The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was printed in Great Britain. On the back is printed:
'The BOAC VC10.
Built by British Aircraft
Corporation and powered
by Rolls-Royce Conway
engines'.
The card was posted in Tehran, Iran to:
Mr. Charlie Plampin,
19, Whitton Drive,
Hounslow,
Middx.
England.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"BA 770
5 - 8 - 69.
Tehran, Tuesday.
Hi Charlie,
Just a card from your
globetrotting neighbours.
Ron will be away for
about 10 days so will see
you when he gets back.
Love Margaret".
The The Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd. and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962.
The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes from the shorter runways of the era, and commanded excellent hot and high performance for operations from African airports.
The performance of the VC10 was such that it achieved the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner of 5 hours and 1 minute, a record that was held for 41 years, until February 2020 when a British Airways Boeing 747 broke the record at 4 hours 56 minutes due to Storm Ciara. Only the supersonic Concorde was faster.
The VC10 is often compared to the larger Soviet Ilyushin Il-62, the two types being the only airliners to use a rear-engined quad layout. The two left-hand engines can be seen in the photograph.
Although only a relatively small number of VC10s were built, they provided long service with BOAC and other airlines from the 1960's to 1981.
They were also used from 1965 as strategic air transports for the Royal Air Force, and ex-passenger models and others were used as aerial refuelling aircraft.
The 50th. anniversary of the first flight of the prototype VC10, G-ARTA, was celebrated with a "VC10 Retrospective" Symposium and the official opening of a VC10 exhibition at Brooklands Museum on the 29th. June 2012.
Accidents and Incidents Associated With the VC10
-- On the 28th. December 1968, Middle East Airways 9G-ABP was destroyed at Beirut Airport in the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon.
-- On the 20th. November 1969, Nigeria Airways Flight 825 crashed on landing at Lagos, Nigeria killing all 87 passengers and crew.
-- On the 27th. November 1969, BOAC G-ASGK had a major failure of No.3 engine; debris from that engine damaged No.4 engine, causing a fire. A safe overweight landing was made at Heathrow without any casualties.
-- On the 9th. September 1970, BOAC G-ASGN was hijacked, and on the 12th. September was blown up at Zarqa, Jordan, in the Dawson's Field hijackings.
-- On the 28th. January 1972, British Caledonian G-ARTA was damaged beyond economic repair in a landing accident at Gatwick.
-- On the 18th. April 1972, East African Airways Flight 720 5X-UVA crashed on take-off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 43 of the 107 passengers and crew.
-- On the 3rd. March 1974, BOAC G-ASGO was hijacked and landed at Schiphol, Netherlands, where the aircraft was set on fire and damaged beyond economic repair.
-- On the 21st. November 1974, British Airways Flight 870 from Dubai to Heathrow carrying 45 people was hijacked in Dubai, landing at Tripoli for refuelling before flying on to Tunis. The three hijackers demanded the release of seven Palestinian prisoners. One hostage was murdered; the hijackers surrendered after 84 hours to Tunisian authorities on the 25th. November. Captain Jim Futcher was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal and other commendations for his actions during the hijacking, returning to fly the aircraft knowing that the hijackers were still on board.
-- On the 18th. December 1997, Royal Air Force XR806 was damaged beyond economic repair in a ground de-fuelling accident at RAF Brize Norton.
Raman Raghav
So what else happened on the 5th. August 1969?
Well, on that day, Raman Raghav was interviewed in Arthur Road Prison.
Raman Raghav, who was born in 1929 in Pune, India, was a serial killer who was active during the mid-1960's. He was labelled by many as the "Jack the Ripper of India".
Raghav went on a killing spree for over three years. The first round of murders took place in 1965 and 1966 when 19 people were attacked. A second round of killings took place in 1968. Raghav was caught by the Maharashtra Police on the 27th. August, after recognising him from photographs and descriptions given by those who had survived his attacks.
The Serial Killings
The second series of murders occurred on the outskirts of Mumbai in August 1968. Pavement and slum dwellers were bludgeoned to death while they slept. All the murders took place at night, and were committed using a hard, blunt object. A similar series of murders had taken place a few years earlier (1965–66) in the Eastern suburbs of Mumbai. In that year, as many as 19 people had been attacked, out of which 9 victims had died.
There was widespread public anxiety and panic in Mumbai. Inhabitants of slums and apartments dreaded sleeping out in the open or with open windows and balconies.
Police suspected Raman Raghav and arrested him. A homeless man, he had past mentions in police files, and had spent five years in prison for robbery. As no solid evidence could be found against him for the new set of crimes, the police let him go.
When the killer struck again in 1968, the police launched a manhunt for him. Ramakant Kulkarni, then the Deputy Commissioner of Police CID (Crime) took over the investigation and spearheaded a massive combing operation in the city. This led to Raghav's arrest.
In his confession, he admitted that he had murdered 41 people in 1966 along the GIP (Great Indian Peninsular Railway) line and almost a dozen in 1968 in the suburbs. However, it is likely that he killed many more.
Raghav's Arrest
Sub-inspector of police Alex Fialho recognized Raghav from reports and descriptions from those who had seen him. Fialho searched for him and detained him on the 27th. August 1968 with the help of two respectable witnesses from the area.
He claimed to be Raman Raghav, but old records disclosed that he had several aliases including "Sindhi Dalwai", "Talwai", "Anna", "Thambi", and "Veluswami".
The bush shirt and the khaki shorts that he had been wearing were bloodstained, and his shoes were extremely muddy. His fingerprints matched those on record and confirmed that he was indeed Raman Raghav.
Investigation and Trial
For weeks after he was arrested, Raman refused to answer any questions. He remained silent, and said that no torture methods would be successful on him. Of all the tricks in the book, it was a chicken dish that eventually made Raman talk.
While in the lock-up, Raman requested chicken curry. After weeks of interrogating him, the police decided to give in to his request. After finishing his chicken curry, Raman invited the officers to ask him whatever they wished to ask. It took fulfilling a few more wishes before the police got to know everything they wanted.
Raman confessed to committing 41 murders. Post his confession, he took the police force on a city-wide tour to show the places he operated in and to obtain the rod he had hid in the northern suburbs.
The accused was then sent to the Police Surgeon, Mumbai, who observed him from the 28th. June 1969 to the 23rd. July 1969 and opined that:
"The accused is neither suffering from psychosis
nor mentally retarded. His memory is sound, his
intelligence average and he is aware of the nature
and purpose of his acts. He is able to understand
the nature and object of the proceedings against
him and is not certifiably insane."
With this medical opinion, the trial proceeded. The accused pleaded guilty. During the trial a psychiatrist of Nair Hospital, Mumbai was cited as a defence witness. He had interviewed the accused in Arthur Road Prison on 5 August 1969, and gave evidence that the accused had been suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia for a long time, and was therefore unable to understand that his actions were contrary to law.
In Raghav's defence it was said:
"The accused did commit the act of killing with
which he is charged. He knew the nature of the
act, viz. killing human beings, but did not know
whether it was wrong or contrary to law".
The Judge held the accused guilty of the charge of murder and sentenced him to death. Raman declined to appeal. Before confirming the sentence, the High Court of Mumbai ordered that the Surgeon General of Mumbai should constitute a Special Medical Board of three psychiatrists to determine whether the accused was of unsound mind and, secondly, whether in consequence of his unsoundness of mind, he was incapable of making his defence.
The members of the Special Medical Board interviewed Raman on five occasions for about two hours each time. In their final interview when they bade him good bye and attempted to shake hands with him, he refused to do so saying that he was a representative of 'Kanoon' (Law) who would not touch people belonging to this wicked world. The examination report was as follows:
"Details about childhood history are not available.
No reliable history about mental Illness in his family
is obtainable. According to the data available, he
was always in the habit of stealing ever since he was
a child. He hardly had any school education. He was
known to be reclusive. Since his return from Pune in
1968 he had been living in jungles outside the suburbs
of Mumbai.
X-rays of skull, routine blood examination, serological
tests for syphilis, cerebrospinal fluid examination as
well as urine and stool examination and EEG examination
were non contributory. He was of average intelligence
and there is no organic disease to account for his mental
condition.
Throughout the five interviews he showed ideas of
reference and fixed and systematized delusions of
persecution and grandeur. The delusions which the
accused experienced were as follows:
-- That there are two distinct worlds; the world of
'Kanoon' and this world in which he lived.
-- A fixed and unshakable belief that people were
trying to change his sex, but that they are not
successful, because he was a representative of
'Kanoon'.
-- A fixed and unshakable belief that he is a power
or 'Shakti'.
-- A firm belief that other people are trying to put
homosexual temptations in his way so that he may
succumb and get converted to a woman.
-- That homosexual intercourse would convert him
into a woman.
-- That he was "101 percent man". He kept on
repeating this.
-- A belief that the government brought him to
Mumbai to commit thefts and made him commit
criminal acts.
-- An unshakable belief that there are three
governments in the country - the Akbar
Government, the British Government, and the
Congress Government and that these Governments
are trying to persecute him and put temptations
before him."
When the trial started on the 2nd. June 1969, the counsel for the defence stated that the accused was incapable of defending himself on account of unsoundness of mind. He also submitted that even at the time of committing the alleged offences, the accused was of unsound mind and incapable of knowing the nature of his acts or that they were contrary to the law.
The Final Verdict
Raghav's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment because he was found to be incurably mentally ill. He was lodged at Yerwada Central Jail, Pune, and given treatment at the Central Institute of Mental Health and Research. When a panel of doctors who examined him at the directive of the High Court found that he would never be cured, the High Court reduced his sentence to life imprisonment in its judgement of the 4th. August 1987.
On the 7th. April 1995, Raghav died in Yerawada Central Jail. He had been suffering from kidney failure.