Roseangle murders occupy bleak and bloody place in history of Dundee crime

The Courier

16-05-2025

What started as a random break-in one sunny afternoon in Dundee rapidly escalated into multiple killings on both sides of the border.
The perpetrator, a small-time crook, became the most wanted man in Britain.
Retired doctor Alexander Wood, 79, and his wife Dorothy, 78, were hacked and beaten to death with a slater's hammer at their home in Roseangle on May 18 1980.
The gruesome slayings transformed an ordinary home into a murder house.
And No. 2 Roseangle is still empty.
The bodies were discovered by medical students Thomas McKee, Rod McKay, Derek Gourlay and Matt Wilson.
The students were on their way to Riverside Park for a game of football when the ball went over the railings and into the garden.
McKee went to get the ball.
He spotted the bodies through the basement window.
The savagery of the attack shocked even hardened detectives.
Dr Wood, who had an artificial leg, had just left hospital a few days earlier.
The killer also took jewellery and a carriage clock in the couple's leather suitcase.
The Roseangle killings remain vividly in the memory of Alexander McGregor.
The former Courier chief reporter covered the case.
He went on to write in detail about it in his best-selling book The Law Killers.
'Had it not been for a local detective 'joining up the dots' to identify who the killer was, even more people would likely have died in the trail of slaughter,' he said.
'Detective Inspector Willie Hart had spotted the fact that a minor listing in the Police Gazette named a 29-year-old Dundee man named Henry John Gallagher as having failed to return to Maidstone Prison from a home leave.
'The detective recalled one of Gallagher's previous crimes was an attack on a Dundee minister in his Dundee manse and he began to suspect that Gallagher may have returned to Dundee and found his way to Roseangle.'
Gallagher had assaulted a minister in Dundee in 1972.
He attacked a priest a year later in Stockton, almost killing him.
During a break-in in 1979, he found the householders' pet dog and cut its throat.
Gallagher had a long record of burglary and assault.
He had gone back home to Dundee on weekend leave from Maidstone Prison where he was serving a three-year sentence imposed in December 1978.
Although Dr Wood wasn't a minister, his house was directly opposite the church, and could have been mistaken for the manse.
A Roman Catholic bishop also lived further down Roseangle.
Gallagher had earlier tried to gain entry there but had been refused.
He fled to the south coast of England after beating Dr and Mrs Wood to death.
He sold the jewellery he had stolen from Roseangle and attempted to get an identity card in a false name in order to leave the country and travel to France.
Gallagher committed another double-murder in Kent, this time targeting Father Edward Hull, 88, and his defenceless housekeeper, Maude Lelean, 73.
The gruesome murder scene was described as resembling an 'abattoir'.
Gallagher was captured seven days later after raising suspicions when he called at a vicarage in York and asked the vicar's wife if he could wash the car.
He also asked to be directed to a Roman Catholic church.
She recognised him from a photo on TV and phoned the police.
Alexander said one rare feature of the Roseangle case is that Gallagher has never stood trial in a Scottish court for the killings.
'Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Cameron, who headed the Dundee inquiry, went south and secured a confession from Gallagher, but it never came to a court appearance here,' he said.
'After his arrest in England for the double killing there, he pleaded guilty in December 1980 and was ordered to be detained without limit of time in Broadmoor.
'The Lord Advocate in Scotland ruled that in light of that disposal, no further action would be taken on this side of the border.'
Peter Timms, who had allowed home leave for Gallagher, which triggered the four killings, resigned as governor of Maidstone prison in 1981.
Ironically, given Gallagher's obsession with the clergy, Timms became a minister.
He was unrepentant about his decision when asked in 1989.
'The prisoner's sister had made contact with him after a large number of years and there was a real possibility of him being reunited with his family,' he said.
'It was my decision to grant him home leave.
'He did not return and sadly the offences were committed.
'Given the same facts at the time, I would make the same decision today.'
Timms was no stranger to controversy.
He later became a regular visitor and supporter of Moors murderer Myra Hindley.
'Bizarrely, after being incarcerated in Broadmoor, Gallagher was somehow permitted, or able, to write an account of his savage attack on Dr and Mrs Woods in Dundee, which was included in a book about killings by others,' said Alexander.
'I came across his story while researching for The Law Killers and it gave me a rare opportunity to describe in detail the actual actions and thoughts of a killer while he committed his crime.
'In some ways, it is probably not so unexpected that Gallagher wanted to write about his abhorrent activities.
'His whole adult life seems to have been punctuated by him committing some kind of despicable act then wanting to confess to it, usually to a minister or priest.
'That then triggered ferocious violence against those he was unburdening himself to.
'In his own words, it was like a switch being flicked – he went from apologetic confessor to unrestrained attacker, using whatever weapon came to hand.'
Gallagher said he didn't want to hurt Dr and Mrs Wood.
He said Mrs Wood caught him in the basement and was going to call the police.
Gallagher claimed he was then struck by Mr Wood's walking stick and 'went crazy'.
'I hit both of them with anything and everything I could lay my hands on, screaming and shouting at the top of my voice,' he bleated.
Alexander believes Gallagher may be the city's most prolific known killer.
'Even the notorious Mones didn't individually kill four people – son Robert claimed two, and father 'Sonny' three,' he said.
'I can't think of anyone locally who has matched or exceeded Gallagher's total.
'That alone elevates Gallagher to a special, if undesirable place, in the city's history.
'As far as I am aware, he is still detained in Broadmoor.
'Since he is a patient and not a prisoner, the authorities refuse to give updates on his detention.
'Sadly, a constant reminder of what occurred is the imposing house which stands empty and decaying on a prominent city centre site – a bleak monument to the awful events that took place there 45 years ago.'
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