only thing that police could find that

had been taken was a few bottles of whiskey. Money was left in the home and was not taken by the murder or murderers. If robbery was the motive, then why had none of this been taken. This was certainly a confusing part of the case, and the brutal nature of the killing seemed at odds with the trivial things that had been stolen. Police began going house to house interviewing people in the area of Blair Gowery and further

afield to try and establish if they knew anything. They were interested in finding out if anyone had seen anything of interest or out for the ordinary around the time that James had been murdered. They also carried out a search of the area to try and locate the murder weapon, which they believed must have been something heavy. The door

to door investigation did yield some information. They were given information that a man aged between twenty six and twenty eight was seen walking near the hotel at around four forty a m. On the morning of the murder. He had been seen wearing a khaki jacket. Of course, this was of interest given that there weren't many people who would have had reason to be walking around the area at the time of the morning in that area. Police appealed for this person to come forward and distributed it

to the public. They had also received a tip about a cream colored car which had been spotted in the area around the time of the murder, and police also appealed for the driver of this vehicle to come forward. They received no response about either of these two tips. A search of the hotel and its grounds did recover a blood stained sheet, which they believed came from the hotel, indicating the possible way in which the killer or killers had escaped the scene. A big discovery was the two

iron bars which were recovered by officers. It had been described that these two bars had been found in a plowed field on the adjoining road to the hotel. This fit with the description that Detective Chief Inspector John Lamonde had given about the weapon, saying that they were looking for something like a narrow and heavy bar. He explained to the press not long after the murder that this was a particularly brutal attack, one in which the victim

was struck numerous times. He said that the perpetrator or perpetrators would have had blood stained clothing and surely would have stood out to the public at large. He also indicated that he believed that more than one person was involved, and that most likely two people were behind the attack. No information was given as to why he believed that to be the case. However, it could have been looked at in the evidence that James had been dragged to the garage that this may have needed more than one

person to drag someone unconscious eighty yards. The police investigation was intense in the couple of months following James's murder, and they appealed many times for people in the local area to come forward to give them any information or evidence that they may know. They also stepped up the investigation by asking all males over the age of sixteen from the surrounding areas to come forward to be fingerprinted.

It was hoped that they would find a fingerprint match to any of the fingerprints that had been recovered from the scene. They got quite a good response from this appeal was many people coming forward to have their fingerprints taken, but police stated that there was still quite a lot of people who had not presented themselves to police. One of these people was the man who had been spotted

near the hotel at four forty am. Police explained that they believed that this was a local man given where he was seen walking, but though they were concerned that this person had not come forward to them. As a result of this, they asked for assistance from the English police as they speculated that this person may no longer be in the area or may have gone into England instead. The English Police distributed this man's description in the hope

that someone south of the border had seen him. This, however, seemed to go nowhere. Perth and Kinros's police were clearly dedicated to trying to find James Kelty's killer or killers and appealed many times to try and track them down. They also conducted another daughter door inquiry in the local area and set up a reward five hundred pounds was put up by Blair Gowery Town Council to try and

locate whoever killed James Kelty. They stated that the reward spotlights the anxiety we all should feel that this case be solved. The community of six thousand people were very invested in catching James Kelty's killer or killers, and this could be seen by the dedication of everyone to keep James's murder in the public eye and push people to come forward with information. Despite this pressure from both the police and the public, the case started to go cold.

The recovery of the possible murder weapon and the bloodstained sheet were of interest. However, none of this proved who could have committed the crime, how many people committed it, or why it happened. Police continued to run down leads and speculate as to what happened. The lead investigators included John R. Jack Lamond as he was known, continued to believe that robbery was the main motive for the crime. This robbery, they believed, had gone wrong and led to

the murder of James. It was even speculated that the killer or killers might not have been locals, but professional criminals who had planned this in advance and were waiting for their chance to get in the supper dance the night before provided them with this chance, and they could have mixed in with the guests that evening, not drawing

any attention to themselves. This was further speculated as James was known as a big spender and someone who would buy drinks for other people and sometimes flashed his money around. He alone handled the takings, and if anyone had been watching him for any length of time, they would have known that. In the years that followed, the speculation continued. However, the evidence was not forthcoming, and despite a huge investigation,

it lay unsolved. It has not been forgotten about, however, with many people reinvestigating it and taking a look at the evidence in the decades that followed. One of these people is retired police sergeant Willie McFarlane, who worked for Perth and Kinross police after James Kelty's murder. Twenty twenty one marked fifty years since James's murder, and Willie McFarland spoke to the Korean newspaper, which has been a source for this episode. He explained that he still has many

unanswered questions despite investigating the murder thoroughly. He asked, why did the taxi driver have to go raking around to find mister Kelty? Where were the children? This was something that stood out to me immediately, given that in many of the reports there is no mention as to where the children or James's wife, Agnes were at the time that James was discovered. He also stated, was it really a breaking gone wrong? If so, why was mister Kelty

bound and gagged an outside. He said that he did not believe that this was someone local, saying there were a few rogues and rascals, but I honestly think if it had been local, it would have come out. I don't think it was anyone living in blair Gowery was the killer? Someone he had upset. Were the two iron

bars found in the grounds the true murder weapons? I don't think that was ever established I'm sure someone knows who committed murder, and it would be great if they came forward, But in truth, I don't think the Keelty murder will be solved unless there's a deathbed confession. Ultimately, I'd like to see justice for mister Kelty. It's fair to say that this crime did have evidence and physical evidence at that the blood stained sheet and the iron

bars being some good pieces of evidence. However, given that this crime took place in nineteen seventy one, there were a few options for analyzing it effectively. If this crime had occurred today, it may indeed have been solved quite quickly using DNA or other technology. James Kelty's murder remains a notorious unsolved crime in the area of Perth and kin Ross. Whoever killed James was a violent and dangerous person, and they got away with murdering a husband and a father.

Many people, including the community and James's family, I'm sure, would love some closure and answer as to what happened to him, and they deserve to get them. If you know anything about the murder of James Kelty in nineteen seventy one, then please contact police using one oh one. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes

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