IFTB – 29: Leslee

I mentioned in Chapter Two that Leslee’s confession triggered my investigation into the Crewe murders. It’s no exaggeration to say that this has been a painful lifelong experience, but it started with trying to understand Leslee . . .

[Ed: John never worked out who Leslee really was. It was though clearly his wish that others would carry on his work and do this. He found out with Leslee’s emotional breakdown and confession that her real name was Pam, but while he saw her more than once in Te Kuiti, he couldn’t (at least he didn’t) identify her. Whether that was done deliberately or was for the want of trying is an interesting question. We have published here, using the name of Leslee, as John knew her, and uncorrecting John’s talk of Pam and Leslee as sisters, when they were actually cousins.]

Who was she and why were there so many strange things about her and her past?

My understanding eventually came from stitching together a string of events but when I gained an answer to one question, that often created more questions! It certainly wasn’t a lineal progression of learning.

I found myself thinking back to previous experiences and putting things together retrospectively. At the time of these events I wasn’t in the frame of mind to doubt my girlfriend, but it was very different after her breakdown, the end of our relationship and my eviction. That was when I started asking questions.

The chief question for me was her identity. It sounds strange to say this, but at times it was like I didn’t even know the girl, like there was more than one person impersonating her, or she impersonating them. In the end it seemed to me that I was dealing with more than one Leslee, and I know that it may sound strange but even when she confessed to being “Pam”, I questioned her real identity. Leslee? Pam? Someone else?

There was one situation where I saw her standoffish to one side by a tree, after she returned from the SS Australis trip in 1977, almost like a stranger. You’d think that after time away there would be a bond restored, but it was like I was dealing with a stranger, like a twin sister not the real Leslee. Was I going mad or were people playing games with me? It was weird, and I keep thinking back to these kinds of events, yet it was real!

Leslee had sisters, more than one of them. She led a double life and lied, extensively, particularly about her past life but also who she really was. This was all the important background to her stunning confession in a time of deep emotional stress. This was the reason that her confession means so much to me–it seems to me that this was probably the only time that she was actually being honest!

RECOUNTING STRANGE EPISODES

It has been a disjointed journey for me, so I’ll now recount just some of the many times that Leslee was the centre of my personal sanity challenges:

Some time after our separation I saw her at the Pokeno Service Station. She was walking across the yard and she knew I was there but ignored me. We had talked before, after our breakup, so why did she do this that day? What (or who) did she have to hide from?

I was on the phone (this was in the days before mobile phones) and I was speaking to a woman who sounded very like Leslee, with the exact same English accent. I asked for Leslee, and she answered, “Yes, this is Leslee!” yet simultaneously I saw Leslee walking across the Farmers car park right in front of my eyes. How could this be? What was so special about Leslee that one of her sisters or someone similar to her would cover for her? Why would they conduct this charade?

Why did she take down her nursing photo when I mentioned it? Was this another falsehood about her past?

When passing what I now know as the Crewe farm, which I have been through more than a couple of times since, Leslee mentioned that life would never be the same. She had played there, in that house and around the district as a child yet she and her cousins had life-changing experiences that they could never undo. What were they and why were they so secret?

When Leslee went to Alf Hodgson’s old house to get the Ladies Companion ‘pepperbox’ pistol and some other things she tried to hide what she was doing putting it into her purse. There can be only one explanation to me, especially when she later mentioned that the pistol had a story associated with it.

I’ve always wondered why Leslee had stretch marks but without having a child in tow. Where was her child? Could I dare even think that a child was swapped a decade previously and who other than Rochelle fell into that age group? And was the father a Thomas and this is why Kevin Ryan insisted that his use of Rochelle’s surname remained as he had written (on page 141) of his book?

LIED THROUGH HER TEETH

Leslee told me that she was not present at the murders–that others did it and that she only cleaned up, yet she was a skilled and proven liar.

She had two missing front teeth and wouldn’t talk about what happened for her to lose them. Surely an accident like say a cricket ball wouldn’t need lying about and wouldn’t trigger cold silence? Jeannette fought her assailants to the death and had serious injuries so I find it quite plausible that Leslee lost her two front teeth in a physical confrontation with her cousin at the times of the murders.

Then there was the time that I found a letter on the table addressed to Pamela Howard, or Pamela-Ann. Leslee’s hurried explanation and refusal to talk any more doesn’t wash with me. Pamela-Ann Leslee Sinton (nee Howard)? No. I don’t think so! Pamela-Ann Howard was Leslee’s younger sister. Perhaps–and much more likely!

MORE TRAUMA FOR LESLEE

One day I made mention of the wigs that Leslee had. They then disappeared, and permanently. Somebody was trying to masquerade for others as well as me. Leslee would have nightmares. Whatever was driving her subconscious played ‘merry hell’ with her during her sleep. Her confession indicates to me that it was her involvement with the Crewe murders that caused her that trauma.

Leslee and I went to her supposed deceased husband’s grave (Sinton) at Waikumete Cemetery. She mentioned that she was to be buried beside her husband’s grave but when I later researched this, I found that this was again another lie–husband and wife rarely have side-by-side graves–and the grave that looked vacant was actually occupied, just without a headstone! This impostor whom I knew as Leslee Sinton was not likely to be THE Leslee Sinton!

I’ve mentioned Leslee’s aversion to a woolshed and when pushed her plausible explanation that their smell made her sick is another clue that indicates yet again that she was in the centre of untoward events of the 1970’s at Pukekawa, very likely at the Crewe woolshed.

I remember a situation in Whangarei when I came home late one night, and slept on the verandah. I overheard a conversation between Leslee and [supposedly] her mother shouting at her firmly, “You will do what we tell you [young lady]” didn’t seem to me to be a natural mother-daughter relationship. It seemed far more likely that Leslee was an impostor being given protection for some reason and who was living under secrecy and with serious threat.

LESLEE HAD FUNDS FOR WORLD TRAVEL

Leslee, for all her desperation to steal money, defraud and bleed me, seemed to have resources to travel the globe, often for extended trips abroad. Travel to Europe, especially in those days, and so many times to Norfolk Island (one of her favourites) cost a lot. She had funding all right and deep funding too when needed.

Some time after the murders, Leslee went on a world cruise to England. It was the last SS Australis trip and I have many letters that she sent back to me at the time. Interestingly she went to the Howard Castle, but I suspect that this familial tie back to the Howard family had something to do with the English land mentioned in the will. I also suspect that transactions were being undertaken relating to the Chennell wills, probate or transfers–probably the actual reason for Leslee to be in England at the time.

Leslee owned different properties and lived at different addresses after we parted company. She married more than once, too. This is not suspicious activity in itself except when put into the context that Leslee professed to be short of money at the time. She clearly lived a lie.

CONFUSION WITH CAR IDENTIFICATION

Some of the witnesses in the initial investigation mentioned seeing different cars and female occupants. Hillmans, Toyotas and green/blue. These sightings were either ignored or explained away by Police at the time, and later of note, in the 2014 Review. “The Review team are not satisfied that the users of seven motor vehicles . . . were adequately identified and eliminated on merit.”

I believe that some of these sightings would have included Leslee’s blue Corona and that Leslee was involved along with another of her sisters or associates, the nurse. There was more than one car sighted.

The Police are correct that it is difficult to be certain of identities and sightings from so long ago, but knowing that Leslee and more than the one vehicle was involved, answers many questions.

LESLEE’S FALSE IDENTIFICATION

Leslee explained many times that she was a school teacher–teaching Home Economics at Whangarei High School. My research though showed that she was not on the roll or list of teachers. This false identification was typical of the life she led.

One day when I was walking down the driveway to her house, another woman shouted out the window at me, “Piss off John! Go away! You are not welcome here.” They then tried to run me down and I escaped death when I innocently jumped over a puddle, luckily at just the right time to avoid getting killed. The resulting damage to my car was serious, but the Police took me on! What was the problem that then caused her and her minders to take to such violence?

I asked myself why were the Police involved and protecting her? Leslee seemed to have ‘friends in high places’. I had a confrontation with the Police threatening me after following Leslee another time. It shook me–not so much because of the threats, for I had done nothing wrong but because of the involvement of Police in Leslee’s life.

The policeman standing next to me then tells me Leslee is under Police protection. I am to keep away or there will be trouble. I say “what charge” and was quietly informed that if I persist, a charge will be found. That gave me proof she was being protected . . . a recurring theme in all my investigations . . .

I think the best words to use to understand Leslee is to mention some comments she made in one of her many letters to me when she was overseas. She had asked why I would want to deal with someone like her who has so many problems?

If she was indeed the woman who fed the baby, I guess that would have been the second time that she spoke something honestly to me!