Archibald Hall spent most of his adult life as a thief who passed himself off as a gentleman. Born in Glasgow in 1924, he gave himself a new name, Roy Fontaine, taught himself the manners and the knowledge of the households he meant to rob, and took jobs as a butler to wealthy families. Between the 1940s and the 1970s, The Scotsman wrote in 2005, he was either in prison or living that second life.
In 1977, after his release from his latest prison term, the thefts turned into killing. Over a few months he killed a former fellow prisoner in Dumfriesshire, an elderly couple he worked for in London, a woman who had helped him and his accomplice, and his own half-brother. In January 1978 a snowstorm and a suspicious hotel owner in North Berwick brought it to an end. Under questioning he confessed to the five killings and led police to the bodies. He was jailed for life and died in prison in 2002, aged 78.
Hall was born in Govan, in Glasgow, the son of a postman, according to a 2012 Scotsman article by Stephen McGinty. McGinty described his mother as unhappy and longing for a more refined life. As a boy Hall was drawn to the jewelry shops of the Argyll Arcade in the city center, and he wanted the fine things he saw there.
He turned to theft early. The Scotsman reported in 2005 that he received his first prison sentence at 17. McGinty wrote that he was arrested in London when he tried to sell jewels stolen in Scotland, and served a short sentence there.
Prison became his school. McGinty wrote that Hall studied Burke's Peerage and Who's Who in his cell, learning the names and family connections of the British upper class. After his release he took lessons in elocution to lose his Glasgow accent, and he became, in The Scotsman's words, "a self-taught authority on antiques."
He also took a new name. Roy Fontaine was a tribute to two stars: the cowboy actor Roy Rogers, whom his mother had once served at a Glasgow hotel, and the actress Joan Fontaine. Under that name he posed, The Scotsman wrote, "as an aristocrat or a wealthy American." McGinty added that he had dressed as a Texan millionaire and as an Arab sheikh. The Scotsman described him as openly bisexual; he had a short marriage and a series of relationships with men.
The other part of the act was service. Hall worked as a butler to wealthy families, and by the 2005 account he was good at it. His employers, many of them rich and well known, became the targets of his thefts. Between those jobs he went back to prison, again and again.
Hall was released from prison in 1977, according to The Scotsman, and found a new post as butler to Lady Margaret Hudson at Kirtleton House, near Waterbeck in Dumfriesshire, in the south of Scotland. He had planned to rob her. Instead, McGinty wrote, he grew so fond of her that he changed his mind.
The arrangement was upset by David Wright. The Scotsman described Wright as a former lover with whom Hall had shared a cell at Hull Prison. Wright came to Kirtleton House and did odd jobs on the estate; McGinty's article called him the estate's gamekeeper. Wright stole some of Lady Hudson's silver, which angered Hall, and he knew enough about Hall's past to threaten to expose him to his employer.
Hall shot Wright on the estate. The Scotsman called it his first killing. McGinty's 2012 article placed it in 1976; the 2005 article puts it after Hall's release in 1977.
Hall left Dumfriesshire. In November 1977, The Scotsman wrote, he moved to London and became butler to Walter Scott-Elliot, a wealthy former Labour MP, then 82, and his wife, Dorothy.
Walter Scott-Elliot had a long public life before Hall entered it. The History of Parliament's record of members, which spells the name Scott-Elliott, gives his birth date as October 9, 1895, and his father as William Scott-Elliott, of Arkleton in Scotland. He was educated at Eton and worked as a company director, and he was a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society. He won Accrington, in Lancashire, for Labour at the general election of July 5, 1945, and held the seat until Parliament was dissolved on February 23, 1950. In 1946 and 1947 he served as parliamentary private secretary to Frederick Bellenger and then John Freeman when each was Financial Secretary to the War Office. The same record lists two marriages: the first, in 1939, ended in divorce in 1948, and the second was in 1948, to Dorothy Alice Nunn. Its note on his death reads: "Murdered by his butler, together with his second wife."
Hall had come to the household, as he had come to others, intending to steal from it. McGinty wrote that Dorothy Scott-Elliot overheard Hall planning a robbery with an accomplice, Michael Kitto. She was suffocated. The Scotsman (2005) places Kitto with Hall when she was killed.
Walter Scott-Elliot was then taken north. In Inverness-shire, The Scotsman wrote, he was beaten to death. Parliament's historic Hansard record and the History of Parliament both give the date of his death as December 14, 1977.
Hall and Kitto had help in those weeks from Mary Coggle, an Irishwoman. The Scotsman's 2005 article described her as Hall's mistress; McGinty's article said she had assisted the pair. The relationship broke down over Dorothy Scott-Elliot's mink coat. After an argument about it, The Scotsman wrote, Hall killed Mary Coggle.
The last victim was Hall's half-brother, Donald. McGinty wrote that Donald had recently been released from prison, and that Hall hated him, believing him to be the child of their mother's adultery. In January 1978, in Cumbria, Donald began asking too many questions, according to The Scotsman, and he was drowned.
Hall and Kitto drove north. A snowstorm forced them to stop at a hotel in North Berwick, on the East Lothian coast. The proprietor was suspicious of the two men and called the police, who found Donald Hall's body. That, The Scotsman wrote, was the end of the killings.
Under questioning, Hall confessed to all five killings and led police to the bodies.
Hall was jailed for life. The Scotsman's 2005 article states it in those words; a short Scotsman report of May 1, 2012, gives the year as 1978. McGinty's 2012 article described the sentence as natural-life imprisonment "for killing five people", though it gave the year as 1977. Michael Kitto received four life sentences, The Scotsman reported in 2005.
Hall spent the rest of his life in prison. In 1992, McGinty wrote, he telephoned Paul Pender, then a script editor at BBC Scotland, who had just worked on the drama The Bogie Man. Hall, who said he admired the series, told Pender he was "the man to tell my story." With the approval of the writer and director Bill Bryden, Pender made eight visits to Hall at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire over the following year to prepare a six-part BBC drama.
The visits went wrong. Hall pressed Pender into smuggling money into the prison, starting with a £20 note hidden in a box of cigarettes, and when Pender stopped, Hall threatened to have him killed. He sent Pender unsettling postcards, and Pender moved house and grew a moustache. Hall later sent word, reportedly through another prisoner, that he had forgiven him. Pender moved to Los Angeles, partly out of fear of Hall. His account of those years was published by Mainstream in 2012 under the title The Butler Did It. Asked his view of Hall, Pender said: "He was evil."
Hall also wrote about himself. The Scotsman's 2005 article quoted his 1999 book, A Perfect Gentleman, which, the paper said, offers few clues to his behavior, apart from this passage: "There is a side of me, when aroused, that is cold and completely heartless."
Hall died in prison in 2002, at Kingston Prison in Portsmouth, according to The Scotsman (2005). Pender learned of it online, McGinty wrote, and read that Hall had died at the age of 78. An undated Empire magazine report on a planned film described him as the oldest person serving a whole-life sentence in prison until his death.
The actor Malcolm McDowell spent about 25 years trying to bring Hall's story to the screen, McGinty wrote in 2012. The Scotsman reported in 2005 that McDowell was producing a film about Hall. In May 2012 the paper reported that filming was about to begin in East Lothian, with several weeks planned at Gosford House, near Longniddry. McDowell asked Pender to rewrite the dialogue, McGinty wrote. Empire reported that McDowell would play Hall, with Gary Oldman as an early acquaintance and Dominic Monaghan as David Wright, from a script by Peter Bellwood directed by Douglas Raith.
Birth date. The Scotsman gives the year, 1924, and the place, Govan, but not the day.
The year of the first killing. The Scotsman (2005) places David Wright's death after Hall's release in 1977; McGinty (2012) places it in 1976.
David Wright's role. The Scotsman (2005) says Wright did odd jobs on the estate after visiting; McGinty (2012) calls him the estate's gamekeeper.
Mary Coggle's surname. The Scotsman (2005) gives Coggle; McGinty (2012) gives Coggles.
Year of sentence. The Scotsman (May 1, 2012) gives 1978; McGinty (May 28, 2012) gives 1977. The killings ran into January 1978.
Verdicts. The Scotsman's reports say Hall was jailed for life, or for natural life, for five killings, and that Kitto received four life sentences. They do not set out which charges were tried at which court, or whether any charge was left unresolved.
Walter Scott-Elliot's name is spelled Scott-Elliot in The Scotsman and Scott-Elliott in the parliamentary records.
1924: Hall born in Govan, Glasgow.
Age 17: first prison sentence (The Scotsman, 2005).
1940s to 1970s: thefts, prison terms and work as a butler under the name Roy Fontaine.
1977: released from prison; butler to Lady Margaret Hudson at Kirtleton House, near Waterbeck, Dumfriesshire. David Wright killed (1976 in McGinty's account).
November 1977: becomes butler to Walter and Dorothy Scott-Elliot in London.
Late 1977: Dorothy Scott-Elliot and Walter Scott-Elliot killed; Walter's death recorded as December 14, 1977.
Late 1977: Mary Coggle killed.
January 1978: Donald Hall killed in Cumbria. Police called to a North Berwick hotel by its owner find Donald Hall's body. Hall confesses to five killings and leads police to the bodies.
1978: Hall jailed for life; Michael Kitto receives four life sentences.
1992 to 1993: Paul Pender visits Hall eight times at Full Sutton prison.
1999: Hall's book A Perfect Gentleman published.
2002: Hall dies at Kingston Prison, Portsmouth, aged 78.
2012: Pender's book published; filming of a feature about Hall announced for East Lothian.